A good day came when the pale wintry sun shone down, and the sky was a watery blue. Peggy was busy clearing up after breakfast. Mike meant to rebuild Daisy’s shelter, which had been rather blown about by the wind. Nora was going to look for pine-cones.
“What are you going to do, Jack?” asked Peggy.
“Oh,” said Jack, “I think I’ll take the old boat out and go for a row to get myself warm. I haven’t rowed for ages!”
“I’ll come with you, Jack,” said Nora.
But Jack didn't want anyone with him! “No, Nora,” he said, “you go out and look for cones. I shall be gone a good while. Peggy, could you let me have some food to take with me?”
“Food!” said Peggy in amazement. “However long are you going for, Jack?”
“Oh, just a few hours,” said Jack. “Some exercise will do me good. I’ll take my fishing-line, too.”
“Well, put on your overcoat, then,” said Peggy; “you’ll be cold out on the windy lake.”
She put some rolls and a hard-boiled egg into a basket, together with a bottle of milk. Jack said goodbye and set off down the hillside. Nora came with him, half sulky at not being allowed to go in the boat.
“You might let me come, Jack,” she said.
“You can’t come to-day, Nora,” said Jack. "You will know why when I come back!”
He pushed off and rowed out on to the lake, which was not very rough that day. He rowed hard, and Nora soon left the beach and went to seek for cones. She thought she would try and see where Jack was fishing, after a time, and went to the top of the hill - but, try as she would, she could see no sign of the boat. She thought that very strange.
Hours went by, and Jack did not come back. The others waited for him, wondering why he had gone off alone and why he had not come back.
“Do you think he’s gone to the village again to get anything?” asked Peggy at last. “Nora says she couldn’t see his boat anywhere on the lake when she looked - and if he was fishing anywhere near, we should easily see him!”
“Oh, dear!” said Mike, worried. “If he goes to that village he’ll be caught again!”
But Jack hadn’t been caught. Something else had happened - something very extraordinary!
Jack Has a Great Surprise
We must go back to Jack and find out what had been happening to him. He had been such a long time away from the island - far longer than he would have been if he had just gone shopping. What could have kept him?
Well, he had got safely in the boat to the far end of the lake, and had tied the boat up to a tree. Then he had slipped through the wood, and taken the road that led to the distant village, five miles away. It would take him nearly an hour and a half to get there, but what fun it would be to do a bit of shopping again!
The boy padded along the wintry road. It was muddy and cold, but he was as warm as toast. He jingled his money in his pocket and wondered if he could buy all he wanted to. He did badly want to get a doll for Nora, for he knew how much she would love it!
He carried the food Peggy had given him, and, when he got near the village, he sat up on a gate and ate it. Then off he went again. He did not think anyone would know him to be one of the runaways, for surely people had forgotten all about them by now! lt was half a year since they had first run off to the island! But he was keeping a sharp look out in case he saw anyone looking at him too closely!
He went into the village. It was a big, straggling one, with a small High Street running down the middle. There were about six shops there. Jack went to look at them. He left the toy and sweet shop till last. He looked at the turkeys in the butcher’s shop, some with red ribbons on. He looked into the draper’s shop and admired the gay streamers that floated all about it to decorate it for Christmas. It was fun to see shops again.
And then he came to the toy shop. It was lovely! Dolls stood in the window with their arms stretched out as if they were asking people to buy them. A railway train ran on lines. A little Father Christmas stood in the middle, carrying a sack. Boxes of chocolate, tins of toffee, and big bottles of gay-coloured sweets were in the shop, too.
Jack stood gazing, wondering which doll to buy for Nora. He had already seen a nice little work-basket for Peggy, and had spied a book for Mike about boats. There was a box of red crackers at the back of the window, too, which he thought would do well for Nora. It would be such fun to pull them on Christmas Day in the cave, and wear paper hats there!
Jack went into the shop. It had two or three other people there, for the shop was a post-office, too, and people were sending off Christmas parcels. The shopgirl was weighing them - and it was a long business. Jack waited patiently, looking round at all the toys.
The people in the shop were talking to one another. At first Jack did not listen - and then he heard something that made him prick up his ears.
This is what he heard:
“Yes, it’s a great pity those children were never found,” said one woman. “Their father and mother are quite ill with grief, I’ve heard.”
“Poor things,” said the second woman. “It’s bad enough to come down in an aeroplane on a desert island, and not be found for two years - and then to come back safe to see your children - and learn that they’ve disappeared!”
Jack’s eyes nearly dropped out of his head. What did this mean? Could it possibly - possibly - mean that Mike’s father and mother had turned up again? Forgetting all about being careful, Jack caught hold of the arm of the first woman.
“Please,” he said, “please tell me something. Were the three children you are talking about called Mike, Peggy, and Nora - and is it their father and mother that have come back?”
The women in the shop stared at the excited boy in astonishment. “Yes,” said the first woman. “Those were the children’s names. They disappeared in June with another boy, called Jack, and have never been found. And in August the missing father and mother were found far away on a Pacific Island, and brought back safely here. Their aeroplane had come down and smashed, and they had been living there until a ship picked them up.”
“But their children had gone,” said the shop-girl, joining in, “and it almost broke their hearts, for they had been worrying about them for months and longing to see them.”
“What do you know about all this?” suddenly said one of the women. “You’re not one of the children, are you?”
“Never mind about that,” said Jack. “Just tell me one thing - where are the father and mother?”
“They are not far away,” said the shop-girl. “They are staying at a hotel in the next town, hoping that the children will still be heard of.”
“What hotel?” said Jack eagerly.
“The Swan Hotel,” said the shop-girl, and then the women stared in amazement as Jack tore out of the shop at top speed, his eyes shining, and a look of the greatest excitement on his brown face!
He ran to the bus-stop. He knew that buses went to the town, and he had only one thought in his mind - to get to the Swan Hotel and tell Mike’s father and mother that their children were safe! Never in his life had Jack been so excited. To think that things would all come right like this, and he, Jack, was the one to tell the father and mother!
He jumped into the bus, and could not keep still. He leapt out of it when it rumbled into the town and ran off to the Swan Hotel. He rushed into the hall and caught hold of the hall-porter there.
“Where are Captain and Mrs. Arnold?” he cried. Mike had often told him that his father was a captain, and he knew that the children’s surname was Arnold - so he knew quite well whom to ask for.
“Here, here, not so fast, young man,” said the porter, not quite liking the look of the boy in the old overcoat and worn-out shoes. “What do you want the Captain for?”
“Oh, tell me, please, where are they?” begged Jack - and at that moment a man’s voice said: