"But we've no time for fishing about here," he said. "We shall be caught by the tide if we don't make haste."
Sure enough, the tide was on the turn—but before it could reach the jagged line of rocks over which the children were climbing, they had come to the end of them, and had waded through a pool to the sandy shore of the next island.
"Now we're on island number two!" said Tom, capering about. "Golly! I am hungry!"
So was every one. "Well, if we eat all our food now, we shall have to wait ages for our next meal, unless we can find something on this island," said Andy. But he was hungry, too—so they ate their cold sausages and potatoes, and sucked a toffee each.
Then they set off to explore the second island. They turned to climb the cliff s—and had a big surprise I
"Look! Caves!" said Tom, pointing to big black openings in the cliff. "Look at that! Caves of all lands and sizes and shapes! Let's have a look at them."
They made their way to the first cave—and just outside it Andy stopped and stared at something in the sand.
"What's up?" asked Tom.
"That!" said Andy, and he pointed to a cigarette-end that lay rolling a little in the breeze.
"A cigarette-end!" said Tom, looking all round, as if he were looking for the one who had smoked it. "Well! Somebody has been here all right—and not very long ago, either. But there's not a single house on this island, ruined or whole!"
"Perhaps the people live in these caves," said Jill, looking half-timidly at the first one.
"We'll go in and see," said Andy. He pulled a roll of oilskin from his pocket and out of it took a half-candle and a box of matches. Andy never ran any risk of his matches getting wet—and now the children were glad that he was so careful, for no one really wanted to go into the caves without a light of some sort.
Andy lighted the candle and thea, leading the way. he stepped into the first cave. The others followed him. The floor was thick with silvery sand, and the walls of the cave were high and smooth. It ran back a long way. and then narrowed into an archway. Through this the children went into another cave, the tiny light of the candle shining on rocky grey walls, and high, rough roof. The floor of the cave then began to go upwards, and became rocky instead of sandy. The cave narrowed into a passage, whose roof was at times so low that they bomped their heads against it.
And then they came to the Round Cave, which was the name they at once gave the last strange cave. It was almost perfectly round, and as the floor slanted down towards the middle, it felt like being inside a hollow ball!
But it wasn't the roundness of the cave that startled the four children—it was what it held!
Piled high, everywhere were boxes, sacks, and big tin chests with strange words on them! Some piles reached to the roof of the cave, others reached half-way.
"Golly! Look at that!" said Tom, in the greatest astonishment. "Whatever's in all those boxes and things—and why are they here?"
The little flame of the candle flickered on the strange array in the cave. Andy set the candle gently down on a flat piece of rock, and pulled the neck of a thick brown sack undone. It was lined with coarse blue paper inside. He undid that—and then gave a low cry of surprise.
"Sugar! Stranger and stranger! I was expecting treasure or something—and it's sugar! I wonder what's in the other sacks and boxes."
Some the children could not force open, but others were already opened, as if some one had taken from them some of the contents. The boxes were full of tins—there were tins of soup, meat, vegetables, fruit, sardines—everything one could think of. There was a chest of flour, a chest of tea, tins of salt, even tins of butter and lard, well-sealed and air-tight.
"Andy—I really don't understand this," said Jill in a puzzled voice. "How did all these come here? And who do you suppose they belong to? As far as we know there isn't a single person on the island."
"I don't know any more than you do, Jill," said Andy. "It's like a dream; but anyway we shan't need to starve whilst there's all this food stored here!"
"But may we take it, if it belongs to anyone else?" said Mary, frightened.
"We can pay the person it belongs to," said Andy. "My father and your mother will gladly pay, to keep us from starving, if we have to spend the winter here!"
"Well, come on then—let's take all we want," said Tom, feeling so hungry that he couldn't wait a minute longer. "we'll keep a careful account of everything we take, and pay the bill and a little more, when we find out who owns this very curious larder."
"You're right, Tom," said Andy, in a puzzled voice. "It is a very—curious-larder!"
When they reached the open air Tom took a deep breath and set down his load. "My goodness, it was stuffy up there," he said.
"What puzzles me is why it wasn't more stuffy than it was," said Andy. "Air must get into that Round Cave through some hole we didn't see. Pick up your things, Tom, the tide is coming in. We can't stay on this beach. The sea will reach the cave before long."
"It's all right for about ten minutes," said Tom, pulling a fat little notebook from his pocket. "I just want to jot down a list of all the things we've taken, in case we eat them up and then forget what we had."
"Tom's always so honest," said Jill. "Well, I'll tell you the things, Tom, and you can write them down. Three tins of pineapple. One big bag of sugar. Three tins' of tongue. Four tins of-"
"Not so fast, not so fast," said Tom, busy writing. He wrote everything down, shut his notebook with a snap, and pushed it back into his pocket. Then he picked up bis load and followed Andy up the steep, rocky path.
Until the tide went out that night the children were prisoners on the second island, for there was no way to get back to their own island except by the line of roeks. This was now completely covered by the tide, and great showers of spray were sent high into the air as the water crashed against the rocks over which they had clambered early that day.
"Anyone got a tin-opener?" asked Tom, his mouth watering at the sight of the labels on the tins.
Andy had. In Andy's pockets there was almost anything that anyone could possibly want, from tin-tacks to toffee.
"You'd better open a tin, I suppose," said Andy, with a grin. "I've watched you sticking your finger into the sugar packet a dozen times already—and there'll be none left to take to our island if you do it much more. Open a tin of tongue and perhaps you won't feel so hungry for sugar!"
They all feasted on the tongue, which was really most delicious. They felt very thirsty afterwards, and as they bad not found any spring or stream on the second island they could not think what to do.
"Well, why don't we open a tin of pine-apple?" said Tom at last. "The chunks will be lovely and juicy and we can all have a drink of the juice in the tin too."
So a tin of pine-apple was opened. Both tins were carefully buried by the children, for even although the island seemed quite lonely and deserted they could not bear to make it ugly by leaving empty tins about. The gulls swooped round them all the time they ate, screaming loudly. Andy imitated them and they grew even more excited, at last landing on the ground behind the children and waiting there almost within touch.
"These gulls know that where there are people, there may be food," said Andy. "But how do they know that? — these islands seem quite bare and empty."
"And how, how, how did all that food come to be in the Round Cave?" said Jill. "Could it have been there for years, do you suppose—and have been forgotten?"
"No," said Andy. "It hasn't been there very long. The sugar was still soft—and sugar goes hard if it is stored for long. That cigarette-end we found too—that had been smoked not less than a week or two ago, or the wind would have blown it into bits."
"Andy, don't you think it would be a good thing to stay on this island and live here, instead of going back to our own island?" asked Mary. "We should be near to a good food-supply then!"
"No, I don't," said Andy, at once. "You forget we have left a signal on our island—and if any ship sees it and calls for us, we might be on this island, unable to be rescued because the tide was high and we couldn't get back."
"But couldn't we tie the signal up somewhere on this island?" said Tom.
"No," said Andy. "No ship could get to us here. This island is almost surrounded by a reef of the worst rocks I've ever seen. Look at them, right out there."
The children looked. Andy was right. A jagged line of rocks ran some way out from the coast. Between the rocks and the coast the sea lay trapped in a kind of big lagoon or lake, calm and smooth.
Tom frowned and looked puzzled. "Well, if no ship can get in to rescue us if we stay on this island," he said, "how in the wold did one get in to land all that food in the cave?"
Andy stared at Tom and looked as puzzled as Tom did. "Yes—that's odd," he said. "Well—maybe there is a way through at high tide. But we can't risk it. We must live on the first island, and when we want food we must come here and get it—and maybe we shall run into the folk who so strangely made a larder in trie Round Cave."
Mary stood up and tried to see what the next island was like. It looked much bigger than the first two. There was no line of rocks stretching to it, but only an unbroken spread of blue water. To get to the third island they would have to swim, or use a boat.
"Do you think we'd better leave a note in the cave to say that we are on the first island and would like to be rescued?" said Tom. "The people may come back at any time—and we could go away in their boat."
Andy shook his head. "I think we won't leave a note—or anything else to show we've been here," he said. "There's something a bit mysterious about all this, and if there's a secret going on, we'd better keep out of it till we know what it is."
"Oh, Andy! Whatever do you mean?" cried Mary.
"I don't know what I mean," said Andy. "It's just a feeling I have, that's all. Maybe I'm wrong—but one of us will come over here every day at low tide and just see if there's somebody about before we let them know we're here."
"Well, Andy—what about all our footmarks round the cave?" said Tom.
"The tide will wash all those away," said Andy. "Look over the cliff-edge, Tom—you'll see the tide has gone right into the cave now. There's nothing that will show we've been there."
"Except that some of the food is missing," said Mary. "You've forgotten that, Andy."
"No, I haven't," said Andy. "There's so much in that cave that I don't think-anyone will miss the little we've taken. I don't expect it's checked at all. Nobody would think that any strangers would ever visit that cave."
The children wandered over the island and looked for bilberries, which were fruiting there in great numbers. It was a way of quenching their thirst, to pick the small, juicy bilberries. The island was quite deserted. It did not look as if anyone had ever lived there at all.
The tide went down and the line of rocks began to show. The children clambered down to the shore to go tack to their own island. They had tied to their backs the food they had taken, and Andy told everyone to be very careful.
"We don't want to lose our food in a deep pool!" he said. "So don't rush along too fast, Tom. You are always in such a hurry!"
The rocks were wet and slippery, but the children were very careful indeed. Once an extra large wave came and splashed right over Jill, and she gave a squeal.
"Oh, has it wet the food?"
"Yes—soaked it!" called Tom. "But never mind-it's all in tins, Jill."
They got back to their little hut at last and all-of mem were delighted to see it. It really seemed like coming home.
They sat down on their beds, tired out. But Tom was not going to bed without his supper. He wanted hot soup, more tongue, and a tin of peaches. So the stove had to be lighted, and Tom was sent to fill the kettle.
All the children enjoyed the meal, although they were so sleepy they could hardly bother to clear up afterwards. The first stars were in the sky as they flung themselves on their beds.
"It's awfully early to go to bed," murmured Jill sleepily. "Buff can't keep awake another minute!"
And she fell asleep at once. So did Mary. Tom blew out the stove and lay down too. Andy sat up for a while, looking out towards the second island and wondering about a lot of things.
Then he too lay down and fell asleep—but not for long!
A strange and curious noise awoke him. It came into his dreams, startled him and roused him so that he sat up, puzzled and alarmed.
"Tom! Wake up!" said Andy. "Listen to this noise. What is it?"
Tom awoke and listened. "If s a motor-bicycle," he said, half asleep.
"Don't be a fathead!" said Andy. "A motor-bicycle on this island! You're dreaming. Come on, wake up—I tell you there's a jolly queer noise."
The noise itself hummed away into silence. The gulls screamed but soon became quiet. Andy sat and listened a little longer and then, as no more noise came, lay down on his springy bed again.
"Odder and odder," said Andy to himself. "We seem to have come to some most mysterious islands—and I'm going to find out what's happening—or my name isn't Andy!"
"It might be a motor-boat, perhaps!" said Jill suddenly. The others stared at her. For some reason, nobody had thought of motor-boats till then.
"Yes—I believe it was!" said Andy, "It had that throbbing sound that a motor makes. Now what's a motor-boat doing here? But, anyway—it means that we can be rescued!"
"Of course!" said Tom. "Well—let's go and find the motor-boat. What a surprise they'll get when they suddenly see us I They'll wonder wherever we've come from."
"Tom, don't be in so great a hurry," said Andy, pulling the impatient boy down into the heather. "I think there's something funny going on here—and before we show ourselves we'd better find out if we shall be welcome!"
"Oh," said Tom, surprised. The girls looked rather alarmed.
"What do you mean—something funny?" said Jill.
"I don't know, as I said yesterday," said Andy. "But what we will do is to see where that motor-boat is. It won't have seen our signal because it came in the night—and we know it's not anywhere this side of the island, or we would have seen it this morning. I vote we go to that rocky ledge where we get the best view of the second island and see if by any chance a boat has been able to get through the reef of rocks and sail into the quiet lagoon inside."