chapter nine an exciting night
there was a silence, except for the waves splashing round the boat. then george's voice came outof the darkness, lifted joyfully.
"oh julian - do you really mean it? will you really come with me? i was afraid i'd get into trouble fordoing this, because father said i must stay at kirrin cottage till he came back - and you know how hehates disobedience. but i knew if i stayed there, you would too - and i didn't want you to bemiserable with those horrid sticks - so i thought i'd come away. i didn't think you'd come too,because of getting into trouble! i never even thought of asking you.""you're a very stupid person sometimes, aren't you, george?" said julian. "as if we'd care aboutgetting into trouble, so long as we were all together, sticking by one another! of course we'll comewith you - and i'll take all the responsibility for this escape, and tell your father it's my fault.""oh no you won't," said george, quickly. "i shall say it was my idea. if i do wrong, i'm not afraid toown up to it. you know that."
"well, we won't argue that now," said julian. "we shall have at least a week or ten days on kirrinisland to do all the arguing we want to. the thing is - let's get back now, wake up the others for a bit,and have a nice quiet talk in the dead of night about this plan of yours. i must say it's a very, verygood idea!"
george was overjoyed. "i feel as if i could hug you, julian," she said. "where are the oars? oh, herethey are! the boat's floated quite a long way out."she rowed strongly back to the shore. julian jumped out and pulled the boat up the beach, withgeorge's help. he shone his torch into the boat and gave an exclamation.
"you've quite a nice little store of things here," he said. "bread and ham and butter and stuff.
how did you manage to get them without old mr. stick seeing you tonight? i suppose you slippeddown and got them out of the larder?" "
"yes, i did," said george. "but there was no one in the kitchen tonight. perhaps mr. stick has gone tosleep upstairs. or maybe he has gone back to his ship. anyway, there was no one there when i creptdown, not even stinker."
40
"we'd better leave them here," said julian. "stuff them into that locker and shut down the lid. no onewill guess there's anything there. we'll have to bring down a lot more stuff if we're all going to liveon the island. golly, this is going to be fun!"the children made their way back to the house, feeling thrilled and excited. julian's wet dressing-gown flapped round his legs, and he pulled it up high to be out of the way. timothy gambolled round,not seeming at all surprised at the night's doings.
when they got back to the house they woke the other two, who listened in astonishment to what hadhappened that night. anne was so excited to think that they were all going to live on the island thatshe raised her voice in joy.
"oh! that's the loveliest thing that could happen! oh, i do think . . .""shut up!" said three furious voices in loud whispers. "you'll wake the sticks!""sorry!" whispered anne. "but oh - it's so terribly, awfully exciting."they began to discuss their plans. "if we go for a week or ten days, we must take plenty of stores,"said julian.
"the thing is - can we possibly find food enough for so long? even if we entirely empty the larder idoubt if that would be enough for a week or so. we all seem such hungry people, somehow.""julian," said george, suddenly remembering something, "i know what we'll do! mother has a store-cupboard in her room. she keeps dozens and dozens of tins of food there, in case we ever get snowedup in the winter, and can't go to the village. that has happened once or twice you know. and i knowwhere mother keeps the key! can't we open the cupboard and get out some tins?""of course!" said julian, delighted. "i know aunt fanny wouldn't mind. and anyway, we can make alist of what we take and replace them for her, if she does mind. it will be my birthday soon, and i amsure to get money then."
"where's the key?" whispered dick.
"let's go into mother's room, and i'll show you where she keeps it," said george. "i only hope shehasn't taken it with her."
but george's mother had felt far too ill when she left home to think of cupboard keys. georgefumbled at the back of a drawer in the dressing-table and brought out two or three keys tied 41together with thin string. she fitted first one and then another into a cupboard set in the wall. thesecond one opened the door.
julian shone his torch into the cupboard. it was filled with tins of food of all kinds, neatly arranged onthe shelves.
"golly!" said dick, his eyes gleaming. "soup - tins of meat - tins of fruit - tinned milk – sardines- tinned butter – biscuits - tinned vegetables! there's everything we want here!""yes," said julian, pleased. "it's fine. we'll take all we can carry. is there a sack or two anywhereabout, george, do you know?"
soon the tins were quietly packed into two sacks. the cupboard door was shut and locked again.
the children stole to their own rooms once more.
"well, that's the biggest problem solved - food," said julian. "we'll raid the larder too, and take whatbread there is - and cake. what about water, george? is there any on the island?""well, i suppose there is some in that old well," said george, thinking, "but as there's no bucket oranything, we can't get any. i was taking a big container of fresh water with me - but we'd better filltwo or three more now you are all coming! i know where there are some, quite clean and new."so they filled some containers with fresh water, and put them with the sacks, ready to take to theboat. it was so exciting doing all these things in the middle of the night! anne could hardly keep hervoice down to a whisper, and it was a wonder that timothy didn't bark, for he sensed the excitementof the others.
there was a tin of cakes in the larder, freshly made, so those were added to the heap that was formingin the front garden. there was a large joint of meat too, and george wrapped it in a cloth and put thatwith the heap, telling timmy in a fierce voice that if he so much as sniffed at it she would leave himbehind!
"i've got my little stove for boiling water on, or heating up anything," whispered george. "it's in theboat. that's what i bought the methylated spirit for, of course. you didn't guess, did you?
and the matches for lighting it. i say - what about candles? we can't use our torches all the time, thebatteries would soon run out."
they found a pound of candles in the kitchen cupboard, a kettle, a saucepan, some old knives andforks and spoons, and a good many other things they thought they might possibly want. they 42also came across some small bottles of ginger-beer, evidently stored for their own use by the sticks.
"all bought out of my mother's money!" said george. "well, we'll take the ginger-beer too. it will benice to drink it on a hot day."
"where are we going to sleep at night?" said julian. "in that ruined part of the old castle, where thereis just one room with a roof left, and walls?""that's where i planned to sleep," said george. "i was going to make my bed of some of the heatherthat grows on the island, covered by a rug or two, which i've got down in the boat.""we'll take all the rugs we can find," said julian. "and some cushions for pillows. i say, isn't thissimply thrilling? i don't know when i've felt so excited. i feel like a prisoner escaping to freedom!
won't the sticks be amazed when they find us gone!""yes - we'll have to decide what to say to them," said george, rather soberly. "we don't want themsending people after us to the island, making us come back. i don't think they should know we'vegone there."
"we'll discuss that later," said dick. "the thing is to get everything to the boat while it's dark. it willsoon be dawn."
"how are we going to get all this down to george's boat?" said anne, looking at the enormous pile ofgoods by the light of her torch. "we'll never be able to carry them all!"certainly it looked a great pile. julian had an idea, as usual. "are there any barrows in the shed?"he asked george. "if we could pile the things into a couple of barrows, we could easily takeeverything in one journey. we could wheel the barrows along on the sandy side of the road so thatwe don't make any noise."
"oh, good idea!" said george, delighted. "i wish i'd thought of that before. i had to make about fivejourneys to and from the boat when i took my own things. there are two barrows in the shed. we'llget them. one has a squeaky wheel, but we'll hope no one hears it."stinker heard the squeak, as he lay in a corner of mrs. stick's room. he pricked up his ears andgrowled softly. he did not dare to bark, for he was afraid of bringing timothy up. mrs. stick did nothear the growl. she slept soundly, not even stirring. she had no idea what was going on downstairs.
43
the things were all stowed into the boat. the children didn't like leaving them there unguarded.
in the end they decided to leave dick there, sleeping on the rugs. they stood thinking for a momentbefore they went back without dick.
"i do hope we've remembered all we shall want," said george, wrinkling up her forehead. "golly- i know! we haven't remembered a tin-opener - nor a thing to take off the tops of the ginger-beerbottles. they've got those little tin lids that have to be forced off by an opener.""we'll put those in our pockets when we get back to the house and find them," said julian. "iremember seeing some in the sideboard drawer. good-bye, dick. we'll be down very early to rowoff. we must get some bread at the baker's as soon as he opens, because we've got hardly any, andwe'll see if we can pick up a very large bone at the butcher's for timmy. george has got a bag ofbiscuits in the boat for him too."
the three of them set off back to the house with timmy, leaving dick curled up comfortably on therugs. he soon fell asleep again, his face upturned to the stars that would soon fade from the sky.
the others talked about what to tell the sticks. "i think we won't tell them anything," said julian, atlast. "i don't particularly want to tell them deliberate lies, and i'm certainly not going to tell them thetruth. i know what we'll do - there is a train that leaves the station about eight o'clock, which wouldbe the one we'd catch if we were going back to our own home. we'll find a timetable, leave it open onthe dining-room table, as if we'd been looking up a train, and then we'll all set off across the moor atthe back of the house, as if we were going to the station.""oh yes - then the sticks will think we've run away, and gone to catch the train back home," saidanne. "they will never guess we've gone to the island.""that's a good idea," said george, pleased. "but how shall we know when father and mother getback?"
"is there anyone you could leave a message with - somebody you could really trust?" asked julian.
george thought hard. "there's alf the fisher-boy," she said at last. "he used to look after tim for mewhen i wasn't allowed to have him in the house. i know he'd not give us away.""we'll call on alf before we go then," said julian. "now, let's look for that time-table and lay it openon the table at the right place."
44
they hunted for the time-table, found the right page, and underlined the train they hoped that thesticks would think they were catching. they found the tin and bottle openers, and put them into theirpockets. julian found two or three more boxes of matches too. he thought two would not last longenough.
by this time dawn had come and the house was being flooded with early sunshine. "i wonder if thebaker is open," said julian. "we might as well go and see. it's about six o'clock."they went to the baker. he was not open, but the new loaves had already been made. the baker wasoutside, sunning himself. he had baked his bread at night, ready to sell it new-made in the morning.
he grinned at the children.
"up early today," he said. "what, you want some of my loaves - how many? six! good gracious,whatever for?"
"to eat," said george, grinning. julian paid for six enormous loaves, and they went to the butcher's.
his shop was not open either, but the butcher himself was sweeping the path outside.
"could we buy a very big bone for timmy, please?" asked george. she got an enormous one, andtimmy looked at it longingly. such a bone would last him for days, he knew!
"now," said julian, as they set off to the boat, "we'll pack these things into the boat, then go back tothe house, and make a noise so that the sticks know we're there. then we'll set off across the moors,and hope the sticks will think we are making for the train."they woke dick, who was still sleeping peacefully in the boat, and packed in the bread and bone.
"take the boat into the next cove," said george. "can you do that? we shall be hidden there fromanyone on the beach then. the fishermen are all out in their boats, fishing. we shan't be seen, if weset off in about an hour's time. we'll be back by then."they went back to the house and made a noise as if they were just getting up. george whistled totimmy, and julian sang at the top of his voice. then, with a great banging of doors they set out downthe path and cut across the moors, in full sight of the kitchen window.
"hope the sticks won't notice dick isn't with us," said julian, seeing edgar staring out of the window.
"i expect they'll think he's gone ahead."they kept to the path until they came to a dip, where they were hidden from any watcher at kirrincottage. then they took another path that led them, unseen, to the cove where dick had taken theboat. he was there, waiting anxiously for them.
45
"ahoy there!" yelled julian, in excitement. "the adventure is about to begin."
