[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.When he judged she would go no further, he put the helm over to port and she swung back towards the other boat, gathering momentum like the weight on a pendulum – closer – closer – closer.‘Now!’ shouted Zaki.Anusha flung herself from the stern of Curlew and landed with her stomach across Morveren’s bowsprit, where she hung precariously, arms and head dangling one side, legs dangling the other as Curlew swung away.‘Owww!’ She kicked and wriggled until she got one leg over the spar.She sat up grinning and gave Zaki a thumbs-up, then scrambled back to Morveren’s foredeck.Zaki repeated the manoeuvre and this time, as the gap closed, he tossed a rope to Anusha.With a line across, it was an easy matter to pull the boats together so that they could cross with ease from one to the other.Zaki joined Anusha on Morveren.They unlashed the sailing dinghy from Morveren’s deck, turned it over and heaved it into the water.They’d have to row; the sails were locked up in the cabin.Zaki dropped the oars into the dinghy and tied it to Curlew’s stern.Now came the most tiring part of the whole job, to haul Curlew back up her anchor rope against the ebb tide, but the thought that the girl might return at any time spurred them on and fifteen exhausting minutes later they had Curlew back where she had started.Time to abandon ship.They closed up the hatches and climbed into the dinghy.Zaki tucked the pilfered logbook under the dinghy’s seat.It was twenty-five to six by Zaki’s watch; they should have just enough time to row across to his grandad’s shed before he packed up for the night.Row? There was a flaw in his plan – how could he row with one arm?‘Can you row?’ he asked hopefully.‘Not very.Well, I’ve never tried,’ came the reply.Zaki made room for Anusha on the centre seat.‘You take one oar; I’ll take the other.Just try to keep in time.’ Zaki cast off.At first, they tended to go round in circles, and the ebb tide threatened to carry them out to sea.On two occasions Anusha missed the water altogether with her oar and fell backwards into the bottom of the dinghy, after which she got a terrible fit of the giggles, but eventually they settled into a steady rhythm and pulled away from the moored boats.Zaki kept them on a diagonal course, aiming up the estuary to allow for the strong current that sucked at the yellow buoys in mid-channel.‘You’re doing great,’ encouraged Zaki.‘Don’t distract me,’ came the sharp response.After which they rowed in silence until Anusha asked, ‘Did you see that cat?’‘What cat?’‘There was a cat on the boat when I came looking for you.’‘On Curlew?’‘Yes.I thought it must belong on board but it was gone when we got out of the cabin.’Zaki’s oar dug too deep and he lost the rhythm.‘What was it like?’ he asked, but he knew the answer.‘Grey.It was sitting at the back of the boat.Almost like it was on guard.’For six strokes Zaki made himself concentrate on the rowing, then he said, ‘That cat is like the hawk in the classroom.It appears and disappears.It’s been following me.It slept in my room last night.And it can change its shape.’He could feel Anusha fighting her disbelief.She pulled at her oar with extra ferocity.‘OK,’ she said at last, ‘I think you better tell me everything.’Lift the oars, lean forward, dip the oars, lean back – lift the oars, lean forward, dip the oars, lean back.They were much the same height and weight and their movements were now perfectly synchronised.Zaki’s sentences, clipped short by shortness of breath, fell into the rhythm of their rowing.He began with the moment he entered the cave by Dragon Pool, told how the tide had trapped him and of his near-drowning.How the girl had rescued him and made him promise to tell no one what he had seen.How she’d taken back the bracelet.The bracelet! With a gasp of horror, Zaki remembered he was still wearing it! She might overlook the missing logbook – but how long would it be before she discovered the theft of the bracelet?‘What is it?’ Anusha asked when Zaki fell silent.Zaki covered his alarm over the bracelet by looking round to check their progress.For some reason that he couldn’t quite explain he chose not to tell Anusha he had taken it.‘We’re almost there,’ he said.A few more strokes and the dinghy nosed against the slipway behind Grandad’s boat shed.By the time they had tied up the dinghy, Zaki had added the details about the grey cat and its strange transformation.‘Better hurry,’ he now urged, ‘Grandad likes to finish before the shipping forecast.’‘Whatever that is,’ said Anusha, as she followed him into the shed.gChapter 8Jenna gave one loud bark as Zaki entered the shed with Anusha close behind him.The old dog heaved herself up from her place under the side workbench and, tail wagging, came to greet them.She accepted a quick scruffing of her fur and a ‘Hello, Jenna’ from Zaki before pushing around him to inspect Anusha.‘Where did you spring from?’ demanded Grandad, looking up from sweeping the shed floor.‘And who’s this pretty little maid?’ as his eyes fell on Anusha, who was now kneeling among the wood shavings, scratching Jenna under the collar.‘This is Anusha, Grandad.I was teaching her to row.’‘Hello, Mr Luxton,’ said Anusha.‘You’ll be all over dust and shavin’s if you crawl around there, my love.’‘I don’t mind,’ smiled Anusha, hopping up and dusting herself off.‘Learnin’ to row, eh?’‘Yes,’ said Anusha, ‘but it was getting late, so we had to give up.Wow! This is so beautiful! I didn’t know boats were built like this.’ She walked around the part-built boat, examining it inside and out.‘Not many are any more,’ grunted Grandad.Zaki could see that half the planks of the rowing boat’s hull were now in place.It was a slow process, particularly if you worked on your own.Each plank had to be offered up to the one before, marked, then shaped by hand and finally fixed in place.For the hull to be watertight, the fit had to be perfect.‘We left the dinghy by the slip.Hope that’s OK,’ said Zaki.‘I’ll take her back out to Morveren on the weekend.’‘Shouldn’t be too much in the way.Your parents know where you are?’‘Dad won’t be home yet,’ said Zaki.‘I probably ought to phone my mum,’ said Anusha.‘Probably you ought to,’ said Grandad.‘You can call her from the house.’They filed out of the shed and waited with Jenna while Grandad locked up [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.When he judged she would go no further, he put the helm over to port and she swung back towards the other boat, gathering momentum like the weight on a pendulum – closer – closer – closer.‘Now!’ shouted Zaki.Anusha flung herself from the stern of Curlew and landed with her stomach across Morveren’s bowsprit, where she hung precariously, arms and head dangling one side, legs dangling the other as Curlew swung away.‘Owww!’ She kicked and wriggled until she got one leg over the spar.She sat up grinning and gave Zaki a thumbs-up, then scrambled back to Morveren’s foredeck.Zaki repeated the manoeuvre and this time, as the gap closed, he tossed a rope to Anusha.With a line across, it was an easy matter to pull the boats together so that they could cross with ease from one to the other.Zaki joined Anusha on Morveren.They unlashed the sailing dinghy from Morveren’s deck, turned it over and heaved it into the water.They’d have to row; the sails were locked up in the cabin.Zaki dropped the oars into the dinghy and tied it to Curlew’s stern.Now came the most tiring part of the whole job, to haul Curlew back up her anchor rope against the ebb tide, but the thought that the girl might return at any time spurred them on and fifteen exhausting minutes later they had Curlew back where she had started.Time to abandon ship.They closed up the hatches and climbed into the dinghy.Zaki tucked the pilfered logbook under the dinghy’s seat.It was twenty-five to six by Zaki’s watch; they should have just enough time to row across to his grandad’s shed before he packed up for the night.Row? There was a flaw in his plan – how could he row with one arm?‘Can you row?’ he asked hopefully.‘Not very.Well, I’ve never tried,’ came the reply.Zaki made room for Anusha on the centre seat.‘You take one oar; I’ll take the other.Just try to keep in time.’ Zaki cast off.At first, they tended to go round in circles, and the ebb tide threatened to carry them out to sea.On two occasions Anusha missed the water altogether with her oar and fell backwards into the bottom of the dinghy, after which she got a terrible fit of the giggles, but eventually they settled into a steady rhythm and pulled away from the moored boats.Zaki kept them on a diagonal course, aiming up the estuary to allow for the strong current that sucked at the yellow buoys in mid-channel.‘You’re doing great,’ encouraged Zaki.‘Don’t distract me,’ came the sharp response.After which they rowed in silence until Anusha asked, ‘Did you see that cat?’‘What cat?’‘There was a cat on the boat when I came looking for you.’‘On Curlew?’‘Yes.I thought it must belong on board but it was gone when we got out of the cabin.’Zaki’s oar dug too deep and he lost the rhythm.‘What was it like?’ he asked, but he knew the answer.‘Grey.It was sitting at the back of the boat.Almost like it was on guard.’For six strokes Zaki made himself concentrate on the rowing, then he said, ‘That cat is like the hawk in the classroom.It appears and disappears.It’s been following me.It slept in my room last night.And it can change its shape.’He could feel Anusha fighting her disbelief.She pulled at her oar with extra ferocity.‘OK,’ she said at last, ‘I think you better tell me everything.’Lift the oars, lean forward, dip the oars, lean back – lift the oars, lean forward, dip the oars, lean back.They were much the same height and weight and their movements were now perfectly synchronised.Zaki’s sentences, clipped short by shortness of breath, fell into the rhythm of their rowing.He began with the moment he entered the cave by Dragon Pool, told how the tide had trapped him and of his near-drowning.How the girl had rescued him and made him promise to tell no one what he had seen.How she’d taken back the bracelet.The bracelet! With a gasp of horror, Zaki remembered he was still wearing it! She might overlook the missing logbook – but how long would it be before she discovered the theft of the bracelet?‘What is it?’ Anusha asked when Zaki fell silent.Zaki covered his alarm over the bracelet by looking round to check their progress.For some reason that he couldn’t quite explain he chose not to tell Anusha he had taken it.‘We’re almost there,’ he said.A few more strokes and the dinghy nosed against the slipway behind Grandad’s boat shed.By the time they had tied up the dinghy, Zaki had added the details about the grey cat and its strange transformation.‘Better hurry,’ he now urged, ‘Grandad likes to finish before the shipping forecast.’‘Whatever that is,’ said Anusha, as she followed him into the shed.gChapter 8Jenna gave one loud bark as Zaki entered the shed with Anusha close behind him.The old dog heaved herself up from her place under the side workbench and, tail wagging, came to greet them.She accepted a quick scruffing of her fur and a ‘Hello, Jenna’ from Zaki before pushing around him to inspect Anusha.‘Where did you spring from?’ demanded Grandad, looking up from sweeping the shed floor.‘And who’s this pretty little maid?’ as his eyes fell on Anusha, who was now kneeling among the wood shavings, scratching Jenna under the collar.‘This is Anusha, Grandad.I was teaching her to row.’‘Hello, Mr Luxton,’ said Anusha.‘You’ll be all over dust and shavin’s if you crawl around there, my love.’‘I don’t mind,’ smiled Anusha, hopping up and dusting herself off.‘Learnin’ to row, eh?’‘Yes,’ said Anusha, ‘but it was getting late, so we had to give up.Wow! This is so beautiful! I didn’t know boats were built like this.’ She walked around the part-built boat, examining it inside and out.‘Not many are any more,’ grunted Grandad.Zaki could see that half the planks of the rowing boat’s hull were now in place.It was a slow process, particularly if you worked on your own.Each plank had to be offered up to the one before, marked, then shaped by hand and finally fixed in place.For the hull to be watertight, the fit had to be perfect.‘We left the dinghy by the slip.Hope that’s OK,’ said Zaki.‘I’ll take her back out to Morveren on the weekend.’‘Shouldn’t be too much in the way.Your parents know where you are?’‘Dad won’t be home yet,’ said Zaki.‘I probably ought to phone my mum,’ said Anusha.‘Probably you ought to,’ said Grandad.‘You can call her from the house.’They filed out of the shed and waited with Jenna while Grandad locked up [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]