14
　　A few plans
　　Everyone felt suddenly sick. Lucy-Ann sat down in a heap. Dinah joined her. The boys stoodstaring at the smashed engine as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.
　　‘It must be a nightmare,’ said Dinah at last. ‘It can’t be true. Why – why, everything was rightas rain last night – and now . . .’
　　‘Now the boat’s smashed up so that we can’t get away, the radio is smashed so that we can’t geta message through – and Bill’s gone,’ said Philip. ‘And it isn’t a dream. It’s real.’
　　‘Let’s sit down in the cabin, all together,’ said Lucy-Ann, wiping her eyes. ‘Let’s sit close andtalk. Let’s not leave each other at all.’
　　‘Poor Lucy-Ann!’ said Philip, putting his arm round her, as she sat down unsteadily. ‘Don’tworry. We’ve been in worse fixes than this.’
　　‘We haven’t!’ said Dinah. ‘This is the worst fix we’ve ever been in!’
　　Kiki felt the tenseness of all the children. She sat quietly on Jack¹’s shoulder, making littlecomforting noises. Huffin and Puffin sat solemnly on the deck, staring fixedly² in front of them.
　　Even they seemed to feel that something awful had happened.
　　In the cabin, sitting close together, the children felt a little better. Jack rummaged³ in a tinycupboard beside him and brought out some bars of chocolate. The children had had no breakfast,and although the shock they had had seemed to have taken their appetites away, they thankfullytook the chocolate to nibble⁴.
　　‘Let’s try and think out carefully exactly what must have happened,’ said Jack, giving a bit ofhis chocolate to Kiki.
　　‘Well – we know that Bill was worried about something,’ said Philip. ‘Those planes, forinstance. He felt certain something peculiar⁵ was going on up here. And that’s why he went out byhimself in the boat. He must have been seen.’
　　‘Yes – and maybe in some way his enemies got to know he was here,’ said Dinah. ‘They couldhave followed him a long way back, using field-glasses to keep him in sight. Anyway – it’s quiteclear that they came looking for him here.’

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