17

a boat, a boat!

‘do you think it’s worth while keeping the fire going, if the aeroplanes belong to the enemy?’

asked lucy-ann at last.

‘well, if we’re ever to be rescued, we shall have to show some kind of signal,’ said jack. ‘we’llhave to risk the aeroplanes seeing it. perhaps, when no messages come through from bill, motor-boats will come looking for us. then they will see our signal, and come to the island.’

‘i hope they do,’ said dinah. ‘i don’t want to be here for months. and it would be awful in thewinter.’

‘good gracious! don’t talk about being here for the winter!’ said lucy-ann, in alarm. ‘why,it’s only may!’

‘dinah’s looking on the black side of things as usual,’ said philip.

dinah flared up. ‘i’m not! i’m being sensible. you always call being sensible “looking on theblack side of things”.’

‘oh, don’t quarrel just now, when we all ought to stick by each other,’ begged lucy-ann. ‘anddon’t put those rats near dinah, philip – don’t be mean just now!’

philip snapped his fingers and the rats scurried back to his pockets. kiki snorted.

‘three blind mice, see how they run, pop goes kiki!’

‘arrrrr!’ said huffin, agreeing politely. it was really very comical the way he and puffin seemedto talk to kiki. they never said anything but ‘arrrr’, but they said it in many different tones, andsounded quite conversational at times.

that night the children slept out in the open. it was a beautiful calm night, and the stars hung inthe sky, big and bright. lucy-ann tried to keep awake to watch for shooting stars, which sheloved, but she didn’t see any.

her bed was very comfortable. the children had chosen thick heather to put their ground-sheetsand rugs on, and had used their extra clothes for pillows. a tiny breeze blew against their cheeksand hair. it was lovely lying there with the stars shining peacefully above, and the sound of the seain the distance.

‘it’s like the wind in the trees,’ thought lucy-ann sleepily. ‘and the wind in trees is like thesound of the sea. oh dear, i’m getting muddled – muddled – mudd—’

the weather was still lovely the next day, and the spiral of smoke from the signal fire wentalmost straight up in the air, there was so little wind. jack and philip took a good many bird-photographs, and jack looked longingly over the steep bird-cliff, wishing he could climb down alittle way and take some photographs of the birds there.

‘bill said not,’ said philip. ‘and i think we oughtn’t to. suppose anything happened to us, whatwould the girls do? we’ve got heaps of fine photographs without bothering to take the eggs andbirds on those ledges.’

‘i wish the puffins had laid eggs,’ said jack. ‘i haven’t found a single puffin egg yet. it’s a bittoo early, i suppose. how sweet baby puffins must look! i wish i could see some.’

‘well, you’re likely to, as things have turned out,’ said philip, with a half-comical groan. ‘wemay be here for quite a long time.’

it was arranged that one or other of the children should always be on the look-out somewhereon the bird-cliff. from there it was possible to see nearly all round the island, and no enemy couldapproach without being seen when still far off. that would give plenty of time for the others to bewarned, and for all of them to go into hiding.

‘we’d really better hide all the tins and things that are under our ledge, down in that hole,hadn’t we?’ said lucy-ann, when the plans were made. ‘they might easily be found.’

‘we’ll stuff heather round them,’ said jack. ‘it would be an awful bore to have to keep goingdown into the hole to fetch all the food each time we wanted something to eat.’

so clumps of heather were most realistically tucked under the rocky ledge where lucy-annkept the tins. nobody would guess it wasn’t growing, it looked so natural there.

‘we’d have plenty of time to chuck our clothes and things down into the hidey-hole, if we sawanyone coming,’ said jack. ‘i’ll take first watch. i shan’t be a bit bored, because there are so manybirds up there – and kiki is such a clown with them, it’s as good as a pantomine to watch her.’

two days went by without anything exciting happening at all. once they heard anotheraeroplane, but didn’t see it. more wreckage was thrown up on the beach from the unfortunatelucky star. the children bathed and ate and slept, and took it in turns to keep watch, but they sawnothing to worry them at all.

kiki always kept watch with jack. huffin and puffin kept watch with philip. once anotherpuffin came too near philip for huffin’s liking, and the bird ran at it with his head down, growlingarrrrrrr like an infuriated dog. their big beaks locked together, and philip almost cried withlaughter as he watched the curious battle.

‘the battle of beaks,’ he called it, when he described it to the others afterwards. ‘talk aboutstags locking their antlers together and fighting – those two puffins were every bit as fierce withtheir huge beaks.’

‘who won?’ asked lucy-ann, with great interest. ‘huffin, i suppose?’

‘of course,’ said philip. ‘he not only won, he chased the other one right into its burrow, andthey both came out again at another entrance, with huffin winning the race. i’m surprised the otherpoor bird had any feathers left by the time huffin had finished with him.’

on the afternoon of the third day, jack was sitting up on the top of the bird-cliff. it was his turnto look out. he gazed lazily out to sea. there was just a little more breeze that day, and the waveshad frills of white as they came in to shore.

jack was thinking about bill. where was he? what had happened to him? had he been able toescape, and if so, would he come quickly to rescue the four children? and what was aunt alliethinking? had she heard that there was no word from bill, and was she worried?

jack thought deeply about all these things, listening to the different cries of the sea-birds abouthim, and watching their graceful fight over the sea. then his eyes suddenly picked out somethingfar off on the water.

he stiffened like a dog that suddenly sees something unusual. he reached down for his field-glasses and put them to his eyes. he had soon got the something out there into focus – and he sawthat it was a small motor-boat.

‘enemies,’ he thought, and was about to leap to his feet when he remembered that whoever wasin the boat might also have glasses, and might see him. so he wriggled away on his tummy, andnot until he was well down into the little valley did he jump up and run to the others.

‘hi!’ he called breathlessly, as he tore down to sleepy hollow, where the others were having alaze. ‘there’s a boat coming!’

they all sat up at once. lucy-ann’s green eyes were wide with excitement and fright. ‘where?

how far away?’

‘quite a way off. it will take them about ten minutes to come in and tie up. we’d better chuckeverything down into the hole at once.’

‘what about the fire?’ said dinah, grabbing her pile of jerseys and coats.

‘have to leave that. they’ve already seen the smoke anyway,’ said jack. ‘come on, quick! geta move on, lucy-ann!’

it didn’t take long to part the heather over the narrow entrance to the hole and hurl everythingdown. jack removed the stick he had put there to mark the place.

‘no good leaving a signpost for them,’ he said, trying to make lucy-ann smile. she gave him awatery grin.

‘no – everything cleared up?’ said philip, looking round. he pulled at the clumps of heatherthey had been lying on, which had got rather flattened, but the springy plants were already gettingback into position themselves. philip picked up a spoon that someone had left lying there andpopped it into his pocket. there really did seem to be nothing left now that would show that thechildren had been there a few minutes before.

‘come on, tufty! don’t wait about!’ said jack, in a fever of impatience to get below ground.

the girls were already safely in the hole. jack slid down himself and philip followed almost atonce.

jack pulled the heather neatly over the hole. ‘there! now unless anybody actually treads in thehole, as philip did the other night, we’re safe. nobody would ever know there was a big cavityunderground.’

‘i feel like a puffin,’ said philip. ‘i feel i’d like to burrow. what about digging a nice littleburrow for each of us to lie in?’

‘oh, don’t make jokes now,’ begged lucy-ann. ‘i don’t feel like jokes. i feel – i feel all sort oftight and breathless. and my heart simply couldn’t beat any louder. can you hear it?’

nobody could. but then, their own hearts were beating so fast and so loudly that it was nowonder they could not hear anybody else’s.

‘can we whisper?’ asked dinah, in a loud whisper that made everyone jump.

‘i should think so. but don’t talk out loud,’ said jack. ‘and if we hear anyone coming, listenwith all your might, so that we shall know if it’s friends or enemies. it would be too awful if it wasfriends and we let them go away without finding us.’

that was indeed an awful thought – almost worse than the thought of being found by an enemy.

everyone sat quietly, holding their breaths, listening with all their might.

‘friend or enemy, friend or enemy, friend or enemy,’ said a voice in lucy-ann’s mind, and shecouldn’t stop it saying the words over and over again. ‘friend or . . .’

‘sh,’ came jack’s whisper, suddenly. ‘i can hear something.’

but it was only huffin and puffin arriving in the hole. they pushed the heather aside andflopped in, giving the children a terrible shock. the heather swung back, and the puffins stared inthe darkness, trying to find philip.

‘you wretched birds!’ scolded philip. ‘you might have shown them our hiding-place. don’tyou dare to say a word!’

‘arrrrrr!’ said huffin deeply. philip gave him an angry push, and the bird walked away inastonishment. it was the first time he had ever had an angry word or gesture from his belovedphilip. he hopped up to the beginning of a nearby burrow, followed by puffin, and began to walkup it, very much offended. the children were glad to hear them go.

‘sh!’ came jack’s whisper again, and the others clutched one another. ‘they’re really comingnow! shhhhhhhh!’