13

joe is tricked again

joe thought about the mystery of the children being in the town, with, as faras he knew, no possible way of getting there – except by walking, and thisthey had not had time to do. he came to the conclusion that they must knowsomeone who gave them a lift there.

so he set himself to watch the children closely. he managed to find jobsthat always took him near them. if they went down to the shore, he wouldbe there, collecting driftwood. if they stayed in the house, he stayed too. ifthey went up on the cliff, joe followed. it was most annoying for thechildren.

‘he’ll follow us and find out about bill smugs and his boat and car,’ saidlucy-ann. ‘we haven’t been able to go and see him at all today – and if hegoes on like this we shan’t be able to go tomorrow either.’

it was impossible to give joe the slip. he was very clever at keeping awatch on the children, and soon they grew angry. the two girls went up intothe tower-room with the boys that night and discussed the matter together.

‘i know,’ said jack suddenly. ‘i know how we can give him the slipproperly, and puzzle him terribly.’

‘how?’ asked the others.

‘why, we’ll all go into the caves,’ said jack. ‘and we’ll slip down thehole into the secret passage, and go up to craggy-tops cellar, slip out ofthere whilst joe is waiting down on the beach for us, and go over the cliffsto bill.’

‘oooh, that is a good idea,’ said philip. the girls were doubtful about it,for they neither of them liked the idea of the secret passage very much. still– they all had torches now, and it would be a good chance to use them.

so next day, with joe close on their heels, the four children and kikiwent down to the beach.

‘joe, for goodness’ sake leave us alone,’ said philip. ‘we’re going intothe caves, and no harm can come to us there. go away!’

‘miss polly said i was to keep an eye on you,’ repeated joe. he had toldthe children this times without number, but they knew it wasn’t the realreason. joe enjoyed making himself a nuisance. he wanted to poke his noseinto everything they did.

they went into the caves. joe wandered outside, putting driftwood intohis sack. the children all slipped down the hole that led to the secretpassage, and then, with their torches switched on, they made their wayalong it.

the girls didn’t like it at all. they hated the smell, and when they foundthat in one part it was difficult to breathe, they stopped.

‘well, it’s no good going back,’ said philip, giving dinah a shove tomake her go on. ‘we’ve come more than halfway now. do go on, dinah.

you’re holding us up.’

‘don’t push!’ said dinah. ‘i shall stop if i want to.’

‘oh, shut up arguing, you two,’ groaned jack. ‘i believe you’d start aquarrel if you were in a ship that was just about to sink, or an aeroplaneabout to crash. get on, dinah, we’ll be out soon.’

dinah was about to start an argument with jack too, when kiki gave amournful cough, so exactly like joe’s that the children at first thought theman must have found the passage, and all of them, dinah as well, hurriedforward at once.

‘it’s all right – it was only that wretch kiki,’ said jack, relieved, as kikicoughed again. they pushed on, and at last came to the end of the passage.

they all stared at the trap-door above their heads, brightly lit by the light oftheir four torches.

up it went, and over with a crash. the boys climbed up to the cellar floorand then helped the girls up. they shut the trap-door, went to the cellardoor, which was shut, and pushed it open. the boxes on the other side fellover again with a familiar crashing noise.

the children went through the door, shut it, piled the boxes up again, andthen went up the cellar steps to the big kitchen. no one was there. that waslucky.

out they went, and up to the cliff. keeping to the path, where they werewell hidden from the shore below, they hurried off to find their friend billsmugs. they grinned to think of joe waiting down on the beach for them tocome out of the caves.

bill smugs was tinkering with his boat. he waved cheerily as they cameup.

‘hallo,’ he said, ‘why didn’t you come and see me yesterday? i missedyou.’

‘it was because of joe,’ said jack. ‘he keeps following us around like ashadow. i think he probably suspects we have a friend who has a car, and hemeans to find out who it is.’

‘well, don’t tell him anything,’ said bill quickly. ‘keep things toyourself. i don’t want him prying around here. he doesn’t sound at all anice person.’

‘what are you doing to your boat?’ asked jack. ‘are you going out in it?’

‘i thought i would,’ said bill. ‘it’s a fine day, the sea is fairly calm, yetthere’s a nice breeze – and i half thought i might sail near to the isle ofgloom.’

there was an excited silence. the isle of gloom! all the children wantedto see it close to – and jack badly wanted to land there. if only bill wouldtake them with him!

jack looked out to the west. he could not see the island, for once againthere was a low heat haze on the sea. but he knew exactly where it was. hisheart beat fast. the great auk might be there. anyway, even if it wasn’t, allkinds of other sea-birds would be there – and probably as tame as anything.

he could take his camera – he could . . .

‘bill – please, please take us with you!’ begged lucy-ann. ‘oh, do!

we’ll be very good, and you know, now that you have taught us how to saila boat, we can really help.’

‘well – i meant to take you,’ said bill, lighting a cigarette, and smilinground at the children. ‘i wanted to go yesterday, and when you didn’t come,i put the trip off till today. we’ll go this afternoon, and take our tea with us.

you’ll have to give joe the slip again. he mustn’t see you sailing in my boator he’d probably try to stop you.’

‘oh, bill! we’ll be along first thing this afternoon,’ said jack, his eyesgleaming very green.

‘thanks most awfully,’ said philip.

‘shall we really see the isle of gloom close to?’ asked lucy-ann, inexcitement.

‘can’t we land there?’ said dinah.

‘i don’t think so,’ said bill. ‘you see, there is a ring of dangerous rocksaround it, and although there may once have been a passage somewherethrough them, and possibly is now, for all i know, i don’t know where it is.

i’m not going to risk drowning you all.’

‘oh,’ said the children, disappointed. they would have been quite willingto run the risk of being drowned, for the sake of trying to land on the badisle.

‘you’d better go back and have an early lunch, if your aunt will let youhave it,’ said bill. ‘i don’t want to be too late in starting. the tide will helpus, if we get off fairly early.’

‘all right,’ said the four, jumping up from the rocks at once. ‘goodbyetill this afternoon, bill. we’ll bring tea with us – as nice as we can, toreward you for waiting for us.’

they set off home again, talking eagerly of the coming trip. joe had saidso many frightening things about the desolate island that the childrencouldn’t help feeling excited at the idea of seeing it.

‘i wonder if joe is still on the beach, watching for us outside the caves,’

said jack. the children went cautiously to the edge of the cliff and peepedover. yes – he was still down there. what a sell for him!

they went to craggy-tops and found aunt polly. ‘aunt, could wepossibly have an early lunch, and then go off and take our tea with us?’

asked philip. ‘will it be any trouble? we’ll help to get the lunch, and wedon’t mind what we have.’

‘there’s a cold pie in the larder,’ said aunt polly considering. ‘and sometomatoes. and there are some stewed plums. dinah, you lay the table, andthe others can set out the food. i’ll make you some sandwiches for your tea,and there’s a ginger cake you can have too. lucy-ann, can you put thekettle on to boil? you can have some tea in a thermos flask if you like.’

‘oh, thank you,’ said the children, and set to work at once. they laid aplace for aunt polly, but she shook her head.

‘i don’t feel very well today,’ she said. ‘i’ve got a bad headache. i shan’twant anything. i shall have a good long rest while you are out thisafternoon.’

the children were sorry. certainly aunt polly did look tired out. philipwondered if his mother had sent any more money to help things along a bit,or whether aunt polly was finding things very difficult. he didn’t like toask her in front of the others. soon the children were having their dinner,and then, the tea being packed up and ready, they set off over the cliff.

they had not seen joe. the man was still down on the beach, now feelingpuzzled, and most annoyed with the vanished children. he felt certain theywere in the caves. he went in himself and called to them.

there was no answer, of course. he called again and again. ‘well, ifthey’ve lost themselves in the caves, it will be good riddance of badrubbish,’ he said to himself. he decided to go up and report the matter tomiss polly.

so up he went. the children had gone, and aunt polly was washing up.

she glanced sharply at joe.

‘where have you been all the morning?’ she asked. ‘i wanted you, andyou were nowhere to be found.’

‘looking for them children,’ said joe. ‘it’s my belief they’ve gone intothe caves down there, and got lost. i been calling and calling for them.’

‘don’t be so silly, joe,’ said aunt polly. ‘you’re just making the childrenan excuse for your laziness. you know quite well they are not in the caves.’

‘miss polly, i seed them go in, and i didn’t seed them come out,’ beganjoe indignantly, ‘i was on the beach all the time, wasn’t i? well, i tells you,miss polly, them children went into the caves, and they’re there still.’

‘no, they’re not,’ said aunt polly firmly. ‘they have just gone off for apicnic. they came in, had an early lunch and went out again. so don’t cometo me any more with silly stories about them being lost in the caves.’

joe’s mouth dropped open. he simply could not believe his ears. hadn’the been on the beach by the caves all the morning? he would have seen thechildren as soon as they came out.

‘don’t pretend to be so surprised,’ said aunt polly sharply. ‘just stiryourself and do a few jobs quickly. you will have to do this afternoon allthe things you didn’t do this morning. i expect the children did go into thecaves – but they must have slipped out when you were not looking. don’tjust stand there! get on with some of your work.’

joe shook himself, shut his mouth and went off silently to do some jobsin the house. he was full of amazement. he remembered how one night hehad chased two boys into the caves, thinking they were philip and jack –and the tide had come up and imprisoned them in the caves – but they werenot there the next morning.

and now the four children had done the same thing. joe thought it wasdecidedly uncanny. he didn’t like it. now those children had given him theslip again. where had they gone? well, it wasn’t much good trying to findout that afternoon – not with miss polly in such a bad temper anyway!