Davina Dupree Puzzles a Pirate Read online

  I have to go now diary as Mr Fossil’s given us each a project folder and we have to spend the next hour looking out of our cabin portholes and drawing any sea or bird creatures we can see.

  Thursday, 8th January

  Sandy times, Diary.

  I have to say, this school trip is such fun!

  We spotted Ni Island on the horizon yesterday afternoon, just as the sun was setting. Arabella and I had already filled in quite a few pages of our project folders with drawings of three dolphins, a small whale, another Lesser Feathered Gull, some normal seagulls and five jumping fish. A golden shape on the horizon started to become more distinct and as we sailed towards it, it became clear that it was a sand island, full of exotic trees.

  Mrs Pumpernickle came round after dinner to say that the pirate ship was no longer in view, but that Ni Island was and that we would be arriving and mooring the boat first thing in the morning so we should get an early night, which we did. I’d got used to the rocking of the yacht by then so didn’t sleep with a sick bag under my pillow unlike last night, and we both fell asleep pretty much immediately.

  This morning, after a scrummy breakfast of smoked salmon and creamed cheese bagels with cherry juice to drink, Mr Snap stood up to talk to us about the day. He usually tries to smile, even though as Arabella says - his eyes don’t - but this morning he didn’t bother, just yelled at us in a moody way. I heard Mrs Fairchild remark to Mrs Pumpernickle that it was such a pity the Duke of Westchester couldn’t be with us as he had real a gift for public speaking.

  Mr Snap said we had to be all packed and ready to go within half an hour, no time wasters please. He said he’d ferry us all across to Ni Island in different groups, where we’d find luxury tents waiting for us. After his speech Mrs Fairchild stood up to thank him for all his help and said she was sure he’d be off home after that, and that she wouldn’t want to detain him on Ni Island for any longer than necessary and that perhaps he would be good enough to pick us all up again in ten days time. Mr Snap literally snapped back that on the contrary, he’d be happy to stay on the island in order to be of any assistance to us and that he’d already come across the week before to set the tents up, setting up a smaller less luxurious one for himself. Mrs Fairchild’s shoulders sagged. I don’t think she likes him.

  Anyway, after being ferried across to Ni Island by Moody Mr Snap, we set off in a large group through undergrowth, with Mrs Fairchild leading the way. Honestly, there are plants and bushes I’ve never seen before on this island, with such tiny leaves and dainty, colourful flowers. Mr Fossil hasn’t stopped smiling in a dreamy way since we got here.

  Soon, after climbing over a series of high sand dunes which made my legs ache, we saw a sandy clearing that gently sloped down to the most beautiful beach ever. The clearing was full of gold and red tents that looked like beautiful works of art. They’d been pitched right at the top of the beach, much higher than the still wet high tide mark so we knew our belongings would never be in danger of being washed away.

  Me and Arabella decided to explore our tent AT ONCE. It’s seriously massive, about the size of a small bungalow. The embroidered red and gold material that covers the outside is quite tough compared to the soft creamy gauze that lines the inside walls. The ‘front door’ is made up from two curtains that can be pulled aside and inside there are three sections – a living area, a washroom complete with shower and toilet (can you believe it!) and a bedroom with two hammocks (complete with duvets and pillows) suspended from the top of the tent. Utterly amazing.com. Mrs Fairchild said that her friend, the Duke of Westchester, had electricity specially installed on Ni Island, which he owns, as he likes to come camping here himself in the summer months. What a nice chap.

  I have to go now as Mrs Pumpernickle is organising a barbeque on the beach for lunch and by the smell of it, it’s nearly ready. Mmmm....

  Friday, 9th January

  Morning Diary.

  Arabella and I have woken up to a blustery, sunny, salty smelling, FREEZING morning here on Ni Island. I’m currently wearing two layers of school uniform, two pairs of silver tights, pale pink leg warmers, white padded boots and my faux fur coat. Talk about frosty nose.com.

  All of us first years have unpacked and made ourselves at home, I know this for a fact because me and Arabella have been visiting all our friends’ tents to see if they’re the same as ours. To be honest, each tent is a bit different. Like Lottie and Erica’s tent is laid out differently to ours inside, their bedroom is off to the right not the left like ours, and their hammocks and duvets are deep green where as ours are midnight blue. Lottie and Erica have made their tent look almost like their dorm at school, by bringing their portable television and DVD player, laptops, and of course their new waterproof mobile phones. I can’t think when they’re going to have time to use all that stuff in between our nature studies! At least they’re not as silly as Cleo and Clarice, who seem to have brought their entire jewellery collections with them and insist on walking round the beach dripping with pearls and diamonds. Show-offs.com.

  After a scrummy breakfast of fried eggs, bacon and sausages cooked by Moody Mr Snap on his enormous portable cooker, Mr Fossil sat us all down in a circle on the flattest, sandiest part of the beach. He was practically dribbling with excitement as he explained our ten day projects to us. Well, nine day really now as yesterday was the first day. He said our task was to roam the island freely in groups of two or more, spotting as many rare plant and animal species as we could and then drawing them in our project folders, looking at the species guide stuck inside the folder’s front cover to see what each plant or animal was called. I really like doing project work like this, I don’t know why but I just love new folders and pens and things. Arabella thinks it’s all a bit dull, she says she’d rather be working out advanced maths problems. Weirdo.com.

  ‘What about that silly bird you were telling us about yesterday, Mr Fossil?’ Cleo sniggered, nudging Clarice, as Mr Fossil walked round handing out pencils.

  Mr Fossil lowered his fluffy eyebrows at Cleo.

  ‘If you are referring to the rare and not at all silly bird, the Kapatoo, then yes Cleo, it would be beyond exciting if anybody spotted one. I myself will be on constant look out for a Kapatoo as it is well known among the bird loving community that the last sighting of one was here on this very island, about ten years ago. If anyone sees one, please come and get me at once, and there will be a prize for anyone who successfully spots a Kapatoo and brings me to see it.’

  ‘What will the prize be, Mr Fossil?’ Clarice flicked open her portable hairbrush as she spoke and brushed her long, blonde hair.

  ‘Erm...a surprise,’ Mr Fossil twitched his rabbity nose. ‘But unfortunately I’m not seriously expecting anyone to spot a Kapatoo. Mrs Fairchild and I have been accompanying school trips to the Island of Ni for many years now and no one has ever seen one, not even me.’ A deep sigh whooshed through his skinny body.

  Arabella, who’d been drawing maths equations in the sand throughout this conversation and was getting rather restless, said,

  ‘Righto Mr Fossil, we’ll keep our ears and eyes open for a blue, plump, chickeny, owly type of bird. Now please can we go and explore?’

  ‘Yes, off you go,’ Mr Fossil twitched. ‘This island is very safe and I’m pretty sure there’s no danger you can get into but Mrs Fairchild wants you to remain in pairs or more, so please respect her wishes. See you all back here in an hour or so. Mrs Pumpernickle’s gone fishing and is hoping to make you all her delicious fish stew for lunch.’

  So see you later, Diary, I’ve got Kapatoo hunting to do!

  Saturday, 10th January

  A robbery, Diary?

  Good gracious me, Diary, it looks as though another mystery may be beginning. This morning, just as Arabella and I sat down to eat our poached eggs on toast cooked by Moody Mr Snap, Cleo came screaming out of her tent.

  ‘I’ve been robbed, Mrs Fairchild,’ she bawled, running like a toddler across the sand towa
rds a table near ours where Mrs Fairchild and Mrs Pumpernickle were calmly drinking their morning cappuccinos, throwing herself down, her nose running unattractively down her face. ‘Do something, help me, PLEASE!’

  ‘Sorry dear, are you trying to tell me something of yours has gone missing?’ Mrs Fairchild spooned chocolate sprinkled froth into her mouth as she spoke. ‘Do stand up Cleo, there’s a good sort.’

  ‘My diamond necklace and my platinum, ruby encrusted tiara have both been STOLEN,’ Cleo wailed, ignoring Mrs Fairchild’s wish that she stand up. ‘I KNOW they’ve been stolen because I remember EXACTLY where I put them before I went to bed, which was in my gold jewellery box by the door of our bedroom, and when I woke up they were GONE.’

  ‘What a silly thing to do, bringing jewellery on a camping trip,’ Mrs Pumpernickle snorted. Cleo sobbed louder.

  ‘Well,’ Mrs Fairchild sighed, before taking a large slurp of her coffee. ‘Hopefully you misremembered where you put the necklace and tiara and they’ll turn up when we search your tent, my dear. I would so hate to think anyone on this island would commit such an act.’

  ‘Davina and Arabella are always the first ones up in the mornings,’ Cleo said sulkily, getting to her feet. ‘Maybe you should search their tent first. Their goody-two-shoes behaviour is probably all an act. It wouldn’t surprise me if-‘

  ‘That’s ENOUGH Cleo,’ Mrs Pumpernickle rose to her feet and leaned across the table. Cleo swished her blonde hair as she turned and walked back to her tent, hips swaying all the way. Arabella rolled her eyes at me. Trust Cleo to try and pin the blame on us. So pathetic.com. But whole thing does sound slightly mysterious. If the jewellery can’t be found, then who on earth took it?

  Early Evening, Saturday, 10th January

  OK Diary, its official.

  There’s definitely a thief among us.

  Basically, the crook must have struck again when Mr Snap and Mr Fossil took us right over to the other side of the island this afternoon, to carry on our projects. Mr Snap wandered off with Mr Fossil to search for Kapatoo birds, while the rest of us split up and carried on searching for rare animal and plant species.

  I never thought of being an explorer before but it’s so fun finding all these unusual looking creatures, I’m seriously thinking about becoming a famous explorer when I’m grown up. Art’s totally my favourite subject so I’m loving drawing everything too. I can’t say Arabella loves the project work so much but she’s really good at spotting new species.

  ‘Look,’ she yelled as Mr Snap and Mr Fossil disappeared. ‘What’s that, Davina? Can you see the spikes moving behind that mossy log? Come on, let’s go and have a look.’

  We crept up to the log slowly and saw the most gorgeous little animal rubbing’s its spikey back along the bark. It looked like a cross between a reptile and a small dog, with red, green and yellow stripy fur, sharp spikes protruding through the fur where its spine was. It had SUCH a sweet face, all puppyish and adorable. I quickly looked it up in my species guide.

  ‘Arabella, it’s called a Conich,’ I said, bending to pick it up.

  ‘Don’t touch it,’ Arabella yelled. ‘It might be acting all sweet then suddenly turn and bite or scratch you.’

  ‘It’s ok,’ I soothed, picking the little animal up. It was about the size of a puppy and immediately snuggled down in my arms, making soft croaking noises. ‘The species guide says Conich’s are very friendly unless they feel threatened, in which case they scream and run away. Hello cutie,’ I said, stroking its fur. ‘Ouch, I don’t think it realises how sharp its spikes are.’ The Conich had wriggled when I stroked it and one of its spikes dug hard into my upper arm. ‘I’m going to call you Thorny.’

  ‘Can I hold Thorny?’ Arabella came close, seeing the animal wasn’t going to hurt us.

  ‘Yup,’ I said, gently sliding Thorny into her arms. ‘I’m going to draw him while you’re holding him.’

  ‘How do you know Thorny’s a boy?’ Arabella asked, stroking his stripy fur.

  ‘I don’t for sure,’ I said, opening my project folder. ‘But his face looks kind of boyish, don’t you think?’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ Arabella said, holding him up to inspect him more closely. ‘But I’ll take your word for it.’

  We played with Thorny for over an hour, also finding three new plant species we hadn’t seen before and a strangely flat frog, drawing all of them while Thorny followed us about happily. At one point he ran off excitedly and completely disappeared so we followed him and found ourselves entering a half hidden lair.

  ‘Ooh, I don’t like this place, it gives me the creeps,’ Arabella said, looking around.

  ‘I know what you mean,’ I said, walking further inside and finding rows and rows of empty, dirty cages. ‘What on earth has been going on here? Hang on, can you hear that cheeping noise coming from further inside?’ But before she had time to answer, Thorny raced out again and we followed him quickly, glad to get away from the mournful, abandoned cages.

  When my waterproof phone said it was time to meet up again with all the others, we VERY reluctantly said goodbye to Thorny, and headed back to the enormous tree Mr Fossil had told us to regroup next to.

  ‘He’s following us,’ Arabella said as we clambered over tree roots. ‘Go home Thorny, you’ll get lost if you stray too far away.’ But Thorny kept running, his short little legs going faster and faster.

  ‘I think he wants to come with us,’ I said. ‘What shall we do?’

  ‘Let’s keep going and ask Mr Fossil what to do when we see him,’ Arabella said, which I thought was a very sensible suggestion.

  ‘Oh, a Conich!’ Mr Fossil exclaimed when he saw the little spikey bundle running after us. ‘I haven’t seen one for years.’ Mr Snap looked down his nose at Thorny as though he was the most revolting thing he’d ever seen, mean man.

  ‘He followed us all the way back here,’ I said. ‘We’re worried he won’t be able to find his way home.’

  ‘The Conich is a most affectionate animal,’ Mr Fossil said, picking Thorny up and smiling at him. ‘They’d make wonderful pets, but as they’re an endangered species they have to be protected in the wild on a few sand islands like these. They make quite sophisticated burrows deep under the beach. I think he’s rather taken to you girls,’ Thorny leaned towards me and Arabella. I reached out and took him.

  ‘I KNEW Thorny was a boy,’ I grinned at him.

  ‘Oh how sad, they’ve already named him,’ Clarice sniggered. ‘Is he your new toy, girls?’

  ‘Mr Fossil,’ Arabella said loudly, completely ignoring her. ‘Do you think it would do Thorny any harm if we took him back to our tent with us? It’s just that he really does seem to want to come.’

  ‘Conich’s are very loyal,’ Mr Fossil said, looking round to check that all the first years had arrived back. ‘It will probably do him more harm than good to be separated from you at this stage. It’s fine to bring him back for a while, as long as you feed him properly. Conich’s are strictly vegetarian, they get very angry if anyone tries to feed them meat.’

  We walked back in a group to our tents, Mr Snap stomping ahead, watching the sun set and feeling a cold wind blow up. As a few rain drops splattered us Thorny climbed inside my faux fur coat. When we got back to our camp we all dived inside our own tents quickly but seconds later I heard Erica’s voice. She sounded upset.

  ‘Mrs Fairchild? Mrs Fairchild? Lottie and I have been robbed!’

  Needless to say there was much general fuss and confusion as everyone tried to find out what was going on. It was raining harder by then so we all got soaked and Mrs Pumpernickle kept saying,

  ‘Why you lot brought such expensive items on a school trip, I’ll never know. Very silly of you, if you ask me.’

  Mrs Fairchild eventually established that while we were all off doing project work with Mr Fossil and Moody Mr Snap, and she and Mrs Pumpernickle were catching prawns, muscles, fish and lobsters for our yummy dinner, someone had stolen the portable
TV, DVD player and both laptops from Lottie and Erica’s tent. She immediately called an emergency assembly under the big sheltered area next to her tent that Mr Snap had moodily assembled at her request on our first day on the island.

  ‘This is a grave situation, girls of Emeralds, Rubies and Sapphires,’ Mrs Fairchild began, as we all sat cross legged on a giant waterproof, Thorny on Arabella’s knee, listening to the soft pitter patter of raindrops dancing on the canvas cover above. Even Mrs Pumpernickle was there, tutting under her breath, along with Mr Fossil, who was staring dreamily into the middle distance, and Moody Mr Snap, who was looking bored. I still love the way our school houses are named after precious metals. Sapphires is the best of course, because me and Arabella are in it!

  ‘It appears that one of us here on this little sandy island is a thief,’ Mrs Fairchild went on, loudly. Intakes of breath could be heard all round. ‘Stealing is a criminal act and will be treated with the utmost seriousness by myself and the police. I’ve talked the matter over with Mrs Pumpernickle and we both agree that the school trip will still go ahead for now, as it wouldn’t be fair on the majority of you who are honest and truthful to cancel it so soon. But I want the thief to know that whoever they are, they will be found out, publically named and dealt with accordingly.’ She looked very fierce at this point. ‘If anyone has any information about the robberies, please speak to myself or Mrs Pumpernickle in private. This kind of behaviour is simply not acceptable and must be stopped at once.’

  Cleo and Clarice, who’d sat and listened unusually well for them and hadn’t even brushed their hair once, turned and narrowed their eyes at me, Arabella and Thorny. How stupid to imply we’re the thieves, as IF we’d ever do anything like that. One things for sure, Diary, Arabella and I have A LOT to talk about tonight if we’re going to start tracking down the real crook. Detective work.com.