“Heaps of people have never seen the sun rise,” said Jill, as she leaned over the side of the boat to look at the gold-flecked waves. “Hardly any of the girls at my school have. They’ve missed something! I think there ought to be a law that says everyone must watch a sunrise, and everyone must see a bluebell wood, and a buttercup field, and
“
“Look out for the sail!” yelled Andy, as the big red sail swung across. Jill ducked, and forgot what she was saying. Andy was at the tiller, looking browner than ever. His dark hair blew straight upright in the wind, and his eyes shone as blue as the sea.
“I say,” began Tom, “isn’t it about time to
“
Everyone interrupted him. “To
have something to eat!” they all chanted, knowing Tom’s ways very well indeed.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” said Tom, aggrieved. “I was going to sayoughtn’t we to keep closer to the shore now? We’re heading right out to sea.”
“Got to,” said Andy, keeping a firm hold on the tiller, as the boat swept into a strong current “There are rocks farther in. Can’t risk them in this boat. We must keep out a fair bit, then, when I see the spot my father told me of, Ill swing inland a bit.”
Andy had a rough chart with him. He pushed it across to Tom. holding on to it till the boy had it safely, because of the rushing wind.
“Look at that,” he said. “Those dots are rocks. See how the sea nearer in is peppered with them. Sly rocks they arejust below the surface. They’ll scratch a hole in the bottom of a boat in the twinkling of an eye. It takes us longer to go out to sea, and then turn in, but it’s safer. We’ve got to look out for three tall pine-trees on a cliff, before we turn in. They’re marked on the map.”
Everyone studied the map with interest. What a long way down the coast the Cliff of Birds was! No wonder Andy said they must start early.
“What time shall we be there?” said Mary.
“We should be there about eleven, with luck,” said Andy. “Maybe before. We’ll have our dinner then. We’ll be hungry!
Tom looked really alarmed. “What! Are we to wait till then? We’ll be starved!”
“Oh, we’ll have breakfast first,” said Andy. “Well have It at seven, or half-past Maybe a few biscuits now would be nice. What do you say, girls?”
Everyone thought it was a very good idea. “Biscuits and chocolate!” said Jill. “They go so well together. I’ll get them.”
She disappeared into the little cabin below, and came back again with four rations of biscuits and chocolate. Everyone was soon munching, Andy still at the tiller. He said he was not going to let anyone else steer the boat that day, it was too dangerous!
The sun was much higher in the sky now. It was warmer, though the strong sea-breeze was cold. Everyone was glad of woollen jerseys, cardigans and macks on top.
“Nowhere’s where we head inland,” said Andy suddenly. “See those three pine-trees on the cliff, far away over there?”
“You’ve got eyes like a hawk, Andy,” said Tom, screwing his up to try to see the pine-trees on the distant coast. He could just make them out. But neither of the girls could see them clearly.
Andy swung the boat round a little. The sail flapped hard. The boat now ran even more quickly, and the children felt thrilled with the speed, and the up-and-down swing of the fine little boat.
“Breakfast-time!” said Andy. “We’re doing very wellwe deserve a jolly good breakfast!”
“We do!” said Tom, and scurried to get the food.
CHAPTER 3.
The Cliff of Birds.
BREAKFAST was a very welcome meal. There were hard-boiled eggs, scones and butter and a tin of peaches. Jill heated some milk down in the little cabin and made cocoa, which they all enjoyed.
Now the boat was heading shore-wards, and the rocky cliffs could be clearly seen. It was about eight o’clock. The sun was higher in the sky, and its warmth was very welcome.
“My wordwhat a lonely, desolate coast!” said Tom, watching it as the boat sped along. “And look at those wicked rocks, Andy, nearer the shore.”
“Yesthere are some out here too, so we’ve got to keep a look-out,” said Andy. “The worst are marked on that chart. I know them all. In about an hour’s time we have to slip between an opening in a rocky ridge well come to, and skim along in a kind of channel between two rows of rocks. We’re all right if we get into the channel. It’s like a sea pathway, and so long as we keep in the middle of it, we’re all right.”
At about nine o’clock the children saw ahead of them a very turbulent stretch of water. The waves frothed and surged and sent spray high into the air.
“Look out!” said Tom, pointing ahead. “There must be rocks there.”
“Yesjust about here is the opening I told you of,” said Andy. “We’ve got to slip through it as soon as we come to it. I think it lies beyond that big surge of water.”
He cleverly skirted the bubbling, frothing patch, where the waves were torn into shreds on rocks that hardly showed above the surface. Then the children gave a shout
“Here’s the entrancelooka nice, calm little bit!”
Andy steered the boat deftly through the little passage, the opening through the outer ridge of rocks. The boat careered along, its sails full of wind, and slid into a channel between the outer and inner rows of rocks. Fairly calm water ran there.
“There are horrid rocks on each side of us,” said Jill. “But here we’re safe! How far does this queer calm channel go, Andy?”
“It flows to Smuggler’s Rock,” said Andy, “but we swing landwards before we get there, to the Cliff of Birds.”
“Smuggler’s Rock! What an exciting name!” said Tom, and he looked at the map. “Oh yesyour father’s put it inat least, I suppose this dot, with S.R. beside it, means Smuggler’s Rock?”
“That’s right.” said Andy. “We’ve a good way to go still. My, aren’t these lonely waters? We haven’t sighted a ship on the sea or seen a soul on land since we left our village behind!”
“It’s a wild bit of the coast,” said Tom. “I wonder why Smuggler’s Rock was given that name, Andy? Were there smugglers there in the old days?”
“I don’t know,” said Andy. “I’ve only seen the Rock from the distance. It’s like a small steep island made entirely of rock. Nothing grows there, I should thinkexcept seaweed round the foot. Maybe there are caves there that smugglers hid things in. I don’t know anything about it Nobody goes there nowand maybe they never did! Maybe it’s just a name.”
“It’s half-past ten,” said Tom, after a time. “Shall we soon be there, Andyat the Cliff of Birds?”
“Why, are you getting hungry again?” asked Andy, with a grin.
“WellI am,” said Tom, “but I wasn’t thinking of that I was thinking of the time, and how long we’d have there. We’ll have to allow a good many hours for getting back.”
“We’ll have a couple of hours at the Cliffs and no more,” said Andy. “But it will be enough. You’ll be able to climb up the cliff and explore it a bit, and have some dinner, and maybe take some photographs. Then we’ll have to go back.”
“Is that Smuggler’s Rock, look, right over there!” suddenly shouted Jill, pointing westwards. The others looked, and saw a small, rocky island rising above the waves a fair distance away. Almost at the same moment Andy swung the boat to the left, and headed for the shore.
“Yesthat’s Smuggler’s Rock,” he said. “And did you notice that the channel we were in went on towards it? But I’ve swung away now, because we’re coming to the Cliff of Birds. See the birds on the water now, and flying above it!”
As they sailed nearer to the Cliff of Birds the children shouted in amazement at the amount of birds to be seen everywhere. Gulls called, and the sound of their laughing voices, which Jill said reminded her of the mewing of cats, echoed all round them. Birds bobbed up and down on the water, skimmed the waves, soared high and low In the air.
“Now, when we round this rocky point, you’ll see we come into a kind of shallow bay, and the cliffs behind are the ones I’ve brought you to see,” said Andy. “They are covered with the kind of little narrow ledges that sea-birds love for their nests. They must have used the cliff for hundreds of years.”
The Andy rounded the point, and then swept into a shallow bay. The children gazed at the towering cliffs behind, too astonished to speak.