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that, Lee?”
    â€œThere is a ban on whaling, but some people don’t respect it. They hunt them anyway. They kill the baleen whales—the ones without teeth, the filter feeders—humpbacks and grays, for example.”
    â€œBut why?” Vanessa asked again.
    â€œMoney. Big money. Whale meat is a delicacy in some countries, so hunters kill the whales and sell the meat.”
    Vanessa made a face. She couldn’t imagine wanting to eat whale meat.
    â€œBut now Ziggy, one we thought was missing, has turned up.” Lee waved the thing that looked like a walkie-talkie at her. “This is the whale tracker,” she said, showing Vanessa a screen with a blinking red dot. “We’ve got a signal back now and it’s showing that she is really close to a beach, so we think she may have got stranded.”
    â€œSo the hunters haven’t got her after all?” asked Vanessa.
    â€œApparently not.”
    â€œAre we going to help her? Am I going to seeher?” Vanessa asked incredulously.
    Lee smiled. “It’s great, isn’t it? I’m glad you’re here.” The radio crackled into life beside them.
    â€œLee,” Mr. Fox called, “it’s Jasper on the radio.”
    â€œBut why did you decide to bring me?” Vanessa asked, just as Lee moved away. Obviously she hadn’t heard Vanessa’s question, but Mr. Fox had.
    â€œWell,” he answered, “Mrs. Bouche called to say she had to go unexpectedly to the mainland today and that she was leaving Wayne with Lettie Cuspard in the ice-cream shop. You couldn’t be found, so Lee had to come back to get you,” Mr. Fox explained. “She couldn’t leave you on your own.”
    Although he said it in a matter-of-fact sort of way, Vanessa felt as if he had just stuck her with a giant needle. Stinging tears sprang to the corners of her eyes, and she turned to look out to sea. Lee hadn’t chosen to bring her along. She was only babysitting her!

CHAPTER 18
    Dr. C. MacLean Fraser, who was the head of the Zoology Department in the University of British Columbia from 1920 to 1940, said that “until someone gets a lasso around one of these things we will never be able to get much further. It is possible that there are such things.”
    The sea was much rougher than yesterday, and the trawler rolled heavily from side to side. Vanessa scanned the water, trying to focus on Ziggy, but her thoughts kept going back to the other creature shehad seen, the enormous snakelike monster. Had she imagined it? She couldn’t have! But now was not the time to be thinking about the weird creature. She had to concentrate on Ziggy.
    â€œOn the beach, just around that next headland!” Lee shouted over the noise of the boat and the wind.
    As they came into the bay, three pairs of eyes searched the beach. But they could see nothing.
    Lee fiddled with the tracking device.
    â€œWe’re definitely in the right place,” she said flatly. “We’ll take the tender on to the beach. You call Jasper and tell him to hold off,” she said to Mr. Fox as she climbed into the tender. Lee beckoned to Vanessa to get in and then handed her the tracking device while she started the motor. Lee’s face was suddenly grim.
    They beached the tender and climbed out into the shallows. Lee was wearing diver’s boots, unlike Vanessa, who was wearing her runners, which were now soaking wet. But it didn’t matter. Ziggy was all that mattered.
    â€œIt should be somewhere around here,” Lee said, pointing to the far end of the beach.
    â€œIt? You mean Ziggy? Here?” Vanessa wasconfused. It was obvious to her that there was no whale on this beach.
    â€œNo; sorry, Vanessa. I mean the tag itself—the part that’s attached to the whale and sends the signal to the tracker that you’re holding.”
    Lee paused and put her hand to her forehead as if she was taking her own