10

a little exploring

‘isn’t this a gorgeous place?’ said jack, as the boat glided gently into the little channel. there wasjust room for it. ‘it might be a boat-house made specially for the lucky star.’

bill leapt out on to the rocky ledge, which did very well for a landing-stage. sheer above themon each side rose rocky cliffs. rows and rows of birds sat on the ledges, and there was a continualdropping of eggs, knocked off by the careless birds. one broke near bill, and splashed its yellowyolk over his foot.

‘good shot!’ he yelled up to the circling birds, and the children roared.

they made the boat fast by tying the mooring-rope round a convenient rock. the boat bobbedup and down gently as waves ran up the little channel and back.

‘tide’s up now,’ said bill. ‘when it goes down there will still be plenty of water in this channel.

the boat will look much lower down then. now – is there a way up the cliff from here? we don’twant to have to walk down the ledge and clamber round the cliffs over hundreds of rocks beforewe get on to the island proper.’

they looked round. jack ran up the rocky ledge, and then turned and gave a shout. ‘hi! we canget up here, i think. there are rocky shelves, like rough steps, going up the cliff – and there’s abreak in it a bit above. we could probably clamber out all right, and find ourselves right on theisland.’

‘well, you four go and explore,’ said bill. ‘i’d better stay with the boat and see that she doesn’tget her sides smashed in against these rocks. you look round the island and see if you can spot asheltered cove somewhere, that i can take the boat round to.’

the children left the boat and followed jack. kiki flew on ahead, calling like a gull. up therocky ledges went jack. they were almost like giant steps, roughly hewn by the great wintry seasfor century after century.

as jack said, the cliff had a deep cleft in it just there, and the children found that they couldmake their way through it, and come out on to the cushions of sea-pinks beyond. it needed a bit ofclambering, and they were out of breath when they reached the top – but it was worth it.

the sea spread bright blue all round the island. the sky looked enormous. other islands, blue inthe distance, loomed up everywhere. a real colony of them, it seemed – and their island was in thecentre.

then jack gave such a yell that everyone jumped. ‘puffins! look! hundreds and hundreds ofthem!’

the children looked to where jack pointed, and there, among the sea-pinks and the old heathertufts, were the most curious-looking birds they had ever seen.

they were dressed in black and white. their legs were orange – but it was their extraordinarybills that held the children’s attention.

‘look at their beaks!’ cried dinah, laughing. ‘blue at the base – and then striped red andyellow!’

‘but what enormous beaks!’ cried lucy-ann. ‘they remind me a bit of kiki’s.’

‘puffins are called sea parrots,’ remarked jack, amused to see the crowd of solemn-lookingpuffins.

‘their eyes are so comical,’ said philip. ‘they stare at us with such a fixed expression! andlook at the way they walk – so upright!’

the colony of puffins was as good as a pantomine to watch. there were hundreds, thousands ofbirds there. some stood about, watching, their crimson- ringed eyes fixed seriously on theirneighbours. others walked about, rolling from side to side like a sailor. some took off like smallaeroplanes, eager to get to the sea.

‘look! – what’s that one doing?’ asked lucy-ann, as a puffin began to scrape vigorously at thesoil, sending a shower of it backwards.

‘it’s digging a burrow, i should think,’ said dinah. ‘they nest underground, don’t they, jack?’

‘rather! i bet this island is almost undermined with their holes and burrows,’ said jack, walkingforward towards the colony of busy birds. ‘come on – do let’s get near to them. kiki, keep on myshoulder. i won’t have you screaming like a railway engine at them, and scaring them all away.’

kiki was most interested in the comical puffins. she imitated their call exactly. ‘arrrrr!’ theysaid, in deep guttural voices. ‘arrrrrrrr!’

‘arrrrrr!’ answered kiki at once, and various birds looked up at her enquiringly.

to the children’s huge delight the puffins were not in the least afraid of them. they did not evenwalk away when the children went near. they allowed them to walk among them, and althoughone aimed a peck at philip’s leg when he stumbled and almost fell on top of it, not one of theothers attempted to jab with their great beaks.

‘this is lovely!’ said lucy-ann, standing and gazing at the extraordinary birds. ‘simply lovely!

i never thought birds could be so tame.’

‘they’re not exactly tame,’ said jack. ‘they’re wild, but they are so little used to human beingsthat they have no fear of us at all.’

the puffins were all among the cushions of bright sea-pinks. as the children walked along, theirfeet sometimes sank right down through the soil. the burrows were just below, and their weightcaused the earth to give way.

‘it’s absolutely mined with their burrows,’ said philip. ‘and i say – it’s not a very nice smelljust about here, is it?’

it certainly wasn’t. they soon got used to it, but they didn’t like it. ‘pooh!’ said lucy-ann,wrinkling up her nose. ‘it’s getting worse and worse. i vote we don’t put our tents up too near thiscolony of puffins – it’s as bad as being near a pig-sty.’

‘i don’t mind it,’ said jack. ‘hey, come here, kiki!’

but kiki had flown down to make friends. the puffins gazed at her fixedly and solemnly.

‘arrrrr!’ said kiki politely. ‘arrrrrrr! god save the queen!’

‘arrrrr!’ replied a puffin, and walked up to kiki, rolling from side to side like a small sailor. thetwo looked at one another.

‘i shall expect kiki to say how-do-you-do in a minute,’ said dinah, with a little squeal oflaughter. ‘they both look so polite.’

‘polly put the kettle on,’ said kiki.

‘arrrrr!’ said the puffin, and waddled off to its hole. kiki followed – but apparently there wasanother puffin down the hole, who did not want kiki’s company, for there was soon an agonisedsqueal from the parrot, who shot out of the hole much more rapidly than she had gone in.

she flew up to jack’s shoulder. ‘poor kiki, what a pity, what a pity, what a pity!’

‘well, you shouldn’t poke your nose in everywhere,’ said jack, and took a step forward. he trodon a tuft of sea-pinks, which immediately gave way, and he found his leg going down into quite adeep burrow. whoever lived in it didn’t like his leg at all, and gave a vicious nip.

‘ooooch!’ said jack, sitting down suddenly and rubbing his leg. ‘look at that – nearly had a bitright out of my calf!’

they went on through the amazing puffin colony. there were puffins on the ground, in the air –and on the sea too! ‘arrrrr! arrrrr! arrrrr!’ their deep calls sounded everywhere.

‘i’ll be able to take some magnificent photographs,’ said jack happily. ‘it’s a pity it’s too earlyfor young ones to be about. i don’t expect there are many puffin eggs yet either.’

the puffins were living mainly in the green valley between the two high cliffs. philip lookedabout to see if there was any good place to pitch their tents.

‘i suppose we all want to make puffin island our headquarters?’ he said. ‘i imagine that nothingwill drag jack away from here now. he’s got cliffs where guillemots and gannets nest, and avalley where the puffins live – so i suppose he’s happy.’

‘oh yes,’ said jack. ‘we’ll stay here. this shall be our island – we’ll share it with the puffins.’

‘well, we’ll find a good place for our tents,’ said philip. ‘then we’ll bring our goods andchattels here and camp. we’d better find a place where there’s a stream, though . . . if there is oneon this island. we shall want water to drink. and let’s look for a cover where we can put the boat.

we can’t very well leave it in that narrow channel.’

‘look – there’s a dear little cove down there!’ said dinah suddenly, pointing to the sea. ‘wecould bathe there – and the boat would be quite all right there too. let’s go and tell bill.’

‘i’ll go,’ said philip. ‘jack wants to stare at the puffins a bit more, i can see. i’ll take the boatround to the cove with bill, and you two girls can find a good place for our tents. then we’ll allhelp to bring the things there from the boat.’

he ran off quickly to find bill and tell him where to put the boat. jack sat down with kiki towatch the puffins. the girls went to look for a good place to put up their tents for the night.

they wandered over the island. beyond the puffin colony, just at the end of it, before they cameto the high cliffs at the other side of the island, was a little dell. a few stunted birch-trees grewthere, and banks of heather.

‘this is just the place,’ said dinah, pleased. ‘we can put up our tents here, be sheltered from theworst of the wind, watch the puffins, go down to bathe when we want to, and when we’re tired ofthat, go cruising round the other islands.’

‘a very nice life,’ said lucy-ann, with a laugh. ‘now – is there any water about?’

there was no stream at all on the island – but dinah found something that would do equallywell. at least, she hoped it would.

‘look here!’ she called to lucy-ann. ‘here’s an enormous rock with a hollow in its middle,filled with water. i’ve tasted it and it isn’t salt.’

lucy-ann came up, followed by jack. dinah dipped in her hand, scooped up a palmful of waterand drank. it was as sweet and as pure as could be.

‘rain-water,’ said dinah pleased. ‘now we’ll be all right – so long as it doesn’t dry up in thishot weather. come on – let’s go back to the boat and collect all the things we want. we’ll have todo a bit of hard work now.’

‘we’ll wait here a bit,’ said jack, coming up with kiki. ‘i expect bill and philip will be bringingthe boat round to the cove over there – then we’ll go and tell them we’ve found a good place, andhelp to bring the things here.’

it was not long before bill and philip ran into the cove with the boat. bill leapt out, took theanchor well up the beach and dug it in. he saw jack and the girls and waved to them.

‘just coming!’ he cried. ‘have you found a good place for the tents?’

he and philip soon joined the others, and were pleased with the little dell. ‘just right!’ said bill.

‘well, we’ll bring all the things we want from the boat straight away now.’

so they spent quite a time going to and from the cove, laden with goods. it did not take quite aslong as they feared because there were five of them to do it, and even kiki gave a hand – or rathera beak – and carried a tent-peg. she did it really to impress the watching puffins, who stared at herseriously as she flew by, the peg in her big curved beak.

‘arrrrrr!’ she called, in a puffin voice.

‘you’re showing off, kiki,’ said jack severely. ‘you’re a conceited bird.’

‘arrrrr!’ said kiki, and dropped the tent-peg on jack’s head.

it was fun arranging their new home. the boys and bill were to have one tent. the girls were tohave the other. behind the tents lucy-ann found a ledge of rock and below it was a very large dryspace.

‘just the spot for storing everything in,’ said lucy-ann proudly. ‘jack, bring the tins here – andthe extra clothes – there’s room for heaps of things. oh, we are going to have a lovely time here!’