“Nor should I,” said Jack. “Bill’s often come to our rescue, in other adventures. It’s time we went to his — if only we can find him. I suppose there’s no doubt but that the enemy have taken him to their headquarters on some island or other here.”
“Don’t you think it would be a good idea if we got everything ready this evening?” said Dinah suddenly. “You know — all the food in the boat — and rugs and clothes and things — so as not to have to waste a single minute getting ready tomorrow morning. You said you wanted to set off at dawn.”
“Yes — that’s a good idea,” said Jack. “I’ll take turn at the hole with the stick now if you like, Philip — and you help the girls to carry things down to the boat. What a bit of luck capturing one like that! I must say I think we’ve been pretty clever.”
“Pah!” said Kiki. “Pooh! Pah!”
“Sorry you don’t agree, old thing,” said Jack. “Very sorry. But I still think we have been very clever!”
“We’d better leave some food for Tripalong, hadn’t we?” asked Dinah. “I mean — I know the gang will be along in a day or two to see what has happened to him — but he’ll have to have things to eat till they come.”
“Yes. Leave him some tins and a tin-opener,” said Jack. “And Philip, were there any rugs in the boat, belonging to him?”
“Yes,” said Philip. “I’ll bring them back here, after I’ve taken some food to the boat. We’ll chuck them down to him. I think we’re being awfully kind to our enemy.”
Horace didn’t think so. He got all upset again after a bit, and began to shout wildly down in the hole.
“This has gone on long enough. You let me out, you little villains! Wait till I get my hands on you! What is the meaning of this, I’d like to know?”
“Oh, don’t keep up the pretence any more, Mr. Horace Tripalong,” said Jack, bored. “We’re enemies, both of us, and you know it. You open up a bit and tell me where Bill is and a few things more. You might get off more lightly in the end, if you do.”
“Who’s this Bill you keep talking about?” said Horace in an exasperated tone. “Look here, are you playing at pirates or Red Indians or what? I never heard of anyone being kept prisoner down a hole like this, by a pack of villainous children!”
“No — I never heard of it either, now I come to think of it,” said Jack. “Well, dear Horace, if you won’t admit what we all know, keep quiet.”
“Pah!” said Horace, aggravated beyond words.
“Pah!” said Kiki at once, and went to the hole entrance. She looked down.
“Pah! Naughty boy! Pop goes the weasel! How many times have I told you to shut the door? God save the King! Pah!”
Mr. Tripalong listened in amazed horror. Was he really and truly mad? Could that be a parrot talking to him so rudely?
“I’ll wring that bird’s neck,” he said fiercely, and got up.
“Ring the bell, please!” said Kiki, and went off into one of her cackles. Then she poked her head in again and screeched like a railway engine in a tunnel. It was absolutely deafening in the hole below, and Horace fell back on the ground, defeated.
“Mad! Quite mad! All mad!” he muttered, and, putting his head in his hands, he said ho more.
Chapter 22
THE ENEMY
THE three children, accompanied by Huffin and Puffin, made various journeys to and from Sleepy Hollow with food, rugs and clothes. Philip brought back a pile of rugs from the boat and thrust them down the hole entrance. They descended on poor Horace and enveloped him. He was very much startled, but glad to find in a moment or two that his captors were actually offering him something warm and soft to lie on.
He arranged them underneath himself. Ah, that was more comfortable. He began to think longingly of all the things he would do to those children, once he got free.
At last everything was in the motor-boat, ready for the early start. It was now getting dusk. Philip, Lucy-Ann and Dinah came and sat beside Jack.
“I suppose one or other of us must keep watch over the hole all night, in case Horace escapes?” whispered Philip. Jack nodded.
“Yes. We can’t risk his getting out, just as we’ve got everything set. You take first watch, Philip. We won’t let the girls watch, because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t hit Horace good and hard if he popped his head out.”
“I would!” said Dinah indignantly. “Lucy-Ann is the softie, I’m not.”
Lucy-Ann said nothing. She felt sure she wouldn’t be able to hit Horace hard. Anyway the boys decided that only they should keep watch, so that was all right.
The sun had gone down into the sea. The sky was pricked with the first few stars. The children lay about comfortably on the heather, talking in low voices. There was no sound from Horace. Perhaps he was asleep.
Philip’s three rats, which had suddenly begun to look very grown-up, came out to sniff the evening air. Dinah removed herself at once. Huffin and Puffin regarded the rats with fixed eyes. Kiki yawned and then sneezed. Then she coughed in a very hollow manner.
“Shut up, Kiki,” said Jack. “If you want to practise your awful noises, go up on the cliff and make the sea-gulls and guillemots listen.”
“Arrrr!” said Huffin solemnly.
“Huffin agrees with me,” said Jack.
“Pah!” said Kiki.
“And pah to you,” said Jack. “Now shut up, Kiki, do. It’s a lovely evening. Don’t spoil it with your pahing and poohing.”
Just as he finished speaking, there came a noise from far out to sea — a very small noise at first, hardly heard above the sound of the sea and the wind — but becoming quite unmistakable after a while.
“A motor-boat!” said Jack, sitting upright. “Now what in the world . . .”
“Have they come to look for Horace already?” said Philip, in a low voice. “Blow! This upsets our plans like anything!”
Nothing could be seen on the darkening sea, but the noise came nearer and nearer. Jack clutched Philip and spoke in his ear.
“There’s only one thing to do. We must all go and get into our boat now, this very minute — and get out to sea. We mustn’t let the enemy see the boat in the channel there, or they’ll take it, and our only chance will be gone. Come on, quickly!”
Silently the four children rose to their feet. Kiki flew to Jack’s shoulder, not uttering a sound. Huffin and Puffin, who had retired to their burrow, came out again. They flew beside the hurrying children, not even remarking arrrr to one another.
Across the puffin colony they went, stumbling and staggering between the hundreds of burrows. Up the little slope of the cliff and over to the cleft in the rock. Down the rocky ledges, be careful, be careful! And into the rocking boat, their breath coming fast and their hearts beating like hammers.
“Start her up,” ordered Philip, and Jack started the engine. Philip threw off the mooring-rope and it skittered into the boat by the girls’ feet. In a moment more they were backing gently out of the little channel.
Soon they were right out of it. Philip went to the east a little. It was almost dark now.
“We’ll stop the engine,” said Philip. “And wait here till the other boat goes into the channel, because I expect she’ll make for it. I don’t want to bump into her. And the men on board her might hear our engine.”
So the engine was stopped, and the motor-boat swung up and down gently as waves ran beneath her to the rocky cliffs some way off.
The sound of the other boat’s engine was now very loud. Philip wished he had gone a bit further off after all. But the bigger boat swung by without stopping and then nosed its way into the hidden harbour. The children, crouching in their boat, straining their eyes, had just been able to make out a dark shape and that was all.
The other boat’s engine stopped and peace came back into the night. Some of the sea-birds, disturbed, uttered a few wild cries and then flew back to their roosting-places on the ledges.
“Horace will be glad to be rescued,” said Dinah at last.
“Yes, he’ll probably already be out of the hole,” said Jack. “He’d soon know when we were gone. I’ve no doubt there’ll be a lot of bad language going on when they find out how we imprisoned poor Horace — and gosh, when they find out we’ve taken his boat . . .”