22

the enemy

the three children, accompanied by huffin and puffin, made various journeys to and from sleepyhollow with food, rugs and clothes. philip brought back a pile of rugs from the boat and thrustthem down the hole entrance. they descended on poor horace and enveloped him. he was verymuch startled, but glad to find in a moment or two that his captors were actually offering himsomething warm and soft to lie on.

he arranged them underneath himself. ah, that was more comfortable. he began to thinklongingly of all the things he would do to those children, once he got free.

at last everything was in the motor-boat, ready for the early start. it was now getting dusk.

philip, lucy-ann and dinah came and sat beside jack.

‘i suppose one or other of must keep watch over the hole all night, in case horace escapes?’

whispered philip. jack nodded.

‘yes. we can’t risk his getting out, just as we’ve got everything set. you take first watch, philip.

we won’t ask the girls to watch, because i’m pretty sure they wouldn’t enjoy hitting horace goodand hard if he popped his head out.’

‘i would!’ said dinah indignantly. ‘lucy-ann is kind, but i’m not.’

lucy-ann said nothing. she felt sure she wouldn’t like to hit horace hard. anyway the boysdecided that only they should keep watch, so that was all right.

the sun had gone down into the sea. the sky was pricked with the first few stars. the childrenlay about comfortably on the heather, talking in low voices. there was no sound from horace.

perhaps he was alseep.

philip’s three rats, which had suddenly begun to look very grown-up, came out to sniff theevening air. dinah removed herself at once. huffin and puffin regarded the rats with fixed eyes.

kiki yawned and then sneezed. then she coughed in a very hollow manner.

‘shut up, kiki,’ said jack. ‘if you want to practise your awful noises, go up on the cliff andmake the seagulls and guillemots listen.’

‘arrrr!’ said huffin solemnly.

‘huffin agrees with me,’ said jack.

‘pah!’ said kiki.

‘and pah to you,’ said jack. ‘now shut up, kiki, do. it’s a lovely evening. don’t spoil it withyour pahing and poohing.’

just as he finished speaking, there came a noise from far out to sea – a very small noise at first,hardly heard above the sound of the sea and the wind – but becoming quite unmistakable after awhile.

‘a motor-boat!’ said jack, sitting upright. ‘now what in the world . . .’

‘have they come to look for horace already?’ said philip, in a low voice. ‘blow! this upsetsour plans like anything!’

nothing could be seen on the darkening sea, but the noise came nearer and nearer. jack clutchedphilip and spoke in his ear.

‘there’s only one thing to do. we must all go and get into our boat now, this very minute – andget out to sea. we mustn’t let the enemy see the boat in the channel there, or they’ll take it, andour only chance will be gone. come on, quickly!’

silently the four children rose to their feet. kiki flew to jack’s shoulder, not uttering a sound.

huffin and puffin, who had retired to their burrow, came out again. they flew beside the hurryingchildren, not even remarking arrrr to one another.

across the puffin colony they went, stumbling and staggering between the hundreds of burrows.

up the little slope of the cliff and over to the cleft in the rock. down the rocky ledges, be careful,be careful! and into the rocking boat, their breath coming fast and their hearts beating likehammers.

‘start her up,’ ordered philip, and jack started the engine. philip threw off the mooring-rope andit skittered into the boat by the girls’ feet. in a moment more they were backing gently out of thelittle channel.

soon they were right out of it. philip went to the east a little. it was almost dark now.

‘we’ll stop the engine,’ said philip. ‘and wait here till the other boat goes into the channel,because i expect she’ll make for it. i don’t want to bump into her. and the men on board her mighthear our engine.’

so the engine was stopped, and the motor-boat swung up and down gently as waves ran beneathher to the rocky cliffs some way off.

the sound of the other boat’s engine was now very loud. philip wished he had gone a bit furtheroff after all. but the bigger boat swung by without stopping and then nosed its way into the hiddenharbour. the children, crouching in their boat, straining their eyes, had just been able to make outa dark shape and that was all.

the other boat’s engine stopped and peace came back into the night. some of the sea-birds,disturbed, uttered a few wild cries and then flew back to their roosting-places on the ledges.

‘horace will be glad to be rescued,’ said dinah at last.

‘yes, he’ll probably be out of the hole already,’ said jack. ‘he’d soon know when we weregone. i’ve no doubt there’ll be a lot of bad language going on when they find out how weimprisoned poor horace – and gosh, when they find out we’ve taken his boat . . .’

‘arrrrrr!’ said a deep voice from the rail round the deck.

the children jumped in the darkness. ‘oh – it must be huffin or puffin,’ said philip, pleased.

‘fancy them coming with us. i do think that’s friendly of them.’

‘they’re sweet,’ said lucy-ann, and put out her hand to huffin. both the puffins were there,sitting side by side in the darkness. kiki flew to join them.

‘what are we going to do now?’ said dinah. ‘dare we go off in the dark? we might bump intorocks and wreck the boat.’

‘we’ll have to stay here till the first light of day,’ said philip. ‘then we’ll set off, and hope themen on the island won’t hear our engine, and come after us!’

‘we shall have got a good start,’ said jack. ‘well, what about having a snooze, if we’re going tostay here? where’s the anchor? shall we let it down? i don’t fancy drifting about at the mercy ofthe waves all night long.’

whilst the boys were busy, the girls laid out rugs, mackintoshes and jerseys to lie on. it was alovely warm night, and nobody minded.

‘it’s so nice to have the stars above us instead of a ceiling or a tent roof,’ said lucy-ann,snuggling down. ‘i don’t feel a bit sleepy, somehow. i suppose it’s all the excitement. i’ve gotused to this adventure now. oh dear, how glad i am that i didn’t have to hit horace on the head! ishould have dreamt about that for ages.’

they lay for some time, talking. they all felt very wide awake indeed. huffin and puffinappeared to be awake too, because they occasionally remarked arrr to one another. kiki was onjack’s feet.

she was also wide awake, and began to recite the nursery rhymes she knew: ‘humpty dumpty,puddingy pie, ding dong bell, ring his neck!’

‘shut up!’ said jack. ‘we’re trying to go to sleep, you tiresome bird!’

‘i hope huffin and puffin stay with us,’ said lucy-ann. ‘wouldn’t it be lovely if we could takethem home with us?’

‘shut up!’ said kiki, and cackled.

‘parrots are not allowed to say that,’ said jack severely, and sat up to tap her on her beak. butshe had promptly put her head under her wing, so he couldn’t.

‘artful creature,’ said jack, and heard a faint ‘pah!’ from under kiki’s wing.

just as lucy-ann was falling off to sleep, the others sat up so suddenly that she was jerkedawake. ‘what’s the matter?’ she began. and then she knew.

the engine of the other motor-boat was going again. lucy-ann sat up with the others, her eyesstraining through the darkness.

‘they must have found horace, heard his report, and all have gone back on board,’ said jack.

‘they are evidently not going to spend the night here. look – here they come – gosh, they’ve gottheir lights on this time.’

‘jack – jack! they’ll be going back to their headquarters,’ said philip urgently. ‘let’s followthem. get the anchor up, quick. they won’t hear our engine because theirs makes such a row.

come on, let’s follow them! they’ll take us to where bill is!’

the men’s motor-boat had swung round when it had come from the channel, and was nowheaded out to sea. it was not long before the children’s boat set off in its wake. they could nothear the other boat’s engine because of their own, and they knew that theirs would not be heard bythe men for the same reason.

huffin and puffin were still on the deck-rail. clearly they meant to go wherever the childrenwent. lucy-ann thought it was nice to have such staunch, loyal friends, even if they were onlypuffins. kiki was on jack’s shoulder again, her beak to the breeze.

‘all aboard,’ she kept saying. ‘all aboard. pah!’

the first boat sped along quickly. it was easy to follow because of its light. the children stoodwith their noses to the wind in silence. lucy-ann spoke first.

‘this adventure is getting more adventurous,’ she said. ‘oh dear – it really is!’