23

the secret lagoon

for a long time the two boats sped across the sea. ‘it’s the sea of adventure!’ lucy-ann thought.

‘anything might happen here. oh, i do hope we find bill. things always seem right when he’swith us.’

‘you girls had better have a nap,’ said jack at last. ‘you’ll be tired out. philip and i will keepawake and take turns at the wheel. you snuggle down and go to sleep.’

so they did, and it wasn’t long before both girls were asleep and dreaming of swings andhammocks, because of the swinging, swaying motion of the boat they were in.

after a good long time, jack spoke to philip. ‘tufty – do you see the light flashing over there? itmust be a signal of some sort, i should think. the boat in front is heading towards it. i hope we’resoon coming to our journey’s end, because the moon will be up soon, and we might be seen.’

‘that light must be a guide to the boat – or perhaps to an aeroplane,’ said philip. ‘blow, herecomes the moon! – out of that bank of clouds. well, she’s not very bright, that’s one good thing.’

by the light of the moon the boys could see an island looming up in front of the boats. to theleft was another island, two or three miles away from the first, or so it seemed to the boys.

‘look here, jack – we don’t want to drive right into the jaws of danger,’ said philip, ‘which iswhat we shall do if we follow the first boat right up to that island it’s heading for. i think it wouldbe better to go to that other one, over there, look – we could probably see enough in the moonlightto make out a cove to land in. we could pull this boat into safety between us.’

‘right,’ said jack, swinging the wheel round. now they were no longer following the first boat.

it was soon out of sight, and was probably by now safely in some little harbour. their own boatheaded for the further island. by the time they got there their eyes were used to the moonlight, andthey could see everything fairly clearly.

‘doesn’t seem very rocky,’ said jack, nosing in gently. ‘no – all sand and fine shingle. i’ll runher straight up this beach, philip. be ready to jump out as soon as she stops.’

the girls awoke and scrambled out of their wraps. jack ran the boat straight up the shinglybeach. it drove into the fine shingle and stopped. philip sprang out.

‘can’t shift her at all,’ he panted, when he and the others had tried to pull the boat further up.

‘let’s chuck out the anchor and let her be. it’s nearly low tide now, so we’ll just paddle out anddrop the anchor, and give the boat a push – it will be quite all right then, if the sea keeps calm.’

the boys did this and then lay on the shingle to get their breath. they were both very tired.

they almost fell asleep as they lay there.

‘come on, boys,’ said dinah, at last. ‘bring some rugs and find a sheltered place somewhere.

you’re half asleep.’

‘well, we’re safe till the morning anyway,’ said jack, as he stumbled up the beach with theothers, almost asleep as he walked. ‘nobody knows we’re here. another bird-island, i suppose.’

they came to a low cliff. lucy-ann saw a dark cave at the foot. ‘put your torch on,’ she calledto philip. ‘we might be able to sleep here.’

it proved to be a small cave, with a soft, dry sandy floor. it smelt a little of seaweed, but nobodyminded that. they dragged their rugs in, and flung themselves down. huffin and puffin squatted atthe opening of the cave, as if they had put themselves on guard.

almost before their heads touched the rugs the boys were asleep. the girls followed suit, andsoon there was nothing to be heard but tiny snores from jack, who was flat on his back. kikiexamined his face in the darkness to find out why her beloved jack was making such queer littlenoises, then decided they weren’t worth bothering about. she sat herself down in the middle of histummy and went to sleep too.

the next morning huffin and puffin walked over to philip and stood heavily on him. ‘arrrr!’

they said, meaning, ‘come on, wake up!’

philip awoke. ‘get off,’ he said. ‘don’t copy kiki’s bad ways, huffin and puffin. oh, i say –thanks for the fish – but don’t put them all over my chest, huffin!’

huffin had been diving for fish. he now deposited them carefully on philip, opened and shut hismouth a few times, and made his one and only remark, in a deep and satisfied voice. ‘arrrrrrrrrrr!’

the children laughed when they heard about huffin’s morning offering. they rubbed their eyesand decided to have a dip in the sea, for they all felt dirty.

‘then we’ll have breakfast,’ said jack. ‘gosh, i wish i wasn’t always so frightfully hungry. isay, this is rather a nice island, isn’t it? look, you can see the enemy’s island on the horizon overthere. wonder if bill is there.’

‘we’ll go up to the highest point on this island after breakfast, and have a good look round at allthe others,’ said philip. ‘let’s go and get some food from the boat.’

the boat was afloat on the high tide. the children had to swim out to her. they rifled her forfood – and whilst she was looking for a tin of salmon she knew she had put in, lucy-ann foundsomething that made her shout.

‘i say, look! – a radio! do you suppose it is a transmitter as well as a receiver? can we send amessage on it?’

‘don’t know,’ said jack, examining it. ‘it’s not a bit like bill’s. if only we knew! anyway, evenif we could send out messages on it, i wouldn’t know how to. i expect it’s just some sort ofportable radio. come on, let’s have breakfast. phew, this sun’s hot.’

with huffin, puffin, kiki and the three rats all sharing their breakfast, the four children made avery good meal on the boat. ‘now, what next?’ said jack. ‘shall we go up to the topmost height inthis island and see what’s all round us?’

‘yes,’ said the others, so, leaving the boat by itself, they made their way up the low cliff and onto the grass-grown land behind. it was not so heathery as puffin island had been, nor were theremany birds on it.

‘it’s funny. you’d think there would be plenty on a nice little island like this,’ said jack. ‘look,there’s a hill at the other end of the island! – let’s climb it.’

they climbed to the very top – and then they stood still in astonishment. beyond them,sparkling blue, was a lagoon, flat and still as a mirror. it lay between two islands, but the islandswere joined by broad strips of rocks that enclosed the whole lagoon, so that it was impossible tosay which island it really belonged to. the rocks ran out from each one, in some places as high ascliffs – and there between them lay this unbelievably lovely sea-lake.

‘look at that!’ said jack in awe. ‘we’ve seen some wonderful sights – but never one asbeautiful as that blue lagoon. it can’t be real.’

but it was. it stretched out below them for about a mile and a half, so sheltered and protectedthat not a ripple broke its calm blue surface.

and then something happened that gave the children a shock of amazement. they heard the lowhum of an aeroplane. they saw it coming towards them. jack pulled them down flat in case theywere seen. it flew right over the lagoon, and as it flew, something dropped from it – something thatopened out, billowed white, and had something else fixed below it.

the children watched in amazement. all sorts of ridiculous things flashed through their minds –was it a scientific experiment – bombs – atom bombs – what was it?

a little parachute had opened, and was swinging down to the lagoon. the package underneath itwas wrapped in glistening stuff – ‘some kind of waterproof material,’ jack thought. it reached thewater and disappeared. the parachute spread itself out on the calm surface and lay still. but as thechildren watched, it seemed to dissolve and finally it too disappeared into the water.

‘look – the plane is circling the lagoon again. it’s going to drop another,’ said philip. they allwatched as the plane once more dropped a parachute, and the same thing happened.

down to the water it floated with its unknown package, and in a few minutes all trace of it haddisappeared. a third one was sent down and then the aeroplane circled round once and headedaway. soon it was lost in the distance.

‘well, whatever in the world was it doing, dropping things into this lagoon?’ said jack inastonishment. ‘what a strange thing to do! what’s in those enormous packages the parachutescarry?’

‘and why drop them into the lagoon?’ wondered dinah. ‘it seems so silly. do they want to getrid of something? what a strange way to do it!’

‘let’s take the boat and go and sail over the lagoon to see if we can see down into the depths,’

said lucy-ann.

‘and how do you think we are going to get into the lagoon, idiot?’ said jack. ‘no boat can getinto that water – unless it’s dragged over that barrier or rocks surrounding it.’

‘yes – of course – how silly of me!’ said lucy-ann. ‘i do wish we could see down into thatwater though – and find out what secrets it is holding, down in the blue depths.’

‘arrrrr!’ said huffin and puffin, and, their wings vibrating quickly, they sailed down to thelagoon as if to say, ‘you want to go there? well, it’s easy.’

they bobbed there on the lagoon, very small specks indeed, diving under the water for fish. thechildren watched them.

‘i don’t see why we can’t go and have a bathe there,’ said jack at last. ‘we could swim a goodway out and then dive down to see if we could find out anything. you never know!’

‘well, let’s go now then,’ said dinah eagerly. ‘i feel as if i simply must find out what all this isabout. it’s the most peculiar secret, i must say!’

they began to scramble down the hill. it grew rocky as they got lower down, but there wereplenty of sea-pink cushions to soften the way for their feet. at last they reached the edge of thecalm blue water.

they undressed and went in. the water was very warm indeed, and rippled like soft silk overtheir arms. they swam out slowly, enjoying the warmth of the lake and of the sun on theirshoulders.

‘now i’m going to dive down and see if i can make out anything,’ said jack, and turninghimself up like a duck, down he went, down and down and down. what would he find at thebottom?