10
PARADISE ISLAND
EARLY EVENING
They dug up nearly two hundred still-soft turtle eggs, and wrapped them carefully in the orange sail. Then Mac gently deposited the entire huge bundle into their raft, and cushioned it with the remainder of their supplies.
He was amazed by the variety of sturdy baskets Esther had whipped together, and the amount of food Penny and she had collected in just a few short hours.
If they’d had more time, they would have dragged the raft up to the cave first, then gone back for the immense turtle. But the rising wind was already stinging their faces with hard-driven sand and dead leaves.
He solved the dilemma by tying the raft’s trailing rope around his waist and wading through the surf, while Conners and he each grasped a clawed foot and hauled the turtle b
