18

the enemy – and kiki

the thud of footsteps could be felt in the dark hole below ground. then came the sound of voices.

‘we’ll search the whole place. somebody must be keeping that fire going!’

‘there’s nowhere much to hide on this small island,’ said another voice. ‘nobody could getdown those sheer cliffs, so that rules them out. and there’s obviously nobody in this valley –except these ridiculous birds.’

there came the sound of a match being struck. one of the men was evidently lighting acigarette. he tossed the match away – and it came trickling through the heather into the hole wherethe trembling children crouched. it fell on to dinah’s knee and she almost squealed.

‘they’re dreadfully near,’ everyone was thinking. ‘dreadfully, dreadfully near!’

‘look here,’ said one of the men’s voices, suddenly. ‘what’s this? a bit of chocolate wrapping-paper! i bet the hiding-place isn’t far off.’

the children’s hearts almost stopped beating. philip remembered that a bit of his chocolate-paper had blown away on the wind and he hadn’t bothered to go and pick it up. blow! blow!

blow!

jack felt about for kiki. where was she? she had slid off his shoulder, but he couldn’t feel heranywhere near. he did hope she wouldn’t suddenly make one of her loud remarks, just under thevery feet of the men.

kiki had gone up the burrow, after huffin and puffin. the two puffins were now staring at themen who had come to hunt. they stood at the entrance of a burrow, looking fixedly with theircrimson-circled eyes.

‘look at those silly chaps,’ said one man. ‘whatever are these ridiculous birds, with beaks likefireworks about to go off?’

‘don’t know. puffins or sea parrots, or something,’ said the other man.

‘huffin and puffin,’ said kiki, in a loud, conversational sort of voice. the men jumped violentlyand looked all round. kiki was in the burrow behind huffin and puffin and could not be seen. shedidn’t want to push past them in case they nipped her.

‘did you hear that?’ said the first man.

‘well – i thought i heard something,’ said the other. ‘but these birds all round make such aracket.’

‘yes – a frightful din,’ said the first man.

‘din-din-dinner,’ announced kiki and went off into one of her cackles of laughter. the menstared in alarm at the two solemn puffins. ‘i say – surely those birds can’t talk?’

‘it’s a bit odd, isn’t it?’ said the first man, rubbing his chin and staring at huffin and puffin. itseemed as if it really must be the two puffins who were talking and coughing. kiki could not beseen.

huffin opened his beak. ‘arrrrrr!’ he said solemnly.

‘there!’ said the man. ‘i saw him that time. they are talking birds. sea parrots perhaps – andparrots talk, don’t they?’

‘yes, but they have to be taught,’ said the other. ‘and who taught these two?’

‘oh, come on – don’t let’s waste any time on the ridiculous creatures,’ said the first man,turning to go. ‘we’ll go down to the shore and walk along it to make sure there’s no one there.

pity the boat’s been smashed up in the gale. we could have taken off some of the food in it.’

kiki gave an imitation of a motor- bike in the distance, and the men stopped suddenly inastonishment.

‘i could have sworn that was a motor-bike!’ said one, with a half-ashamed laugh. ‘come on –we’re hearing things. wait till i get hold of whoever is on this island – making us waste timehunting like this!’

to the children’s enormous relief the men’s voices got fainter and fainter and at last could notbe heard at all. kiki came back into the cave.

‘what a pity, what a pity!’ she said in a whisper, cracking her beak.

‘kiki, you awful idiot, you nearly gave the game away!’ whispered jack. ‘get on my shoulder –and i warn you, if you say just one more word, i’ll tie your beak up with my hanky.’

‘arrrrrrrr!’ said kiki, and settled down with her head under her wing. she was offended.

for what seemed like hours the children sat silently in the hole underground. they heard nomore voices, and no more footsteps shook the ground nearby.

‘how long have we got to stay here like this?’ whispered dinah at last. she was always the firstto get impatient. ‘i’m cramped.’

‘i don’t know,’ said jack, in a whisper that seemed to fill the underground cavity. ‘it would bedangerous to pop my head out and take a look-see.’

‘i’m hungry,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i wish we’d brought something to eat down with us. and i’mthirsty too.’

jack wondered whether or not to risk sticking his head out. just as he was making up his mindthat he would, everyone in the hole heard a far-off, very welcome noise.

‘it’s the engine of their motor-boat being started up,’ said jack in relief. ‘they must have givenup the hunt, thank goodness. we’ll give them a few minutes, then i’ll hop out.’

they waited for five minutes. the motor-boat’s engine sounded for a little while, then grewfainter and finally could not be heard at all.

jack cautiously put his head out. he could see and hear nothing but puffins. huffin and puffinwere squatting nearby and got up politely when they saw his head.

‘arrrrrrr!’ they said.

jack got right out of the hole. he lay down flat, put his field-glasses to his eyes and swept thesea around. at last he spotted what he was looking for – the motor-boat going away at top speed,getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

‘it’s all right!’ he called down to the others. ‘they’re almost out of sight. come on out.’

soon they were all sitting in sleepy hollow, with the girls getting a meal ready, for by this timethey were once again ravenous. the ginger-beer had now all been drunk, so they drank the waterfrom the rock-pool, which was rather warm from the sun, but tasted very sweet. the rain from thestorm had swelled it considerably.

‘well, that was a jolly narrow escape,’ said philip, his spirits rising as he tucked into slices of‘spam’. ‘i really did think one of them would tumble in on top of us.’

‘well, what do you suppose i felt like when the match one of them used fell through the holeand bounced on my knee?’ said dinah. ‘i nearly let out a yell.’

‘kiki almost gave the game away too,’ said jack, putting potted meat on a biscuit. ‘calling out“din-din-dinner” like that. i’m ashamed of you, kiki.’

‘she’s sulking,’ said dinah, laughing. ‘look at her – standing with her back to you, pretendingnot to take any notice. that’s because you were cross with her.’

jack grinned. he called to huffin and puffin, who were, as usual, standing patiently besidephilip. ‘hey, huff and puff – come and have a tit-bit. nice birds, good birds, dear huff and puff.’

huffin and puffin walked over to jack, doing their sailor-roll from side to side. they solemnlytook a bit of biscuit from jack’s fingers. but that was more than kiki could stand. she whiskedround and screeched at the top of her voice.

‘naughty boy, naughty boy, naughty boy! poor polly, poor polly! polly’s got a cold, put thekettle on, naughty boy, naughty boy!’

she rushed at the startled puffins and gave them a sharp jab with her curved beak. huffinretaliated at once, and kiki stepped back. she began to screech like a railway-train, and the twopuffins hurriedly returned to philip’s knees, where they stood and stared in alarm at kiki, ready todart down a burrow at a moment’s notice.

the children roared with laughter at this little pantomime. kiki went to jack, sidling along in acomical manner. ‘poor kiki, poor kiki, naughty boy, naughty boy!’

jack gave her a tit-bit and she sat on his shoulder to eat it, looking triumphantly at huffin andpuffin. ‘arrrrrr!’ she said to them, sounding like a snarling dog. ‘arrrrrr!’

‘all right, kiki. don’t arrrrr any more just by my ear,’ said jack. ‘and i should advise you notto go too near huffin for a bit. he won’t forget that jab of yours.’

‘do you think it’ll be safe to sleep out of doors again tonight?’ asked dinah, clearing up themeal. ‘i don’t fancy sleeping down that hole again, somehow.’

‘oh, i should think it would be all right,’ said jack. ‘i don’t somehow think those fellows,whoever they were, will come along in the dark of night. pity we didn’t catch a glimpse of them.’

‘i didn’t like their voices,’ said lucy-ann. ‘they sounded hard and horrid.’

‘what a good thing that storm blew our tents away the other night!’ said dinah suddenly. ‘if ithadn’t, we wouldn’t have stumbled on that hole, and been able to use it as a hiding-place. wewouldn’t have known where to go, but for that.’

‘that’s true,’ said philip. ‘i wonder if those men will come back again. we’ll go on keepingwatch anyway, and keep the fire going. it’s our only hope of rescue – and bill’s only hope too, ishould think – because if nobody comes to rescue us, certainly nobody will rescue bill!’

‘poor bill!’ said lucy-ann. ‘he wanted to disappear – and he has.’

‘those men must have put our fire out,’ said jack, suddenly noticing that there was no smoke.

‘the wretches! i suppose they thought they’d put it out, and then, if it was lighted again, and thesmoke rose up, they’d know for certain that somebody was here.’

‘we’ll jolly well go and light it again,’ said philip at once. ‘we’ll show them we’re going tohave our fire going if we want to. i guess they don’t want it going, in case somebody does happento come along and see it. they won’t want people exploring this part of the world at the moment.’

so they all went up to the cliff-top, and set to work to light the fire again. the men had kicked itout, and the ashes and half-burnt sticks were scattered everywhere.

it didn’t take long to get it going again. the children built it up carefully, and then philip lightedit. it caught at once and flames sprang up. when it was going well, the children banked it withseaweed, and at once a thick spiral of smoke ascended in the air.

‘ha! you men! i hope you have caught sight of our signal again!’ cried jack, facing out to sea.

‘you can’t beat us! we’ll get the better of you yet, you’ll see!’