Read Online PULAU MATI by John L. Evans - Free Book Online Page B

made him smile and he gave a small shrug that brought Anna’s eyes open.
    “What?” she said.
    Gray chuckled.  “Melanie is pantomiming.”
    “Huh?”   Anna asked in confusion.
    He gave her an affectionate squeeze and pushed himself to his feet.  “We’ve got three people whose lives may depend upon what we find on the other side of this island.”
    Lex threw his empty water bottle into the jungle and Melanie barked at him about littering such a pristine place.  He rolled his eyes but stepped off the trail and retrieved it.
    Gray said, “Besides littering, we should save those bottles in case we find a fresh water supply or have to catch rain water to drink.”
    Lex nodded like he agreed Gray’s was a better reason for retrieving the bottle.  With some loud sighing the others rose to their feet and they headed up hill.
    Gray had overheard the conversation between Paolo and Anna and understood much of it but was still unclear about who he was.  “What’s with Paolo?” he asked her.
    Anna laughed.  “Do you think he is a prima do nna?”
    “I was thinking of another term but that one does apply.”
    “He is a formula one champion and is very famous in Holland and most of Europe and Brazil too I think.  And he does have the reputation of being that term you did not name.”
    “He is a famous asshole?”
    Anna laughed loudly.
    In a little over ten minutes at a moderate walk they reached the top of the saddle which was bare of trees.  The break in the forest canopy gave them a view that filled them with hope.  Below, maybe a thousand yards distant, lay a narrow and uneven dock that stretched far out into the incredibly light blue water of a small palm lined bay.

 
    Chapter I V     The Hut
     
     
    To the east t he forest canopy closed in over the trail below the saddle.  Lex and Melanie hurried down the long gentle slope ahead of Gray, Dayah and Anna.  The trail made a few turns on the way down and came out into a clearing about 100 yards short of the dock.  About 75 yards to the right of the trail lay a large, mostly open bamboo hut about forty feet long by twenty five deep not counting a shaded porch on the side facing the bay.  The hut was built on stilts two feet high.  The clearing, which sloped gently from the hut down to the bay, ended fifty yards to the south of the hut at a placid pool of water.  On the south side of the dock was a bamboo construction with a thatched roof and a waist high shelf or work bench but no walls.  In the center of the clearing was a thick post, like a cut off telephone pole, about eight feet high with a thatched awning in disrepair atop it.
    When Gray , Dayah and Anna reached the hut, Lex was coming out brandishing a long knife that he waved about like a sword.  “Some food in there and a locked cabinet,” he said.
    “Does the hut look recently lived in?” Gray asked.
    Lex shrugged.  “Hard to say.  We did see a couple of chickens, at least I think they were chickens, run into the jungle when we came into the clearing.”
    “Good to know.  They might be laying eggs out there somewhere.”
    Lex headed toward the bay saying he was going to check out the dock.  Gray walked toward the pool, Anna and Dayah following.  A very small water fall, appearing to come from a spring, tumbled into the west end of the pool.  From that end of the pool, the jungle sloped steeply up to the southern peak.  The pool was about forty feet across, crystal clear and looked six to eight feet deep.
    “Our fresh water problem may be solved,” Gray said.  He, Dayah and Anna walked back to the hut.  The steeply pitched thatch roof hung so low Gray had to stoop to step onto the porch.  There was no door into the hut, only a break in the three foot high wall.  Just inside the break a small shovel leaned against the wall by a plastic bucket with rolls of toilette paper in it.
    Only the back wall of t he hut, made of a woven plant material, was of full height, and the