Andy and the others had to watch the men drag their ship down to the sea and launch it. They had tied their little rowing-boat behind it, and now waving mockingly to the children, they made their way over the water, round the cliff, and out of sight, rowing! Andy's boat along swiftly.
The children watched them go, anger and despair in their hearts All their work for nothing! How they had battled with the sea that morning—how they had slaved to get that boat right! And now they had all been discovered, their boat had been taken, and they were real prisoners.
Andy shook his fist at the disappearing ship, with the small boat bobbing behind it.
"You think you can beat a Scots boy, but you can't," he cried. "I'll beat you yet! You and your submarines!"
Wearily the children gathered up the old rugs and all the food and made their way up the cliff, across the island and back to their shack They packed the food on the floor in a corner and threw the rugs on the beds.
Then they sat on the beds and looked at one another. Not till then did the girls begin to cry But cry they did, letting the tears run down their cheeks without trying to wipe them off. They were so tired and so disappointed.
Tears came into Tom's eyes too, when he saw the two miserable girls. But he blinked them back, after one look at Andy's lean brown face Andy's blue eyes were like stones, and his mouth was stern and straight. Andy was not thinking of crying or grumbling. Andy was angry and fierce, and he sat in silence, looking straight before him, thinking hard.
"Andy—what are you thinking about?" asked Tom at last. "You look so stern. You're not angry with us, are you?"
"No," said Andy. "We all did our best—and we've got to do our best again, I tell you, Tom, we've got to leave this island! Somehow, we've got to get away and tell our secret. No matter what happens to any of us we must try to get home and tell all we have seen! As long as the enemy remain hidden in these islands, able to come here whenever they need food or fuel, then just so long will our ships be sunk round about these seas."
"Oh Andy—it's all very well to say things like that—but how con we get away now our boat's gone?" said Jill, wiping her eyes.
"I'll think of a way," said Andy. "Somehow, I'll think of a way. I'm going out by myself now, to puzzle a way out of this fix. Don't come with me. I want to be alone»
The boy slipped out of the shack. He climbed the cliff and sat in the heather by himself, his blue eyes fixed on the sky-line. How could he get home? How could he tell his secret? For two hours he sat there, puzzling and worried, so still that the gulls circled round his head and wondered if he were asleep.
And then Andy straightened himself and got up. He went down to the others, his eyes shining and his head up "I've thought of a way," he said proudly. "I've thought of a way at last!"
Chapter 20
Andy Makes a Plan
Tom, Mary and Jill looked at Andy, excited.
"Do you really know a way of escape, even now that our ship has been taken?" asked Jill. "You are clever, Andy."
"Well, it's no use us trying to take one of the enemy's boats again, or to get our own ship back," said Andy. "And it's no use putting up a signal to passing ships, for two reasons—one is that I am perfectly certain no ship ever passes near these islands, or they would have discovered the secret of the submarines before this—and the second reason is that I am jolly sure the enemy wouldn't let us have a signal up anyhow!"
"Go on," said Tom, feeling sure Andy had got a very good idea coming.
"Well, my idea is—we'd better make a raft!" said Andy. "We can't get a boat or make one—but we could make a rough kind of raft, and get a mast of some sort to rig a sail on. We've plenty of food to take with us—and you and I, Tom, could set off alone on it to try and jnake for home. I daren't take the girls—they would be so cold on an open raft, and they would be safer here."
"Not take us!" cried Jill indignantly. "Of course you'll take us! We won't be left behind—will we. Mary?"
"Listen, Jill—you're only ten years old and not very big," said Andy patiently. "If we take you it will make tilings much more difficult for Tom and for me. If we get home safely we can have you rescued at once—if we don't get home you will at least be safe on the island."
The girls cried bitterly at this. They thought it was very unfair. They couldn't know that Andy didn't feel at all certain of ever getting home, and was very much afraid of the girls being washed overboard when big waves came. He and Tom were strong—and besides they were boys—but the girls would never be able to stand tossing about on a raft for days and days.
Andy was quite firm about it, and the girls dried their eyes and listened to his plans. Tom wondered what the raft was to be made of.
"We shall have to pull our wooden hut to pieces and use the planks," said Andy. "Luckily we've got plenty of nails to use."
"But what shall we live in if we pull down the shack?" asked Jill in dismay.
"I've thought of that," said Andy. "You see, if we start pulling down the shack the enemy are bound to notice it and will guess what we are doing. Well—I thought we could make it look as if our hut had fallen down on us, and I could ask the enemy to give us a tent to live iiv instead. Then we could live in that, and quietly make our raft from the fallen-down shack!"
"That really is a "good idea," said Tom. "We get the two things we want—somewhere else to live—and wood to make a raft—and the enemy actually help us — without knowing it!"
"Yes," said Andy, grinning round at the other three. "We'd better wait a day or two, though, because the enemy are bound to watch us a bit at first, to see if we've any other ideas of escape. We won't do anything suspicious at all for the next few days."
"All right," said the others, and they began to fee! excited again. They still felt terribly disappointed when they thought of how their precious boat had been taken from them—but never mind, perhaps their raft would be luckier.
So for the next few days the children just played about, bathing, fishing, paddling, and the enemy, who sent a man over every day at noon, saw nothing to make him think that the children had any plans at all.
"I think there's going to be a storm," said Andy, on the third evening. "That would be a good reason for our shack to fall down, I think! As soon as that man has come and gone to-day we'll turn the shack into a ruin!"
The man came, looked round the island and went. As soon as he had gone the children set about the hut. Andy removed nails and took out planks. He hammered part of the roof away and made a big hole. He made one side of the hut so weak that it fell in on top of the girls' bed.
"Doesn't it look a ruin now!" said Jill, with a giggle. "We'd better spread the sail over that side of the hut, Andy, or the rain will come in to-night."
"Yes, we'll do that," said Andy. S,o when they had done all they could to make the hut look as if it was falling to pieces, they draped the sail over the open side for protection, and then grinned at one another.
"And to-morrow we will act a nice little play for the enemy!" said Andy with a chuckle. "We will pretend that in the storm which we can now hear rumbling round, our hut was blown in—and we will bandage up Jill's head as if the hut fell on top of her—and bandage my leg too. And we'll beg for a tent most humbly!"