J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! And a very big thanks to everyone who has been reviewing! The next chapter will be out July 28. It's a little bit of a long wait, so thank you for your patience. God bless!

July 21 – Friday

"She obviously made her clothes herself," Biff was saying as he cast his fishing line into the water. "I never saw store-bought clothes that looked like that, and even if she did have clothes when she arrived, they probably wouldn't fit her anymore. We're still assuming she's been on the island for several years, right?"

"Probably, but if she's only about thirteen, she couldn't have been here at the same time as Eli," Frank said.

"I don't see how she could make her own clothes," Joe insisted. "There's nothing here to make clothes out of."

The three boys were on the beach. Biff was fishing with one of Eli's poles, while Joe was once again trying to work the problems out of the one he had made. Frank's arm was still in a split and immobilized, but he had come along to watch. While they were there, the conversation inevitably turned to the girl. The topic of her clothes had become a point of interest for all of them, since Frank already didn't have a shirt and the rest knew that sooner or later, their clothes would begin to wear out, too. A means of making new clothes was one of the castaways' biggest concerns at the moment.

"But Pacific Islanders could make clothes," Biff said. "There has to be a way."

"Um, didn't they wear grass skirts?" Joe asked.

"Yes, but Biff's right. They did have other clothes," Frank replied. "In fact, now that I think of it, I think they made some kind of cloth out of bark."

"How did they do that?" Joe asked.

Frank shrugged with his good shoulder. "I don't know, but I'll bet that girl does."

"Yeah, but that doesn't help us," Joe complained, trying to cast his line. It fell shorter than he wanted, but the pole was steadily improving whenever he took the time to work on it. "You said she wouldn't talk to you and Tony at all, Biff?"

"Well, not exactly. I don't think she could understand what we were saying. When she did try to say something, it was in a different language."

"I wonder what language," Frank mused.

Biff shrugged. "Not one I ever heard. Tony said it wasn't Italian or any of the Romance languages, so I don't know. But she's white, so she's probably from Europe, right?"

"Probably, but not necessarily," Frank replied. "There are a lot of European languages that aren't descended from Latin."

"Well, it doesn't matter," Joe pointed out. "Whatever language she speaks, none of us speak it, and if she doesn't speak English or Italian or Spanish or French, none of us are going to be able to talk to her."

"Whatever she said, it definitely wasn't in any of those languages," Biff insisted.

"So we won't be able to talk to her if we ever do catch up with her," Joe concluded.

"We should still try, though," Frank said. "Talking isn't the only way to communicate, and I think we could mutually help each other."

The others agreed with this, but there was nothing more to say on the matter, so they fell silent as Joe and Biff continued to fish and Frank watched. Within about half an hour, Biff had caught enough fish for the day. Joe had caught only one.

"One fish is progress," Joe said before either Biff or Frank could make a comment. "We're probably over-fishing this spot anyway. I'll try it somewhere else tomorrow."

"That's not such a good idea," Biff warned him.

"Why not?"

"Because then you won't have any excuses when you don't catch any fish."

Joe's response was to shove Biff into the water. Biff was back out a moment later and pushed Joe in, sparking off a water fight while Frank watched and laughed.

HBNDHBNDHB

"You know, it's funny," Don Cameron was saying as he and Carson waited in the police precinct for Mark Larson to be released. With Reese being found, the FBI no longer had Mark under suspicion and all charges were being dropped against him.

"What's funny?" Carson asked.

"In all the time I knew Nancy back in River Heights, I never got into anything this intense before. It took running into Nancy here in Hawaii to get into this much trouble."

Carson smiled wanly. "I'm just glad the trouble wasn't any worse. We were lucky, you know."

Don's smile faded, "I know. We could have wound up like the Hardys and their friends. If I would have known things were going to end up like this…" He shook his head instead of finishing his statement.

"It's not your fault."

"I know. I didn't think it was. It's just that…Well, if I knew how things were going to end up, I would have acted differently."

Carson didn't press him further, but Don could tell from his expression that he didn't quite understand what he was getting at.

"I wasn't too happy about Nancy being friends with Frank. I wasn't very nice the one time I met him. As it turned out, I just made myself look like an idiot for nothing."

"You're not the first one to have something like that happen," Carson assured him. "There's no point in worrying about it now."

Fortunately, it was shortly after that when Mark Larson came out and met them, shaking hands with both of them. Hikialani was with him, and the four of them talked for a few minutes.

"The FBI are still playing their cards close to their chest," Hikialani explained, "but I think with Reese's testimony as well as Brock Garret's, Dallas Ermington's organization will be ended soon. That will be good news for this city. You all had a hand in it, so I'd like to thank you all." He shook hands with each of them.

"You know my reasons for working on it," Mark said. "I'll be glad when it's really over, and all convictions are made and there's no chance of any of them wiggling out of this."

"For something this big and complex, that's going to take some time," Carson commented, "but they shouldn't be able to do much more harm in the meantime."

"Now that this is all over, are you going to stick around here, Mark?" Hikialani asked.

"I'm not sure," Mark admitted. "We've talked about going home when this was over, but we'll see. We've been here so long, Hawaii is the only home the girls have ever known."

"My department would miss your help," Hikialani commented. "What about you, Don?"

Don chuckled. "Actually, after all this, going home sounds like a good idea."

HBNDHBNDHB

"He didn't think I was serious at first, but then I fired that warning shot and he knew he had to surrender." Pete was gleefully repeating his story to Bess and George, even though Bess had been there and George had already heard it.

"You're lucky you didn't shoot somebody by accident," Bess said dryly.

"No way," Pete retorted defensively. "I know how to handle a gun. I don't hit things I don't mean to shoot."

Most of those who had been involved in the capture of the two gunmen were gathered at the police station in Butte, giving further statements about what had happened. Sam was still in the hospital, and Reese had been spirited away by the U.S. marshal who had come to take over that part of the operation. As Fenton was sitting in one of the hard plastic chairs in the waiting areas that the police had given them, he couldn't help being disappointed by that development. The one consolation he had to look forward to on this case was getting answers, and now that it was entirely in the hands of federal agents, it would be months at least until he learned anything, possibly longer.

"You know, it's kind of too bad," Pete was continuing. "I mean, I don't think I'll ever be able to top this one. What do you do with the rest of your life when you peak at sixteen?"

Nancy was standing near Fenton, along with Dave Gregory. Fenton saw her shake her head. "Your brother isn't very much like you, is he, Dave?"

"Nope," Dave agreed. "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing sometimes."

Fenton stood up and took a step over to them. He held out his hand to Dave. "I haven't actually gotten to meet you yet. Thank you for what you did yesterday."

Dave gave him a firm handshake in return and a half-embarrassed smile. "It was nothing, Mr. Hardy. I'm just glad it turned out as well as it did."

"It was a good thing that your brother happened to find Sam and that you happened to run into Nancy and the others," Fenton said.

"I'm just glad we were able to help," Dave replied.

Fenton didn't particularly want small talk right now, but anything was better than being left to his own thoughts. "How do you know Nancy?"

"I used to work for Bess and George's aunt and uncle on their ranch down in Arizona," Dave explained. "I met them and Nancy when they came to visit one time. Nancy solved quite the mystery for all of us."

"I couldn't have done it without you and Bess and George and the other guys from the ranch," Nancy hastened to say.

"I wouldn't know about that," Dave said, his cheeks reddening a bit.

"In any case, I am grateful for what you and your brother did yesterday," Fenton said.

"Don't say that too loud, sir," Dave replied. "Pete's going to be hard enough to live with as it is, even without encouragement." He paused. "I'm real sorry about your loss, sir."

Fenton nodded, taking in a deep breath as he did so. "Thank you."

"If there's ever anything I can do, just let me know," Dave went on. "And I mean that."

Fenton smiled faintly, not thinking he'd take the young man up on the offer.