22

a talk with bill – and a shock

philip was filled with dismay. it had never occurred to him that bill mightnot be at home. how awful! philip sat down on a stool and tried to think –but he was tired out, and his brain wouldn’t seem to work.

‘what shall i do now? what shall i do now?’ he thought, and could notseem to think of anything else. ‘what shall i do now?’

it was dark in the little shack. philip sat on the stool, his hands hanginglimply between his legs. then he became aware of something at the back ofthe shack, and he turned to see what it was.

to his great amazement he saw a red light there, glowing deeply. then itdisappeared. then it came back again, went out, reappeared. it went ondoing this for a few minutes, whilst philip tried to think what it was, andwhy it seemed to be signalling. at last he got up and went over to the light.

it came from a small bulb beside the radio. philip had a look at it. hetwiddled one or two knobs. a morse code came from it when he twiddledanother. then by chance he saw, at the back of the set, a small telephonereceiver, smaller than any he had seen before – almost a pocket size, hethought.

he picked it up – and immediately he heard a voice crackling in thereceiver. he lifted it to his ear.

‘y2 calling,’ said the voice. ‘y2. y2 calling.’

philip listened in, astonished. he decided to speak to the voice.

‘hallo!’ he said. ‘who are you?’

there was a moment’s silence. evidently y2, whoever he might be, wassurprised. a cautious voice came over the phone again.

‘who is there?’

‘a boy called philip mannering,’ said philip. ‘i came to find bill smugs,but he isn’t here.’

‘who did you say?’ said the voice.

‘bill smugs. but he’s not here,’ repeated philip. ‘i say, who are you? doyou want me to leave a message for bill? i expect he’ll be back some time.’

‘how long has he been gone?’ asked y2.

‘don’t know,’ said philip. ‘wait – i can hear someone. here he comes, ido believe.’

joyfully the boy put down the tiny telephone receiver. he had heard thelow sound of whistling outside, and footsteps. it must be bill.

it was. he came in, shining his torch – and he was so surprised when hesaw philip there that he stood stock-still without saying a word.

‘oh, bill!’ said philip joyfully. ‘i’m so glad you’ve come. quick! –somebody wants you on the phone – y2 he says he is.’

‘did you speak to him?’ said bill, his voice sounding astonished. hepicked up the tiny phone and spoke curtly.

‘is that y2? l4 speaking.’

the voice evidently asked him who philip was.

‘boy that lives round here,’ said bill. ‘what’s the news, please?’

then all that was said by bill was ‘yes. of course. i’ll let you know.

thanks. no, nothing yet. goodbye.’

he turned to philip when he had finished talking. ‘look here, my boy,’

he said, ‘please understand that if you come paying calls here when i amout, you must on no account tamper with my possessions or meddle withmy affairs.’

bill had never spoken so sternly before, and philip’s heart sank. whatwould bill say when he knew that the children had guessed his secret? hewould think they had been meddling more than ever.

‘sorry, bill,’ he said awkwardly. ‘i didn’t mean to interfere at all.’

‘why have you come at this time of night?’ asked bill.

‘bill – is this your pencil?’ asked philip, taking it out. he hoped thatwhen bill saw it he would remember that he had dropped it down in thecopper mines, and would guess, without philip saying any more, that thechildren knew his secret. bill stared at the yellow pencil stub.

‘yes, that’s mine,’ he said. ‘but you didn’t come here at night to give meback my pencil. what have you come for?’

‘oh, bill – don’t be so cross,’ said poor philip. ‘you see – we know yoursecret. we know what you are doing here. we know why you go to theisland – we know everything.’

bill listened to all this as if he simply could not believe his ears. hestared at philip in the utmost amazement. his eyes grew narrow, and hismouth hardened into a thin line. for a moment he looked very frightening.

‘you are going to tell me exactly what you mean by all this,’ said bill, ina horrid sort of voice. ‘what is my secret? what is the “everything” thatyou know?’

‘well,’ said philip desperately, ‘we know that you and your friends aretrying to work the copper mines again – and we know that you are here,with your boat and your car, to provide them with food – and to take awayany copper they find. we know you’ve been down the mines, visiting themen there. we know you’ve given us a false name. but, please, bill, wewouldn’t dream of giving you away – we hope you’ll get lots of copper.’

bill listened, his eyes still narrow – but as philip went on talking, thetwinkle came back into them, and his mouth looked like bill’s again.

‘well, well, well – so you know all that,’ said bill. ‘and what else do youknow? how did you get to the island? not in my boat, i hope?’

‘oh no,’ said philip, relieved to see bill looking friendly again. ‘we tookjoe’s when he was out. we went right down into the mines too – that waswhere we found your pencil. but we don’t like your friends there, bill.

they took us prisoner – they’re horrid – and even when we mentioned yourname to them and said we were friends of yours, they said they didn’t knowit and wouldn’t let us go free.’

‘you told them you knew bill smugs?’ said bill. philip nodded.

‘what men did you see?’ asked bill. his voice had become sharp again,and he snapped out his questions in rather a frightening manner.

‘two – one call jake and one olly,’ said philip. bill made a note in hisnotebook. ‘what were they like?’ he asked sharply.

‘well – but you must know them,’ said philip in astonishment. ‘anyway,i couldn’t really see much – either it was dark – or the light dazzled me. ijust saw that jake was tall and dark, with a patch over one eye, that’s all.

but you must know what they are like yourself, bill.’

‘see anyone or anything else?’ asked bill.

philip shook his head. ‘no. we heard other miners at work, though – aterrific clattering, banging sort of noise, you know – they must have foundsome part of the mine that was still rich in copper. bill, are you findingmuch copper there? will it make you rich?’

‘look here, you didn’t come here tonight to tell me all this,’ said billsuddenly. ‘what did you come for?’

‘i came to say that although dinah and lucy-ann and i managed to fooljake and get away – we had to leave jack behind – with kiki,’ said philip.

‘and we are worried about him. you see, he might get lost for ever in thoseworkings under the sea – or those friends of yours might find him and ill?treat him because they are angry at our tricking them as we did.’

‘jack’s still there – on the island – in the mines!’ said bill, looking quiteshocked. ‘good heavens! this is serious. why didn’t you tell me that atfirst? my word, it looks as if everything’s going to be ruined by you kids.’

bill looked angry and upset. he went to his radio, fiddled about with theknobs, and then, to philip’s amazement, began to talk in short, sharp tones,in a language the boy did not know.

‘it’s a transmitter as well as receiving set,’ thought philip. ‘this is allvery mysterious. who is bill talking to now? have they all got a boss whois directing this copper mine affair? i suppose there’s very big money in it.

oh dear, i hope we haven’t really ruined things for them. what does billmean? how could we have spoilt anything? he’s only got to go over to theisland, see his friends, tell them to set jack free, and that would finish it. hemight know he can trust us not to split on him.’

bill turned round. ‘we must get the boat at once,’ he said. ‘come on.’

with their torches throwing beams of light before them they went downto where the boat was kept. bill began to push it out – and then he suddenlygave such a shout that philip’s heart nearly jumped out of his body.

‘who’s done that?’

bill shone his torch into the boat – and philip saw, with a shock ofdismay and fear, that someone had chopped viciously at the bottom of theboat – chopped so hard that there were holes there through which the waterwas even now pouring.

bill pulled her back on the beach again, his face very grim. ‘do youknow anything about that?’ he asked philip.

‘of course not,’ said the boy. ‘golly – who did it, bill? this is awful.’

‘well – the boat is no use at all till she’s repaired,’ said bill. ‘butsomehow we’ve got to get over to the isle of gloom. we’ll have to takejoe’s boat. come on. but mind – he mustn’t know a thing about it. there’stoo much known about everything already – and too many people nosingabout for my liking.’

they set off over the cliffs, poor philip so tired that he could hardly keepup with bill. they came to craggy-tops, climbed down the cliff path andmade their way to where joe’s boat was always tied.

but, to their intense surprise and despair, joe’s boat was not there. it wasgone.