“Well, let’s snuggle down in rugs and have something to eat, and talk then,” said Lucy-Ann. “I should never, never be able to go to sleep.”
“None of us could tonight,” said Jack. “I’ve never felt so wide-awake in my life. I’m going to get some clothes on first. I haven’t had time to put any on. Wasn’t I glad to get some rugs round me, though!”
“I’m pretty wet through myself,” said Bill. “I’ll have a few rugs too, I think.”
“There’s some clothes of Horace’s in that locker,” said Dinah. “The one behind you. We gave him all of his, as we thought, but I found some more yesterday, tucked away there. They won’t fit you, Bill, but at least they’ll keep you warm.”
“Good,” said Bill, and opened the locker. “I’ll put them on now, if I can feel what they are in the dark. You girls get some food, if you’ve got any. Pity we can’t boil a kettle and get something hot into us!”
Soon Bill and the boys had dry clothes on. Then all five of them sat close together for warmth, and ate biscuits and chocolate hungrily.
“Now suppose we tell each other what’s happened since I so hurriedly departed from Puffin Island,” said Bill.
“You tell your tale first,” said Lucy-Ann, pressing close to him. “Oh, Bill, it’s good to have you back! I was so scared when we found you were gone, and the engine of the motor-boat smashed up, and the wireless too.”
“Yes. They told me they’d done that,” said Bill. “Apparently they didn’t know you kids were on the island at all — so I didn’t say a word, of course. Well — to make a long story short, when I was fiddling about with the wireless that night, on our boat, trying to get a message through — and not succeeding, unfortunately . . .”
“Oh Bill — then we shan’t be rescued!” said Lucy-Ann at once. “Oh, we did hope you would have sent a message for help or something! . . .”
“Well, headquarters knew that I was on to something up here, but no more than that,” said Bill. “Anyway, as I say, I was fiddling with the wireless — when I suddenly got a blow on the head, and down I went. Then I knew nothing more at all until I woke up on some other island, a prisoner in a shack!”
“The enemy didn’t hurt you, did they?” asked Lucy-Ann anxiously.
Bill didn’t answer that. He went on with his tale. “They questioned me, of course, and got nothing out of me at all. The queer part was that the very men I’d been told to disappear from, because they were after me, were the very men we bumped into up here! This was where they were carrying on their activities! I had thought it was somewhere in Wales — but they made me think that by laying false clues.”
“Oh Bill — and to think this wild desolate sea, with all its little islands, was the very place they had chosen, and we, too, chose to come to!” said Jack. “They must have thought you’d found out their hiding-place, and had come to track them down.”
“Just what they did think,” said Bill. “And what’s more they imagined that one or other of their men must have given their secret away, and they wanted to find out from me who it was. That was why they held me for questioning, I imagine — instead of bumping me off at once.”
“Humpy-dumpty-bumpy,” said Kiki, taking her head out from under her wing. But nobody paid the slightest attention. Bill’s story was too absorbing.
“They wanted to know how much I knew, and who had told me,” said Bill. “Well, I didn’t actually know very much, and what I did know nobody had told me, so they didn’t get a great deal out of me — and they were not pleased.”
“Didn’t you really know very much then?” said Philip, astonished.
“I knew this gang were up to something illegal — I knew they were getting a lot of money from somewhere — I guessed it was something to do with guns,” said Bill. “I tried to put several spokes in their wheel, and they got wise to the fact that I was after them. I’d cleaned up a nasty little business of theirs once before — though we didn’t get the chief ones then — so I wasn’t popular.”
“And they decided to track you down and bump you off!” said Jack. “So you were told to disappear — and lo and behold! you came here to disappear . . .”
“And walked right into the hornet’s nest,” agreed Bill. “And took you with me too! How is it you kids always attract adventures? As soon as I go near you, an adventure leaps up, and we all get caught in it.”
“It is very peculiar,” said Jack. “Go on, Bill.”
“Well, then my guards suddenly brought Mr. Horace Tipperlong to my shack,” said Bill. “They appeared to think that he was a pal of mine, and was up here among these islands to help me in my snooping. He was just as bewildered as I was. I couldn’t make him out at all. But when we were alone, he began to tell me about you kids, and I guessed what had happened. You were absolute little demons to him, according to his story.”
“Yes, we were,” said Jack remorsefully, remembering their treatment of the puzzled and angry Horace. “You see, we honestly thought he was one of the enemy, got up to look like a rather goofy ornithologist, sent to capture us and make us get into his boat — so . . .”
“We captured him instead, and pushed him down a hole we found, and kept him there,” said Dinah.
“And conked him on the head every time he popped up, it appears,” said Bill. “I shouldn’t have thought you were so bloodthirsty. He said even the girls took turns at hitting him.”
“Well!” said everyone, in shocked astonishment at such colossal untruths. “Bill! We never hit him once!”
“I wouldn’t have been surprised at the boys giving him one or two knocks, if they really thought he was one of the enemy sent to capture them,” said Bill, “but I simply could not imagine the girls hitting him. He said Lucy-Ann was the worst.”
“Oh! And I was the only one that said I couldn’t possibly,” said Lucy-Ann, really shocked at such wicked statements.
“Anyway, apparently you gave him an awful time, and then made off with his boat, leaving him to be captured by the enemy,” said Bill. “You know, I couldn’t help grinning when I heard it all. There’s plenty of pluck in you kids! The enemy took him off in their boat and didn’t believe a word of his story about your taking him prisoner. They really thought he was a pal of mine. Of course, I pretended not to believe his tale about there being children on the island either, because I didn’t want you captured as well. But I did wonder what was happening to you when I heard you’d taken his boat. Horace said it was no longer in the little harbour when he was yanked on board the enemy’s boat.”
“I don’t like Horace,” said Lucy-Ann. “I hope the enemy give him an awful time! He’s silly and he’s untruthful and he’s a coward.”
“And if he hadn’t yelled out when he did tonight, just after I’d opened the hatch of the cabin to let you out, Bill, we’d have been able to capture that big fast motor-boat, and got right back to the mainland,” said Jack gloomily. “Silly idiot — yelling like that!”
“Yes, that was a great pity,” said Bill. “Now you tell me your story.”
So the children told it, and Bill listened with interest and amazement. When they came to the bit about the lagoon, and what was hidden there, he held his breath in astonishment.
“So that’s where they put the guns — dropped them by parachute into a secret lagoon — and then meant to get them up again as soon as the time was ripe — and take them away by seaplane. Gun-running on the grand scale!”
“We were jolly astonished when we watched it all happening,” said Jack.
“I should think so!” said Bill. “It’s beyond belief! And to think you children stumbled on the whole secret. My word, if only I could get a message through to headquarters, we’d catch the whole gang red-handed!”
“It’s been pretty thrilling,” said Philip. “We had some scares, I can tell you, Bill.”
“You’re good kids,” said Bill. “Good and plucky kids. I’m proud of you. But there’s one thing I don’t understand. Why didn’t you make for safety, when you captured Horace’s boat? Why did you mess about here?”