Chapter 8

The Best Class

Chapter 8

_Troy held the beacon up for everyone to see. The light, which had shone so cheerfully red, was now dark. “But it’s only been a day,” blurted out _Braxten. “The instructions said it would transmit for three days.”

“Maybe it still is,” said _Zoey hopefully. “Maybe it’s still transmitting and just the light bulb has burned out.”

“Maybe,”

agreed _Asher. But from the way he said it, no one thought he believed it.

_Troy returned the beacon to the mound that they had built for it. A feeling of gloom settled upon the group. No one spoke as they stared moodily into the fire.

“Well, we can’t sit around here all day worrying about the beacon,” said _Bryan. “Hopefully someone picked up the signal. If they didn’t, sitting around worrying about it isn’t going to do us any good.”

“That’s right,” agreed _Patrick. “There’s nothing we can do about the beacon, but there is something that we can do about getting coconuts.”

“So, let’s not just hang around here talking about it. Let’s go get them,” agreed _Bryan.

The children headed off down the beach leaving _Seth, who was still tired from sitting up the night before, to take a nap, and Doug and _Troy to watch the fire. The sun shining in a perfect blue sky and the ocean waves happily splashing ashore, soon lifted

their spirits.

When they reached the coconuts, they agreed that making a ladder instead of using the tree as a ladder would be easier in the long run. It took quite some time, but using the knife, and taking turns, the children cut two of the long thin trees that were growing just at the edge of the jungle. Then, using their shoelaces again, they tied smaller branches between the two poles. When they finished, they had a ladder that was long enough to reach the tops of all but the tallest coconut trees.

Using the ladder, made gathering the coconuts an easy job. It took several of the children to get it set up against the tree, but the children were used to working together. They took turns climbing to the top and knocking the heavy nuts loose. They hadn’t brought the sharpened stake that they had used the night before, but using some large rocks, they smashed a few of the nuts open and shared them for lunch.

“What do you all want to do now?” asked _Tanner, who was lying contentedly on the beach.

“I think we should follow the beach for a while and see what we can find,” suggested _Braxten. There might be something we can use or eat around there.”

“You’re probably right,” agreed _Patrick. “We really haven’t explored very much yet. Let’s go at least as far as that cliff down there.”

“What about the guys we left at the raft,” said _Bridger. “They have the pig to eat, but they might like some coconut too.”

“I guess we don’t have to go exploring,” noted _Aliyah. “_Bridger and I could take some coconuts back to the raft. They will probably be needing more firewood soon anyway and I know Doug won’t want to go into the jungle without several of us with him.”

So _Aliyah and _Bridger headed back to the raft with several coconuts, while the rest of the children headed down the beach. They were walking down one side of the bay. Across a half mile of water, stretched the other side of the bay. The water, sheltered by the land on each side, was almost smooth. The small waves barely made a lapping sound on the white sand. At the head of the bay was a broken cliff that reared up about two hundred feet. At its top was a small clearing, mostly covered with rock. Then the jungle

began again.

As they got closer to the base of the cliff, _Rhylla suddenly stopped and squinted into the distance. “You know,” she said, “I think that looks like a creek coming into the bay.”

The others stopped and shading their eyes with their hands, looked where she was now pointing.

“I think you’re right,” agreed _Remi. “It looks like it comes into the bay just below the cliff.”

“That means fresh water,” said _Camron. “And I’m getting very thirsty.”

The children started off at a quicker pace. When they were almost to the cliff they slowed again and looked around them.

“This place is beautiful,” whispered _Brooke. None spoke, but everyone agreed. The place that they had come upon was like a garden. The palm trees were spread nicely apart and there were several coconut trees scattered among them. All around the area were brilliant pink and red flowers that tossed in the gentle breeze that was blowing up the bay. The white sand was undisturbed and cut by the perfectly clear water of the small river they had spotted from down the beach. It was larger than they had thought, but still it was only twenty feet across. It looked to be about six feet deep and the children could see bright stones on the bottom and fish darting about. On the other side of the river, the rocks rose up in rough stair steps.

“Wow,” whispered _Jocelyn. “This is where I want to live. Smell those flowers.”

Everyone breathed in the perfume of the bright flowers. They all got a drink and explored the spot. _Tanner and _Talan got all excited about catching some fish. They had found some hooks in the raft, but couldn’t wait to go back for them. They used the knife to sharpen

some sticks. They waded into the river and tried to stab at the fish that were flitting about. They had no luck, but enjoyed splashing about in the cool water. Soon everyone joined them. They had all washed in the ocean, but the salt water always left a sort of sticky feel on the skin. The fresh water or the river left them feeling clean.

“This place is perfect,” said _Bridger. “It has fresh water, coconuts, fish… everything we need.”

“Almost everything,” said _Brooke. “We can’t see much of the open ocean from here. What if a ship should sail by? We probably wouldn’t see it, and they certainly wouldn’t see us.”

“That is a problem,” agreed _Zuri. “But this place is so nice. It’s also out of most of the wind.”

“Maybe we could station a lookout on top of that cliff,” said _Remi. “From up there a person could see a lot farther than from the beach.”

“That’s true,” agreed _Rhylla. “We could also have a fire up there, with some green leaves to throw on if a ship comes by. The leaves would make a lot of smoke.”

Everyone agreed that this was a good idea.

“But how will we get someone up there?” asked _Braxten. “That’s quite a climb.”

They all sat down on the beach and stared up at the cliff, trying to pick out a way up the broken wall. The cliff had lots of ledges, many of which had bushes and vines growing from them.

“You know what that looks like,” said _Asher pointing towards the bottom of the cliff. “That looks like an old cannon.”

“Where?” asked _Braxten.

“There, on that first ledge, just above the treetops.”

“You know what,” said _Talan. “That is a cannon. It’s an old fashioned pirate cannon.”