3

two letters – and a plan

the next day philip had a letter from dinah. he showed it to the others.

‘old dinah’s having a rough time,’ he said. ‘it’s a good thing i leave heresoon. it’s better for her when i’m there.’

dear phil [said dinah in her letter],

aren’t you ever coming back? not that you’re much good for anythingexcept quarrelling with, but still it’s pretty lonely here with nobody butuncle and aunt and joe, who’s even more strange than before. he told meyesterday not to go out at night down the cliff, because there are ‘things’

wandering about. he’s quite mad. the only ‘things’ wandering aboutbesides me are the sea-birds. there are thousands of them here this year.

don’t, for goodness’ sake, bring any creatures home these holidays. youknow how i hate them. i shall die if you bring a bat again, and if you dare totry and train earwigs like you did last year, i’ll throw a chair at your head!

aunt polly is making me work awfully hard. we wash and scrub andclean all day, goodness knows what for, because nobody ever comes. i shallbe glad when it’s time to go off to school again. when do you come back? iwish we could earn some money somehow. aunt polly is worrying herselfto death because she can’t pay some bill or other, and uncle swears hehasn’t got the money, and wouldn’t give it to her if he had. i supposemother would send more money if we asked her, but it’s pretty awful tohave her slaving away as she does, anyhow. tell me more about frecklesand lucy-ann. i like the sound of them.

your loving sister,

dinah

dinah sounded rather fun, jack thought, as he read the letter and gave itback to philip. ‘here you are, tufty,’ he said. ‘dinah sounds lonely. hallo –there’s mr roy beckoning me. i’ll see what he wants. more work, isuppose.’

by the same post had come a letter for mr roy, from the housekeeperwho looked after jack’s uncle geoffrey. it was short and to the point.

mr roy had read it with dismay, and then called jack in to show him theletter. jack read it, also filled with dismay.

dear mr roy [said the letter],

mr trent has broken his leg, and he doesn’t want the children back theseholidays. he wants to know if you will keep them with you, and he sends acheque to cover the rest of the time. they can come back two days beforeschool begins, to help me to sort out their clothes.

yours faithfully,

elspeth miggles

‘oh, mr roy!’ groaned jack who, much as he disliked his home, dislikedthe thought of staying on with mr roy, and with the peevish oliver, whowas also staying on, even more than the thought of returning to his irritableuncle. ‘i don’t see why lucy-ann and i can’t go back – we shan’t go nearuncle.’

mr roy did not want jack to stay on any more than the boy himself did.

the thought of having that parrot for one day longer than he needed tofilled him with horror. he had never in his life disliked anything so much ashe disliked kiki. rude boys he could deal with, and did – but rude parrotswere beyond him.

‘well,’ said mr roy, pursing up his lips and looking at kiki with dislike,‘well – i’m sure i don’t want to keep you any longer, because it’s a purewaste of your time to be here – you haven’t learnt a thing – but i don’t seewhat else to do. it’s quite plain that your uncle doesn’t want you back – youcan see he has sent quite a generous cheque to cover the rest of your stayhere – but i had other plans. with only oliver here, i intended to do a littlevisiting. i wish we could find some place for you to go to, you and lucy?ann.’

jack went back to his sister and to philip, looking so dismayed that lucy?ann slipped her arm into his at once.

‘what is it? what’s the matter?’

‘uncle doesn’t want us back,’ said jack, and explained about the letter.

and mr roy doesn’t want us here – so it looks as if nobody loves us at themoment, lucy-ann.’

the three children looked at one another. and then philip had his brain?wave. he clutched at jack, almost knocking kiki off her balance.

‘jack! come back home with me! you and lucy-ann can come tocraggy-tops! dinah would be thrilled. you could have a fine time with thesea-birds. what about it?’

jack and lucy-ann stared in excitement and delight. go to craggy-tops?

live in an old half-ruined house, with a learned uncle, an impatient aunt, astrange handyman and the sound of the sea all the time? now that reallywould be thrilling!

jack sighed and shook his head. he knew that the plans of childrenseldom came to anything when grownups had to be consulted about them.

‘it’s no good,’ he said. ‘uncle geoffrey would probably say no – and mrroy would anyway – and your uncle and aunt would just hate to have extrachildren on their hands.’

they wouldn’t,’ said philip. ‘you could give them the cheque that youruncle geoffrey sent to mr roy, and i bet my aunt would be thrilled. itwould pay that bill dinah talked about in her letter.’

‘oh, philip – oh, jack – do let’s go to craggy-tops!’ begged lucy-ann,her green eyes shining. ‘i’d like it more than anything in the world. we’ll bein the way here, jack, if we stay on, you know we will – and i’m sure mrroy will kill kiki one day if she says any more rude things to him.’

kiki gave a hideous screech and stuck her head hard into jack’s neck.

‘it’s all right, kiki,’ said jack. ‘i won’t let anyone hurt you. lucy-ann,honestly it’s no good asking mr roy to see if we can go to craggy-tops. hethinks it’s his duty to have us here, and we’ll have to stay.’

‘well, let’s go without asking him, then,’ said lucy-ann recklessly. theboys stared at her without speaking. that was an idea. go without asking!

well – why not?

‘it would be all right if we all turned up at craggy-tops together, really itwould,’ said philip, though he was by no means certain that it would be allright at all. ‘you see, once you were there, my uncle and aunt couldn’t verywell turn you out, and i could get aunt polly to telephone to mr roy andexplain things to him, and get him to send her the cheque your unclegeoffrey sent for you.’

‘mr roy would be glad to think we had gone,’ said lucy-ann, thinkingwhat fun it would be to know dinah. ‘uncle geoff wouldn’t care anyhow.

so let’s, jack, do let’s.’

‘all right,’ said jack, giving way suddenly. ‘we’ll all go off together.

when is your train, tufty? we’ll go down to the station saying that we’llsee you off – and we’ll hop into the carriage at the last minute and go withyou.’

‘oooh!’ said lucy-ann, thrilled.

‘where’s your handkerchief? said kiki sensing the excitement, androcking herself to and fro on jack’s shoulder. nobody took any notice ofher. ‘poor old kiki,’ said the parrot sorrowfully. ‘poor old kiki.’

jack put up a hand and fondled the parrot, thinking out ways and meansof escape. ‘we could wheel my trunk and lucy-ann’s down to the stationthe night before, when we take yours,’ he said. ‘nobody would notice ourswere gone out of the loft. we could buy our tickets then too. has anyoneany money?’

the three of them put their money together. it would probably just buythe tickets. they simply must go off together! now that they had made uptheir minds, it was quite unthinkable that anything should be allowed toprevent it.

so they made their plans. the day before philip was due to leave, histrunk was taken from the loft, and jack managed to get his downunobserved too. he pushed it into a big cupboard in his room, and lucy?ann helped him pack it when no one was about.

‘i’ll wheel my trunk down to the station on the barrow, sir,’ said philip tomr roy. it was the custom to do this, and the master nodded, not takingmuch notice. he wished jack and that parrot were going too.

the boys managed to get both trunks on to the barrow without beingseen, and set off to the station in great spirits. escape seemed quite easy,after all. sam and oliver did not seem to notice anything. sam was tooexcited at leaving for home himself, and oliver too miserable at the idea ofbeing left behind to bother about anyone else.

the next morning philip said a polite goodbye to mr roy. ‘thank you forall your help and coaching, sir,’ he said. ‘i think i shall get on well nextterm now. goodbye, sir.’

‘goodbye, philip. you’ve not done badly,’ said mr roy.

philip shook hands with mr roy, who drew back a little as a mouse ranout of the boy’s sleeve. philip tucked it back again.

‘how can you have those creatures running about you like that?’ said mrroy, and sniffed loudly.

‘where’s your handkerchief?’ said the parrot at once, and mr roy glaredat it. as usual it was on jack’s shoulder.

‘could i go down to the station with lucy-ann and see philip off?’ askedjack. kiki gave a squawk of laughter, and jack gave her a little slap. ‘bequiet! there’s nothing to laugh at.’

‘naughty boy!’ said kiki, just as if she knew what mischief was in jack’smind.

‘yes, you can go down and see philip off,’ said mr roy, thinking that itwould be nice to get rid of the parrot for a little while. so the children wentoff together, grinning secretly at each other. kiki had the last word with mrroy.

‘can’t you shut the door?’ she bawled. mr roy gave an exasperatedclick, and banged the door. he heard the parrot’s cackle of laughter as thechildren went down the road.

‘if only i need never see that bird again,’ he thought to himself, littleknowing that his wish was about to come true.

jack, lucy-ann and philip arrived at the station in plenty of time. theyfound their luggage and gave it to the porter to put on the train. when theengine steamed in they found an empty carriage and got in. no one stoppedthem. no one guessed that two of the children were running away. they allfelt thrilled and rather nervous.

‘i do hope your uncle and aunt won’t send us back,’ said jack, strokingkiki to quieten her. she did not like the noise of the trains, and had alreadytold one to stop whistling. an old lady looked as if she were about to getinto their carriage, but when kiki gave one of her appalling screeches, shethought again and hurried a good way up the train.

at last the train moved off, with many snorts that caused the excitedparrot to tell it to use its handkerchief, much to the children’s amusement. itsteamed out of the station, and, in the distance, the children saw the housewhere they had lived for the past few weeks, sitting at the bottom of the hill.

‘well – we’re off,’ said philip, pleased. ‘and it was perfectly easy foryou to escape, wasn’t it? golly, what fun it will be to have you and lucy-ann at craggy-tops! dinah will be thrilled to bits when we arrive.’

‘off to craggy-tops!’ sang lucy-ann. ‘off to the sea and the wind andthe waves! off to craggy-tops!’

yes – off to craggy-tops – and to a wild and astonishing time that notone of the children could possibly have imagined. off to craggy-tops – andoff to adventure.