‘I hope it won’t make him ill,’ said Philip in alarm. ‘I say, look! – here comes a gull – tame as anything. It wants a biscuit too, I should think.’
It did. It had watched Kiki pecking at a biscuit and enjoying it, and it didn’t see why it shouldn’t have a share. Kiki saw the gull out of the corner of her eye and sidled away. The gull made a pounce, got the biscuit and rose into the air, making a loud laughing noise. ‘Ee-oo, ee-oo, ee-oo!’
Kiki flew up angrily, calling out all kinds of things to the gull. They were meant to be very rude, but unfortunately the gull didn’t understand. Kiki could not catch the strong-winged bird and flew disconsolately back to the children.
‘You can’t complain, Kiki,’ said Jack. ‘You shouldn’t have pinched that biscuit out of the tin – and the gull shouldn’t have pinched it from you. It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.’
‘What a pity, what a pity!’ said Kiki, and sidled near the biscuit-tin again.
‘That bird is a real clown,’ said Bill, shaking the crumbs off his jersey. ‘Now, who’s coming back to the boat with me to hear the news on the radio? Also I must send out a few messages – especially one for your mother, Philip, who will be sure to want to know if we’ve got here safely.’
They all wanted to stretch their legs, so they walked back over the soft cushions of the sea-pinks, whose bold little pink heads nodded everywhere in the wind.
They watched Bill as he put up his little radio mast and fiddled about with the set. It was a transmitter as well as a receiver.
‘I suppose if you send messages home every night, we shan’t need to post letters off to Aunt Allie,’ said Lucy-Ann.
Everyone roared. ‘And where would you post a letter, pray?’ asked Jack. ‘I haven’t seen a pillar-box anywhere about. Lucy-Ann, you’re an idiot.’
‘Yes, I am!’ said Lucy-Ann, going red. ‘Of course we can’t post anything here! How useful that you can send messages, Bill! Then if any of us wanted help, you could get it.’
‘Quite so,’ said Bill. ‘But I hope if you wanted help I could whizz you off in the motor-boat. Anyway I wouldn’t have consented to bring you all away into the wilds like this, if I hadn’t a transmitter with me, so that I could send messages every night. I send them to headquarters, and they telephone them to your aunt. So she’ll follow our travels and adventures each night.’
They watched for a while, and then listened to part of a programme. Then Lucy-Ann yawned and Kiki imitated her. ‘Blow! You make me feel sleepy,’ said Dinah, rubbing her eyes. ‘Look, it’s getting dark!’
So back they went to their tents, and were soon cuddled into their rugs. The birds called incessantly from the cliffs and the sea. ‘I believe they keep awake all night,’ thought Dinah. But they didn’t. They slept too when the darkness came at last.
The next day was very warm and close. ‘Looks to me like a storm blowing up sooner or later,’ said Bill, screwing up his eyes and looking into the bright sky. ‘I almost think we’d better try and find our headquarters today, so that we have some shelter if a storm does blow up. This sort of holiday needs fine weather if it’s going to be successful – a storm wouldn’t be at all pleasant, with only tents to sleep in – we’d be blown to bits.’
‘I just want to take a few photographs of these cliffs and the birds on them,’ said Jack. ‘I’ll do that whilst you’re getting down the tents, if you don’t mind my not helping you.’
So off he went with Kiki towards the steep cliffs. Bill called after him that he was not to try any climbing down the cliffs, and he shouted back that he wouldn’t.
Soon everything was packed away again on the motor-boat, which was just being floated by the rising tide, and they waited patiently for Jack. He soon appeared, his glasses and his camera slung round his neck, and his face beaming.
‘Got some beauties,’ he said. ‘Kiki was awfully useful to me. I got her to parade up and down, so that all the birds stayed still in amazement, watching her – and then, click! I got them beautifully. I ought to have some fine pictures.’
‘Good!’ said Bill, smiling at the enthusiastic boy. ‘You’ll have to have a book of bird photographs published. “Masterpieces, by Jack Trent, price thirty shillings.”’
‘I’d like that,’ said Jack, his face shining. ‘Not the thirty shillings I mean – but having a book about birds with my name on it.’
‘Come on in,’ said Philip impatiently, for Jack was still outside the boat. ‘We want to be off. It’s so warm I’m longing to get out to sea again, and feel the breeze on my face as the boat swings along.’
They soon felt it and were glad of it. It certainly was very hot for May. The boat went swiftly through the water, bobbing a little as it rode over the waves. Lucy-Ann let her fingers run through the water again – lovely and cool!
‘What I should like is a bathe,’ said Philip, little drops of perspiration appearing round his nose. ‘Can we bathe from the boat, Bill?’
‘Wait till we get to another island,’ said Bill. ‘I don’t particularly want to stop out at sea, with a storm in the offing. It’s so jolly hot I feel there must be thunder about. I’m anxious to run for shelter before it comes. Now – here are more islands bobbing up out of the sea. Let’s see if we can spot a puffin island. That’s what you want, isn’t it?’
Lucy-Ann, still dangling her hand in the water, suddenly felt something gently touching it. In surprise she looked down, withdrawing her hand at once, afraid of a jellyfish.
To her astonishment she saw that it was a piece of orange peel, bobbing away on the waves. She called to Bill.
‘Bill, look – there’s a bit of orange peel. Now whoever in the world eats oranges in these wild little islands? Do you suppose there are any other bird-lovers somewhere about?’
Everyone looked at the tiny bit of orange peel bobbing rapidly away. It did seem very much out of place there. Bill stared at it hard. He was puzzled. The fishermen, if there were any on the islands they were coming to, would not be at all likely to have oranges. And naturalists surely would not bother to load themselves up with them.
Then how did that bit of peel come to be there? No ships went anywhere near where they were. It was a wild and lonely part of the sea, where sudden storms blew up, and great gales made enormous waves.
‘Beats me!’ said Bill at last. ‘I shall expect to see a pineapple or something next! Now look! – here is an island – fairly flattish – probably has puffins on it all right. Shall we make for it?’
‘No – cruise round a bit,’ begged Jack. ‘Let’s have a look at a few of the islands here. There is quite a colony of them round about.’
They cruised round, looking at first this island and then that. They came to one that had steep cliffs at the east side, then ran down into a kind of valley, then up again into cliffs.
Jack put his glasses to his eyes and yelled out excitedly. ‘Puffins! Plenty of them! Can you see them, Philip? I bet the island is full of their burrows. Let’s land here, Bill. There’ll be masses of birds on the cliffs, and hundreds of puffins inland. It’s quite a big island. We could probably find good shelter here and water too. The cliffs would protect us from both the east and west. What ho, for Puffin Island!’
‘Right,’ said Bill. He looked all round and about, and guided the boat towards the island. There were many other islands not far off, but as far as he could see they were inhabited only by birds. The sea chopped about between the islands, making little rippling waves.
Round Puffin Island went the boat, and Philip gave a shout. ‘Here’s a fine place to put the boat in, Bill – see, where that channel of water goes into a cleft of the cliff! It’ll be deep there, and we can just tie the boat up to a rock. We’ll put out the fenders, so that she doesn’t bump against the rock sides.’
The boat nosed into the channel. As Philip said, the water was deep there – it was a natural little harbour. There was a ledge of rock on which they could land. Could anything be better? Hurrah for Puffin I
sland!
10
A little exploring
‘Isn’t this a gorgeous place?’ said Jack, as the boat glided gently into the little channel. There was just room for it. ‘It might be a boat-house made specially for the Lucky Star.’
Bill leapt out on to the rocky ledge, which did very well for a landing-stage. Sheer above them on each side rose rocky cliffs. Rows and rows of birds sat on the ledges, and there was a continual dropping of eggs, knocked off by the careless birds. One broke near Bill, and splashed its yellow yolk over his foot.
‘Good shot!’ he yelled up to the circling birds, and the children roared.
They made the boat fast by tying the mooring-rope round a convenient rock. The boat bobbed up and down gently as waves ran up the little channel and back.
‘Tide’s up now,’ said Bill. ‘When it goes down there will still be plenty of water in this channel. The boat will look much lower down then. Now – is there a way up the cliff from here? We don’t want to have to walk down the ledge and clamber round the cliffs over hundreds of rocks before we get on to the island proper.’
They looked round. Jack ran up the rocky ledge, and then turned and gave a shout. ‘Hi! We can get up here, I think. There are rocky shelves, like rough steps, going up the cliff – and there’s a break in it a bit above. We could probably clamber out all right, and find ourselves right on the island.’
‘Well, you four go and explore,’ said Bill. ‘I’d better stay with the boat and see that she doesn’t get her sides smashed in against these rocks. You look round the island and see if you can spot a sheltered cove somewhere, that I can take the boat round to.’
The children left the boat and followed Jack. Kiki flew on ahead, calling like a gull. Up the rocky ledges went Jack. They were almost like giant steps, roughly hewn by the great wintry seas for century after century.
As Jack said, the cliff had a deep cleft in it just there, and the children found that they could make their way through it, and come out on to the cushions of sea-pinks beyond. It needed a bit of clambering, and they were out of breath when they reached the top – but it was worth it.
The sea spread bright blue all round the island. The sky looked enormous. Other islands, blue in the distance, loomed up everywhere. A real colony of them, it seemed – and their island was in the centre.
Then Jack gave such a yell that everyone jumped. ‘Puffins! Look! Hundreds and hundreds of them!’
The children looked to where Jack pointed, and there, among the sea-pinks and the old heather tufts, were the most curious-looking birds they had ever seen.
They were dressed in black and white. Their legs were orange – but it was their extraordinary bills that held the children’s attention.
‘Look at their beaks!’ cried Dinah, laughing. ‘Blue at the base – and then striped red and yellow!’
‘But what enormous beaks!’ cried Lucy-Ann. ‘They remind me a bit of Kiki’s.’
‘Puffins are called sea parrots,’ remarked Jack, amused to see the crowd of solemn-looking puffins.
‘Their eyes are so comical,’ said Philip. ‘They stare at us with such a fixed expression! And look at the way they walk – so upright!’
The colony of puffins was as good as a pantomine to watch. There were hundreds, thousands of birds there. Some stood about, watching, their crimson-ringed eyes fixed seriously on their neighbours. Others walked about, rolling from side to side like a sailor. Some took off like small aeroplanes, eager to get to the sea.
‘Look! – what’s that one doing?’ asked Lucy-Ann, as a puffin began to scrape vigorously at the soil, sending a shower of it backwards.
‘It’s digging a burrow, I should think,’ said Dinah. ‘They nest underground, don’t they, Jack?’
‘Rather! I bet this island is almost undermined with their holes and burrows,’ said Jack, walking forward towards the colony of busy birds. ‘Come on – do let’s get near to them. Kiki, keep on my shoulder. I won’t have you screaming like a railway engine at them, and scaring them all away.’
Kiki was most interested in the comical puffins. She imitated their call exactly. ‘Arrrrr!’ they said, in deep guttural voices. ‘Arrrrrrrr!’
‘Arrrrrr!’ answered Kiki at once, and various birds looked up at her enquiringly.
To the children’s huge delight the puffins were not in the least afraid of them. They did not even walk away when the children went near. They allowed them to walk among them, and although one aimed a peck at Philip’s leg when he stumbled and almost fell on top of it, not one of the others attempted to jab with their great beaks.
‘This is lovely!’ said Lucy-Ann, standing and gazing at the extraordinary birds. ‘Simply lovely! I never thought birds could be so tame.’
‘They’re not exactly tame,’ said Jack. ‘They’re wild, but they are so little used to human beings that they have no fear of us at all.’
The puffins were all among the cushions of bright sea-pinks. As the children walked along, their feet sometimes sank right down through the soil. The burrows were just below, and their weight caused the earth to give way.
‘It’s absolutely mined with their burrows,’ said Philip. ‘And I say – it’s not a very nice smell just about here, is it?’
It certainly wasn’t. They soon got used to it, but they didn’t like it. ‘Pooh!’ said Lucy-Ann, wrinkling up her nose. ‘It’s getting worse and worse. I vote we don’t put our tents up too near this colony of puffins – it’s as bad as being near a pig-sty.’
‘I don’t mind it,’ said Jack. ‘Hey, come here, Kiki!’
But Kiki had flown down to make friends. The puffins gazed at her fixedly and solemnly.
‘Arrrrr!’ said Kiki politely. ‘ARRRRRRR! God save the Queen!’
‘Arrrrr!’ replied a puffin, and walked up to Kiki, rolling from side to side like a small sailor. The two looked at one another.
‘I shall expect Kiki to say how-do-you-do in a minute,’ said Dinah, with a little squeal of laughter. ‘They both look so polite.’
‘Polly put the kettle on,’ said Kiki.
‘Arrrrr!’ said the puffin, and waddled off to its hole. Kiki followed – but apparently there was another puffin down the hole, who did not want Kiki’s company, for there was soon an agonised squeal from the parrot, who shot out of the hole much more rapidly than she had gone in.
She flew up to Jack’s shoulder. ‘Poor Kiki, what a pity, what a pity, what a pity!’
‘Well, you shouldn’t poke your nose in everywhere,’ said Jack, and took a step forward. He trod on a tuft of sea-pinks, which immediately gave way, and he found his leg going down into quite a deep burrow. Whoever lived in it didn’t like his leg at all, and gave a vicious nip.
‘Ooooch!’ said Jack, sitting down suddenly and rubbing his leg. ‘Look at that – nearly had a bit right out of my calf!’
They went on through the amazing puffin colony. There were puffins on the ground, in the air – and on the sea too! ‘Arrrrr! Arrrrr! Arrrrr!’ their deep calls sounded everywhere.
‘I’ll be able to take some magnificent photographs,’ said Jack happily. ‘It’s a pity it’s too early for young ones to be about. I don’t expect there are many puffin eggs yet either.’
The puffins were living mainly in the green valley between the two high cliffs. Philip looked about to see if there was any good place to pitch their tents.
‘I suppose we all want to make Puffin Island our headquarters?’ he said. ‘I imagine that nothing will drag Jack away from here now. He’s got cliffs where guillemots and gannets nest, and a valley where the puffins live – so I suppose he’s happy.’
‘Oh yes,’ said Jack. ‘We’ll stay here. This shall be our island – we’ll share it with the puffins.’
‘Well, we’ll find a good place for our tents,’ said Philip. ‘Then we’ll bring our goods and chattels here and camp. We’d better find a place where there’s a stream, though . . . if there is one on this island. We shall want water to
drink. And let’s look for a cover where we can put the boat. We can’t very well leave it in that narrow channel.’
‘Look – there’s a dear little cove down there!’ said Dinah suddenly, pointing to the sea. ‘We could bathe there – and the boat would be quite all right there too. Let’s go and tell Bill.’
‘I’ll go,’ said Philip. ‘Jack wants to stare at the puffins a bit more, I can see. I’ll take the boat round to the cove with Bill, and you two girls can find a good place for our tents. Then we’ll all help to bring the things there from the boat.’
He ran off quickly to find Bill and tell him where to put the boat. Jack sat down with Kiki to watch the puffins. The girls went to look for a good place to put up their tents for the night.
They wandered over the island. Beyond the puffin colony, just at the end of it, before they came to the high cliffs at the other side of the island, was a little dell. A few stunted birch-trees grew there, and banks of heather.
‘This is just the place,’ said Dinah, pleased. ‘We can put up our tents here, be sheltered from the worst of the wind, watch the puffins, go down to bathe when we want to, and when we’re tired of that, go cruising round the other islands.’
‘A very nice life,’ said Lucy-Ann, with a laugh. ‘Now – is there any water about?’
There was no stream at all on the island – but Dinah found something that would do equally well. At least, she hoped it would.
‘Look here!’ she called to Lucy-Ann. ‘Here’s an enormous rock with a hollow in its middle, filled with water. I’ve tasted it and it isn’t salt.’
Lucy-Ann came up, followed by Jack. Dinah dipped in her hand, scooped up a palmful of water and drank. It was as sweet and as pure as could be.
‘Rain-water,’ said Dinah pleased. ‘Now we’ll be all right – so long as it doesn’t dry up in this hot weather. Come on – let’s go back to the boat and collect all the things we want. We’ll have to do a bit of hard work now.’