Read Online Rescue On Nim's Island by Orr Wendy - Free Book Online Page B

This is the watercourse that comes out above Waterfall Cliffs!
    She was about to whisper the good news when the nasty little voice in her head said, Or it’s an underground creek that runs into an underground pool – and you’ll never get out!
    Nim decided she wouldn’t say anything yet.
    ‘At least we can’t get lost now,’ Edmund whispered in her ear.
    It was true. The tunnel was narrow and the only other openings were small nooks or alcoves, as if someone had thought about making a window or a door and then remembered that there was nowhere for it to go. All Nim had to do was keep on going, and all the others had to do was follow.
    That didn’t stop her stomach squirming with fear. Because even if they weren’t exactly lost, they didn’t know where they were, and they didn’t know where Lance and Leonora were or what they were doing. And even though they were going as quickly as they could, it wasn’t very fast because the tunnel was dark and the ceiling was low. Nim had to walk with her head bowed, and Edmund had to crouch. Ollie was the only one who could walk normally. He was still tied to Tiffany by the sleeping sheet, but he kept rushing ahead, sliding and bumping into Edmund.
    Then they were all slipping, skidding down the tunnel. The floor was as slimy as a hungry slug, and so were the walls. They slid down as if they were going down the rainforest waterslide. It would have been fun if it hadn’t been so dark and they hadn’t been so scared of Leonora and Lance hearing them. But it was dark, and they were scared – all except Ollie.
    ‘I’m going fast!’ he squealed. ‘Fast, fast, FAST!’
    ‘SHH!’ everyone else hissed.
    But Ollie squealed and skidded again, passing Edmund and Nim, and Tiffany skidded behind him. Then his squeal changed to a screech, and there was a slithery crashing noise and a splash of pebbles into water, and then more crashing and a scream from Tiffany.
    ‘Tiff!’ Tristan shouted.
    Tiffany and Ollie had disappeared.

Chapter 10

    I N HER RAINFOREST STUDIO , Alex blinked and shook her head as if she was waking up from a nightmare. The hairs on her arms were prickling with her Hero’s fear, because just as he was about to cut the fuse on the dynamite, he’d realised he didn’t have a knife. He’d broken it cutting the Lady Hero free from the rock the Bad Guys had tied her to. So now he’d have to move the dynamite, and Alex wouldn’t know for sure that he’d escape until she’d worked out exactly how long it would take him to run from the temple. She couldn’t do that until she’d timed Nim running.
    And she couldn’t do that till Nim got away from the visiting scientists.
    Alex shook her head again, and as if the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle had been shaken into the right space, she knew what had been bothering her. When Nim and Jack had told her about Selina Ashburn and Peter Husterstone becoming ill and Leonora and Lance stepping into their places, she’d thought it sounded like a plot from one of her stories.
    Sometimes make-believe stories turn out to be a little bit true.
    Leonora and Lance Bijou, Alex typed into her search engine.
    The screen filled with a long list of articles.
    As Alex read each heading, the hairs on her arms prickled harder. When she opened the first one, the hairs stood straight up.
    Questions Surround Mystery Disappearance of Scientist A geological expedition has come to a murky end after one of the scientists disappeared without trace. George Brown, a geologist, was working with palaeontologist Dr Leonora Bijou and her engineer husband Lance, when the team unearthed what was thought to be the biggest ruby ever found.
    ‘Palaeontologist and engineer!’ Alex exclaimed. ‘They told Jack they were a biologist and geologist.’
    Dr Brown disappeared two nights after the rare gem was discovered and hasn’t been seen since. The ruby has also vanished.
    ‘It’s tragic,’ Leonora Bijou said. ‘We trusted this man, and it appears that