“What’s the fourth bed going to have for a blanket?” asked Jack.
And then Peggy brought out a great surprise! It was a fur rug, made of rabbit skins that she had carefully cleaned, dried, and sewn together! How the others stared!
“But how lovely, Peggy!” said Jack. “It’s a most beautiful fur rug, and will be as warm as toast. We’ll take it in turns to have it on at night.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought,” said Peggy, pleased to find the others admired her rabbit rug so much. “It was very hard to sew the skins together, but I did it at last. I thought it would be a nice surprise for when the cold weather came!”
Soon the cave began to look very homely indeed. The shelves were weighed down with the books and games. The lantern swung in the middle, and they all knocked their heads against it before they became used to it there! The beds lay neatly in the corners at the back, covered with blankets and the rabbit rug. In another corner stood the household things that Peggy was always using - the kettle, the saucepans, and so on.
And then Jack brought out a surprise - a nice little table he had made by himself! He had found the old plank the children had brought with them months ago when they first came to the island, and had managed, by means of a saw he had bought during his marketing, to make a good little table for Peggy!
It was a bit wobbly. The four legs were made of tree branches, the straightest Jack could find, but it was difficult to get them just right. He had sawn the plank into pieces, and nailed them together to make a square top to the table, and this was very good. Peggy was delighted!
“Now we can have meals on the table!” she cried. “Oh, that will be nice! And I can do my mending on the table, too - it will be much easier than crouching on the floor!”
“But what about chairs?” asked Nora. “You can’t sit up to the table without chairs!”
“I’m making stools,” said Jack - and so he was! He had found an old tree broken in two by the wind on the other side of the hill. With his saw he was sawing up the trunk, and each piece he sawed out was like a solid stool - just a piece of the tree-trunk, but nice and smooth to sit on!
The days passed very happily as they made the cave into a home. It was fun to sit on their little stools beside Jack’s table and eat their meals properly there. It was fun to watch the fire burning at the entrance of the cave, getting brighter and brighter as night came on. It was lovely to lie on a soft heathery bed at the back of the cave, covered by a warm blanket or rabbit rug, and watch the fire gradually die down to a few glowing embers.
It was very cosy in the cave when the wind howled round the hillside. The light from the lantern shone down, and sometimes Peggy had an extra candle beside her when she sewed. The boys scraped at a bit of wood, carving something, or played a game with Nora. Sometimes they read out loud. The fire burnt brightly and lighted up the cave brilliantly every now and again when extra big flames shot up. It was great fun.
There was always plenty to do. Daisy still had to be milked each morning and evening. She seemed quite happy living in the grassy field, and the boys had built her a sort of shelter where she went at night. There were the hens to feed and look after. They were in a yard near the cave now. They were not laying so many eggs, but the children had plenty of stores and did not worry about eggs.
There was the usual cooking, washing, and clearing-up to do. There was water to be got from the spring. There was firewood to hunt for and pile up. Peggy liked to find pine-cones because they burnt up beautifully and made such a nice smell.
November passed by. Sometimes there was lovely fine days when the children could sit out on the hillside and bask in the sun. Sometimes there were windswept days when the rain pelted down and the clouds raced across the sky, black and ragged. Then the lake was tossed into white-topped waves.
Mike and Jack had got the boat up again and mended it. They had pulled it up the beach as far as they could to be out of reach of the waves.
When December came, the children began to think of Christmas. It would be strange to have Christmas on the island!
“We’ll have to decorate the cave with holly,” said Jack. “There are two holly-trees on the island, and one has red berries on. But there is no mistletoe.”
“Christmas will be funny with only just ourselves,” said Peggy. “I don’t know if I will like it. I like hearing carols sung, and seeing the shops all full of lovely things, and looking forward to Christmas stockings and crackers, and things like that.”
“Before our Daddy and Mummy flew off in their aeroplane and got lost, we used to have Christmas with them,” Nora said to Jack. “It was lovely then. I remember it all!”
“I wish Daddy and Mummy hadn’t gone away and got lost for ever,” said Mike. “I did love them - they were so jolly and happy.”
Jack listened as the three children told him all they had done at Christmas-time when their father and mother had been with them. He had always lived with his old grandfather, who had never bothered about Christmas. To Jack this all seemed wonderful. How Mike, and Nora, and Peggy must miss all the gay and lovely things they used to do when they had their father and mother with them!
The boy listened and made up his mind about something. He would take the boat and row off to the end of the lake just before Christmas. He still had some money - and with that he would buy crackers, a doll for Nora, a new work-box for Peggy, something for Mike, and some oranges and sweets! They should have a fine Christmas!
He said nothing to the others about it. He knew that they would be terribly afraid that he might be caught again. But he did not mean to go to the same village as before. He meant to walk to the one five miles away, where he would not be known, and buy what he wanted there. He was sure he would be safe, for he meant to be very careful indeed!
December crept on. The days were dull and dreary. Jack planned to go off in the boat one morning. He would tell the others he was just going for a row to get himself warm. He would not tell them about his great surprise for them!
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!
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:
“Who’s this asking for me? What do you want, boy?”
Jack swung round. He saw a tall, brown-faced man looking down at him, and he liked him at once, because he was so like Mike to look at.
“Captain Arnold! I know where Mike and Peggy and Nora are!” he cried.
The Captain stared as if he had not heard aright. Then he took Jack’s arm and pulled him upstairs into a room where a lady sat, writing a letter. Jack could see she was the children’s mother, for she had a look of Peggy and Nora about her. She looked kind and strong and wise, and Jack wished very much that she was his mother, too.
“This boy says he knows where the children are, Mary,” said the Captain.
What excitement there was then! Jack poured out his story and the two grown-ups listened without saying a word. When he had finished, the Captain shook hands with Jack, and his wife gave him a hug.
“You’re a fine friend for our children to have!” said the Captain, his face shining with excitement. “And you really mean to say that you have all been living together on that little island and nobody has found you?”
“Yes,” said Jack, “and oh, sir, is it true that you and Mrs. Arnold have been living on an island, too, till a ship picked you up?”
“Quite true,” said Captain Arnold, with a laugh. “Our ’plane came down and smashed - and there we were, lost on an island in the Pacific Ocean! Little did we know that our children were going to live alone on an island, too! This sort of thing must be in the family!”
“John, we must go at once to them,” said Mrs. Arnold, who was almost crying with joy. “Quickly, this very minute. I can’t wait!”