24

an amazing discovery

the lagoon was quite deep. jack could not swim to the bottom, because he couldn’t possibly holdhis breath long enough. he came up, gasping.

‘all i could see was a pile of silvery stuff lying on the bottom,’ he gasped to the others.

‘nothing else at all. i couldn’t go right down to it, because i hadn’t enough breath.’

‘well, that’s not much use,’ said dinah. ‘we want to see what’s inside the waterproof wrapping– tear it off, so that we can see what it holds.’

‘we wouldn’t be able to do that very easily,’ said philip. ‘i bet it’s sewn up pretty tightly – orsealed in some clever way. i’ll go down, jack – perhaps i can get near enough to feel what’sinside.’

‘oh dear – do be careful,’ said lucy-ann. ‘you don’t know what might be inside!’

‘well – it’s hardly likely to be anything that will eat us,’ grinned jack. ‘kiki, why don’t you doa little diving, like huffin and puffin do – you could be a bit of help then!’

but kiki did not approve of all this love of bathing. she flew about above the children in thewater and tried occasionally to perch on a bare shoulder. huffin and puffin loved having thechildren in the water, and swam and dived beside them, uttering deep arrrrrs of satisfaction.

philip dived under, and swam rapidly downwards, his eyes wide open in the salt water. farbelow him he saw the silvery mass, gleaming dimly on the lagoon bed. he swam right down to it,and put out his hand to touch it. beneath the wrapping he felt something very hard indeed.

then, his breath giving out, he rose up to the surface, almost bursting. he took in great gulps ofair.

‘i felt something hard,’ he said at last. ‘but it was impossible to tell what it was. blow! isn’t itsickening to be right on top of a mystery like this, and not be able to solve it?’

‘we shall have to give it up,’ said jack. ‘i know perfectly well i haven’t enough breath to godown and probe the wrappings. i should burst for want of breath.’

‘i do hate giving things up,’ said dinah.

‘well, swim under the water yourself and see if you can find out anything,’ said philip.

‘you know i can’t hold my breath even as long as you can,’ said dinah. ‘so what’s the good ofthat?’

‘i’m going to swim back to shore,’ said lucy-ann. ‘there’s a nice sunny rock over there,covered with seaweed. i shall have a sunbathe there.’

she swam slowly over to it. huffin and puffin dived under, just beside her. ‘i wonder what theylook like when they swim under water,’ thought lucy-ann. ‘i’d love to see them chasing a fish.’

she turned herself up, and duck-dived under the water. ah, there was huffin, using his wings toswim swiftly through the water after a big fish. quick, huffin, or you’ll lose it!

just as she was going to swim upwards again lucy-ann noticed something below her. thelagoon was not nearly so deep just there, for a shelf of rocks ran out into the water, making it fairlyshallow, although it was much too deep still for lucy-ann’s feet to touch the bottom.

the little girl took a quick glance to see what it was on the rocks below the water, but then herbreath gave out, and, half choking, she rose up to the surface, gasping and spluttering.

when she had got her breath again, down she went – and then she realised what it was she saw.

one of the parachuted packages, instead of falling into the deeper waters of the lagoon, had fallenon to the shallow rocky bed just below her. the package had split open – and all its contents werespread and scattered on the rocky bottom below.

but whatever were they? lucy-ann could not make them out at all. they looked such peculiarshapes. she rose up to the surface again and yelled to jack.

‘hi, jack! one of those secret packages has split open on the rocky bottom just here – but ican’t make out what was in it!’

the boys and dinah swam up in great excitement. they all duck-dived and down they went,down, down, down. they came to where the silvery wrapping was split open, moving gently upand down with the flow of the water. all around it were the spilt contents.

the boys, almost bursting for breath, examined them quickly, then shot up to the surface,gasping.

they looked at one another, and then both shouted the same words.

‘guns! guns! scores of them!’

the children swam to the sunny rock that lucy-ann was now sitting on, and clambered up.

‘fancy that! guns! what in the wide world do they want to drop guns down in this lagoon for?

are they getting rid of them? and why?’

‘no. they wouldn’t wrap them up so carefully in waterproof stuff if they were just dumpingthem,’ said philip soberly. ‘they’re hiding them.’

‘hiding them! but what a very peculiar place to hide guns in!’ said dinah. ‘what are they goingto do with them?’

‘they’re probably gun-running,’ said jack, ‘bringing hundreds of guns here from somewhere,and hiding them till they’re ready for them – ready for some revolution somewhere – southamerica, perhaps.’

‘something like that, i bet,’ said philip. ‘there are always people stirring up trouble somewhere,and wanting weapons to fight with. those who can supply them with guns would make a lot ofmoney. yes, that’s what it is – gun-running!’

‘well!’ said lucy-ann, ‘to think we’ve dropped right into an awful thing like that! i expect billguessed it – and they saw him snooping round – and captured him so that he couldn’t give thegame away.’

‘however do they get the guns away from here?’ wondered jack. ‘i mean – they can’t be gotaway by boat, because this lagoon is absolutely enclosed by rocks. yet the guns must be taken outof the water, to be sent to wherever they are wanted. it’s jolly strange.’

‘well, now we do know what that aeroplane was dropping,’ said philip. ‘my word – this lagoonmust be full of armaments! what an absolutely wonderful hiding-place – nobody to see whathappens, nobody to discover the guns at the bottom . . .’

‘except us,’ said lucy-ann promptly. ‘i discovered that split package. i suppose it hit the rocksjust below the surface and split open at once.’

they lay basking in the sun, talking over the curious discovery. then kiki suddenly uttered anastonished cry, and the children sat up to see why.

‘goodness – there’s a boat coming,’ said jack in dismay. ‘coming towards this very place, too,from the seaward side of the rocky barrier.’

‘what shall we do?’ said lucy-ann, frightened. ‘there’s nowhere to hide, and we haven’t timeto make our way back without being seen.’

the boys gazed round in desperation. what could be done? then philip suddenly grabbed up agreat armful of seaweed and flung it over the surprised lucy-ann.

‘we’ll cover ourselves up with this!’ he said. ‘there’s stacks of it! quick! pull it up and coveryourselves with it. it’s the only way we can hide.’

their hearts thumping loudly again, the four children piled the thickly growing seaweed, withits great ribbonlike fronds, all over themselves. jack peered through his and spoke urgently todinah.

‘one of your feet is showing, di. put some seaweed over it, quick!’

huffin and puffin were amazed at this sudden seaweed game. they decided which lump wasphilip and went to perch solemnly on him. he felt their weight, and almost laughed.

‘nobody could possibly guess there was a boy under these two puffins and all the seaweed,’ hethought. ‘i only hope the others are really well covered.’

the boat grounded not far off. the voices of two or three men could be heard, coming nearerand nearer. the children held their breath. ‘don’t tread on us, oh, don’t tread on us!’ prayed lucy-ann, feeling quite sick, especially as there was a great flabby piece of seaweed across her mouth.

the men did not tread on them. they came and stood quite nearby, however, and all of themlighted cigarettes as they stood there.

‘the last lot of stuff came today,’ said one man, in a husky, deep voice. ‘this lagoon must bealmost full now.’

‘yes. time we got some of it away,’ said another voice, a sharp, commanding kind of voice.

‘we don’t know how much information that fellow we’ve got has passed on to his headquarters.

he won’t talk. better send a message through to the chief, to tell him to collect as much as hewants, in case anyone else is sent along to snoop.’

‘what about the second fellow? he won’t talk either,’ said the first voice. ‘what are we going todo with them?’

‘they can’t remain up here,’ said the commanding voice. ‘put them on the boat tonight, andwe’ll dump them somewhere where they won’t be heard of again. i’m not going to waste my timeon that first fellow any more – what’s his name? – cunningham. he’s been enough trouble to us,poking his noise into all we do for the last year. time he disappeared.’

the four hidden children, feeling very damp and cold under their seaweed, shivered to hear allthis. they knew perfectly well what was meant. they, these men, were bill’s bitter enemies,because he had been successful in keeping on their track – now they had got him, and they wereafraid he knew too much, though actually it was likely that bill didn’t know as much as they, thechildren, did.

‘and so they are going to remove all these guns and then dump poor bill somewhere so that henever will be heard of again, because he will be drowned,’ thought jack desperately. ‘we shallhave to rescue him. and as quickly as possible too. i wonder who the other fellow is they aretalking about. surely it can’t be horace. i thought he was one of the enemy.’

the men wandered away over the rocks. evidently they had come to survey their extraordinaryhiding-place though they could see very little of its contents. the children lay perfectly still, notdaring to move, in case they should be noticed. they got very tired indeed of lying there, andlucy-ann was shivering.

then they heard the sound of the motor-boat’s engine starting up again. thank goodness! theywaited a while, and then jack sat cautiously up. he looked round. there was no one to be seen.

the men had gone back to the boat by a different way, and it was now some distance out to sea.

‘phew!’ said jack. ‘i didn’t like that at all. another inch or two nearer, and one of the menwould have trodden on my foot!’