by Энид Блайтон
Voices came up from the room below. George and Jack stood perfectly still and listened. Mr. Diaz was speaking.
“At dawn to-morrow you will come with me, Paul - and we will leave Mike here for a few days, just to give him a lesson not to put his nose into things that don’t concern him! Anna will see to him, and set him free next week.”
“Where are you taking Paul?” asked Mike’s voice.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” said Mr. Diaz in a mocking voice.
“Yes, I would,” said Mike. “You’ve no right to make any boy a prisoner, Mr. Diaz, and you’ll get punished soon.”
“Be careful I don’t punish you first, you impudent boy!” said Mr. Diaz angrily. “Now go to bed, both of you - but you, Paul, must not get undressed, for you must be ready to come with me when I fetch you at dawn.”
There was the sound of a door closing. George and Jack heard a key being turned and bolts being shot into their place. Then they heard footsteps going down the winding stone staircase.
“Wait a few minutes in case he comes back,” whispered George, as he felt Jack move forward. They waited. They heard Mike comforting poor Paul. Jack felt furiously angry with Mr. Diaz. If only he could have him well punished!
“Now,” whispered George. The two squeezed themselves through the narrow opening into the chimney. Below were rough steps. They felt for them with their feet.
Mike and Paul heard the noise and looked at one another in surprise.
“What’s that noise, Mike?” asked Paul.
“A bird in the chimney perhaps,” said Mike.
“Yes!” came Jack’s voice. “It’s a jack-daw, Mike! It’s Jack!”
Paul got such a shock that he sat down suddenly on a chair that wasn’t there. Mike got a shock too, but a very unpleasant one. He ran to the chimney and peered up - only to get a mass of soot in his face!
“Jack! Jack! How in the world did you get there?” asked Mike, in the greatest amazement and surprise. “Are the girls with you?”
“No. Only George,” said Jack, jumping lightly down and stooping to get out of the hearth. “Come on, George.”
Prince Paul picked himself up and stared in surprise at the two black-faced people coming from the chimney. Then he solemnly bowed to them and shook hands.
“We’ll tell all there is to tell later on,” said George. “There’s no time to lose now. Dawn comes in a few hours and Mr. Diaz will be back to take Paul with him, so we have only that time to get you away safely. Come along back with us now - this hidden way that we have found leads back to Peep-Hole.”
“The girls and Dimmy are waiting with lots of food in George’s boat,” Jack said excitedly to Mike. “We’re going to the secret island, Mike. Think of it!”
Paul knew all about the secret island, for Mike had told him about it whilst the two had been prisoners together. His pale little face lighted up with joy. He took Mike’s arm and squeezed it.
“Let’s go quickly,” he begged. So George took Paul, and Mike followed Jack, and they all disappeared up the chimney, leaving behind on the floor a great mass of soot.
Down the iron ladder they climbed, Paul a bit afraid for he was not used to adventures of this sort. Then along the hidden way they went in single file.
But suddenly George, who was leading, stopped in dismay. The others bumped into him.
“What’s up, George?” asked Jack.
“Just what I feared!” groaned George. “The roof’s fallen in again - and it’s a bad fall this time. We’ll never clear it! We’re trapped!”
Jack pressed by George and looked at the fall of earth and stones in silence. It was true. It was a very bad fall - now what were they to do?
An Exciting Time
“Goodness, George! Whatever shall we do now?” said Jack anxiously. “We can never clear that fall - it looks as if the roof has fallen in for yards! We can’t go back to the Old House - we’d just be walking into danger!”
George rubbed his chin and thought hard. They couldn’t go forward - they couldn’t go back - and certainly they couldn’t stay in the middle!
“Seems as if we’d better go and have a look at that other blocked-up passage,” said George at last. “You know - the one that branches off this one to join the secret way between the shore-cave and the cellars of the Old House.”
“Right,” said Jack. “The block there may not be so bad as it looks. It’s our only chance anyway.”
They all went to the place where the passage branched off. They squeezed down it till they came to the block. George pulled away some of the stones and tried to see how much of the passage was stopped up.
“I believe if the four of us could work at it we might clear it in time,” said George at last. “And I’ve got a good idea too - the block is mostly of stones and bits of rock. If I pick them up, pass them to Jack, and he passes them to Paul and Paul to Mike, Mike could pile them up behind him and make them look as if there has been a good old roof-fall there! So if Mr. Diaz does come along he’ll think it’s impossible to come this way. And we’ll be safely on the other side of the stones!”
“Good old George!” said Mike and Jack, who always loved a good idea. “Come on - we’ll start.”
“What do I do?” asked Paul, who was half-frightened, half-thrilled at being with the others. They told him what to do.
“You only just take hold of the stones I pass you,” said Jack, “and pass them behind to Mike.”
They set to work. George cleared away the stones, passing them to the others. Mike threw them behind him, and soon a great pile lay there, looking exactly as if they had fallen from the roof of the passage!
Soon George had cleared away quite a bit of the block. He shone his torch up and down it, and gave a cry of joy.
“I believe it’ll be all right, boys! I can see the passage beyond already. We’ll only need to clear a bit more, and we shall have a hole big enough to squeeze through.”
They worked and worked. Paul became tired and they had to let him have a rest. Two hours went by. George felt rather anxious. He did not want Mr. Diaz to discover that Paul and Mike had escaped before they had all got safely away in the boat.
At last there was a hole big enough to squeeze through. One by one they got through it, and then George did a funny thing.
He glanced up at the roof near the block and then, taking a big stone, he struck the roof hard. A shower of earth fell at once.
“George! What are you doing?” cried Jack.
“I’m just making a small roof-fall,” grinned George, his teeth flashing in the light of Jack’s torch. “If I can fill up the hole we’ve made in the block, we’ll be all right. We don’t want our dear friend Mr. Diaz to squeeze through the hole too!”
“Good idea,” said Jack. “Now hadn’t we better go on, George? It’s getting late.”
“Sh!” said George suddenly. Everyone stood perfectly quiet in the passage. “Switch off your torches,” whispered George. “I can hear something.”
They all switched off their torches. Sounds were coming near - voices - angry voices!
“Oh, do let’s go,” whispered Mike. But George shook his head in the darkness and whispered “No.”
“We don’t want them to hear us,” he said in a low tone. “They may guess where this leads to if they hear us, and go rushing off to the beach to find our boat. I think we’re safe enough if we keep quiet. Put your arm round Paul, Jack - he’s frightened, poor kid!”
They stood there in perfect silence. They heard Mr. Diaz and Luiz and someone else talking. They came to the roof-fall in the other passage and exclaimed about it.
“Look at that! They can’t have gone down that way!”
“It might have fallen after they had gone,” said the sleepy voice of Luiz. Then a sharper voice spoke loudly.
“This is disgraceful - to let the boy slip through your fingers like this! Are you sure there is no other way out of this passage?”
“There’s a branch off it so
mewhere here,” came Luiz’s voice. Footsteps came up to the blockage through which George and the others had managed to squeeze.
“There’s a great pile of stones here,” said Mr. Diaz, peering over the stones that the boys had piled up. “And another roof-fall or something beyond. They couldn’t possibly have got through that. No, it looks as if they escaped down that passage to Peep-Hole, and the roof fell after they had gone through. Well, our best course is to go back to the Old House and make a raid on Peep-Hole. The boys are sure to be there.”
The voices and the footsteps grew fainter. At last they could no longer be heard. Everybody sighed with relief.
“Now we can get on,” said George cheerfully. “I thought somehow they wouldn’t guess we’d gone this way - and anyway they don’t know that it leads down to the passage to the shore-cave. Come on!”
They stumbled down the secret passage and at last came to an opening in the ground at their feet. Jack shone his torch down.
“This is where our passage joins the shore-passage,” he cried in excitement. “We’ll have to jump down into it. No wonder we didn’t spot it when we used the shore-passage - we didn’t dream of looking for holes in the roof, did we?”
They all jumped down into the passage below. Then they made their way quickly to the cave, sliding down into it, holding safely to the rope that swung there to help them.
“I wonder if the girls are there in the boat all right,” said Mike.
The girls were there! They had been there for hours, anxiously waiting with Dimmy. They had not been able to imagine what could have happened to everyone!
They had talked at first, and then had watched and waited for the boys. But they hadn’t come. Then Nora had begun to worry.
“Oh dear! They ought to be here now. Whatever can have happened?”
“Perhaps Mr. Diaz or someone was in the room for ages with Mike and Paul,” said Peggy sensibly. “Jack and George couldn’t possibly rescue them if anyone was with the others.”
“That’s true,” said Dimmy. “Well, we must wait in patience. We can’t do anything else! Are you two warm enough?”
“I’m glad of my coat,” said Peggy. “It’s a funny thing, but excitement makes me feel rather cold!”
They waited for another hour. Now all of them were anxious and worried, though Dimmy tried not to show it. Then Nora gave a low cry.
“Look! I can see the light of a torch over there in the shore-cave! It must be them!”
It was! Jack, Mike, Paul, and George hurried across the sand in silence. They were tired and stiff now, but they knew that a long row awaited them! They were pleased that everything had at last gone well.
“Oh, Mike, dear Mike!” said Nora joyfully, so glad to have her brother back again that the tears fell down her cold cheeks. Mike hugged her and Peggy kissed kind old Dimmy, and got into the boat with the others. It was a good thing it was a big boat!
“I must say good-bye,” said Dimmy hurriedly. “Don’t push off yet, George - you’ve forgotten I’m not going with you!”
“Oh, Dimmy, I wish you were coming too,” said Peggy, sad to say good-bye to her, “I hope you’ll be all right. Anyway, George will be with you as soon as he rows the boat back from Longrigg.”
“Good-bye, dears,” whispered Dimmy. She got out of the boat. “Take care of yourselves. I’ll let you know as soon as we have found out about Prince Paul, and what we must do with him, Good luck!”
“Good luck!” whispered the children. George pushed off from the little wooden jetty. The boat floated out on the water. George bent to the oars and began to row away. Soon nothing could be seen of Dimmy at all - she had vanished into the darkness.
The boat went on and on over the dark, restless sea. Jack had found the second pair of oars and was rowing too, to help George. The children spoke to one another in whispers, because George said voices carried so far over the water.
“Well, we’ve rescued you, Paul!” said Jack. “You’re safe with us now! And I don’t somehow think that dear Mr. Diaz will be able to find you on our secret island! We’ll have a nice little holiday there for a few days - and oh, won’t it be lovely to be back there again, all by ourselves!”
“Lovely, lovely, lovely!” said the others, and began to dream about their island. Soon, soon, they would be there!
Off to the Secret Island
George rowed the boat silently over the calm sea towards the little fishing village of Longrigg. Jack helped him, and the children sat quietly in the boat until George said it was safe to talk.
“No one can hear you now,” he said. “So talk away!”
And then what a noise there was as Mike told the others all that had happened when he was a prisoner with Paul. And Paul joined in excitedly, telling how he had been captured in his own father’s palace and taken away to Cornwall over sea and land, in ships, aeroplanes, and cars. Poor Paul! He was really very glad to be with friends once more, for although he had not been very badly treated by Mr. Diaz and Luiz, he had been kept a close prisoner for some time.
Soon the moon came up and flooded the sea with its silvery light. The children could see one another’s faces as they talked, and every time the oars were lifted from the water silvery drops fell off the blades.
“There’s Longrigg!” said George, as they went round a cliff that jutted out into the sea. Everybody looked. The children had been to Longrigg before with George in his boat, but it looked different now in the moonlight - a huddle of silvery houses set in a cove between the cliffs.
“It’s like an enchanted village,” said Nora dreamily. “And I guess our secret island will look enchanted too, to-night, when we get there. Oh, I do feel so very excited when I think that we’re really going there again!”
The children began to talk of their adventure on the secret island the year before - how they had kept their own cow there and their own hens. How they had built their own house of willows, and had found caves in the hillside to live in during the winter. Paul listened, and longed to see the wonderful island!
They landed at Longrigg. George took them through the deserted village street to his brother’s garage, a tiny place at the top of the street. A man was there waiting for them.
“Hallo, Jim,” said George. “Here are the passengers for your trip. And mind, Jim, not a word to anyone about this. I’ll explain everything to you when you come to see me to-morrow. Till then, say nothing to anybody.”
“Right, George,” said Jim, who seemed very like his brother as he stood there, sturdy and straight in his dark overalls.
“Good-bye, George, and thanks for all your help,” said Jack, getting into the car with the others. “Have we got the food? Oh yes - it’s in the back. Good!”
“Good-bye,” said George. “I’m going back to Peep-Hole now in case Miss Dimity wants a bit of help. Stay on your secret island till you hear from us. You’ll all be quite safe there!”
The car started up and Jim set off up the cliff road. The children waved to George, and then the car turned a bend and was out of sight. They were on their way to Lake Wildwater - on their way to the island!
It was about forty miles away, and the car purred softly through the moonlit night. Paul was very sleepy and went sound asleep beside Peggy - but the others were too excited to sleep.
Jack watched the country flash by - five miles gone, ten, twenty, thirty, forty! They were almost there. Jim was to drive to where the children’s aunt and uncle had once lived, and then leave them. They could find their way then to the lake, and get their boat, which was always ready.
“Here we are,” said Jim. The car stopped. Jim got out. “I’ll give you a hand with the food down to the boat.” he said. So the six of them carried the food to where the boat was locked up in a small boat-house. Captain Arnold, the children’s father, had built them a little house for their boat in case they wished to visit their secret island at any time. Mike had the key on his key-ring. He got it out and unlocked the boat-house. There lay the b
oat, dreaming of the water. The moon shone into the boat-house, and Jack was able to see quite well, as he undid the rope and pushed the boat from the house.
The food was put in. Everyone but Jim got into the boat. Jim said good-bye and good luck and strode back over the fields to his waiting car. The five children were alone!
Jack and Mike took the oars. Paul was wide awake now and was full of excitement, longing to see this wonderful secret island that he had heard so much about.
“It won’t be long now,” said Nora, her eyes shining happily in the moonlight. The oars made a pleasant splashing sound in the silvery waters, and the boat glided along smoothly.
On and on they went - and then, rounding a corner of the wooded bank of the lake, they came suddenly in sight of their island!
“Look! There it is, Paul!” cried Peggy. Paul looked. He saw a small island floating on the moonlit lake, with trees growing down to the water’s edge. It had a hill in the middle of it, and it looked a most beautiful and enchanting place.
“Our secret island,” said Nora softly, her eyes full of happy tears, for she had loved their island with all her heart, and had spent many, many happy days there along with the others the year before.
For a while the two boys leaned on their oars and looked silently at their island, remembering their adventures there. Then they rowed quickly again, longing to land on the little beach they knew so well.
“There’s our beach, with its silvery sand all glittering in the moonlight!” cried Nora. The boat slid towards it and grounded softly in the sand. Jack leapt out and pulled the boat in. One by one the children got out and stood on the little sloping beach.
“Welcome to our island, Paul,” said Peggy, putting her arm round the excited boy. “This is our very own. Our father bought it for us after our adventures here last year - but we didn’t think we’d visit it this summer! We left it last Christmas, when we were living in the hill-caves. They were so cosy!”
