14

a few plans

everyone felt suddenly sick. lucy-ann sat down in a heap. dinah joined her. the boys stoodstaring at the smashed engine as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

‘it must be a nightmare,’ said dinah at last. ‘it can’t be true. why – why, everything was rightas rain last night – and now . . .’

‘now the boat’s smashed up so that we can’t get away, the radio is smashed so that we can’t geta message through – and bill’s gone,’ said philip. ‘and it isn’t a dream. it’s real.’

‘let’s sit down in the cabin, all together,’ said lucy-ann, wiping her eyes. ‘let’s sit close andtalk. let’s not leave each other at all.’

‘poor lucy-ann!’ said philip, putting his arm round her, as she sat down unsteadily. ‘don’tworry. we’ve been in worse fixes than this.’

‘we haven’t!’ said dinah. ‘this is the worst fix we’ve ever been in!’

kiki felt the tenseness of all the children. she sat quietly on jack’s shoulder, making littlecomforting noises. huffin and puffin sat solemnly on the deck, staring fixedly in front of them.

even they seemed to feel that something awful had happened.

in the cabin, sitting close together, the children felt a little better. jack rummaged in a tinycupboard beside him and brought out some bars of chocolate. the children had had no breakfast,and although the shock they had had seemed to have taken their appetites away, they thankfullytook the chocolate to nibble.

‘let’s try and think out carefully exactly what must have happened,’ said jack, giving a bit ofhis chocolate to kiki.

‘well – we know that bill was worried about something,’ said philip. ‘those planes, forinstance. he felt certain something peculiar was going on up here. and that’s why he went out byhimself in the boat. he must have been seen.’

‘yes – and maybe in some way his enemies got to know he was here,’ said dinah. ‘they couldhave followed him a long way back, using field-glasses to keep him in sight. anyway – it’s quiteclear that they came looking for him here.’

‘and found him,’ said jack. ‘what a pity he went off to tinker with the radio last night!’

‘well, if he hadn’t, the enemy, whoever they are, would probably have searched the island andfound us too,’ said dinah. ‘as it is – they probably don’t know we’re here.’

‘it wouldn’t matter if they did know,’ said lucy-ann. ‘they’d be quite sure we couldn’t do anyharm, living on an island we can’t get off!’

‘they got here – in a motor-boat probably,’ went on jack. ‘left the motor-boat out beyond,somewhere – and slipped inshore quietly in a rowing-boat. they must know this little channel – ormaybe they saw a light from the boat. bill would be sure to have the cabin light on, and it’s apretty bright one.’

‘yes. and they surprised him and knocked him out, i suppose,’ said philip gloomily. ‘they’vetaken him away – goodness knows what’ll happen to him!’

‘they won’t – they won’t hurt him, will they?’ said lucy- ann in rather a trembly voice.

nobody answered.

‘cheer up, lucy-ann,’ said philip. ‘we’ve been in worse scrapes before, whatever dinah says.

we’ll get out of this one all right.’

‘how?’ asked lucy-ann. ‘i don’t see how we can! you don’t either.’

philip didn’t. he scratched his head and looked at jack.

‘well – we’ve got to make some kind of plan,’ said jack. ‘i mean – we must make up our mindswhat we are going to do to try and escape – and what we are going to do till we escape.’

‘won’t bill’s friends come and look for us when they don’t get bill’s messages through?’ askeddinah suddenly.

‘pooh! what would be the good of that?’ said philip at once. ‘there are hundreds of these littlebird-islands here. it might take years visiting and exploring every single one to find us!’

‘we could light a fire on the cliff and keep it burning so that any searcher could see the smokein the daytime and the flames at night,’ said dinah excitedly. ‘you know – like ship-wreckedsailors do.’

‘yes, we could,’ said jack. ‘only – the enemy might see it too – and come along and find usbefore anyone else does.’

there was a silence. nobody knew who the enemy were. they seemed mysterious and powerfuland frightening.

‘well, i can’t help it – i think we ought to follow dinah’s plan and light a fire,’ said philip atlast. ‘we’ve got to run the risk of the enemy seeing it and coming to find us. but we simply mustdo something to help anyone searching for us. we can keep a look-out for the enemy, and hide ifthey come.’

‘hide! where can we hide?’ asked dinah scornfully. ‘there isn’t a single place on this islandfor anyone to hide!’

‘no, that’s true,’ said jack. ‘no caves, no trees, except for those few little birches – and thecliffs too steep to explore. we really are in a fix!’

‘can’t we do anything to help bill?’ asked lucy-ann dolefully. ‘i keep on and on thinking ofhim.’

‘so do i,’ said jack. ‘but i don’t see that we can do much to help ourselves, let alone bill. now– if we could escape from here – or radio for help and get some of bill’s friends along – it wouldbe something. but there doesn’t seem anything at all to do except stay here and wait.’

‘there’s plenty of food, anyway,’ said dinah. ‘stacks of tinned stuff, and biscuits and pottedmeat, and nestlés milk and sardines . . .’

‘i think we’d better strip the boat of them,’ said jack. ‘i’m surprised the enemy didn’t take whatthey could with them. maybe they’ll come back for them – so we’ll take them first. we can hidethem down some of the puffin burrows.’

‘let’s have a bit of breakfast now,’ said philip, feeling better now that they had all talked thematter over and made a few plans. ‘open some tins and get some ginger-beer. come on.’

they all felt better still when they had had something to eat and drink. they had put a coverover the poor smashed radio. they couldn’t bear to look at it.

jack went up on deck when they had finished their meal. it was very close again, and even thewind seemed warm. the sun shone through a thin veiling of cloud, and had a reddish hue. ‘thatstorm is still about,’ said jack. ‘come on, everyone. let’s get to work before it comes.’

it was decided that philip and dinah should hunt for driftwood to make a fire up on the cliff.

‘we don’t know that those aeroplanes we sometimes see belong to the enemy,’ said philip. ‘if theydon’t, they may see our signal and come to circle round. then they will send help. one mightcome today, even. so we’ll get a fire alight. we’ll bank it with dry seaweed. that will smoulderwell and send up plenty of smoke.’

jack and lucy-ann were to carry things from the boat to the tents in sleepy hollow. ‘take allthe tins and food you can,’ said philip. ‘if the enemy happened to come back at night and take itwe’d be done. we should starve! as it is, we’ve got heaps to last us for weeks.’

the four children worked very hard indeed. jack and lucy carried sacks of tins from the boat tosleepy hollow. for the time being they bundled them in a heap by the tents. kiki examined themwith interest, and pecked at one or two.

‘it’s a good thing your beak isn’t a tin-opener, kiki,’ said jack, making the first little joke thatday, to try and make lucy-ann smile. ‘we shouldn’t have much food left if it was.’

philip and dinah were also very busy. they took a sack each from the boat and wandered alongthe shore to pick up bits of wood. they found plenty at the tide-line and filled their sacks. thenthey dragged them to the top of the cliff. huffin and puffin went with them, solemn as ever,sometimes walking, sometimes flying.

philip emptied his sack of wood on a good spot. he began to build a fire. dinah went off to fillher sack with dry seaweed. there was plenty.

soon jack and lucy-ann, emptying their own sacks in sleepy hollow, saw a spiral of smokerising up from the cliff-top. ‘look!’ said jack. ‘they’ve got it going already! good work!’

the wind bent the smoke over towards the east. it was good thick smoke, and the children feltsure that it could be seen from quite a distance.

‘one of us had always better be up here, feeding the fire, and keeping watch for enemies orfriends,’ said philip.

‘how shall we know which they are?’ asked dinah, throwing a stick on the fire.

‘well – i suppose we shan’t know,’ said philip. ‘what we’d better do if we see any boat comingis to hide – that is, if we can find anywhere to hide – and then try and discover if the searchers areenemies or friends. we are sure to hear them talking. we’d better get lots more wood, di – thisfire will simply eat it up!’

lucy-ann and jack helped them when they had finished their own job. ‘we’ve taken everysingle tin and every scrap of food out of the boat,’ said lucy-ann. ‘we really have got plenty toeat – and that rock-pool to drink from when we’ve finished the ginger-beer. there aren’t an awfullot of bottles left now. wouldn’t you like to have dinner soon?’

‘yes. i’m jolly hungry,’ said philip. ‘let’s have it up here, shall we? or is it too much bother tofetch a meal here, lucy-ann? you see, one of us must keep the fire going all the time.’

‘well, it won’t go out for a while, anyhow,’ said lucy-ann. ‘bank it up with some moreseaweed. honestly, we feel fagged out, carrying all that stuff. let’s go to sleepy hollow and havea good rest and a jolly good meal.’

so they all returned to sleepy hollow, where the two tents flapped in the little breeze. they satdown and lucy-ann opened tins, and ladled the contents on to plates.

‘you’ve got tinned salmon, biscuits and butter, tinned tomatoes and tinned pears,’ she said.

even huffin and puffin came closer than usual, to share such a nice meal. they would haveeaten every scrap of the salmon if they could. kiki preferred the tinned pears, but the childrenwould only allow her one.

‘well, things would be a lot worse if we hadn’t got all this nice food,’ said jack, leaning back inthe warm sun, after a big meal. ‘an adventure without good food would be awful! kiki, take yourhead out of that tin. you’ve had more than any of us, you greedy glutton of a parrot!’