The White Wolf (5 page)

“Sure thing, and everyone hereabouts calls me Morris,” the man said. “But which island? There are about thirty of them.”

Dink pointed toward the island where they’d seen the woman tie her boat up to a dock. “It’s one of those,” he said. “The dock has a blue awning at the end.”

“Yep, I know that one,” Morris said. “Some rich gentleman lives out there. His estate takes up half the island!”

Morris looked at the kids. “I don’t think he welcomes visitors,” he said.

Josh held up his pack. “We’re just going to have a picnic,” he said.

“Great place for a picnic,” Morris said, “as long as you stay off private property. Come aboard!”

When the kids were zipped into life vests and seated on a bench, Morris pulled away from the dock. He directed his boat toward a cluster of three small islands. Each had a different-colored awning stretched over the water at the end of a dock.

“What are the awnings for?” Josh asked.

They protect the boats from the sun and rain,” Morris explained. “You step into your boat, you don’t want to sit on a hot seat, or a wet one!”

Morris headed toward the smallest of the three islands. He pulled up to the dock, and the kids stepped out of the mail boat. They dropped their packs in the shade under the blue awning. Tied to the dock was a motorboat painted the same blue.

The kids slipped out of their life vests and passed them to Morris.

“Thanks for the ride,” Ruth Rose said.

Morris handed Dink a magazine and some other mail. “Would you mind leaving this inside the gate?” he asked, pointing toward the other end of the dock.

“Sure,” Dink said.

“I’ll swing by here for you in about a half hour,” Morris said. “Can you be
finished with your picnic by then?”

“No problem!” Josh said.

Morris gunned his engine. “Okey-dokey see you later.”

The kids watched Morris pull away. Soon his boat was just a speck on the water.

The dock was quiet and cool under the awning. The only sound was made by the water gently slapping against the small blue boat.

“Now what?” asked Josh.

The kids turned away from the water. The dock was as long as two school buses. At the other end was a small sandy beach.

The whole island was covered with trees and bushes. But part of it was fenced off. Behind the fence, among tall trees and thick shrubbery they could see a chimney and part of a roof.

“That must be where the rich guy
lives,” Josh said. He glanced down at the boat. “I wonder if that blond woman lives there, too.”

“We can’t go inside the fence,” Dink said.

“No, but we can peek through the gate when you leave the mail,” Ruth Rose said.

“Let’s go,” Dink said, reaching down for his backpack. “We’ve only got a half hour.”

“What’s that stuff?” Ruth Rose asked, pointing to a blue smudge on the gray dock.

Ruth Rose knelt down for a closer look. She touched the smudge, then smelled the tip of her finger.

“What is it?” asked Dink.

Ruth Rose looked up at Dink and Josh. “It’s blueberries!” she said.

All three kids were on their knees studying the stain.

“You’re right,” Josh said. “And it looks like it came off someone’s shoe.”

He traced a finger around the smudge. “See, this round edge looks like part of a heelprint.”

Josh looked at Dink and Ruth Rose. “Guys, someone stepped in those blueberries we saw yesterday,” he said. “This could have been made by the same person!”

“Right, the people who carried the cage down to the boat!” Ruth Rose said.

Dink glanced up. “And the awning kept last night’s rain from washing it away.”

“Hey! What are you kids doing?” someone shouted.

Startled, the kids looked up. A tall man and woman in shorts and T-shirts were hurrying down the dock toward them. The woman’s blond ponytail flopped over one shoulder.

“We … we wondered if we could have a picnic here,” Ruth Rose said.

Josh held up his pack.

“Do you know you’re on private property?” the woman asked. “How did you get here, anyway? I don’t see another boat.”

“The mailman dropped us off,” Ruth Rose said. “He’ll be back to get us in a half hour.”

Dink held out the mail. “Morris asked me to put this inside your gate,” he said.

“Thanks.” The man took the mail and opened the magazine.

“Okay, the boss is away, so I guess you can have your picnic,” the woman said. She pointed toward the sandy beach. “Up there, please.”

The man and woman turned and strode back up the dock. The kids scrambled after them.

When they reached the sand, the man walked through the gate, still reading his magazine.

“Please don’t leave any litter behind,” the woman said. Then she stepped inside the gate, slammed it shut, and walked through the shrubbery.

“They could be the wolf-nappers!” Ruth Rose said. “That woman had a blond ponytail!”

“When we get back, we can call the game warden!” Dink said.

“Guys, we only have a half hour,” Josh declared. “Let’s eat!” He sat in the sand and opened his pack.

Dink and Ruth Rose knelt as Josh brought out three juice cartons, a bag of cookies, and some grapes. High over their heads, a few gulls soared.

“Look at all those seagulls,” Ruth Rose said. “Watch out, Josh, they might zoom down and grab your cookie.”

“They’d better not,” Josh said, glancing at the sky.

“Why don’t you turn on Abbi’s tape recorder?” Dink said. “If they come closer, we can get some gull noises for her collection.”

“Good idea.” Ruth Rose took the tape recorder out and set it on her flattened pack. She pushed the RECORD button.

The kids began to eat. The only sounds were their munching and a few gull cries.

“Guys, what are we going to do?” Ruth Rose asked. “If those are the people Abbi saw, the wolf pups could be here on this island!”

Dink turned and looked through the fence into the thick shrubbery. “But we can’t get in,” he said.

Ruth Rose shook her head. “Why would anyone want baby wolves?” she asked. “I just don’t get it.”

“The rich guy who owns this place must be their boss,” Josh said. “He might have told them to steal the babies.”

“But
why?”
Ruth Rose asked.

“For pets,” Josh said. “I read about a movie star who had a leopard.”

“But that’s cruel!” Ruth Rose said. “Wild animals should be left in the wild. And those babies should be with their mother. We have to rescue them!”

“How, Ruth Rose?” Dink stood up and walked over to the gate. He tried to open it. “Locked,” he muttered.

Suddenly a bunch of gulls swooped down and landed on the sand.

“Shoo!” Josh yelled, making the gulls take off again.

Just then, they heard a toot.

“There’s Morris,” Josh said.

The mail boat was still a ways off, chugging toward the island. The kids packed their stuff and hurried onto the dock.

They stood waiting next to the blue motorboat. Josh glanced down. Suddenly he lay flat on his belly and leaned over the boat.

“What are you doing?” Dink asked.

“Looking for clues,” Josh said. “If the baby wolves were in this boat, there might be some hairs.”

He peered beneath a seat. “Aha!”

Josh reached under the seat, then yelled. He jumped to his feet, shaking his hands in disgust.

“What did you see?” Ruth Rose asked.

“A mouse!” Josh said.

“Really?” Ruth Rose said. “We should catch it and set it free on land!”

“Too late,” Josh said. “It’s all wet and slimy and dead.”

“I gave the mail to a man,” Dink said as they pulled away from the dock a few minutes later.

“Thanks a lot,” Captain Morris said. “That’d be Greg Dack. He and his sister, Lynda, take care of the place for the owner.”

“Do they have any pets?” Josh asked, sliding a look at Dink and Ruth Rose.

Morris shook his head. “Not that I’ve seen.” Then he grinned. “Course, with that jungle they live in, they could hide an
elephant
on that island!”

A few minutes later, he pulled the
mail boat up to Wallis’s dock.

“Thanks a lot!” the kids all said.

“My pleasure,” Morris said. “Give Wallis and Walker and Abbi a big howdy from me.”

“We will,” Dink said. “Bye, Captain Morris!”

Morris tooted his horn and pulled away. The kids ran up the dock and into the cabin.

Wallis, Walker, and Abbi were waiting for them.

“How was your picnic?” Wallis asked. “Or should I say, how was your
snooping expedition?” she added slyly.

“Did you find the wolf pups?” Abbi asked.

“No, but we might have found a clue!” Josh said. He told them about the blueberry stain on the dock. “It looked like it came off someone’s shoe. Like whoever crushed those blueberries on that path!”

“Josh, anyone could have left a blueberry stain on that dock,” Wallis said. “This is blueberry-picking season. We have no proof it was the people who took the wolves.”

Ruth Rose told them about the brother-and-sister caretakers. “Lynda Dack has long blond hair!” she said.

“I knew it!” Abbi said.

“There was a high fence all around the place,” Dink said. “We couldn’t see anything inside.”

Ruth Rose remembered the tape. “Abbi, we forgot to ask Morris about the
seals, but we tried to tape some seagulls for you.”

Ruth Rose put the tape recorder on the table and pressed the PLAY button.

At first they heard only hissing, then the sound of gulls.

Then the gull cries were interrupted by Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose talking.

Suddenly they heard Josh’s voice yell, “Shoo!”

“This is when the gulls landed near us,” Ruth Rose said. “I think they wanted our food.”

“It was nice of you to make the tape,” Wallis said.

“But those weren’t all gull sounds!” Abbi said. She rewound the tape and hit PLAY again. “Listen,” she said, leaning toward the machine and turning up the volume. The others leaned in, too.

The cries were louder now. “There! Those aren’t gulls,” Abbi said. “I think they’re the wolf pups!”

“Honey, those sound like seagulls,” Wallis said. “Are you sure you’re not just—”

“I know what gulls sound like,” Abbi said. “I have them on another tape. It’s
on the deck, the cassette marked BIRDS.”