The Secret Island (7 page)

“Good old Daisy!” whispered Mike. “She’s pretending to be a thunderstorm now, to frighten them away!”

Nora gave a squeal of laughter, and Jack punched her. “Be quiet,” he said. “Do you want us to be discovered just when everything is going so nicely?”

The trippers were getting into their boat. They pushed off. The children heard the sound of oars, and peeped out. They could see the boat, far down below, being rowed out on to the lake. A big wind sprang up and ruffled the water. The boat rocked to and fro.

“Hurry!” cried a woman’s voice. “We shall get caught in the storm. Oh! Oh! There’s one of those horrid bats again! I’ll never come to this nasty island any more!”

“I jolly well hope you won’t!” said Jack, pretending to wave goodbye.

The children watched the boat being rowed down the lake. The voices of the people came more and more faintly on the breeze. The last they heard was the gramophone being played once again. Then they saw and heard no more. The trippers were gone.

“Come on,” said Jack, standing up and stretching himself. “We’ve had a very narrow escape - but, thank goodness, no one saw us or our belongings.”

“Except that footprint and a bit of string,” said Mike.

“Yes,” said Jack, thoughtfully. “I hope that man called Eddie doesn’t read anywhere about four runaway children and think we might be here because of what he heard and found. We must be prepared for that, you know. We must make some plans to prevent being found if anyone comes again to look for us.”

A distant rumble of thunder was heard. Jack turned to the others. “Not Daisy mooing this time!” he grinned. “Come on, there’s a storm coming. We’ve plenty to do. I’ll go and get Daisy, to milk her. Nora and Mike, you catch the hens and take them back to the hen-yard - and Mike, make some sort of shelter for them with a couple of sacks over sticks, or something, so that they can hide there if they are frightened. Peggy, see if you can light the fire before the rain comes.”

“Ay, ay, Captain!” shouted the children joyfully, full of delight to think they had their island to themselves once more!

A Stormy Night in Willow House

There was certainly a thunderstorm coming. The sky was very black indeed, and it was getting dark. Nora and Mike caught the six hens in the little cave, bundled them gently into the sack, and raced off to the hen-yard with them. Mike stuck two or three willow sticks into the ground at one end of the hen-yard and draped the sack over them.

“There yau are, henny-pennies!” said Nora. “There is a nice little shelter for you!”

Plop! Plop! Plop! Enormous drops of rain fell down and the hens gave a frightened squawk. They did not like the rain. They scuttled under the sack at once and lay there quietly, giving each other little pecks now and again.

“Well, that settles the hens,” said Mike. “l wonder how Peggy is getting on with the fire.”

Peggy was not getting on at all well. The rain was now coming down fast, and she could not get the fire going. Jack arrived with Daisy the cow and shouted to Peggy:

“Never mind about the fire! Now that the rain’s coming down so fast you won’t be able to light it. Get into Willow House, all of you, before you get too wet.”

“The girls can go,” said Mike, running to help Jack. “I’ll get the things to help you milk. My goodness - we haven’t drunk all the milk yet that Daisy gave us this morning!”

“Put it into a dish and pop it in the hen-yard,” said Jack. “Maybe the hens will like it!”

In the pouring rain Jack milked Daisy the cow. Soon all the saucepans and the kettle and bowls were full! Really, thought Jack, he simply must get that old milking-pail that the girls had told him of at their Aunt’s farm. It was such a tiring business milking a cow like this.

When the milking was finished, Jack took Daisy back to her grassy field on the other side of the island. Mike went to Willow House where the two girls were. It was dark there, and the sound of rain drip-drip-dripping from the trees all around sounded rather miserable.

Mike and the two girls sat in the front part of Willow House and waited for Jack. Mike was very wet, and he shivered.

“Poor old Jack will be wet through, too,” he said. “Feel this milk, girls. It’s as warm as can be. Let’s drink some and it will warm us up. We can’t boil any, for we haven’t a fire.”

Jack came to Willow House dripping wet. But he was grinning away as usual. Nothing ever seemed to upset Jack.

“Hallo, hallo!” he said. “I’m as wet as a fish! Peggy, where did we put those clothes of mine that I brought to the island last night?”

“Oh yes!” cried Peggy, in delight. “Of course! You and Mike can change into those.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” said Mike. “Jack only brought three old vests, a shirt or two, and an overcoat.”

“Well, we can wear a vest each, and a shirt, and I’ll wear the overcoat, and you can wrap the old blanket I brought all round you!” said Jack.

The boys took off their wet clothes and changed into the dry ones. “I’ll hang your wet ones out to dry as soon as the rain stops,” said Peggy, squeezing the rain out of them.

“I can’t see a thing here,” said Mike, buttoning up his shirt all wrong.

“Well, light the lantern, silly,” said Jack. “What do you suppose the candles are for? Nora, find the lantern and light it. It may want a new candle inside. You know where you put the candles, don’t you? Over in that corner somewhere.”

Nora found the lantern. It did want a new candle inside. She found a box of matches and lighted the candle. Mike hung the lantern up on a nail he had put in the roof. It swung there, giving a dim but cheerful light to the little party huddled inside Willow House.

“This really feels like a house now,” said Nora, pleased. “I do like it. It’s very cosy. Not a drop of rain is coming through our roof or the walls.”

“And not a scrap of wind!” said Jack. “That shows how well we packed the walls with heather and bracken. Listen to the wind howling outside! We shouldn’t like to be out in that! What a good thing we’ve got Willow House to live in! Our outdoor bedroom wouldn’t be at all comfortable tonight!”

The thunderstorm broke overhead. The thunder crashed around as if someone were moving heavy furniture up in the sky.

“Hallo! Someone’s dropped a wardrobe, I should think!” said Jack, when an extra heavy crash came!

“And there goes a grand piano tumbling down the stairs!” said Mike, at another heavy rumble. Everyone laughed. Really, the thunderstorm did sound exactly like furniture being thrown about.

The lightning flashed brightly, lighting up the inside of Willow House. Nora was not sure that she liked it. She cuddled up to Mike. “I feel a bit frightened,” she said.

“Don’t be silly!” said Mike. “You’re as bad as those women trippers over the bats! There’s nothing to be frightened of. A storm is a grand thing. We’re perfectly safe here.”

“A storm is just a bit of weather being noisy!” laughed Jack. “Cheer up, Nora. We’re all right. You can think you’re lucky you’re not Daisy the cow. After all, we do know that a storm is only a storm, but she doesn’t.”

Crash! Rumble! Crash! The thunder roared away, and the children made a joke of it, inventing all kinds of furniture tumbling about the sky, as each crash came. The lightning flashed, and each time Jack said, “Thanks very much! The sky keeps striking matches, and the wind keeps blowing them out!”

Even Nora laughed, and soon she forgot to be frightened. The rain pelted down hard, and the only thing that worried Jack was whether or not a rivulet of rain might find its way into Willow House and run along the floor on which they were sitting. But all was well. No rain came in at all.

Gradually the storm died away, and only the pitter-patter of raindrops falling from the trees could be heard, a singing, liquid sound. The thunder went farther and farther away. The lightning flashed for the last time. The storm was over.

“Now we’ll have something to eat and a cup of milk to drink, and off to bed we’ll go,” said Jack. “We’ve had quite enough excitement for to-day! And Mike and I were so late last night that I’m sure he’s dropping with sleep. I know I am.”

Peggy got a small meal for them all, and they drank Daisy’s creamy milk. Then the girls went into the back room of Willow House and snuggled down on the warm heather there, and the boys lay down in the front room. In half a minute everyone was asleep!

Again Daisy the cow awoke them with her mooing. It was strange to wake up in Willow House instead of in their outdoor sleeping-place among the gorse, with the sky above them. The children blinked up at their green roof, for leaves were growing from the willow branches that were interlaced for a ceiling. It was dim inside Willow House. The door was shut, and there were no windows. Jack had thought it would be too difficult to make windows, and they might let in the wind and the rain too much. So Willow House was rather dark and a bit stuffy when the door was shut - but nobody minded that ! It really made it all the more exciting!

The children ran out of Willow House and looked around - all except Nora. She lay lazily on her back, looking up at the green ceiling, thinking how soft the heather was and how nice Willow House smelt. She was always the last out of bed!

“Nora, you won’t have time for a dip before breakfast if you don’t come now,” shouted Peggy. So Nora ran out, too. What a lovely morning it was! The thunderstorm had cleared away and left the world looking clean and newly washed. Even the pure blue sky seemed washed, too.

The lake was as blue as the sky. The trees still dripped a little with the heavy rain of the night before, and the grass and heather were damp to the foot.

“The world looks quite new,” said Mike. “Just as if it had been made this very morning! Come on - let’s have our dip!”

Splash! Into the lake they went. Mike and Jack could both swim. Jack swam like a fish. Peggy could swim a little way, and Nora hardly at all. Jack was teaching her, but she was a bit of a baby and would not get her feet off the sandy bed of the lake.

Peggy was first out of the water and went to get the breakfast - but when she looked round their little beach, she stood still in disgust!

“Look here, boys!” she cried. “Look, Nora! How those trippers have spoilt our beach!”

They all ran out of the cold water, and, rubbing themselves down with their two towels, they stared round at their little beach, which was always such a beautiful place, clean and shining with its silvery sand.

But now, what a difference! Orange-peel lay everywhere. Banana skins, brown, slippery, and soaked with rain, lay where they had been thrown. A tin that had once had canned pears in, and two cardboard cartons that had been full of cream, rolled about on the sand, empty. A newspaper, pulled into many pieces by the wind, blew here and there. An empty cigarette packet joined the mess.

The children felt really angry. The little beach was theirs and they loved it. They had been careful to keep it clean, tidy, and lovely, and had always put everything away after a meal. Now some horrid trippers had come there just for one meal and had left it looking like a rubbish-heap!

“And they were grown-up people, too!” said Jack, in disgust. “They ought to have known better. Why couldn’t they take their rubbish away with them?”

“People that leave rubbish about in beautiful places like this are just rubbishy people themselves!” cried Peggy fiercely, almost in tears. “Nice people never do it. I’d like to put those people into a big dust-bin with all their horrid rubbish on top of them - and wouldn’t I bang on the lid, too!”

The others laughed. It sounded so funny. But they were all angry about their beach being spoilt.

“I’ll clear up the mess and burn it,” said Mike.

“Wait a minute!” said Jack. “We might find some of the things useful.”

“What! Old banana skins and orange-peel!” cried Mike. “You’re not thinking of making a pudding or something of them, Jack!”

“No,” said Jack, with a grin, “but if we keep the tin and a carton and the empty cigarette packet in our cave-cupboard, we might put them out on the beach if anyone else ever comes - and then, if they happen to find the remains of our fire, or a bit of string or anything like that - why, they won’t think of looking for us - they’ll just think trippers have been here!”

“Good idea, Jack!” cried everyone.

“You really are good at thinking out clever things,” said Peggy, busy getting the fire going. Its crackling sounded very cheerful, for they were all hungry. Peggy put some milk on to boil. She meant to make cocoa for them all to drink.

Mike picked up the cigarette packet, the tin, and one of the cardboard cartons. He washed the carton and the tin in the lake, and then went to put the three things away in their little cave-cupboard. They might certainly come in useful some day!

Nora brought in five eggs for breakfast. Peggy fried them with two trout that Jack had caught on his useful lines. The smell was delicious!

“I say! Poor old Daisy must be milked!” said Jack, gobbling down his breakfast and drinking his hot cocoa.

Suddenly Nora gave a squeal and pointed behind him. Jack turned - and to his great astonishment he saw the cow walking towards him!

“You wouldn’t go to milk her in time so she has come to you!” laughed Peggy. “Good old Daisy! Fancy her knowing the way!”

Nora Gets into Trouble

There seemed quite a lot of jobs always waiting to be done each day on the island. Daisy had to be milked. The hens had to be seen to. The fishing-lines had to be baited and looked at two or three times a day. The fire had to be kept going. Meals had to be prepared and dishes washed up. Willow House had to be tidied up each day, for it was surprising how untidy it got when the four children were in it even for an hour.

“I’ll milk Daisy each morning and Mike can milk her in the evenings,” said Jack, as they sat eating their breakfast that morning. “Nora, you can look after the hens. It won’t only be your job to feed them and give them water and collect the eggs, but you’ll have to watch the fence round the hen-yard carefully to see that the hens don’t peck out the heather we’ve stuffed into the fence to stop up the holes. We don’t want to lose our hens!”

“What is Peggy going to do?” asked Nora.

“Peggy had better do the odd jobs,” said Jack. “She can look after the fire, think of meals and tidy up. I’ll see to my fishing-lines. And every now and again one or other of us had better go to the top of the hill to see if any more trippers are coming. Our plans worked quite well last time - but we were lucky enough to spot the boat coming. If we hadn’t seen it when we did, we would have been properly caught!”

“I’d better go and get the boat out from where I hid it under the overhanging bushes, hadn’t I?” said Mike, finishing his cocoa.

“No,” said Jack. “It would be a good thing to keep it always hidden there except when we need it. Now I’m off to milk Daisy!”

He went off, and the children heard the welcome sound of the creamy milk splashing into a saucepan, for they still had no milking-pail. Mike and Jack were determined to get one that night! It was so awkward to keep milking a cow into saucepans and kettles!

Peggy began to clear away and wash up the dishes. Nora wanted to help her, but Peggy said she had better go and feed the hens. So off she went, making the little clucking noise that the hens knew. They came rushing to her as she climbed over the fence of their little yard.

Nora scattered the seed for them, and they gobbled it up, scratching hard with their strong clawed feet to find any they had missed. Nora gave them some water, too. Then she took a look round the fence to see that it was all right.

It seemed all right. The little girl didn’t bother to look very hard, because she wanted to go off to the raspberry patch up on the hillside and see if there were any more wild raspberries ripe. If she had looked carefully, as she should have done, she would have noticed quite a big hole in the fence, where one of the hens had been pecking out the bracken and heather. But she didn’t notice. She picked up a basket Peggy had made of thin twigs, and set off.

“Are you going to find raspberries, Nora?” called Peggy.

“Yes!” shouted Nora.

“Well, bring back as many as you can, and we’ll have them for pudding at dinnertime with cream!” shouted Peggy. “Don’t eat them all yourself!”

“Come with me and help me!” cried Nora, not too pleased at the thought of having to pick raspberries for everyone.

“I’ve got to get some water from the spring,” called back Peggy; “and I want to do some mending.”

So Nora went alone. She found a patch of raspberries she hadn’t seen yesterday, and there were a great many ripe. The little girl ate dozens and then began to fill her basket with the sweet juicy fruit. She heard Jack taking Daisy the cow back to her grassy field on the other side of the island. She heard Mike whistling as he cut some willow stakes down in the thicket, ready for use if they were wanted. Everyone was busy and happy.

Nora sat down in the sun and leaned against a warm rock that jutted out from the hillside. She felt very happy indeed. The lake was as blue as a forget-me-not down below her. Nora lazed there in the sun until she heard Mike calling:

“Nora! Nora! Wherever are you! You’ve been hours!”

“Coming!” cried Nora, and she made her way through the raspberry canes, round the side of the hill through the heather and bracken, and down to the beach, where all the others were. Peggy had got the fire going well, and was cooking a rabbit that Jack had produced.

“Where are the raspberries?” asked Jack. “Oh, you’ve got a basketful! Good! Go and skim the cream off the milk in that bowl over there, Nora. Put it into a jug and bring it back. There will be plenty for all of us.”

Soon they were eating their dinner. Peggy was certainly a good little cook. But nicest of all were the sweet juicy raspberries with thick yellow cream poured all over them. How the children did enjoy them!

“The hens are very quiet to-day,” said Jack, finishing up the last of his cream. “I haven’t heard a single cluck since we’ve been having dinner!”

“I suppose they’re all right?” said Peggy.

“I’ll go and have a look,” said Mike. He put down his plate and went to the hen-yard. He looked here - and he looked there - he lifted up the sack that was stretched over one corner of the yard for shelter - but no hens were there!

“Are they all right?” called Jack.

Mike turned in dismay. “No!” he said. “They’re not here! They’ve gone!”

“Gone!” cried Jack, springing up in astonishment. “They can’t have gone! They must be there!”

“Well, they’re not,” said Mike. “They’ve completely vanished! Not even a cluck left!”

All the children ran to the hen-yard and gazed in amazement and fright at the empty space.

“Do you suppose someone has been here and taken them?” said Peggy.

“No,” said Jack sternly, “look here! This explains their disappearance!”

He pointed to a hole in the fence of the hen-yard. “See that hole! They’ve all escaped through there - and now goodness knows where they are!”

“Well, I never heard them go,” said Peggy. “I was the only one left here. They must have gone when I went to get water from the spring!”

“Then the hole must have been there when Nora fed the hens this morning,” said Jack. “Nora, what do you mean by doing your job as badly as that? Didn’t I tell you this morning that you were to look carefully round the fence each time the hens were fed to make sure it was safe? And now, the very first time, you let the hens escape! I’m ashamed of you!”

“Our precious hens!” said Peggy, in dismay.

“You might do your bit, Nora,” said Mike. “It’s too bad of you.”

Nora began to cry, but the others had no sympathy for her. It was too big a disappointment to lose their hens. They began to hunt round to see if by chance the hens were hidden anywhere near.

Nora cried more and more loudly, till Jack got really angry with her. “Stop that silly baby noise!” he said. “Can’t you help to look for the hens, too?”

“You’re not to talk to me like that!” wept Nora.

“I shall talk to you how I like,” said Jack. “I’m the captain here, and you’ve got to do as you’re told. If one of us is careless we all suffer, and I won’t have that! Stop crying, I tell you, and help to look for the hens.”

Nora started to hunt, but she didn’t stop crying. She felt so unhappy and ashamed and sad, and it was really dreadful to have all the others angry with her, and not speaking a word to her. Nora could hardly see to hunt for the hens.

“Well, they are nowhere about here!” said Jack, at last. “We’d better spread out and see if we can find them on the island somewhere. They may have wandered right to the other side. We’ll all separate and hunt in different places. Peggy, you go that way, and I’ll go over to Daisy’s part.”

The children separated and went different ways, calling to the hens loudly. Nora went where Jack had pointed. She called to the hens, too, but none came in answer. Wherever could they be?

What a hunt there was that afternoon for those vanished hens! It was really astonishing that not one could be found. Jack couldn’t understand it! They were nowhere on the hill. They were not even in the little cave where Jack had hidden them the day before, because he looked. They were not among the raspberry canes. They were not in Daisy’s field. They were not under the hedges. They were not anywhere at all, it seemed!

Nora grew more and more unhappy as the day passed. She felt that she really couldn’t face the others if the hens were not found. She made a hidey-hole in the tall bracken and crouched there, watching the others returning to the camp for supper. They had had no tea and were hungry and thirsty. So was Nora - but nothing would make her go and join the others!

No - she would rather stay where she was, all alone, than sit down with Mike, Jack, and Peggy while they were still so cross and upset.

“Well, the hens are gone!” said Mike, as he joined Jack going down the hill to the beach.

“It’s strange,” said Jack. “They can’t have flown off the island, surely!”

“It’s dreadful, I think,” said Peggy; “we did find their eggs so useful to eat.”

Nora sat alone in the bracken. She meant to sleep there for the night. She thought she would never, never be happy again.

The others sat down by the fire, whilst Peggy made some cocoa, and doled out a rice pudding she had made. They wondered where Nora was.

“She’ll be along soon, I expect,” said Peggy.

They ate their meal in silence - and then - then - oh, what a lovely sound came to their ears! Yes, it was “cluck, cluck, cluck!” And walking sedately down to the beach came all six hens! The children stared and stared and stared!

“Where have you been, you scamps?” cried Jack. “We’ve looked for you everywhere!”

“Cluckluck, cluckluck!” said the hens.

“You knew it was your meal-time, so you’ve come for it!” said Jack. “I say, you others! I wonder if we could let the hens go loose each day - oh no - we couldn’t - they’d lay their eggs away and we’d never be able to find them!”

“I’ll feed them,” said Peggy. She threw them some corn and they pecked it up eagerly. Then they let Mike and Jack lift them into their mended yard and they settled down happily, roosting on the perch made for them at one end.

“We’d better tell Nora,” said Jack. So they went up the hillside calling Nora. “Nora! Nora! Where are you?”

But Nora didn’t answer! She crouched lower in the bracken and hoped no one would find her. But Jack came upon her suddenly and shouted cheerfully, “Oh, there you are! The hens have all come back, Nora! They knew it was their meal-time, you see! Come and have your supper. We kept some for you.”

Nora went with him to the beach. Peggy kissed her and said, “Now don’t worry any more. It’s all right. We’ve got all the hens safely again.”

“Had I better see to the hens each day, do you think, instead of Nora?” Mike asked Jack. But Jack shook his head.

“No,” he said. “That’s Nora’s job - and you’ll see, she’ll do it spendidly now, won’t you, Nora?”

“Yes, I will, Jack,” said Nora, eating her rice pudding, and feeling much happier. “I do promise I will! I’m so sorry I was careless.”

“That’s all right,” said the other three together - and it was all right, for they were all kind-hearted and fond of one another.

“But what I’d like to know,” said Peggy, as she and Nora washed the dirty things, “is where did those hens manage to hide themselves so cleverly?”

The children soon knew - for when, in a little while, Mike went to fetch something from Willow House he saw three shining eggs in the heather there! He picked them up and ran back to the others.

“Those cunning hens walked into Willow House and hid there!” he cried, holding up the eggs.

“Well, well, well!” said Jack, in surprise. “And to think how we hunted all over the island - and those rascally hens were near by all the time!”