Free The Mystery of Adventure Island by Paul Moxham Page A

“Are you all right?”
    Sarah nodded. “I can’t hear the man behind us, so hopefully he didn’t see us go down the hole.”
    Amy listened and realised that her sister was right. No sound could be heard . She switched off the torch. “We’ll wait here and see if we hear anything.”
    ~
    At the tree house, Will was waiting for Joe and the girls to arrive. He swung his legs back and forth as he sat on the platform and gazed down, searching through the leaves for any sign of movement. But none could be seen.
    A minute later, he caught sight of someone heading towards him. He held his breath as he waited to see who it was. A moment later, he saw it was Joe.
    Joe started climbing up. As he reached the halfway point, he called up. “Are the girls with you?”
    Will shook his head. “No.”
    Joe frowned and resumed climbing, reaching the top a minute later. As he reached the platform and sat down, he turned to Will. “How long have you been here?”
    “About ten minutes,” Will replied . “I was just starting to wonder if everyone else had been captured when I saw you through the trees.”
    “It took longer than I thought to get rid of the man following me,” Joe confessed. “I had to hide behind some rocks and wait until he passed until I could head for here.”
    “I hope the girls are all right,” Will said . “We’ll give them thirty minutes. If they don’t show up by then, we’ll start searching, okay?”
    Joe nodded. “If they don’t come back in that time, I’m afraid something may have happened to them.”
    ~
    After waiting for what seemed like forever, Amy switched the torch back on. “I haven’t heard anything for a while, so we could head back.”
    “Okay,” Sarah replied.
    Amy led the way back. She wasn’t concerned about getting lost since this tunnel only split into two and the second tunnel was much smaller than the first.
    The girls were nearly at the end of the tunnel when Amy heard a noise. She stopped, causing Sarah to bump into her. “What’s wrong?”
    “I thought I heard something,” Amy whispered as she switched off her torch. “Wait here.” She continued along the tunnel until she came to the bend which was quite close to the shaft.
    Peering around, she saw a shadow in the darkness. She wondered what it could be when a cough broke the silence. It was one of the men!
    Amy turned and tiptoed back, wondering how long they would have to stay in the mine.
    ~
    With heavy hearts, the boys climbed down from the tree. Once on solid ground, they discussed what to do.
    “We should go to the top of the hill and see if we can see anything,” Joe suggested.
    Will led the way up the hill. Once they had reached the top, he looked around. No one could be seen . “What do we do now?”
    “Go the way the girls went,” Joe replied. He took the lead and hurried down the hill. He soon encountered the prickly bushes that had slowed down the girls and, while this wasn’t good for the arms and legs, it did prove something as he caught sight of something blue.
    It was a small piece of fabric. Joe turned to Will. “This looks as though it’s come from Sarah’s shorts.”
    Will nodded. “So now we know that they made it this far.” He continued on, stopping when they came into sight of the quarry. “Gosh, I didn’t know this was here.”
    Joe shook his head. “Nor me. We must have missed it because of all those tall bushes.” A thought struck him as he caught sight of a shaft going into the ground. “You don’t suppose the girls are underground, do you?”
    “It’s a possibility.” Will suddenly clutched hold of Joe and pulled him down to the ground.
    “What—” Joe said.
    “Quiet!” Will interrupted. He pointed to the shaft as one of the men emerged from it. As he saw his bald head , he realised it was Marvin.
    As the man looked around, the boys ducked behind a clump of bushes. They froze, wondering if they had been seen .
Chapter 14: A Good Trick
     
    Apparently satisfied that