“It’s not so bad then,” Dad said. “The storm will keep the birds away too. We just have to get through the night, that’s all.”

Will and I exchanged a glance. We’d known it was coming but now it really seemed as if time had run 280out. What on earth were we going to do?

“You and your daughter are both welcome to stay, of course,” Cailean said. “Much safer than attempting to reach the lighthouse.”

“I think we should go back, Dad,” I said at once. “It doesn’t feel right leaving Kate and Charlie there alone—”

But that was as far as I got before we heard a voice shouting outside. When we removed the bags we’d used to block up the entrance, we saw Kate running into the camp, Charlie clinging to her like a monkey.

“They’re inside the lighthouse,” she gasped, as we ushered her into the bothy. “The gannets. They broke the windows. I’ve never seen anything like it, Nathan! Some of them cut themselves to ribbons on the glass, trying to get in.”

She and Charlie were able to get out in time, although the other walkie-talkie had been dropped and lost somewhere along the way. Neither of them was hurt but Charlie’s eyes were as big as saucers, and he looked truly wretched. He kept staring at me too, for some reason, and although I offered him what I hoped was a reassuring smile he didn’t smile back.

“We just ran all the way here,” Kate said. 281

“Well, now that we’re together, this is where we stay, I reckon,” Cailean said. “The bothies don’t have windows to smash, and beaks can’t break through stone, no matter how much of a frenzy those birds are in. We just have to make sure the entrances are properly blocked.”

Will and I could only watch in dismay as bags and equipment were used to fill the little doorway in our bothy. Charlie sidled over to me while this was happening, and I thought he might want to tell me about the gannets, but instead he began mumbling something that didn’t make any sense and that I now find hard to remember. Listening to him made my head ache, and I was pretty distracted anyway.

If tonight was our last night on the island, then I had to get back to the lighthouse, no matter what it took. I wracked my brain all afternoon for excuses, but it seemed impossible. The bird attack had so traumatized everyone that they wouldn’t hear of people going outside, and there was even talk of digging a hole in the bothy and everyone using that as a toilet. The bothy was too small for me to talk to Will without being overheard, but I could see that his mind was going over and over it, the same 282as mine.