The Adventurous Four - - Страница 15

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There were the rest of the little boats, still upturned. Nobody was about at all. As far as Andy could see, the stolen boat had not been missed. Good!

Andy let the rest of the children look down to the beach. Tom was pleased. "As long as our boat isn't missed we are all right," he said. "I should think the enemy feel they are so safe here that it just doesn't enter their heads that a boat might be taken. I don't believe they'll ever miss it."

"I hope you're right," said Andy. "But it doesn't do to think the enemy is careless or stupid. We must think they are smart and clever, and try to be the same ourselves. Now let's wriggle along to the next bit of cliff—and you girls can see the submarines. That will be a sight for you!"

Going very slowly and cautiously indeed the four of them made their way under bushes and bracken to the top of the next cliff. They all lay on their tummies and peeped between the tall bracken. The girls drew a long breath of surprise.

"Golly!" said Jill. "One—two—three—four—five-six—seven—however many submarines are there! And all of them marked with the crooked cross."

"An enemy submarine base so near our own land!" said Mary. "And nobody knows it!"

"Where's your camera, Tom?" whispered Andy, Tom had it round his shoulder. Carefully he took it out of its waterproof case and set it for taking distant pictures.

"It's got the seaplane on the first two negatives," said the boy in a low tone. "I'll fill up the rest of the film with photos of the submarines. The pictures can easily be made larger when we get home. Then nobody can disbelieve us, or say we made it all up!"

Click! went the camera. "One picture taken," said Tom. "I got in those two big submarines together, just over there."

Click! Click! Click! Click! Tom was as careful as he could be to take good photographs. Soon the whole film was used. "I'll wait till I get back to the hut and then in wind off the film in a dark comer," said the boy. "That's a spot of good work done!"

He put the camera back into its case and strapped it op. The four children lay and looked at the nest of submarines in the water below. Another came slipping in as they watched. Two slipped out.

"Gone to sink some more of our ships, I suppose," said Andy angrily. "If only I could stop them! But we will clean up the whole lot once we get the news back home. I guess we'll have a battleship or two sent out here."

"Where will it be safe to have something to eat?" asked Tom. "I do feel hungry."

"I wish I had a shilling for every time I've heard Tom say that," said Jill, with a giggle.

"Well, I only say what the rest of you are thinking!" said Tom. "I bet you're all hungry!"

They were! Andy found a little bracken dell not far from the top of the cliff. Here the bracken was taller than the children, and once they had settled themselves down below the tall fronds nobody could possibly see them either from above or passing by.

They ate a good meal and enjoyed it. They lay on their backs and looked between the fronds at the blue sky. It was marvellous that the weather was still so good. It would have been miserable if it had rained all the time.

"Now we'd better get back," said Andy.

"Oh, why?" asked Jill, lazily. "I was almost asleep."

"I'll tell you why!" said Andy. "Supposing that stolen boat is missed—well, the first place searched would be this island! And we'd be found. No—the best thing Tor us to do is to get back now, wait till the seaplane has left and then go straight to the store-cave and fill our boat with food. Then we'll start off to-night."

"All right. We'll come along now then," said Jill, getting up. They took one last peep at the submarine bay and another at the boat-cove. Then they made their way very cautiously back to the tiny beach where they had hidden their boat.

It was still there, beautifully draped with seaweed. Nobody had discovered it! The children dragged it down to the waves and jumped into it. Andy pushed it out.

They took turns at rowing. They were half-way round the second island, on the coast opposite to the one where the store-cave was, when a dreadful thing happened.

The seaplane chose that minute to leave the water by the. second island and to rise into the air, ready to fly off!

The children had no time to rush their boat into shore and hide. They were out on the sea, clearly to be seen!

"Crouch down flat in the boat, so that the pilot may perhaps think there's nobody in it," ordered Andy. They shipped the oars quickly and crouched down. The seaplane rose up high, and the children hardly dared to breathe. They did so hope it would fly off without noticing them.

But it suddenly altered its course and began to circle round, coming down lower. It flew down low enough to examine the boat, and then, rising high, flew over the third island, and then flew down to the submarine bay.

Andy sat up, his face rather pale under its brown.

"That's done it," he said. "They saw us! Now they'll count their boats—find there's one missing—and come to look for us!"

The children looked at one another in the greatest dismay. To think the seaplane should have flown over just at that very moment! It was too bad.

"Well, we can't sit here looking at one another," said Andy, in a brave voice. "We've got to do something quickly. But what? I can't seem to think!"

Nobody could think what to do. Andy longed desperately for some grown-up who could take command and tell him what would be the best thing to do. But there was no grown-up. This was something he had to decide himself—and he must decide well, because the two girls were in his care.

"We had better row straight round to the store-cave and fill the boat with food whilst we can," he said at last. "Then we'll start out straightaway and hope that the seaplane won't spot us out on the sea. It's the only thing to do."

It was a long row round to the cave, but they got there at last, quite tired out. There was nobody about. They beached the boat and jumped out. It was not long before they were in the Round Cave, carrying out stacks of tins and boxes to the boat.

"Golly! We've got enough food to last for weeks!" said Tom.

"We may need it!" said Andy. "Goodness knows how far it is back home. I've not much idea of the right direction either, but I shall do my best."

Tom staggered out to the boat with heaps of things. Andy looked at the pile of food at the end of the boat and nodded bis head.

"That's enough," he said. "We don't want to make the boat too heavy to row! Get in!"

They all got in. They rowed out beyond the reef of rocks where they had found a way in and then towards their own island. Andy wanted to get the rugs, for he was sure they would be bitterly cold at night.

"You girls jump out and go and fetch all the warm things you can find," said Andy. "And bring a cup or two and a knife, I've got a tin-opener."

The girls sped off to the shack in the hollow—and whilst they were gone the boys heard the sound they dreaded to hear—the noise of seaplane engines booming over the water!

"There it comes again!" said Andy angrily. "Always at the wrong moment. Lie down flat, Tom. I hope the girls will have the sense to do the same!"

The seaplane zoomed down low over the island, as if it were hunting for someone. Then it droned over the sea, and flew round in great circles. Andy lifted his head and watched it.

"You know what it's doing?" he said. "It's flying round hunting the sea for our boat—just as a hawk flies over fields hunting for mice! It's a good thing we didn't set out straightaway. I think now we'd better wait for the night to come—and then set out in the darkness. We should be seen as easily as anything if we try to go now."

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