The Complete Ruby Redfort Collection: Look into My Eyes; Take Your Last Breath; Catch Your Death; Feel the Fear; Pick Your Poison; Blink and You Die. Lauren Child

      ‘Wow!’ said Red. ‘You really mean there’s an actual sea-strangling monster!’

      A short grunting snort came from Elliot’s nose, then silence. His face was contorted, his eyes shut tight. There was a twenty-second pause before Elliot Finch finally erupted into uncontrollable giggles, barely audible at first but gathering volume.

      ‘You mean…’ He was almost unable to string the words together as he gulped in air. ‘You mean you think… You think the strangler has to be some kinda…’ He fell off the rock he was perched on. ‘Giant squid or humongous lobster or something? Oh boy, I think… I think I’m gonna pass out.’

      ‘Laugh all you like, sucker, but I don’t see you getting in a boat and heading out to sea.’ Ruby had had a great deal of practice when it came to keeping a straight face around Elliot – it wasn’t easy, Elliot’s giggles were very infectious and sooner or later they would get you.

      ‘I think Ruby is most probably right,’ said Red, trying hard not to succumb to the Elliot influence. She had great faith in Ruby: Ruby knew most things and was right about a lot of things. That said, Red liked to believe in monsters and ghosts, pixies even; she was what some would describe as fanciful, but others might describe as gullible. To her this was not far-fetched – she was quite prepared to believe in a monster squid or a humongous lobster. For this reason she wasn’t exactly helping Ruby’s argument.

      ‘Could you put a sock in it bozo!’ Ruby threw a burger bun at Elliot. ‘I’ve been reading up on all this stuff at the City Library and it’s all beginning to hook together. The Twinford treasure – I reckon that’s true. I reckon the Seahorse went down exactly where Martha Fairbank said it did. So what if she was also telling the truth about the sea monster?’

      ‘Wasn’t she like four years old when that happened?’ said Mouse.

      ‘Yeah, but she was the smartest kid around, that’s well documented – besides, everything she described is actually so.’