Silently, Alex picked up the four shorter ropes he had made and moved over to Hex's bed. He stood for a moment, listening to Hex's fever-fast breathing, then he crouched down in the glow from the fire and began the job of converting the bed into a stretcher.

TWENTY-ONE

Li stared up at the cliff face. It towered above her: a vertical slab of dark, volcanic rock rising out of the mountainside. it looked smooth and featureless at first glance, but Li had been studying it for a good five minutes as she planned her route to the top and her sharp eyes had picked out hundreds of tiny ledges and crevices.

A little way down the slope behind her, the others were sitting with their backs against a group of rocks. It was only mid-morning but they were glad of the rest. Drenched in sweat, they had been on the move since dawn, struggling through primary rainforest to reach the lower slopes of the mountain. As well as carrying two rucksacks, two coils of rope and the rolled bunk blankets on their backs, they were also hauling Hex along on a makeshift stretcher-bed. Alex and Paulo had taken the heavier, head-end of the stretcher, with Amber and Li bringing up the rear. Alex had secured his vine ropes to each corner of the stretcher, where they served as four shoulder straps and helped to distribute the weight more evenly, but still the constant friction of the bamboo stretcher poles had rubbed blisters into the palms of their hands.

Li glanced over at the rest of the group, then turned back to the cliff. She mapped the route one more time, turning her head from side to side and squinting as she concentrated.

'Easy peasy,' she murmured, stepping back. She backed straight into Paulo, who had left the others and was hovering anxiously behind her.

'Li. You should not climb first,' he said. 'Not without a rope. Let me climb for you. Please.'

Li sighed. 'Listen to me, Paulo. It was funny on the Phoenix . Here, it's just a pain.'

'I am sorry?' said Paulo.

'Stop treating me as though I'm made of glass, Paulo!'

'But I am only caring for you.'

'Don't be ridiculous!' snapped Li. 'I could climb that with my eyes shut, so why not let me get on with it?'

Paulo hung his head. 'I could not bear it if you fell.'

He looked so miserable that Li reached up and put her arms around his neck. 'I won't,' she said softly. 'I promise.'

Paulo beamed down at her, then they both went to join the others.

'OK,' said Li, tying one end of the thinner, nylon line around her waist with a bowline. 'Here's the plan. I go first. The rest of you, watch where I put my hands and feet. Once I'm up here, I'll anchor the rope and keep it taut for the next climber.'

'What about Hex?' asked Amber, quietly. They all looked over at the stretcher. Hex was sweating too, but with fever, not exertion. His leg was swollen, despite their attempts to keep the wound as clean as possible, and his face was pale and gaunt.

'That's what this is for,' said Alex, picking up the thicker rope that had originally tied the tender up to the Phoenix . 'Once you and Paulo are up there, I'm going to tie one end of this rope to the nylon line and make a sort of a cradle out of the other end for the stretcher to rest in. Then you pull up the thicker rope-'

'And use that to haul him to the top,' finished Paulo, nodding with understanding.

'Good,' said Li. She sat down and began untying her boot laces. 'I'm going barefoot,' she said, hauling off her boots and socks and stuffing them into the top of one of the rucksacks. 'Just to test the footholds for the rest of you. See ya!'

She walked to the base of the cliff and let the coiled nylon rope drop to the ground. Paulo hurried to pick it up and she turned to wink at him then, casually, began to climb. It was like watching a slow dance. Li seemed to flow up the cliff, gripping tiny ledges of rock with her fingers or toes. She moved one hand or foot at a time, then made sure of her holds before moving again. The coil of rope Paulo held grew smaller and smaller as she made her way higher, a tail of rope swinging behind her. In less than five minutes, she was on the mountain slope at the top of the cliff and securing the rope to a large boulder.

The other three shared out the rucksacks and bunk blankets and strapped them on, then Amber climbed next, with Li belaying the rope for her. Paulo followed more slowly. He was not a natural climber, and his arm and leg muscles were shaking with the strain by the time he hauled himself over the higher slopes and collapsed onto the stony ground.

Alex used a bunk blanket and the longer length of vine rope to secure Hex to the stretcher like a baby in a papoose. Hex groaned as the rope tightened over his injured leg.

'Sorry,' muttered Alex.

'You will be,' said Hex faintly.

Alex grinned at Hex, then he tested the knots of the rope cradle one last time before giving the signal to the others to start hauling. He held onto the stretcher until it was above head height, steadying it for as long as he could, then he stepped back and watched as it made its slow, spinning way up the cliff. When the stretcher finally disappeared over the top of the stone outcrop, Alex sucked in a lungful of air and realized he had been holding his breath through the whole procedure.

While he waited for Li to drop the nylon line back down to him, Alex put down another trail-marker. This time he used three small rocks, one resting on top of another and the third placed ahead of the first two to show the direction of travel. He had left direction-markers all the way along the route. Sometimes it was a cleft stick with another stick resting in the cleft, pointing the way ahead. Sometimes it was a clump of tall grasses, tied together in an overhand knot, with the tops of the grasses nodding the way to go.

Alex stared back along their route, visualizing each marker all the way back to their lagoon. There he had used stones to make a large direction arrow in the sand, above the high-tide line. The markers were a way of trying to stop the doubts which were building up in his mind. What if he had made the wrong decision? What if rescuers were, even now, arriving at the lagoon, pulling their boats up onto the empty beach, walking around the deserted camp? Surely they would spot the stone arrow? Surely they would follow his markers across the island? Again, Alex had an image of the rescuers shaking their heads in puzzlement as they left the lagoon behind and headed back out to sea. He groaned quietly. The lagoon was hidden away in a fold of the rainforest, but Alex scanned the sea around it, checking one last time for any sign of boats before they left this side of the island. Then the rope dropped down the cliff again and Alex wiped the sweat from his face and hands before tying the rope around his waist and starting to climb.

Half an hour later, they had made their way around the shoulder of the mountain and were standing on the lower slopes, looking down on the northern side of the island. The south side, with the lagoon and their camp, was now hidden behind the mountain.

'What do you think?' asked Paulo, peering down into the green blanket of rainforest spread out at their feet.

'I think we just wasted our time,' groaned Amber, easing her T-shirt away from her sweaty neck. 'It looks just the same as the other side! And I can't see any camp.'

'What were you expecting?' giggled Li. A big sign, maybe? "Follow the red arrows to secret Japanese wartime camp"?'

Paulo sniggered behind his hand and even Alex could not stop a tired smile spreading across his face. Amber turned her back on them and sat down beside the stretcher to loosen her boots for a moment.

'Li's right,' said Alex, scanning the land below. 'It's not going to be obvious – and it's not going to be out here in the open, either.'