The Adventurous Four. Страница 19

"Andy, what are you going to do now?" asked Jill, sipping her cocoa. "We've got plenty of food, luckily, because we buried it all in the sand at the top of the beach out there—but we can't get away, because our boat's gone and we've lost Tom. Have we got to stay here for the rest of our lives?"

"Don't be silly, Jill," said Andy. "Let's tackle one thing at a time, for goodness' sake. We've done the most important thing so far—hidden ourselves so well that we weren't found—and now we'll do the next most important thing—we'llrescue Tom! After that we'll think how to escape—but one thing at a time, please, and no worrying about what's going to happen. If we get worried, we'll get frightened, and nobody is any use when they're frightened. We've all got plenty of courage and we'll use it!"

Jill and Mary cheered up at Andy's brave words. "I would like to rescue poor Tom," said Jill. "He will be so lonely and upset. Where do you suppose he is?"

"In the cave where he left his camera, I expect," said Andy, pouring himself out another cup of cocoa. "And I'm pretty certain there'll be a guard somewhere at the entrance, for if there were not, Tom would soon escape—so we won't run into trouble—we'll see if there isn't tome other way of rescuing Tom."

"But how can there be?" asked Jill.

"I don't know yet," said Andy. "But I do know this—we thought it was impossible to bide safely on this bare little island—yet we did it! And so, though it sounds impossible to rescue Tom, there may.be a way if we think hard enough. So now—let's all think hard!"

Chapter 16

An Exciting Discovery

Nobody could think how to rescue Tom. After all, if there was someone guarding the cave-entrance, how could Andy possibly get in without being seen?

The boy gave it up after a time, and for a change he set the gramophone going. There was only one record that was not broken, and that was the one with the lullaby on one side and the nursery rhymes on the other. The girls listened, rather bored, for they had heard that record scores of times since they had come to the island.

"Turn it off, Andy," said Jill. "If I hear that voice crooning that lullaby any more I shall go to sleep!"

Andy switched off the gramophone and went to the doorway of the shack. He was not afraid of the men coming back again for he was sure they thought there was no one on this island, at any rate.

A thought came into Andy's bead. He went back to the girls.

"I think it would be a good thing if I crossed to the second island to-night, when it's dark," he said. "I might be able to get into touch with Tom somehow and hear what has happened, even if I can't rescue him."

"Oh, Andy—we shall be left all alone," said Mary in dismay.

"We don't mind that, if Andy can help Tom," said Jill. "We'll stay here in the hut, Andy, and try to sleep whilst you go. But do be careful, won't you?"

"I'll be careful," said Andy. "I don't want to be made a prisoner, too—but you needn't be afraid of that! No enemy can catch me!"

So that night, when he had only the starlight to guide him, for the moon was not up, Andy crossed the line of rocks to the second island. He went very cautiously, for he did not want a single sound to come to the ears of anyone on the cave-beach.

He waded through the shallow water to the sand at the nearer end of the beach. He stood there, listening—and not very far off, close against the cliff where the cave-entrance was, he heard a cough!

"Oho!" said Andy to himself. "Thanks for that cough, dear sentry! I now know exactly where you are. You are behind the big rock at the cave opening. Well. I shall not go near you!"

The boy stood quite still for a while, listening. The sentry most obligingly cleared his throat and coughed again very loudly. Andy grinned. He made his way carefully round the end of the cliff and then began to climb up, feeling his way cautiously. The cliff there was not very steep, and Andy was soon at the top. He had not made a single sound.

He found a little hollow where heather and gorse grew thickly. He crept under an overhanging piece of bush, piled the heather beneath him, and slept peacefully. He knew he could do nothing till morning came, and he could see where he was.

The sun rose and Andy awoke. He was stiff and he stretched himself and yawned. He was hungry, but there was nothing for him to eat but bilberries.

He wriggled carefully to the edge of the cliff and looked over. Almost below him was the sentry he had heard last night, behind a rock at the cave-entrance. As Andy looked down he saw a boat coming to the shore, and a man stepped off, and walked up the beach to change places with the sentry. They stood talking for a while and then the first sentry went to the boat, yawning, and the new one settled down to his task of waiting and watching.

Andy sat and thought. He wriggled back to a place where he imagined he must be exactly over the Round Cave. He wondered if Tom could hear him, if he drummed on the ground with his feet. After all, the boy could not be very far below, for the Round Cave was fairly high up in the cliff.

And then a most extraordinary thing happened—so startling that Andy's heart jumped almost out of his body!

A groan came from somewhere under his legs! Andy was lying on the heather, and when the groan came, he shot his legs up beneath him and stared at the place where the groan had come from as if he simply couldn't believe his eyes or ears!

A smaller groan sounded, more like a long yawn. Andy stared at the heather, and wondered if his ears could be right! Heather couldn't yawn or groan! Then what was it?

Very cautiously and gently, the boy turned himself about and began to feel in the heather. He pulled it to one side, and to his enormous astonishment he found a hole below the roots of the heather—a hole that must lead down to the Round Cave for Andy reckoned that he must be exactly over that cave.

Andy felt so excited that he began to tremble. "No wonder that cave didn't smell as musty and stuffy as we expected it to," he thought. "There is an air-hole leading right down to it! Golly! I wonder if there's any chance of rescuing Tom this way."

He pulled up the heather and examined the hole. The earth was dry and sandy. Andy scraped away hard, and found that it was quite easy to make it bigger. Just suppose he could make it big enough to get down—or for Tom to get up!

"I knew there'd be a way if we didn't give up hope!" thought the excited boy. "I just knew it!"

He crawled to the top of the cliff and looked over it. The sentry was there still, and he was busy eating his breakfast. He was all right for some time.

Andy crawled back to the hole. He scraped about a little more, and then lay down with his face in the hole. It seemed to go down and down into the darkness.

Andy spoke in a low voice. "Tom! Are you there?"

And was Tom there? Yes, he was! He had been in the Round Cave, alone and lonely, ever since he had been caught. It had seemed ages to him. The boy had worried dreadfully about the others. He had eaten a little of the food around him, but he had no appetite now. He was miserable and frightened, though he would not show this to any of the sentries who occasionally came up the rocky passage-way to see if he was all right.

The man who could speak English had come to see him the evening before.

"We have searched the first island and this one," he had told Tom. "We have found your shack—and we have found your friends, too!"

Tom's heart sank when he heard this. The man was really telling an untruth, hoping to trap Tom into saying something that would show him there were others to be found. But Tom said nothing.

"I tell you we have found your friends," said the man. "They fought hard but they have been captured."