Dolphin Island Read Online Free PDF

and gangling;
     he was also the first white person he had seen on the island.
    The doctor waved Johnny to a chair, saying in a slightly nasal voice as he did so,
     “Sit down, sonny.”
    Johnny didn’t like being called “sonny,” nor did he like the doctor’s Australian accent,
     which he had never before encountered at close quarters. But he said, “Thank you,”
     very politely, sat down, and waited for the next move.
    It was completely unexpected. “Perhaps you’d better begin by telling us,” said Dr.
     Keith, “just what happened to you—after the
Santa Anna
went down.”
    Johnny stared at him openmouthed, all his plans in ruins. They had been only half-formed
     plans, but he had at least hoped that he could pose for a little while as a shipwrecked
     sailor suffering from loss of memory. But if they knew how he had traveled, they also
     knew where he had come from, and he would undoubtedly be sent home at once.
    He decided not to give up without a fight.
    “I’ve never heard of the
Santa
—whatever her name is,” he replied innocently.
    “Give us credit for a little intelligence, sonny. When you came ashore in such a novel
     manner, we naturally radioed the coast guard to find if any ships had been lost. They
     told us that the crew of the hoverfreighter
Santa Anna
had put in at Brisbane, reporting that their ship had sunk about a hundred miles
     east of us. However, they also reported that everyone had been saved, even the ship’s
     cat.
    “So that seemed to rule out the
Santa Anna
, until we had the bright idea that you might be a stowaway. After that, it was just
     a matter of checking with the police along the
Santa Anna
’s route.” The doctor paused for a moment, picked up a briar pipe from his desk, and
     examined it as if he’d never seen such an object before. It was at this point that
     Johnny decided that Dr. Keith was just playing with him, and his initial dislike went
     up a few more degrees.
    “You’d be surprised how many boys still run away from home,” continued that annoying
     voice. “It took several hours to find out who you were—and I must say that when we
     called your Aunt Martha, she didn’t sound particularly grateful. I don’t really blame
     you for clearing out.”
    Perhaps Dr. Keith wasn’t so bad after all. “What are you going to do with me, now
     I’m here?” asked Johnny. He realized, to his alarm, that there was a slight quiver
     in his voice and that tears of disappointment and frustration were not far away.
    “There’s not much that we
can
do at the moment,” said the doctor, raising Johnny’s hopes at once. “Our boat’s over
     at the mainland and won’t be back until tomorrow. It will be a week after that before
     it sails again, so you have eight days here that you can count on.”
    Eight days! His luck was still holding out. Many things could happen in that time—and
     he would make sure that they did.
    In the next half hour, Johnny described his ride back from the wreck while Dr. Keith
     made notes and asked questions. Nothing about the story seemed to surprise him, and
     when Johnny had finished, he pulled a sheaf of photographs out of his desk drawer.
     They were pictures of dolphins; Johnny had no idea that there were so many different
     varieties.
    “Could you identify your friends?” the doctor asked.
    “I’ll try,” said Johnny, riffling through the prints. He quickly eliminated all but
     three probables and two possibles.
    Dr. Keith looked quite satisfied with his choice of dolphins.
    “Yes,” he said, “it would have to be one of those.” Then he asked Johnny a very odd
     question.
    “Did any of them speak to you?”
    At first Johnny thought he was joking; then he saw that Dr. Keith was perfectly serious.
    “They made all sorts of noises—squeaks and whistles and barks—but nothing that I could
     understand.”
    “Nothing like this?” asked the doctor. He pressed a button on his desk, and from a
     loudspeaker at the