They crept closer to the cliff's edge, careful not to send a wayward pebble tumbling to the beach below.
"Can you see anything?" whispered Áine, peering down into the pre-dawn gloom.
"Shhh," said Ciara, staring out to sea, where a long, dark shape seemed to rise from the water, a protrusion in the middle of it, like a single candle on a massive birthday cake. It was calmer here, she knew, in the shelter of the headland, and she wondered if...
"Oh my God that's a submarine!" Colin said, almost shouting, then "Ow!" as Ciara punched her in the arm.
"There's something happening on the beach," hissed Áine.
The three girl detectives craned to see down onto the rocky shore below. There was something happening on the beach alright. A group of men carried boxes from the water towards the cliff-face, where the girls knew there was a cave, deep enough to be dry, and above the water-line.
And with a grinding noise they saw, the light a little brighter now, a boat push off from the beach, and two men with oars, sculling it out into the cove towards the unmistakeable long shape of the submarine.
Then Colin leaned out too far, and her spectacles, which had been placed in the pocket of her pinafore for safe keeping, tumbled out and fell. For a moment everything stopped but the glasses, pinging the rocks as they descended, then smashed on the beach.
"There!" came the shout from below, in a strange accent they had never heard before, and the girls knew they had been rumbled. Colin, her mouth agape, looked around to see Ciara and Áine already sprinting for the stile, racing for Uncle Poppy's farmhouse as fast as they could.
Colin hitched up her skirts and ran.
"Can you see anything?" whispered Áine, peering down into the pre-dawn gloom.
"Shhh," said Ciara, staring out to sea, where a long, dark shape seemed to rise from the water, a protrusion in the middle of it, like a single candle on a massive birthday cake. It was calmer here, she knew, in the shelter of the headland, and she wondered if...
"Oh my God that's a submarine!" Colin said, almost shouting, then "Ow!" as Ciara punched her in the arm.
"There's something happening on the beach," hissed Áine.
The three girl detectives craned to see down onto the rocky shore below. There was something happening on the beach alright. A group of men carried boxes from the water towards the cliff-face, where the girls knew there was a cave, deep enough to be dry, and above the water-line.
And with a grinding noise they saw, the light a little brighter now, a boat push off from the beach, and two men with oars, sculling it out into the cove towards the unmistakeable long shape of the submarine.
Then Colin leaned out too far, and her spectacles, which had been placed in the pocket of her pinafore for safe keeping, tumbled out and fell. For a moment everything stopped but the glasses, pinging the rocks as they descended, then smashed on the beach.
"There!" came the shout from below, in a strange accent they had never heard before, and the girls knew they had been rumbled. Colin, her mouth agape, looked around to see Ciara and Áine already sprinting for the stile, racing for Uncle Poppy's farmhouse as fast as they could.
Colin hitched up her skirts and ran.
