20

mr horace tipperlong gets a shock

the man guided the motor-boat expertly into the narrow channel of water, where the lucky starhad been battered to pieces. he saw the bit of broken rope still round one of the rocks, and lookedat it, puzzled.

dinah and philip were crouching behind two or three large rocks further up the cliff. they couldnot see what the man was doing, for they were afraid of being spotted if they peeped out.

jack and lucy-ann were waiting on the cliff-top. lucy-ann was nervous. ‘my knees feelfunny,’ she complained to jack. he laughed.

‘don’t worry. buck up, knees! now – here he comes. you needn’t say a word if you don’t wantto.’

the man came up the rocky steps that led to the top of the cleft in the cliff. he was a thin fellow,rather weedy, with skinny legs. he wore shorts and a pullover. he had been burnt by the sun, andhis skin was blistered.

he had a thin little moustache, and a high forehead on which the hair grew far back. he worevery dark glasses indeed, so that it was quite impossible to see his eyes. ‘he did not look anybodyto be very much feared,’ jack thought.

‘hallo, hallo, hallo,’ said the man, as he and the children met. ‘i was astonished to know therewere people on this island.’

‘who told you?’ asked jack at once.

‘oh, nobody,’ said the man. ‘i saw your spire of smoke. whatever are you doing here? is therea camp of you, or something?’

‘there might be,’ said jack, airily. ‘why have you come here?’

‘i’m an ornithologist,’ said the man, very earnestly. ‘you won’t know what that means, ofcourse.’

jack grinned to himself. considering that he and philip thought themselves very fineornithologists, this amused him. but he wasn’t going to let this man know that.

‘orni-orni-ornibologist?’ he said innocently. ‘what’s that?’

‘well, my lad, it’s a student of bird-life,’ said the man. ‘a bird-lover, one who wants to knowall he can about birds and their ways.’

‘is that why you’ve come here, then – to study birds?’ asked lucy-ann, thinking she ought tosay something. her knees had stopped shaking and feeling funny, now that she saw the man wasnot at all fearsome.

‘yes. i’ve been to this island before, years and years ago, when i was a lad,’ said the man. ‘andi wanted to come again, though i had a job finding it. i was surprised to see your smoke going up.

what’s it for? playing at ship-wrecked sailors, or something? i know what children are.’

it was plain that the man knew very little about children, and thought the two to be muchyounger than they were. ‘he’ll be reciting “humpty dumpty” to us in a moment,’ thought jack,with a secret grin.

‘do you know a lot about birds?’ said jack, not answering the man’s question.

‘well, i don’t know a great deal about sea-birds,’ said the man. ‘that’s why i’ve come to theseislands again. i know more about ordinary birds.’

‘aha!’ thought jack, ‘he says that because he is afraid i’ll ask him a few questions about thebirds here.’

‘we’ve got two tame puffins,’ said lucy-ann suddenly. ‘would you like to see them?’

‘oh, very much, my dear, very much,’ said the man, beaming at her. ‘by the way, my name istipperlong – horace tipperlong.’

‘tripalong?’ said lucy-ann, with a giggle, thinking it was a very good name for this man, whowalked with curious mincing steps. jack wanted to laugh.

‘no, no – tipperlong,’ said horace, and smiled all over his face at lucy-ann. ‘what is yourname?’

‘my name’s lucy-ann,’ she said. ‘and my brother’s name is jack. are you coming to see thepuffins? it’s this way.’

‘i should also like to meet whoever is in charge of you,’ said mr horace tipperlong. ‘and – er– where is your boat?’

‘it was smashed up in a storm,’ said jack solemnly. mr tipperlong tut-tutted with sympathy.

‘how dreadful! then how were you going to get back home?’

‘look out,’ said jack, just saving horace as he was about to plunge down a puffin’s burrow.

‘this place is undermined by the puffins. mind where you go!’

‘my word – what a lot of birds!’ said horace tipperlong, standing still. he had been soengrossed in polite talk that he did not seem to have noticed the amazing colony of puffins.

another black mark against him! jack could not believe that a real ornithologist would walk half-way through the puffins without exclaiming at them.

‘extraordinary! most astonishing! i don’t remember ever seeing so many birds together before,’

said horace. ‘and all those thousands on the cliffs too. well, well, well! and do you mean to sayyou really have got two tame puffins? i can hardly believe it.’

‘they’re philip’s,’ said lucy-ann, and she could have bitten out her tongue.

‘i thought you said your brother’s name was jack,’ said horace enquiringly.

‘she must have made a mistake,’ said jack, saying the first thing he could think of. they weregetting very near the entrance of the underground hole now. look out, mr horace tipperlong!

lucy-ann began to feel nervous. suppose this man tripalong, or whatever his name was, didn’tfall into the hole when jack tripped him – suppose instead he went for jack? suppose – well,suppose he had a revolver? he didn’t look a desperate sort of a man, but you never knew. lucy-ann looked at the pockets of his shorts to see if she could spy anything like a lump in the shape ofa revolver there.

but his pockets were so bulged out with dozens of things that it was impossible to tell. jacknudged her. ‘keep out of the way now,’ he said in a very low voice. lucy-ann obediently slippedbehind, her heart beating fast.

jack came to the entrance of the hole. a stick marked it as usual, for it really was almostimpossible to find without some sort of signpost. horace tripped along, looking short-sightedlythrough his dark glasses – and then, to his enormous astonishment, jack put out a leg, pushed him,and tripped him right over. he fell at the side of the hole – but before he could get up, jack hadgiven him a shove – and right into the hole he went, crash!

jack had a stout stick in his hand, which he had picked from the pile beside the bonfire. heparted the heather and looked into the hole. in the dim light he could see horace tipperlong sittingup, and he heard him groaning.

tipperlong looked up and saw jack. ‘you wicked boy!’ he said angrily. ‘what do you mean bythis?’

his glasses had fallen off in his headlong dive. his eyes certainly did not look very fierce. theylooked rather weak and watery. he held his head as if he had hurt it.

‘sorry,’ said jack, ‘but it had to be done. either you caught us – or we caught you. we needn’tgo on pretending any more. we know quite well what gang you belong to.’

‘what are you talking about?’ cried the man, and he stood up. his head popped out of the hole.

jack raised his stick at once.

‘get back!’ he said fiercely. ‘you’re our prisoner. you took bill, didn’t you? – well, now we’vetaken you. if you attempt to clamber out, i shall hit you on the head with this. you just try it.’

horace hastily retreated. lucy-ann looked white and scared. ‘oh, jack – is he hurt? jack, youwon’t really hit him, will you?’

‘i jolly well will,’ said jack. ‘think of bill, lucy-ann – and our poor lucky star – and usstranded here because of this fellow and his precious friends. don’t you realise that if he gets outand back to his boat, they’ll send heaps more, and won’t rest till they’ve got us? don’t be feeble!’

‘well – i don’t want to see you hit him,’ said lucy-ann. ‘dinah wouldn’t mind a bit, but i’mnot like dinah.’

‘look here – will you kindly tell me what all this nonsense is about?’ shouted horace. ‘i neverheard of such a thing! here i come to a bird-island, which, as far as i know, certainly isn’t a crime– and you two kids lead me here, trip me up, and shove me down this hole. i’ve hurt my headbadly. and now you say if i try to get out, you’ll brain me. you nasty little creatures!’

‘i’m really very sorry about it,’ said jack again, ‘but there wasn’t anything else to be done. yourealise that with our boat gone – and bill disappeared – we had to get a boat somehow. we can’tstay here for the rest of our lives.’

horace was so amazed and upset at this speech that he stood up again. he sat down hurriedlywhen he saw jack’s stick. ‘but look here – do you really mean to say you’re now going to take myboat? i never heard such brazen cheek. you wait till i get hold of the people in charge of you, myboy – you’ll get the worst hiding you’ve ever had in your life.’