The Querulous Effect by Arkay Jones Page B

coastline became clearer with towering cliffs and, every so often, white glaciers carving their way from the interior out into the sea. Many of the broad headlands were covered in scrub and grass and as the plane patrolled steadily along the coastline the children saw clusters of musk ox grazing on the grassy areas.
    On the right side of the plane – or the ‘starboard’ side, as Tim correctly called it – the sea stretched out to the horizon. There were more icebergs out to sea, often with sea-birds, wheeling around them in great numbers. Once, farther out, they spotted a pod of killer whales – Orcas – trailing a wake of white as they surfaced in the deep green waters. Exciting though this was, all the team were conscious that they needed to concentrate on the landward side. Their task today was not to watch nature but to seek signs of human habitation.
    As the hours passed, the prospect of finding such signs seemed more and more remote. The plane continued its steady progress along the coast, dipping and circling over every cliff and headland. By mid afternoon Ella had taken a break to play at the end of the cabin with Chip who had been well behaved but was missing his routine exercise. Jay and Tim remained fixed at their task, continuing to peer out of the port-holes but taking it in turns to take short breaks to rest their eyes from the glare of the extensive patches of ice and snow stretching out below far into the distance.
    Later in the afternoon, Ella joined them again and had only just started to survey the coastline below when she called out, “Hey, what’s that pink stuff in the water down there?”
    Tim peered out but could not see anything and said so.
    â€œWe’ve just passed it,” she exclaimed. “It was just spread across the water as if something were spilt.”
    â€œIf you’re sure,” said Tim, “you’d better go and tell the Prof. He’s in the cockpit with Squadron Leader McDoon and they may have seen it too.”
    Ella went off to tell the Prof and Tim and Jay peered even more intently out of the port-hole. Ella reported her sighting and although the Prof had not seen anything himself, he was very interested in her description. Just as she was returning back to the boys, they both shouted out together as another pink patch appeared below, snaking in a wispy trail across the surface of the water and out to sea.
    This time, as the boys shouted out, the Prof called out that he too had seen the patch. “I think we’re really onto something now,” he exclaimed and as they flew on, a few more wispy patches of pink floated away and out of sight below the plane.
    They kept looking carefully but after ten minutes there had been no more sightings. Then, as the plane wheeled into a wide inlet leading into a long fjord, it was Squ. Ldr. McDoon who called out that he could see a settlement at the far end of the fjord. Jeannie McDoon hastily consulted her charts and concluded that it must be Ikattaq, a small Inuit settlement of hunters and fishermen.
    The Prof declared that in view of the recent ‘pink’ sightings, they should definitely make contact with the settlement. Mrs. McDoon immediately radioed the coastguard service requesting them to alert the families at the settlement and check whether the flying boat had permission to land. Squ. Ldr. McDoon circled the plane over the brightly coloured wooden houses that made up the settlement whilst they awaited a reply. A few minutes later, Mrs. McDoon reported that the Inuit villagers had agreed that the team could land and visit the settlement. The Prof was clearly very pleased at this news but, as the children donned their out-door thermal clothes, he cautioned them that it might not be wise to say too much at the outset about the pink patches or their search for Cosmo. He felt it would be useful to see whether the villagers themselves volunteered any information about odd