Read Online Riddle Gully Secrets by Jen Banyard - Free Book Online

was covered with fine grey sand, tiny animal tracks tracing across it like leaf veins. There were no larger prints.
    â€˜No one can have been here since me,’ said Ash. She stretched out by the entrance. ‘During the storm I lay here and listened to the thunder pounding outside. It was magical.’
    The limestone walls were covered with insect carcasses and broken cobwebs dusted with sand. The dried remains of a small bush rat rested by one wall, its hide stretched over creamy bones.
    Will rested the torch beam on a small opening, about shoulder width, at the rear of the cave. Just in front of it was a scattering of rocks, a rusted metal spike protruding from one.
    â€˜Someone else was here once,’ said Dan.
    â€˜A long time ago,’ said Pollo, fingering the spike’s flaking rust. ‘This looks like an anchor of some kind, or maybe a handle.’
    Ash got to her feet and peered over Pollo’s shoulder. ‘I didn’t notice this before. I stayed close to the entrance.’
    â€˜It must be where the wallaby went,’ said Pollo.
    Ash smiled. ‘Unless it was beamed up by aliens.’
    Will lay down and wriggled on his stomach, his head in the tunnel. ‘I think I can fit,’ he huffed.
    The others watched as, bit by bit, they saw less and less of him. Eventually the soles of his shoes had gone. They waited a minute.
    â€˜Will?’ called Pollo.
    â€˜I’m still going!’ the voice came back. ‘The tunnel’s much wider now. It’s … hang on a sec!’ They heard him huffing and crunching over loose rocks. ‘Oh, wow! You guys should come on in!’
    Pollo stuck her head into the hole. ‘What have you found?’
    â€˜Come and see!’ said Will. ‘I’ll shine the torch back up the passage. You won’t be in the dark for long.’
    Dan went first, then Pollo. Pollo had gone about ten metres when she realised Ash wasn’t following them.
    â€˜Are you coming, Ash?’ she called, unable to turn around to look.
    Ash’s voice drifted down the tunnel. ‘I sometimes get a little … funny … in closed spaces. I’m not sure I should.’
    â€˜We can just tell you what this one’s like if you’d rather stay,’ called Pollo.
    â€˜No … no, I’ll come. I’d like to see for myself. I’ll justclose my eyes and breathe deeply if it starts to worry me; pretend I’m floating in the night sky.’
    Dan and Pollo wriggled on their elbows and stomachs until, with Will’s help, they were able to slither from the tunnel and stand beside him. Soon they saw Ash worming her way towards them. She dropped down from the tunnel and huddled close to Pollo.
    Will cast the torch around. The new cavern was narrower than the first but in most places you could stand upright. Though the air was dense it felt cooler, like a muggy summer night.
    â€˜That tunnel was stinky,’ said Dan, ‘but it’s okay in here.’
    â€˜I feel like we’re in the mouth of a giant animal,’ said Ash.
    â€˜Like that Jonah character who got swallowed by a whale,’ said Will.
    â€˜Gross,’ said Dan. ‘Being dissolved by stomach acid. What a disgusting way to go.’
    Will shone the torch on him. ‘You know it didn’t really happen, don’t you? It’s just a story, a legend.’
    â€˜Oh.’
    Pollo gazed around the cavern. ‘You could live in here in a pinch, don’t you think? I’m wondering if thatbit of iron at the start of the tunnel might have been a door handle of some kind.’
    â€˜And maybe,’ said Will, ‘the small rocks around it were once all part of the same big slab.’
    Pollo nodded. ‘If you were being chased you could drag it shut behind you.’
    â€˜Chased? By troopers maybe?’ said Dan. ‘If, say, you knew you’d be running from the law like, say, a bushranger?’
    Pollo grinned.