“Chocolate to follow if anyone’s hungry still,” said Jill. “Mother seems to have put in dozens of bars! There’s some with fruit and nuts in top. It looks gorgeous.”
“Have we time to eat our dinner before we go, or had we better set sail straight away?” asked Tom, who felt that he would like to have his meal then and there. Andy looked at the sun in the sky.
“The sun’s a good way past noon,” he said. “I think we’d better set off now, and eat our dinner as we go. The wind won’t help us so much going back, though it’s shifted a bit. I’ll take the tiller again.”
The two boys rowed the boat out of the pool and into the open sea. Soon they were speeding along again, though not so fast as they had come. It was very pleasant on deck in the warm afternoon sunshine. The four children ploughed their way hungrily through the ham, bread, eggs and peaches. Only Tom could manage the chocolate at the end, and even he ate it lazily, as though he didn’t really want it!
“We’ll be back just before dark, I think,” said Andy. “Look, here’s the channel between the rocksand that’s where it goes off to Smuggler’s Rock. See?”
The children looked at the water that lay smoothly in the channel between the two ridges of rock, and screwed up their eyes to have another look at the queer, steep rocky island called Smuggler’s Rock. Yes, there it was in the distance, a desolate, lonely rock, where nobody ever went to nowadays. It might be rather fun to explore it though!
“Shall we go there one day, Andy?” asked Tom. “It might be rather fun. We could hunt for the old caves the smugglers used.”
“All right,” said Andy. “If you like. It’s a nice sailing trip all the way here. Doesn’t the boat go like a bird?”
She did. She was light and sweet to handle and seemed like a live thing to the children. They loved the Sapping of her sail and the creaking noise she made. They liked the lapping of the water against her hull, and the white wake that spread behind them like a feathery tail.
“I think all children ought to have a boat of their own,” said Tom. “I wish I had a boat, and a horse and a dog, and
“
He stopped suddenly, and looked so upset that the two girls felt alarmed.
“What’s the matter?” said Jill.
“Do you know what I’ve done?” said Tom. Ive left my camera behind! I’m always doing that! My best camera, the one Daddy gave me at Christmas. It cost an awful lot of money and I promised faithfully to be much more careful with it than I was with my old one. And now I’ve gone and left it behind’, on the Cliff of Birds!”
“Idiot!” said Mary. “You’re jolly careless. Mother will be awfully cross.”
“Well, one of you might have been clever enough to notice I’d left it behind,” said Tom crossly. “Haven’t got eyes, I suppose! Dash! Andy, can we turn back?”
“What! Turn back, and climb all the way up that cliff again!” said Andy. “Don’t be stupid. We haven t got time, you know that. I’m not steering this boat home in the dark through these dangerous waters.”
“I didn’t take any snaps, and now I’ve left my camera,” lamented Tom. “It’s such a beauty too. I must have left it at the back of that shallow cave where we lay and rested. GollyI hope that whistling man doesn’t find it and take it!”
This was a really alarming thought. Everybody looked solemn at once. A camera as fine as Tom’s was very valuable, and a treasured possession. Tom couldn’t think how he had come to forget it. But Tom did do very foolish things at times. How cross his parents would be!
Tom looked so woebegone that Andy was sorry for Urn. “Cheer up,” he said. “We’ll go back for it one day this week. If I can get my father to spare the boat, we’ll sail to the Cliff of Birds againand maybe visit Smuggler’s Rock!”
Everyone cheered up. That would be lovely! They would start off even earlieror would Mother let them spend the night on board the boat? Then they could have a whole day on Smuggler’s Rock! They began to talk about it, their eyes shining.
“Don’t be too hopeful,” said Andy, steering the boat deftly between the two dangerous ridges of rock. “You know what happened last time your mother gave you permission to spend a night or two on a sailing tripwe got wrecked and lived on an island for ages, and found ourselves in a nest of enemy submarines and seaplanes!”
“Well, nothing like that could happen here” said Tom, looking at the desolate, lonely coast they were passing. “Why, there isn’t a ship or a plane to be seen.”
“Then I wonder what that man was looking for, with his glasses,” said Jill. That made everyone remember the whistling man.
They began to talk again about the puzzle of how he could have disappeared between the place where the children sat and the waterfall.
“I tell you, there wasn’t a hole big enough on the way to hide even a rabbit,” said Tom. “He ought to have been somewhere along thereand he wasn’t. He had vanished into thin air! I almost thought I’d dreamt him!”
“Well, he came back again from thin air all right!” said Mary, with a laugh. “We heard his whistle just as we were leaving. His hiding-place can’t be far away.”
The puzzle of the man’s hiding-place kept them interested for a long time. It was Jill who made the first sensible suggestion.
“I know!” she said, sitting upright on the deck. “I know where he went!”
“You don’t!” said Tom.
“I bet he waited till the waterfall lessened its torrent a bitlike you said it did, you rememberand then he shot into the opening the water pours from, and made his way into the cliff from there!” said Jill triumphantly. But the others hardly took in what she said, it seemed so queer.
“Whatdo you mean you think the man got into the cliff through the waterfall opening!” said Tom at last. “What an idea! He’d never hide there. He’d be wet through.”
“Wellwhere did he hide, then?” said Jill. “You can’t think of anywhere better, I’m sure. I dare say there’s a way into the heart of the cliff just there. I’m sure there is!”
Jill was very pleased with her idea. She went on talking about it, and gradually she got the others excited. “Jill may be right,” said Andy, his eyes fixed on the blue waters ahead of him. “It’s true that it might be possible to get in at the waterfall hole, once the water had lessened and become a trickleas it did when we were walking away from it.”
“Let’s go and see when we go back for Tom’s camera!” said Mary. “We must! I simply can’t bear an unsolved mystery. I can’t bear not to know where that whistling man went toand what he is doing there, too!”
“What horrid legs he had!” said Jill. “I’d like to find out his hiding-place and who he isbut I don’t want to have anything to do with him at all!”
“We’ll keep out of his way all right,” said Andy. “Here, Tom would you like to take the tiller for a little while? It’s easy going for a bit.”
Tom took the tiller eagerly. The girls, suddenly feeling sleepy, lay down on rugs on the deck. It was lovely to feel the not noonday sun. The boat careered on joyously. She always seemed to enjoy her trips so much.
“She’s a happy boat,” said Jill drowsily. “She likes us coming out in her. This is a day off for her. Golly, I do feel sleepy. Wake me up at tea-time, somebody!”
They had tea at five o’clock, when the sun was sliding down the western sky. The wind whipped the sea into little waves and the Andy dipped up and down joyfully. The children were all very good sailors, and it didn’t even occur to them to feel seasick. The sun went behind clouds and an evening chill crept over the sea. Everyone put on on extra coat and then a mackintosh. After all, it was only April!
“We’ll be home before it’s dark,” said Tom, looking at the sinking sun. “We’ve had a lovely day on the sea. It was fun climbing up that cliff too, and seeing all those birds.”
“And it will be fun to go back and see if there really is a hiding-place behind that waterfall,” said Jill. “And I shall love going to Smuggler’s Rock. When can we go, Andy?”
“I think the weather’s changing a bit,” said Andy, looking at the sky. “There’ll be rain and squalls tomorrow and maybe for the rest of the week. We must choose a fine day to go off again. It would be a most uncomfortable trip in bad weather.”