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to cry in front of the class. Very reluctantly she removed the necklace and handed it to Miss Brown.
    “Please, be careful with it,” she squeaked as Miss Brown tucked it in her pocket. “It’s valuable.”
    “If it’s that valuable then don’t bring it to school,” said Miss Brown. “Carry on, 5B, the show’s over.”
    Becky giggled then hurriedly covered it with a cough as Miss Brown glared at her.
    “Valuable?” Becky whispered unkindly. “Tacky rubbish. That’s what you said, didn’t you, Soph?”
    Sophie went scarlet and mumbled something.
    Antonia felt like slapping Becky, but forced her hands to remain by her side. Let Becky and Sophie think what they liked. That was the least of her problems. What if Spirit called for her right now? True, it would be difficult finding a way to sneak out of school, but it wasn’t impossible. Antonia remembered Bubbles telling her about the dolphin tangled in the fishing net that had died before the old Silver Dolphin had reached her. How could she live with herself if the same thing happened to her? And what if that dolphin was Bubbles?
    Stop it
. It wasn’t helpful to think like that. PE only lasted for half an hour. It was unlikely that Spirit would call her in this short time so she must concentrate on getting through the lesson then ask for her necklace back.
    Cai came towards her, jumping like a kangaroo.
    “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get it back as soon as PE’s over,” he said. Then, smiling encouragingly, he hopped away. Antonia began to feel a little better.
    At lunchtime Antonia looked for Cai, but she couldn’t find him anywhere.
    “Where’s Cai?” she called to Toby, who was kicking a ball around with his friends.
    “Dunno,” Toby panted.
    The ball whizzed past Antonia’s feet and Toby nearly tripped her up racing for it.
    “Out of the way,” he yelled.
    Antonia moved quickly. She didn’t want to annoy Toby. He’d been really nice about letting her partner up with him and Cai, and she needed some friends right now. She wandered around on her own until the bell went for the end of lunch. Then Cai appeared, running across the playground to join 5B as they filed inside.
    “Where’ve you been?” Antonia asked.
    “Nowhere special,” said Cai vaguely.
    Antonia was about to thank Cai for being nice in PE when she noticed Becky watching her. Becky whispered something to Sophie and the two girls sniggered. Then Becky puckered her lips and blew imaginary kisses in the air. “Ah, sweet,” she said in a silly voice.
    Quickly Antonia said, “Can I walk with you to Sea Watch this afternoon, Cai?”
    “Sorry, I meant to say before, it’s not on.Claudia asked me to tell everyone that she’s got to go to a meeting,” said Cai. “So I’m going to Toby’s after school.”
    Antonia felt utterly fed up. When would she ever get the answers to her questions?

Chapter Nine
    T he metal oil drum bobbed in the water as harmlessly as a log. “Don’t touch it,” Antonia warned Spirit. “Let me check it isn’t leaking first.”
    She swam round it, carefully checking for holes, and dived under the water to examine it below.
    “It’s fine,” she said, pushing her long hair out of her eyes as she surfaced. “Luckily there’s no damage.” “Is it poisonous?” asked Spirit.
    “It might be,” said Antonia. She looked back at the drum. “We did chemicals at school. That square with the big black cross inside means the drum contains something harmful. It might be slightly dangerous or much worse. It could be poison. Whatever it is, we can’t leave it here. Let’s get it ashore and then I can ask my dad or someone from Sea Watch to arrange for it to be taken away.”
    Antonia trod water, her legs moving together like a tail, while she thought about where best to land the drum.
    “We’ll take it ashore here at Gull Bay,” she decided. “It’s usually deserted at this time on a Sunday morning whereas Sandy Bay beach sometimes gets