The Secret of the Lonely Isles Read Online Free

were broken, but otherwise the pup didn’t look too badly hurt.
    â€˜Poor little bloke,’ muttered Jem, anger rising up in him now the danger had passed. He untied the string from the tap, and the pup shivered and whined.
    â€˜What’re we gunna do with him?’ asked Tyler, picking green ants out of his hair.
    â€˜We’ll take him home,’ said Maddy. ‘We can’t leave him here, they might come back.’ At this thought, allthree of them straightened up and looked around, and decided to make tracks immediately. Jem bent to pick up the pup, but it shrank back in fright, snarled, and snapped at his fingers before running off into the darkness.
    â€˜Oww!’ yelled Jem, shaking his hand.
    â€˜Ha! That’s gratitude for you,’ snorted Tyler. ‘C’mon, let’s get outta here.’
    â€˜What about Zac?’ said Tyler as they rode away from the park.
    â€˜I think we’re just gunna have to tell Mum,’ said Maddy. ‘She’ll freak! I dunno what else we can do. She’ll have to call the police I guess.’
    When they arrived home, they were horrified to see all the lights on, and a police car parked in the driveway. They looked at each other nervously, and grimly began to climb the stairs.
    Zac was sitting at the kitchen table, his mother Carol on one side of him, red-eyed and sniffing, and a young policewoman on the other. A wide-eyed Celie was perched on a chair next to her mother. Another police officer stood by the sink, his arms folded. And across the table from Carol and Zac were Karen and Steve.
    Karen looked pale and had dark shadows under her eyes, but her face lit up and she sagged in her seat with relief as they filed in through the back door.Steve also looked relieved, even though he frowned severely at them.
    The policeman by the sink unfolded his arms, and spoke briefly into his walkie talkie: ‘Yeah – call off the alert, they’re all home safe.’ He looked at them sternly, and said, ‘It’s been a bit of a night for runaway kids, huh?’
    â€˜We didn’t run away,’ said Tyler indignantly. ‘We were looking for Zac!’
    Maddy, as relieved as anyone to see he was safely at home, rounded on Zac fiercely.
    â€˜WHERE WERE YOU?’ she yelled. ‘We nearly got ourselves killed trying to find you, you big idiot!’
    Zac blinked at her, looking miserable and mutinous at the same time. He sat at the table with his chin on his hands, bit his lip, and stared back down at the table again.
    â€˜Perhaps the young lady can tell us what’s been going on?’ asked the policewoman.
    Maddy took a deep breath. ‘Jem woke me up because Celie told him that Zac wasn’t in his room. She was scared being at home by herself –’
    â€˜I’m going to KILL Ricky when I get my hands on him!’ said Carol fiercely.
    â€˜â€“ so we got on our bikes and looked around everywhere for him. Then we saw these horrible kids kickingthis dog around in the park, and when I yelled at them to stop, they were gunna bash us up, but Jem and Tyler chucked green ant nests at them, and they ran away. Then we came home, because we couldn’t find Zac and we didn’t know what else to do.’
    â€˜You chucked green ant nests at them?’ said the officer leaning against the sink.
    â€˜Yeah,’ said Tyler. ‘It was Jem’s idea. There were eight of them an’ three of us. We wouldn’ta had a hope. But they ran a mile once the ants started chewing into ’em. It was brilliant!’
    â€˜Green ants,’ repeated the young female officer, jotting notes on her pad and looking mystified. The other officer looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.
    â€˜But how did Zac get home? Where was he?’ asked Jem.
    â€˜We found young Zac here wandering along the Esplanade by himself at midnight, so we picked him up and brought him home,’ answered the