The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell (books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

smells of porridge, toast and bacon filled the air, and the explorers enjoyed their first breakfast on the ice in companionable silence.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

‘We should explore the ship before we go,’ Stella said once breakfast was finished.

‘Definitely,’ Shay said. ‘There could be supplies down there. We still need another tent. And some weapons.’

‘Does anyone here even know how to use a weapon?’ Ethan asked.

Stella shrugged. ‘How hard can it be with a spear? You just point the pointy end at the enemy and jab them with it. Or, if it’s a heavy thing – like that moustache spoon – you whack them with it. It made quite a good weapon, actually.’ She patted her pockets to make sure that the moustache spoon was still there, just in case she came across anything else that tried to give her any trouble.

‘Captain Ajax and the outlaws probably didn’t leave anything on the ship worth having,’ Shay said. ‘But we might as well have a quick poke around whilst we’re here.’

The four of them quickly located a trapdoor with a ladder and made their way down into the murky belly of the ship. Captain Ajax had been right – it stank something dreadful down below: a horrible mixture of rot and mildew and slimy, seaweedy things.

Stella noticed the crest for the Royal Crown Steam Navigation Company on one of the walls, and realised that the Snow Queen had been built by the same company that had made the Bold Adventurer. But the ship that had brought them to the Icelands had been plush with rugs and lamps and fine silverware. The Snow Queen, on the other hand, was a dark, damp, hollowed-out shell. The corridors were long and narrow and full of shadows, and the wood groaned in a most disconcerting way beneath their feet. The planks were covered in a film of salty dust, and the explorers had to lift the hems of their cloaks to stop them getting sticky with it.

Stella was a little worried that they might come across a skeleton at some point, but they never did, which made her feel half relieved and half disappointed. They did spot one or two rats though, scampering about in the corners, running over old chains in the dark. They were surprisingly large, no doubt having grown fat from feasting on whatever stocks of inedible ship’s biscuits had been left behind.

Between the rats and the crew, the ship seemed to have been stripped of anything even remotely useful. There was no food left in the kitchen, no books in the library, no tents or blankets or rope in the old convict cells. Only endless coils of rusty chain.

‘We should get back to the animals and push on,’ Shay said. ‘There’s nothing here to get excited about.’

‘Let’s just go down this last corridor,’ Stella said, pointing. ‘And if there’s nothing there then we’ll leave.’

It didn’t seem right that they should venture into the dark, deserted ship without discovering something for their trouble. To make all this effort and not even see so much as a skeleton seemed like the most dreadful let-down.

So they ventured into the final corridor, which got darker and darker as they walked down it. There were portholes in the wall, but they weren’t letting any light in, and Stella guessed they must be near the bottom of the ship and that the windows had been covered up with snow. Shay took a lantern from his bag and lit it to guide their way until they reached the door at the end of the corridor. There were words carved into the wood, and Shay lifted the lantern up a little higher to illuminate them. Stella grinned when she saw what they said. This was definitely more like it.

Do Not Open This Door Under ANY Circumstances!

Not under any circumstances, it said! Ordinary children would certainly have turned and walked away from that door at once and never looked back, but these were junior explorers, and a sign like that was impossible for them to resist.

‘Perhaps we shouldn’t open it,’ Beanie said, trying to be sensible. ‘They must have put that sign there for a reason.’

‘There can’t be anything dangerous in there now,’ Stella replied. ‘The ship must have been stranded here in the ice for years.’

‘There could be crates of pirate gold in there!’ Ethan said.

‘Or the skeletons of fascinating beasts and monsters,’ Shay suggested.

‘Or an entire crate of exotic-flavoured jellybeans!’ Beanie said.

‘Or forbidden maps to forbidden places.’ Stella rubbed her hands together with glee. ‘Let’s find out.’

A heavy chain was wrapped around the handle of the door but the lock had rusted away and it sprang open. All they had to do was unwind the chain.

Together, they dragged it free and it fell to the ground in a long, heavy coil. Then, with one last glance at each other, they threw open the door.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Stella didn’t quite know what she was expecting in the locked room, but when Shay lifted the lantern, it illuminated a large storage area filled with cabinets, trunks and boxes, all coated with a thick layer of dust. The words ‘Dangerous Cargo’ and ‘Swag’ and ‘Stolen Loot’ were stamped all over everything.

The explorers walked cautiously into the room and peered into the cabinets. They were organised into categories, with the first one being dedicated to ‘Cursed Objects’. Stella saw a little jade truth god, a grotesque painting of a deranged-looking child holding a knife, and a stuffed hyena that looked like it was about to start cackling at any moment. Each item had a small card attached to it, naming the object and who had stolen it. Stella peered at the nearest label and saw that it said: ‘“Laughing Hyena” – stolen by Leeroy Livingston from the Lost City of Muja-Muja.’

Noticing a dark shape out of the corner of her eye, Stella glanced down and saw that Koa had appeared beside her. The shadow wolf was staring