The children laughed when they heard about Huffin’s morning offering. They rubbed their eyes and decided to have a dip in the sea, for they all felt dirty.
“Then we’ll have breakfast,” said Jack. “Gosh, I wish I wasn’t always so frightfully hungry. I say, this is rather a nice island, isn’t it? Look, you can see the enemy’s island on the horizon over there. Wonder if Bill is there.”
“We’ll go up to the highest point on this island after breakfast, and have a good look round at all the others,” said Philip. “Let’s go and get some food from the boat.”
The boat was afloat on the high tide. The children had to swim out to her. They rifled her for food — and whilst she was looking for a tin of salmon she knew she had put in, Lucy-Ann found something that made her shout.
“I say, look! — a wireless! Do you suppose it is a transmitter as well as a receiver? Can we send a message on it?”
“Don’t know,” said Jack, examining it. “It’s not a bit like Bill’s. If only we knew! Anyway, even if we could send out messages on it, I wouldn’t know how to. I expect it’s just some sort of portable wireless. Come on, let’s have breakfast. Phew, this sun’s hot.”
With Huffin, Puffin, Kiki and the three rats all sharing their breakfast, the four children made a very good meal on the boat. “Now, what next?” said Jack. “Shall we go up to the top-most height in this island and see what’s all round us?”
“Yes,” said the others, so, leaving the boat by itself, they made their way up the low cliff and on to the grass-grown land behind. It was not so heathery as Puffin Island had been, nor were there many birds on it.
“It’s funny. You’d think there would be plenty on a nice little island like this,” said Jack. “Look, there’s a hill at the other end of the island! — let’s climb it.”
They climbed to the very top — and then they stood still in astonishment. Beyond them, sparkling blue, was a lagoon, flat and still as a mirror. It lay between two islands, but the islands were joined by broad strips of rocks that enclosed the whole lagoon, so that it was impossible to say which island it really belonged to. The rocks ran out from each one, in places as high as cliffs — and there between them lay this unbelievably lovely sea-lake.
“Look at that!” said Jack in awe. “We’ve seen some wonderful sights — but never one as beautiful as that blue lagoon. It can’t be real.”
But it was. It stretched out below them for about a mile and a half, so sheltered and protected that not a ripple broke its calm blue surface.
And then something happened that gave the children a shock of amazement. They heard the low hum of an aeroplane. They saw it coming towards them. Jack pulled them down flat in case they were seen. It flew right over the lagoon, and as it flew, something dropped from it — something that opened out, billowed white, and had something else fixed below it.
The children watched in amazement. All sorts of ridiculous things flashed through their minds — was it a scientific experiment — bombs — atom bombs — what was it?
A little parachute had opened, and was swinging down to the lagoon. The package underneath it was wrapped in glistening stuff — some kind of waterproof material, Jack thought. It reached the water and disappeared. The parachute spread itself out on the calm surface and lay still. But as the children watched, it seemed to dissolve and finally it too disappeared into the water.
“Look — the plane is circling the lagoon again. It’s going to drop another,” said Philip. They all watched as the plane once more dropped a parachute, and the same thing happened.
Down to the water it floated with its unknown package, and in a few minutes all trace of it had disappeared. A third one was sent down and then the aeroplane circled round once and headed away. Soon it was lost in the distance.
“Well, whatever in the world was it doing, dropping things into this lagoon?” said Jack in astonishment. “What a strange thing to do! What’s in those enormous packages the parachutes carry?”
“And why drop them into the lagoon?” wondered Dinah. “It seems so silly. Do they want to get rid of something? What a strange way to do it!”
“Let’s take the boat and go and sail over the lagoon to see if we can see down into the depths,” said Lucy-Ann.
“And how do you think we are going to get into the lagoon, idiot?” said Jack. “No boat can get into that water — unless it’s dragged over that barrier of rocks surrounding it.”
“Yes — of course — how silly of me!” said Lucy-Ann. “I do wish we could see down into that water though — and find out what secrets it is holding down in the blue depths.”
“Arrrrrr!” said Huffin and Puffin, and, their wings vibrating quickly, they sailed down to the lagoon as if to say “You want to go there? Well, it’s easy.”
They bobbed there on the lagoon, very small specks indeed, diving under the water for fish. The children watched them.
“I don’t see why we can’t go and have a bathe there,” said Jack at last. “We could swim a good way out and then dive down to see if we could find out anything. You never know!”
“Well, let’s go now then,” said Dinah eagerly. “I feel as if I simply must find out what all this is about. It’s the most peculiar secret, I must say!”
They began to scramble down the hill. It grew rocky as they got lower down, but there were plenty of sea-pink cushions to soften the way for their feet. At last they reached the edge of the still blue water.
They undressed and went in. The water was very warm indeed, and rippled like soft silk over their arms. They swam out slowly, enjoying the warmth of the lake and of the sun on their shoulders.
“Now I’m going to dive down and see if I can make out anything,” said Jack, and turning himself up like a duck, down he went, down and down and down. What would he find at the bottom?
Chapter 24
AN AMAZING DISCOVERY
THE lagoon was quite deep. Jack could not swim to the bottom, because he couldn’t possibly hold his breath long enough. He came up, gasping.
“All I could see was a pile of silvery stuff lying on the bottom,” he gasped to the others. “Nothing else at all. I couldn’t go right down to it, because I hadn’t enough breath.”
“Well, that’s not much use,” said Dinah. “We want to see what’s inside the waterproof wrapping — tear it off, so that we can see what it holds.”
“We wouldn’t be able to do that very easily,” said Philip. “I bet it’s sewn up pretty tightly — or sealed in some clever way. I’ll go down, Jack — perhaps I can get near enough to feel what’s inside.”
“Oh dear — do be careful,” said Lucy-Ann. “You don’t know what might be inside!”
“Well — it’s hardly likely to be anything that will eat us,” grinned Jack. “Kiki, why don’t you do a little diving, like Huffin and Puffin do — you could be a bit of help then!”
But Kiki did not approve of all this love of bathing. She flew about above the children in the water and tried occasionally to perch on a bare shoulder. Huffin and Puffin loved having the children in the water, and swam and dived beside them, uttering deep arrrrrs of satisfaction.
Philip dived under, and swam rapidly downwards, his eyes wide open in the salt water. Far below him he saw the silvery mass, gleaming dimly on the lagoon bed. He swam right down to it, and put out his hand to touch it. Beneath the wrapping he felt something very hard indeed.
Then, his breath giving out, he rose up to the surface, almost bursting. He took in great gulps of air.
“I felt something hard,” he said at last. “But it was impossible to tell what it was. Blow! Isn’t it sickening to be right on top of a mystery like this, and not be able to solve it?”
“We shall have to give it up,” said Jack. “I know perfectly well I haven’t enough breath to go down and probe the wrappings. I should burst for want of breath.”
“I do hate giving things up,” said Dinah.
“Well, swim under the water yourself and see if you can find out anything,” said Philip.
“You know I can’t hold my breath even as long as you can,” said Dinah. “So what’s the good of that?”