"Is she ready?" asked the girls eagerly.
"As ready as I can make her," said Andy. "Now you girls must go and get all the rugs, and Tom and I will get the food from where we buried it under the sand, at the top of our own beach by the shack. Well pile in everything we can, push her out into the water arid sail off! Golly, I never thought we"d be able to do thisl"
The four of them set off to fetch everything. They felt cheerful and excited. It might take them ages to get home-but at last they were going to leave these strange unknown islands safely, and take their secret with them!
The girls gathered up the rugs. The boys tied the tins and boxes together and staggered over the island with their heavy load, back to the boat again.
It was difficult climbing down the cliff so heavily-laden, but they managed it safely. The girls threw down the rugs on the deck, and the boys packed the food into the cabin. Now they could go!
"Wait a bit-we"ll take the old sail with us," said Andy. "I could rig it again, and it would help us."
He set off to get the sail-and then he suddenly stopped and looked down pn the beach. There, by his foot, lay something that greatly astonished him.
"What is it, Andy?" called Tom, seeing Andy"s-puzzled face.
"Look at this," said Andy, picking up a dry. clean match, that had already been struck.
"What about it? It"s only a match," said Tom.
"It"s a match that hasn"t very long been struck," said Andy. "And it is lying on sand that has been covered and uncovered by the tide since we"ve been working on the boat this morning. Well-has any of us struck a match and thrown it down? No-we haven"t! Then who has?"
"Oh, Andy-surely you are mistaken," said Jill, looking ready to cry. "n.o.body else has been here. We should have seen them."
"I"m wondering if anyone has been here whilst we were fetching the rugs and the food," said Andy, looking all round. "I don"t like it-and, oh golly-look at that set of footprints in the sand over there! They are not our footprints!"
The four children gazed at the set of large footprints. Whoever made them had been wearing nailed boots-and the children all wore rubber shoes.
The girls were frightened. Yes-someone had been on the. beach whilst they had left it to get rugs and food. But Who? And where was he?
"Well-let"s get the boat launched and hope to get away before we"re stopped," said Andy. "Come on-we"ll do without the sail."
They ran to the boat and took hold of the rope to drag it down to the sea-but even as they took hold of it, a loud voice shouted to them from round the corner of the cliff.
"Stop! Halt!"
The children stopped hauling the boat and stared round. They saw the enemy-four of them! One of them was the man who spoke English, and it was he "Who was shouting.
The children stared in fright at the four men, who came quickly over the beach. They spoke to one another in a foreign language. Then the first man spoke again.
"So! There are four of you-and all children! This is the boy who escaped-ah, you thought you were very clever, didn"t you!"
"I did, rather," said Tom boldly. He felt frightened-but he wasn"t going to show it! No-he was and these men shouldn"t think they could sc "You took your boat off the rocks, and thought you would escape safely, didn"t you?" said the man mockingly. "Well, you made a mistake. We shall now take the boat away-and you shall remain prisoners on this island for as long as we want you to! Take out the food and the blankets again. You will need those if you live here for months!"
The children sulkily took out all the food and rugs they had so cheerfully put into the boat. Tom was glad to see that neither Jill nor Mary cried. Good! That would show the enemy how brave British children could be!
"Now we are going," said the man who spoke English. He gave a rapid order to the other men, who ran off round the cliff and then reappeared in a small boat, bobbing on the waves. It was plain that they had landed round the cliff, watched the children, and then come to catch them.
Andy and the others had to watch the men drag their ship down to the sea and launch it. They had tied their little rowing-boat behind it, and now" waving mockingly to the children, they made their way over the water, round the cliff, and out of sight, rowing! Andy"s boat along swiftly.
The children watched them go, anger and despair in their hearts All their work for nothing! How they had battled with the sea that morning-how they had slaved to get that boat right! And now they had all been discovered, their boat had been taken, and they were real prisoners.
Andy shook his fist at the disappearing ship, with the small boat bobbing behind it.
"You think you can beat a Scots boy, but you can"t," he cried. "I"ll beat you yet! You and your submarines!"
Wearily the children gathered up the old rugs and all the food and made their way up the cliff, across the island and back to their shack They packed the food on the floor in a corner and threw the rugs on the beds.
Then they sat on the beds and looked at one another. Not till then did the girls begin to cry But cry they did, letting the tears run down their cheeks without trying to wipe them off. They were so tired and so disappointed.
Tears came into Tom"s eyes too, when he saw the two miserable girls. But he blinked them back, after one look at Andy"s lean brown face Andy"s blue eyes were like stones, and his mouth was stern and straight. Andy was not thinking of crying or grumbling. Andy was angry and fierce, and he sat in silence, looking straight before him, thinking hard.
"Andy-what are you thinking about?" asked Tom at last. "You look so stern. You"re not angry with us, are you?"
"No," said Andy. "We all did our best-and we"ve got to do our best again, I tell you, Tom, we"ve got to leave this island! Somehow, we"ve got to get away and tell our secret. No matter what happens to any of us we must try to get home and tell all we have seen! As long as the enemy remain hidden in these islands, able to come here whenever they need food or fuel, then just so long will our ships be sunk round about these seas."
"Oh Andy-it"s all very well to say things like that-but how con we get away now our boat"s gone?" said Jill, wiping her eyes.
"I"ll think of a way," said Andy. "Somehow, I"ll think of a way. I"m going out by myself now, to puzzle a way out of this fix. Don"t come with me. I want to be alone "
The boy slipped out of the shack. He climbed the cliff and sat in the heather by himself, his blue eyes fixed on the sky-line. How could he get home? How could he tell his secret? For two hours he sat there, puzzling and worried, so still that the gulls circled round his head and wondered if he were asleep.
And then Andy straightened himself and got up. He went down to the others, his eyes shining and his head up "I"ve thought of a way," he said proudly. "I"ve thought of a way at last!"
CHAPTER 20.
Andy Makes a Plan
TOM, Mary and Jill looked at Andy, excited.
"Do you really know a way of escape, even now that our ship has been taken?" asked Jill. "You are clever, Andy."
"Well, it"s no use us trying to take one of the enemy"s boats again, or to get our own ship back," said Andy. "And it"s no use putting up a signal to pa.s.sing ships, for two reasons-one is that I am perfectly certain no ship ever pa.s.ses near these islands, or they would have discovered the secret of the submarines before this-and the second reason is that I am jolly sure the enemy wouldn"t let us have a signal up anyhow!"
"Go on," said Tom, feeling sure Andy had got a very good idea coming.
"Well, my idea is-we"d better make a raft!" said Andy. "We can"t get a boat or make one-but we could make a rough kind of raft, and get a mast of some sort to rig a sail on. We"ve plenty of food to take with us-and you and I, Tom, could set off alone on it to try and jnake for home. I daren"t take the girls-they would be so cold on an open raft, and they would be safer here."
"Not take us!" cried Jill indignantly. "Of course you"ll take us! We won"t be left behind-will we. Mary?"
"Listen, Jill-you"re only ten years old and not very big," said Andy patiently. "If we take you it will make tilings much more difficult for Tom and for me. If we get home safely we can have you rescued at once-if we don"t get home you will at least be safe on the island."
The girls cried bitterly at this. They thought it was very unfair. They couldnH"know that Andy didn"t feel at all certain of ever getting home, and was very much afraid of the girls being washed overboard when big waves came. He and Tom were strong-and besides they were boys-but the girls would never be able to stand tossing about on a raft for days and days.
Andy was quite firm about it, and the girls dried "their eyes and listened to his plans. Tom wondered what the raft was to be made of.
"We shall have to pull our wooden hut to pieces and use the planks," said Andy. "Luckily we"ve got plenty of nails to use."
"But what shall we live in if we pull down the shack?" asked Jill in dismay.
"I"ve thought of that," said Andy. "You see, if we start pulling down the shack the enemy are bound to notice it and will guess what we are doing. Well-I thought we could make it look as if our hut had fallen down on us, and I could ask the enemy to give us a tent to live iivinstead. Then we could live in that, and quietly make our raft from the fallen-down shack!"
"That really is a "good idea," said Tom. "We get the two things we want-somewhere else to live-and wood to make a raft-and the enemy actually help us -without knowing it!"
"Yes," said Andy, grinning round at the other three. "We"d better wait a day or two, though, because the enemy are bound to watch us a bit at first, to see if we"ve any other ideas of escape. We won"t do anything suspicious at all for the next few days."
"All right," said the others, and they began to fee! excited again. They still felt terribly disappointed when they thought of how their precious boat had been taken from them-but never mind, perhaps their raft would be luckier.
So for the next few days the children just played about, bathing, fishing, paddling, and the enemy, who sent a man over every day at noon, saw nothing to make him think that the children had any plans at all.
"I think there"s going to be a storm," said Andy, on the third evening. "That would be a good reason for our shack to fall down, I think! As soon as that man has come and gone to-day we"ll turn the shack into a ruin!"
The man came, looked round the island and went. As soon as he had gone the children set about the hut. Andy removed nails and took out planks. He hammered part of the roof away and made a big hole. He made one side of the hut so weak that it fell in on top of the girls" bed.
"Doesn"t it look a ruin now!" said Jill, with a giggle. "We"d better spread the sail over that side of the hut, Andy, or the rain will come in to-night."
"Yes, we"ll do that," said Andy. S,o when they had done all they could to make the hut look as if it was falling to pieces, they draped the sail over the open side for protection, and then grinned at one another.
"And to-morrow we will act a nice little play for the enemy!" said Andy with a chuckle. "We will pretend that in the storm"which we can now hear rumbling round, our hut was blown in-and we will bandage up Jill"s head as if the hut fell on top of her-and bandage my leg too. And we"ll beg for a tent most humbly!"
"I hope I shan"t giggle," said Mary.
"If you do you"ll deserve a good slapping," began Andy fiercely-but Mary spoke hastily once more.
"I didn"t mean it, Andy. I shan"t giggle. I shall be frightened, really, though I won"t show it."
"All right," said Andy, calming down. "Golly! What a loud clap of thunder!"
The storm began properly then. It was not a very bad one, but the children were glad of the protection of the big sail over the open side of the hut. The wind blew fiercely, and Andy and Tom had to weight the sail down to prevent it from being -blown away. The thunder rumbled and crashed and the lightning flickered round the islands. In an hour"s time, however, the storm was gone, and the wind died down again.
In the morning the children took the sail and hid it safely, for Andy did not want the enemy to know he had an old sail. They made the shack look as if the wind had almost blown it down, and Jill broke a plate and threw the pieces about as if the storm had caused the accident.
"Now I"ll tie up Jill"s head in my big handkerchief," said Andy, taking out a rather dirty hanky. "And I"ll use a rag to tie my leg up with. Well pretend we got hurt in the night."
When the man came to look at the children and go over the island as usual, he was surprised to find Jill bandaged up, and Andy limping.
Andy hailed him. "Hie! Our shack has fallen down! Come and see!"
The man went to look. He could not speak English, but he understood at once that the shack had fallen down on the children during the storm. Jill sat on the ground, pretending to cry, holding her head in her hand. Mary was trying to comfort her.
"We want a tent to sleep in," said Andy. The man did not understand. Tom took out his notebook and drew a tent in it. Then the man understood. He nodded his head, said something that sounded like "Yah, yah!" to the children, and set off in his boat.
"Don"t cry too much, Jill, or the man will want to see your wound!" said Andy. "I was awfully afraid he would take off the bandage and have a look to see how much your head was hurt."
"Gracious!" said Jill, in alarm. "I didn"t think of that!"
"I hope he comes back with a tent," said Tom. "You"d better go up the cliff," Jill, and sit on the top, so that if the man comes back he won"t ask to see your head."
Jill and Mary went off. Tom and Andy waited for the man to return. He came back in about three hours-and he brought a tent! The boys were pleased.
The man looked round for the girls. He touched his head, and looked at Andy. He was trying to say he wanted to see the girl with the bandaged head. Andy nodded and pointed to the top of the cliff. "She"s ail right now," he said. The man saw the girls sitting up on the cliff and seemed satisfied. He put the tent down on the beach, showed Andy the ropes and pegs with it and went off again in his boat.
"Good!" said Andy. "We"ll put this tent up in a sheltered place in the next cove. We don"t want tke man visiting this hollow too often, or he may notice that the shack is gradually disappearing!"
They put up the tent in the next cove, just around the cliff, in as sheltered a place as possible at the end of the beach where heather grew thickly, and big cushions of thrift were soft and plentiful. They maae themselves beds of heather and bracken and piled the rugs there.
The man came again next day and Andy showed him where they had put the tent. Andy limped about with the rag still on his leg, which made the others want to smile-but the man did not once guess that it was all pretence. As soon as he had gone Andy walked and ran just as usual!
The weather was not so good now. The sun was not so warm, and clouds sailed over the sky, bringing showers of rain at times. The children often had to sit in the tent, and they longed to begin making the raft.
"I don"t want to start it till I"m sure the man has forgotten about the tumble-down shack," said Andy. "Yesterday he brought his boat in to this beach instead of the next one, and hardly looked over the island at all. If he comes to "this cove to-day, we can begin the raft this afternoon."
The man came at noon as usual. This time he DTo-ugnt a large supply of food, and tried to make the children understand that he would not be back for a few days. He pointed to three fingers and shook his head.
"I think he means he won"t be back for three days," said Andy, his heart jumping for joy. He nodded to the man, who, instead, of looking over the island as he usually did, got straight back into his boat and rowed off.
"Well, if that isn"t a bit of tack!" said Andy joyfully, as soon as he had gone. "I"m sure he won"t be back for some days-and he"s brought us a marvellous Supply of food, that will just do beautifully for the raft I We can safely begin building it this afternoon!"
CHAPTER 21.
The Building of the Raft
THE four children tackled the shack that afternoon and tore out as many planks as they could.
"Pile them up in different sizes," ordered Andy. ""Come and help with this long plank, Tom-it"s too heavy for me to pull out alone."
By the end of that day the children had sixteen planks of different sizes piled up. Andy was pleased.
"If we can get as many as that to-morrow, we"ll be able to make a really fine raft," he said. "Tom, you are saving ail those long screws and nails, aren"t you? We shall need them soon."
"Yes-they"re all safe," said Tom, showing Andy a tin into which he had put all the screws and nails he had taken oat of the planks.
"Do you think we"d better hide these planks in case the man does come to-morrow, although we feel sure he won"t?" asked Jill.
"Well-perhaps we had better," said Andy, who was feeling tired and not at all eager to carry heavy planks about. So he and Tom took the planks one by one and tad mem in thick heather. Then they went to have a good meal; which the girls had been getting ready.
"I"ve never been so hungry in my life!" said Tom.