chapter 11 lucian in trouble

"hallo, lucian," said jack. "come in. have a sweet?""oh, thanks," said lucian, and sat himself down on the bed. he took a large piece of peanut-crunchout of the tin jack offered him. "i say — this is jolly good stuff.""like a game of deck-tennis?" asked philip.

"er — well — actually i only like playing with lucy-ann," said lucian, who was so very bad at thegame that even lucy-ann beat him hollow. "can't give you others much of a game, you know. i say— my uncle's been telling me about that bit of paper you showed him.""has he? what did he say?" said jack.

"well, he thinks it may be the genuine goods all right — but he can't tell without the other piece orpieces," said lucian, munching away. "oh, i say — look at that monkey. he's snaffled an enormouspiece of nut-crunch!"

"yes — almost as big as your bit!" said dinah, who noticed that lucian invariably took the largestpiece of cruch from the tin.

"oh, i say — did i really take a big bit?" said lucian. "have to watch myself! you never told meabout that bit of paper. why didn't you? i'd have liked to see it.""well — it isn't very important, is it?" said philip. "i mean — we never thought you'd be interested.""oh, but i am — like anything!" said lucian, crunching hard. micky was crunching too and kiki waswatching him balefully. she didn't like nut-crunch, but she couldn't bear to see micky enjoying his.

"you might tell me all about it, you really might. where you got it, and — er — everything.""didn't your uncle tell you where we got it?" asked dinah innocently. lucian looked surprised.

"gosh, no," he said. "did you tell him? well, why on earth did he ask me to find out?"he had given himself away properly. the others winked at one another. "well, perhaps we didn't tellhim," said jack solemnly. "did we, or didn't we?""didn't, did, didn't, did," remarked kiki, thinking it was time that someone took notice of her. butnobody did.

"it's a shame not to tell old lucian," said dinah, in a kind voice. lucian beamed.

"yes. after all, he's a friend of ours," said philip.

lucian was so overcome by this remark that he swallowed a bit of nut-crunch and choked. kikiimmediately had a choking fit too. she did that kind of thing remarkably well. jack thumped lucianon the back, whereupon micky actually went to kiki and thumped her too. the children roared withlaughter, but kiki was furious with micky and chased him all over the cabin.

"oh dear," said dinah, wiping tears of laughter away. "those creatures will be the death of me. now— what were we talking about?"

"about me being a friend of yours, and so you'd tell me about that bit of paper," said lucianpromptly. "oh — may i really have another bit of crunch? i say, thanks awfully."he took a bit, remembering not to take the largest there this time.

"oh yes," said jack. "we were saying it was a shame not to tell old lucian. well, old chap, ithappened to lucy-ann, actually. let's see . . . er . . .""she was standing on the deck, ready to feed the gulls that fly over from the islands," said jack.

lucian nodded. he had often seen lucy-ann feeding them.

"and suddenly a very large gull flew round her head, holding something in its beak," went on philip.

"that's right, isn't it, jack?"

"absolutely," said jack, with a solemn face.

"and lo and behold — when the gull came down for its bread, it dropped the paper at lucy-ann'sfeet!" said dinah. "what do you think of that, lucian? that's right, isn't it, jack?""oh, definitely," said jack, in a firm voice.

lucian stared. his rabbit-mouth dropped open. "oh, i say!" he said. "isn't that amazing. i mean to say— whoever would have thought of that?"

as the three of them had thought of it quite easily, they didn't answer. dinah felt a dreadful urge togiggle, and turned her face away. lucian seemed quite overcome with the story.

"i mean — honestly, it's like a fairy-tale or something, isn't it?" he said. "that gull dropping it atlucy-ann's feet."

the others agreed that it was exactly like a fairy-tale. "most extraordinary," said lucian, getting upand swallowing the last of his nut-crunch. "well, i must be off. thanks awfully for telling me all this.

oh, i say — what's happened to the bottle that the ship was in? you've got the ship without the bottlenow!"

"yes. micky and kiki broke it between them," said jack. "little wretches. still, it's a nice ship, anddoesn't need its bottle."

lucian went out. the others grinned at one another. what a leg his was to pull! poor old rabbit-mouth — he just asked for his leg to be well and truly pulled!

"i can just see him spouting that all out to his disbelieving uncle," said jack. "come on — if i don'tget up into the fresh air and have some exercise i shall expire. let's find lucy-ann and have a gameof quoits or something. it's too hot now for deck-tennis."they played games all the morning, and then went down to lunch, all feeling very hungry indeed. totheir surprise lucian didn't appear at lunch. they wondered if he was ill. mrs. mannering asked hisaunt about him.

"no — he's not ill — just a touch of the sun i think," said lucian's aunt. "he's lying down andkeeping quiet."

"i vote we go down to lucian's cabin and see if he's all right," said jack. "he's never minded the sunbefore."

down they went, and knocked quietly. there was no answer. jack turned the handle and went in.

lucian was lying on his bed, his face in the pillow.

"are you asleep, lucian?" said jack softly.

lucian turned over abruptly. "oh — it's you," he said. jack saw the boy's face was blotched and tear-stained.

"what's up?" he said. "i say, can the others come in? they're outside.""well — if they want to," said lucian, who obviously was not welcoming visitors, but didn't like tosay so. all four children were soon in the cabin. lucy-ann was distressed when she saw lucian'sblotched face.

"what's the matter?" she said. "is your sunstroke very bad?""it isn't sunstroke," said lucian, and, to the children's horror his eyes began to fill with tears. "it's mybeastly, horrible uncle!" he buried his face in the pillow again to hide his tears.

"what's he been up to?" said jack, not very sympathetically, because he thought it was too feeble forwords for a boy of lucian's age to behave like that.

"he called me all kinds of names," said lucian, sitting up again. "he — he called me a nit-wit — anda nincompoop . . ."

"poop!" said kiki. "nit-wit!"

"now don't you start," said poor lucian to the parrot. "he said i was a born idiot and a fool and . . .""but why?" asked lucy-ann, astonished.

"well, i told him how lucy-ann got that silly bit of paper," lucian told them. "you know — justhow you told me. i thought he'd be so pleased to think i'd found out what he wanted to know. but hewasn't."

"wasn't he? that was too bad," said philip, thinking that lucian deserved his scolding for runningstraight to his uncle with the fairy-tale they had made up — they had meant him to, of course, butwhat a tittle-tattler he was!

"i said to him, 'a gull brought the paper down to lucy-ann and laid it at her feet,' " related lucian, ina dramatic manner. "and uncle said 'what?' so i told him again,""and what did he say the next time?" asked jack, trying not to laugh.

"all the things i told you. he was very insulting and offensive," said lucian. "after all, he believedall the other things i told him. i can't think why he didn't believe that!""what other things did you tell him?" asked jack at once.

"oh, nothing much. he just wanted to know if i'd been shopping with any of you — and where —and all that. i told him i'd only been shopping with lucy-ann — and how we'd found that old ship ina bottle for her. and he said, 'ah — of course — the andra! the andra!' just like that. i tell you hewas most peculiar altogether."

the others listened to this in silence. mr. eppy had certainly pumped lucian to some purpose. heknew they had bought the ship and where — he remembered seeing the name when they asked himwhat it was — the andra. he was putting two and two together. probably he already guessed that theparchment had been found in the ship, because that ass lucian would be sure to have told him thatthe bottle was broken and the ship free of it.

"did you tell your uncle the bottle was broken, that the ship was in?" asked jack.

"er — yes, i think i did," said lucian. "i say — i haven't done anything wrong, have i? i mean —you don't mind my telling my uncle all this?""we didn't mind your telling him about the gull and the bit of paper in the least," said philiptruthfully. "i'm sorry your uncle is so disbelieving. it was wrong of him to call you names like that.""it was, wasn't it?" said lucian plaintively. "he's got no right to. he called you a few names too.""well, don't repeat them," said. jack. "you really ought to learn to respect people's confidences,lucian. i mean — it just isn't done to go round repeating to somebody else the things you've beentold, possibly in confidence."

"now you're angry with me too!" wailed lucian. jack got up in disgust. this kind of behaviour wastoo much for him altogether. he didn't even feel sorry for lucian for getting into trouble because of acock-and-bull story that they had made up specially for him. lucian just walked into trouble as fast ashe could!

the others got up too. only lucy-ann was troubled about lucian. still, even she was disgusted at histears and self-pity — really, he ought to pull himself together.

they went out without a word, leaving lucian feeling miserable, upset, angry — and very veryhungry!

"come to our cabin for a minute," said jack. "we ought to have a few words about all this. mr. eppyis putting two and two together a bit too fast. what an idiot lucian is! why did he have to blab aboutthat ship so much? we'd better put in a safe place, in case mr. eppy borrows it as he did ourparchment."

they went into the boys' cabin, and philip gave a cry that made them all jump. "look — he'sborrowed it already! it's gone!"