CHAPTER 2
THE RESCUE
There is a metre between the dinghy and the ghost boat as I get to my feet. I reach out towards the boat, my fingers clamping onto the side. The dinghy wobbles underneath me. It bounces over the rough water. I tighten my grip on the side of the ghost boat. I step onto the edge of the dinghy. I prepare to climb on board. I know I have to move quickly or I'll fall into the river. But I hesitate. I'm worried about ghosts.
Unfortunately that's right when a log, caught in the current, bashes into the back of the dinghy. It pushes the Zodiac off course. The dinghy and the ghost boat are forced apart. And I'm in the middle!
Somersaulting sausage rolls! I'm a human bridge!
‘Ahhhhhh!’ I scream. My fingers are still clinging to the ghost boat and my feet are on the side of the dinghy. And it's getting further away.
‘Hold on, Jack!’ Mimi calls. She fights to get the dinghy closer to the boat, but the log is wedged between the two.
Ben, for some reason, decides that an oar is the most useful piece of equipment in emergencies. He swings it towards the log. I guess he is trying to help. But all he manages to do is ram it into my bottom.
‘Ahhhhhh!’ I howl again.
This time I lose my footing. The dinghy disappears from under my feet. I'm left swinging from the side of the ghost boat with my feet in the water.
I turn to see Mimi bringing the dinghy back to help. Ben is still armed with the oar. This time I don't hesitate. I swing a leg onto the boat and then haul myself onto the deck.
‘Quick, Jack. You don't have much time,’ Mimi shouts from the dinghy.
My eyes dart around the boat. There's no sign of ghosts, but there's a terrible stink coming from the cabin. Something must have died down there.
I scurry towards the steering wheel. I grab hold and pull it hard to the left. Zingarra is just metres ahead of me. It's getting closer. I spin the wheel again. Slowly the ghost boat lurches across the choppy river, away from Zingarra. There's a sickening screech of wood colliding with wood. I turn to see the back of the houseboat scraping down the side of Mimi's yacht.
I use all my strength to give the steering wheel one last heave. Possibly because I'm the strongest boy on earth (or because the houseboat is very old), half of the wheel comes off in my hand.
I turn around to see Zingarra. It's still afloat. The boat is a bit scratched, but it's safe.
I, on the other hand, need to get out of here fast. I'm on a ghost boat, heading at high speed for the riverbank.
‘Watch out. I'm coming through,’ I shout. I jump into the dinghy, still clinging onto half a steering wheel.
‘You've saved Zingarra!’ Mimi says, giving me an embarrassing hug. ‘You're a hero!’
‘Why are you carrying a steering wheel, Jack?’ Ben says. ‘You look like a baby driving a choo-choo train.’
One minute I'm a hero, the next a first-class loser. It's the story of my life.
‘It came off in my hands,’ I reply. I toss the wheel away.
The ghost boat careers out of control down the river. It smashes into a dense clump of mangroves on the riverbank. Birds flap out of the trees and into the wind.
‘Maybe the driver of the boat fell overboard and was eaten by a shark,’ I offer by way of explanation.
‘Could have ...’ Mimi says, giving it some thought.
‘I know what happened,’ Ben says. He pauses to make sure everyone is listening. ‘I think the boat driver was ... poisoned.’
‘Why would anyone do that?’ I ask.
‘Because the boat driver and a man with a glass eye and rotten teeth stole a million dollars and hid it on the boat!’ Ben replies. ‘Mr Glass Eye wanted the money all for himself. He put washing-up liquid in the boat driver's beer ... he choked on the bubbles.’
‘I don't think you can choke on bubbles,’ Mimi quite rightly points out. But Ben isn't put off. He hasn't finished the story.
‘Any minute,’ Ben continues, looking around for signs of trouble, ‘Mr Glass Eye is coming back for the million dollars.’
‘Not if we find it first,’ I say, jumping to my feet and sending the dinghy rocking.
‘Are you both mad?’ Mimi says. ‘I'm sure there's a sensible answer to this. I don't think it involves poison or a million dollars.’
‘I think we should check the houseboat just in case,’ I say. I know that Ben's story sounds a bit unbelievable, but no one should ignore the chance to find a million dollars.
‘Even if we do find a million dollars on the boat, which I really doubt, we won't be able to keep it, you know,’ Mimi informs us.
Another perfect plan spoiled by Professor Mimi Bigbrains.
‘What about finders keepers?’ I say, quoting a well-known school-boy law. (Unless it's grade six bully, Daniel Largeknuckle's stuff you find. Then it's ‘finders hand it over’ if you want to ‘keepers your face’.)
Mimi shoots me a ‘don't you know anything’ look.
‘What?’ I reply.
‘Yeah, what?’ Ben repeats.
‘If we find a million dollars we'll have to hand it in to the police. But we'll probably get a reward.’
‘A reward,’ Ben says, his eyes getting wider.
‘Maybe a hundred dollars ... maybe even a thousand dollars,’ Mimi adds.
I'm prepared to look under a few smelly socks for a hundred dollars. I'm ready to rummage through a couple of grubby undies for a thousand dollars. But I would need a ten thousand dollar reward, if the undies were really brown and crusty.
‘Let's take a look then,’ Mimi says. She steers the dinghy into the mangroves beside the ghost boat and ties it to a tree. ‘What have we got to lose?’
A lot more than we ever imagined.