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my way. “If you’rethirsty, use the tap in the stables. I’ve been driving all day and I want an early night, so scat.”
    I trudged over to the stables where my mates were waiting expectantly. “Sorry,” I sighed. “Mum did her sheepdog routine and headed me off.”
    “We could always just smash it,” suggested Rosie hopefully.
    I shook my head. “This place is quieter than a graveyard. Make that
two
graveyards,” I added gloomily. “If we start breaking glass, someone’s bound to ask awkward questions.”
    Frankie sighed. “We’ll have to wait till we’re by ourselves.”
    “If we’ve got to wait, we could just buy a corkscrew in the village,” Rosie pointed out.
    “Good thinking. We’ll get one first thing,” I said. “Now get your jimjams on
fast.
Mum’s coming.”
    We’d just dived under our covers when Mum came up the stairs, looking shattered. “Everyone OK?” she said wearily.
    My mates gazed back at her with innocent eyes. “Yes, Mrs Collins,” they chanted.
    “Good. Sorry if I was a bit snappy earlier,” said Mum. “It’s been a long day. Sleep tight.” She started off down the stairs.
    “Oh, owing to popular request,” she called back in a jokey voice, “we’ll be leaving for the pleasure beach immediately after breakfast. So I want that light off in five minutes, OK?”
    We waited until we heard her footsteps fade away.
    Then Kenny hissed, “I can’t wait till morning, can you? Let’s creep into the house when everyone’s asleep. How hard can it be to find a corkscrew?”
    Fliss was horrified. “I’m not going creeping around a haunted house in the dark. No WAY!”
    “It’s not haunted, you wally,” said Kenny scornfully. “Lyndz’s uncle was just kidding around.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t think he was.” Don’t tell my mates, but I wasn’t too crazy about meeting a ghost with a secret sorrow either!
    “Kenz, I’m totally cream-crackered,” saidFrankie. “Can’t we wait till tomorrow like we agreed?”
    I sighed. Thingybobby kids are always up for an adventure, no matter how tired they are. Plus they would never let some depressive ghost get between them and a vital corkscrew.
    But this was my world and the fact was, I was totally cream-crackered too.
    “Shall we have our feast tomorrow then?” said Rosie, who always likes to have everything planned out.
    “Mmn, OK,” we mumbled sleepily.
    She reached out to turn the light off. “Night everyone.”
    “Night.”
    SNAP! We were plunged into inky darkness.
    “Eek!” squeaked Fliss. “I can’t see!”
    “There’s no street lights, you nutcase,” Frankie jeered. “What did you expect?”
    “She didn’t expect it to be so dark, obviously.” I said. “Duh!”
    “Yeah, no need to be so superior, Francesca Thomas,” snarled Fliss.
    “Oh all of you just SHUT up!” said Rosie exasperatedly.
    A huffy silence filled the room.
    There were no curtains at the window, and I could see the moon floating in the darkness, looking unusually huge. After a while I could see stars too, looking loads brighter than they do at home.
    As my eyes adjusted, I noticed a faint gleam on the chest of drawers, where we’d left the bottle. The glass was catching the moonlight, which only made our thrilling find look more mysterious than ever.
    Where had it come from? I wondered. And who’d put the message inside? And
why
?
    I mean, it had to be absolutely ancient. No-one would put a message in a bottle these days. Not when they’ve got mobile phones and e-mail.
    It’s so unfair, I thought. The Thingybobby kids have
weeks
to solve their mysteries. We’ve only got till Sunday.
    I punched my pillow. How could I sleep when I didn’t know if our message was an SOS from a kidnap victim, or a bloodstained map describing where to find hidden treasure?
    But somehow sleep crept up on me,because next time I opened my eyes it was dawn and I was listening to weird snuffling sounds.
    All the tiny hairs on my arms stood up.