chapter 27 unexpected visitors

lucian was perfectly right. he didn't know the way, and he couldn't find the boats. he wascompletely hopeless. he simply wandered here and there, making towards the sea, but arriving at arocky beach where no boats could possibly lie.

"you're a mutt," said jack, in disgust.

"mutt!" said kiki, pleased with the word. "mutty! send for the doctor."nobody smiled even at this. they were all too disappointed and disgusted with poor lucian. helooked ready to cry.

"it's not my fault," he said with a sniff. "if i'd known it was going to be so important i'd have takencareful note of the way. but i didn't know.""now look here — if you start to blub again i'll park you down a rabbit-hole, and stuff it up withseaweed," said jack, in disgust. lucian looked alarmed.

"i would remember if i could," he said dismally. "but i do tell you this — nobody can come or gofrom these islands in a boat without a seaman who knows, the way. there are hundreds of rocks justbelow the surface of the sea. even an experienced seaman finds it difficult. i know, because i've sooften visited them with my uncle."

jack looked at him. "well — i believe you about that," he said. "i shouldn't care to navigate a boatmyself without a sailor who knew the way. gosh — we're really beaten now — no boats — and if wehad them we'd probably wreck ourselves. a very poor outlook indeed!"lucy- ann immediately had a vision of themselves and mr. eppy and his friends remaining onthamis island for years and years! she sighed.

"i wish i'd never bought that ship in a bottle for philip," she said. "if i'd known it was going to bringus such an adventure i'd have thrown it away!"they began to make their way back to the city. as they went, jack stopped and looked up at the sky.

"what's that noise?" he said. "sounds like an aeroplane!"they all stopped then, and listened, looking for the plane. soon it came in sight, a small speckcoming in from the north.

"pity we can't make a signal of distress," said dinah. "anyway i'm going to wave my hanky!"she took out a small hanky, and, much to the others' amusement, waved it wildly in the air.

"do you really suppose for one moment that the plane can see your dirty little hanky, and wouldcome down here if it did?" demanded philip.

"you never know," said dinah, still waving vigorously.

"you're daft," said philip, and dinah gave him one of her best scowls. leaving her waving madly, theothers went on, still keeping an eye on the plane, which by now was over the island. it flew over it —and then made a wide circuit and flew back!

"it's seen my hanky!" shrieked dinah. "it's coming back!""don't be an ass," said philip. but the plane certainly had come back — and what was more it wascoming down low, too, making another circuit of the whole island as it flew.

"there's a flat space over there, look, look," screamed dinah to the plane, as if she really thought itcould hear her. "come down there! oh, don't pass it!"the plane swooped down still lower and came round again. it seemed to see the flat place that dinahhad yelled about, and it came down neatly, as slowly as it could. its wheels touched the ground, andfor one awful moment it looked as if the rough ground was going to tip the plane over on its nose.

but it righted itself and came to a stop.

dinah looked at the others with flushed cheeks. "there you are! it saw my hanky — and it heard myyell!"

the others were staring in delight at the plane. "it can't be friends of mr. eppy's!" cried philip. "itmust be someone sent to look for us. come on!"their feet flew along over the rough paths. they saw two men getting out of the plane. they wavedto the children and went to meet them.

lucy-ann's sharp eyes recognized them first. "it's tim!" she squealed. "tim, bill's friend. and isn'tthat andros the boatman with him?"

she was right. it was tim, and beside him was a rather shame-faced andros. tim hailed them.

"hallo, hallo! where's bill? are you all safe? andros here came to me with such a wild story i had tocome along and investigate!"

"yes, bill's all right!" cried jack, and he pumped tim's arm up and down in sheer delight at seeinghim. "i say, it's good to see you. did andros really come and tell you about us?""he told me a most extraordinary tale," said tim. "he apparently chewed it over for a day or so, andthen decided he'd better tell someone. when he saw me down at the quayside, trying to spot you all,he recognized me and came up. he said that he took you to thamis and dropped you there. then hefell asleep waiting for you."

"that's right," said jack.

"and then someone came and woke him up in a hurry, and told him he'd no right to be there, andthreatened him with prison," said tim. "andros replied that he'd left a party there, a man, and fourchildren, a parrot and a monkey — and this fellow raved at him, said it was his own island, and ifandros didn't clear out then and there he'd have him arrested straight away.

"mr. eppy in a rage, evidently," said jack.

"andros then pointed out that he hadn't been paid and this fellow poured money into his hands andthen pointed a revolver at him. so andros fled, comforting himself by thinking that as the fellow hada boat somewhere he could at least bring you all off in his own good time. that right, andros?""i not understand all, mister, sir," said andros. "bad man here. very bad. andros very sorry, mister,sir."

"well, now you tell your tale," said tim to jack. so between them the children poured out their story— and it was such an astonishing one that tim listened open-mouthed. good gracious — what a tale!

he had never heard anything like it in his life.

he soon grasped everything, and grinned to think of old bill standing patiently by the brokencolumn, waiting for mr. eppy or his men to come out and be dealt with.

"i wouldn't mind dealing with them myself," said the young man cheerfully. "biff, thud, ker-plonk —very nice too!"

"oh, tim — you do make me laugh!" said lucy-ann, with a giggle. "i wonder if bill has been doingany biffing."

"well, if he has, i hope it's mr. eppy that's getting the biffs, to say nothing of the ker-plonks," saidtim cheerfully. "well, now — what's our plan to be?""we've got to find the other creek and the boats," said jack. "that's the first thing to do. then we'vegot to get the two men out of the way — the ones who are with the boats. then somehow we've gotto get the boats going and sail off safely without being wrecked on the rocks.""well, andros will know where the creek is — in fact, i know myself," said tim. "i saw it from theplane — and saw the boats there too. and andros and i will account for the two men all right.""no. we know a better way than that to get them out of the way," said philip, and he told tim hisplan to send lucian to them with a fake message. tim nodded.

"yes, that's better, really. saves a lot of rough stuff. not that i mind that, but i'm not sure about ourfriend here. he's not made of such stern stuff as he might be.""i think we'd better get back and see bill before we do anything," said jack. "and anyway we don'twant to get the two boatmen out of the way yet, and turn them on to old bill. that wouldn't be a verygood plan. come on — let's get back to bill."so off they all went, kiki chattering merrily, knowing that the children were now feeling very muchmore cheerful. "mistersir," she said to andros. "mistersir, mister!"they got back to the temple courtyard, and bill stared in surprise to see tim. "hallo!" he said. "well,well, well — so it was your plane i saw coming over the island. i couldn't see it come down fromhere, but i hoped it had. bit of luck your meeting with the children. i suppose they've told you all thenews."

"yes, rather," grinned tim. "pretty adventurous lot, aren't you? any trouble with the chappies downthe column?"

"just a biff or two a little while ago," said bill. "not on mr. eppy's head, unfortunately — one of theother fellows, i fear. i haven't heard so much as the flick of an eyelid since."the sound of a bell came echoing up the ruined street. "dong-dong-dong!""pussy's down the well!" screeched kiki, suddenly remembering ding-dong-bell. "who put her in,who put her in?"

"what on earth's that bell?" asked tim, startled. "are we late for school or what?""don't be silly!" said lucy-ann, laughing. "that's our food. it comes every day regularly at this time.

and i'm jolly glad — i'm still hungry after our poor breakfast."tim was amazed to see the imp of a boy coming along with the panniered donkey. bill didn't leavehis post by the column, but handed out money to jack to pay for the food. the boy emptied thepanniers, winked at tim and spat rudely at micky. the monkey immediately spat back, and his aimwas a lot better than the boy's. "pah!" said the little imp, in disgust.

"pah!" echoed kiki. "pooh! dong-dong-dong, pop goes the pah!"the boy gave her a look of amazement and climbed on his donkey's back. he sent a stream ofgibberish at kiki, who copied him at once, ending with one of her pistol-shots. the donkey reared infright, and then galloped off with the boy at top speed.

"you'll be the death of me one day, kiki," said bill, weak with laughing. "now then — hand out thefood, jack — and i suppose we'd better throw a bit down the column, or our friends below will starveto death!"

fortunately the boy had brought a great deal of food so there was plenty for everyone. bill yelleddown the column in a stentorian voice.

"if you want food, there's some coming. but don't try any funny tricks, or you won't get any more!"somebody evidently came up to get the bread, cheese and meat that bill threw down. he also threwsome fruit, feeling that the men must be as thirsty as he was. there was no word of thanks fromanyone in the column, and no sound after the food had been taken.

"wonder if they found the treasure," said jack, munching hard. "wish i'd seen it! i bet i shan't now— and if i don't, it'll be the disappointment of my life!"