Andy hailed him. “Hie! Our shack has fallen down! Come and see!”
The man went to look. He could not speak English, but he understood at once that the shack had fallen down on the children during the storm. Jill sat on the ground, pretending to cry, holding her head in her hand. Mary was trying to comfort her.
“We want a tent to sleep in,” said Andy. The man did not understand. Tom took out his notebook and drew a tent in it. Then the man understood. He nodded his head, said something that sounded like “Yah, yah!” to the children, and set off in his boat.
“Don’t cry too much, Jill, or the man will want to see your wound!” said Andy. “I was awfully afraid he would take off the bandage and have a look to see how much your head was hurt.”
“Gracious!” said Jill, in alarm. “I didn’t think of that!”
“I hope he comes back with a tent,” said Tom. “You’d better go up the cliff,’ Jill, and sit on the top, so that if the man comes back he won’t ask to see your head.”
Jill and Mary went off. Tom and Andy waited for the man to return. He came back in about three hours—and he brought a tent! The boys were pleased.
The man looked round for the girls. He touched his head, and looked at Andy. He was trying to say he wanted to see the girl with the bandaged head. Andy nodded and pointed to the top of the cliff. “She’s ail right now,” he said. The man saw the girls sitting up on the cliff and seemed satisfied. He put the tent down on the beach, showed Andy the ropes and pegs with it and went off again in his boat.
“Good!” said Andy. “We’ll put this tent up in a sheltered place in the next cove. We don’t want tke man visiting this hollow too often, or he may notice that the shack is gradually disappearing!”
They put up the tent in the next cove, just around the cliff, in as sheltered a place as possible at the end of the beach where heather grew thickly, and big cushions of thrift were soft and plentiful. They maae themselves beds of heather and bracken and piled the rugs there.
The man came again next day and Andy showed him where they had put the tent. Andy limped about with the rag still on his leg, which made the others want to smile—but the man did not once guess that it was all pretence. As soon as he had gone Andy walked and ran just as usual!
The weather was not so good now. The sun was not so warm, and clouds sailed over the sky, bringing showers of rain at times. The children often had to sit in the tent, and they longed to begin making the raft.
“I don’t want to start it till I’m sure the man has forgotten about the tumbledown shack,” said Andy. “Yesterday he brought his boat in to this beach instead of the next one, and hardly looked over the island at all. If he comes to “this cove to-day, we can begin the raft this afternoon.”
The man came at noon as usual. This time he DTo-ugnt a large supply of food, and tried to make the children understand that he would not be back for a few days. He pointed to three fingers and shook his head.
“I think he means he won’t be back for three days,” said Andy, his heart jumping for joy. He nodded to the man, who, instead, of looking over the island as he usually did, got straight back into his boat and rowed off.
“Well, if that isn’t a bit of tack!” said Andy joyfully, as soon as he had gone. “I’m sure he won’t be back for some days—and he’s brought us a marvellous Supply of food, that will just do beautifully for the raft I We can safely begin building it this afternoon!”
CHAPTER 21
The Building of the Raft
THE four children tackled the shack that afternoon and tore out as many planks as they could.
“Pile them up in different sizes,” ordered Andy. ‘“Come and help with this long plank, Tom—it’s too heavy for me to pull out alone.”
By the end of that day the children had sixteen planks of different sizes piled up. Andy was pleased.
“If we can get as many as that tomorrow, we’ll be able to make a really fine raft,” he said. “Tom, you are saving ail those long screws and nails, aren’t you? We shall need them soon.”
“Yes—they’re all safe,” said Tom, showing Andy a tin into which he had put all the screws and nails he had taken oat of the planks.
“Do you think we’d better hide these planks in case the man does come tomorrow, although we feel sure he won’t?” asked Jill.
“Well—perhaps we had better,” said Andy, who was feeling tired and not at all eager to carry heavy planks about. So he and Tom took the planks one by one and tad mem in thick heather. Then they went to have a good meal; which the girls had been getting ready.
“I’ve never been so hungry in my life!” said Tom.
“You’ve said that about a thousand times since we’ve been on this island,” said Jill. “Well—see if you can eat that plateful!”
Tom took the plate. It was full of cold tongue, baked potatoes, and tinned asparagus tips which the man had brought yesterday. There were also sliced pears, tinned milk to eat with them, and hot cocoa. The pears and tinned milk were so delicious that Tom wanted a second helping.
“Good gracious! At the rate you eat you’ll want about a thousand tins on the raft!” said Mary, opening another tin of pears. “Andy, I hope you won’t forget to take a tin-opener when you go. It would be so awful to be hungry, and have heaps of tinned food round you—and not be able to eat any of it because you had forgotten an opener!”
Andy grinned. “I shan’t forget that,” he said. “Golly, I am tired!”
They were all tired, and they fell asleep in the tent almost as soon as they lay down on their heathery beds. They awoke late the next day and Andy could not make up his mind whether to get on with the raft or not.
“I’m pretty sure that fellow meant he wouldn’t come for a few days,” Andy said. “But if he did happen to come and found us at work on a raft, it would be too disappointing for anything.”
“Well, one of us could go up to the rocky ledge and keep watch all the time, couldn’t we,” said Jill eagerly. “We could easily see anyone coming, then, and give warning in time to let you and Tom hide everything.”
“Yes—of course,” said Andy. “That’s a good idea! Take it in turns of about two hours each. You go first, Jill, and Mary next.”
So Jill went up to the rocky ledge and sat there. She could see the cave-beach of the next island and had a good view of any boat that might come over the water.
No boat was to-be seen—but all that day the islands were very noisy indeed! Seaplanes flew over many times, their engines roaring loudly. Three came down in the calm water opposite the cave-beach. Jill watched them carefully.
Stores were taken to the cave, as she could plainly see. The seaplanes roared away after a time—but all that day others flew over the islands, and the children wondered to see so many.
“Well, there’s one thing that’s lucky,” said Andy with a grin. “Those seaplanes make such a noise that no one could possibly hear the sound of any hammering to-day—so I vote we get on with it and make as much noise as we like now there’s a chance!”
So the sound of hammering was heard on the children’s island that day, as Andy and Tom nailed twelve big planks crosswise to twelve others below. Then on top of the two crosswise rows Andy nailed yet another row of shorter planks to make the raft really solid and heavy.
The boys added a kind of rim to the raft to prevent things rolling off too easily. Andy was clever at carpentry and he knew all the best tricks of making each plank hold the other fast It was a very solid-looking affair that began to take shape by the time that night came.
Andy had found a strong post that would do for a mast, but he did not mean to put this up till the raft was almost ready to launch. “We can’t very well hide a raft with a mast.” he said. “It is easier to hide a flat raft with no mast, if that man pays us a visit too soon.”