28
a night of talking
the children all sat up at once, and the girls thankfully stretched their arms and legs. ‘you areheavy, philip,’ grumbled dinah. ‘oh bill – what awful bad luck to have no petrol just as we mustbe so near shore!’
jack reached out for kiki. his hands felt over her body anxiously, and down her legs, and overher beak. where was she hurt?
kiki nestled close to him, murmuring funny little words that had no sense. ‘you’re not hurt,silly bird,’ said jack thankfully. ‘you made a fuss for nothing. i’m ashamed of you.’
‘poor kiki, poor kiki, send for the doctor,’ murmured kiki, and put her head under her wing.
‘she’s not hurt, as far as i can make out,’ said jack to the others, ‘but she must have had anawful scare. perhaps a bullet zipped very near her.’
‘oh, forget kiki for a moment and let’s talk about ourselves,’ said dinah. ‘bill, what are wegoing to do?’
bill sat lost in thought. what was the best thing to do? it was no joke to be in charge of fourchildren, with such dangerous enemies so near. would it be best to make for this lagoon-island,whatever it was? it should at least be within rowing distance. or would it be best to row furtheron?
‘we’ll make for your lagoon-island,’ he said at last. ‘it’s the best idea.’
‘it can’t be far away,’ said jack, straining his eyes in the darkness. ‘i think i can make out adark shape over there. can you, philip?’
‘yes,’ said philip. ‘look, over there, bill! can you see?’
‘not a thing,’ said bill. ‘but i’ll take your word for it. you youngsters have got such sharp eyesand ears. now, where are the oars?’
they were soon found, and the slow splish-splash of rowing came to the ears of the girls, asthey sat huddled together for warmth.
‘yes – it is land of some sort,’ said bill, after a while, with satisfaction. ‘we’ll be ashore soon. ionly hope there are no rocks to run aground on.’
‘oh no,’ said jack. ‘we’ll be all right. there aren’t any rocks near the lagoon-island. at least,not the part where we should be coming to now.’
but hardly were the words out of his mouth before there came a horrid grinding noise, and theboat shivered from end to end. everyone got a terrible shock. whatever was happening now?
‘on the rocks!’ said bill grimly. ‘and i don’t somehow think we’ll get her off! she means tostay here all right!’
the boat could not be moved. jack anxiously switched on a torch, and tried to see what hadhappened. it was only too plain!
‘there are rocks all round,’ he said dolefully. ‘we haven’t come to the right part of the island atall. goodness knows where we are.’
‘let’s see if we’re holed,’ said bill, and took jack’s torch. he examined the boat thoroughly,and gave a sigh of relief. ‘no. it looks as if we’re safe so far. she must have run right on to ashallow ledge of rock. it’s no use doing anything about it now. we’ll have to wait till it’s light andthen see if we can shift her. if we mess about now and do get her off, we shall only get on to otherrocks at once.’
‘well, let’s snuggle down in rugs and have something to eat, and talk then,’ said lucy-ann. ‘ishould never, never be able to go to sleep.’
‘none of us could tonight,’ said jack. ‘i’ve never felt so wide awake in my life. i’m going to getsome clothes on first. i haven’t had time to put any on. wasn’t i glad to get some rugs round me,though!’
‘i’m pretty wet through myself,’ said bill. ‘i’ll have a few rugs too, i think.’
‘there’s some clothes of horace’s in that locker,’ said dinah. ‘the one behind you. we gavehim all of his, as we thought, but i found some more yesterday, tucked away there. they won’t fityou, bill, but at least they’ll keep you warm.’
‘good,’ said bill, and opened the locker. ‘i’ll put them on now, if i can feel what they are in thedark. you girls get some food, if you’ve got any. pity we can’t boil a kettle and get something hotinto us!’
soon bill and the boys had dry clothes on. then all five of them sat close together for warmth,and ate biscuits and chocolate hungrily.
‘now suppose we tell each other what’s happened since i so hurriedly departed from puffinisland,’ said bill.
‘you tell your tale first,’ said lucy-ann, pressing close to him. ‘oh, bill, it’s good to have youback! i was so scared when we found you were gone, and the engine of the motor-boat smashedup, and the radio too.’
yes. they told me they’d done that,’ said bill. ‘apparently they didn’t know you kids were onthe island at all – so i didn’t say a word, of course. well – to make a long story short, when i wasfiddling about with the radio that night, on our boat, trying to get a message through – and notsucceeding, unfortunately . . .’
‘oh, bill – then we shan’t be rescued!’ said lucy-ann at once. ‘oh, we did hope you wouldhave sent a message for help or something! . . .’
‘well, headquarters knew that i was on to something up here, but no more than that,’ said bill.
‘anyway, as i say, i was fiddling with the radio – when i suddenly got a blow on the head, anddown i went. then i knew nothing more at all until i woke up on some other island, a prisoner in ashack!’
‘the enemy didn’t hurt you, did they?’ asked lucy-ann anxiously.
bill didn’t answer that. he went on with his tale. ‘they questioned me, of course, and gotnothing out of me at all. the queer part was that the very men i’d been told to disappear from,because they were after me, were the very men we bumped into up here! this was where theywere carrying on their activities! i had thought it was somewhere in wales – but they made methink that by laying false clues.’
‘oh, bill – and to think this wild desolate sea, with all its little islands, was the very place theyhad chosen, and we too chose to come to!’ said jack. ‘they must have thought you’d found outtheir hiding-place, and had come to track them down.’
‘just what they did think,’ said bill. ‘and what’s more they imagined that one or other of theirmen must have given their secret away, and they wanted to find out from me who it was. that waswhy they held me for questioning, i imagine – instead of bumping me off at once.’
‘humpy-dumpy-bumpy,’ said kiki, taking her head out from under her wing. but nobody paidthe slightest attention. bill’s story was too absorbing.
‘they wanted to know how much i knew, and who had told me,’ said bill. ‘well, i didn’tactually know very much, and what i did know nobody had told me, so they didn’t get a great dealout of me – and they were not pleased.’
‘didn’t you really know very much then?’ said philip, astonished.
‘i knew this gang were up to something illegal – i knew they were getting a lot of money fromsomewhere – i guessed it was something to do with guns,’ said bill. ‘i tried to put several spokesin their wheel, and they got wise to the fact that i was after them. i’d cleaned up a nasty littlebusiness of theirs once before – though we didn’t get the chief ones then – so i wasn’t popular.’
‘and they decided to track you down and bump you off!’ said jack. ‘so you were told todisappear – and lo and behold! you came here to disappear . . .’
‘and walked right into the hornets’ nest,’ agreed bill. ‘and took you with me too! how is ityou kids always attract adventures? as soon as i go near you, an adventure leaps up, and we allget caught in it.’
‘it is very peculiar,’ said jack. ‘go on, bill.’
‘well, then my guards suddenly brought mr horace tipperlong to my shack,’ said bill. ‘theyappeared to think that he was a pal of mine, and was up here among these islands to help me in mysnooping. he was just as bewildered as i was. i couldn’t make him out at all. but when we werealone, he began to tell me about you kids, and i guessed what had happened. you were absolutelittle demons to him, according to his story.’
‘yes, we were,’ said jack remorsefully, remembering their treatment of the puzzled and angryhorace. ‘you see, we honestly thought he was one of the enemy, got up to look like a rather goofyornithologist, sent to capture us and make us get into his boat – so . . .’
‘we captured him instead, and pushed him down a hole we found, and kept him there,’ saiddinah.
‘and conked him on the head every time he popped up, it appears,’ said bill. ‘i shouldn’t havethought you were so bloodthirsty. he said even the girls took turns at hitting him.’
‘well!’ said everyone, in shocked astonishment at such colossal untruths. ‘bill! we never hithim once!’
‘i wouldn’t have been surprised at the boys giving him one or two knocks, if they really thoughthe was one of the enemy sent to capture them,’ said bill, ‘but i simply could not imagine the girlshitting him. he said lucy-ann was the worst.’
‘oh! and i was the only one that said i couldn’t possibly,’ said lucy-ann, really shocked atsuch wicked statements.
‘anyway, apparently you gave him an awful time, and then made off with his boat, leaving himto be captured by the enemy,’ said bill. ‘you know, i couldn’t help grinning when i heard it all.
there’s plenty of pluck in you kids! the enemy took him off in their boat and didn’t believe aword of his story about your taking him prisoner. they really thought he was a pal of mine. ofcourse, i pretended not to believe his tale about there being children on the island either, because ididn’t want you captured as well. but i did wonder what was happening to you when i heardyou’d taken his boat. horace said it was no longer in the little harbour when he was yanked onboard the enemy’s boat.’
‘i don’t like horace,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i hope the enemy give him an awful time! he’s silly andhe’s untruthful and he’s a coward.’
‘and if he hadn’t yelled out when he did tonight, just after i’d opened the hatch of the cabin tolet you out, bill, we’d have been able to capture that big fast motor-boat, and get right back to themainland,’ said jack gloomily. ‘silly idiot – yelling like that!’
‘yes, that was a great pity,’ said bill. ‘now you tell me your story.’
so the children told it, and bill listened with interest and amazement. when they came to the bitabout the lagoon, and what was hidden there, he held his breath in astonishment.
‘so that’s where they put the guns – dropped them by parachute into a secret lagoon – and thenmeant to get them up again as soon as the time was ripe – and take them away by seaplane. gun-running on the grand scale!’
‘we were jolly astonished when we watched it all happening,’ said jack.
‘i should think so!’ said bill. ‘it’s beyond belief! and to think you children stumbled on thewhole secret. my word, if only i could get a message through to headquarters, we’d catch thewhole gang red-handed!’
‘it’s been pretty thrilling,’ said philip. ‘we had some scares, i can tell you, bill.’
‘you’re good kids,’ said bill. ‘good and plucky kids. i’m proud of you. but there’s one thing idon’t understand. why didn’t you make for safety, when you captured horace’s boat? why didyou mess about here?’
‘well . . .’ said jack, ‘you see – we had the choice of making for safety – or trying to find you.
and we chose to try and find you, bill. even lucy-ann voted for that.’
there was a silence. then bill put his big arms all round the huddled-up four and gave themsuch a hug that lucy-ann gasped.
‘i don’t know what to say,’ said bill, in a queer sort of voice. ‘you’re only kids – but you’re thefinest company of friends anyone could have. you know the meaning of loyalty already, and evenif you’re scared you don’t give up. i’m proud to have you for my friends.’
‘oh, bill!’ said lucy-ann, tremendously thrilled to hear such a speech from her hero. ‘you arenice. you’re our very very best friend, and you always will be.’
‘always,’ said dinah.
the boys said nothing, but they glowed inwardly at bill’s praise. friendship – loyalty –staunchness in face of danger – they and bill both knew these things and recognised them for thefine things they were. they felt very close to bill indeed.
‘look!’ said lucy-ann suddenly. ‘the dawn! over there, in the east. oh, bill – i wonderwhat’s going to happen today?’
