Secret Cove
1
Cove Tales
Louie had hardly slept all night. He was too excited. His dad was taking him and his friends fishing first thing in the morning to Secret Cove.
Louie didn’t know a lot about fishing. But he knew a lot about finding clues. That’s why his best friend Maddie called him Cluey Louie and why he started the Cluey Crew Mystery Club. There were five members: Cluey Louie and Maddie, Trivia Olivia and her best friend, Tom, and Cluey Louie’s dog, Twitch.
Cluey Louie had wanted to go to Secret Cove for ages. He knew about a mystery there that the Cluey Crew might solve. He planned to surprise everyone with the mystery when they got to the cove.
It was still dark when the Cluey Crew piled into the car. Cluey Louie’s dad hooked up the boat trailer.
Maddie sat in the very back of the car next to Twitch. She could not stop yawning. Trivia Olivia, Cluey Louie and Tom piled into the middle row of seats. Trivia Olivia immediately closed her eyes and rested her head on a pillow. Cluey Louie and Tom wiggled in their seats.
“Come on, Dad,” Cluey Louie said. “Let’s go!”
“All good,” his dad replied, starting the car. “Secret Cove, here we come.”
As they drove out of town, Cluey Louie watched the sky change colour and the sun come up.
“The sun looks like a big eye,” Tom said. “You know, they call the monster at Secret Cove ‘Wild Eye’ because it only has one eye.”
“You know about the monster?!” gasped Cluey Louie. The monster that lived in Secret Cove was part of the mystery he wanted to surprise the Cluey Crew with.
“Sure I do. My dad told me about it ages ago. He said it was an old fisher’s tale. But maybe there’s something more to it.”
Cluey Louie could not help feeling a little disappointed that Tom already knew about the monster.
“What about Wild Eye’s treasure?” Trivia Olivia asked, opening one eye. “It’s meant to be huge.”
“You know about the treasure too?” Cluey Louie sighed.
“The legend says Wild Eye only appears when a king tide turns,” yawned Maddie from the back.
“You as well …” Cluey Louie mumbled.
Maddie went a little pink and nodded.
“There’s a king tide this weekend while we are at the cove,” Tom gushed. “Isn’t that awesome, Cluey Louie?”
Cluey Louie wanted to be excited. But it was hard to be excited when his friends knew all about the mystery already. Why hadn’t they said so?
Trivia Olivia saw Cluey Louie’s shoulders drop. “We wanted to tell you about the mystery when we got to the cove.”
“That was my plan too, I guess,” Cluey Louie said.
“Well, we surprised each other. Great minds think alike!” Maddie said. “I’m not surprised by that.”
Cluey Louie felt a little happier. “Is there anything else you know about Wild Eye?”
“As a matter of fact,” Trivia Olivia replied, “I know the whole story of how Wild Eye and his treasure became trapped in the cove.”
Trivia Olivia knew lots of interesting things. She liked collecting trivia as much as Cluey Louie liked collecting clues.
“Trapped!?” said Tom.
“Come on. Tell us!” Maddie pleaded.
“Yeah, I’m all ears,” Cluey Louie smiled. He was glad he had friends who liked mysteries as much as he did.
Olivia’s Trivia!
Tides are caused by the pull of the moon and sun on Earth’s oceans. The highest tides are called spring tides. They happen when the earth, sun and moon line up in a row. The two highest spring tides of the year are called king tides.
2
The Legend of Captain Wild Eye
Trivia Olivia began.
“There once was a fierce and very mean pirate known as Captain Wild Eye.”
“A pirate story!” Tom cried. “Awesome! I love pirate stories.”
“Shhhh,” Maddie said. “I want to hear.”
Trivia Olivia continued. “Captain Wild Eye was so mean and greedy that he didn’t even have a crew. He sailed alone. No-one could stand him. Other pirates feared him. One day, while he was planning his next nasty raid, a ship drifted slowly past his hide-out island. Captain Wild Eye could not believe his luck – a ship had come straight to him!
“He rowed out to the ship and silently climbed its hull. He noticed its strange name, written across the stern – Cheers If Stops. He knew every ship that sailed from every port, but he had never heard of the Cheers If Stops.
“When Wild Eye climbed aboard, to his surprise he found the ship deserted. There was no captain. There was no crew. There didn’t even appear to be treasure. This made Captain Wild Eye extra wild! He loved treasure more than anything, but all that he found were crates and racks loaded with empty bottles.
“As Captain Wild Eye stomped about, asking himself why he was wasting his time, the ship set sail. It left Wild Eye’s island faster than any tide could carry it – without a crew or a breath of wind. Captain Wild Eye was trapped.
“The ship sailed into raging storms and through windless days and nights. On and on it sailed. Trapped at sea with nothing to do, Captain Wild Eye thought about the ship’s name. What sort of captain names his ship Cheers If Stops? He would certainly cheer if the ship ever stopped! But he soon realised it was an anagram.”
“A what?” Tom asked.
“An anagram is a word or words made from the letters of another word,” Trivia Olivia explained.
Olivia’s Trivia!
Not all words can make anagrams. Trivia doesn’t make anagrams. But Captain makes Cat Pain, A Cat Pin, Panic At and many more!
“Cheers If Stops?” Maddie said. “What words could you make from that?”
Cluey Louie was already figuring it out. He breathed on the car window and wrote the words with his finger. Seeing them written down made other words appear. But one word stood out.
“Secrets!” Cluey Louie cried. “The ship’s real name was Ship of Secrets!”
“Nooooo way!” gasped Tom.
“Cluey Louie’s right,” said Trivia Olivia. “It was the Ship of Secrets. Captain Wild Eye, the most feared pirate of the seas, was trapped aboard the most feared ship of the seas. Captain Wild Eye knew all about this ship. Every pirate did. It was one of the oldest of pirate tales. The Ship of Secrets certainly did carry treasure. Every bottle in the crates and racks onboard was overflowing with treasure. But it was cursed treasure. It would only appear if the ship sank!
“The ship sailed on and on until it reached Secret Cove. The Ship of Secrets arrived under a full moon on a king tide. It dropped anchor right in the middle of the cove – and then started to sink!
“But Captain Wild Eye was not scared. He knew what to expect. He knew he was about to see the greatest pirate treasure ever collected.
“Wild Eye watched excitedly as the ship sank and water rushed across the decks. He saw the bottles fill with gold and silver coins! He dashed around the ship, filling his pockets and boots with coins. But almost as soon as the coins appeared, they turned into rocks – it was only as the ship was sinking did the treasure appear.
“When Captain Wild Eye hit the water, all the coins he had collected turned into rocks – and he turned into a sea monster, forever trapped in the cove. Now he spends his years guarding the cursed treasure and searching for secrets to feed on.”
“Get OUT!” whistled Tom, eyes wide. “You think it’s true?”
“That’s what the Cluey Crew is going to find out,” Maddie said.
“We’re here!” Cluey Louie’s dad declared. “Secret Cove, as promised.”
The Cluey Crew looked out of the car at the glistening, calm waters of Secret Cove. It was so beautiful that Cluey Louie found it hard to imagine it was
home to any kind of sea monster.
“Maybe there isn’t really a sea monster after all,” he thought. “People like to tell tall tales while waiting for the fish to bite.”
“Come on, Crew,” said Cluey Louie’s dad. “Let’s get the boat in the water before the tide turns.”
3
Time to Fish
The Cluey Crew helped unpack all the fishing gear and get the boat into the water.
“Who wants to come with me to take the boat for a short run?” asked Cluey Louie’s dad.
Woof! Woof! barked Twitch, who loved being on the water.
The rest of the Cluey Crew shook their heads. “We’ll just find a spot on the beach and fish, if that’s okay, Dad,” Cluey Louie said.
“Suit yourself. But don’t catch all the fish before we get back. We won’t be too long.”
Twitch leaped into the boat. The Cluey Crew watched them motor across the cove and disappear around the headland.
Cluey Louie, Maddie, Tom and Trivia Olivia hauled their fishing gear down to the beach.
“Now we just need to pick a spot to cast from,” Tom said.
“Over there looks good,” Trivia Olivia suggested, pointing to a stretch of sand on the far side of the cove. The Crew followed Trivia Olivia along the beach.
Tom helped everyone put bait on their lines and cast them into the cove.
“Now we wait.”
They sat on the beach. They waited. Nothing tugged on their fishing lines. The cove remained still and quiet.
They waited and waited.
“Maybe Wild Eye’s eaten all the fish,” Maddie said. “And now he’s having one of those one-hundred-year sleeps that sea monsters have.”
“Come on,” Cluey Louie. He didn’t like sitting around waiting. He got up and walked further along the beach. One by one the others soon joined him.
The ocean had left shells, strands of seaweed and smooth rocks at the water’s edge.
“Look at this one,” Maddie said, picking up a rock and showing the others. “It’s got scratches on it. They look like the letter E.”
“That’s weird,” Cluey Louie said. “Maybe there’s more.”
The Crew walked further and soon found another rock marked with an E. Then Trivia Olivia picked up two rocks with the letter R. Maddie found others with the letters A, S, U and T.
Cluey Louie hurriedly gathered the rocks and lined them up on the beach.
“Eerrasut,” he said.
“It must be an anagram for something,” Trivia Olivia said.
The Crew shuffled the rocks around to form new words.
TEAR USER
EAT ERR US
STARE RUE
Finally, Cluey Louie saw the anagram. It was just one word.
“Treasure!” he yelled.
The Cluey Crew gasped. “It’s a message from Wild Eye,” Trivia Olivia said.
“You think so?” Tom asked.
Cluey Louie nodded. His tummy flipped with excitement.
“It won’t be long until the tide turns,” Maddie said. “We might even get to see him.”
“Let’s grab our gear and head further along the beach,” Cluey Louie said. “There may be more rocks with more clues.”
“And a better place to spot Wild Eye,” Tom said.
Olivia’s Trivia!
There are lots of legends of sea monsters. One of the most famous is the Kraken, a giant octopus or squid that lives in the waters of Norway and Greenland.
4
The Tide Turns
The Crew walked along the beach, searching for more rocks with letter markings. Tom rushed ahead of the others.
“Slow down!” Cluey Louie yelled. “We could be missing clues.”
Tom soon reached the rocks at the far end of the beach. He immediately turned and waved. “Hurry! Look what I’ve found.”
The Crew charged along the beach and followed Tom around a large outcrop of rocks. There, bobbing in the water in a gap between the rocks, was a rowing boat.
“We’re looking for clues, Tom,” Maddie said. “We don’t need a boat.”
“Yes, we do. We need to get into the middle of the cove. Don’t we, Cluey Louie?”
Cluey Louie bit his lip. “You’re right. I think we do. According to Trivia Olivia’s story, the Ship of Secrets sank in the middle of the cove. That’s where the treasure and Wild Eye are going to be.”
Trivia Olivia agreed. “That makes sense.” She looked into the boat. “There are life jackets for everyone. Let’s get going!”
The Cluey Crew piled their gear into the boat. As Trivia Olivia helped push off, she noticed the boat’s name written along the bow – Tide Horse. The others scrambled aboard, and Maddie and Tom grabbed the oars.
“Just wait a bit,” Trivia Olivia said. “I want to check something.”
“But the tide is turning,” Maddie said, looking worried. “We’ve got to start rowing or it will carry us out to sea.”
“Wait!” Trivia Olivia said. “Tide Horse is an anagram for ‘other side’. I think this boat can go against the tide and take us across the cove on its own.”
As soon as she said that the little boat moved away from the shore by itself, picking up speed without anyone lifting an oar.
“It’s just like the Ship of Secrets,” Tom whispered.
As they crossed the cove, the wind picked up and the boat began to rock and pitch.
“Hang on!” Cluey Louie ordered.
Water began to splash over the sides of the boat. The Cluey Crew madly tried to scoop it out with their hands. Cluey Louie looked up and saw a whirlpool forming in the middle of the cove. The rowing boat was heading straight at it.
Olivia’s Trivia!
Whirlpools form when strong currents, usually caused by tides, meet each other.
“I think we should start rowing,” Cluey Louie cried. “Now!”
Maddie and Tom pushed the oars into the water and rowed as hard as they could against the water’s pull. But it was no use – the little boat was being drawn into the whirlpool.
As they neared the swirling centre, a sea monster with one wild eye and an enormous mouth shot out of the water, its teeth bared.
“Arrrgh, Wild Eye!” Cluey Louie cried.
“He’s going to get us! Row! Row harder!”
Everyone pulled on the oars together, trying to steer the boat out of the path of Wild Eye. Waves washed over the boat’s sides and took their fishing gear. The wind howled.
“It’s no use!” Maddie cried into the wind. “The whirlpool is too strong!”
“What are we going to do?” Tom bellowed.
“Tell him a secret!” Trivia Olivia yelled. “That’s what Wild Eye is hungry for. It’s the curse of the Ship of Secrets!”
“I can’t think of a secret,” Tom replied. “I tell you guys everything.”
“Me too!” Maddie shouted.
Trivia Olivia and Cluey Louie stared at each other, madly thinking of a secret to give Wild Eye. But there wasn’t anything they didn’t already know about each other.
Cluey Louie turned to the great one-eyed beast as it towered over them. He raised his voice over the roaring wind and crashing waves.
“We are best friends. We don’t have any secrets to give you.”
Wild Eye froze. He closed his angry mouth. The wind stopped. The waters calmed. The monster slowly sank into the water and, just for a moment, he stared at the Cluey Crew with his big, sad eye. The Crew saw gold and silver in that eye and they watched a tear fall from it. Then Wild Eye turned and dived into the cove.
The Cluey Crew collapsed into the bottom of the boat.
“The … the … the story of Wild Eye is true!” Tom said shakily. “There really is a sea monster in Secret Cove.”
“Why didn’t he squish us?” Maddie asked, exhausted. “Why didn’t he take us under with him?”
“Captain Wild Eye sailed alone. He never had friends,” Cluey Louie said, “let alone best friends that tell each other e
verything.”
“We don’t keep secrets from each other,” Trivia Olivia said. “That’s real treasure.”
“Poor Wild Eye,” Maddie whispered.
5
What a Catch!
The Cluey Crew took turns rowing the Tide Horse back to where they had found it. They were surprised to find their fishing gear washed up at the same spot.
After Tom jumped out of the boat, he felt something in the sand with his toes. He pushed around in the shallow water with his feet and turned over four gold coins.
“No WAY!” Tom bent down to scoop them up. “Pirate treasure. Real pirate’s treasure!”
But as Tom lifted the coins out of the water, they turned to rocks. They had markings like the ones they had found before.
The Cluey Crew lay the rocks on the dry sand. All at once they saw there was only one word the letters could make: HUSH. Trivia Olivia smiled.
“Don’t worry, Wild Eye,” Cluey Louie said. “Your secret is safe with us.”
Cluey Louie, Trivia Olivia, Tom and Maddie each picked up a rock. They skimmed them across the glassy water towards the middle of the cove.
Woof! Twitch bounded along the beach towards them.
“Hey, Twitch,” Cluey Louie smiled. “You’re back. Is Dad looking for us? Don’t worry, we’re coming.”
The Cluey Crew were lazing aboard the Cluey’s dad’s boat. They gently rocked on the calm waters of the cove as the fish took their bait, time after time.