The Sea of Adventure (15 page)

"Ha! You men! I hope you have caught sight of our signal again!" cried Jack, facing out to sea. "You can't beat us! We'll get the better of you yet, you'll see!"

Chapter 19

SOMEONE ELSE COMES TO THE ISLAND

THE children were now very brown with the sun. "If Mother could see us now, she wouldn't call us 'peaky,' " said Philip. "And you've got back all your freckles, Jack and Lucy-Ann, and a few hundreds more!"

"Oh dear!" said Lucy-Ann, rubbing her brown freckled face. "What a pity! I did think I looked so nice when my freckles faded away during measles."

"I seem to be losing count of the days," said Jack. "I can't for the life of me make out whether today is Tuesday or Wednesday."

"It's Friday," said Philip promptly. "I was counting up only this morning. We've been here quite a time now."

"Well — is it a week since we left home?" wondered Dinah. "It seems about six months. I wonder how Mother is getting on."

"She must be feeling a bit worried about us," said Philip. "Except that she knows we're with Bill and she'll think we're quite all right, even if she doesn't get messages."

"And we're not with Bill and we're not all right," said Lucy-Ann. "I do wish I knew where Bill was and what was happening to him. If only we had a boat, we could go off in it and try to find where he was. He must have been taken to the west of us somewhere — because that's where the planes seem to be."

"Well — we're not likely to get a boat," said Philip. "Come on — let's go up on the cliff-top and see to the fire. The smoke doesn't seem very thick this morning. Huffin and Puffin, are you coming?"

"Arrrrrrr!" said both Huffin and Puffin, and walked along beside Philip. Huffin had taken to bringing fish as a little present for Philip, and this amused the children immensely. The first time that Huffin had waddled up with the fish in his big beak, the children hadn't been able to make out what he was carrying. But when he came nearer they roared with laughter.

"Philip! He's got six or seven fish in his beak for you — and do. look how he's arranged them!" cried Jack. "Heads and tails alternately in a row all down his beak! Huffin, how did you do it?"

"Thanks awfully, old chap," said Philip, as Huffin deposited the fish beside the boy. "Very generous of you."

Now Huffin brought fish two or three times a day, much to the children's amusement. Philip knew how to prepare it for cooking over the fire, and the children ate the bigger fish with biscuits and tinned butter. Huffin solemnly accepted a piece cooked, and seemed to enjoy it just as much as raw. But Puffin would not touch it.

"Well, as long as we've got Huffin to provide us with fish, we shan't starve," said Jack. "Kiki, don't be so jealous. If Huffin wants to be generous, let him."

Kiki tried to head off Huffin when he arrived with fish. She could not catch fish herself, and did not like the way Huffin brought presents to the little company.

"Naughty, naughty, naughty boy!" she screeched, but Huffin took no notice at all.

The children were sitting by the fire, idly throwing sticks on to it, and stirring it now and again to make it flare up a little. A spire of smoke rose up, bent northwards. Jack took up his field-glasses and swept the lonely sea with them. You never knew when friends — or enemies — might turn up.

"Hallo! There's a boat again!" cried Jack suddenly, his glasses focussed on something small far away. "Philip, get your glasses."

The boys gazed through them, whilst the girls waited impatiently. They could see nothing with their bare eyes — not even a speck on the sea.

"Is it the same boat as before?" said Philip. "It's getting nearer — we shall soon be able to find out."

"It looks a different one to me," said Jack. "Smaller. And it's coming from a different direction. That might just be a trick though — to make us think it was a friend."

"How shall we know?" said Lucy-Ann. "Have we got to go and hide again?"

Jack gave his glasses to her to look through. He turned to Philip, a gleam in his eye. "Philip — there's only one man this time — he'll have to leave his boat moored somewhere, if he's come to look for us. What about capturing it?"

"Golly! If only we could!" said Philip, his face glowing. "It's a motor-boat — a small one — but big enough to take us all easily."

"Capture it! But how?" demanded Dinah, her eyes glued on the approaching boat. "The man would see us easily, come running up, and capture us!"

"Here, let me have my glasses back," said Philip, tugging them away from Dinah. "That's the worst of you, Di — you will always make your turn so long!"

"Now let's think a bit," said Jack, his eyes bright. "That fellow can't be coming to rescue us, because anyone knowing we were all alone here would send a bigger boat, and probably more men, in case they had to tackle our enemy. If Bill had managed to get word to anyone, that's what they would do. Therefore, it seems to me that this boat is not one sent to rescue . . ."

"So it's probably a trick of the enemy's," continued Philip. "They may or may not know there are only children here — it depends on how much Bill has told them — but they might quite easily send someone who would pretend not to be an enemy, so as to take us in — and then we would be persuaded to get into his boat to go to safety — and he'd take us off somewhere to join Bill as prisoners."

"Oh!" said Lucy-Ann, who didn't like the sound of this at all. "Well, I certainly shan't get into his boat. Jack, what are we going to do?"

"Now listen," said Jack. "I really have got a good idea — but it needs all of us to carry it out, you girls too."

"Well, what have we got to do?" said Dinah impatiently.

"We'll find out where he's going to moor his boat," said Jack. "He'll either go into that little channel where the Lucky Star was — or pull her up on a sandy beach. We shall soon know, because we shall watch."

"Yes, what then?" asked Lucy-Ann, beginning to feel excited.

"Well, Dinah and I will hide nearby," said Jack. "The man will walk up on to the island, to look for us — and you and Lucy-Ann, Philip, must go and meet him."

"Oh, I couldn't," said Lucy-Ann, in alarm.

"All right then — you stay put somewhere," said Jack, "and Philip can meet him. And Philip, somehow or other you've got to get this fellow into that underground hole. We can easily keep him prisoner there — and if we can block him in somehow, with plenty of food, we can take the boat and go."

There was a silence whilst everyone digested this remarkable plan. "But how am I to get him into the hole?" asked Philip at last. "It sounds a bit like ' "Won't you come into my parlour?" said the spider to the fly' — and somehow I don't think that the fly will oblige this time!"

"Can't you just take him through the puffin colony, and walk him near the hole — and then trip him up?" asked Jack impatiently. "I'm sure I could do it all right."

"Well, you do it then," said Philip, "and I'll hide near the boat to capture it. But suppose you don't trip the man up and make him fall into the hole and be a prisoner? What about the boat? What shall I do with it?"

"Well, silly, you'll hop into it, if you find that I haven't been able to manage the man, and you'll get out to sea," said Jack. "And there you'll stay till it begins to get dark, when you can creep in and see if you can find us and take us off. But you needn't worry — I shall get that fellow all right. I shall tackle him just like I tackle chaps at rugger, at school."

Lucy-Ann gazed at Jack in admiration. What it was to be a boy!

"Well, I'll help too," she said. "I'll go and meet him with you."

"We shall have to pretend to believe all he says," said Jack. "Every word! It'll be funny — him trying to take us in with a cock-and-bull story, and us doing the same!"

"I hope he won't be very fierce," said Lucy-Ann.

"He'll pretend to be quite harmless, I expect," said Jack. "Probably say he's a naturalist, or something — and look very simple and friendly. Well — so shall I!"

"The boat's getting quite near," said Philip. "There is only one man. He's wearing dark glasses because of the sun."

"To hide his fierce eyes, I expect," said Lucy-Ann fearfully. "Not because of the sun. Do we show ourselves?"

"Only two of us," said Jack. "You and I will get up, Lucy-Ann, and wave like mad, standing beside the fire. And mind, whatever story I tell, you've got to back me up. Philip, you and Dinah mustn't show yourselves."

"Where's he going to park his boat?" wondered Dinah. "Oh, he's making straight for the channel! He knows it then!"

"There you are, you see!" said Jack. "Nobody would make straight for that hidden channel unless he had been here before. He's quite probably one of the men who came in that bigger boat."

This did seem very likely indeed, for the boat-man made straight for the little channel as if he had been there before. Just as he came near the cliffs Jack and Lucy-Ann stood up and waved. The man waved back.

"Now, Dinah — you and Philip get down among the rocks that lead to the little harbour," said Jack. "There are some big ones there you can crouch behind till he's moored his boat, and comes up to find us here. Then down you must go and hop into the boat ready to go out to sea if we fail in our part. If we don't fail, things will be fine — we shall have a prisoner we can hold as hostage — and a boat to escape in!"

"Hurray!" said Philip, feeling suddenly excited.

"Hip-hip-hip!" said Kiki, flying down to Jack's shoulder. She had been on an expedition of her own somewhere — probably chivvying the gulls around, Jack thought.

"You can join in the fun, Kiki," said Jack. "And mind you say all the right things!"

"Send for the doctor," answered Kiki, solemnly. "Pop goes the doctor!"

"He's going into the channel," said Philip. "Come on, Dinah — time we hid! Good luck, Jack and Lucy-Ann!"

Chapter 20

MR. HORACE TIPPERLONG GETS A SHOCK

THE man guided the motor-boat expertly into the narrow channel of water, where the Lucky Star had been battered to pieces. He saw the bit of broken rope still round one of the rocks, and looked at it puzzled.

Dinah and Philip were crouching behind two or three large rocks further up the cliff. They could not see what the man was doing, for they were afraid of being spotted if they peeped out.

Jack and Lucy-Ann were waiting on the cliff-top. Lucy-Ann was nervous. "My knees feel funny," she complained to Jack. He laughed.

"Don't be a baby. Buck up, knees! Now — here he comes. You needn't say a word if you don't want to."

The man came up the rocky steps that led to the top of the cleft in the cliff. He was a thin fellow, rather weedy, with skinny legs. He wore shorts and a pullover. He had been burnt by the sun, and his skin was blistered.

He had a thin little moustache, and a high forehead on which the hair grew rather far back. He wore very dark glasses indeed, so that it was quite impossible to see his eyes. He did not look anybody to be very much feared, Jack thought.

"Hallo, hallo, hallo," said the man, as he and the children met. "I was astonished to know there were people on this island."

"Who told you?" asked Jack at once.

"Oh, nobody," said the man. "I saw your spire of smoke. Whatever are you doing here? Is there a camp of you, or something?"

"There might be," said Jack, airily. "Why have you come here?"

"I'm an ornithologist," said the man, very earnestly. "You won't know what that means, of course."

Jack grinned to himself. Considering that he and Philip thought themselves very fine ornithologists, this amused him. But he wasn't going to let this man know that.

"Orni — orn — ornibologist?" he said innocently. "What's that?"

"Well, my lad, it's a student of bird life," said the man. "A bird-lover, one who wants to know all he can about birds and their ways."

"Is that why you've come here, then — to study birds?" asked Lucy-Ann, thinking she ought to say something. Her knees had stopped shaking and feeling funny, now that she saw the man was not at all fearsome.

"Yes. I've been to this island before, years and years ago, when I was a lad," said the man. "And I wanted to come again, though I had a job finding it. I was surprised to see your smoke going up. What's it for? Playing at shipwrecked sailors, or something? I know what children are."

It was plain that the man knew very little about children, and thought the two to be much younger than they were. "He'll be reciting 'Humpty Dumpty' to us in a moment," thought Jack, with a private grin.

"Do you know a lot about birds?" said Jack, not answering the man's question.

"Well, I don't know a great deal about sea-birds," said the man. "That's why I've come to these islands again. I know more about ordinary birds."

"Aha!" thought Jack, "he says that because he is afraid I'll ask him a few questions about the birds here."

"We've got two tame puffins," said Lucy-Ann suddenly. "Would you like to see them?"

"Oh very much, my dear, very much," said the man, beaming at her. "By the way, my name is Tipperlong — Horace Tipperlong."