Free The Secret of the Lonely Isles by Joanne Van Os

from one end to the other, and it rose higher in the centre, sloping steeply down to the water on each side. It didn’t look to be more than a metre or so above the high tide mark. There was a mob of seabirds in a huddle at one end, and occasionally one of them wouldlift off into the wind, glide a few metres, and drop back down again.
    Maddy came up on deck, followed by Zac. ‘What’s goin’ on?’ she said, bleary-eyed and cross.
    â€˜Everyone’s awake,’ said Tyler. ‘Great! Now we can have breakfast.’
    After bowls of cereal and mugs of tea, they lowered the dinghy into the water, and motored slowly over to the sand. The birds scolded and chattered among themselves, and then rose in an untidy cloud and moved to the opposite end of the cay. It felt weird being ashore, and the ground felt as if it was tilting like the deck of the Freya . They all felt it.
    â€˜Whoa, this ground’s movin’ ’round under my feet!’ said Zac with a giggle, and he and Tyler stood still with their arms out, swaying gently. Ella laughed at them.
    â€˜Your brains are still trying to compensate for the boat’s movement. It’ll wear off after a while.’
    The little cay wasn’t so much made of sand, Jem noticed, as tiny broken chips of bleached coral, sculpted into long drifts by the wind and the tides. Tyler tried to creep up on the birds at the opposite end, but as there was nowhere to hide, he only succeeded in scaring them away. Jem and Zac trailed behind him, coral crunching loudly underfoot.
    â€˜Hey!’ said Tyler, ‘a tractor’s been here!’
    Marks that looked exactly like tyre tracks curved from the water up into the centre of the islet.
    â€˜They’re not tyre tracks,’ said Zac, ‘they’re turtle tracks. How wouldja get a tractor over here?’ They followed them along and found the disturbed sand where a female had recently laid eggs.
    â€˜Don’t step there!’ Jem warned, as Maddy came up behind them. ‘You’ll squash the eggs underneath.’
    â€˜Since when are you the expert,’ muttered Maddy and she walked away, kicking sand as she went. He stared after her, feeling annoyed. She was so hard to get along with lately.
    Jem sat down at the water’s edge, and looked across to the coast, about three kilometres away. It was low and flat, a dull olive green band with a narrow strip of white beach in front. Not a sign of life anywhere. He could see the edges of the reef through the clear shallow water. It occurred to him that people could end up marooned on a tiny island like this one, out of reach of fresh water and food, with not much chance of swimming to the shore. He gazed back at the Freya floating serenely at anchor, and was shocked at how small and fragile she looked. He had a sudden desire to get back to her as quickly as possible, and to get away from the reefs.
    â€˜How are you feeling, Jem?’ Ella’s voice startled him.
    â€˜Oh – um, okay. Freya looks really small from here.’
    â€˜Yes, she’s small. But she has a strong heart. She’s looked after me for ten years, all around the world. You can trust her, Jem.’
    Jem thought it was a bit strange to talk about a boat like it was a person. How do you trust a boat?
    They returned to the Freya , and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Jem talked a gloomy Maddy into coming out in the dinghy with him, and they trawled over the reef for a couple of hours, catching enough fish to stock Freya ’s freezer for several days.
    Dinner that evening was pan-fried golden snapper, straight out of the water, with fried potatoes and a fresh green salad. Maddy actually looked slightly less gloomy, seeing she had caught some of the fish herself. After dinner, they went downstairs into the cabin, where Ella had left the papers spread out on the table. The Professor’s carved box stood to one side. Jem stared at it, feeling a