by Энид Блайтон
“Come along up the hill and find the caves,” said Jack. “We are all awfully tired, and we ought to get some sleep. We’ll get the rugs and things out of the cave, and heat some cocoa and have a meal. Then I vote we make our beds on the heather, as we used to do. It’s very hot to-night, and we shall be quite warm enough.”
“Hurrah!” said Mike in delight. “Give me a hand with this box of food. The girls can bring the other things, if Paul will help them.”
“Of course I will,” said Paul, who really felt as if he was living in a peculiar dream! They all made their way up the beach, through a thicket of bushes and trees, and up a hillside where the bracken was almost as tall as they were. The moon still shone down from a perfectly clear sky, and except that the colours were not there, everything was as clear as in daylight.
“Here’s our cave!” said Jack in delight. “The heather and bracken are so thick in front of it that I could hardly see it. Mike, have you got your torch handy? We shall need to go into our inner store-cave to get a few things to-night.”
Mike fished in his pocket for his torch. He gave it to Jack. “Thanks,” said Jack. “Peggy, come with me into the store-cave, will you, and we’ll get out the rugs. Mike, will you and Nora choose a place for a fire and make one? We’ll have to have some cocoa or something. I’m so hungry and thirsty that I could eat grass!”
“Right, Captain!” said Nora, feeling very happy indeed. It was wonderful to be on the island like this - able to sleep in the heather and have a camp-fire. She and Mike and Paul hunted about for twigs and wood, and found a nice open place near the cave for the fire.
Peggy and Jack went to the back of the cave, found the passage that led into the inner cave, and crept through to the big store-cave beyond that lay in the heart of the hillside.
“Everything’s here just as we left it!” said Peggy, pleased, as Jack shone his torch around. “Oh, there’s the kettle, Jack - and I want a saucepan, too, for the soup to-night and eggs to-morrow morning. Dimmy put some into the box. Look, there’s the rabbit-skin rug we made last year - and the old blankets and rugs too. Bring those, Jack, we’ll need them to-night.”
Jack piled the rugs in his arms. Peggy took the kettle and the saucepan. They went back to the outer cave, and then looked for the others outside. Mike had got a good fire going. Paul was sitting beside it in delight. He had never seen a camp-fire before.
“Nora, get the cocoa tin, a bag of sugar, and the tinned milk,” said Peggy. “Mike, go to the spring and fill this kettle with water, will you? I’ll boil water for the cocoa and we’ll add milk and sugar afterwards.”
Mike went off with the kettle to the cold spring that gushed out from the hillside and ran down it in a little stream. He soon filled it and came back. “What are we going to have to eat?” he asked hungrily.
“Soup out of a tin, bread, biscuits, and cocoa,” said Peggy.
“Oooooh!” said everyone in delight. Mike opened the tin, glad that Dimmy had remembered to put in a tin-opener! He poured the rich tomato soup into the saucepan, and then set it on the fire firmly. “Shall I make another fire to boil the kettle?” he asked.
“Oh no,” said Peggy. “The soup will soon be ready, and we’ve got to cut the bread, and get out the biscuits. You do that, Nora. Where’s the biscuit tin, Mike?”
The soup cooked in the saucepan. Peggy sent Jack for cups and dishes and bowls and spoons from the inner cave. The kettle was put on to boil. Peggy cleverly poured the soup from the saucepan into the dishes and handed a plateful to everyone. Hunks of bread were given out too. The kettle sang on the fire, and the smoke rose in the moonlight and floated away in the clear air.
“This is simply perfect,” said Mike, tasting his tomato soup and putting big pieces of bread into it. “I wish this meal could last for ever.”
“You’d get pretty tired of tomato soup if it did!” said Jack. Everyone laughed. Peggy made the cocoa and handed round big cups of it, with tinned milk and sugar, and a handful of biscuits for everyone.
How they enjoyed that meal by the camp-fire! Mike said he wished they needn’t go to sleep - but they were all so terribly sleepy that it was no good wishing that!
“I shall fall asleep sitting here soon,” said Nora, rubbing her eyes. “What a nice supper that was! Come on, everyone, let’s make our beds in the heather and wash the supper things to-morrow.”
So they spread the rugs out in the soft heather and lay down just as they were in their clothes - and in two seconds they were all fast asleep on the secret island, lost in happy dreams of all they were going to do the next day!
Peace on the Island
All night long the five children slept soundly on their rugs in the heather. The three boys were in the shelter of a big gorse bush, and the two girls cuddled together beside a great blackberry bush. The heather was thick and soft and as springy as any bed.
The sun rose up and the sky became golden. The birds twittered and two yellow-hammers told everyone that they wanted a “little bit of bread and no cheese!” The rabbits who had played about near the sleeping children shot off to their holes. A rambling hedgehog sniffed at Mike, and then went away too.
Jack awoke first. He was lying on his back, and he was very much astonished when he opened his eyes and looked straight up into the blue sky. He had expected to see the ceiling of his bedroom at Peep-Hole - and he saw sky and tiny white feathery clouds, very high up.
Then he remembered. Of course - they were on the dear old secret island! He lay there on his back looking up happily at the sky, waiting for the others to wake. Then he sat up. Far below him were the calm, blue waters of the lake. It was a perfect day - sunny, warm, and calm. Jack looked at his watch, and stared in surprise - for it was half-past nine!
“Half-past nine!” said Jack in amazement. “How we have slept! I wish the others would wake up - I’m jolly hungry.”
He got up cautiously and slipped his few clothes off. He ran down to bathe in the lake. The water was delicious. He dried himself in the hot sun and dressed again. He went to the spring and filled the kettle for breakfast. Then he busied himself in making a fire.
Mike awoke next, and then Peggy and Nora together. Paul still slept on. The girls were full of joy to find themselves on the secret island, and they flew down to bathe in the lake with Mike. When Paul awoke they asked him if he too would like to have a swim, but he shook his head.
“I can’t swim,” he said. “And I don’t want to bathe in the lake. I just want to stay here with Jack.”
They got breakfast. Nora ran down to the lake to wash the supper things. Jack fetched more wood for the fire, which was burning well. Peggy cut big slices of bread and butter, and popped some eggs into the saucepan to boil. “Two eggs for everyone,” she said. “I know quite well you’ll all be able to eat heaps and heaps! Nora, find the salt, will you? I’ll boil the eggs hard, and we can nibble them and dip them in the salt.”
“Let’s have some of these ripe plums too,” said Mike, uncovering the basket. “They won’t last very long in this hot weather. And where are the biscuits, Peggy? Surely we didn’t finish them all last night.”
“Of course not,” said Peggy, fishing them out from under a bush and taking off the lid. “I hid them there because I know what you boys are with biscuits!”
They sat round in the heather, eating their hard-boiled eggs, thick slices of bread and butter, ripe plums, and biscuits, and drinking cocoa that Peggy had made for them.
“I don’t know why, but we always seem to have most delicious meals on our secret island,” said Mike. “They always taste nicer here than they do anywhere else.”
“Paul, don’t you want your second egg?” asked Peggy, seeing that Paul had not eaten it. He shook his head.
“I am not used to your English breakfasts,” he said. “At home, in my own country, we simply have a roll of bread and some coffee. But I would like to eat my egg later in the morning, Peggy. It is so nice. I have never had a hard-boiled egg before.�
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Paul began to talk of his own land. He was a nice boy, with beautiful manners that struck the others as rather comic sometimes. He would keep bowing to Peggy and Nora whenever he spoke to them. He had learnt English from his governess, and spoke it just as well as the other children did.
He told them about his father and mother. He cried when he spoke of his mother, who did not know where he was. Peggy and Nora felt very sorry for the little prince. They comforted him, and told him that soon his troubles would be over.
“You are so lucky not to have to be princes or princesses,” he told the children, “You can have a jolly time and do as you like - but I can’t. You will never be kidnapped or taken prisoner - but maybe it will happen to me again sometime or other. There are many people who do not want me to be king when my father dies.”
“Do you want to be?” asked Jack.
“Not at all,” said Paul. “I would like best of all to live with you four children, and be an ordinary boy. But I am unlucky enough to have been born a prince and I must do my duty.”
“Well, stop worrying about things for a little while,” said Peggy. “Enjoy your few days here on our secret island. It will be a real holiday for you. Jack will teach you to swim, and Mike will teach you how to make a camp-fire. You never know when things like that will be useful to you.”
The children all felt rather lazy after their late night. Peggy and Nora washed up the breakfast things, and Peggy planned the lunch. The children had eaten all the ripe plums and Peggy wondered if she should open a large tin of fruit. She would cook some potatoes and peas too, and they could have some of the meat off the cold joint they had brought.
“What about picking some wild raspberries, as we used to do last year?” asked Nora eagerly. “Don’t you remember the raspberry canes on one part of the island, Peggy? - they were simply red with delicious raspberries!”
“We’ll go and see if there are any still ripe,” said Peggy. “But first let’s see if Willow House is still in the little wood beyond the beach.”
The children had built a fine little house of willow branches the summer before, which had sheltered them well on wet or cold days and nights. They all went running down the hill to see if Willow House was still standing.
They squeezed through the thick trees until they came to the spot where Willow House was - and it stood there, green and cool, inviting them to go inside.
“But the whole of Willow House is growing!” cried Peggy. “Every branch has put out leaves - and look at these twigs shooting up from the roof! It’s a house that’s alive!”
She was right. Every willow stick they had used to build their house had shot out buds and leaves and twigs - and the house was, as Peggy said, quite alive. Inside the house long twigs hung down like green curtains.
“Dear little Willow House,” said Peggy softly. “What fun we had here! And how we loved making it - weaving the willow twigs in and out to make the walls - and you made the door, Jack. And do you remember how we stuffed up the cracks with heather and bracken?”
The others remembered quite well. They told Paul all about it and he at once wanted to stop and build another house.
“No, we don’t need one,” said Jack. “We can sleep out-of-doors now - and if rain comes we’ll just sleep in the cave.”
Paul ran in and out of Willow House. He thought it was the nicest place in the world. “I wish I had a house of my own like this,” he said. “Mike, Jack, will you come back to my country with me and teach me how to build a willow house?”
The boys laughed. “Come along and see if we can find some ripe raspberries,” said Mike. “You’ll like those, Paul.”
They all went to the part of the island where the raspberries grew. There were still plenty on the canes, though they were getting over now.
Peggy and Nora had brought baskets. Soon they had the baskets half-full, and their mouths were stained with pink. As many went into their mouths as into the baskets!
“It’s one o’clock.” said Mike, looking at his watch. “Good gracious! How the morning has gone!”
“We’ll go back and have dinner,” said Peggy. So back they all went in the hot sun, feeling as hungry as hunters, although they had eaten so many raspberries!
They had a lovely dinner - cold mutton, peas, potatoes, raspberries, and tinned milk. Mike brought them icy-cold water from the spring, and they drank it thirstily, sending Paul for some more when it was finished. Paul wanted to do jobs too, and Peggy thought it was a good idea to let him. The sun had caught his pale little face that morning and he was quite brown.
“What shall we do this afternoon?” asked Paul.
“I feel sleepy,” said Peggy, yawning. “Let’s have a nice snooze on the heather - then we could have a bathe before tea, and a jolly good meal afterwards.”
It was a lovely lazy day they had, and they thoroughly enjoyed it after all the alarms and adventures of the last week or two. Jack began to teach Paul to swim, but he was not very good at learning, though he tried hard enough!
They had tea, and then they went boating on the lake in the cool of the evening. “We might try a bit of fishing to-morrow,” said Jack. “It would be fun to have fried fish again, Peggy, just as we did last year.”
“Do you suppose we are quite, quite safe here?” asked Paul anxiously, looking over the waters of the lake as they rowed about.
“Of course!” said Jack. “You needn’t worry, Paul. Nobody will come to look for you here.”
“If Mr. Diaz knew about your secret island he might come here to seek me,” said Paul. “Hadn’t we better keep a watch in case he does?”
“Oh no,” said Jack. “There’s no need to do that, Paul. Nobody would ever find us here, I tell you.”
“Where did you use to watch, when you were here last year and were afraid of people coming to look for you?” asked Paul.
“There’s a stone up on the top of the hill where we used to sit, among the heather,” said Jack. “You get a good view all up and down the lake from there.”
“Then to-morrow I will sit and watch there,” said Paul at once. “You do not know Mr. Diaz as well as I do, and I think he is clever enough to follow us, and to take me prisoner again. If I see him coming in a boat, there will be time to hide away in the caves, won’t there?”
“Oh yes,” said Jack. “But he won’t come. Nobody will guess you are here with us.”
But Paul was nervous - and when the next day came he ran off by himself. “Where’s he gone?” asked Jack.
“Oh, up to the hill-top to watch for his enemies!” said Nora, with a laugh. “He won’t see anything, I’m sure of that!”
But Prince Paul did see something that very afternoon!
The Enemy Find the Island
Prince Paul was sitting on top of the little hill that rose in the middle of the island. He was quite sure that his enemies would try to find him, and would think of coming to the children’s secret island.
He sat there for two or three hours, watching the lake around the island. It was very calm and blue. Paul yawned. It was rather boring sitting there by himself - but the other children wouldn’t come, for they said there was no fear of enemies coming so soon.
Paul saw Mike and Jack far below at the edge of the water. They were getting out the boat to go and fish. The girls came running down to join them. They had already asked Paul to come, but he wouldn’t. He was really afraid of water, and it was all that the others could do to get him in to bathe.
Paul stood up and waved to the others. They waved back. They didn’t like leaving him alone, but really they couldn’t go and sit up there for hours. Besides, Peggy had said that if they caught some fish she would fry them for supper, and that really sounded rather delicious!
“We shan’t be long, Paul!” shouted Mike. “We shall only be round the south end of the island, which is a good fishing-place. Yell to us if you want us.”
“Right!” shouted back Paul, and he waved again. He really thought
it was queer the way the four children seemed to like the water so much - they were always bathing and paddling and boating! But Paul liked them immensely, especially Mike, who had been a great help to him when he had been a prisoner in the tower.
He watched the boat leave the little beach and row round to the other side of the island. The boat looked very small from where he stood, and the children looked like dolls! But he could hear their voices very clearly. They were getting their fishing-lines ready.
Paul half wished he was with them, they all sounded so jolly. He watched them for some time, and then he turned round and gazed down the blue waters of the lake on the other side of the island.
And he saw a boat there! Yes - a boat that was being rowed by two men! Paul stood and watched, his heart beating fast. Who were the two men? Could they be Mr. Diaz and Luiz? He hated them both and was afraid of them. Had they come to find him again?
He turned to the opposite side of the lake and yelled to the four children in the boat there.
“Jack! Mike! There’s a boat coming up the lake!”
“What?” shouted Jack.
Paul yelled again, even more loudly. “I said, there’s a boat coming up the lake!”
The four children looked at one another in dismay and surprise. “Surely Mr. Diaz can’t have found out where we are,” said Mike. “Though he’s quite clever enough to guess, if he knows we are the children who ran away to a secret island last year!”
“What shall we do, Jack?” asked Nora.
“We haven’t time to do anything much,” said Jack anxiously. “I think it wouldn’t be safe to go and hide on the island - those men will search it thoroughly, caves and all. We’d better get Paul down here, and row off to the mainland in the boat. We could hide in the trees there for a bit.”
“Good idea, Jack,” said Mike. He stood up in the boat and yelled to Paul, who was anxiously waiting for his orders.