by Enid Blyton
‘Right,’ said Jack, swinging the wheel round. Now they were no longer following the first boat. It was soon out of sight, and was probably by now safely in some little harbour. Their own boat headed for the further island. By the time they got there their eyes were used to the moonlight, and they could see everything fairly clearly.
‘Doesn’t seem very rocky,’ said Jack, nosing in gently. ‘No – all sand and fine shingle. I’ll run her straight up this beach, Philip. Be ready to jump out as soon as she stops.’
The girls awoke and scrambled out of their wraps. Jack ran the boat straight up the shingly beach. It drove into the fine shingle and stopped. Philip sprang out.
‘Can’t shift her at all,’ he panted, when he and the others had tried to pull the boat further up. ‘Let’s chuck out the anchor and let her be. It’s nearly low tide now, so we’ll just paddle out and drop the anchor, and give the boat a push – it will be quite all right then, if the sea keeps calm.’
The boys did this and then lay on the shingle to get their breath. They were both very tired. They almost fell asleep as they lay there.
‘Come on, boys,’ said Dinah, at last. ‘Bring some rugs and find a sheltered place somewhere. You’re half asleep.’
‘Well, we’re safe till the morning anyway,’ said Jack, as he stumbled up the beach with the others, almost asleep as he walked. ‘Nobody knows we’re here. Another bird-island, I suppose.’
They came to a low cliff. Lucy-Ann saw a dark cave at the foot. ‘Put your torch on,’ she called to Philip. ‘We might be able to sleep here.’
It proved to be a small cave, with a soft, dry sandy floor. It smelt a little of seaweed, but nobody minded that. They dragged their rugs in, and flung themselves down. Huffin and Puffin squatted at the opening of the cave, as if they had put themselves on guard.
Almost before their heads touched the rugs the boys were asleep. The girls followed suit, and soon there was nothing to be heard but tiny snores from Jack, who was flat on his back. Kiki examined his face in the darkness to find out why her beloved Jack was making such queer little noises, then decided they weren’t worth bothering about. She sat herself down in the middle of his tummy and went to sleep too.
The next morning Huffin and Puffin walked over to Philip and stood heavily on him. ‘Arrrr!’ they said, meaning, ‘Come on, wake up!’
Philip awoke. ‘Get off,’ he said. ‘Don’t copy Kiki’s bad ways, Huffin and Puffin. Oh, I say – thanks for the fish – but don’t put them all over my chest, Huffin!’
Huffin had been diving for fish. He now deposited them carefully on Philip, opened and shut his mouth a few times, and made his one and only remark, in a deep and satisfied voice. ‘Arrrrrrrrrrr!’
The children laughed when they heard about Huffin’s morning offering. They rubbed their eyes and decided to have a dip in the sea, for they all felt dirty.
‘Then we’ll have breakfast,’ said Jack. ‘Gosh, I wish I wasn’t always so frightfully hungry. I say, this is rather a nice island, isn’t it? Look, you can see the enemy’s island on the horizon over there. Wonder if Bill is there.’
‘We’ll go up to the highest point on this island after breakfast, and have a good look round at all the others,’ said Philip. ‘Let’s go and get some food from the boat.’
The boat was afloat on the high tide. The children had to swim out to her. They rifled her for food – and whilst she was looking for a tin of salmon she knew she had put in, Lucy-Ann found something that made her shout.
‘I say, look! – a radio! Do you suppose it is a transmitter as well as a receiver? Can we send a message on it?’
‘Don’t know,’ said Jack, examining it. ‘It’s not a bit like Bill’s. If only we knew! Anyway, even if we could send out messages on it, I wouldn’t know how to. I expect it’s just some sort of portable radio. Come on, let’s have breakfast. Phew, this sun’s hot.’
With Huffin, Puffin, Kiki and the three rats all sharing their breakfast, the four children made a very good meal on the boat. ‘Now, what next?’ said Jack. ‘Shall we go up to the topmost height in this island and see what’s all round us?’
‘Yes,’ said the others, so, leaving the boat by itself, they made their way up the low cliff and on to the grass-grown land behind. It was not so heathery as Puffin Island had been, nor were there many birds on it.
‘It’s funny. You’d think there would be plenty on a nice little island like this,’ said Jack. ‘Look, there’s a hill at the other end of the island! – let’s climb it.’
They climbed to the very top – and then they stood still in astonishment. Beyond them, sparkling blue, was a lagoon, flat and still as a mirror. It lay between two islands, but the islands were joined by broad strips of rocks that enclosed the whole lagoon, so that it was impossible to say which island it really belonged to. The rocks ran out from each one, in some places as high as cliffs – and there between them lay this unbelievably lovely sea-lake.
‘Look at that!’ said Jack in awe. ‘We’ve seen some wonderful sights – but never one as beautiful as that blue lagoon. It can’t be real.’
But it was. It stretched out below them for about a mile and a half, so sheltered and protected that not a ripple broke its calm blue surface.
And then something happened that gave the children a shock of amazement. They heard the low hum of an aeroplane. They saw it coming towards them. Jack pulled them down flat in case they were seen. It flew right over the lagoon, and as it flew, something dropped from it – something that opened out, billowed white, and had something else fixed below it.
The children watched in amazement. All sorts of ridiculous things flashed through their minds – was it a scientific experiment – bombs – atom bombs – what was it?
A little parachute had opened, and was swinging down to the lagoon. The package underneath it was wrapped in glistening stuff – ‘some kind of waterproof material,’ Jack thought. It reached the water and disappeared. The parachute spread itself out on the calm surface and lay still. But as the children watched, it seemed to dissolve and finally it too disappeared into the water.
‘Look – the plane is circling the lagoon again. It’s going to drop another,’ said Philip. They all watched as the plane once more dropped a parachute, and the same thing happened.
Down to the water it floated with its unknown package, and in a few minutes all trace of it had disappeared. A third one was sent down and then the aeroplane circled round once and headed away. Soon it was lost in the distance.
‘Well, whatever in the world was it doing, dropping things into this lagoon?’ said Jack in astonishment. ‘What a strange thing to do! What’s in those enormous packages the parachutes carry?’
‘And why drop them into the lagoon?’ wondered Dinah. ‘It seems so silly. Do they want to get rid of something? What a strange way to do it!’
‘Let’s take the boat and go and sail over the lagoon to see if we can see down into the depths,’ said Lucy-Ann.
‘And how do you think we are going to get into the lagoon, idiot?’ said Jack. ‘No boat can get into that water – unless it’s dragged over that barrier or rocks surrounding it.’
‘Yes – of course – how silly of me!’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I do wish we could see down into that water though – and find out what secrets it is holding, down in the blue depths.’
‘Arrrrr!’ said Huffin and Puffin, and, their wings vibrating quickly, they sailed down to the lagoon as if to say, ‘You want to go there? Well, it’s easy.’
They bobbed there on the lagoon, very small specks indeed, diving under the water for fish. The children watched them.
‘I don’t see why we can’t go and have a bathe there,’ said Jack at last. ‘We could swim a good way out and then dive down to see if we could find out anything. You never know!’
‘Well, let’s go now then,’ said Dinah eagerly. ‘I feel as if I simply must find out what all this is about. It’s the most peculiar secret, I must say!’
They began to scramble down the hill. It grew rocky as they got lower down, but there were plenty of sea-pink cushions to soften the way for their feet. At last they reached the edge of the calm blue water.
They undressed and went in. The water was very warm indeed, and rippled like soft silk over their arms. They swam out slowly, enjoying the warmth of the lake and of the sun on their shoulders.
‘Now I’m going to dive down and see if I can make out anything,’ said Jack, and turning himself up like a duck, down he went, down and down and down. What would he find at the bottom?
24
An amazing discovery
The lagoon was quite deep. Jack could not swim to the bottom, because he couldn’t possibly hold his breath long enough. He came up, gasping.
‘All I could see was a pile of silvery stuff lying on the bottom,’ he gasped to the others. ‘Nothing else at all. I couldn’t go right down to it, because I hadn’t enough breath.’
‘Well, that’s not much use,’ said Dinah. ‘We want to see what’s inside the waterproof wrapping – tear it off, so that we can see what it holds.’
‘We wouldn’t be able to do that very easily,’ said Philip. ‘I bet it’s sewn up pretty tightly – or sealed in some clever way. I’ll go down, Jack – perhaps I can get near enough to feel what’s inside.’
‘Oh dear – do be careful,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘You don’t know what might be inside!’
‘Well – it’s hardly likely to be anything that will eat us,’ grinned Jack. ‘Kiki, why don’t you do a little diving, like Huffin and Puffin do – you could be a bit of help then!’
But Kiki did not approve of all this love of bathing. She flew about above the children in the water and tried occasionally to perch on a bare shoulder. Huffin and Puffin loved having the children in the water, and swam and dived beside them, uttering deep arrrrrs of satisfaction.
Philip dived under, and swam rapidly downwards, his eyes wide open in the salt water. Far below him he saw the silvery mass, gleaming dimly on the lagoon bed. He swam right down to it, and put out his hand to touch it. Beneath the wrapping he felt something very hard indeed.
Then, his breath giving out, he rose up to the surface, almost bursting. He took in great gulps of air.
‘I felt something hard,’ he said at last. ‘But it was impossible to tell what it was. Blow! Isn’t it sickening to be right on top of a mystery like this, and not be able to solve it?’
‘We shall have to give it up,’ said Jack. ‘I know perfectly well I haven’t enough breath to go down and probe the wrappings. I should burst for want of breath.’
‘I do hate giving things up,’ said Dinah.
‘Well, swim under the water yourself and see if you can find out anything,’ said Philip.
‘You know I can’t hold my breath even as long as you can,’ said Dinah. ‘So what’s the good of that?’
‘I’m going to swim back to shore,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘There’s a nice sunny rock over there, covered with seaweed. I shall have a sunbathe there.’
She swam slowly over to it. Huffin and Puffin dived under, just beside her. ‘I wonder what they look like when they swim under water,’ thought Lucy-Ann. ‘I’d love to see them chasing a fish.’
She turned herself up, and duck-dived under the water. Ah, there was Huffin, using his wings to swim swiftly through the water after a big fish. Quick, Huffin, or you’ll lose it!
Just as she was going to swim upwards again Lucy-Ann noticed something below her. The lagoon was not nearly so deep just there, for a shelf of rocks ran out into the water, making it fairly shallow, although it was much too deep still for Lucy-Ann’s feet to touch the bottom.
The little girl took a quick glance to see what it was on the rocks below the water, but then her breath gave out, and, half choking, she rose up to the surface, gasping and spluttering.
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 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 strange.’
‘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 ribbonlike 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.
‘No
body 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 noise 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.’