The others laughed. “Mine did too,” said Lucy-Ann. “I’m glad I wasn’t sick. It was a waste of that nice strong paper bag, but I’m glad I felt all right.”
“We went hundreds of miles, I should think,” said Jack. “I felt a bit funny when we were over the sea. It looked so enormous and so flat. I shouldn’t like to fall out over that! What a splash!”
“I bet Mother will say we can go on a night flight with Bill,” said Dinah. “I could see in her face that she was going to say yes. If only we could! Bill said we could fly to his old home, land at dawn, and spend the rest of the night with him, sleeping all we liked in his two spare rooms — we needn’t get up till twelve if we didn’t want to. Fancy flying all night and going to bed at dawn!”
“Then we’d fly back in the afternoon, I suppose,” said Jack. “Gosh, I’m glad we’ve got Bill for a friend. I do think he’s an exciting sort of person. It’s thrilling, too, to know that he’s always on some sort of secret job, and never says a word about it — always snooping out some deadly secret. I wonder if he’s on any job now?”
“You bet he is!” said Philip. “That’s why he’s got this aeroplane. May have to take off at any moment after spies or somebody. Hope I’m with him when he does.”
“Well, you won’t be,” said Dinah. “Bill would never run us into danger.”
“I shouldn’t mind if he did,” said Philip. “Hallo, there’s the gong for supper! I’m jolly hungry.”
“That’s nothing new,” said Dinah. “Come on — let’s go and see what there is. Smells like bacon and eggs.”
They went to their supper. They were all hungry, and finished up the eggs and bacon and plum-cake in no time. Kiki helped herself to the plum-cake too, till Mrs. Mannering protested.
“Jack! Will you stop Kiki picking all the raisins out of that cake? Look at the mess she’s making! There won’t be any cake left soon. Smack her on her beak.”
“Naughty Kiki!” said Jack, and tapped her on her beak. “Don’t eat it all.”
“How many times have I told . . .” began Kiki, but Jack was too tired to talk to her.
“Don’t argue,” he said. “I’m so sleepy I’ll have to go to bed.”
Everyone felt the same — so off they went, and were soon asleep and dreaming of flying aeroplanes over the clouds, somersaulting and looping the loop in a most amazing but perfectly safe manner.
Chapter 2
BILL GETS HIS WAY
BILL came along to lunch the next day. He had a ruddy face, twinkling eyes and a rather bald head with plenty of hair at each side. The children rushed to meet him. Mrs. Mannering smiled at him.
“You gave the children a wonderful time yesterday,” she said. “And now I hear that you want to take them on a night flight. I can’t think why you want to bother yourself with a pack of children like these.”
“Ah — you never know when they’re going to embark on some wonderful adventure,” said Bill Smugs, grinning round at them. “I don’t want to be left out of it, you know. Besides, I feel sorry for you, Mrs. Mannering, having to put up with them for eight or nine weeks these summer holidays — I thought it would be a kind deed if I took them off your hands for a while.”
“Well, what do you want them to do?” asked Mrs. Mannering. “Just go for a night flight, spend the night at your old home and come back the next day?”
“That was the first idea I had,” said Bill. “But now I hear I’m due to have three or four days off — and I thought maybe you could spare the children for longer. We could fly to my old home, and then stay there and mess about a bit. There are heaps of wild birds for Jack to see, and I’ve no doubt that Philip will find plenty of even wilder animals. The girls will enjoy the change too.”
“Oh! It does sound good!” cried Jack, and the others agreed. Mrs. Mannering listened and thought for a moment.
“Yes — I don’t see why they shouldn’t go with you, Bill. I know you’ll look after them all right and see that they don’t get mixed up in any awful adventure again.”
“I can promise you that,” said Bill. “There are no adventures to be found anywhere near my old home. It’s a most peaceful, quiet place. Nothing doing at all.”
“Well, if you promise not to rush into danger or trouble, you can go,” said Mrs. Mannering to the delighted children. “When do you want them, Bill?”
“Tomorrow, if possible,” said Bill. “The job I am on seems to be hanging fire at the moment, so I might as well take my few days now.”
“What’s the job, Bill? Do, do tell us!” begged Lucy-Ann. Bill laughed.
“I couldn’t possibly tell,” he said. “All my work is secret, you know that. I’ll tell you all about the job when it’s over and done with, though. You’ll find it jolly interesting.”
“We’ll have to pack suitcases, won’t we?” said Dinah. “If we’re going to stay a few days, I mean. We may want a change of clothes — and macks.”
“Yes, bring jerseys and shorts to mess about in,” said Bill, “and macks too, because it always seems to rain at my home. And, Mrs. Mannering, could you spare a few rugs, as I may not have quite enough blankets for so many visitors?”
“Of course,” said Mrs. Mannering. “I’ll look some out for you.”
“I’ll bring my lovely camera,” said Jack. “There’ll be room for odds and ends like that in the plane, won’t there, Bill?”
“Plenty,” said Bill. “Bring your field-glasses too, because you may want to have a squint at the different birds in the hills around.”
“Oh, it will be exciting!” said Jack, his eyes shining at the thought. “I can’t wait till tomorrow. Let’s go today!”
“The plane’s not ready,” said Bill. “Got to have something done to her today. Anyway, my leave doesn’t start till tomorrow. You get everything packed and ready, and come to the aerodrome tomorrow night. Be there at eleven o’clock sharp. I’ll order a car to call for you and take you there.”
“What a time to start on a journey!” said Mrs. Mannering. “I don’t know that I altogether like it.”
“You can’t change your mind now, you can’t!” cried the children.
“No, I won’t,” said Mrs. Mannering. “But somehow I don’t feel very easy in my mind about it all. Oh, children, you won’t go and do anything dangerous, will you?”
“There’s nothing dangerous for them to do,” said Bill. “I’ll look after them all right. Anyone doing anything dangerous will be sent back to you, Mrs. Mannering.”
The children laughed. Then Jack’s face fell. “I say — what about Kiki? She won’t like me being away for some days. Can I take her with me? What about the plane — will she be all right in it?”
“You’d better put her into a basket or something,” said Bill. “She might get scared at the noise and fly off. She’ll be all right in a basket on your knee. We can’t leave her behind.”
“Right,” said Jack, pleased. “Do you hear that, Kiki, old bird? You’re to travel in a basket — and mind you behave yourself!”
“Wipe your feet,” said Kiki, “put the kettle on, kettle on! Poor, poor Polly!”
“Idiot!” said Jack, and scratched her poll. “All I hope is you don’t try to imitate the noise an aeroplane makes. Your express-train screech is bad enough.”
They all had a pleasant lunch and then Bill departed. The children went upstairs to put together their things. Dinah put a whole packet of chocolate into her case, in case there were no shops to buy any at Bill’s home. Jack stuffed a packet of biscuits into his case. He often woke up at night and liked a biscuit to nibble then.
“Better take plenty of films with you, Jack, if you’re thinking of photographing birds,” said Philip. “I bet there won’t be anywhere to buy them where Bill lives. It’s somewhere buried right down in the country.”
Mrs. Mannering came up to see what they were packing. It was a cold August, with rather a lot of fain, and the children would need a fair amount of warm things. They had put in pullovers and jerseys and macks and sou’westers. She added rubber boots too, thinking that shoes would not be of much use if they walked over wet fields.
“I’ve found you some rugs,” she said. “You can each take one. They are old, but very thick and warm, and as good as two blankets. If Bill hasn’t enough blankets for you it won’t matter at all — the rugs will give you plenty of warmth. Don’t forget to bring them back, now!”