Chapter 10 THE FIVE ARE IN A FIX
Julian went to the mouth of the cove¹ and looked out over the waves, hoping that he might see theirboat bobbing somewhere. 'I could swim out to it if so,' he thought, 'and bring it in. No -there's not a sign of a boat! I could kick myself for being so careless!'
Dick came up, looking worried. 'I suppose it's too far to swim back to the mainland, isn't it?' he said.
'I could have a shot - and get another boat and come back for everyone.'
'No. Too far,' said Julian. 'The tide's too strong for any swimmer at the moment. We're certainly in afix!'
'We can't signal, I suppose?' said Dick.
'What with?' asked Julian. 'You could wave a shirt for an hour and it wouldn't be seen from themainland!'
'Well - we must think of something!' said Dick, exasperated². 'What about trying to find a boat here?
Surely those men must have one to get to and fro.'
'Of course!' said Julian, clapping Dick on the back. 'Where are my brains? They seem to be going softor something! We could snoop round and about tonight, to see if there's a boat anywhere.
They may have two or three. They'd have to get food from the mainland at times.'
The two girls and Timmy came up then, and Timmy whined³. 'He doesn't seem to like this island,'
said George. 'I think he smells danger!'
'I bet he does!' said Dick, putting his hand on Timmy's firm head. 'I'm jolly glad he's with us. Can yougirls think of any good ideas - we can't!'
'We could signal,' said George.
'No good. A signal from here couldn't be seen,' said Dick. 'We've already thought of that.'
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'Well - if we lighted a fire here on the beach tonight, when the tide's out, surely that would be seen?'
said Anne.
Dick and Julian looked at one another. 'Yes!' said Julian. 'If we lighted it on a hilly bit it would bebetter still - on that cliff up there, for instance.'
'Wouldn't the guards see it?' asked Dick.
'We'd have to chance that,' said Julian. 'Yes - we could do that. Good idea, Anne. I say - we're goingto get jolly hungry, aren't we? Anyone got anything to eat?'
'I've two bars of chocolate - a bit soft now though,' said George, digging into the pocket of her shorts.
'And I've some peppermints,' said Anne. 'What about you boys? You always take barley-sugars aboutwith you, Dick - don't say you haven't any just when we could all do with them!'
'I've a new packet!' said Dick. 'Let's all have one now!' He pulled the packet from his pocket andhanded it round. Soon they were all sucking barley-sugars. Timmy was given one too, but his wasgone in a flash!

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