Jack awoke first. Kiki was nibbling at his ear. “Blow you, Kiki!” said Jack, pushing the parrot away. “Oh, goodness, here’s Huffin and Puffin too!”
So they were. They waddled over to Philip and stood patiently by his sleeping face. “Arrrrrrr!” said Huffin lovingly.
Philip awoke. He saw Huffin and Puffin and grinned. He sat up and yawned. “Hallo, Jack!” he said. “Bill up already?”
“Looks like it,” said Jack. “Probably gone to bathe. He might have waked us up, though! Come on, let’s wake the girls and go and bathe too.”
Soon all four were speeding to the sea, expecting to see Bill in the water. But he wasn’t.
“Where is he, then?” said Lucy-Ann, puzzled. “And good gracious — where’s the boat?”
Yes — where was the boat? There was no sign of it, of course. The children stared at the cove, puzzled and dismayed.
“He must have taken it round to Hidden Harbour,” said Jack. “Perhaps the wireless wouldn’t work or something. It still feels stormy, and that might have upset it.”
“Well, let’s go to Hidden Harbour then,” said Philip. “Perhaps Bill got sleepy down there in the boat and thought he’d snuggle up in the cabin.”
“He’s probably there,” said Dinah. “Fast asleep too! Let’s go and give him a shock. We’ll halloo down into the cabin and make him jump. The sleepyhead!”
“Oh, I do hope he’s there,” said Lucy-Ann, shivering as much with worry as with cold.
They dressed quickly, shivering a little, for the sun was hidden behind angry-looking clouds. “I do hope the weather isn’t going to break up, just as we’ve begun such a lovely holiday,” said Dinah. “Oh, Huffin, I’m sorry — but you got right under my feet. Did I knock you over?”
The puffin didn’t seem to mind having Dinah tread on it. It shook out its wings, said “Arrrrr!” and hurried on after Puffin, who was trying to keep pace with Philip.
They went across the puffin colony, and came to the cleft in the cliffs. There, below them, lay the motor-boat, swaying very gently as waves ran up under her, and then ran back again.
“There she is!” said Dinah in delight. “Bill did take her round to the harbour!”
“He’s not on deck,” said Jack. “He must be in the cabin. Come on.”
“Let’s call him,” said Lucy-Ann suddenly. “Do let’s. I want to know if he’s there.”
And before the others could stop her she shouted at the top of her voice. “BILL! OH, BILL, ARE YOU THERE?”
No Bill came out from the cabin, and for the first time a little uneasiness crept into the children’s minds.
“BILL!” yelled Jack, making everyone jump violently. “BILL! Come on out!”
No sound from the boat. Suddenly panic-stricken, all four children stumbled down the rocky ledges to the boat. They jumped on board and peered down into the little cabin.
“He’s not there,” said Dinah, scared. “Well, where is he, then?”
“He must be somewhere about, as the boat is still here,” said Jack sensibly. “He’ll come along soon. Maybe he’s exploring somewhere on the island.”
They were just turning away when Philip caught sight of something. He stopped and clutched Jack, turning very pale.
“What?” said Jack, frightened. “What’s up?”
Silently Philip pointed to the wireless. “Smashed!” he said, in a whisper. “Smashed to bits! Who did it?”
Lucy-Ann began to cry. Jack went up on deck and had a look around, feeling sick and upset. Then Philip gave an anguished howl from the cabin that sent the others running to his side.
“Look! The engine of the boat is smashed up too! Absolutely destroyed. My goodness — what’s been happening here?”
“And where is Bill?” said Dinah, in a husky whisper.
“Gone. Kidnapped,” said Philip slowly. “Someone came for him in the night. They don’t know we’re here, I suppose — they just thought Bill was alone. They’ve got him — and now we’re prisoners on Puffin Island and we can’t get away!”
Chapter 14
A FEW PLANS
EVERYONE felt suddenly sick. Lucy-Ann sat down in a heap. Dinah joined her. The boys stood staring at the smashed engine as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.
“It must be a nightmare,” said Dinah at last. “It can’t be true. Why — why, everything was right as rain last night — and now . . .”
“Now the boat’s smashed up so that we can’t get away, the wireless is smashed so that we can’t get a message through — and Bill’s gone,” said Philip. “And it isn’t a dream. It’s real.”
“Let’s sit down in the cabin, all together,” said Lucy-Ann, wiping her eyes. “Let’s sit close and talk. Let’s not leave each other at all.”
“Poor Lucy-Ann!” said Philip, putting his arm round her, as she sat down unsteadily. “Don’t worry. We’ve been in worse fixes than this.”
“We haven’t!” said Dinah. “This is the worst fix we’ve ever been in!”
Kiki felt the tenseness of all the children. She sat quietly on Jack’s shoulder, making little comforting noises. Huffin and Puffin sat solemnly on the deck, staring fixedly in front of them. Even they seemed to feel that something awful had happened.
In the cabin, sitting close together, the children felt a little better. Jack rummaged in a tiny cupboard beside him and brought out some bars of chocolate. The children had had no breakfast, and although the shock they had had seemed to have taken their appetites away, they thankfully took the chocolate to nibble.
“Let’s try and think out carefully exactly what must have happened,” said Jack, giving a bit of his chocolate to Kiki.
“Well — we know that Bill was worried about something,” said Philip. “Those planes, for instance. He felt certain something queer was going on up here. And that’s why he went out by himself in the boat. He must have been seen.”
“Yes — and maybe in some way his enemies got to know he was here,” said Dinah. “They could have followed him a long way back, using field glasses to keep him in sight. Anyway — it’s quite clear that they came looking for him here.”
“And found him,” said Jack. “What a pity he went off to tinker with the wireless last night!”
“Well, if he hadn’t, the enemy, whoever they are, would probably have searched the island and found us too,” said. Dinah. “As it is — they probably don’t know we’re here.”
“It wouldn’t matter if they did know,” said Lucy-Ann, sniffing. “They’ll be quite sure we can’t do any harm, living on an island we can’t get off!”
“They got here — in a motor-boat probably,” went on Jack. “Left the motor-boat out beyond, somewhere — and slipped inshore quietly in a rowing-boat. They must know this little channel — or maybe they saw a light from the boat. Bill would be sure to have the cabin light on, and it’s a pretty bright one.”
“Yes. And they surprised him and knocked him out, I suppose,” said Philip gloomily. “They’ve taken him away — goodness knows what’ll happen to him!”
“They won’t — they won’t hurt him, will they?” said Lucy-Ann in rather a trembly voice. Nobody answered. Lucy-Ann began to cry again.
“Cheer up, Lucy-Ann,” said Philip. “We’ve been in worse scrapes before, whatever Dinah says. We’ll get out of this one all right.”
“How?” wept Lucy-Ann. “I don’t see how we can! You don’t either.”
Philip didn’t. He scratched his head and looked at Jack.
“Well — we’ve got to make some kind of plan,” said Jack. “I mean — we must make up our minds what we are going to do to try and escape — and what we are going to do till we escape.”
“Won’t Bill’s friends come and look for us when they don’t get Bill’s messages through?” asked Dinah suddenly.
“Pooh! What would be the good of that?” said Philip at once. “There are hundreds of these little bird-islands here. It might take years visiting and exploring every single one to find us!”
“We could light a fire on the cliff and keep it burning so that any searcher could see the smoke in the daytime and the flames at night,” said Dinah excitedly. “You know — like ship-wrecked sailors do.”
“Yes, we could,” said Jack. “Only — the enemy might see it too — and come along and find us before anyone else does.”
There was a silence. Nobody knew who the enemy were. They seemed mysterious and powerful and frightening.
“Well, I can’t help it — I think we ought to follow Dinah’s plan and light a fire,” said Philip at last. “We’ve got to run the risk of the enemy seeing it and coming to find us. But we simply must do something to help anyone searching for us. We can keep a look-out for the enemy, and hide if they come.”
“Hide! Where can we hide?” asked Dinah scornfully. “There isn’t a single place on this island for anyone to hide!”