J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be out tomorrow. God bless!

June 27 – Tuesday

Frank watched the first rays of the dawn come through the window of the little cabin. It was a crowded, musty, unpleasant place, and the final, agonized moments of Eli's life seemed to haunt it. He really didn't blame Chet and Phil for voting against staying here. It was morbid, thinking about Eli dying in here and then lying here all those years. If Frank was the sort to believe in omens, he would have considered it a bad one to find a body first thing when they arrived and then be forced to live in its former home and use its old supplies. He had been trying, throughout the night, to think of more pleasant things, but anything that reminded him of home only made the current situation look bleaker.

He sat up, telling himself not to think about things like that. One good thing about it was that he really must be feeling better to be indulging in such morbid and pointless thoughts. That was something, especially since he was skeptical that exploring the island was such a good idea until they were all recovered from their ordeal when they landed. At least the island wasn't very big. If the walking started wearing them out, they wouldn't have to go far to get back to the cabin, and they couldn't really get lost.

He nudged Joe, who was sleeping nearby, as he got up. Joe grumbled sleepily.

"Come on," Frank told him. "It's daylight already. We've got to get breakfast if we're going to get going."

The reminder of what was planned for the day wakened Joe a little more. He got up and helped Frank wake the others. After a brief organization, they started their various tasks to be ready to set out. It was Frank and Joe's turn to gather vegetables from the garden, and so they were digging potatoes.

"If we're stuck here too long, we're going to have to come up with some kind of program for replanting the garden," Joe commented. "Well, we'll also have to figure out how to harvest the seeds from all these plants. Potatoes are easy, at least. You just cut them up and replant them. And in this climate, we can be growing new plants year-round. Not that that's going to be necessary—I hope—but in any case, we don't have to worry about a season with nothing growing. It would be nice to find a salt deposit, though. I never realized how bland unsalted food is. I wonder how hard it is to distill salt out of saltwater? It's not like we have any shortage of that."

When Frank didn't answer, Joe gave him a curious glance. "Are you all right?"

Frank didn't look at him as he steadily continued working. "It's Tuesday, I think. We would have been going home today."

Joe sighed. "Don't remind me. Well, we'll be a little late, I guess."

"A little late?" Frank repeated cynically. "You're the one making plans for the winter."

"Yeah, because that's better than moping around about everything we're missing."

They continued digging for a few more minutes.

"How long do you think it will be before they start thinking we must be dead?" Frank asked.

"I don't know, and I don't think it really matters," Joe retorted in annoyance. He didn't appreciate being reminded of the worst parts of their predicament. "We can't do anything about it. It might not even ever happen. Dad's looking for us by now, I guess, so he might find those guys who tried to kill us. If they talk…"

"Everyone will definitely think we're dead," Frank interrupted.

Joe glared at him. "What I was going to say is that they'll start looking for us in the right spot, and they'll probably find us. I mean, the closest land to where we got dumped off is kind of the most natural place to look." He lowered his eyebrows. "I thought we were supposed to be helping keep morale up."

"I know. I didn't get much sleep last night." Frank shook his head. "Maybe I've been thinking about everything too much."

"Yeah. I guess it doesn't do any good to fight about it anyhow," Joe replied, telling himself to calm down.

Frank paused and then he added, "I was thinking about how long it might take for them to start moving on. I know our parents…Well, I mean they can't go and find themselves some new kids, no matter how long we're stuck here, but I can't really expect…everyone to hold on like that."

"Oh. I get it." Joe nodded in sudden understanding. He frowned as he considered the prospect. "I guess…if we are stuck here for any amount of time and everyone really does think we're dead…"

They both fell silent. Frank had been dating Callie Shaw for a little over a year. So far, it hadn't been a particularly serious relationship. That is, despite how much Frank cared for Callie and how much he suspected that she care for him, they hadn't yet had any discussion about where the relationship might lead. Joe also had a similar situation to consider. He had been friends with Chet's younger sister, Iola, for as long as he could remember, and somewhere along the line, he had fallen hard for her. They both knew how they would have proceeded, if they had had the chance. But now…if Iola and Callie thought that they were dead, the conventional advice would be that it would be best for them to move on.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Frank said after a minute or two. "Other than try to get back home, and I think we're all agreed that we're going to do everything we can toward that anyway."

"Yeah." Joe dug the shovel into the ground again. Then he muttered, "I sure hope we won't have to worry about planting potatoes after all."

"You know, there's two ways that could go," Frank replied with a straight face. "You might want to be more specific about what you hope for."

Joe grimaced. "I'm not going to let you give me a hard time about my gallows humor anymore."

All the boys were eager to start their exploration, so breakfast was made and finished as quickly as possible. The other boys hadn't been having the same sort of dismal thoughts as the Hardys, and considering that they were feeling better than they had since they reached the island and they had the prospect of an adventure to look forward to, the other four were all in a cheery mood. Little by little, their cheerfulness wore off on Frank and Joe. By the time they were ready to set out on their expedition, they were making as many jokes as they might have if they had been setting out from home, with every expectation of sleeping in their own beds that night.

There were a few difficulties to overcome from the beginning of the hike. They had all managed to keep their shoes, but except for Biff and Frank, they each only had sandals. Biff's shoes weren't much better than sandals; they were just an old pair of sneakers that were already nearly worn out. Even Frank only had sneakers rather than real hiking shoes, although his were much newer than Biff's. In addition to having insufficient footwear, the sling that they had made for carrying supplies started falling apart within ten minutes of starting out. In the end, they had to content themselves with only taking fish along which they could carry in their hands and hope that they found fruit along the way. If the small part of the island that they had seen so far was any indication, that shouldn't be much trouble. They had Eli's canteens, of course, which they had thoroughly boiled, and so water was no issue.

They headed up the southernmost of the two hills first. There were no trails anywhere on the island and so they had to push their way through the grass and shrubs and branches of trees. They had Eli's machete, but even taking turns using it, it was an arduous task to cut through every step of the way. It was slow going, considering how thick the vegetation was, and before they reached the top of the hill, they were all more worn-out than they expected to be.

"This might take more than just one day to explore," Chet commented, sinking down on a large rock and panting. "It's hot, too."

"It probably would have helped if we hadn't tried going straight up the hill," Phil pointed out.

"We can always turn back if the going is too hard," Frank said.

"No, let's keep going." Chet stood up. He often was the first to complain about physical exercise, but in these circumstances, he didn't want to give the impression that he couldn't hack it.

As they neared the top of the hill, Biff was in the lead by several yards. He found that the top of the hill was comparatively bare and he had to stop to take in the scene from the there. The other hill was clearly in sight. It blocked the view to the northwest, but down between the two hills was a lagoon with shady trees all around it and a pleasant, sandy beach. To the north and the northeast, the ocean spread out to the horizon with a deep, uninterrupted blue. It was a beautiful sight, but…

"There's no other land out there," Biff reported to the other glumly. "And I don't think anyone else has been on this island since Eli."

The others caught up to him and looked around them, a strange mixture of emotion passing through them at how such a beautiful, peaceful scene could spell disaster for them.

Tony sighed and stuck his hands into his pockets. "I don't see any boat or anything either."

"There's the other hill," Joe pointed out. "There might be something over there."

"Let's have lunch here first, before we go and see about that," Frank said. "It must be about noon by now."

There was a banana bush nearby as well as a stand of papaya trees, and so between the fruit and the fish that they had brought, they were able to make a good meal. It was also a relief to sit down for a while.

"It's weird not having any clocks," Biff commented as they ate. "It's weirder at night than it is during the day. I mean, during the day, you can tell from the sun and the lighting about what time of day it is, but at night, you wake up and have no idea whether you've been asleep an hour or if it's almost morning."

"I wonder if we could make a sundial," Chet said. "It wouldn't help out during the night, but it would be helpful the rest of the time."

"If you made it right," Tony pointed out. "I don't get how sundials work anyway. I mean, we're closer to the equator here, so it doesn't make as much difference, but back home, it's pitch dark at six in the evening in some parts of the year and other parts of the year, it's still broad daylight then. I don't get how you can design a sundial that really tells you the time."

"There must be a way to do it," Chet insisted. "Probably how it works is that it just tells you how many hours since sunrise or to sunset it is, and then you have to know the sunrise and set times and work from there."

"But we don't know those times," Tony reminded him, "and we don't have any way to look it up. Besides that, you can tell that from the sun's position, too."

"Well, then why did anyone ever start building sundials if they don't tell you anything helpful?" Chet asked, looking at Phil.

Phil shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't know anything about sundials."

Biff had finished eating by now and he stood up and looked down at the lagoon below them. "It looks like a nice place to swim. It would be better than out in the open ocean."

The others agreed, and they began climbing down the hill to look at it more closely. They found there was also a rocky space above the west side of the lagoon that could make a good fishing spot. It was too far to make daily trips here from the cabin, but the boys were already making plans for taking trips to camp here. None of them had realized quite how badly staying in that cabin was weighing on them until now that they were presented with an opportunity to get away from it sometimes.

After that, they climbed the other hill. They found that this one dropped away in a sheer cliff from the top all the way down to the water below. There wasn't even so much as a narrow strip of sand at the bottom. None of them were surprised, but they were a bit disappointed, as they gazed out on the seemingly endless ocean before them.

Joe put his hands in his pockets and sighed. "Well, no other people, no boats, and no nearby land. It could be worse, I guess."

"How?" Chet asked dryly.

"We might not have even had this island close enough to get to," Tony pointed out.

"Or it might have been just a sandbar with no food or water," Joe added. "Not to mention, we did wind up with all these supplies. So on the whole, we're doing a lot better than we might have."

"But we're not doing as well as we might have," Frank pointed out. "We're going to have to face the fact that the only way to get back home is if someone happens to find us. We'll do what we can to make it easier for someone to find us, but there's only so much we can do."

They continued hiking and within another hour, they had reached the same stretch of beach where they had landed a few days earlier. Several pieces of their wrecked boat had washed up on shore, which gave them an uncomfortable feeling. They hurried past the spot and continued along the beach.

The shore was broken up between sand and rock and an occasional spot where the vegetation extended out right to the water. On one of the beaches, Joe noticed a bottle that was half-buried in the sand and picked it up. It was corked and he shook it.

"Hey, there's something in here!" he announced.

"I hope it's not a message that says, 'Help, we're stranded on a deserted island,'" Chet joked.

"It's not paper," Joe said as he pulled out the cork. He shook the bottle out into his hand. Several small snail shells dropped out. With a disgusted grunt, he quickly tossed them away.

"What's the matter?" Biff teased him. "Afraid of a bunch of shells?"

Joe wasn't helping matters as he was holding his hand out carefully as if it was contaminated and he didn't want to touch anything with it. "Blame Frank," he retorted. "When I was, like, seven he insisted on telling about all the kinds of parasites that snails carry and all the diseases they spread. I just try to avoid snails after that."

Frank chuckled. "I doubt there are any parasites in those dried-up, old shells."

"I'm not taking any chances," Joe insisted.

"Do you think that bottle washed up on shore?" Chet asked.

"Who cares?" Joe replied, going to the water to wash his hands.

"Seriously, Joe, if you're worried about parasites, washing your hands in ocean water is not going to help," Frank pointed out, but Joe ignored him.

"If the bottle didn't wash up on shore, that means there was someone on this island whose hobby was putting snails in bottles," Chet went on. "I know you guys give me a hard time about my hobbies, but that's really weird."

Phil, who wasn't particularly interested in the bottle or the snails, noticed a flash of color in the brush above the beach. He went to check into it and found it was a tattered, dirty piece of the sort of material that tents were made of. It was hard to tell now, but it had apparently once been pink. He pulled it loose from the branch on which it was firmly snagged and showed it to his companions. "What do you guys make of this?"

"Eli had a weird taste in tent colors?" Chet guessed.

"Or somebody else besides Eli has been on this island," Frank supplied.

"Unless they're here now and they've got a way off, it doesn't help us much," Tony said.

"But it could mean that people come to this island more often than we were thinking," Frank pointed out. "That could be good news."

"Yeah, but a torn tent isn't too promising that they were able to get off," Biff said. "I really hope this doesn't mean we're going to find another body."

It was a grim prospect, but the boys agreed that they ought to look around. They spent the better part of an hour searching, but the only thing they found that indicated the presence of another person was what appeared to have once been a necklace but was now a bunch of scattered beads. Tony picked up all the beads he could find and put them in his pocket.

"A pink tent and a beaded necklace," Joe mused. "It points to there being a girl on the island at some time."

"A young girl," Frank agreed. "Young enough that she might have entertained herself by catching snails and putting them in a bottle."

"What do you suppose happened to her?" Tony asked.

Frank shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I wonder how she got here, too. A kid's not normally going to get shipwrecked by herself."

"And the tent implies that she was prepared to have to camp out, so she might have meant to come here," Joe said.

"How does all this fit in with Eli?" Phil asked. "Do you think they could have come here together?"

"In that case, the girl could have been Eli's daughter," Biff suggested.

Frank shook his head. "I've only skimmed through Eli's journals a little, but I didn't see any mention of a daughter being here with him. I think he would have mentioned that. Besides, he didn't have anything in the cabin that suggested there was another person here with him. There was only one bed and only clothes and shoes for him."

It was a strange puzzle and a vaguely unsettling one. If the girl had been on the island at the same time as Eli or even before, it was possible that they could find out something about her in Eli's journals. They set off back to the cabin, but by the time they arrived, they were tired enough that they went straight to bed instead of looking into the mystery.

HBNDHBNDHB

Luigi's was one of the staples of life in River Heights. The restaurant had been in business for almost a hundred years, having been founded by the eponymous Luigi after he had emigrated to the area from Italy. It was still owned by Luigi's great-grandchildren, and they prided themselves on continuing the tradition of giving it the feel of an upscale restaurant with great food and service at affordable prices. As a result, it was one of the most popular spots in River Heights. In fact, the most frequent complaint the management got was that it was too crowded and there were long waits for tables.

That was why Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson had gone there on a Tuesday evening. They weren't the only patrons there, but there were few enough others that they were able to be seated quickly. They had been dating for a little over a year now. Nancy still couldn't quite believe the stroke of luck that had brought Ned into her life. He was smart and athletic, handsome and gentlemanly, and from the start, he had accepted her for who she was, encouraging her to be the best version of herself, but never trying to change her into someone she wasn't. Just now, he looked especially handsome, wearing a jacket and slacks. It wasn't any particular special occasion, but he always dressed up for their dates.

"So, Nancy, you remember that I said I had something to tell you tonight?" Ned asked as the waitress walked away after serving them their orders.

Nancy nodded. "I've been dying to know what it is. It sounded like it was good news."

"I wouldn't have waited to spoil dinner if it wasn't," Ned replied with a grin. "I heard back from the International Office on campus."

"You've been approved to study abroad!" Nancy said. It wasn't much of a guess; she had never doubted that Ned would be approved.

"That's right," Ned confirmed, his grin even broader. "This fall, I'll be headed to New Zealand. Now I've just got to find a mystery there so you'll have an excuse to come and visit."

"Like I need an excuse to do that!" Nancy replied. "Besides, George has been dying to go there for years. I'm sure she'll take her opportunity to easily convince me to go with her."

"Besides that, even if I don't find one, you'll find a mystery once you get there," Ned added.

Nancy had to grin at that. It was likely enough to be true, considering she always seemed to be finding mysteries everywhere she went. "Probably."

As soon as she had said it, her phone started ringing.

"Speaking of which, that's probably a mystery right now," Ned teased her.

"More likely, it's about my car's extended warranty." Nancy dug in her purse and pulled the phone out. Then she froze when she saw the name displayed on the screen: Don Cameron. "Um, Ned," she said hesitantly, holding it up so he could see.

"Isn't that your ex-boyfriend?" Ned asked, trying hard to keep his tone totally neutral. When Nancy confirmed the fact, he added, "Go ahead and answer it. I told you I didn't mind if you're still friends with your exes."

"I only have one. The other guys…" Nancy started to protest, but she answered the phone at the same time and had to cut herself off. "Hello? Don?"

"Uh, hi, Nancy." Don sounded a bit tense, but that was only natural. He and Nancy hadn't talked one-on-one since they had broken up after graduation. It hadn't been a bad break-up, as break-ups go; Don was planning on going to school at the University of Hawaii and they had mutually agreed that a long-distance relationship wasn't something they wanted to try at the moment. That didn't mean that it hadn't still hurt.

"It's been quite a while," Nancy said, feeling the awkwardness of the entire situation as Ned tried not to look too interested in the conversation.

"Yeah, it has been," Don replied. "Um, look, Nancy, I'm not sure if you heard, but I'm interning for a new outlet here in Hawaii."

"I did hear something about that."

"Something came up here and I think you should hear about it before it hits the nationwide news."

In the few seconds that Nancy had had to form any expectations at all, this was not what she was expecting Don to be calling about. She didn't have any connections with anyone in Hawaii, so she couldn't imagine what he meant. As she tried to think it out, she forgot to respond verbally.

Don waited a minute or so for her to answer, but when she didn't, he took a deep breath and went on, "Frank and Joe Hardy were here in Hawaii with some of their friends, and, uh, they've disappeared under mysterious circumstances."

"They've what?" Nancy asked, recovering her voice. She didn't wait for him to repeat himself as she added, "Tell me what happened."

Don gave her an account of the entire story. "I heard it straight from the police detective investigating this, Lieutenant Hikialani, and Mr. Hardy was there, so it should be as accurate as anyone can get," he concluded. "The problem is that it somehow got leaked to the regular press. The story is already hitting the airwaves, so I was afraid you might have already seen it. I guess hearing it from me might be a little awkward, all things considered, but I thought it might be better than just seeing it on the news."

"Yes, much better," Nancy said distantly. "Is there anything I can do?"

"You'll have to ask Mr. Hardy about that," Don replied. "I doubt he'll turn down any help, and he knows your reputation."

"I'll call him," Nancy said. "Thanks for letting me know." She numbly ended the call and then looked up at Ned. She started to explain, but he shook his head.

"I could hear," he told her. He let out a long breath. "It sounds like you need to go to Hawaii."

"I don't know if they'd want me," Nancy replied. "It's not Frank and Joe that I'd be working with; it's their dad. I've never worked with him before."

She looked down at her plate, trying to process her emotions. Not only was it unexpected and frightening, but there were a lot of old memories attached.

"Do you want to leave?" Ned asked.

Nancy looked up at him gratefully and nodded.

"Okay. Just let me pay for this."

He signaled for the waitress, who brought the tab and some take-out boxes. Even though they had barely begun their meal, neither cared much about taking their leftovers, but Nancy put them in the boxes while Ned paid anyway. Then they hurried outside. It had been a hot day, but the evening was cooling off. Neither said a word until they were seated in Ned's car.

"Do you want to go home or where do you want to go?" Ned asked.

"It's been a week," Nancy said rather than answering.

Ned took his hand away from the key in the ignition. "I know. But that doesn't mean it's hopeless."

"I hope not."

Ned reached over and squeezed her hand. "Frank and Joe have gotten into a lot of scrapes before this and they've gotten out. There's no reason to believe that this time is any different."

"You know the whole story with Frank." It wasn't a question. Nancy knew that Ned knew it; she had insisted on telling him before he met the Hardys for the first time.

"It's not important now," Ned told her. "The important thing is that if you want to go and you can help, then you need to go. If you think I could help and wouldn't just get in the way, I'd go with you."

Nancy didn't know how to thank him for being so understanding. Not everyone would have. Nancy's parents were friends with Fenton and Laura Hardy, and so Nancy had been friends with Frank and Joe for as long as she could remember. She had always thought of them as the brothers she never had, which was why it had been so startling to her when Frank had asked her out on a date when they were fifteen. She had been caught off-guard and unsure what to do, but her first thought had been that she didn't want to hurt his feelings by turning him down. So they had gone on the date, and it had been a very uncomfortable few hours which had ended with Nancy having to admit that she didn't feel the same way and she would rather just be friends with him. Frank had taken it well, and he had never given another hint that he felt anything for her other than friendship. Yet the whole unfortunate incident had marred their friendship. There was always that doubt in the back of Nancy's mind that it was really as resolved as it seemed, and yet it always seemed that mentioning it would only make things worse.

But none of that mattered now. Whatever had happened to them, her friends were in trouble, and Nancy needed to keep calm and do what she could to help them. She took a deep breath and turned to look at Ned.

"Could we go back to my house, please? I want to talk to my dad about this," she requested.

HBNDHBNDHB

Iola was trying hard to be patient. It had been three days since Mrs. Hardy had realized that no one had heard from the boys. Now it had been a week since anyone had heard from them. Mr. Hardy and Mr. Radley were already in Hawaii looking for them, and Iola knew that they would find them if anyone could. The worst part about it was that there was nothing she could do. She would have gladly gone to Hawaii to help search, but she didn't want to get in the way. So all she could do was stay at home and wonder and wait while trying to act as positive as possible to try to encourage her parents.

Not that it was difficult for her to be more positive than her parents. They had taken the news hard, and they didn't seem able to overlook that a week was a long time for the boys to be missing. They were already preparing for the worst. Iola couldn't bear to think about that. Until they knew anything for sure, there was no point in believing that it wouldn't all turn out all right. That was why Iola was pacing back and forth in the backyard. She had to get out of the house and distract herself somehow, but she also didn't want to get too far away, in case there was news.

When she heard the back door open, she whirled around, hoping for some update. Instead of one of her parents, it was a blonde girl, about her same age.

"Hey, Callie," Iola greeted her.

Callie Shaw mustered a thin smile and returned the greeting. "Your parents said you were out here." She put her hands in her pockets. "They're really having a hard time, aren't they?"

"No kidding." Iola stepped up onto the back porch. "I don't know what to do to help them. I wish I could help look for the boys. Actually, I wish Mr. Hardy would just find them already."

"That depends on what he'd find," Callie replied darkly.

Iola felt her teeth clench together again and she had to make a conscious effort to unclench them. "Not you, too."

"You've got to admit, it sounds pretty bad." Callie pursed her lips. "But I guess you're right that it doesn't help to worry."

"I just wish there was something we could do that would help."

Callie nodded. "Me too. I can't believe this is happening. I mean, they've gotten into trouble before, but vanishing without a trace for an entire week…"

"You're right," Iola said. "They have been in trouble before. There's no reason to think they won't get out of this."

Callie tried to smile again, but the skepticism in her expression robbed it of any joy. Iola took in a deep breath. She was going to hold onto hope, even if she was the only one who did.