George saw, to her dismay, that the man had a shining revolver in his hand. In fright she caught hold of Tim’s collar and pulled him to her. “Be quiet, Tim,” she said. “It’s all right.”
But Tim knew quite well that it wasn’t all right. Something was very wrong. He went on growling fiercely.
“Now listen to me,” said the man, after he had had a hurried talk with his companion. “If you are going to be sensible, nothing unpleasant will happen to you. But if you want to be obstinate, you’ll be very sorry. What we are going to do is this-we’re going off in our motor-boat, leaving you nicely locked up here-and we’re going to get a ship and come back for the gold. We don’t think it’s worth while buying the island now we know where the ingots are.”
“And you are going to write a note to your companions above, telling them you’ve found the gold and they are to come down and look for it,” said the other man. “Then we shall lock up all of you in this dungeon, with the ingots to play with, leaving you food and drink till we come back. Now then-here is a pencil. Write a note to Dick and Anne, whoever they are, and send your dog up with it. Come on.”
“I won’t,” said George, her face furious. “I won’t. You can’t make me do a thing like that. I won’t get poor Dick and Anne down here to be made prisoners. And I won’t let you have my gold, just when I’ve discovered it.”
“We shall shoot your dog if you don’t do as you’re told,” said the first man, suddenly. George’s heart sank down and she felt cold and terrified.
“No, no,” she said, in a low, desperate voice.
“Well, write the note then,” said the man, offering her a pencil and paper. “Go on. I’ll tell you what to say.”
“I can’t!” sobbed George. “I don’t want to get Dick and Anne down here to be made prisoners.”
“All right-I’ll shoot the dog then,” said the man, in a cold voice and he levelled his revolver at poor Tim. George threw her arms round her dog and gave a scream.
“No, no! I’ll write the note. Don’t shoot Tim, don’t shoot him!”
The girl took the paper and pencil in a shaking hand and looked at the man. “Write this,” he ordered. ” “Dear Dick and Anne. We’ve found the gold. Come on down at once and see it.” Then sign your name, whatever it is.”
George wrote what the man had said. Then she signed her name. But instead of writing ‘George’ she put ‘Georgina.’ She knew that the others would feel certain she would never sign herself that-and she hoped it would warn them that something queer was up. The man took the note and fastened it to Tim’s collar. The dog growled all the time, but George kept telling him not to bite.
“Now tell him to go and find your friends,” said the man.
“Find Dick and Anne,” commanded George. “Go on, Tim. Find Dick and Anne. Give them the note.”
Tim did not want to leave George, but there was something very urgent in her voice. He took one last look at his mistress, gave her hand a lick and sped off down the passage. He knew the way now. Up the rocky steps he bounded and into the open air. He stopped in the old yard, sniffing. Where were Dick and Anne?
He smelt their footsteps and ran off, his nose to the ground. He soon found the two children out on the rocks. Dick was feeling better now and was sitting up. His cheek had almost stopped bleeding.
“Hallo,” he said in surprise, when he saw Tim. “Here’s Timothy! Why, Tim, old chap, why have you come to see us? Did you get tired of being underground in the dark?”
“Look, Dick-he’s got something twisted into his collar,” said Anne, her sharp eyes seeing the paper there. “It’s a note. I expect it’s from the others, telling us to go down. Isn’t Tim clever to bring it?”
Dick took the paper from Tim’s collar. He undid it and read it.
“Dear Dick and Anne,” he read out aloud, “We’ve found the gold. Come on down at once and see it. Georgina.”
“Oooh!” said Anne, her eyes shining. “They’ve found it. Oh Dick-are you well enough to come now? Let’s hurry.”
But Dick did not get up from the rocks. He sat and stared at the note, puzzled.
“What’s the matter?” said Anne, impatiently.
“Well, don’t you think it’s funny that George should suddenly sign herself ‘Georgina’?” said Dick, slowly. “You know how she hates being a girl, and having a girl’s name. You know how she will never answer if anyone calls her Georgina. And yet in this note she signs herself by the name she hates. It does seem a bit funny to me. Almost as if it’s a kind of warning that there’s something wrong.”
“Oh, don’t be so silly, Dick,” said Anne. “What could be wrong? Do come on.”
“Anne, I’d like to pop over to that inlet of ours to make sure there’s no one else come to the island,” said Dick. “You stay here.”
But Anne didn’t want to stay there alone. She ran round the coast with Dick, telling him all the time that she thought he was very silly.
But when they came to the little harbour, they saw that there was another boat there, as well as their own. It was a motor-boat! Someone else was on the island!
“Look,” said Dick, in a whisper. “There is someone else here. And I bet it’s the men who want to buy the island. I bet they’ve read that old map and know there’s gold here. And they’ve found George and Julian and want to get us all together down in the dungeons so that they can keep us safe till they’ve stolen the gold. That’s why they made George send us that note-but she signed it with a name she never uses-to warn us! Now-we must think hard. What are we going to do?”
Chapter Fifteen
DICK TO THE RESCUE!
DICK caught hold of Anne’s hand and pulled her quickly away from the cove. He was afraid that whoever had come to the island might be somewhere about and see them. The boy took Anne to the little stone room where their things were and they sat down in a corner.
“Whoever has come has discovered Julian and George smashing in that door, I should think,” said Dick, in a whisper. “I simply can’t think what to do. We mustn’t go down into the dungeons or we’ll most certainly be caught. Hallo-where’s Tim off to?”
The dog had kept with them for a while but now he ran off to the entrance of the dungeons. He disappeared down the steps. He meant to get back to George, for he knew she was in danger. Dick and Anne stared after him. They had felt comforted while he was there, and now they were sorry he had gone.
They really didn’t know what to do. Then Anne had an idea. “I know!” she said, “we’ll row back to the land in our boat and get help.”
“I’d thought of that,” said Dick, gloomily. “But you know perfectly well we’d never know the way in and out of those awful rocks. We’d wreck the boat. I’m sure we’re not strong enough either to row all the way back. Oh, dear-I do wish we could think what to do.”
They didn’t need to puzzle their brains long. The men came up out of the dungeons and began to hunt for the two children! They had seen Tim when he came back and had found the note gone. So they knew the two children had taken it-and they couldn’t imagine why they had not obeyed what George had said in the note, and come down to the dungeons!
Dick heard their voices. He clutched hold of Anne to make her keep quiet. He saw through the broken archway that the men were going in the opposite direction.
“Anne! I know where we can hide!” said the boy, excitedly. “Down the old well! We can climb down the ladder a little way and hide there. I’m sure no one would ever look there!”
Anne didn’t at all want to climb down the well even a little way. But Dick pulled her to her feet and hurried her off to the middle of the old courtyard. The men were hunting around the other side of the castle. There was just time to climb in. Dick slipped aside the old wooden cover of the well and helped Anne down the ladder. She was very scared. Then the boy climbed down himself and slipped the wooden cover back again over his head, as best he could.