Rescue On Nim's Island (14 page)

I hope it’s not Leonora and Lance!
she thought.

The crashing came closer – and Selkie galumphed out from the trees. For a long moment, Nim hugged Selkie and Selkie whuffled over Nim – and right in the middle of that hugging, whuffling moment, the rain stopped. The sun came out and sparkled diamonds on the wet leaves and dripped hope through the branches. Nim shook out her wet hair, picked up the heavy coil of rope that had slipped off her shoulder, and they started off again, as fast as they could through the mud.

Five minutes later they reached the pond at the bottom of Waterfall Cliffs. Nim stared across at the great rock bridge arching over it to the cliff.

‘What if we get all the way up there and we’re in the wrong place?’ she said.

Selkie nuzzled her, telling her that everything would be all right. Sometimes Selkie forgot that Nim wasn’t a little sea lion pup whose problems could be fixed with nuzzles and love. She didn’t know that the only thing that mattered was getting to Tiffany in time, and they couldn’t do that if they couldn’t find the tunnel.

Nim looked up, but they were too close under the cliffs to see to the top. She hurried on around the edge of the pond, past the main bats’ cave. A few bats were flying confusedly in front of the entrance as if they were trying to decide whether or not to go in. When Nim looked more carefully, she could see the baby bats clinging to their mothers.

‘They got out in time!’

Except that there weren’t very many bats here, and there’d been more than she could count in the nursery cave.

‘Maybe they’ve already settled further into this cave. Selkie, you go in and check – it might go deeper than we realised. I’m going over the bridge.’

Selkie honked crossly.

‘I’ll be right above you once I find the tunnel,’ said Nim. ‘We’ll just have mountain in between us.’

‘HMPHH!’ Selkie snorted, even more crossly, but she knew she couldn’t climb the great rock arch. She lolloped slowly into the cave as Nim started around the pond.

F
ROM THE BASE
of the bridge, Nim could see to the top of Waterfall Cliffs. Water was trickling from every hole and crack in the rock so that the whole cliff face was sparkling in the sun. It would have been beautiful if she hadn’t known that all that water had run deep through mountain tunnels to get there.

She stared up higher, past where the bridge met the wall, past the waterfall and up to the muddy hill above it, wet and shining in the sun. She could see the hole where the extra waterfall sometimes flowed, but there was no water coming out of it now.

Instead, a cloud of bats was going in.

‘That
is
the tunnel! Nim exclaimed, and danced Fred in the air till he sneezed.

In the time since Nim had left Tiffany, she’d trekked the long way back through the tunnel, been as terrified as anyone could be, moved a bundle of dynamite, rolled down a hill, climbed back up the Black Rocks and carried a heavy pack and rope around another hill through the rainforest. A second ago she’d been so tired she didn’t know how she could climb to the top of the bridge.

Now she was as full of energy as Fred eating coconut on a hot day. She tightened the straps on Lance’s pack, told Fred to hold tight, and started up the arch.

On one side was the thundering waterfall; on the left she could see the creek meandering through the trees. But now she was imagining Tristan trying to carry his little brother along it, and the creek had never seemed so rushing, or the rocks so big. Tristan mightn’t have found Alex yet. She didn’t even know if he and Ollie had got out of the tunnel safely.

E
DMUND STARED DOWN
into the pit. Tiffany was still straddled across it, but her head was hanging as if she was asleep. Edmund called to her, quietly at first and then louder.

Tiffany didn’t move.

Edmund stuffed the sheet and Nim’s pack inside his own, and slipped it on his back. He knew that every single rock-climbing guide in the world would say that without a rope or climbing gear, he shouldn’t do what he was going to do.

He had to do it.

He slid his legs down into the shaft, then his body, and finally he was clinging to the top with just his hands. Letting go was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but one foot found a crack to hang onto and the other a bump to step on … and he was propped against the walls the same way as Tiffany, except that both his feet were free to slide down to the next bump and crack.

He slid and gripped, steadied himself and slid again. His right leg first and then his left; his right arm found a new grip and the left arm found one too.

The left foot found a bump …

‘My hand!’ Tiffany screamed.

Edmund jumped off fast. So fast that he skidded right past her, down the smooth, sloping walls and into the water.

Tiffany screamed; Edmund gasped, gurgled, and sank. He kicked and thrashed, but the walls were slippery and the shaft was narrow, so he went on down.
I’m going to drown! Tiffany’s held on all this time and I’m going to
drown as soon as I try to help her!

His feet touched rock. Edmund kicked off as hard as he could and shot up to the surface. He grabbed the wall and braced, spluttering and coughing.

There was a gurgling sound, and a rush of running water.

‘The water’s draining!’ Tiffany exclaimed. ‘How did you do that?’

‘I guess I kicked the plug out,’ said Edmund.

They could hear the water splashing onto a puddle, somewhere far below –
in another tunnel, or a cave
, Edmund thought, though he wasn’t sure if that was good news or not.

And his headlamp was waterproof. That was the best surprise all day. He shone it down the shaft as the last swirl of water drained away.

‘Thanks,’ said Tiffany. ‘My leg was going numb in the water. But for a minute I thought you were going to drown!’

‘So did I,’ admitted Edmund.

But Tiffany was still just as stuck as she’d been before. Edmund braced himself and shone his light on the rock that was trapping her foot. It looked like another loose rock that had washed down and got jammed in the crack in the wall. He’d kicked out the rock that blocked the drain; surely he could pull this one out too …

He tugged, yanked, pushed and grunted. The rock didn’t budge.

There was another crack in the wall just above it, with a strip of rock going across from one side to the other like the bar of an H. Edmund had another idea. He shrugged off his dripping backpack and pulled out Nim’s empty pack and the sheet.

F
ROM THE TOP
of the rock arch, Nim was looking down at the deep blue pond. She was a very long way up, and the bridge was slippery with waterfall spray. Then she thought about Tristan and Ollie trying to cross it in pouring rain, and crawled quickly the rest of the way across.

The rock was almost flat where the arch joined the cliff. So much mud washed down to it with each rain that tough, straggly bushes were growing on it, the only bit of green on the harsh grey rocks. It was a good place to catch her breath.

Above the waterfall it was hill more than cliff; mud more than rock. Mud is easy to slide down, but hard to climb up. ‘There’s nothing else you can do,’ she told herself sternly.

She was just about to start climbing when she heard a faint voice.

‘You’re crazy!’

Which was exactly what Nim was thinking, but the voice wasn’t in her head. It was in the mountain – and so was the voice that answered.

‘Maybe. But if it’s strong enough to hold me it’ll hold you.’

‘Edmund?’ Nim called.

‘That’s weird,’ she heard. ‘It sounded like Nim.’

‘It’s coming from the crack where my foot’s stuck,’ said Tiffany.

‘I’m on the bridge!’ Nim shouted.

She pushed through the bushes till she found a hole leading into the cliff. Nim crouched and leaned in.

‘Can you hear me?’ she shouted, just as Edmund’s voice floated out, ‘Can you hear us?’

Nim really didn’t want to climb into another tunnel that she didn’t know, but the opening was wide, and she could see a long way in. It slanted upwards, so she wasn’t going to slide down anywhere except back to this safe flat patch. And she knew that Tiffany and Edmund were very close, at the other end of it. Though if the end was a crack small enough to trap Tiffany’s foot, Nim wasn’t going to fit through from this side.

Fred had already jumped off her shoulder and started in. Nim pulled on her headlamp and crawled after him.

The tunnel ended in a small cavern, tall enough for Nim to stand straight, but with water up to her knees.

Inside the shaft, light glimmered through cracks in the wall.

‘Look!’ Edmund called.

‘We can see your light!’ said Tiffany.

‘And I can see yours,’ Nim called back.

She sloshed through the water towards them. There were two strips of fabric across a bar of rock; when she got closer she saw they were the shoulder straps from a backpack – and when she looked through the crack above it she saw Tiffany swinging in a hammock seat.

‘I tied the sheet through the pack’s top handle, and wrapped it around with the cord,’ said Edmund. ‘It’s pretty strong.’

‘It’s good,’ said Tiffany. ‘I couldn’t have hung on much longer.’

Her voice was trembly and faint, and she was still anchored to the cliff wall by her left foot. Her sneaker toe was pointing through a crack into Nim’s side of the cavern.

‘Can you push it back?’ Tiffany asked.

Gently at first, then harder, Nim tried to shove the sneaker through the crack. It didn’t move.

‘Try harder!’ Tiffany said.

Nim pushed as hard as she could.

Tiffany screamed. Her foot still didn’t move.

‘Sorry!’ Nim cried.

This was worse than ever. Now she’d actually hurt Tiffany as well as wasting time. She couldn’t get through and she couldn’t help from this side. She’d have to crawl back out and climb that steep, slippery hill with the rope and heavy pack on her back before she could even start to rescue Tiffany.

‘Come on, Fred,’ she called. Fred was trying to catch a glow-worm. He was balancing on the bar of rock with his tail poking towards her and his head in the shaft.

‘Don’t eat the lights!’ Edmund exclaimed.

‘No glow-worms, Fred,’ Nim agreed. ‘But great idea.’ She lifted him out of the way and poked the end of the rope through the gap. There was only one rope, but it was very long. Edmund caught it and knotted it into a harness around his waist. Nim looped it securely around the bar. There was still a lot left.

Now to get Tiffany’s foot free.

Nim searched through Lance and Leonora’s tool bag. It had a first aid kit, two spikes for hammering into rock, a pulley and two cleats, a hammer and a small, neat parcel of fishing net.

‘Why would they want a fishing net?’ Nim wondered.

‘To lower the fossil off the cliff,’ said Tiffany.

‘It wouldn’t be much use the way the fossil is now,’ said Nim. She wished she’d checked the backpack before carrying it all the way up here. This little spike and hammer were the only things she really needed …

‘Ow!’ Tiffany screamed.

‘I haven’t hit anything yet!’

‘It’s a cramp in my other foot,’ Tiffany groaned. ‘I don’t care if you hit this one – just get it out!’

Nim thought Tiff might care if the hammer did hit her, but she wedged the spike into the crack below the rock. She hammered and tapped, and then she stopped and Edmund tugged. The rock didn’t move. Nim moved the spike, hammered and stopped again, Edmund tugged again, and the rock didn’t move again.

This time she couldn’t pull the spike out to move it. It was in too deep.

‘Try the other spike,’ said Edmund, but Nim was already swinging the hammer for one last try. She missed the spike and hit the rock hard. The rock tilted forwards and tumbled down the shaft bouncing off the rock walls, and right through the hole at the bottom …

There was a splash, and a cross
Honk!

Chapter 14