12
a treat – and a surprise for joe
bill smugs proved to be a fine friend. he was a jolly fellow, always readyfor a joke, patient with kiki, and even more patient with philip’s ever?changing collection of strange pets. he did not even say anything whenphilip’s latest possession, an extra large spider, ran up the leg of his shorts.
he merely put his hand up, took hold of the wriggling spider, and depositedit on philip’s knee.
dinah, of course, was nearly in hysterics, but mercifully the spiderdecided that captivity was boring, ran into a rock crevice and disappeared.
the children visited bill smugs nearly every day. they went fishing inhis boat and brought home marvellous catches that made joe’s mouth fallopen in amazement. bill showed them how to sail the boat too, and soon thefour children could manage it perfectly well themselves. it was great funsailing about in a good strong breeze.
‘almost as fast as a motor-boat,’ said philip in glee. ‘bill, i am glad wefound you.’
to jack’s disappointment bill smugs did not seem to want to talkendlessly about birds, nor did he want to go off with jack and watch thebirds on the cliffs or on the sea. he was quite willing to listen to jack ravingabout birds, though, and produced many fine new bird books for him, whichhe said jack could keep for himself.
‘but they’re new,’ protested jack. ‘look, the pages of this one haven’teven been cut – you’ve not read them yourself, sir. you read them first.’
‘no, you can have them,’ said bill smugs, lighting his cigarette. ‘there’sa bit about the great auk in one of them. i’m afraid we shall never find thatbird after all. no one has seen it for about a hundred years.’
‘it might be on the isle of gloom – or on some equally deserted, desolateisland,’ said jack hopefully. ‘i do wish we could go there and see. i betthere would be thousands of frightfully tame birds there, sir.’
this eternal talk about birds always bored dinah. she changed thesubject.
‘you should have seen joe’s face when we brought in our catch of fishyesterday,’ she said, with a grin. ‘he said, “you never caught those from therocks. you’ve been out in a boat”.’
‘you didn’t tell him you had?’ said bill smugs at once. dinah shook herhead.
‘no,’ she said. ‘he’d try to spoil our pleasure if he knew we used yourboat.’
‘do your uncle and aunt know you’ve met me?’ asked bill. dinah shookher head again.
‘why?’ she asked. ‘don’t you want them to know? what does it matterwhether they do or not?’
‘well,’ said bill smugs, scratching the bald top of his head. ‘i came hereto be alone – and to watch the birds – and i don’t want people coming roundspoiling things for me. i don’t mind you children, of course. you’re fun.’
bill smugs lived all alone in the tumbledown hut. he had a comfortablecar, which he kept under a tarpaulin at the top of the cliff, in as sheltered aplace as possible. he went into the nearest town to do his shoppingwhenever he wanted to. he had brought a mattress and other things to thehut, to make it as comfortable as he could.
the children were thrilled when they knew he had a car as well as a boat.
they begged him to take them out in it next time he went.
‘i want to buy a torch,’ said jack. ‘you remember that secret passage wetold you about, bill? well, it’s difficult to go up it carrying a candle – atorch would be much handier. i could buy one if you’d take me in your car.’
‘i’d like one too,’ said philip. ‘and, jack – you said you wanted somecamera film, because you’d left yours behind at mr roy’s. you can’t takephotographs of birds unless we get some. you could get that too.’
the girls wanted things as well, so bill smugs agreed to take them thenext day. they all crowded into the car in excitement the followingmorning.
‘joe’s going into the town as well today,’ said dinah, with a giggle. ‘itwould be funny if we saw him, wouldn’t it? he would get a surprise.’
bill smugs’ car was really a beauty. the boys, who knew about cars,examined it in delight.
‘it’s new,’ said jack. ‘this year’s, and a jolly fast one. bill, are you veryrich? this car must have cost a lot of money. you must be awfully well-off.’
‘not very,’ said bill, with a grin. ‘now – off we go.’
and off they went, cruising very swiftly, once they left the bad coast roadbehind. the car was well-sprung, and seemed to surge along.
‘golly, isn’t it different from aunt polly’s old car!’ said dinah, enjoyingherself. ‘it won’t take us any time to get to the town.’
they were very soon there. bill smugs parked the car, and then went offby himself, after arranging with the children to meet them for lunch at avery grand hotel.
‘i wonder where he’s gone,’ said jack, staring after him. ‘we might justas well have kept all together. i wanted to go to that stuffed animal shopwith him, and see some of the stuffed birds there.’
‘well, you could see he didn’t want us,’ said dinah, who wasdisappointed too. she was very fond of bill smugs now and had saved upsome money to buy him an ice cream. ‘i expect he has got business of hisown to do.’
‘what is his business?’ asked lucy-ann. ‘he must do something besidesbird-watching, i should think. not that he does much of that, now that heknows us.’
‘he never said what his work was,’ said jack. ‘anyway, why should he?
he’s not like us, always wanting to blurt out everything. grown-ups aredifferent. come on – let’s find a shop that sells torches.’
they found one that had extremely nice pocket torches, small and neat.
the beam was strong, and the boys could well imagine how the dark secretpassage would be lighted up, once they turned on their torches. they eachbought a torch.
‘now we needn’t light our bedroom candles at night,’ said dinah. ‘wecan use torches.’
they went to buy rolls of film to fit jack’s camera. they bought sweetsand biscuits, and a small bottle of strong-smelling scent for aunt polly.
‘now we’d better get some sunflower seeds for kiki,’ said jack. kikigave a squawk. she was on jack’s shoulder as usual, behaving very well foronce. every passer-by stared at her in surprise, of course, and the parrotenjoyed this very much. but, except for sternly telling a surprised errand-boy to stop whistling at once, kiki hardly said a word. she was pleasedwith the sunflower seeds, which she adored, and gobbled up a few in theshop.
the children looked in the shops for a time, waiting for one o’clock tocome, so that they might join bill smugs at the hotel. and then, quitesuddenly, they saw joe.
he was coming along the street in the old car, hooting at a womancrossing the road. the children clutched one another, wondering if he wouldsee them, half hoping that he would.
and he did. he caught sight of philip first, then saw jack with kiki onhis shoulder, and then the two girls behind. he was so overcome withamazement that he let the car swerve across the road, almost knockingdown a policeman.
‘here, you! what do you think you’re doing?’ yelled the policemanangrily. joe muttered an apology, and then looked for the children again.
‘don’t run away,’ said jack to the others. ‘he can’t chase us in the car.
just walk along and take no notice of him.’
so they walked down the street, talking together, pretending not to seejoe and taking no notice at all of his shouts.
joe simply could not believe his eyes. how did the children get here?
there was no bus, no train, no coach they could take. they had no bicycles.
it was too far for them to have walked there in the time. then how was itthey were here?
the man hurried to park his car, meaning to go after the children andquestion them. he parked it and jumped out. he ran after the four children,but at that moment they reached the very grand hotel where they hadarranged to meet bill smugs, and ran up the steps.
joe did not dare to follow the children into the grand hotel. he stood atthe bottom of the big flight of steps, looking after them in annoyed surprise.
it was astonishing enough to find them in the town – but even moreastonishing to find them disappearing into the most expensive hotel in theplace.
joe sat down at the bottom of the steps. he meant to wait till they cameout. then he would pack them into his car and take them home, and tellmiss polly where he’d found them. she wouldn’t be best pleased to hearthey were wasting hard-earned money at expensive hotels, when they couldeasily take a packet of sandwiches with them.
the children giggled as they ran up the steps. bill smugs was waiting forthem in the lounge. he showed them where to wash and comb their hair.
they all met together again in a few minutes and went into the restaurant tohave lunch.
it was a magnificent lunch. the children ate everything put in front ofthem, and finished up with the biggest ice creams they had ever seen.
‘oh, bill, that was grand,’ said dinah, sinking back into her comfortablechair with a sigh. ‘simply marvellous. a real treat. thanks awfully.’
‘i think you must be a millionaire,’ said lucy-ann, watching bill countout notes to the waiter in payment of the bill. ‘golly, i’ve eaten so muchthat i feel i really can’t get up and walk.’
jack remembered joe, and wondered if the man was watching for them.
he got up to see.
he peeped out of a window that looked on to the hotel’s main entrance.
he saw joe sitting patiently down at the bottom of the steps. jack went backto the others, grinning.
‘is there a back entrance to this hotel?’ he asked bill smugs. bill lookedsurprised.
‘yes,’ he said. ‘why?’
‘because joe is sitting outside the hotel entrance waiting for us,’ saidjack. bill nodded, understanding.
‘well, we’ll depart quietly by the back entrance,’ he said. ‘come on. it’stime we went, anyway. got all you wanted from the shops?’
‘yes,’ said the children, and trooped out after him. he led them to theback of the hotel, and out of a door there into a quiet street. he took them towhere he had parked his car, and they all got in, happy at having had such alovely day.
they sped back to the coast, and got out of the car at the nearest point tocraggy-tops. they hurried over the cliff, eager to get back before joe did.
he did not arrive until about an hour later, looking dour and grim. he putaway the car and went to the house. the first thing he saw was the group offour children playing down on the rocks. he stood and stared in angryastonishment.
there was a mystery somewhere. and joe meant to find out what it was.
he wasn’t going to be puzzled and defeated by four children. not he!
