The Sea of Adventure (19 page)

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 fallen on to the shallow rocky bed just below her. The package had split open — and all its contents were spread and scattered on the rocky bottom below.

But whatever were they? Lucy-Ann could not make them out at all. They looked such peculiar shapes. 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 I can'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 up and 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 out 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 dumping them," said Philip soberly. "They're hiding them."

"Hiding them! But what a very peculiar place to hide guns in!" said Dinah. "What are they going to 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 — South America, 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 of money. 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 Bill guessed it — and they saw him snooping round — and captured him so that he couldn't give the game away."

"However do they get the guns away from here?" wondered Jack. "I mean — they can't be got away by boat, because this lagoon is absolutely enclosed by rocks. Yet the guns must be taken out of the water, to be sent to wherever they are wanted. It's jolly queer."

"Well, now we do know what that aeroplane was dropping," said Philip. "My word — this lagoon must be full of armaments! What an absolutely wonderful hiding-place — nobody to see what happens, nobody to discover the guns at the bottom . . ."

"Except us," said Lucy-Ann promptly. "I discovered that split package. I suppose it hit the rocks just below the surface and split open at once."

They lay basking in the sun, talking over the curious discovery. Then Kiki suddenly uttered an astonished 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 time to make our way back without being seen."

The boys gazed round in desperation. What could be done? Then Philip suddenly grabbed up a great 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 cover yourselves with it. It's the only way we can hide."

Their hearts thumping loudly again, the four children piled the thickly growing seaweed, with its great ribbon-like fronds, all over themselves. Jack peered through his and spoke Urgently to Dinah.

"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 was Philip 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," he thought. "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 nearer and 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 them lighted cigarettes as they stood there.

"The last lot of stuff came today," said one man, in a husky, deep voice. "This lagoon must be almost 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 he wants, 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 to do with them?"

"They can't remain up here," said the commanding voice. "Put them on the boat tonight, and we'll dump them somewhere where they won't be heard of again. I'm not going to waste my time on that first fellow any more — what's his name? — Cunningham. He's been enough trouble to us, poking his nose 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 all this. 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 were afraid he knew too much, though actually it was likely that Bill didn't know as much as they, the children, did.

"And so they are going to remove all these guns and then dump poor Bill somewhere so that he never will be heard of again, because he will be drowned," thought Jack desperately. "We shall have to rescue him. And as quickly as possible too. I wonder who the other fellow is they are talking 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 extraordinary hiding-place though they could see very little of its contents. The children lay perfectly still, not daring to move, in case they should be noticed. They got very tired indeed of lying there, and Lucy-Ann was shivering.

Then they heard the sound of the motor-boat's engine starting up again. Thank goodness! They waited 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 men would have trodden on my foot!"

Chapter 25

ANOTHER SURPRISE

THEY all sat up and removed the slippery seaweed from themselves. Huffin and Puffin walked down Philip's body, where they had perched the whole time. Kiki, to her fright and dismay, had been covered with seaweed by Jack, and forced to stay beside him, for he was afraid she might give them away by talking. She talked angrily now.

"Poor, poor Polly! Send for the doctor! What a pity, what a pity, ding dong bell, Polly's in the well!"

The children looked at one another solemnly when they had finished uncovering themselves. Bill was in great danger, there was no doubt of that at all.

"What are we going to do?" said Lucy-Ann, with tears in her eyes. Nobody quite knew. There seemed to be danger wherever they turned.

"Well," said Jack at last, "we've got a boat of our own, that's one thing — and I think when it's dark tonight we'd better set out for the other island, the one the men are on, and see if we can't find where they keep their motor-boat. We know that Bill will be there."

"And rescue him!" said Dinah, thrilled. "But how shall we get close in to shore without being seen or heard?"

"We'll go when it's dark, as I said," said Jack, "and when we get near to the shore, we'll stop our engine and get the oars. Then we can row in without being heard."

"Oh yes. I'd forgotten there were oars in our boat," said Dinah. "Thank goodness!"

"Can't we get back to our little cave, on the shore at the other side of the island?" asked Lucy-Ann. "I don't feel safe here, somehow. And I'd be glad to know our boat was all right."

"Also, we can't have anything to eat till we get back there," said Philip, getting up. "Come on, I'm frozen. We shall get warm climbing up the rocks, on to the height over there, and then over the island to the boat."

So they went back over the rocks, and found their clothes where they had left them. They stripped off their wet suits and dressed quickly. Philip's rats, which he had left in his pockets, were extremely pleased to see him again, and ran all over him with little squeals of delight.

Huffin and Puffin accompanied the children as usual. All of them were secretly relieved to find their boat was safe on the shingly beach. They went to her and chose some tins of food.

"Better have something with lots of juice to drink," said Jack. "There's no fresh water here as far as I can see, and I'm awfully thirsty. Let's open a tin of pineapple. There's always lots of juice in that."

"Better open two tins if Kiki's going to have any," said Dinah. "You know what a pig she is over pineapple."

They all tried to be jolly and cheerful, but somehow, what with their strange discovery of the guns in the lagoon, and the news that Bill was in real danger, none of them could talk for long. One by one they fell silent, and hardly knew what they were eating.

"I suppose," said Dinah at last, after a long silence in which the only noise was the sound of Kiki's beak scraping against the bottom of one of the pineapple tins, "I suppose we had better set out as soon as it's dark — but I do feel quaky about it!"

"Well, look here," said Jack, "I've been thinking hard — and I'm sure it would be best if Philip and I went alone to get Bill. It's very risky, and we don't know a bit what we shall be up against, and I don't like the idea of you girls coming."

"Oh, we must come!" cried Lucy-Ann, who couldn't bear the thought of Jack going off without her. "Supposing something happened to you — we'd be here on this island all alone, and nobody would know about us! Anyway, I'm going with you, Jack. You can't stop me!"

"All right," said Jack. "Perhaps it would be better if we stuck together. I say — I suppose that other fellow they spoke about couldn't be Horace? We couldn't have made a mistake about him, could we?"

"Well, I did think he was too idiotic for words," said Dinah. "I mean — he looked it, not only acted it. I believe we did make a mistake. I think perhaps he really was a bird-lover."

"Gosh! He must have thought we were frightful!" said Jack, horrified. "And we took his boat too — and left him to be taken prisoner by the enemy!"

"And they must have thought he was Bill's friend, and have been wild with him when he said he didn't know Bill or anything about him," said Philip.

Everyone thought solemnly about poor Horace. "I'm jolly glad none of us hit him on the head, after all," said Jack. "Poor old Horace Tripalong!"

"We'll have to rescue him too," said Lucy-Ann. "That'll make up a bit for taking his boat. But won't he be furious with us for all we've done!"

Huffin appeared at this moment with his familiar gift of half a dozen fish, neatly arranged head and tail alternately in his large beak. He deposited them at Philip's feet.

"Thanks, old man," said Philip. "But won't you eat them yourself? We daren't make a fire here to cook anything on."

"Arrrrrr!" said Huffin, and walked over to have a look in the empty tins. Puffin took the opportunity of gobbling up the fish, and Kiki watched her in disgust. Kiki had no use for fish fresh from the sea.

"Pah!" she said, in Horace's voice, and the children smiled.

"Kiki, you'll have to be jolly quiet tonight," said Jack, scratching her head. "No pahing or poohing to warn the enemy we're near!"

When the sun began to sink the children took the motor-boat a little way out to sea, to make sure that there were no rocks about that they must avoid when setting out at night. Far away on the horizon line they saw the island of the enemy. Somewhere there was Bill — and perhaps Horace too.

"I hope to goodness we see some kind of light to show us where to go inshore," said Jack. "We can't shoot all round the island, looking for the right place. We'd be heard. And we couldn't possibly row round."

"Well, we saw that light that was signalling to the other boat last night," said Philip. "Maybe it will be signalling again. Let's go back now. There doesn't seem to be any rock to avoid tonight. We'll set out as soon as it is dark."

They went back — and no sooner had they got to their little beach than they heard the humming of an aeroplane.

"Surely they're not going to drop any more packages!" said Jack. "Lie down flat, all of you. We don't want to be spotted. Get near those rocks."