‘You tell your tale first,’ said Lucy-Ann, pressing close to him. ‘Oh, Bill, it’s good to have you back! I was so scared when we found you were gone, and the engine of the motor-boat smashed up, and the radio too.’
Yes. They told me they’d done that,’ said Bill. ‘Apparently they didn’t know you kids were on the island at all – so I didn’t say a word, of course. Well – to make a long story short, when I was fiddling about with the radio that night, on our boat, trying to get a message through – and not succeeding, unfortunately . . .’
‘Oh, Bill – then we shan’t be rescued!’ said Lucy-Ann at once. ‘Oh, we did hope you would have sent a message for help or something! . . .’
‘Well, headquarters knew that I was on to something up here, but no more than that,’ said Bill. ‘Anyway, as I say, I was fiddling with the radio – when I suddenly got a blow on the head, and down I went. Then I knew nothing more at all until I woke up on some other island, a prisoner in a shack!’
‘The enemy didn’t hurt you, did they?’ asked Lucy-Ann anxiously.
Bill didn’t answer that. He went on with his tale. ‘They questioned me, of course, and got nothing out of me at all. The queer part was that the very men I’d been told to disappear from, because they were after me, were the very men we bumped into up here! This was where they were carrying on their activities! I had thought it was somewhere in Wales – but they made me think that by laying false clues.’
‘Oh, Bill – and to think this wild desolate sea, with all its little islands, was the very place they had chosen, and we too chose to come to!’ said Jack. ‘They must have thought you’d found out their hiding-place, and had come to track them down.’
‘Just what they did think,’ said Bill. ‘And what’s more they imagined that one or other of their men must have given their secret away, and they wanted to find out from me who it was. That was why they held me for questioning, I imagine – instead of bumping me off at once.’
‘Humpy-dumpy-bumpy,’ said Kiki, taking her head out from under her wing. But nobody paid the slightest attention. Bill’s story was too absorbing.
‘They wanted to know how much I knew, and who had told me,’ said Bill. ‘Well, I didn’t actually know very much, and what I did know nobody had told me, so they didn’t get a great deal out of me – and they were not pleased.’
‘Didn’t you really know very much then?’ said Philip, astonished.
‘I knew this gang were up to something illegal – I knew they were getting a lot of money from somewhere – I guessed it was something to do with guns,’ said Bill. ‘I tried to put several spokes in their wheel, and they got wise to the fact that I was after them. I’d cleaned up a nasty little business of theirs once before – though we didn’t get the chief ones then – so I wasn’t popular.’
‘And they decided to track you down and bump you off!’ said Jack. ‘So you were told to disappear – and lo and behold! you came here to disappear . . .’
‘And walked right into the hornets’ nest,’ agreed Bill. ‘And took you with me too! How is it you kids always attract adventures? As soon as I go near you, an adventure leaps up, and we all get caught in it.’
‘It is very peculiar,’ said Jack. ‘Go on, Bill.’
‘Well, then my guards suddenly brought Mr Horace Tipperlong to my shack,’ said Bill. ‘They appeared to think that he was a pal of mine, and was up here among these islands to help me in my snooping. He was just as bewildered as I was. I couldn’t make him out at all. But when we were alone, he began to tell me about you kids, and I guessed what had happened. You were absolute little demons to him, according to his story.’
‘Yes, we were,’ said Jack remorsefully, remembering their treatment of the puzzled and angry Horace. ‘You see, we honestly thought he was one of the enemy, got up to look like a rather goofy ornithologist, sent to capture us and make us get into his boat – so . . .’
‘We captured him instead, and pushed him down a hole we found, and kept him there,’ said Dinah.
‘And conked him on the head every time he popped up, it appears,’ said Bill. ‘I shouldn’t have thought you were so bloodthirsty. He said even the girls took turns at hitting him.’
‘Well!’ said everyone, in shocked astonishment at such colossal untruths. ‘Bill! We never hit him once!’
‘I wouldn’t have been surprised at the boys giving him one or two knocks, if they really thought he was one of the enemy sent to capture them,’ said Bill, ‘but I simply could not imagine the girls hitting him. He said Lucy-Ann was the worst.’
‘Oh! And I was the only one that said I couldn’t possibly,’ said Lucy-Ann, really shocked at such wicked statements.
‘Anyway, apparently you gave him an awful time, and then made off with his boat, leaving him to be captured by the enemy,’ said Bill. ‘You know, I couldn’t help grinning when I heard it all. There’s plenty of pluck in you kids! The enemy took him off in their boat and didn’t believe a word of his story about your taking him prisoner. They really thought he was a pal of mine. Of course, I pretended not to believe his tale about there being children on the island either, because I didn’t want you captured as well. But I did wonder what was happening to you when I heard you’d taken his boat. Horace said it was no longer in the little harbour when he was yanked on board the enemy’s boat.’
‘I don’t like Horace,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I hope the enemy give him an awful time! He’s silly and he’s untruthful and he’s a coward.’
‘And if he hadn’t yelled out when he did tonight, just after I’d opened the hatch of the cabin to let you out, Bill, we’d have been able to capture that big fast motor-boat, and get right back to the mainland,’ said Jack gloomily. ‘Silly idiot – yelling like that!’
‘Yes, that was a great pity,’ said Bill. ‘Now you tell me your story.’
So the children told it, and Bill listened with interest and amazement. When they came to the bit about the lagoon, and what was hidden there, he held his breath in astonishment.
‘So that’s where they put the guns – dropped them by parachute into a secret lagoon – and then meant to get them up again as soon as the time was ripe – and take them away by seaplane. Gun-running on the grand scale!’
‘We were jolly astonished when we watched it all happening,’ said Jack.
‘I should think so!’ said Bill. ‘It’s beyond belief! And to think you children stumbled on the whole secret. My word, if only I could get a message through to headquarters, we’d catch the whole gang red-handed!’
‘It’s been pretty thrilling,’ said Philip. ‘We had some scares, I can tell you, Bill.’
‘You’re good kids,’ said Bill. ‘Good and plucky kids. I’m proud of you. But there’s one thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t you make for safety, when you captured Horace’s boat? Why did you mess about here?’
‘Well . . .’ said Jack, ‘you see – we had the choice of making for safety – or trying to find you. And we chose to try and find you, Bill. Even Lucy-Ann voted for that.’
There was a silence. Then Bill put his big arms all round the huddled-up four and gave them such a hug that Lucy-Ann gasped.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ said Bill, in a queer sort of voice. ‘You’re only kids – but you’re the finest company of friends anyone could have. You know the meaning of loyalty already, and even if you’re scared you don’t give up. I’m proud to have you for my friends.’
‘Oh, Bill!’ said Lucy-Ann, tremendously thrilled to hear such a speech from her hero. ‘You are nice. You’re our very very best friend, and you always will be.’
‘Always,’ said Dinah.
The boys said nothing, but they glowed inwardly at Bill’s praise. Friendship – loyalty – staunchness in face of danger – they and Bill both knew these things and recognised them for the fine things they were. They felt very close to Bill indeed.
‘Look!’ said Lucy-Ann suddenly. ‘The dawn! Over there, in the east. Oh, Bill –
I wonder what’s going to happen today?’
29
Bill makes a grand find
The sky grew silvery in the east. Then a golden glow spread slowly upwards, and the sea became a milky colour that gradually turned to gold.
Almost at once there came a crying of sea-birds as guillemots, gannets, cormorants, puffins and gulls came from their roosting-places to greet the new day. Soon the sea around the children was dotted 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 were no 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 more than we’ve ever seen before!’
‘Extraordinary!’ said Bill, amazed. ‘There must be millions of birds. Some of them are so close that 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 and presented 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 your crest, you ridiculous bird!’
‘Send for the doctor,’ said Kiki mournfully. Jack looked at her closely. Then he gave an exclamation.
‘She’s lost some of her crest! She’s hardly got any! Oh, Bill – that’s what she screeched for last night! A bullet must have zipped through her crest – right through her top-knot – and taken some of 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! No wonder you screeched. Never mind, old thing – the crest will grow again. You’ll look a bit mangy for 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 of rock, 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 thick seaweed, and inhabited by about two hundred or more birds. They did not seem to mind the boat and its load of people in the least. In fact, seeing Huffin and Puffin perched there, some of the birds came 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 to the 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’s something. But what about drinking-water?’
‘We’ll have to drink pineapple juice or something like that,’ said Dinah. ‘And if it rains we’ll catch rainwater.’
‘What is the best thing to do?’ said Bill, talking to himself, with a frown. ‘They’ll be looking for us, I expect. They’ll know we couldn’t get far. They’ll send out patrols – probably even an aeroplane. 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 do come 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 sticky too.’
‘Let’s have a quick dip in the sea, and then have a snooze,’ said Jack. ‘We can take it in turn to keep 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 up our 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 bobbing about. 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 dark heads, 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 if we 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 completely lost 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,’ said Philip. ‘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 a little boat-draping. If the enemy come, they’ll come soon. They won’t waste many hours before they try to find us. I’ll wake you if I see or hear any sign of them, and you must all be prepared to drop 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’t come 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 do a little boat-draping. He pulled great fronds of seaweed off the nearby rocks and hung them over the 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 something there – and then stared in surprise.
A radio! Was it a transmitter too? Surely Horace going off all alone into the wilds, would have had the sense to take a transmitter with him, in case he got hurt, or became ill? With trembling hands 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 a message 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 message to headquarters,’ said Bill. ‘There’s always someone standing by there, hoping to hear from me. I haven’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 earth can it be?’
‘I remember seeing something on a shelf at the back of the cabin,’ said Jack sleepily. ‘It was about six feet long.’
‘That would be it!’ said Bill, and went to look. He pulled out something long a
nd 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 his rugs again. It was very, very exciting to watch Bill putting up the aerial and trying to make the transmitter work – but not even that excitement could make Jack’s eyes keep open. In half a second he was fast asleep again.
Bill worked and worked, groaning occasionally with disappointment as first one thing failed and then 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 only he 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 code number and wait for a reply.
He sent out his code time and again. There was no reply. The radio seemed to be quite dead at his end. There was nothing for it but to send a message and hope it would be received – but Bill had grave doubts about it.
He rapidly sent a message through in code, asking for immediate help. He repeated the message time and time again, but got no reply at all. He gave the lagoon-island as a guide to their whereabouts, knowing that they must be somewhere near it. Surely it must be on some map, and could be located?
He was so busy trying to send his message and listening for a reply which never came, that he almost didn’t hear the distant purr of a powerful motor-boat. But the sound did at last penetrate his mind 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, the two girls hardly awake. The enemy! Yes, there was the motor-boat heading straight for them all!
30
Ahoy there! Show yourselves!
There was a sudden flash of sunlight on the lenses of a pair of field-glasses. They were being levelled at the island, on whose rocks the children’s boat had been grounded. The glasses swept the rocks and the island, and then came back to the rocks again.