Free The Mystery of Adventure Island by Paul Moxham

bushes. And , because of their prickles, it made it necessary for the girls to slow down.
    They hadn’t actually gone this way before, and Amy was wishing that she had chosen a different way. But there was nothing she could do about it now.
    “Stop for a minute, I want to see if there’s anyone chasing us,” Amy whispered. She could hear twigs brea king to the left and right of her, but none behind her. Maybe there wasn’t anyone behind them. But then , what had happened to the third man?
    “What do we do?” Sarah asked.
    Amy was just about to answer when she heard twigs breaking as someone crashed through the bushes. “Run!” She turned and pushed through the bushes, not bothering whether or not she got scratched.
    Hurrying down the slope, she was surprised to see the bushes suddenly disappear and found herself staring down a steep bed of grass that, eventually, turned into rocks.
    Stopping, she was wondering what to do when Sarah bumped into her. The two girls fell and tumbled down the hillside, rolling over and over , getting faster with every second.
    ~
    Will wasn’t afraid of getting lost as he knew where to hide. The last time they had walked past here, he had spotted an old tree with a hollow trunk.
    He headed for the tree and hid inside. Careful to be as quiet as possible, he stood as still as a mouse. He heard the pounding of footsteps as his pursuer raced past.
    As soon as the footsteps had faded away, Will emerged from the tree trunk and looked around to make sure no one had spotted him. Satisfied that no one had, he headed towards the tree house.
    ~
    Joe was wishing that he had stayed on the path that he had been on . It would have led him to the tree house. But , with the man right behind him, or so it had seemed, he had turned right, hoping to lose him in the trees.
    However, as he raced forward, he found himself out in the open. The sandy beach was in front of him and, apart from the wood that he had just come from, he couldn’t see anywhere to hide. Hearing someone closing in on him, Joe raced along the sand. Seeing some rocks up ahead, an idea came into his head.
    He passed two rocks, then dropped down, hiding behind the third one. His feet were partly sticking out, so he shuffled some sand over them. He lay still as he heard the man approach. The next minute or two would tell whether or not he would be caught.
    ~
    Amy and Sarah came to a stop at the bottom of the hillside. After sitting up in a daze, the girls looked around and discovered they were next to a quarry. Hidden by trees and bushes on all sides, there were piles of rocks strewn all over the area. There also seemed to be a hole, which indicated to Amy that it might also be a mine.
    “Golly, how come we didn’t see this before?” Amy asked.
    “What is it?” Sarah said.
    “It must be where they got the rocks from to build the church and other buildings on this island. After all, it would have been a bit difficult to transport all that rock from the mainland.” Amy stood up and walked around, forgetting for a minute that someone was chasing them.
    Hearing a noise, she glanced up and saw Marvin as he emerged from the bushes. He hurried down the hill.
    Realizing that they had to hide somewhere, she hurried over to the hole. As soon as she saw that there was a ladder, she started climbing down it, her sister right behind her.
    The ladder was old, but still in good condition. Once she was on solid ground, she switched on the torch that she always carried in her pocket and swung it around . There were at least four tunnels going in opposite directions. She didn’t know which one to go down, but as she heard the man’s footsteps, she chose the one closest to her.
    The light bobbed to and fro as Amy and Sarah hurried down the tunnel. The torch light picked up the wooden supports, and Amy hoped that they weren’t going to give out when they were in it.
    After they had walked for some distance, Amy slowed down and looked at her sister.