29

bill makes a grand find

the sky grew silvery in the east. then a golden glow spread slowly upwards, and the sea became amilky colour that gradually turned to gold.

almost at once there came a crying of sea-birds as guillemots, gannets, cormorants, puffins andgulls came from their roosting-places to greet the new day. soon the sea around the children wasdotted thickly with hundreds of birds eagerly seeking fish for food. huffin and puffin joined them.

jack gave an exclamation as he looked all round him. ‘this isn’t the lagoon-island. there wereno rocky cliffs to it like this, facing the sea. this is another island we’ve come to!’

‘yes, it is,’ said philip. ‘one i don’t remember to have seen before. blow! where are we?’

‘i should think it must be the island we once noticed on the chart,’ said lucy- ann,remembering. ‘the isle of wings. just look at the mass of birds on the waters round us! it’s morethan we’ve ever seen before!’

‘extraordinary!’ said bill, amazed. ‘there must be millions of birds. some of them are so closethat they bob against each other.’

not only the sea was full of birds, but the air too, and the screaming and calling was deafening.

soon one bird after another flew up from the water with fish in its beak. huffin flew to the boat andpresented philip with his usual beakful of neatly arranged fish.

‘kiki’s very quiet,’ said philip, looking at her. ‘what’s the matter with her? kiki, put up yourcrest, you ridiculous bird!’

‘send for the doctor,’ said kiki mournfully. jack looked at her closely. then he gave anexclamation.

‘she’s lost some of her crest! she’s hardly got any! oh, bill – that’s what she screeched for lastnight! a bullet must have zipped through her crest – right through her top-knot – and taken someof the feathers off with it.’

‘poor polly, poor polly, what a pity, what a pity!’ said kiki, glad to be the centre of attention.

‘yes, poor old kiki!’ said jack, and he stroked her. ‘what a shock you must have got! nowonder you screeched. never mind, old thing – the crest will grow again. you’ll look a bit mangyfor a while, but we shan’t mind.’

bill had been looking to see exactly what had happened to the boat. it had run on to a shelf ofrock, and had settled there so firmly that until high tide came there was no hope of getting off.

they were not on the mainland of the island, but on an outcrop of tall rocks, hung with thickseaweed, and inhabited by about two hundred or more birds. they did not seem to mind the boatand its load of people in the least. in fact, seeing huffin and puffin perched there, some of the birdscame on deck too. jack was thrilled.

‘i don’t think the boat’s damaged at all,’ said bill. ‘once she gets afloat again with the tide,she’ll be all right. but the thing is – what in the world are we going to do if she does get afloat?’

‘row to safety,’ said lucy-ann promptly.

‘sounds easy,’ said jack regretfully. ‘but you don’t realise what a wild and desolate sea this is,lucy-ann, or how few people ever come to these little bird-islands. we couldn’t possibly row tothe mainland, for instance, could we, bill?’

‘no. i don’t think so,’ said bill. ‘i’m glad to see we’ve got a good store of food. that’ssomething. but what about drinking-water?’

‘we’ll have to drink pineapple juice or something like that,’ said dinah. ‘and if it rains we’llcatch rainwater.’

‘what is the best thing to do?’ said bill, talking to himself, with a frown. ‘they’ll be looking forus, i expect. they’ll know we couldn’t get far. they’ll send out patrols – probably even anaeroplane. they can’t afford to let me get away now.’

the children knew that ‘they’ meant the enemy. dinah looked all round them. ‘if the enemy docome round this island, they can’t help seeing us. we’d be spotted at once in our boat.’

‘well – we’ll make up our minds what to do when the boat’s afloat again,’ said bill at last.

‘what about a spot of sleep? lucy-ann is looking as white as a sheet. she’s had no sleep at all.’

‘i do feel awfully sleepy,’ admitted lucy-ann, trying not to yawn. ‘but i feel dirty and stickytoo.’

‘let’s have a quick dip in the sea, and then have a snooze,’ said jack. ‘we can take it in turn tokeep watch for the enemy.’

‘i don’t want a dip,’ said dinah. ‘i’m too sleepy. you three and bill have a dip, and i’ll make upour beds again and get the rugs and things set out comfortably.’

‘i’ll help you,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’m too tired to bathe.’

bill and the boys soon slipped into the water. the girls watched them. ‘you know,’ said lucy-ann, after a while, ‘it’s almost impossible to see the boys and bill among all those birds bobbingabout. once i lose sight of them i can’t spot them again.’

it was quite true. there were so many birds bobbing about on the water that the boys’ wet darkheads, and bill’s, could hardly be picked out from the crowd.

‘let’s tell bill when they come back,’ said dinah, a sudden idea sliding into her head. ‘i bet ifwe all slid into the water if the enemy came, nobody would ever spot us among the birds there.’

‘no, they wouldn’t,’ agreed lucy-ann. ‘it would be a marvellous idea, dinah!’

they told the others when they came back, glowing from their bathe. bill nodded, pleased. ‘yes– a fine idea. if the enemy comes in sight, that’s what we’ll do. our heads would be completelylost among the bodies of the swimming birds.’

‘what about the boat though?’ said jack.

‘we could do what we did for ourselves, when we were on the rocks beside the lagoon,’ saidphilip. ‘drape it with seaweed so that it looks like a rock!’

‘you’re full of bright ideas, you kids,’ said bill. ‘whilst you’re all having a snooze i’ll do alittle boat-draping. if the enemy come, they’ll come soon. they won’t waste many hours beforethey try to find us. i’ll wake you if i see or hear any sign of them, and you must all be prepared todrop over the side of the boat. better sleep in your undies, so that you don’t wet all your clothes.

your bathing-suits are wet.’

‘ours aren’t,’ said lucy-ann. ‘oh dear – i’m so awfully sleepy. i do hope the enemy don’tcome yet. i’m not at all sure i shall wake if they do!’

bill tucked them all up in rugs. they were asleep in a moment or two, tired out. bill began to doa little boat-draping. he pulled great fronds of seaweed off the nearby rocks and hung them overthe boat-sides, till the little vessel looked like a boat-shaped rock.

having finished his task, bill sat down in the cabin. he idly removed a cover from somethingthere – and then stared in surprise.

a radio! was it a transmitter too? surely horace going off all alone into the wilds, would havehad the sense to take a transmitter with him, in case he got hurt, or became ill? with tremblinghands bill began to examine the radio.

he gave a loud exclamation that woke up jack. the boy sat up in alarm. ‘is it the enemy, bill?’

‘no. but look here – why on earth didn’t you tell me there was a radio in this boat? i can get amessage through, with luck.’

‘golly, i forgot all about it!’ said jack. ‘but is it a transmitter, bill?’

‘yes. not a very good one – but i’ll do my best to try and work it so that i can send a messageto headquarters,’ said bill. ‘there’s always someone standing by there, hoping to hear from me. ihaven’t reported for days.’

bill began to hunt about and jack wondered why. ‘what are you looking for, bill?’ he asked.

‘the aerial,’ said bill. ‘there must be an aerial somewhere, for the transmitter. where on earthcan it be?’

‘i remember seeing something on a shelf at the back of the cabin,’ said jack sleepily. ‘it wasabout six feet long.’

‘that would be it!’ said bill, and went to look. he pulled out something long and slender.

‘good! here it is. i can soon fix it up.’

jack watched bill for a few minutes, then he felt his eyes closing and he slumped down in hisrugs again. it was very, very exciting to watch bill putting up the aerial and trying to make thetransmitter work – but not even that excitement could make jack’s eyes keep open. in half asecond he was fast asleep again.

bill worked and worked, groaning occasionally with disappointment as first one thing failed andthen another. curious sounds came from the radio, and little lights glowed here and there within it.

there was something the matter with it, and bill didn’t know what. if only he knew! oh, if onlyhe could get the thing to work, just for a minute or two!

at last he thought he had got it fixed. now to send a message through. now to send out his codenumber and wait for a reply.

he sent out his code time and again. there was no reply. the radio seemed to be quite dead athis end. there was nothing for it but to send a message and hope it would be received – but billhad grave doubts about it.

he rapidly sent a message through in code, asking for immediate help. he repeated the messagetime and time again, but got no reply at all. he gave the lagoon- island as a guide to theirwhereabouts, knowing that they must be somewhere near it. surely it must be on some map, andcould be located?

he was so busy trying to send his message and listening for a reply which never came, that healmost didn’t hear the distant purr of a powerful motor-boat. but the sound did at last penetrate hismind and he looked up with a start.

he shouted to the children. ‘wake up! quick! into the water with you – the enemy are here!

wake up!’

they all woke up with a jump. the enemy! splash! into the water they slid, all five of them, thetwo girls hardly awake. the enemy! yes, there was the motor-boat heading straight for them all!