Adventurous Four Again by Enid Blyton

Author:Enid Blyton
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Juvenile, Adventure, fiction
ISBN: 9780600007111
Publisher: Littlehampton
Published: 1968-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIV

THE HUNT FOR THE CHILDREN

Hardly breathing, the four children watched the man walking over the rocks towards the Andy. He was a tall, burly man, very dark, and with a black beard.

“Do you know him, Andy?” whispered Tom. Andy shook his head.

“No. He doesn’t come from our district. Look—he’s getting into the boat.”

A faint shout came up to the children. “He’s shouting to us to come out!” said Mary. “He thinks we’re still there!”

The man stood on the deck, waiting. But when no one answered him, or came up from below, he went to the cabin hatch and opened it. He looked down and saw no one there. He also saw that the boat looked remarkably empty of goods as well as of crew!

“He’s found out that we’ve removed all our things from the boat!” said Andy.

The man went down into the cabin. Then he came up again, stood on the deck, and looked all about, as if he expected to be able to see the children somewhere.

“Look—there’s another man now,” whispered Tom. “See—coming round the cove where the first one came. What a funny little man!”

He was. He was bandy-legged, and walked as though he sat on a horse. He had on sea-boots and a sou’wester, and a black oil-skin that flapped in the wind. He was short and squat, and he yelled to the other man as he came. His voice came faintly on the wind to the children.

“Now they’re talking together about our disappearance,” said Tom, quite enjoying himself. “Do you think they’ll come to find us, Andy? We’re well hidden here.”

The men talked together. The little bandy-legged one had a look round the boat and peered down into the cabin. It made Andy go red with rage to see strangers on his boat. He longed to go down and turn them off!

But if he did that he would give away the hiding-place. So he lay still, red to his ears, and Jill put her arm over his shoulder to comfort him. She knew what he was feeling. Andy was so proud of his boat, and loved her so much.

The men separated and went off in different directions. It was plain that they were hunting for the hidden children. They peeped about down in the cove, and occasionally shouted, though the children couldn’t hear the words.

“Shouting to us to come out, I suppose,” said Tom. “As if we would! I bet they don’t find us!”

The men came up a bit higher, and looked all about the rocks. There were one or two places where the children might have hidden.

Now they could hear what the men shouted to one another. “Where are those brats?” yelled the bandy-legged man. “Wait till I find them! Wasting my time like this!”

The children lay quite quiet. They didn’t like the look of the bandy-legged man at all as he came nearer. He had bushy eyebrows that almost hid his eyes, and a scar went all the way down one cheek. The dark man was good-looking, and spoke with a foreign accent.

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