The foot was still very swollen. Andy thought she had better wait a while before trying to walk on it. So they sat by the pool and talked, Andy keeping a sharp look-out in case anyone came. He told the girls about the lights he and Tom had seen the night before.
After a while, Jill thought she could try to walk. Andy helped her up, but as coon as she put her hurt foot to the ground, she gave a cry and crumpled up again. “I don’t think I cannot just yet, anyway,” she said.
“Well, rest a bit longer,” said Andy, trying not to look worried. He did so badly want to get back home quickly. He looked down the steep stretch of rocks below, leading to the cove where the boat was. He could not see the boat, but it was quite a distance below. It wouldn’t be much good trying to help Jill down the steep rocks at the moment. She would probably slip and fall again, dragging them with her. They must all wait in patience.
They looked round them. Smuggler’s Rock was truly a lonely, desolate-looking place. The sea-birds did not nest there in such thousands as they did on the Cliff of Birds, but there were plenty of them about, circling in the breeze and calling loudly. The island rose to a steep pinnacle. Anyone at the very top would have a perfectly marvellous view for miles out to sea.
“I wish I could go right to the top and have a look what it’s like there,” said Tom longingly.
“You won’t do anything of the sort!” said Andy sharply. “You got into a nice mess yesterday, and I’m not having you get into any more trouble today! Besides, you know perfectly well that that was where those lights showed last night. If anyone is on this island now. they would most likely be up there.”
“All right, Andy, all right,” said Tom. “I only just said I’d like to go up there. I’m not going.”
It seemed a long time till Jill was able to put her foot to the ground again without too much pain. It was still swollen, but not quite so much. It wasn’t a sprain, but she certainly had twisted it very badly.
“It’s about half-past ten, said Andy. “If you feel you can possibly limp down now, Jill, with Tom and me helping you, we’d better go.”
Jill tried her foot. Yesif she didn’t put her whole weight on to it, but held on to Tom and Andy, she thought she could manage.
They started down. It was a slow little procession that went down the rocks, taking the very easiest way so that Jill would not have to do any jumping. Twice she had to sit down and rest. Andy was gentle and patient, but inside he felt anxious and worried Suppose anyone on the island saw them and stopped them? He was longing to get back to the boat and sail away.
They got down to the cove at last. There lay the boat, rocking gently where they had left her. But immediately they saw her the children saw that something was lacking. What was it?
“Where’s the sail?” said Tom. “We left it folded on the deck at the end there. Where is it?”
Andy said nothing. His keen eyes swept the boat from end to end, and his heart went cold. Had someone taken the sail?
He left Jill to Tom and Mary, and went jumping down to the cove, landing like a sure-footed goat on the rock, beside the Andy. He leapt on board.
He made a hurried search, whilst the others came slowly nearer, Tom and Mary helping Jill along. He turned to them with a grim face as they came aboard.
“Do you know what’s happened? Somebody’s been here and taken, not only our sail, but our oars too!”
The three stared at him in horror. The sail goneand the oars as well? How could they get home then?
“But, Andywe can’t go home now,” said Jill, looking very pale with shock and pain.
“I’m afraid not,” said Andy, and he helped Jill to a comfortable place on the deck. He looked all round searchingly, but he could see nobody at all. Who had taken the sail and the oars?
“Someone came along whilst we were up on that high point,” he said. “Someone who meant to keep us here. And the easiest way to keep us was to do something that would make it impossible for us to take the boat home. So he removed the sail and the oars. If I could just get hold of him!”
Jill began to cry again. Her ankle was hurting her once more, and she was longing to get back home and be comforted by her mother. She sobbed bitterly. Andy put his arm round her.
“Poor old Jill. Never mind, we’ll manage somehoweven if we have to swim home!”
But Jill couldn’t smile. “You see,” she sobbed, “if I hadn’t been such an idiot as to jump down the rocks like that, and twist my ankle, we’d have had plenty of time to get away. It’s all my faultand my ankle hurts againand I feel simply awful.”
“You go down into the cabin and lie down,” said Andy. “Mary will put a wet, cold bandage on. Tom and I will talk over things, and see what we think is best to do.”
Jill managed to get down into the cabin. She was glad to lie down on the little bunk there and put her foot up. Mary wrung a bandage out in cold sea-water, and wrapped k carefully round the swollen ankle.
The boys sat up on deck and talked gravely together. Andy felt that things were serious now.
“We’ve stumbled on to something that those men wanted to keep secret,” said Andy. “They chose this lonely, forgotten bit of coast for whatever it is they wanted to dosmuggle, I suppose. And now we’ve butted in and spoilt their little game.”
“They’ll be very angry,” said Tom.
“You bet they will!” said Andy. “It’s quite clear they don’t mean us to get home and talk about it They’ll keep us prisoner here till they’ve finished their job, whatever it is. Something to do with all those crates and boxes, I suppose.
“I wonder what’s in them,” said Tom.
“Forbidden goods of some kind,” said Andy. “It’s very worrying. Your mother and my father will be very anxious when we don’t turn up.”
“Well, they know where we’ve gone,” said Tom, brightening up. “They’ll come and look for us. Your father will get your uncle’s boat and come and see what’s happened, he’s sure to come to Smuggler’s Rock if he doesnt find us at the Cliff of Birds.”
“Yes. He will,” said Andy. “But I bet our captors, whoever they are, have thought of that. They’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
“How?” asked Tom. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean that if they see Dad’s boat coasting along, they’ll take steps to see we’re not about!” said Andy, grimly.
Tom looked scared. “What about our boat?” he said”. “They can’t hide that.”
Andy said nothing to that. He was silent so long that Tom looked up at him. To his enormous alarm he saw what looked like one bright tear in the corner of the fisherboy’s eye. He was so alarmed that he caught hold of Andy’s hand.
“Andy! Whatever’s the matter? Why do you look like that?”
Andy swallowed, and blinked back the unexpected tear. “Well, idiot,” he said, trying to speak naturally, “they’ll probably scuttle my boat, that’s all! That’s the best way to hide a boat you don’t want found. I think they’re pretty desperate fellows, and they won’t stick at sinking a boat if it suits them.”
Sink the Andy! Scuttle their beautiful swift-running boat? Tom stared at Andy in horror. They all loved the boat, but Andy loved her most of all, because he had used her for a long time now, and knew all her little ways. All the fishermen loved their boats, of course, but this was Andy’s first boat, and a beauty.
“Oh. Andy,” said Tom, and couldn’t think of anything else to say at all. “Oh, Andy.”
They said nothing for a few minutes. Then they heard Mary coming up to soak Jill’s bandage again. “Don’t tell the girls what we’re afraid will happen,” said Andy in a low voice. “No good scaring them before it happens.”
“Right,” said Tom. He managed to give Mary a grin as she came up. “How’s Jill?”
“She says her ankle feels better now her foot is up,” said Mary. “We’ve been talking about the oars and the sail, Tom. Couldn’t we go and look for them? We might find them hidden somewhere.”
“Not very likely,” said Andy. “It was pretty smart work on the part of the person who came along and saw our boat. He went off with them at once.”