The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey

forest.”

“What about Number Two?” Kate protested.

“Our best chance of helping her now is to get to the forest. Like you said, that’s where Milligan expected us to go, so that’s where we should look for him. If he isn’t there, maybe his friends will be, and we can get them to help us. But there’s no chance of any of that if we’re caught. We need to move!”

Move, of course, was a word with great natural appeal to Kate, and she was instantly swayed to Reynie’s perspective. Still, she doubted the boys could handle the other end of a stretcher all the way to the bay, even taking turns, and there was also Constance to consider. “What we need is a sledge. We can drag Mr. Benedict and Constance both. I’ll be right back!” She sprinted down the passage into the cavern.

The others were still trying to rouse Mr. Benedict when Kate returned. She was dragging the table that had been covered with tools and equipment. With the help of the tools, her bucket, and her Army knife (which Mr. Curtain had left on the table), she’d removed the table legs and reattached them lengthwise to act as crude runners. She’d also stripped the wiring from several floodlights and fashioned lead lines and grips with which to pull the sledge. It was quite a makeshift contraption, but no less remarkable for the speed with which Kate had assembled it.

“I wanted to bring those smelling salts,” Kate said, seeing Mr. Benedict was still asleep, “but S.Q. had them in his pocket and I thought it best not to go near him. He was glaring at me like he wanted to wring my neck.”

They hoisted Mr. Benedict onto the sledge; then Constance climbed on and held him steady while the others grabbed the lines and yanked to test them. The metal runners made an awful scratching, grinding sound on the rocks, but with Kate and the boys pulling, the sledge moved fairly quickly.

Satisfied, Kate said, “I’ll need to find the easiest route down,” and she hurried off to scale the peak above the cave, leaping from boulder to boulder as if she were one of the island’s resident mountain goats. In no time she stood high above her friends, scanning the eastern side of the island with her spyglass. She quickly determined the best route: First a short northwesterly descent to a prominent goat path that led almost all the way down the mountain; then slantwise across a long gravel slope (giving as wide a berth as possible to some treacherous bluffs); and finally across the black rock plain to the bay forest, which from here appeared as a dark shadow in the general grayness. Kate looked for any sign of Milligan but found none. The forest, the bay, and the ocean beyond were lost in the shroud of mist.

Far below, Reynie was looking up at Kate, anxious to hear her verdict, when a curious feeling came over him. He wasn’t sure what it was. He stared and stared, trying to place it. Kate stood silhouetted against the gray, cloud-scattered sky, wind flapping her ponytail behind her. Cliff swallows, heedless of the damp, darted in and out of holes in the rocks about her, and high above them circled a bird of prey, no doubt contemplating which swallow would constitute its breakfast. Meanwhile, dark clouds raced overhead as if on a film strip run in fast-motion, and these combined with the fluttering of the swallows and the circling of the larger bird made Reynie’s stomach twist with vertigo . . . yes, vertigo, that must be the curious feeling. Or . . . no, Reynie wasn’t satisfied with that answer. What was this feeling, then? It almost seemed like deja vu — as if he’d experienced something very much like this before.

Kate scrambled back down to report. “It’s going to be awfully hard,” she concluded, after describing the route. “I think it will take at least two hours to get to the forest, maybe three, depending on how much you boys can pull. That’s if we don’t have an accident going down the mountain.” She reached back to retie her ponytail, which had come loose during her climb. “And there’s something else.”

“What’s that?” asked Reynie, sensing bad news.

“I don’t see how we’re going to avoid being spotted. If they find Number Two, they’ll come back here and discover we’re gone — in which case McCracken and Curtain are sure to climb up and take a look around like I just did. If they don’t find her, they’ll keep circling the island on their Salamander looking for her. Either way, as best I can figure it, they’re almost certain to see us crossing that rocky plain. We’re going to be completely exposed for a long time. We’ll have a big head start, so we might outrun them —”

“But then what?” Constance said. “They’ll know where we are, and we can’t even be sure there’s help waiting for us!”

Reynie rubbed his temples. Constance was right, of course. And if McCracken’s prediction was accurate, then two of the other Ten Men would be awake by then, and possibly Martina as well. There would be an awful lot of sharp pencils flying around that forest, and plenty of legs to chase down fleeing children.

“Maybe we should find a place to hide and wait for Mr. Benedict to wake up,” Sticky said. “He’ll know what to do.”

Kate shook her head. “He might sleep for hours. We need to figure this out ourselves.”

By “ourselves” Kate mostly meant Reynie, and she and the others instinctively turned to him now. Reynie frowned. He was trying hard to figure something out, but his mind kept nagging him with that strange feeling of deja vu. What was it he had been reminded of ? He’d been looking at Kate, and the sky, and the circling hawk . . . Wait. Had it been a hawk? He started, then looked up into the sky. No, not a hawk. A peregrine falcon.

“Kate! Look there! Is that falcon —”

“Why, it’s Madge!” Kate exclaimed. She took out her whistle and blew it. The falcon streaked down out of the sky, lighting on Kate’s wrist just as she finished tugging on her protective leather glove. “Good girl, Madge!” Kate said, stroking the bird’s feathers. “I’m so sorry I don’t have any treat to give you. I’ll have to owe you one.”

A small leather pouch was tied to Madge’s leg. Kate hastily undid the clasp and took out a letter. “It’s from Cannonball!”

The children all gathered close to read:

Dear Kate,

How we hope this finds you! We know you’re in danger, and I’m writing as quick as I can to tell you of our situation and to see how we may help. In case any of the details are important, I’ll give you all I have.

Last night we were hiding in the forest, anxiously awaiting your appearance, when we heard an explosion. Soon after that Number Two stumbled out of a mountain tunnel into our view. She’ll be all right, but at the time she was in such a condition we felt obliged to carry her to the skiff (our landing boat) and then to the Shortcut for bandages.