Treasure Under the Sand

Adam ran back to the boat and returned with Uncle Hamdan. When their uncle saw the tracks and the churned-up sand, he stopped, took a deep breath and smiled a huge smile.

"Well done for not digging," he said quietly, as if he were in a library. "This is the most precious spot on the whole island."

He knelt down and brushed away a very thin layer of sand with his fingers, very, very slowly.

And underneath were... eggs! Dozens of round white eggs the size of ping-pong balls, piled on top of each other in a warm hollow.

Noor clapped her hands over her mouth. "What are they?" she whispered.

"This is a green sea turtle's nest," said their uncle. "The tracks you saw belong to the mother. She came out of the sea at night, crawled up the sand, dug this hole with her flippers and laid more than a hundred eggs in it. Then she covered them up and went back to the sea before dawn."