9 Flotsam, Jetsam and Castaways

CHAPTER 9 FLOTSAM, JETSAM… AND CASTAWAYS Oh—there you are. Hello! What a night—that was some storm, huh? Hope you didn't get too wet. We got a lot wet, and there's quite a bit of damage to the treehouse, which is why we've come down to the beach this morning to scavenge a few bits and pieces

to help us fix it up again. And there are a lot of bits and pieces down here because a ship was wrecked during the night. It's quite a coincidence, actually, considering that I had just been telling you the story of how we—and Captain Woodenhead and his crew—were shipwrecked here, but I guess it's not so surprising because it is a very dangerous coastline and that was a very rough storm. Everything we need is here. There are planks of wood, torn pieces of sail, barrels, wooden chests, heaps of rope, piles of potatoes… and even a cannon!

"Cool!" says Terry. "I've always wanted a cannon!" "Why?" says Jill. "Because they're really useful." "Really useful for what?" "I don't know… lots of stuff," says Terry. "Say if you needed to deliver something in a hurry, like… say… a book to your publisher, you could put it in the cannon and fire it over." "Oh yeah, I didn't think of that," says Jill. Terry and I collect armfuls of wood and rope and load them into Jill's flying-cat sleigh.

"Hey, you guys," calls Jill from farther up the beach. "Come here, quick!" Terry and I run to join her. She's standing in front of a body lying facedown on the sand. "He must be one of the sailors from the ship," she says. "Look, here's another one," says Terry.

"And here's another one," I say, rushing down to the water to pull a waterlogged body onto the sand. And then we find another…

and another… and another…