Chapter 6

"Who stabbed Olaf?" Sunny asked when nobody answered her first question.

"We don't know if he was really stabbed," Violet objected. "Maybe he fell on something sharp during the storm."

Klaus examined Olaf more closely. "I've read a book on knife wounds and this looks like a real one. I can't think of anything we had on board that could make a wound like this."

"Is he dead?" Sunny asked again.

"I can't feel his pulse," Klaus said. "Look, I'm glad he's out of our lives, and I wouldn't blame you after all he's done, but... did you kill him, Violet?"

"No. Did you, Klaus?" Violet asked back with a slightly hostile tone.

"No," said Klaus, also a bit hostile.

"Not me," said Sunny, hostile too even though no one had accused her.

"All right, that's cleared the air. We need to check the island and find help," Violet said.

"Or stabber," said Sunny.

"We should go around the outside," Klaus said. "That way we'll find a port, if there is one. We can see if it's an island or a peninsula, and how big it is."

They waded ashore. There was flotsam everywhere, a word which here means "numerous pieces of wood from shipwrecks, including an old board from a boat called 'Beatrice', a broken crate stamped with the insignia of the 'Prospero', and the remains of a sheep-shipping pen, and even the sled they had ridden to escape villains on Mount Fraught."

"These pieces of wood will come in handy for repairing the boat," Violet remarked. She collected some and made a pile of it on shore.

Sunny found a set of plastic cups, spoons, and bowls in a floating plastic bag. "Good for cooking," she said. She put them near Violet's wood-pile.

Klaus found a yellowed commonplace book in the grass near the shore. He flipped through it and said "This is faded and washed out, and a few pages are torn out, but I'm going to try to read it for clues." He put it near the wood-pile and the dishes.

"I wonder why all this stuff collected here," Violet said.

"I suspect there's a current that causes things to drift here," Klaus said. "It's good because it gives us some supplies. It's not so good because some of these things have been here a long time. If this island was inhabited, you'd think they would have cleaned up and salvaged this stuff. This may be a deserted island."

They were on the south side of the island and they started walking west. On the west side they saw a flock of wild sheep grazing on a grassy slope above them.

"Those must be descendants of sheep from that shipwrecked sheep-pen we saw," said Klaus.

"Mutton," suggested Sunny, thinking of ways to cook the meat to make it more flavorful,

"Maybe milk," said Violet. "We're not equipped to butcher animals."

On the north side they found thick brush and rock. As they pushed through, they continued to speculate about Olaf.

"Could he have done it himself?" Violet asked.

"Doubt he would," said Sunny.

"The knife wasn't in him or anywhere around him, either," said Klaus. "Though he could have thrown it overboard in deeper water."

They agreed to check the body more carefully when they returned to the boat.

On the east side they found the first encouraging thing for their survival: a rushing stream of fresh water. They quenched their thirst and splashed the dried salt off their skins.

Finally, they came around to the south side again. They had not seen another living person.

"By the distance we walked, I figure the island is only about four square miles," said Klaus.

Violet rushed forward and pointed out into the water.

"Isn't that where we left the boat?" she asked.

"It's gone! And so is Olaf!" said Klaus. "He wasn't dead after all. I've read of trained people being able to slow their heart rate. He's taken the boat and left us to die!"

"It's not that simple," said Violet. "Look at this note I found. It was right here, held down on one corner by this rock."

Sunny and Klaus turned around and came to look at the note. It was written on yellowed commonplace-book paper, exactly like the paper in the book Klaus found.

"It wasn't here when we left," Klaus said. "I'm sure we would have seen it."

Klaus read it aloud:

Four little villains adventured at sea.
One got stabbed and then there were three.

"Couplet," said Sunny. "Isadora?"

"It reminds me of something else," Klaus said. "That mystery novel in our library, 'And Then There Were None'. People with crimes in their past were stuck on an island."

"Like us," said Sunny sadly.

"I've read it too," said Violet. "Do you think Olaf intends to murder us one by one, like the people in that book?"

"If it was Olaf who wrote it," said Klaus. "He can't spell and there are no spelling errors."

"He could have gotten a simple poem right," said Violet.

"We'll have to be on guard at all times," said Klaus. "I think you're right, Violet. Whoever wrote that note intends to kill us all."