Isle Royale by John Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

the edge.
    Grandma persisted. “Did you take your cod liver oil?”
    “Yes,” she repeated.
    A pause. “Okay, then.”
    Sally quickly moved to the table and kissed the top of her father’s towel-draped head. He moaned and waved good-bye with one upraised hand. Sally grinned and then hurried out the back door.

    Ian’s heart raced as he eased himself backwards over the cliff, one hand gripped tightly to the rope above him, the other hand skillfully adjusting the loop wrapped around his waist. Every time Ian went rappelling, there was that first leap of faith, that brief moment of terror when he leaned back over the edge, certain he was about to fall to his death. But the moment always passed, as it did this day, and Ian soon went about the business of bouncing down the cliff face of Wolf Point.
    His parents had never understood Ian’s passion for rock climbing. He’d picked up the basics from the older brother of a friend back home in Two Harbors. A totally useless hobby, his father had told him. His mother couldn’t bear the thought of her son dangling off some granite cliff, and begged him to take up a nicer sport, like football, or butterfly collecting. But the lure of the rock always kept Ian coming back for more. He couldn’t help himself.
    When he was scaling a cliff, nature was the only competition. There were no schoolbooks to study, no nagging parents, no chores to complete. In fact, there were no rules or regulations save one: don’t fall. Ian had to rely on his own skills, his own cunning, to conquer the rock. He enjoyed feeling his heart pound, his breath quicken, as he tested his courage, strength, and stamina. Rock climbing was his escape from a summer of mind-numbing boredom. At the lighthouse, he felt dead inside.
    Except for Sally. This year, something had changed between them. They’d known each other for three seasons, and their friendship had grown deep. But now, Ian felt something else for her, something he knew was more than simple friendship. He wondered if she felt the same way toward him. The signals were there, and yet… Ian could never quite muster the courage to outright ask her. Now that the season was drawing to a close, it would soon be too late. But how to ask her? And what to say?
    Ian frowned as imaginary conversations raced through his mind. He shook his head to clear away the cobwebs. Not now, he thought. I came out here to escape all that.
    With a few quick movements, Ian launched himself into space, like a spider on a gossamer web. Skillfully using the rope wrapped around his waist to regulate friction, and therefore his rate of descent, he swiftly scrambled halfway down the two-hundred-foot precipice.

    Near the wooden dock at the base of the cliffs, Sally checked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn’t being watched. The narrow path behind her cut through the pine forest, rising up sharply and leading toward the rear of the lighthouse compound high above. Twice on the way down, Sally had stopped and listened, convinced she’d heard something other than the bumblebees buzzing among the wild daisies growing at the side of the path. But the rustling she’d heard in the brush had proved to be nothing more than a fox hoping for a handout, not someone following her as she’d feared, although why someone would be following escaped her. Still, best to be cautious.
    Now safely on the shoreline, and satisfied finally that she was alone, Sally quickly moved across the pebbly beach and ducked behind a thicket near a hidden inlet. She bent down to remove a clever camouflaged array of branches and leaves. Underneath was a dinghy, bobbing gently in the water, its line securely fastened to a tree stump. Sally stepped back to admire the tiny, single-masted boat.
    She and Ian had discovered the dinghy earlier that spring, shortly after the families had arrived on the island for the season. After a few weeks of elbow grease and loving care, they’d made it ship-shape and Bristol