‘Just at least tell me what you’re doing this for if you’re not going to let me help you,’ pleaded Callie. Joe had waited until nightfall before starting the next phase of his plan. With the sharp edge of the spade he had marked out a fairly large square of ground and was preparing to start digging. Callie was to keep her eyes peeled for any sign of the stranger.

‘I’m digging a trap for a very large rat,’ Joe told her in a very quiet voice in case they were being listened to. ‘I’m hoping that when we locate Vanessa and Frank tomorrow, we’ll be able to rescue them. That maniac will come looking for us, and end up in the hole kissing the dirt.’ He began to dig by the moonlight that was filtering down through the trees. Callie looked dubious.

‘Can I tell you what I think’s wrong with your plan,’ she asked.

‘Sure,’ Joe replied as he dug. ‘Frank and I always pick each others’ ideas to pieces. It’s part of being a good team. I welcome your opinion.’

‘To start with,’ said Callie, ‘you sound really confident that we’ll find them tomorrow. I don’t know how you can be so sure about that. And secondly,’ she went on, ‘if we DO rescue them, why would the guy come straight to the campsite?’

Joe paused in his digging to take off his jacket and roll up his sleeves. Perspiration glinted on his forehead.

‘Cal, Frank is 90% intellect and 10% intuition. I’m the other way around. I KNOW we’ll find Ness and Frank tomorrow. That guy will be growing tired of his game. He wants to introduce some new elements; that’s why he sent the notes.’

He picked up the spade again and recommenced digging.

‘And as for the guy coming straight to the campsite, it will just be a matter of providing the most appropriate bait.’

Callie stayed silent, concentrating on her duty as look-out. She didn’t doubt Joe’s gut feeling, or intuition as he had called it. But she had been unsettled by Joe’s comment about using ‘bait’ to lure the man into a trap. She had already come to feel like a fly in a spider’s web over the last forty-eight hours. She wondered what Joe Hardy had in mind.

After some time, all Callie could see of Joe was his blond hair and his hands as he deposited earth up from the bottom of the impressive hole he had dug. Still later, she couldn’t see him at all.

‘Joe!’ she hissed.

‘What?’ was the quick reply. ‘Did you see him?’

‘No,’ Callie assured him. ‘But how are you going to get out of there?’

‘Hopefully, with great difficulty,’ hissed Joe, puzzling her with his response. He kept digging some more until Callie heard him say, ‘Okay. Reach down and take the spade Cal.’

Taking the spade, Callie was relieved at the thought of Joe coming up out of the hole to join her. She felt a lot less vulnerable with him close by.

‘Okay,’ said Joe. ‘Let’s see if I can get out! No, don’t try and help me,’ he told her, waving away her outstretched hand.

As Callie watched, Joe tried all sorts of jumps, leaps and various other contortions to get himself out of the deep hole. It was no use.

‘Excellent! I can’t get out!’ Callie heard him say to himself. Just as she was being to become seriously worried that he had lost his mind, Joe explained to her: ‘If Joe Hardy, world’s greatest athlete, cannot get out of this hole, then the crazy kidnapper wont be able to either.’

‘Just how will the great, modest athlete get out of it now?’ she asked him with exaggerated sweetness, looking down into the hole.

‘Listen and I’ll tell you,’ he replied in a similarly sweet tone.

Ten minutes later, Callie lay on her front with her arms reaching down into the hole. She had secured a long rope around a tree stump, passed it around another sturdy tree, and held the end in one hand. The only problem was that the rope was not quite as long as they needed it to be.

‘’The tree needs to be closer,’ Joe grumbled.

‘Well I’ll just go and move the tree,’ Callie told him in a prissy voice.

‘Alright, alright,’ said Joe. ‘Just give me the rope end and reach down to me. Maybe with you helping it’ll be okay.’

Callie passed Joe the rope and felt him grab her wrists tightly.

‘Ready?’ he asked.

‘Ready,’ she replied, gritting her teeth.

With considerable effort exerted by the pair of them, Joe half climbed and half dragged himself out of the hole. For one awful moment, Callie felt herself being pulled in, but she remained determined and dug her toes into the dirt to stop her slide. Finally, as Joe let go of one of her wrists to grab more of the rope, she grabbed him by the belt loops on his jeans and helped haul the rest of him out. After a moment or two spent catching his breath, Joe looked at Callie appreciatively. She was rubbing her wrists.

‘Thanks Cal,’ he told her. ‘That would have been really difficult without you.’

‘Well next time you’ll need to use a bit more of that 10% of intellect and measure the rope first,’ she told him, trying to sound cross. In truth she was very relieved that Joe had got out safely, and proud that she had been able to help him. Joe unrolled his sleeves and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. Callie quickly did the math and realised that Joe had not slept since she had woken him to tell him the others were gone. Before he had dug the enormous hole, Joe had packed a number of items into a backpack and had spent quite a bit of time sketching a diagram. He was long overdue for some rest.

‘Help me spread some of this dirt around,’ Joe asked her. ‘We need to push it away from the hole so that it doesn’t look like one’s been dug.’ Eager to help despite her own weariness, Callie did as she was asked. After about a half an hour of work, the ground around the hole was level. Someone approaching the hole from a distance, would not be able to anticipate it. Joe took a long, satisfied look at what they had achieved and then began rubbing his eyes. He was so tired that everything seemed to be a little out of focus. He took his hand away from his face and noticed Callie looking at him critically; her hands on her hips.

‘Joe, you really need to try and get some sleep, otherwise you’re not going to be any good to anyone tomorrow,’ Callie told him in a no-nonsense fashion. Joe looked at her with tired but amused eyes.

‘You know you sounded just like a cross between Frank and Aunt Gertrude then?’

‘Oh be quiet,’ Callie told him. ‘This isn’t a joking matter Joe Hardy. No-one can go without sleep for much longer than you have. And you’ve expended a lot of energy too. I won’t let you sleep too long and I’ll keep watch.’

Joe saw the logic in her words but decided to tease her anyway.

‘Okay, but if I do go to sleep, promise me you’ll wake me in a slightly more civilized way than you did the last time. You practically scalped me!’

Callie blushed a little and handed him his jacket.

‘It’s a deal,’ she said. ‘Now put that jacket on and I’ll get a couple of blankets. Your body will be cooling right down now that you’ve stopped all that digging.’

‘Now you’re REALLY starting to sound like Frank in big bossy brother mode,’ remarked Joe, as he donned his jacket and moved over to the front of the tent.

‘Okay’, he said, ‘you win. But if I do go to sleep, make sure you wake me no later than 4am.’

‘I will,’ Callie promised him.

After about five minutes, Callie realised that Joe must have had fallen asleep, as his breathing had become slow and deep. She knew he was as worried as she was, but exhaustion had claimed him almost the instant his head had touched the pillow. Callie sat cross-legged beside Joe, the tent at her back. She kept scanning the surrounding area, ready to rouse Joe if danger presented itself. She leant forward and took a peak at Joe’s face. He did, she had to admit, look truly angelic as he slept. Frank had once told her that when he was REALLY annoyed at Joe for something, he’d wait until his brother was asleep and then steal a look at his face. It was impossible, Frank had said, to not be charmed by it. Callie had been dubious, but now she could see for herself how that was probably true.

Callie peered out into the night, beyond the fire. Was the kidnapper out there, waiting for the right moment to strike? Straining her ears, all she could hear was the crackle of the fire and the gentle rustling of the breeze in the canopy above their heads. She wondered about Frank and Vanessa and whether they were injured. If only she had been interested in the stars as well! But then perhaps she too would have been captured. Feeling panic rising inside her, she almost shook Joe awake, but stopped herself. Even though she felt so much better when Joe was awake and talking to her, he needed to sleep. Joe had looked after her and now she was determined to return the favour. She would be strong.

Trying to distract herself from terrifying thoughts, Callie noted the little pocket on the side of Joe’s jacket sleeve. She remembered seeing him place the coin half in there. She hadn’t been able to get a good look at the object, and Frank had never shown it to her. Curiosity got the better of her. With deft fingers, Callie opened the pocket and removed the metallic semi-circle. She held her hand closer to the light of the fire. The ‘J’ was clearly visible on one side. Turning it over, she read the words on the reverse side. ‘Always with you’. Biting her lip, Callie ran her finger over the inscription. Feeling inside the pocket again, she found what she knew would be there: a second half-a-coin. On one side was the letter ‘F’. The same message was on the reverse side. The two halves matched perfectly. She wondered whose idea it had been. Probably Frank’s. After returning the two objects to Joe’s pocket, she sighed, rested her hand gently on Joe’s shoulder, and resumed her scrutiny of the night.