15

a really terrible storm

the wind got up about five o’clock. it whipped the waves round the island until they towered intobig white horses that raced up the beaches and broke with a sound of thunder. the sea-birdsdeserted the coves, and flew into the air, crying loudly. the wind took them and they soared formiles without beating a wing, enjoying themselves throughly.

kiki didn’t like so much wind. she could not glide or soar like the gulls and guillemots. itoffended her dignity to be blown about too much. so she stayed close to the tents, which flappedlike live things in the wind and strained at the tent-pegs violently.

‘look here, we can’t possibly watch the fire all night!’ said philip. ‘we’ll have to bank it up andhope for the best. maybe it will send out a glow, anyway. doesn’t that seaweed keep it in nicely?

my goodness, the wind tears the smoke to rags now!’

the sun went down in a bank of angry purple clouds that gathered themselves together in thewest. jack and philip stared at them.

‘that’s the storm coming up all right,’ said jack. ‘well, we’ve felt one coming for days – thishot weather was bound to end up like that. i hope the wind won’t blow our tents away in thenight.’

‘so do i,’ said philip anxiously. ‘honestly, there’s a perfect gale blowing up now! look at thoseawful clouds! they look really wicked!’

the boys watched the clouds covering the sky, making the evening dark much sooner thanusual. philip put his hand into one of his pockets. ‘my rats know there is a storm coming,’ he said.

‘they’re all huddled up in a heap together right at the very bottom of my pocket. funny howanimals know things like that.’

‘jack!’ called lucy-ann anxiously. ‘do you think the tents are safe? the wind is blowing themlike anything!’

the boys went to examine them. they were as well pegged as they could be, but in this galewho knew what might happen?

‘we just can’t do anything about it but hope for the best,’ said jack rather gloomily. ‘philip,have you got your torch? we’d better be prepared to be disturbed in the night, if this gale goes on– we might have to re-peg one of the tents.’

both boys had torches with new batteries, so that was all right. they put them down beside theirbeds when they cuddled up into their rugs that night. they all went early because for one thing itwas getting very dark, for another thing it had begun to rain heavily, and for a third thing theywere all very tired with the day’s work. kiki retired with the boys as usual, and huffin and puffinscuttled into their burrows nearby.

‘wonder what poor old bill is doing,’ said jack to philip, as they lay listening to the windhowling round them. ‘i bet he’s worried stiff about us.’

‘it’s a shame, just as we were all set for a glorious holiday,’ said philip. ‘and now the weather’sbroken too! what on earth shall we do with ourselves if it goes on like this for days? it will befrightful.’

‘oh, it may clear up again when the storm is over,’ said jack. ‘golly, hark at the waves on thebeaches round the island – and how they must be dashing against those steep cliffs! i bet thegannets and guillemots aren’t getting much sleep tonight!’

‘the wind’s pretty deafening too,’ said philip. ‘blow it! i feel so tired, and yet i can’t possiblysleep with all this din going on. and gosh – what’s that?’

‘thunder,’ said jack, sitting up. ‘the storm is on us now all right. let’s go into the girls’ tent,philip. lucy-ann will be pleased to see us if she’s awake. a storm over this exposed little islandwon’t be very funny.’

they crept into the other tent. the girls were wide awake and very glad to have them besidethem. dinah squeezed up into lucy-ann’s rugs, and the boys got into dinah’s warm place. jackflashed on his torch.

he saw that lucy-ann was very white. ‘there’s nothing to be frightened of, old thing,’ he saidgently. ‘it’s only a storm, and you’re never frightened of those, lucy-ann, you know you aren’t.’

‘i know,’ gulped lucy-ann. ‘it’s only that – well, the storm seems so wild and – and spiteful,somehow. it tears at our tent, and bellows at us. it seems alive.’

jack laughed. the thunder came again and crashed more loudly than the waves on the shore.

kiki crept close to jack.

‘pop, pop, pop!’ she said, and put her head under her wing.

‘thunder doesn’t pop, kiki,’ said jack, trying to joke. but nobody smiled. the wind blew morewildly than ever and the children wished they had more rugs. it was very very draughty!

then the lightning flashed. it made them all jump, for it was so vivid. for an instant the steepcliffs and the raging sea showed vividly. then the picture was gone.

crash! the thunder came again, this time sounding overhead. then the lightning split the skyopen again and once more the children saw the cliffs and the sea. they didn’t seem quite real,somehow.

‘sort of unearthly,’ said philip. ‘gosh, hark at the rain! i’m getting spattered all over with it,though goodness knows how it’s getting in here.’

‘the wind’s getting worse,’ said lucy-ann fearfully. ‘our tents will blow away. they will, theywill!’

‘no, they won’t,’ said jack stoutly, taking lucy-ann’s cold hand in his. ‘they can’t. they . . .’

but at that very moment there came a rending sound, a great flap-flap-flap, something hit jackacross the face – and their tent was gone.

the four children were struck dumb for a moment. the wind howled round them, the rainsoaked them. they had nothing over them to protect them – their tent had vanished. vanished withthe wild wind in the darkness of the night.

lucy-ann screamed and clutched jack. he put his torch on quickly.

‘gosh – it’s gone! the gale has taken it away. come into our tent, quickly!’

but before the children could even get up from their rugs, the gale had taken the other tent too.

it rushed by philip, as he stood trying to help the girls up, and when he turned his torch to wherehis tent should be, there was nothing.

‘ours has gone too,’ he cried, trying to out-shout the wind. ‘whatever are we to do?’

‘we’d better get down to the boat – if we possibly can,’ yelled jack. ‘or do you think we shallbe blown over? had we better roll ourselves up in the ground-sheets and rugs and wait till thestorm has blown itself out?’

‘no. we’ll be soaked. better try for the boat,’ said philip. he dragged the girls up. each of thechildren wrapped a rug round their shoulders to try and ward off the rain and the cold.

‘take hands and keep together!’ yelled philip. ‘i’ll go first.’

they took hands. philip set off, staggering in the gale that was blowing in his face. through thepuffin colony he went, trying to keep on his feet.

suddenly dinah, who had hold of philip’s hand, felt him drag it away. then she heard a cry.

she called in fright.

‘philip! philip! what’s happened?’

there was no answer. jack and lucy-ann came close to dinah. ‘what’s up? where’s philip?’

jack’s torch shone out in front of them. there was no philip there. he had vanished completely.

the children, their hearts beating painfully, stayed absolutely still in dismay and astonishment.

surely the gale hadn’t blown him away!

‘philip! philip!’ yelled jack. but only the wind answered him. then all three yelled at thetops of their voices.

jack thought he heard a faint answering cry. but where? it sounded at his feet! he swung historch downwards, and to his immense surprise and fright he saw philip’s head – but only his head,on a level with the ground.

dinah shrieked in fright. jack knelt down, too dumbfounded to say a word. just philip’s head –just philip’s . . .

then he saw in a flash what had happened. philip had trodden on soil so undermined by thepuffins that it had given way – and he had fallen right through to a hole below. jack could havecried with relief.

‘are you all right, philip?’ he yelled.

‘yes. give me your torch. i’ve dropped mine. i’ve fallen through into a whopping big hole.

there might be room for us all to shelter here for a bit,’ shouted back philip, the words beingwhipped away by the wind almost before jack could hear them.

jack gave philip his torch. the boy’s head disappeared. then it came back again, looking veryodd sticking up between some heather and a sea-pink cushion.

‘yes. it’s an enormous hole. can you all get down? we’d keep safe and dry here till the storm isover. come on. it’s a bit smelly, but otherwise not bad.’

dinah slid through the opening of the hole and found herself beside philip. then came lucy-ann and then jack. jack had found philip’s torch and the two torches were now shone around thehole.

‘i suppose the rabbits and the puffins together managed to burrow so much that they have madean enormous hole,’ said jack. ‘look, there’s a puffin burrow leading out of it over there – and oneof the puffins staring in astonishment at us! hallo, old son. sorry to burst in on you like this.’

the relief of finding that philip was safe, and of being out of the wild noise of the storm, madejack feel quite light-headed. lucy-ann’s shivers stopped, and they all looked round them withinterest.

‘i should think this was a natural cavity of some sort,’ said philip, ‘with a layer of good soil,held together by roots and things, making a surface above – but all that burrowing by the puffinsmade it give way when i trod on it – and down i fell. well, it’s just what we wanted, for themoment.’

above them, deadened by tangled heather and sea-pinks, the storm raged on. no rain came intothe cavity. the thunder sounded very far away. the lightning could not be seen.

‘i don’t see why we shouldn’t sleep here for the night,’ said jack, spreading out the rug he hadtaken from his shoulders. ‘the soil is dry and soft – and the air must be good enough, because thatpuffin is still there, gazing at us. i say – i hope huffin and puffin are all right.’

they all spread out their rugs and lay down, cuddled up together. ‘congratulations on finding ussuch a fine home for tonight, philip,’ said jack sleepily. ‘very clever of you indeed! good night,everybody!’