9

hurrah for puffin island!

bill seemed so astonished that the children stared at him. surely it wasn’t so surprising to see anaeroplane, even near these desolate bird-islands?

bill took jack’s glasses and looked through them, but it was too late to make out anything.

‘i wonder if it was a seaplane or an ordinary plane,’ he said, half to himself. ‘how strange.’

‘why is it strange?’ asked dinah. ‘aeroplanes go everywhere now.’

bill said no more. he handed back the glasses to jack. ‘i think we’d better have a meal, andthen put up our tents,’ he said. ‘what about putting them by that little stream we saw on our wayhere? about a quarter of a mile from the shore. it wouldn’t be too far to carry everything if we allgive a hand.’

the tents were set up. the ground-sheets were put down and the rugs tumbled over them. then,sitting on a slight slope, looking out to the blue sea, the five of them had a glorious meal. ‘i alwaysthink,’ began lucy-ann, munching a couple of biscuits with butter and cream cheese betweenthem. ‘i always think . . .’

‘you needn’t go on,’ said jack. ‘we know what you’re going to say and we quite agree withyou.’

‘you don’t know what i’m going to say,’ said lucy-ann indignantly.

‘we do,’ said philip. ‘you say it every holiday when we have a meal out of doors.’

‘you’re going to say, “i always think food tastes much nicer when it’s eaten out of doors,”’ saiddinah. ‘aren’t you?’

‘well, i was,’ said lucy-ann. ‘do i really always say it? anyway, it’s quite true. i do think . . .’

‘yes, we know,’ said jack. ‘you’re an awful repeater, lucy-ann. you tell us the same thingsover and over again. never mind. we think the same, even if we don’t keep on saying it. kiki,take your fat beak out of the cream cheese!’

‘kiki’s awful,’ said dinah. ‘she really is. she’s pinched three biscuits already. i don’t think yougive her enough sunflower seeds, jack.’

‘golly, i like that!’ said jack. ‘she won’t even look at sunflower seeds when there’s a spreadlike this. anyway, philip, your rats can always eat them. i found squeaker in my pocket a littlewhile ago, nibbling one of them as fast as he could.’

‘i hope it won’t make him ill,’ said philip in alarm. ‘i say, look! – here comes a gull – tame asanything. it wants a biscuit too, i should think.’

it did. it had watched kiki pecking at a biscuit and enjoying it, and it didn’t see why it shouldn’thave a share. kiki saw the gull out of the corner of her eye and sidled away. the gull made apounce, got the biscuit and rose into the air, making a loud laughing noise. ‘ee-oo, ee-oo, ee-oo!’

kiki flew up angrily, calling out all kinds of things to the gull. they were meant to be very rude,but unfortunately the gull didn’t understand. kiki could not catch the strong-winged bird and flewdisconsolately back to the children.

‘you can’t complain, kiki,’ said jack. ‘you shouldn’t have pinched that biscuit out of the tin –and the gull shouldn’t have pinched it from you. it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.’

‘what a pity, what a pity!’ said kiki, and sidled near the biscuit-tin again.

‘that bird is a real clown,’ said bill, shaking the crumbs off his jersey. ‘now, who’s comingback to the boat with me to hear the news on the radio? also i must send out a few messages –especially one for your mother, philip, who will be sure to want to know if we’ve got here safely.’

they all wanted to stretch their legs, so they walked back over the soft cushions of the sea-pinks, whose bold little pink heads nodded everywhere in the wind.

they watched bill as he put up his little radio mast and fiddled about with the set. it was atransmitter as well as a receiver.

‘i suppose if you send messages home every night, we shan’t need to post letters off to auntallie,’ said lucy-ann.

everyone roared. ‘and where would you post a letter, pray?’ asked jack. ‘i haven’t seen apillar-box anywhere about. lucy-ann, you’re an idiot.’

‘yes, i am!’ said lucy-ann, going red. ‘of course we can’t post anything here! how useful thatyou can send messages, bill! then if any of us wanted help, you could get it.’

‘quite so,’ said bill. ‘but i hope if you wanted help i could whizz you off in the motor-boat.

anyway i wouldn’t have consented to bring you all away into the wilds like this, if i hadn’t atransmitter with me, so that i could send messages every night. i send them to headquarters, andthey telephone them to your aunt. so she’ll follow our travels and adventures each night.’

they watched for a while, and then listened to part of a programme. then lucy-ann yawnedand kiki imitated her. ‘blow! you make me feel sleepy,’ said dinah, rubbing her eyes. ‘look, it’sgetting dark!’

so back they went to their tents, and were soon cuddled into their rugs. the birds calledincessantly from the cliffs and the sea. ‘i believe they keep awake all night,’ thought dinah. butthey didn’t. they slept too when the darkness came at last.

the next day was very warm and close. ‘looks to me like a storm blowing up sooner or later,’

said bill, screwing up his eyes and looking into the bright sky. ‘i almost think we’d better try andfind our headquarters today, so that we have some shelter if a storm does blow up. this sort ofholiday needs fine weather if it’s going to be successful – a storm wouldn’t be at all pleasant, withonly tents to sleep in – we’d be blown to bits.’

‘i just want to take a few photographs of these cliffs and the birds on them,’ said jack. ‘i’ll dothat whilst you’re getting down the tents, if you don’t mind my not helping you.’

so off he went with kiki towards the steep cliffs. bill called after him that he was not to try anyclimbing down the cliffs, and he shouted back that he wouldn’t.

soon everything was packed away again on the motor-boat, which was just being floated by therising tide, and they waited patiently for jack. he soon appeared, his glasses and his camera slunground his neck, and his face beaming.

‘got some beauties,’ he said. ‘kiki was awfully useful to me. i got her to parade up and down,so that all the birds stayed still in amazement, watching her – and then, click! i got thembeautifully. i ought to have some fine pictures.’

‘good!’ said bill, smiling at the enthusiastic boy. ‘you’ll have to have a book of birdphotographs published. “masterpieces, by jack trent, price thirty shillings.”’

‘i’d like that,’ said jack, his face shining. ‘not the thirty shillings i mean – but having a bookabout birds with my name on it.’

‘come on in,’ said philip impatiently, for jack was still outside the boat. ‘we want to be off. it’sso warm i’m longing to get out to sea again, and feel the breeze on my face as the boat swingsalong.’

they soon felt it and were glad of it. it certainly was very hot for may. the boat went swiftlythrough the water, bobbing a little as it rode over the waves. lucy-ann let her fingers run throughthe water again – lovely and cool!

‘what i should like is a bathe,’ said philip, little drops of perspiration appearing round his nose.

‘can we bathe from the boat, bill?’

‘wait till we get to another island,’ said bill. ‘i don’t particularly want to stop out at sea, with astorm in the offing. it’s so jolly hot i feel there must be thunder about. i’m anxious to run forshelter before it comes. now – here are more islands bobbing up out of the sea. let’s see if we canspot a puffin island. that’s what you want, isn’t it?’

lucy-ann, still dangling her hand in the water, suddenly felt something gently touching it. insurprise she looked down, withdrawing her hand at once, afraid of a jellyfish.

to her astonishment she saw that it was a piece of orange peel, bobbing away on the waves. shecalled to bill.

‘bill, look – there’s a bit of orange peel. now whoever in the world eats oranges in these wildlittle islands? do you suppose there are any other bird-lovers somewhere about?’

everyone looked at the tiny bit of orange peel bobbing rapidly away. it did seem very much outof place there. bill stared at it hard. he was puzzled. the fishermen, if there were any on theislands they were coming to, would not be at all likely to have oranges. and naturalists surelywould not bother to load themselves up with them.

then how did that bit of peel come to be there? no ships went anywhere near where they were.

it was a wild and lonely part of the sea, where sudden storms blew up, and great gales madeenormous waves.

‘beats me!’ said bill at last. ‘i shall expect to see a pineapple or something next! now look! –here is an island – fairly flattish – probably has puffins on it all right. shall we make for it?’

‘no – cruise round a bit,’ begged jack. ‘let’s have a look at a few of the islands here. there isquite a colony of them round about.’

they cruised round, looking at first this island and then that. they came to one that had steepcliffs at the east side, then ran down into a kind of valley, then up again into cliffs.

jack put his glasses to his eyes and yelled out excitedly. ‘puffins! plenty of them! can you seethem, philip? i bet the island is full of their burrows. let’s land here, bill. there’ll be masses ofbirds on the cliffs, and hundreds of puffins inland. it’s quite a big island. we could probably findgood shelter here and water too. the cliffs would protect us from both the east and west. what ho,for puffin island!’

‘right,’ said bill. he looked all round and about, and guided the boat towards the island. therewere many other islands not far off, but as far as he could see they were inhabited only by birds.

the sea chopped about between the islands, making little rippling waves.

round puffin island went the boat, and philip gave a shout. ‘here’s a fine place to put the boatin, bill – see, where that channel of water goes into a cleft of the cliff! it’ll be deep there, and wecan just tie the boat up to a rock. we’ll put out the fenders, so that she doesn’t bump against therock sides.’

the boat nosed into the channel. as philip said, the water was deep there – it was a natural littleharbour. there was a ledge of rock on which they could land. could anything be better? hurrahfor puffin island!