The seaplane circled round the surprising lagoon. It drooped lower. The children watched to see if they could make out any of the underwater packages — and sure enough, through the clear water glimmered the silvery-grey wrappings that covered the hidden guns.
“That’s where the guns are,” said Philip. “Look, Bill — you can see the waterproof wrappings! They had already begun to lift the packages from the water and load them on to seaplanes. We watched them loading one.”
Bill and Joe exchanged glances. “We’ve got some pretty good witnesses then,” said Joe. “Good bunch of kids, this, Bill. Are they the ones you’ve gone adventuring with before?”
“They are,” said Bill. “You can’t keep them out of adventures, you know. And they will drag me into them too!”
They left the lagoon with its sinister secret behind them and flew to the island where Bill had been a prisoner. “There’s the little jetty,” said Jack, as they flew low. “And look, there are two motor-boats there now! I say, Bill — what about Horace?”
“Horace will be rescued when we clean up these scoundrels,” said Bill. “They’re the men who make fortunes when one country goes to war with another, or when civil war is fought — because they get the guns and sell them to each side. We try to stop it by all kinds of international treaties — but these men are against the law, and scorn it. That’s where I come in — to stop them!”
“How will you stop them now?” asked Jack. “Will you raid the island — and capture the men? And destroy all the hidden guns? Suppose they escape by motor-boat or plane?”
“Don’t you worry about that,” said Joe, with his wide grin stretching across his brown face. “We’ve got messages through already. There’ll be a fleet of our seaplanes up here in a few hours — and armed boats patrolling all round. There’s no hope for any of the gang now.”
Except for the little jetty, which would hardly have been noticed if the children and Bill hadn’t known it was there, there was nothing to see on the enemy’s island at all.
“Everything well camouflaged,” said Bill. “A clever lot, and I’ve been after them for a long time. They sent me off on all kinds of false trails and I’d almost given up hope of finding their lair. But there it is.”
“They must have been surprised to see you up here, Bill!” said Lucy-Ann, as the seaplane left the enemy’s island behind.
“Oh, look — there’s the island where we landed with Bill!” cried Dinah. “Puffin Island! Do look! There’s the bird-cliff — and you can just see the little narrow channel going into the cliff — only you have to look hard to see it. And there’s where we had our signal fire.”
“And there’s where we had our tents that blew away in the storm — by those few trees,” said Jack. “And look, there’s the puffin colony!”
The seaplane flew down as low as it dared. It flew low enough for the children to see a moving mass of birds, scared of the enormous noise made by the seaplane’s powerful engines.
“I can see Huffin and Puffin!” cried Lucy-Ann. The others roared with laughter.
“You can’t, fibber!” said Dinah.
“No, I can’t really. I’m pretending to,” said Lucy-Ann. “I want them to be there always. I want them to have their own burrow, and a nest — and an egg! I want them to have a lovely baby puffin that would be tame too. Goodbye, dear Huffin and Puffin! We did so love having you for pets.”
THE END