In the Orient by Art Collins Read Free Book Online Page A

before May headed off the path and into the forested brush, the hikers were enveloped by the underbelly of a low-hanging cloud that had formed over Lantau Peak. While the foggy mist that surrounded them provided a welcome relief from the sweltering heat, it was both disorienting and hauntingly eerie.
    “Do you have any idea where you’re going?” Jockabeb asked May after about ten minutes of weaving in and out of trees and bushes that were shrouded in mist.
    “Well, not exactly, but I don’t think it will be all that difficult to find our way back,” she answered confidently. “A cloud bank like this moved in the last time William and I were up here, but we were able to see well enough to stay on the path that time.”
    From his trailing position behind the four teenagers, Robert Liu shouted up to May, “Excuse me for interrupting, Miss May, but don’t you think it might be a good idea to turn around and head back to the path? It appears to me that we are the only hikers who have ever come this way, and I don’t want us to get even more lost than we already are.”
    “Just a little while longer, Robert, if you don’t mind,” May shouted back over her shoulder.
    “Yes, Miss May,” Robert answered with more than a trace of disappointment in his voice and, although none of the teens could see it, with exasperation written all over his sweat-covered face. In reality, Robert was worrying that if anything happened to May or her friends while he was responsible for their safety, he’d never be able to explain to Dr. and Mrs. Chen how he’d let it happen.
    As the mist began to dissipate five minutes later, Willow spotted what looked like a small vertical opening in the mountainside. Very few people would have ever noticed the narrow crevice that was ten yards away because it was barely visible through a thick stand of bushes, but Willow’s keen vision wasn’t like everyone else’s.
    “Stop,” Willow said. Then pointing at the narrow opening, she asked May, “What do you think is over there?”
    “Over where?” May responded, not sure what Willow was seeing.
    Walking through the bushes to where the slender fissure was located, Willow said, “Here, there’s an opening into the mountainside. It’s not very wide, but it’s clearly a way inside.”
    “Wait a moment,” May replied as she took off her backpack and removed the flashlight. Poking her head into the narrow cavity, she shined the flashlight’s bright beam straight ahead.
    Seconds later, May confirmed to the others what Willow had found when she announced, “There’s an opening here, alright. I can’t see very far, but it looks like this leads into a narrow passageway that continues upward.”
    “Let’s see where it goes,” Archibald said, sensing a familiar twinge of excitement at the prospect of exploring the unknown.
    Robert Liu had come forward and was standing just behind May when he tapped her shoulder and announced sternly, “Your mother told me to watch out for all of you today, and I must tell you that I strongly object to you going in there. We should be heading down the mountain now if we expect to be on the six o’clock ferry back to Central.”
    “You’re right, Robert,” May replied as she turned around to face him. “We’ll leave in a short while, but first I want to see how far this passageway goes into the mountain. Who knows, we might be the first people ever to find it.” Checking her watch, she added. “We’ll walk down much faster than we walked up, so we can still make the six o’clock ferry if we leave here in fifteen minutes.”
    Against his better judgment, Robert compromised, saying, “If I agree to let you go in there, and make no mistake that I will be along, you must promise me that there will be no arguments when we turn around and head back to the pier in ten minutes.”
    “That’s fair,” May quickly responded, surprised that her father’s trusted bodyguard had given in so easily. Not waiting