“That’s true,” said Bill, “but I had to risk that. It’s not very likely, though. The risk of anyone coming to these islands and disturbing whatever secret game is going on, is very remote, and I don’t think there would be sentinels posted anywhere.”
“Still — you might have been seen — or heard,” persisted Dinah. “Oh, Bill — and you were supposed to be disappearing completely! Now perhaps your enemies have spotted you!”
“They would hardly be the same enemies that I’ve disappeared from,” said Bill with a laugh. “I don’t think anyone else would recognise me here, seen at a distance in a motor-boat. In any case they would just think I was a bird-man or a naturalist of some kind, who likes the solitude of these seas.”
They were soon back in their tents again, happy to have Bill with them in safety. The stars shone down from a clear sky. Huffin and Puffin shuffled down their burrow, glad that their new family had gone to rest. They did not approve of these night walks.
Lucy-Ann lay and worried. “I can feel an adventure coming. It’s on the way. Oh dear — and I did think this would be the very very last place for one.”
Lucy-Ann was quite right. An adventure was on the way — and had very nearly arrived.
Chapter 13
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE NIGHT?
THE next morning everything seemed all right. The children had forgotten their fears of the night before, and Bill joked and laughed as merrily as the others.
But all the same he was worried — and when an aeroplane appeared and flew two or three times over the islands, he made the children lie down flat, in the middle of the puffin colony, where they happened to be at that moment.
“I don’t think our tents can be seen,” he said. “I hope not, anyway.”
“Don’t you want anyone to know we’re here, Bill?” asked Jack.
“No,” said Bill shortly. “Not at present, anyway. If you hear a plane, bob down. And we won’t light a fire to boil a kettle. We’ll have ginger-beer or lemonade instead.”
The day passed happily enough. It was very hot again, and the children went to bathe half a dozen times, lying in the sun to dry afterwards. Kiki was jealous of Huffin and Puffin because they could go into the water with the children. She stood on the sandy beach, her toes sinking in, shouting loudly.
“Polly’s got a cold, send for the doctor! A-tish-oooooo!”
“Isn’t she an idiot?” said Jack, and splashed her. She was most annoyed and walked a bit further back. “Poor Kiki! What a pity! Poor pity, what a Kiki!”
“Yes, what a Kiki!” shouted Jack, and dived under the water to catch Bill’s legs.
They took a good many photographs, and Huffin and Puffin posed beautifully, staring straight at the camera in a most solemn manner.
“I almost feel they’ll suddenly put their arms round one another,” said Jack, as he clicked the camera. “Thank you, Huffin and Puffin. Very nice indeed! But I wish you’d smile next time. Kiki, get out of the way — and leave that tent-peg alone. You’ve already pulled up three.”
That night the sky was full of clouds and the sun could not be seen. “Looks as if that storm might be coming soon,” said Bill. “I wonder if our tents will be all right.”
“Well, there’s nowhere else to go,” said Jack. “Sleepy Hollow is about the most sheltered place on this island. And, as far as I’ve seen, there are no caves or anything of that sort.”
“Perhaps the storm will blow over,” said Philip. “Phew, it’s hot! I really think I must have one last bathe.”
“You’ve had eight already today,” said Dinah. “I counted.”
Darkness came earlier that night, because of the clouds. The children got into their rugs, yawning.
“I think,” said Bill, looking at the luminous face of his wrist-watch, “I think I’ll slip along to the boat and send a message or two on my transmitter. I might get some news too, for myself. You go to sleep. I shan’t be long.”
“Right,” said the boys, sleepily. Bill slipped out of the tent. The girls were already asleep and did not hear him go. Philip fell asleep almost before Bill was out of the tent. Jack lay awake a few minutes longer, and pushed Kiki off his middle for the fifth time.
She went and stood on Philip’s middle, and waited for a lump to come near her feet, which she knew would be one of the tame rats. When one did venture near, raising a little mound under the rug, Kiki gave a sharp jab at it. Philip awoke with a yell.
“You beast, Kiki! Jack, take her away! She’s given me an awful peck in my middle. If I could see her I’d smack her on her beak.”
Kiki retired outside the tent till the boys were asleep again. She flew to the top of it, and perched there, wide awake.
Meanwhile Bill was in the cabin of the boat tuning in on the wireless. But because of the coming storm it was difficult to hear anything but atmospherics.
“Blow!” said Bill at last. “I shan’t get my messages through at this rate. I’ve a good mind to take the boat to the little channel — what is it the children call it? — Hidden Harbour. Maybe I could get the wireless going better there — it’s so sheltered.”
It was very important to Bill to be able to use the wireless that night. He set the engine of the boat going, and was soon on his way to Hidden Harbour. He nosed in carefully and moored the boat.
Then he set to work on his wireless again. After a while he thought he heard some noise out to sea — a noise getting nearer and nearer. Bill turned off his wireless and listened, but the wind was getting up, and he heard nothing but that.
He turned the knobs again, listening intently for any message. He had got one through, and now he had been told to stand by and wait for an important announcement from headquarters.
The wireless fizzed and groaned and whistled. Bill waited patiently. Then, suddenly hearing a sound, he looked up, startled, half expecting to see one of the boys coming down into the cabin.
But it wasn’t. It was a hard-faced man with a curious crooked nose who was staring down at him. As Bill turned and showed his face, the man uttered a cry of the utmost astonishment.
“You! What are you doing here? What do you know of . . .”
Bill leapt up — but at the same moment the man lunged out at him with a thick, fat, knobbly stick he held in his hand — and poor Bill went down like a ninepin. He struck his head against the edge of the wireless, and slid to the floor, his eyes closed.
The man with the crooked nose whistled loudly. Another man came to the small cabin and looked in.
“See that?” said the first man, pointing to Bill. “Bit of a surprise, eh, to find him up here? Do you suppose he guessed anything?”
“Must have, if he’s here,” said the second man, who had a short thick beard hiding a very cruel mouth. “Tie him up. He’ll be useful. We’ll make him talk.”
Bill was tied up like a trussed chicken. He did not open his eyes. The men carried him out, and took him into a small boat, moored beside the Lucky Star. It was a rowing-boat. Into it went poor Bill, and the men undid their rope, ready to row back to their own motor-boat, which lay, perfectly silent, a little way beyond the island.
“Do you suppose there’s anyone else with him?” asked the man with the crooked nose. “There was no-one on board but him.”
“No. When the boat was sighted yesterday, we only saw one man aboard — and it was him all right,” said the man with the beard. “If there’d been anyone else we’d have seen them. He’s all alone. Ho. He didn’t know he was being watched back here last night.”
“I suppose there really isn’t anyone else here,” said the first man, who seemed very reluctant to go. “Hadn’t we better smash up the boat — just in case?”
“All right — and the wireless too,” said the man with the beard. He found a hammer and soon there were crashing sounds as the engine of the motor-boat was damaged and the beautiful little wireless was smashed to bits.
Then the men set off in their rowing-boat with the unconscious Bill. Soon the purring of the motor-boat, getting fainter and fainter, sounded in the night. But nobody on Puffin Island heard it except Kiki and the sea-birds.
The children had no idea at all that Bill had not returned that night. They slept peacefully, hour after hour, dreaming of huffins and puffins, big waves and golden sands.