The Four-Fingered Man (10 page)

‘Tom,’ Mum said warningly. ‘Don’t frighten –’

‘No, I
will
frighten them,’ said Tom. ‘I
want
them frightened. Because frightened
kids might take things seriously, and stay as far away from the gateway as possible.
Frightened kids will have, maybe, a two per cent advantage, and if ever Krskn –’

‘Right!’ Dad said loudly, standing up and clapping his hands together. ‘Right! Good
point, Tom, thank you! OK, great meeting, everyone. Now off you go, kids!’

‘But –,’ said Amelia.

‘Ba-ba-ba!’ Dad said over the top of her, refusing to listen. ‘Out you go! Now!’

Amelia didn’t push it. The moment Tom had said ‘Krskn’, all the hair stood up on
the back of her neck. She had no idea why, but she didn’t want to hear any more about
what went on in those caves under Tom’s cottage.

‘Charlie,’ Mary called after them. ‘It’s all secret, remember?’

‘Yes, Mum,’ Charlie groaned.

‘I mean it, Charlie. For the first time, I really, literally mean it when I say you
could get yourself in worlds of trouble.’

Charlie pulled a face at Amelia, and they went out through the lobby into the bright
innocent sunshine. Over at the edge of the headland, James was throwing rocks out
at the ocean below. She decided not to walk that way.

‘Come on, Charlie,’ she said. ‘We never checked out whether that really is a hedge
maze.’

‘Yeah!’ said Charlie.

They broke into a run, and Amelia grinned, wondering if maybe life here could be
almost normal. Maybe it wasn’t going to be all drama and mystery. Mum and Dad were
still on her side – and surely they could handle whatever else decided to drop into
Tom’s cottage. Meanwhile, Amelia had Charlie for company, and she could play at the
beach, and she was going to get that puppy soon.

Behind her, she heard Charlie call out, ‘And when we get right into the middle of
the maze, I’m going to get back to work on this holo-emitter in my pocket!’

Okay, so maybe ‘almost normal’ was pushing it. Maybe, in fact, life at the Gateway
Hotel was going to turn out to be pretty much the opposite of normal. Perhaps even
dangerous at times.

Somehow, though, with Charlie beside her and the whole headland bathed in golden
afternoon light while the waves crashed endlessly below, Amelia couldn’t help feeling
excited.

Cerberus Jones

Cerberus Jones
is the three-headed writing team made up of Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley
and David Harding.

Chris Morphew
is
The Gateway’s
main story architect. His job is to weave the team’s
ideas together into awesome, page-turning story outlines. Chris’s experience writing
adventures for
Zac Power
and heart-stopping twists for
The Phoenix Files
makes him the perfect man for the job!

Rowan McAuley
is the team’s chief writer. Her role is to expand Chris’s outlines
into fully-fledged novels, building the excitement and fleshing out the characters.
Before joining Cerberus Jones, Rowan wrote some of the most memorable stories and
characters in the best-selling
Go Girl!
series.

David Harding’s
job is editing and continuity. After Chris and Rowan have done their
part, David arrives to iron out all the kinks. With his superior knack for spotting
issues and coming up with solutions, David is the polish that makes
The Gateway
series
shine! He is also the man behind
Robert Irwin’s Dinosaur Hunter
series, as well as
several
RSPCA Animal Tales
titles.

The Four-Fingered Man
published in 2015 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au

This ebook is also available as a print edition in all good bookstores.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and
copyright holders.

A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia

eISBN 9781743583142

Text copyright © 2015 Chris Morphew, Rowan McAuley and David Harding
Illustration
and design copyright © 2015 Hardie Grant Egmont

Illustration by Craig Phillips
Book cover design by Latifah Cornelius

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