Killigrew and the Incorrigibles by Jonathan Lunn

Author:Jonathan Lunn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Canelo Books
Published: 2017-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Speculation

It had been a hard climb to the crest of the plateau, but from there it was downhill in almost every direction. Mrs Cafferty had hoped she would be able to see the mission or one of the trading stations from up there, but she had been disappointed. She decided the best thing to do was to descend to the coast on the far side of the island from the Lucy Ann, and then follow it round until she found some semblance of civilisation. She could not help thinking that even the sanctuary of a native village would be an improvement on the Lucy Ann.

She was halfway across the plateau when she saw the ship about five miles away, anchored in a bay in the north-west corner of the island. Her first thought was that she had lost her bearings and it was the Lucy Ann, but when she glanced over her shoulder she could see the whaling ship’s masts in the V of a valley which had opened up off to her right. Realising that her escape from this ordeal was less than an hour’s walk away, she made straight for the unknown ship. Even though it was more than twenty-four hours since she had last slept, she forgot her exhaustion and broke into a stumbling run, terrified the ship might weigh anchor and set sail before she got there.

The land dropped gently down on the far side of the plateau and a mile further on she lost sight of the ship when she descended into the forests on the north side of the island. The sunlight lancing slantindicular through the boughs above her from the right gave her some indication which direction she was heading in.

The jungle was wild and beautiful at that time of morning, the sounds of the tropical birds crying to one another in the trees above her almost melodious. A thin mist hung between the trunks of the araucaria trees that towered high above her, picking out the beams of sunlight and making them look almost solid. Hosts of butterflies danced amongst the bracken.

And then the birdsong died.

Mrs Cafferty stopped. For all she knew, it was a perfectly natural phenomenon, the same as the crickets in India had all stopped chirping at the same time of the evening. But whereas a moment ago she had almost been enjoying the walk, now she felt uneasy. It was as if the forest hid a thousand malevolent eyes, all watching her. Not daring to move, hardly daring to breathe, she listened to the silence.

She was just being jumpy, she told herself. Hardly surprising, after the ordeal she had been through. But she was wasting time: that ship was not going to remain anchored in the bay for ever.

She took a step forward and a twig snapped beneath one of her boots. Something came whirring out of the bushes at her and she threw up her arms with a cry of alarm, but it was only a dove.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.