Malice by Gabriell Lord Page B

too,’ Ryan said, ‘so we won’t lose them. I’ll get proper waterproof lights just as soon as I can.’
    It was cold inside the cave and the waterswirled underneath the rocky ledge. Chinks of light shone like tiny spotlights onto the roiling water. I angled my jar torch hanging from my neck to light up the back of the cave and revealed the three smaller tunnels leading down into unknown darkness. Boges had the folded diagram protected in a plastic sheet. ‘Whatever we’re looking for,’ he said, jabbing at the diagram in the torchlight, ‘is right at the back of the far cave, through that middle tunnel. Who’s game enough to go first?’
    â€˜Me!’ Ryan and I yelled together, then laughed, the sound of which echoed through the underground caverns. I jumped in, Ryan right behind me and Boges bringing up the rear. The water was freezing and deeper than I expected, and I couldn’t touch the bottom. I squealed and again the sound bounced around the walls of the caves.
    Away from the boulder-blocked main entrance, it was very dark and only the beams from our jar lights penetrated, illuminating the rocky walls and making the low ceilings of the middle tunnel glisten. It was easy swimming. Small crabs scuttled up the walls and shiny black sea snails clustered in groups. One day, I thought, we would explore the whole system.
    The current was stronger where the water was being forced into the narrower channel, pushing us through until we came up into the middle cave. Our torches bobbed along on the currents in their watertight jars, throwing light onto starfish and tiny sea creatures. We swam through and into a wide cave, assisted by the current.
    â€˜Oh, wow!’ I said, as I trod water and directed my light around a round cavern the size of a tennis court. The boys came splashing in behind me and the domed roof lit up with their extra lights. The ceiling dripped with stalactites of strange sea plants and pale crustaceans scurried into their hiding places.
    We found that the cold water was only fractionally warmer than the freezing air of the cavern. I looked across at Boges and Ryan, their teeth chattering in their heads just like mine. My fingertips ached with the cold.
    We searched all around the alcove marked with the W, and although I hadn’t really been expecting to find a shipwreck just sitting in the cave, it seemed like there was nothing there at all, except the sea creatures.
    We turned our attention to the stunning roof of the cavern and I gasped as we all saw it together. We focused our lights on something wedged firmly into a cavity high up on the back wall of the alcove, right up near the ceiling. We swam closer, peering up to try to see what it was.
    â€˜It looks like an old cashbox—you know, thoseold metal boxes with locks that people used to keep money in,’ said Boges.
    â€˜Looks like it’s been pushed into a crevice. If Captain Greenlowe put that in position a hundred years ago and it’s still there,’ I said, ‘my bet is that it’s very firmly wedged in.’ In spite of the freezing water, and my chattering teeth, thrilling excitement was coursing through my blood. Everything we’d done so far had worked towards this exhilarating moment. I realised I was kicking my legs underwater in crazy excitement, like a little kid. There was something else too, above the crevice where the metal box was wedged—it looked like someone had carved a square into the rock that formed the roof of this huge cave.
    â€˜There’s no way we can get up there,’ said Ryan, who had been swimming around, trying to find a way to approach the wall. ‘It’s way out of our reach. You’d have to be Spiderman to get up there.’
    â€˜There’s got to be a way. How else did Captain Greenlowe manage to get it up there in the first place?’ I asked. The frustration was crushing.
We’ll never find out the truth
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