chapter seventeen a shock for edgar

the children slept well that night, and as timothy did not growl at all, they were sure that nothingimportant could have happened. they had a fine breakfast of tongue, tinned peaches, bread andbutter, golden syrup and ginger-beer.

"that's the end of the ginger-beer, i'm afraid," said julian, regretfully. "i must say ginger-beer is agorgeous drink - seems to go with simply everything.""that was the nicest meal i've ever had," said anne. "it really was. we do have lovely meals onkirrin island. i wonder if the sticks are having nice meals too.""you bet they are!" said dick. "i expect they have ransacked aunt fanny's cupboards and taken thebest they can find."

"oh, the beasts!" said george, her eyes flashing. "i never thought of that - they may have robbed thehouse and taken all kinds of things."

"they probably have," said julian, and he frowned. "i say, i never thought of that, somehow.

how awful, george, if your mother came back, feeling ill and weak, and found half her belongingsgone!"

"oh dear!" said anne, dismayed. "george, wouldn't that be dreadful?""yes," said george, looking very angry. "i would believe anything of those sticks! if they have thecheek to come to our island and live here, they've the cheek to steal from my mother's house.

i wish we could find out."

they could have brought quite a lot of things away in their boat," said julian. "they must have comehere by boat. if they did bring stolen goods, they must have put them somewhere - down in thedungeons, i suppose."

"we might have a look round and see if we can spy anything, without the sticks seeing us,"suggested dick.

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"let's have a look round now," said george, who always liked doing things at once. "anne, you dothe washing up and tidy our cave-house for us, will you?"anne was torn between wanting to go with the others, and longing to play "house" again. she did solove arranging everything and making the beds and tidying up the cave. in the end she said she wouldstay and the others could go.

so up the rope they went. timothy stayed with anne, because they were afraid he might bark.

anne tied him up, and he whined a little, but did not make a terrible noise.

the other three lay flat on the cliff-top, looking down on the ruined castle. there seemed to be no oneabout, but, even as they watched, the three sticks appeared, apparently coming up from thedungeons. they seemed glad to be in the sunshine, and the children were not surprised, for thedungeons were so cold and dark.

the sticks looked all round. stinker kept close to mrs. stick, his tail well down.

"they're looking for the cows and sheep and horses they heard down in the dungeons last night!"whispered dick to julian.

the sticks spoke together for a minute or two, and then went off in the direction of the shore thatfaced the wreck. edgar went to the room in which the children had first planned to sleep - the onewhose roof had fallen in.

"i'm going to stalk the two sticks," whispered julian to the others. "you two see what edgar is up to."julian disappeared, keeping behind bushes as he watched where the sticks went, and followed them.

george and dick went cautiously and quietly over the cliff to the castle in the middle of the littleisland. they could hear edgar whistling. stinker was running about the courtyard of the castle.

edgar appeared out of the ruined room, carrying a pile of cushions, which had evidently been storedthere. george went red with rage and clutched dick's arm fiercely.

"mother's best cushions!" she whispered. "oh, the beasts!"dick felt angry too. it was quite plain that the sticks had helped themselves to anything handy whenthey had left kirrin cottage. he picked up a clod of earth, took careful aim, and flung it into the air. itfell between edgar and stinker, breaking into a shower of earth.

edgar dropped the cushions, and looked up into the air in fright. it was plain that he thoughtsomething had fallen from the sky. george picked up another clod, took aim, and flung it high 79into the air. it fell all over stinker, and the dog gave a yelp, and scuttled down the hole that led intothe dungeons.

edgar looked up into the sky and then all round and about him, his mouth wide open. what could behappening? dick waited until he was looking in the opposite direction, and then once more sent a bigclod into the air. it fell into bits and scattered itself all over the startled edgar.

then dick gave one of his realistic moos, exactly like a cow in pain, and edgar stood rooted to thespot, almost frightened out of his skin. those cows again! where were they?

dick mooed again, and edgar gave a yell, found his feet, and almost fell down the dungeon steps. hedisappeared with a dismal howl, leaving behind all the cushions on the ground.

"quick!" said dick, jumping to his feet. "he won't be back for a few minutes, anyhow. he'll be tooscared. let's grab the cushions and bring them here. i don't see why the sticks should use them downin those awful old dungeons."

the two children raced to the courtyard, picked up the cushions and raced back to their hiding-place.

dick looked across to the room where edgar had brought them from.

"what about slipping across there and seeing what else they've stored away?" he said. "i don't seewhy they should be allowed to have anything that isn't theirs.""i'll go across, and you keep watch by the dungeon entrance," said george. "you've only got to mooagain if you see edgar, and he'll run for miles.""right," said dick, with a grin, and went swiftly to the flight of steps that led underground to thedungeons. there was no sign of edgar at all, nor of stinker.

george went to the ruined room and gazed round in anger. yes, the sticks certainly had helpedthemselves to her mother's things, no doubt about that! there were blankets and silver and all kindsof food. mrs. stick must have gone into the big cupboard under the stairs and taken out variousthings stored there for weekly use.

george ran to dick. "there are heaps of our things!" she said, in a fierce whisper. "come and helpme to get them. we'll see if we can take them all before edgar appears, or the sticks come back."just as they were whispering together, they heard a low whistle. they looked round, and saw juliancoming along. he joined them.

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"the sticks have rowed off to the wreck," he said. "they've got an old boat somewhere down amongthose rocks. old pa stick must be a good sailor to be able to take the boat in and out of those awfulhidden rocks."

"oh, then we've got time to do what we want to do," said dick, pleased. he hurriedly told julian ofthe things george had seen in the ruined room.

"awful thieves!" said julian, indignantly. "they don't mean to go back to kirrin cottage, that's plain.

they've got some business on with the smugglers here - and when that is done they'll go off with alltheir stolen goods, join a ship somewhere, and get off scot-free.""no, they won't," said george at once. "we are going to get everything and take it to the cave!

dick's going to keep watch for edgar at the cave entrance, and you and i, julian, can quickly carrythe things away. we can drop them down the hole into the cave.""hurry then!" said julian. "we must do it before the sticks return, and i don't expect they'll be long.

they've probably gone to fetch the trunk and anything else in the wreck. you know i saw a light outto sea last night - maybe that's a signal that the smugglers were leaving something in the wreck forthe sticks to fetch."

george and julian ran to the ruined room, piled their arms with the goods there, and then ran to hidethem on the cliff, ready to take them to the hole when they had time. it looked as if the sticks had justtaken whatever was easiest to lay their hands on. they had even got the kitchen clock!

edgar did not appear at all, so dick had nothing to do but sit by the steps of the dungeon and watchthe others. after some time julian and george gave a sigh of relief and beckoned to dick.

he left his place and went to join them.

"we've got everything now," said julian. "i'm just going to the cliff-edge to see if the sticks arereturning yet. if they're not we'll all carry the things to the hole in the roof of the cave."he soon returned. "i can see their boat tied to the wreck," he said. "we're safe for some while yet.

come on, let's get the things to safety! this really is a bit of luck."they carried the things to the hole and called down it to anne. "anne! we've got tons of things to putdown the hole. stand by to catch!"

soon all kinds of things came down the hole into the cave! anne was most astonished. the silver andanything that might be hurt by a fall was first wrapped up in the blankets, and then let down by arope.

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"my goodness!" said anne. "this cave will really look like a house soon, when i have arranged allthese things too!"

just as they were finishing their job the children heard voices in the distance.

"the sticks are back!" said julian, and looked cautiously over the cliff-top. he was right. they hadreturned to their boat, and were even now on their way back to the castle, carrying the trunk from thewreck.

"let's follow them, and see what happens when they find everything gone," grinned julian.

"come on, everyone!"

they wriggled over the cliff on their tummies, and came to a clump of bushes behind which theycould hide and watch. the sticks put the trunk down, and looked round for edgar. but edgar wasnowhere to be seen.

"where's that boy?" said mrs. stick, impatiently. "he's had plenty of time to do everything.

edgar! edgar! edgar!"

mr. stick went to the ruined room and peeped inside. he came back to mrs. stick.

"he's taken everything down," he said. "he must be down in the dungeon. that room's quite empty.""i told him to come up and sit in the sun when he'd finished," said mrs. stick. "it isn't healthy downin them dungeons. edgar!"

this time edgar heard, and his head appeared, looking out of the entrance to the dungeon. he lookedextremely scared.

"come on up!" said mrs. stick. "you've got all the things down, and you'd better stay up here in thesunshine now."

"i'm scared," said edgar. "i'm not staying up here alone.""why not?" said mr. stick, astonished.

"it's those cows again!" said poor edgar. "hundreds of them, pa, all a- mooing round me, andthrowing things at me. they're dangerous animals, they are, and i'm not coming up here alone!"