Chapter Three A NASTY SHOCK
　　GEORGE'S boat was almost ready, but not quite. It was having a last coat of paint on it. It lookedvery gay, for George had chosen a bright red paint, and the oars¹ were painted red too.
　　"Oh, can't we possibly have it this afternoon?" said George to Jim the boatman.
　　He shook his head.
　　"No, Master George," he said, "not unless you all want to be messed up with red paint. It'll be drytomorrow, but not before."
　　It always made the others smile to hear the boatmen and fishermen call Georgina "Master George."The local people all knew how badly she wanted to be a boy, and they knew, too, how plucky² andstraightforward she was, so they laughed to one another and said: "Well, they reckoned she behavedlike a boy, and if she wanted to be called "Master George" instead of"Miss Georgina", she deserved it!"
　　So Georgina was Master George, and enjoyed strutting³ about in her jeans and jersey⁴ on the beach,using her boat as well as any fisher-boy, and swimming faster than them all.
　　"We'll go to the island tomorrow then," said Julian. "We'll just picnic on the beach today. Then we'llgo for a walk."
　　So they picnicked on the sands with Timothy sharing more than half their lunch. The sandwicheswere not very nice. The bread was too stale; there was not enough butter inside, and they were far toothick. But Timothy didn't mind. He gobbled up as many as he could, his tail wagging so hard that itsent sand over everyone.
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　　"Timothy, do take your tail out of the sand if you want to wag it," said Julian, getting sand all overhis hair for the fourth time. Timmy wagged his tail hard again, and sent another shower over him.
　　Everyone laughed.
　　"Let's go for a walk now," said Dick, jumping up. "My legs could do with some good exercise.
　　Where shall we go?"
　　"We'll walk along the cliff-top, where we can see the island all the time, shall we?" said Anne.
　　"George, is the old wreck⁵ still there?"
　　George nodded. The children had once had a most exciting time with an old wreck that had lain at thebottom of the sea. A great storm had lifted it up and set it firmly on the rocks. They had been able toexplore the wreck then, and had found a map of the castle in it, with instructions as to where hiddentreasure was to be found.

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