The children went indoors, puzzled - and they walked straight into the dark-skinned man! He was standing just inside the sitting-room door, listening to Dimmy.
“Oh! Sorry!” said Jack. “I didn’t know you had a visitor, Dimmy.“
“He’s just going,” said Dimmy, who looked quite worried. “Go and tidy yourselves for tea.”
As the children turned to go they heard the man speak again.
“But why will you not sell me this little house? I am offering far more money to you for it than you will ever get when you want to sell it!”
“It has been in my family for two hundred years.” said Dimmy firmly. “It is true that I only live here in the summer-time, but I love it and I will not part from it.”
“Well, will you rent it to me for twelve months?” asked the man.
“No,” said Miss Dimity. “I have never let it, and I don’t want to.”
“Very well,” said the man angrily. “Do as you please. But I think you are very foolish.”
“I’m afraid I don’t really mind what you think about me,” said Dimmy with a laugh. “Now, please go. The children want their tea.”
“Oh, the children - yes, that reminds me,” said the man sternly. “Keep them out of the Old House from now on, or they will get into serious trouble. I’m not going to have badly-behaved children running all over my house and grounds.”
“They are not badly behaved,” said Dimmy, “and they didn’t know you were going to buy it till to-day. Good-day.”
She showed the man out of the door. He went to the car frowning, started it with a great noise and roared off down the country lane.
“Sort of fellow who likes a car to sound like a hundred aeroplanes,” said Mike in disgust, looking out of his tower window. “You know, Jack, there’s something funny about that man. Why does he want to buy the Old House - and the Peep-Hole, too? Do you suppose he’s going to do something that he wants no one to know of? This would be a marvellous place to do a bit of smuggling, for instance.”
“People use aeroplanes for that sort of thing nowadays,” said Jack. “No - I just can’t imagine what he’s going to do here - but I’d dearly like to find out. And if Mr. Felipe, or whatever his name is, is up to something funny, I vote we find out what it is!”
“Yes, let’s,” said Nora excitedly. She and Peggy had come up to the boys’ room to brush their hair. “I feel as if something is going to happen. Don’t you?”
“I do rather,” said Jack. “Though it may all turn out to be quite ordinary.”
“Children! Are you never coming down to tea?” called Miss Dimity. “I suppose you don’t want any jam-scones to-day?”
“Yes we do, yes we do!” yelled the children, rushing down the winding stairs. “Is there cream with them?”
There was. Dimmy poured out their milk and handed the new scones thickly spread with raspberry jam.
“Dimmy, who was that man?” asked Jack.
“He said his name was Mr. Felipe Diaz,” said Dimmy, eating a scone. “Fancy him thinking I’d let him have the Peep-Hole! I certainly wouldn’t sell my old home to a person like Mr. Diaz!”
“We think he’s up to no good,” said Jack, taking a second scone. “And if he is, Dimmy, we are going to find out what’s wrong!”
“Now don’t you do anything of the sort,” said Dimmy at once. “He’s a man of his word, and if he says he’ll punish you if you trespass on his grounds you may be sure you’ll get into trouble if you disobey. Keep away from the Old House. Don’t even peep over the wall.”
The children said nothing. They didn’t want to make any promises, because they never broke a promise, and it would spoil things if they had to promise Dimmy never to go near the Old House.
They ate a huge tea, and not a single scone or cake was left. “You made too few scones, Dimmy dear,” said Jack, getting up.
“Oh no, I didn’t,” said Dimmy. “You ate too many! I am just wondering whether I shall bother to think about supper for you - I am sure you couldn’t possibly eat any more to-day.”
The children laughed. They knew Dimmy was only teasing them. “We’re going out in George’s boat,” said Jack. “Why don’t you come with us, Dimmy? We’d love to have you.”
Dimmy shook her head. “I’ve plenty to do,” she said. “Go off and enjoy yourselves and see if you can possibly get an appetite for supper!”
The children shot off to get George’s boat. He kept it tied to a rough little wooden pier in a cove nearby. He used it for fishing and it was a good, strong little boat.
“George, did you see anything of the people who are going to buy the Old House?” asked Jack eagerly.
“Yes,” said George, who was mending his fishing lines. “They came and asked me to tidy up the garden a bit and to get a couple of women from the nearest village to scrub down the house. And they wanted to know a tidy lot about the coast around here!”
“Did they? What for?” asked Mike.
“That’s what I’d like to know!” said George, with a laugh. “That man’s up to no good, I reckon! He wanted me to sell him my boat too, when I told him it was the only one hereabouts.”
“Oh, George! You didn’t sell it to him, did you?” cried Jack in dismay.
“Of course not,” said George. “I wouldn’t part with my boat, not for a hundred pounds! I don’t think they wanted the boat to use themselves though - I just think they didn’t want me rowing round about this coast for a bit.”
“George! Do you think they are smugglers then?” cried Mike. “I thought smugglers used aeroplanes, not boats nowadays.”
“They’ve got some little game on,“ said George, packing up his nets neatly into the bottom of the boat. “But I’m not going to help them by selling my boat. I’m going to keep my eyes open.”
“So are we, George, so are we!” cried the four children excitedly. They told him all about their adventure in the Old House that day. George listened. He got into his boat, which was floating by the side of the little pier, and beckoned to the children to get in.
“You come along with me and I’ll show you something,” he said. They all tumbled in, and Jack and Mike took an oar each. George had two. They rowed out on the calm sea, bumping a little on the waves that ran round the rocks here and there.
“We’ve got to row a good way,” said George. “I reckon we can just do it before supper. Right round the cliff there, look - and beyond it - and then round the next crag too. It’s a goodish way.”
It was lovely on the sea in the evening. The children took turns at rowing. The sun sank lower. The boat rounded the big cliff, went across the next bay, and rounded a great craggy head of rock that stood well out into the sea. Beyond that the cliff fell almost down to sea-level before it rose again.
George took the boat well out to sea then - and suddenly he pulled in his oars, shaded his eyes with his hand, and looked over the land to the north-west.
“Now you look over there,” he said, “and tell me what you can see.”
The children looked. Jack gave a shout. “Why, we can see the topmost window of the Old House from here - and we can see the topmost window of our own tower too! The cliffs seem to fall away in a more or less straight line from here, and the towers can just be seen.”
“Yes,” said George. “And in smuggling days a ship could come and anchor out here. Right out of sight of Spiggy Holes, and could come in at night when a light shone in those towers! Old man Spiggy used to light the lamp when it was safe, and it used to wink out at the smuggling ships here, and in they’d ride on the tide, unseen by anyone!”
“It does sound exciting,” said Jack. “Do you suppose Mr. Felipe Diaz is going to use the tower for the same thing, George?”
“Oh no!” said George. “But we’ll keep our eyes open, shall we?”
“Yes, rather!” cried all the children, and rowed back to supper as fast as they could.
“They seem in a mighty hurry to come in,” he said. “Why, that place wants painting from top to bottom - and they’re not going to have anything done except that the big boiler is to be put right!”
The children bathed and paddled, fished and boated as much as ever, but the day that the new people moved into the Old House all four of them went to hide themselves in an enormous oak tree that grew not far from the gates.
They climbed up into the tree, settled themselves down on two broad branches, leaned comfortably against the trunk of the tree, and sat there, whispering and waiting.
Presently a large removal van came along the road, and then another - but that was all.
“Funny!” said Jack, in surprise. “Only two vans of furniture for that enormous house! They must just be furnishing a small part of it.”
The vans moved in through the gates, stopped in front of the house, and the men began to unload. Then the big car belonging to Mr. Felipe Diaz came tearing along, and, just under the tree where the children hid, it had to stop, to allow a tradesman’s van to pass out of the gates.
In the car was Mr. Diaz, the yellow-haired woman, a chauffeur as dark as Mr. Diaz, and a sleepy-eyed young man who lolled back in the car, talking to the woman.
“Well,” said Mr. Diaz, hopping out of the car, and beckoning to the young man to come with him. “Here we are! You go on to the house, Anna. Luiz and I are just going to walk round the walls of the place to see that they are all right.”
The car moved in through the gates. The two men stood underneath the tree, talking in low tones. The children could hear every word.
“This is as safe a place as anywhere in the kingdom,” said Mr. Diaz. “See that tower? Well, the boat can hang about right out of sight till we light a signal in the tower. Then it can come slipping in, and nobody will ever know. We shall be copying the old smugglers, Luiz - but our goods are not quite the same! Ha, ha!”
Luiz laughed too. “Come on,” he said. “I want to see the place. When are the dogs coming?”
Mr. Diaz murmured something that the children couldn’t hear, and the two went off round the walls of the Old House’s garden. The children, who had hardly dared to breathe whilst the men had stood beneath the tree, looked at one another in the greatest excitement.
“Did you hear?” whispered Mike. “They’re going to use a boat - and put a signal into the tower! It’s just like the old days!”
“But are they smugglers then?” asked Nora, puzzled. “And what are the ‘goods’ they spoke of?”
“I don’t know,” said Mike. “But I’m jolly well going to find out. This is about the most exciting thing that has happened to us since we ran away long ago to our secret island!”
“I love adventures,” said Jack. “But look here - we’ve got to be jolly careful of these people. If they think we even guess that they’re up to something, there’ll be a whole heap of trouble for us!”
“We’ll be careful,” said Nora, and she began to climb down the tree. “Come on! I’m tired of being up here.”
“Nora! Don’t be an idiot!” whispered Jack, as loudly as he dared. “Come back - we haven’t looked to see if it’s safe to get down!”
But Nora slipped at that moment, slid down the last bit of tree-trunk, and landed on her hands and knees on the ground below the tree. And at that very moment Mr. Diaz and Luiz came back from their walk round the high walls of the grounds!
They saw Nora, and Mr. Diaz frowned. “Come here!” he shouted. Nora was too afraid to go to him, and too afraid to run away! She just stood there and stared. The others up the tree stayed as still as mice, wondering what Nora was going to do.
Mr. Diaz came up to poor Nora and shouted at her. “What are you doing here? Didn’t I say that you children were not to come round the Old House?” He took hold of Nora’s shoulder and shook her.
“Where are the others? Are they anywhere about?”
Nora knew that Mr. Diaz hadn’t seen her fall from the tree, and she was glad. If only he didn’t look up and see the others!
“Please let me go,” she said, half crying. “I just came for a walk up here. I haven’t been inside the gates.”
“You just try coming inside the grounds!” said Mr. Diaz fiercely. He gave her another shake. “Now, go home. And tell the others that if they come for walks up here they will soon feel very sorry for themselves. I keep a cane for tiresome children!”
“I’ll go and tell the others,” said Nora, and she sped away down the slope of the cliff as if she were going to find Peggy, Jack, and Mike straightaway.
“That’s given her a good fright,” said Luiz, with a sleepy grin. “We don’t want any sharp-eyed kids about, Felipe! Well, when the two dogs come they’ll keep everyone away. They’ll bite anyone at sight!”
The two men went through the gate laughing together. When they were safely out of sight. Jack spoke.
“A nice pleasant pair, aren’t they?” he whispered to the others. “Nora was pretty sharp the way she shot off like that - it looked exactly as if she was going to find us - and yet there we were above dear Mr. Diaz’s head all the time! He’d only got to look up and see my big feet!”
“I want to get down as soon as I can,” said Peggy, who felt that if anyone did happen to see them up the tree they would be well trapped. “Is it safe to slip down now, Jack?”
Jack parted the leaves and peered all round. “Yes,” he said. “Come on, down we go!”
One by one they slipped down, and then shot off down the slope, keeping behind the big gorse bushes as much as they could in case any of the people of the Old House caught sight of them. They guessed that Nora would be waiting for them at the Peep-Hole.
She was - but she was crying bitterly.
“Don’t cry, Nora,” said Jack, putting his arm round her. “Were you very frightened?”
“I’m n-n-n-ot crying b-b-b-because I was frightened,” sobbed Nora, “I’m c-c-c-rying because I was such an idiot - slipping down out of the tree like that, and nearly spoiling everything.”
“Well, that was really very silly of you,” said Mike. “But you didn’t give us away, thank goodness - you were quite sharp, Nora. So cheer up - but you’d better be careful next time.”
“Jack shall be captain,” said Peggy. “He always was on the secret island - and he shall be now. He shall take charge of this adventure, and we’ll do what he says.”
“All right,” said Nora, cheering up and putting away her hanky. “I’ll always do what the captain says.”
“Do you think we ought to tell Dimmy about this adventure?” said Mike.
“No, I don’t,” said Jack at once. “She is awfully nice - but she might be frightened. She might even forbid us to try and find out anything. We’ll keep this secret all to ourselves - though perhaps we might get George to help us later on.”
“Did you hear what they said about the boat coming in?” said Mike. “We’ll watch for that, anyway! We can take it in turns to sit up each night in the top bedroom of our own tower and watch for a light in the tower of the big house. When we see it, we’ll slip down to the beach, hide in a cave, and watch the boat coming in - and maybe we’ll see what the mysterious ‘goods’ are that dear Mr. Diaz is smuggling in!”
“It’s getting very exciting,” said Peggy, not quite sure whether she liked it or not. “We shall have to be awfully careful that we’re not seen or caught.”
George told the children that the furniture had been put into only eight of the twenty rooms of the Old House.