Red Fever Read Online Free PDF Page B

water.
    The boat skidded along the cave wall to a halt. His father appeared at the stern.
    “Not bad for an old sailor, eh?” he said. Toby could feel his dad’s smile in the dark. It had been some feat of sailing.
    Toby sighed with relief. He couldn’t believe his dad had just towed a fishing boat into a cave in the dark. Toby wanted to reach out and hug him, to put his arms around him and say, “Thank you, Dad!” But somehow he couldn’t. Because he knew what his dad’s response would be. It would be what it always was when Toby tried to get close to him. Rejection.
    Instead, Toby got on with busying himself, coiling up the spare anchor rope, checking the dinghy was tied up. It was difficult in the dark but a weak moon was peeping through a band of cloud, throwing a milky white light into the cave. He could just make out the outline of things on the deck. His dad sat rubbing his arms and stretching his neck muscles as if he was sore.
    They both heard it at the same time. This time the noise of the motor was accompanied by the sound of men’s voices — deep, gruff voices, shouting out into the night.
    “Where’ve they gone? I’m sure they came this way,” came one voice.
    “Get a bit further in, Jim,” came another.
    They were getting nearer.
    Toby dropped to his knees and, crouching low, made his way to his dad, who was now lying down in the prow, peering over the front of the boat.
    His father motioned with his finger to his mouth for Toby to keep quiet.
    They both listened and waited.
    “They couldn’t have steered that boat into these caves; they’d be barmy — the rocks are far too dangerous,” yelled Jim.
    “Capt’n said not to come back without them,” barked another voice. “He was well mad — blighters making off like that. Lucky for them our radar was out. We’d have had ’em no bother. One shot to the rudder and they’d have been ours.”
    As the sounds came closer, the mouth of the cave was lit with a dancing spotlight from the pirates’ craft.
    Toby grabbed his dad’s arm and clung on to it. His dad for once left it there. Toby felt both his and his father’s breath stop, as if by not breathing they could make themselves disappear.
    The light swept across the first ten metres of the overhang but then swept away again. Toby and his dad quickly lowered their heads under the parapet of the prow so they could only hear what was going on.
    “Nah, there’s nothing here. We can’t take ’em back if they’re not here, can we?” an angry voice called out.
    “Time to get back to the ship, eh?” said Jim
    “Aye, about time,” the second voice agreed.
    The whine of the outboard dropped to a chug, chug noise and then there was silence.
    The walls of the cave echoed with the gruff voices ofthe three men in the dinghy as it sat just outside the cave, blocking the moonlight.
    “Are you sure you checked good and proper?” yelled a new voice.
    “Aye, nothing there, pal. Let’s head back to the ship,” said Jim.
    The shouts fell to a grumble, and they heard someone trying to start the motor again. Toby heard the pull of the cord ripping the engine into life. It stuttered and failed.
    Don’t say we’re going to be trapped in here with them adrift out there , thought Toby.
    “Toby? What’s happening? What’s all the noise?”
    Toby turned towards the voice. It was coming from the door of the deckhouse. It was Sylvie. Toby didn’t have time to think what to do. He just did it.
    He threw himself down the boat on his stomach, sliding down the wet deck on his front, slithering to a halt at Sylvie’s feet. He half rose and then rugby-tackled her around the legs, pulling her down towards him.
    As she hit the deck, he placed his hankie-wrapped hand over her mouth and forced it shut. There he lay, half on top of her, half choking her, while she writhed and tried to scream underneath him.
    Toby heard the men’s voices raised once more. Had they heard Sylvie?
    “Sylvie!” he whispered