Chapter Seventeen TIMMY AT LAST
　　'No, George!' called her father sharply. 'Come back. There is something very important I want tosay. Come here!'
　　George went over to him, filled with impatience¹ to get to Timmy, wherever he was. She mustfind him!
　　'Now listen,' said her father. 'I have a book in which I have made all my notes of this greatexperiment. The men haven't found it! I want you to take it safely to the mainland, George. Don'tlet it out of your sight! If the men get hold of it they would have all the information they needed!'
　　'But don't they know everything just by looking at your wires and machines and things?' askedGeorge.
　　'They know a very great deal,' said her father, 'and they've found out a lot more since they'vebeen here - but not quite enough. I daren't destroy my book of notes, because if anything shouldhappen to me, my great idea would be completely lost. So, George, I must entrust² it to you andyou must take it to an address I will give you, and hand it to the person there.'
　　'It's an awful responsibility,' said George, a little scared of handling a book which meant somuch, not only to her father, but possibly to the whole of the world. 'But I'll do my best, Father.
　　I'll hide, in one of the caves till the men come back, and then I'll slip back up the passage to thehidden entrance, get out, go to my boat and row back to the mainland. Then I'll deliver your bookof notes without fail, and get help sent over here to you.'
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　　'Good girl,' said her father, and gave her a hug. 'Honestly, George, you do behave as bravely asany boy. I'm proud of you.'
　　George thought that was the nicest thing her father had ever said to her. She smiled at him. 'Well,Father, I'll go and see if I can find Timmy now. I simply must see that he's all right before I go tohide in one of the other caves.'
　　'Very well,' said her father. 'The man who took the biscuits went in that direction still furtherunder the sea, George. Oh by the way - how is it you're here, in the middle of the night?' Itseemed to strike her father for the first time that George also might have a story to tell. ButGeorge felt that she really couldn't waste any more time - she must find Timmy!
　　'I'll tell you later, Father,' she said. 'Oh where's that book of notes?'
　　Her father rose and went to the back of the cave. He took a box and stood on it. He ran his handalong a dark ridge³ of rock, and felt about until he had found what he wanted.

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