Lucky knew he should do as he was told, but he didn’t want to stay! The strange man was coming after him!
“Stay, Lucky!” It was Georgia’s firmest voice. If he did as he was told, he might get dog treats – he knew Georgia had them in her bag. And he was very hungry. The man was coming closer. Lucky stayed still, and looked imploringly up at Georgia. Did he really have to stay?
“Yes, good boy, Lucky! Stay!” Georgia sounded pleased with him.
The man was nearly at his ledge now, and Lucky wanted to growl at him. He didn’t look nice at all with that big white helmet on. But he kept quiet. He was sure Georgia wouldn’t want him to.
“You’re a good dog, aren’t you?” the man called, as he climbed on to the ledge. The man’s voice was actually quite nice, and Lucky stopped shivering. “Look what I’ve got.” The coastguard held out a bit of biscuit, and Lucky gulped it down gratefully. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all, even if he did look scary. “Want some more biscuit?” The man reached down and picked him up, and gave him a whole biscuit this time. “Aren’t you a little star, hey? Come on then.” And he started back over the rocks to the boat, with Lucky tucked tightly under one arm.
Up on the top of the cliff, Georgia hugged Adam tightly. “They’ve got him, they’ve got him, Lucky’s really going to be OK!”
Chapter Eight
Adam hugged Georgia back, laughing, and then turned back to peer over the edge. “Hey, shhh, they’re calling us!”
“We’ll take him round to the small beach in the boat!” one of the men shouted up to Adam and Georgia. “We’ll meet you there, OK? You’re both all right, aren’t you? Not hurt at all?”
“We’re fine! Thank you!” Adam yelled back, and Georgia called, “Good boy, Lucky!” They raced back along the top of the cliff as fast as they could, making for the path down to the beach just in front of the cottage.
“I can see our car parked behind the cottage!” Adam yelled to Georgia. “Mum and Dad are probably down on the beach. We’d have met them on the path if they’d come after us, they must have seen the boat and gone to watch.”
They scrambled down the path and ran across the sand to the little group of people who’d gathered to watch the coastguard boat pull in. It beached with a soft crunch of sand, and one of the men jumped over the side into the water, which only came halfway up his big orange boots. Another of the coastguards handed Lucky over the side to the man, and Georgia ran into the water to take him, even though she had her trainers on.
Lucky was squeaking with delight at seeing her and Adam, and he wriggled madly, trying to get out of the man’s arms to reach her.
“He’s a lovely little dog, isn’t he?” the man told her, as he handed Lucky over. “Did I hear you calling him Lucky?”
Georgia nodded, and the man laughed. “Well, you certainly named him right. He’s very lucky. Could have been a lot worse. You look after him now. Don’t let him go near the edge of any more cliffs.”
“I won’t,” Georgia said. “It was my fault he fell. We’ll be more careful, I promise.” She laughed as Lucky licked her all over, and then licked Adam’s face too.
“You were right to call 999 though,” the man told them. “Don’t you ever go climbing down those cliffs yourselves.”
Adam shuddered. “We won’t.”
“Georgia! Adam!”
Mum and Dad were making their way through the small crowd, looking horrified.
“What on earth happened?” Mum demanded.
“Sorry, Mum…” they murmured. “There was an accident,” Georgia added. “Lucky went over the edge of the cliff.”
“That cliff?” Dad gazed up at it, his face pale. “But we agreed you’d keep him on the lead up there.” Dad looked from Georgia to Adam. He seemed really disappointed.
“They did the right thing,” the coastguard told Mum and Dad. “They called 999, and got us out to help.”
Mum nodded. “Thank you so much.”
Georgia caught her arm. “Mum, can we explain later, please? Lucky hurt his leg when he fell; we have to take him to a vet.”
“There’s a vet’s on Woolbridge high street, just down from the supermarket,” the coastguard told them. “Good luck. I hope it’s nothing too serious.” And he splashed back to the boat, with everyone waving and cheering, and they sped away.
Lucky yawned sleepily, and licked at the bandage on his paw. It was itchy, and he was sure if he nibbled it carefully he could pull it off.
“Hey, don’t do that, Lucky.” Georgia sat down beside him, and tickled him under the chin. “You know if you keep chewing it, you’ll have to wear that horrible collar thing, and you wouldn’t like that. The vet says the bandage has to stay on for at least a week.”
“He was so lucky not to break anything,” Mum said. “You really did choose the right name, Georgia. Only four stitches, and the pulled muscles. It could have been so much worse.” Mum’s face was serious. After they’d got back from the vet’s the day before, she and Dad had made Georgia and Adam sit down and tell them exactly what had happened up on the cliff path. They’d felt awful as they explained that it was all their fault Lucky had fallen and got hurt. Then Mum and Dad had told them how disappointed they were.
Georgia shivered. “I know,” she said. “I don’t want to go along the cliff-top path ever again.”
“Me neither,” Adam agreed, munching on chocolate-spread toast.
“It’s a pity not to go out though,” said Mum, getting up to check the weather from the window. “It’s such a lovely day. You two could go down to the beach with Dad, if you like. I can stay and watch Lucky.”
Georgia shook her head, and glanced at Adam to see that he was doing the same. “I’d rather stay here and be with Lucky,” she explained. “Yesterday was so scary. I just want to be with him for a bit.” She stroked his ears lovingly, and Lucky yawned, and nudged her with his little damp nose.
Adam came over, and slipped Lucky a dog treat. Lucky gulped it down happily. Everyone was being so nice to him!
Dad nodded. “Well, we’ve still got three more days of the holiday left. Lucky might be all right to go down to the beach tomorrow if we’re careful. And it’s good just having a quiet day, anyway.”
There was a loud knock at the door, and Adam burst out laughing.
Dad sighed. “What did I say that for?” He got up, and went out to the front door, coming back with a dark-haired woman, with a big camera hanging round her neck. “It seems you’re famous, you two,” Dad said, smiling. “This is Melissa, from the local paper. She heard all about yesterday’s adventure, and wants a photo of you and Lucky.”
“It’s such a lovely story,” the reporter explained. “And apparently you called the coastguard yourselves? That was really good thinking.”
Adam grinned proudly. “That was me. But it was actually Georgia who kept Lucky safe all the time he was on the ledge. She was brilliant at getting him to stay.”
Georgia smiled. “But it was our fault Lucky fell,” she added sadly. “We were arguing over who got to hold his lead and we dropped it, and he ran off and slipped over the cliff edge.”