Well we can’t possibly get a bed up those narrow stairs, said Aunt Polly. So you will have to have a mattress to sleep on. I’ve got an old double one that must do for you. I will send Dinah up with a broom and a cloth to clean the room a bit.
Aunt Polly, thanks awfully again for arranging all this, said Philip, half shyly, for he was afraid of his hard-working aunt, and although he spent all his holidays with her, he felt that he did not really know her very well. I hope Mr. Trent’s cheque will cover all your expenses but I’m sure Jack and Lucy-Ann won’t cost much.
Well, Philip, said Aunt Polly, shutting the lid of the old chest and turning to the boy with a troubled face, well, my boy, you mustn’t think I am making too much fuss but the fact is, your mother hasn’t been at all well, and hasn’t been able to send nearly as much money for you as usual and, you see, your school fees are rather high and I’ve been a bit worried to know what to do. You are old enough now to realise that dear old Uncle Jocelyn is not much use in bearing responsibility for a household and the bit of money I have soon goes.
Philip listened in alarm. His mother was ill! Aunt Polly hadn’t been getting the money as usual it all sounded very worrying to him.
What’s the matter with Mother? he asked.
Well she’s very thin and run-down, and she’s got a dreadful cough, she says, answered Aunt Polly. The doctors say she must have a long rest by the sea if possible but how can she give up her job?
I shan’t go back to school, said Philip at once. I shall find a job myself somehow. I can’t have Mother working herself to death for us.
You can’t do that, said Aunt Polly. Why, you arc not even fourteen yet. No now that I have a little money coming in from Mr. Trent for these two children, it will ease things a good deal.
This house is too big for you, said Philip, suddenly noticing how tired his aunt looked. Aunt Polly, why do we have to live here? Why can’t we leave and take a nice little house somewhere, where you wouldn’t have to work so hard, and which wouldn’t be so lonely?
I’d like to, said Aunt Polly, with a sigh, but who would buy a place like this, half ruined and in such a wind-swept, desolate spot? And I should never be able to get your uncle to move. He loves this place, he loves this whole coast, and knows more about it than anyone else in the world. Well, well it’s no good wishing this and that. We must just go on until you and Dinah are old enough to earn your living.
Then I shall make a home for Mother, and she and Dinah and I will live together happily, thought Philip, as he followed his aunt downstairs to fetch the old mattress. He called to Jack, and the two boys, with much puffing and panting, got the awkward mattress up the narrow stairway. Kiki encouraged them with shrieks and squawks. Jo-Jo, the black man, frowned at the noise. He seemed to think Kiki was directing her screeches at him, and, when she found that her noises annoyed him, she did her best to make him jump by unexpected squawks in his ear.
Jo-Jo was taking up a small table and Jack’s trunk. He set them down in the tower-room and looked out of the window. He seemed very bad-tempered, Philip thought. Not that he was good-tempered at any time but he looked even sulkier than usual.
What’s up, Jo-Jo? said Philip, who was not in the least afraid of the sullen servant. Seeing things?
The children had laughed over Jo-Jo’s idea that there were things wandering about at night. Jo-Jo frowned.
Miss Polly shouldn’t use this room, he said. No, that she shouldn’t, and I’ve telled her so. It’s a bad room. And you can see the Isle of Gloom from it too, when the mists lift and it’s bad to look on the Isle of Gloom.
Don’t be silly, Jo-Jo, said Philip, laughing.
Don’t be silly, Jo-Jo, repeated Kiki, in an exact imitation of Philip’s voice. Jo-Jo scowled at both boy and bird.
Well, you take my word, Master Philip, and don’t you go looking at the Isle of Gloom more than you can help. This is the only room you can see it from, and that’s why it’s a bad room. No good ever came from the Isle of Gloom. Bad men lived there, and bad deeds were done there, and wickedness came from that isle as long as anyone remembers.
With this very weird warning the black man departed down the stairs, his eyes rolling, as he gazed back at the two boys with a scowl.
Pleasant fellow, isn’t he? said Philip, as he and Jack unrolled the mattress. Half mad, I think. Anyway, he must be daft to stay on here and do the work he does. He could get much more money anywhere else.
What’s this Isle of Gloom he talks about? said Jack, going to the window. What a queer name! I can’t see any island, Tufty.
You hardly ever can see it, said Philip. It lies right out there, to the west, and there is a reef of rocks round it over which waves continually break, flinging up spray. It seems always to have a mist hanging over it. No-one lives there, though people used to, years and years ago.
I’d like to go there, said Jack. There must be hundreds of birds on that island quite tame and friendly. It would be marvellous to see them.
Tame and friendly. What do you mean, Freckles? said Philip, in surprise. Look at the birds here afraid even of Kiki!
Ah, but the birds on the Isle of Gloom would not have known man at all, said Jack. They would not have learnt to be wary or cautious. I could get some simply marvellous photographs. Gosh, I’d like to go there!
Well, you can’t, said Philip. I’ve never been myself, and no-one has, as far as I know. Look will this be the best place for the mattress? We don’t want it too near the windows because the rain would wet it and it often rains here.
Put it where you like, said Jack, lost in dreams about the misty island and its unknown birds. He might see birds there that he had never seen at all he might find rare nests and eggs. He might take the most wonderful bird-photographs in the world. Jack was quite determined to go to the Isle of Gloom if he could, in spite of all Jo-Jo’s frightening tales.
Come on down to the others, said Philip at last, putting the last of their clothes into the chest. I can’t say you’ve been much help, Jack. Come on, Kiki.
They went down the narrow, winding stair to find the others. It was good to think of the weeks ahead, with no work, no lessons just bathing, climbing, rowing. They certainly would have fun!
Chapter 6
THE DAYS GO BY
The girls had decided to have the two rooms. They were such small rooms, and it would be easier to keep two rooms tidier than one, if two people were to have them.
There would never be room for anything if we tried to keep all our things in one room, said Dinah, and Lucy-Ann agreed. She had been up to see the tower-room and liked it very much. She would have liked a room without glass panes too. It was almost as good as sleeping out-of-doors, thought the little girl, as she leaned out of one of the windows, and felt the sea-breeze streaming through her hair.
The girls’ two rooms looked out over the sea, but in a different direction from the boys’. The Isle of Gloom could never be seen from there. Jack told Lucy-Ann what Jo-Jo had said, and Lucy-Ann looked rather alarmed.
You needn’t worry. Jo-Jo’s full of queer beliefs and stories, said Philip with a laugh. There’s nothing in his stories, really I believe he just likes frightening people.
It was queer to sleep for the first time at Craggy-Tops. Lucy-Ann lay awake for a long time, listening to the muffled roar of the waves breaking on the rocks below. She heard the wind whistling, too, and liked it. How different it all was from the quiet little town Uncle Geoffrey lived in! There everything seemed half dead but here there was noise and movement, the taste of salt on her lips, the feel of the wind through her hair. It was exciting. Anything might happen at lonely Craggy-Tops.
Jack lay awake in the tower-room too. Philip was asleep on the mattress beside him. Jack got up and went to the window. The room was full of the wind, sweeping in at the sea-windows. Jack put his head out, and looked down.