The Aeroplane of Adventure

©2009 David Marlor

This novel is based on the characters created by Enid Bylton in the Adventure Series. In this regard, it is the ninth adventure and follows The River of Adventure.

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Chapter 7: The Pools

"An island," repeated Lucy-Ann. "We're on an island. All there is around us is the sea!"

It was quite true. The children looked in dismay at the sea all around them. It hadn't occurred to any of them that they might be on a small island. They could see another island in the distance but, other than that, they felt all alone. Jack got out his field glasses and swept the sea, turning in a complete circle as he did so.

"Just the one island out there," he reported. "And other than those men, this island seems deserted."

Lucy-Ann suddenly felt weak at the knees and flopped down on the rocks. The others sat down with her. Even Kiki sensed their gloom and she walked on the rocks making a low growling sound like a small dog.

"Now what are we going to do?" asked Lucy-Ann almost in tears. "How are we going to get off this island? Nobody knows we're here."

"We're in a real fix," said Dinah. "It's the worst we've ever been in."

"No it isn't," said Philip, seeing that Lucy-Ann was really upset. "Don't be stupid! We've been in worse fixes than this. We've been trapped in old copper mines, in a lonely valley, inside a mountain, and we were marooned on a small island in Scotland a few years ago. Come on, Lucy-Ann, don't cry. Let's put our heads together and figure this out."

"You know," said Jack, "I think the first thing we should do is find a safe place to live. Somewhere where we're out of the way of those men. Then we can figure out how to get off this island or get a message to Bill and Aunt Allie." Nobody could think of a better plan.

"Let's go down the other side of this hill, the opposite side to where the men are, and see if we can find a cosy cave or somewhere to live and hide," said Dinah.

After resting a bit longer in the hot sun, the children set off down the hill. The path seemed to have disappeared now and the children found themselves walking through deep grass and bushes.

"We'd better mark our way and set the compass," said Philip when they came to a copse of trees. Philip took out his knife and notched trees here and there to mark their way. They placed marks on rocks using a piece of hard sandstone Jack had found. Where there were no trees or rocks, the boys laid out small stones to point the way.

"The arrows all point ninety degrees left of the way we really are going," said Philip to Lucy-Ann as she watched him make an arrow out of small stones. "That way, if the men find them, they'll follow the way the arrow points. All we have to do is go ninety degrees right of the way the arrow is pointing. Or ninety degrees left if we're following the trail back up the hill. That way we can always find our way back."

Lucy-Ann tried to figure this out.

They came to a small stream and followed that down towards the sea. After a while they came to a rocky ledge. The stream dropped over it in a small waterfall and fell into a beautiful green-blue pool set in the rocks below.

"Oh, it's lovely," said Lucy-Ann. The pool was fairly small and surrounded by steep high cliffs. One side was open to the sea. A rocky shelf ran around the pool. The children scrambled down the side of the cliffs to the ledge. The waterfall fell off a ledge and landed in the middle of the pool.

"Look at this!" said Dinah excited. She pointed to the open end of the pool. There was another waterfall as the pool water fell over the edge and across some rocks to a sea lagoon below. The lagoon was set amongst rocks and as they watched waves splashed over and into it.

"Two pools, for that lagoon is really a pool," said Lucy-Ann in delight. "Oh, Jack, Philip, it's gorgeous here."

Philip had bent over and put his hand into the upper pool they were standing by. "Golly," he said in an astonished voice. "Why, this water is hot. See?"

The others tested the water. Philip was right. It was hot. They were puzzled. Why would the water be hot?

Jack tested the waterfall. "Cold," he said surprised. "So where is the hot water coming from?"

"Look over here," said Lucy-Ann standing on a ledge under the waterfall. Dinah and the boys went over to Lucy-Ann.

"Look, another stream," said Lucy-Ann pointing. This stream gurgled out of a small tunnel under the ledge. It smelt a little like bad eggs and Lucy-Ann didn't like it much. The stream couldn't be reached from the ledge. The only way was to swim. Philip shipped off to his shorts and climbed into the hot water.

"It's like a hot bath," he said to the others. They watched as he swam over to the stream where it emptied into the pool. He whistled. "My word, it's very hot," he said. He swam back over to the others.

"Oh, do let's make this our home," said Lucy-Ann, her bright blue eyes shining in pleasure. "Oh, do let's. I've always wanted to have my very own pool and waterfall."

"Yes," said Philip sweating from the heat as he trod water in the deep pool. "I think this would make a fine place to live until we're rescued."

"Look at this," said Jack who was on the other side of the pool. "A small spring runs out of the cliff here as well." He cupped his hands and tasted the water. "It's fresh and delicious," he declared.

"Oh, good," said Dinah, "We can use that for drinking water."

"I say," said Philip, "how strange. There are rough steps in the pool here, look." He climbed up them and out of the pool. "I wonder if they're natural, or if somebody made them at some time or other."

"Fancy," said Dinah, "hot and cold running water. Our very own hot and cold swimming pools."

They all agreed it would be a great place to live, if they could find a dry cave or somewhere safe to sleep.

The children had a picnic lunch on the rocks, swinging their legs over the edge. The hot pool was behind them and below them the seawater lagoon gleamed in the sunshine. Jack yawned and stretched out on the rocks after he had finished his sandwich.

A small black beetle with red spots walked over the rocks towards Philip. "Look at this little beauty," said Philip as he gently picked it up in his hand. Dinah immediately removed herself a safe distance from her brother. She was getting better at tolerating Philip's strange pets, but she still could not bear the creepy insects that Philip insisted on collecting.

Philip held the beetle out to Jack and Lucy-Ann, who looked at it with interest. "It's beautiful," said Lucy-Ann. "Look at those little red spots. What is it, Philip?"

"I don't know," admitted Philip as he watched the beetle settle in the palm of his hand and enjoy the sun.

"I suppose you're going to keep it?" said Dinah sulkily from a distance. "Really, Philip, I wish you wouldn't collect every creepy-crawly you find."

"And I wish you'd grow up and stop being scared of insects," snapped back Philip. "Look at Lucy-Ann here. She's not afraid of it."

"All right, you two, stop fighting," said Jack. "I think a little snooze would be nice about now." Jack settled down on some grass near the pool. Dinah, getting over her temper, realised she was also very tired and said she would like to snooze too. Philip watched the beetle for a while longer and then he too grew tired. Lucy-Ann didn't want to sleep though – she was wide awake.

Kiki walked over to her, and Lucy-Ann gave her the last pineapple from the tin. Kiki pecked at it and then flew up to Lucy-Ann's shoulder.

"Come on Kiki, Let's go down and look at that pool below," she said quietly to the parrot. She got up and made her way down the side of the steep rocky cliff. It really wasn't very far and the rocks acted like natural steps. She was soon down on the rocks. The pool glinted in the hot sunshine invitingly.

"I'm going for a swim, Kiki," said Lucy-Ann. She climbed back up and got her swimming things and changed on the rocks below. Then she climbed into the water. "Ohhh, it's cold," she said taking in her breath sharply. She swam across the pool to the rocks separating it from the ocean. Every so often a great wave would come splashing over the rocks and into the pool. Lucy-Ann could taste the salt. "Lovely," said the girl to herself. She pulled herself out of the water and lay on the rocks on the seaward side, enjoying the hot sun as it warmed her up.

Kiki didn't like water and soon got bored. She flew up to join some seagulls riding on the air currents. The gulls didn't like Kiki's company and soon flew off in disgust. Lucy-Ann watched Kiki's antics and laughed at the disappointed bird. "They don't want to play, Kiki," she said as the bird came back to her.

"Ding dong, ding dong," said Kiki conversationally. She tried to climb onto Lucy-Ann's shoulder, but the little girl wouldn't have that. "No, Kiki, you hurt when you do that on my bare shoulder."

Kiki meowed like a cat and then growled like a dog. Lucy-Ann laughed. "Oh, Kiki, what would we do without you?"

Kiki saw another bird in a large tree to the left of the pools. She flew up and tried to greet it. Lucy-Ann watched as Kiki flew into the leafy tree and disappeared from view. Lucy-Ann felt her eyes starting to close. Just as she was nodding off, she heard a squawk from the tree and then some scuffling. She looked up and saw a bird being chased by Kiki. As she watched, the big bird seemed to be having trouble flying and it flew back into the large leafy tree. Kiki decided she'd had enough and came back to Lucy-Ann.

"What did you do, Kiki?" Lucy-Ann scolded the bird.

"Three bind mice, three blind mice," said Kiki brightly.

Lucy-Ann swam back across the saltwater pool and climbed out. She put her rubber soled shoes back on and went over to the large leafy tree, and pushed her way under its branches. She looked up the tall tree and could hear the bird somewhere near the top. Was it injured? She decided she'd better go and get Philip or Jack. They'd know what to do as they both were mad on birds – though Jack was more so than Philip.

She went back and climbed up the natural steps in the rocks, and saw that Philip was just waking up. She told him what had happened.

Without waking Dinah or Jack, Philip slipped off the rocks and followed Lucy-Ann down the rocky steps, past the saltwater pool and over to the big tree. He pushed his way through the leaves behind her and looked as she showed him where she thought the bird was.

"Okay, Lucy-Ann," said Philip. "You wait here and I'll climb up and see if I can help the poor thing."

Philip jumped, but the first branch was too high for him to reach. He walked all around the thick trunk of the tree. It really was the biggest tree he'd ever seen. It must be thousands of years old. Around the back of the tree Philip made a discovery. He let out a low exclamation. Lucy-Ann ran round to see what was the matter.

"Look," said Philip, pointing. "The tree's trunk is hollow." Lucy-Ann looked at where he was pointing. Sure enough there was an open space inside the trunk of the tree.

"It looks like a doorway," she said.

Philip put his head inside and looked up. He could see some light filtering down inside the trunk.

"You know, I really believe I could climb up inside the trunk," said Philip to Lucy-Ann. "There are scores of knots and small foot holds. Wait here."

Philip started to climb up the inside the tree. It wasn't as easy as he thought and once or twice he lost his foot hold. Once he fell with a bump. He got up, brushed himself off and tried again. He managed to scramble up the inside of the tree and came to another opening in the side of the trunk. He found himself on a large wide branch a good way above the ground. He looked down and saw that leaves blocked his view of Lucy-Ann and the ground.

He found he could climb from branch to branch above him. The branches wound round and round the tree like a spiral stairway. Up and up went Philip in this huge tree. He could feel the tree sway a little in the wind. He soon came to a branch where there was a gorgeous black bird.

"Golly," thought the boy, "it's a beautiful mynah bird. Philip put out his hand cautiously and called softly to it in his special animal voice. The mynah crouched down a little and looked over at Philip. It sat listening to Philip's voice. Then it rose unsteadily and walked over to Philip's hand. Philip held it gently and looked it over carefully.

"You're only a baby, aren't you," said Philip softly. "Where's your mother?" He saw that its left wing had been clipped, probably in a fight with another bird.

"Don't worry, old thing," said Philip softly to the mynah bird. "Your wing will heal and then you'll be able to fly again." Philip stroked the mynah along its smooth black feathered neck and back.The bird liked the attention and cuddled closer into Philip's hands.

"Do you want to stay with me'?" asked Philip gently. He placed the mynah on his left shoulder. "You'll be safe now. Good boy, good boy," whispered Philip to the bird. "Good boy, good boy."

The bird ruffled its feathers and then startled Philip by saying, "Good boy, good boy," in a low concerned voice exactly like Philip's.

Philip almost fell out of the tree in surprise. "Of course," thought Philip, "mynah birds are good talkers, sometimes better than parrots. I wonder what Kiki will say?" Philip grinned at the thought of Kiki teaching the mynah how to speak. The bird population on the island would never be the same again!

Philip was just about to start climbing down with the mynah bird on his shoulder when he happened to look up and saw something. "What's that?" thought the boy, and started climbing.

Continues tomorrow...

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