Lucky had just woken up, and found an enormous green thing next to Adam, which definitely hadn’t been there when he went to sleep. He raced over and barked at it madly, chasing round and round it, kicking sand at everybody.
“Ugh! Stop him!” Mum coughed, and Adam snatched the alligator up above his head, while Georgia grabbed Lucky.
“Lucky, stop, shhh! It’s not a real one, silly. It’s for swimming. Come on, Adam, let’s show him. The sea’ll wash the sand off us, too.” She carried the squirming puppy down to the water’s edge, and Adam launched the alligator into the waves.
“We’ll have to be careful Lucky doesn’t burst it with his claws,” he said, holding the alligator steady.
Georgia leaped on board and lay down. “You can tow us,” she suggested, holding on to the side. “Come on, Lucky.” She held out an arm, expecting the puppy to swim towards it, but instead he splashed into the water, paddled out to her, then scrambled up on to her back.
“You’re a raft!” Adam yelled, and Georgia giggled, trying not to wriggle too much and tip Lucky off. His claws tickled.
They swam up and down, taking turns on the alligator, and then pulled it up on to the beach and lay there on the sand, letting the tiny waves wash over their toes.
The sun was so hot, even when they were half in the water, that Georgia almost fell asleep. She was just wondering how it was that the water seemed as warm as a bath now, when it had been freezing when she first dipped her toes in that morning, when Adam suddenly sat up and yelled. “Look! The alligator!”
She turned over and sat up. “What’s the matter?”
“I wasn’t watching. The tide’s come in,” Adam groaned. “The waves have taken it out. I’ll have to swim after it.”
Georgia stood up. “I can’t even see it. Oh no! Adam, you can’t swim right out there.”
The alligator was only a little green spot, about thirty metres from the shore where they’d be far out of their depth.
“Dad!” Adam called. But their dad still had all his clothes on, and even though he was heading over towards them, and Mum was standing up on the rug looking worried, neither of them looked like they were about to dive into the sea.
“Dad, can I swim out and get the alligator?” Adam begged. But Dad shook his head.
“I’m really sorry, Adam. It’s drifted too far. You promised not to go out of your depth, remember? Maybe someone in a boat will come past and pick it up for us.”
Adam and Georgia looked hopefully out to sea, but there were no boats around to go alligator-hunting, and the inflatable was bobbing further and further away.
Then Adam grabbed Georgia’s arm and pointed. A little golden head was suddenly bobbing through the dark-green water. Lucky could see the inflatable, and he knew that Adam wanted it back. He wasn’t quite sure why Adam wasn’t going to get it himself, but he knew he could help.
“Lucky, no!” Georgia gasped. But Lucky was already way out into the sea, swimming along happily.
“He’s too far out,” Georgia murmured worriedly. “What if he gets caught in a current and swept right out to sea?”
Adam nodded. “Let’s swim as far as we can – then we can help him back.”
They swam as fast as they could, to where their toes were only just touching the bottom. Mum and Dad were looking on. Although Georgia and Adam had promised them not to go out of their depth, secretly Georgia knew that if Lucky started sinking, she’d follow him right out into the deep water. And she was sure Adam would do the same.
But they didn’t need to. Slowly but surely, the alligator was bobbing back towards them, Lucky’s sharp teeth gripping the white tow rope.
“You star, Lucky! You rescued my alligator!” Adam grabbed the rope too, and Georgia hugged Lucky, who snuggled wearily into her shoulder. It had been a long swim, and his legs were very tired. But he had done it! Georgia and Adam were happy, he could tell.
“Georgie, you get up on the alligator with him, and I’ll pull you along,” Adam suggested.
Georgia nodded and heaved herself up on to the inflatable, carefully keeping Lucky’s claws away from the plastic. Adam towed them back in, with Georgia proudly holding Lucky in front of her.
Mum and Dad were waiting for them on the beach, smiling with relief.
“I can’t believe what a good swimmer he is!” Mum said, stroking Lucky’s soaking wet ears.
“He’s a champion,” Adam said proudly. “We’d have lost my alligator for sure if it wasn’t for Lucky.”
Georgia turned over in bed and yawned, and then giggled as a damp nose was pressed into her ear. “Hello, Lucky! Is it time to get up?” She wriggled up in bed, and pulled open the curtains to look out of the little window right next to the bunks.
“Oh!” Georgie wrinkled her nose disappointedly. The sparkling blue sea of the day before had disappeared. The sky was cloudy and the sea had settled to a dull greyish brown – it didn’t look like a day for sunbathing or swimming at all.
“Oh well,” Georgie murmured. “Never mind, Lucky. Maybe we can go exploring along the cliffs instead.”
She got out of bed, and threw on jeans and a T-shirt. She could already hear Mum and Dad moving around downstairs, and she thought she could smell toast. Lucky would need to go out into the tiny garden behind the cottage for a wee, too.
“Wake up, Adam,” she called, tickling the foot that was dangling down over the edge of the top bunk as she went past.
Adam growled something, but his duvet humped up as if he was at least partly awake.
“Let’s go and explore the cliffs this morning,” Georgia suggested a few minutes later, as she sat down at the table for breakfast. Lucky was already sitting hopefully by her foot, waiting for toast crusts.
But Adam shook his head grumpily. “No! I really want to go down to the beach at Woolbridge. You said we could, Dad! They’ve got rides on the pier there, and everything. I was talking to those boys we saw on the beach on our first day, and they said it’s excellent there.”
Georgia frowned. “But we wouldn’t be able to take Lucky! Woolbridge Beach doesn’t allow dogs in the summer, Mum said.”
“Anyway, it’s not such nice weather today,” Mum put in. “It feels more like a day for walking along the cliffs than going to the beach. We’ll do that another day, Adam.”
Adam muttered something under his breath, but Mum managed to distract him by passing him chocolate spread for his toast, which was a holiday treat.
After breakfast, they set off along the path that led from the cottage, winding through the bracken and brambles along the top of the cliff. Lucky danced ahead, tugging on his extending lead, and winding himself in and out of the brambles as he investigated all the interesting sandy holes.
“Let’s take him off the lead,” Georgia suggested, after she’d unwound him from the bramble bushes for the third time. “There’s no one else up here.”
But before Dad could answer, Lucky uttered a sharp little woof and looked round at her excitedly.
“What is it?” she asked, and then she gasped. “Oh, look! A rabbit!”
A small sandy-brown rabbit was peering back at them from the middle of a bramble bush. It looked terrified.
“Poor thing!” Georgia whispered. “It’s so scared. Lucky, you mustn’t chase it!” But Lucky was already darting forwards, the cord of his lead getting longer as he raced after the rabbit, which turned tail and dived down a nearby hole.
