Ralph, Peter and Jack had been washed ashore on Coral Island after their sailing ship, The Arrow, smashed against a coral reef in a great storm. The Arrow had sunk without trace and the three friends were the only survivors. Several months later, they will stranded on the island.

Jack and I were searching for shellfish in the rock pools and Peter was sunning himself on the rocks. Since being attacked by sharks, Peter was terrified of water. He kept out of the sea as much as he could and refused to dive.

Suddenly, we heard him shout, “A Sail!” He was pointing excitedly. At first, we thought he was playing one of his games. But this morning he was not joking.

“It is a sail!” I exclaimed, and we danced together on the rocks, soon joined by the excited Peter.

“Wave so they see us!” cried Jack, and we waved and shouted, sure of our rescue at last. To our delight, we saw the crew beginning to lower a rowing boat as if they meant to land. It was then that we spotted the flag on the ship’s main mast. With feeling of terror, we saw that it was black, with a Death’s-head and cross bones upon it: the skull and cross bones. “Pirates!” we gasped together. “Come on” Jack said urgently. “We must hide. If they capture us, we’ll be forced to walk the plank”.

Jack was our leader, and we followed him without argument. Behind us, the rowing boat had reached the shore. The crew leapt overboard and rushed across the white sands in pursuit.

There were five of them and they fired shots after us, their bullets thudding into the tall coconut trees. 

Jack led us through a maze of sandy passages between the rocks. A sheer drop lay before us and a deep pool that was hidden among the rocks.

“Down there”, Jack said quietly, is a cave. Jack whispered, we must decide, we either dive or stand and fight. Peter said, “I’d rather die than dive down there!” he said firmly. He began to back away. 

There are five of them Jack. We haven’t got a chance. “Then we will die”. There was a brief silence. Peter took a deep breath. He was struggling to control his fear.  “Come on then!” he cried suddenly. And before we could move to stop him, he closed his eyes and plunged forward into the silent waters. We all dived after him. Peter was clearly panicking. I saw Jack seize one of Peter’s arms, and I quickly seized the other.

Then suddenly we were in a narrow tunnel. A blinding light dazzled our eyes. We had made it! Glorious air filled my lungs. In a few seconds, we were clambering onto a ledge of dry rock.

“Thanks heavens,” I heard Jack gasp. Peter lit the torch and gasped at the brilliant stones in the roof of the cave. He said the stones on the roof was diamond. But we don’t know whether they are diamonds. There was food and water for several days in the cave. We were tired, we settled down to sleep, wondering that the morning would bring us. In our pleasure at escaping, we believed the pirates had gone.

We were to find out our mistake, but that’s another story.