Chapter 9

The Best Class

Chapter 9

The children, especially the boys, were so excited that they almost ran to the river that lay between them and the base of the cliff. Just where the river entered the bay, it widened out and was quite shallow. They all crossed getting wet only up to their waists. Soon they stood at the base of the cliff looking up. From there, they could just see the muzzle of the old cannon sticking out from the cliff’s face.

“Let’s try this way,” said _Brooke. She started up a small crevice that was nearly hidden by some bush with broad leaves and a short stump. The others followed. Brooke worked her way up the break in the cliff which angled upwards in the direction of the gun, They had to move single file. The way got steeper until it ended in a sheer cliff face.

“I guess that’s it,” said _Brooke. “We can’t climb that without a rope or a ladder.”

“We could go get the ladder we used on the coconut trees,” suggested _Bryan.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” said _Orion. “Look at this.”

Orion was clawing away at the moss that had grown over much of the cliff face. As the children watched, he pulled away several handfuls of the green growth. Behind it, plainly pounded into the stone of the cliff, was a step. It went into the rock about six inches and was wide enough for a large foot to slip into. Pulling more moss away further up, he uncovered another of the holes. Soon he was several feet above the heads of his classmates, who he showered with bits of green moss as he found more of the holes. Finally, at about sixteen feet up, he scrambled over some rocks and disappeared. A moment later, his head appeared looking down at the others.

“I’ve reached it,” he shouted while pointing to one side. “The cannon is just over there. Come on up. The steps make it a very easy climb.”

_Orion was right. One after another, the children scrambled up the short cliff. At the top, they eased themselves over one last section of rock and found themselves in a sort of a small, sand filled basin. A few feet away, aiming out over the bay, was the barrel of a small cannon.

The children gathered around, examining it. It was darkened with age, but did not seem to have rusted or fallen apart.

“I think it must be made of brass,” said _Talan. “Otherwise, it would surely have rusted away.”

“It must have been here for a long time,” suggested _Joshua. “I saw a picture of these old cannons. They always put them on wooden gun carriages. If this one had been on one, the wood must have rotted a long time ago. After completely looking over the cannon, the children began to explore their small basin. It was taller than the trees below it. One side of the basin looked over the river.

“I’ll bet we could dive from here,” said _Bryan.

“We’d better make sure it’s deep enough,” suggested _Braxton. “It’s about a 24 foot drop. That’s higher than the high dive at the pool.”

At the rear of the basin, the vine and moss covered cliff seemed to go straight up.

“I’ll bet there used to be a waterfall here,” said _Camron. “That's why this place is so worn down.”

“That’s possible,” said _Zuri. “At any rate, it’s a pretty view. You can see the whole bay and even beyond the point to the ocean.”

“I’ll bet that is why this cannon is here,” suggested _Tanner. “From here, the pirates could shoot at any boats or ships that came into the bay.”

“This must be another way out,” shouted _Cheryl from one side of the basin next to the cliff. “It looks like this might be a trail.”

“Let’s follow it,” shouted _Patrick.

“Let’s rest for a minute,” said _Orion.

As he spoke, he leaned against the vine covered cliff. With a cry, he disappeared.

The other children stared in amazement. _Orion had completely vanished. Their shock soon turned to laughter, however, when _Orion stuck his head out from the mass of hanging vines and said, “Hey everybody, there’s a cave here.”

The children quickly tore away the vines that had hidden the entrance so completely that they had not even suspected that it was there. After a couple of minutes of work, the boys and girls stood before a cave entrance that was almost seven feet high and about three feet wide. The floor was sandy as far as they could see into it, which wasn’t far. About ten feet from the entrance, the cave took a sharp turn to the left. Past that point they could see nothing.

“We’ve got to explore this place,” _Asher almost shouted. “Who knows what could be in there.”

“Not without some light,” insisted _Brooke peering around the bend in the cave. “It’s pitch black in there. There might be drop offs, or snakes...or anything hidden in there.”

“Then we need to make some torches,” said Braxten. “I have some of the matches from the plane. We could start a fire, get some burning sticks, and then check it out.”

The others all agreed, but soon found that starting a fire there was not going to be easy. There were only a few sticks in the basin. They were quite dry, but too big to be started from a match.

“We could shave off some small splinters with the knife,” suggested _Braxton. “We could get those started. But I think we are going to have to have more wood.”

“Carrying it up the cliff using those footholds isn’t going to be easy either,” added _Talan.

“I guess we’re going to have to try following that trail,” suggested Braxten. “Maybe it will lead us to more dry wood.”

The children set off, single file, along the rocky path they had discovered. It was overgrown with bushes and vines, but they still made pretty quick progress. There was only one scary part. For about twenty yards, the trail narrowed to only a couple of feet in width. On one side, the cliff rose straight up and on the other side, it dropped down, about thirty feet into the river. Just a hundred yards beyond this point, the trail went sharply lower to a wide sandy area beside the river. Here, the children found lots of driftwood. It was very dry and they knew immediately that it would make good firewood.

Each of them gathered a large armload. _Bryan and _Cheryl each grabbed two long poles.

“Why are you taking those long sticks?” asked _Zoey.

“It will be easier to drag these along the trail,” replied _Cheryl. “We can break them up when we get to the basin.”

A couple of kids liked that idea, so they exchanged their armloads of firewood for longer sticks. Just as they were all heading up the trail, _Remi screamed a warning, “Look out!” Dropping the wood he carried, he pointed towards the jungle. There, crouching low and growling, was a tiger. On one side of its face, was a burn.

“_Talan!” shouted _Remi. “Come quick with the flare gun.”

Behind _Remi, _Talan, who had been leading the group back up the trail, was already rushing past the others. In his now empty hands he held the flare gun. _Remi scrambled backwards, never turning away from the tiger. The tiger was about to spring, when _Talan reach _Remi. At the sight of the flare gun, the tiger paused.

_Talan took careful aim, and pulled the trigger. There was a loud “click” from the pistol, but no ball of flame leaped out. The tiger seemed to sense that there was no danger and began creeping closer.