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Back Voyage of the Sparrowhawk Save as PDF
Chapters (47)
  1. Cover
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. PROLOGUE
  4. PART I
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. PART II
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Chapter Twenty-One
  27. PART III
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. PART IV
  34. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  35. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  36. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. PART V
  43. Chapter Thirty-Five
  44. Chapter Thirty-Six
  45. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  46. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  47. EPILOGUE

Two boats had gone into the lock, one behind the other. Ben edged the Sparrowhawk forward, then stopped again, tucked into the bank. There was just one boat ahead of them now.

“We’ll be going in after the Marianne,” said Ben. “I’ll get off before you drive in to work the lock. All you need to do is follow the Marianne, slow and steady and turn off the engine. Right, here we go, the lock’s opening again. Ready?”

“Ready!” said Lotti, with airy confidence.

With a thrill of nervous excitement, she took hold of the tiller. Federico leaped up onto the storage box beside her. Lotti grinned and pulled one of his ears.

“Bet you never dreamed we’d be doing this when I rescued you!”

A pair of ducks flew overhead and landed in the water behind the Sparrowhawk. Federico turned to look at them, whiskers quivering.

“Don’t get any thoughts in your head,” Lotti warned. “We don’t want a repeat of the pheasant. Not here. Here we have to be absolutely, completely invisible.”

The lock gates opened. Two boats came out. The first didn’t stop, but the second pulled in just behind the Sparrowhawk, close enough for Lotti to see the details of the painted bird perched on the curling letters of her name, the Secret Starling.

How strange, thought Lotti. I feel as if I’ve seen that boat before.

But the Marianne was already entering the empty lock. Ben stepped off the Sparrowhawk and called down to Lotti to move on. Eyes narrowed in concentration, she pushed the speed lever forward and began to steer …

“Watch out for Federico,” Ben called. “Elsie’s used to locks, but it might scare him.”

But Federico wasn’t scared at all. Federico was watching the ducks, still paddling in the water …

His whiskers twitched.

Slow and steady, the Sparrowhawk followed the Marianne into the lock. Ben began to close the gates behind her. Lotti, careful to be invisible, tried to look as if she had done this many times before, but inwardly she was cheering.

Her first lock!

The downhill gates closed behind the Sparrowhawk. The sluices on the uphill gates, ahead of the Marianne, began to let in water.

The Sparrowhawk and the Marianne began to rise.

Federico scrambled off the storage box onto the roof of the Sparrowhawk, took a short run and leaped, aiming for the edge of the lock.

Chapter Twelve

What happened next was spectacular, no doubt about it. Everyone who was there agreed—the girl with the baby, the crew of the Marianne in the lock with the Sparrowhawk, the crews of the Lily Rose and the Princess waiting to come through, the crew of the Secret Starling.