Famous Five 19 Five Go to Demons Rocks (7 page)

He didn’t want to have to fetch water every day for washing in! Gosh, we did have fun here!’

‘Well, it looks as if you’ll have some more fun!’ said Dick. ‘You’ve plenty of company this time! You must have been jolly lonely before.’

‘Oh well - I had Mischief,’ said Tinker, and when he heard his name, the little monkey came scampering over to him, and leapt into the boy’s arms, cuddling into him lovingly.

‘And what’s the next room in this marvellous little light-house?’ asked Julian.’

‘There’s only one more - and that’s the lamp-room. I’ll show you that - it used to be the most important room in the place - but now it’s lonely - never used - quite forgotten!

Come and see!’ And up the last spiral of the stairway went Tinker. How very, very proud he was of his light-house!

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Once more they all climbed up the spiral stairway. Timmy rather slowly, for he found the winding stairs difficult. Mischief shot up in front of them, almost as if he were the owner of the light-house, and was showing off his home!

The lamp-room was a high room with big windows all round it. It was very bright, for the sun shone steadily into it. The view was magnificent!

Anne gave a shout of wonder! The light-house was so high that the children could see for miles and miles over the heaving dark blue sea. They went all round the lamp-room, looking in every direction.

‘I say! There’s a door here!’ cried Dick. ‘Does it open on to that little balcony, or gallery, or whatever it is that runs all round this room?’

‘Yes. The gallery goes completely round the lamp-room,’ said Tinker. ‘My word, you should see it sometimes when the weather’s rough, and the gulls go seeking somewhere out of the storm. They perch on that gallery by the dozen! But you can’t go out there except in calm weather - you might be blown right off! You’ve no idea what it’s like when there’s a storm. Honestly, one night when my father and I were here I thought I felt the light-house rocking!’

‘This is about the most exciting place I’ve ever stayed in,’ said Anne, her eyes shining.

‘Tinker, I think you are the luckiest boy in the world!’

‘Do you really?’ said Tinker, pleased. He gave Anne a little pat. ‘I hoped you’d like it.

Mischief loves it - don’t you, Mischief?’

Mischief was up on top of the great lamp. He chattered down to Timmy as if he were telling him all about it. Timmy listened, his ears cocked, his head on one side.

‘He looks just as if he understood that monkey-gabble!’ said George. ‘Tinker - this lamp is never lighted now, is it?’

‘No, never,’ said Tinker. ‘I told you there is a fine new light-house a bit farther down the coast. It has a terrific lamp - run by electricity. We shall see its beam sweeping the sea at night.’

‘Why don’t people build light-houses and live in them?’ wondered George, as she gazed out over the wide blue sea.

‘Anyone feeling hungry?’ asked Tinker, rubbing his tummy. ‘I feel jolly empty.’

‘Oh gosh - we haven’t taken the things out of my boat!’ said Tinker. ‘Come on - let’s carry them all indoors, and have a meal. What’s the time? Past four o’clock! No wonder I feel empty. Come on, Mischief - to work! You can carry some of the things in too.’

They ran down the spiral stairway, through room after room, and came to the great door.

‘I suppose it had to be built as thickly and strongly as possible, because of the sea dashing against it in storms,’ said Julian, pulling it open. The wind rushed in and almost knocked him over! They pushed their way out, and climbed back over the rocks to where they had left the boat. It was bobbing gently up and down in the little stretch of calm water.

‘Hallo, Bob-About!’ said Tinker. ‘Did you think we were never coming? Got all our goods safely? Good little boat!’

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‘Ass!’ said Dick, grinning. ‘Come on, Ju - I’ll take half the heavy things, you take the rest.

The girls and Tinker can manage the smaller things. Hey, Mischief, what do you think you’re doing?’

Mischief had picked up a parcel or two, and was bounding off with them. ‘It’s all right!

He’s used to helping!’ shouted Tinker. ‘He often goes shopping with me, and carries bags and things. Let him help, he likes it.’

The monkey certainly was very useful. He scampered to and fro with all kinds of little things, and chattered happily. Timmy stood staring at him, his tail down, wishing he could use his paws as nimbly as Mischief could. George gave him a loving pat.

‘It’s all right, Timmy, darling. Here - take this basket.’

Timmy took the basket in his mouth by the handle and leapt happily up the steps of the light-house. He might not be able to pick up the little things that Mischief so easily managed - but at least he could carry baskets!

‘We’ll leave the boat bobbing up and down,’ said Tinker. ‘It will be quite all right there, tied to the post, unless the sea gets terribly rough - then we’ll have to pull it halfway up the steps.’

‘Let’s have our meal and unpack before we arrange our things,’ said Anne. ‘I really do feel very hungry now. What sort of a meal shall we have? I feel as if I want something more than a tea-time meal!’

‘That’s the worst of living in a light-house,’ said Tinker, quite seriously. ‘You’re awfully hungry nearly all the time. I used to have five or six meals a day when I stayed here with my father.’

‘Sounds all right to me,’ said Dick, with a grin. ‘Let’s have a “tea-sup” meal, shall we? A mixture of tea and supper! Tea-sup!’

Some of the things were put into the bedroom and some into the living-room. Soon Tinker popped a saucepan of water on the stove to boil. Because of the rainy weather, the little rain-catch tank had provided plenty of water for the small inside tank set over the sink, which was most conveniently put in the living-room. When Tinker turned on the tap, out came clear rain-water!

‘Magic!’ said Anne, delighted. ‘I feel as if I’m in a dream!’

Eggs were put into the saucepan, and were soon boiled. ‘Exactly three minutes and a half,’ said Anne, ladling out each one with a spoon. ‘TWO eggs each! At this rate we shall have to go shopping every day! George, you cut some bread-and-butter. The bread’s in that bag - but goodness knows where the butter is. I know we bought some.’

‘What about having a few of Joan’s famous mince-pies too?’ said Dick, taking the lid off a bigs square tin. ‘Whew! Dozens! And cherry buns as well! And home-made macaroons - Joan’s speciality! I say - what a meal!’

‘What shall we have to drink?’ said Julian. ‘Ginger-beer? Lemonade? Or shall we make some tea?’

Everyone voted for ginger-beer. It was a very pleasant and cheery meal that the Five had in the old lighthouse, with Mischief and Tinker. The gulls called outside, the wind gave the light-house an occasional buffet, and the sound of the sea was mixed with all the other noises - lovely! Anne hugged her knees as she waited for her ginger-beer. To think they were going to stay here for days and days. All by themselves.

When the meal was over, Anne and George washed up in the little sink. ‘Oh don’t wash up - just give the things a quick wipe-over!’ said Tinker. ‘Like this!’

‘Oh no!’ said Anne. ‘That’s just like a boy! You’d better leave this side of things to me. I like doing jobs like this, see?’

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‘Just like a girl!’ said Tinker, with a grin.

‘No, it isn’t,’ said George. ‘I hate doing them, and I’m a girl - though I wish I wasn’t!’

‘Never mind - you look like a boy, and you’re often as rude as a boy, and you haven’t an awful lot of manners,’ said Tinker, quite thinking that he was comforting George.

‘I’ve more manners than you,’ said George, and stalked off in a huff to look out of the windows. But nobody could be in a huff for long, with that wonderful view - sea for miles and miles, tipped here and there with white breakers. George gave a sigh of pleasure.

She forgot that she was annoyed with Tinker, and turned to him with a smile.

‘If I could own this view, I’d feel I was the richest person in all the world!’ she said.

‘You’re very lucky, Tinker.’

‘Am I?’ said Tinker, thinking it over, ‘Well, you can have half the view, if you like. I don’t want it all.’

Julian laughed, and clapped the boy on the back. ‘We’ll all share it, while we’re here!’ he said. ‘Come on - let’s unpack and arrange everything. Girls, you had better sleep here in this living-room - and we three boys will sleep down in the bedroom. That all right by you, Tinker?’

‘Fine - so long as you don’t mind Mischief sleeping with us,’ said Tinker. ‘Anyway I expect Timmy will sleep with the girls.’

‘Woof,’ said Timmy, agreeing. He was certainly not going to sleep anywhere without George!

They all had fun unpacking, and putting the things in the diferent places. ‘Store-room for that,’ Julian said, ‘and living-room for this and this - and bedroom for these rugs -

thought these two had better go to the living-room, because the girls will sleep there.’

‘Cards for the living-room,’ said Dick, handing them to Anne. ‘And books. And papers.

Gosh, we mustn’t forget to send a card each day to Aunt Fanny. We promised we would.’

‘Well, she’ll know we arrived safely today because the car-driver will be sure to send a message to her,’ said George. ‘But tomorrow we’ll go down to the village and buy a stock of post-cards - and we’ll send one every single day. I know Mother will worry if we don’t.’

‘All mothers are worriers,’ said Dick. ‘It’s a nuisance - but on the other hand it’s one of the nice things about them. Now then - what about a game of cards?’

And there they all are in the light-house, playing cards with shouts and laughter, Timmy and Mischief watching. You do have fun together, Five, don’t you?

When it began to get dark, Tinker left the card-table, and fetched an old-fashioned oil-lamp. He shook it.

‘It’s still got some oil in,’ he said. ‘Good. I’ll light it, then we can see properly.’

‘What a pity we can’t light the great oil-lamp at the top of the light-house,’ said George.

‘That must have been the light-house keeper’s great moment - lighting up the lamp to

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warn ships away. I wonder who first thought of a light-house - someone whose folk sailed, and might be wrecked on rocks, I suppose?’

‘One of the first great light-houses was built ages ago on an island called Pharos at the mouth of the Nile, not far from the great port of Alexandria,’ said Julian.

‘What was it built of - stone, like this one?’ asked Tinker.

‘No. It was built of white marble,’ said Julian. ‘I thought of it today when we went up the spiral staircase here - because the Pharos light-house had one too - much, much bigger than ours.’

‘What was their lamp like?’ asked Tinker.

‘I don’t know if it had a lamp,’ said Julian. ‘It’s said that an enormous fire was built each night on the top of the light-house, whose flames could be seen by ships a hundred miles away!’

‘Goodness - it must have been a pretty high light-house, then, this Pharos!’ said Dick.

‘Well, it was supposed to be 600 feet high!’ said Julian.

‘Whew! I wonder the wind didn’t blow it down!’ said Dick. ‘Let’s go and see it one day - if it’s still there.’

‘Ass!’ said Julian. ‘It’s gone long since. After all, it was built over twenty-two hundred years ago! An earthquake came along one day and the magnificent light-house was shaken to bits - completely destroyed!’

There was a shocked silence. Everyone looked round at the walls of the light-house they were in. An earth-quake! What a catastrophe that would be for even a little lighthouse!

‘Cheer up, Anne!’ said Julian, with a laugh. ‘We’re not likely to visited by an earthquake tonight! That old light-house on Pharos Island was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. No - don’t ask me the others - I’m getting too sleepy to remember!’

‘I wish we could light the lamp in this light-house,’ said Anne. ‘It can’t like being a blind light-house, after shining brightly for so many years. Could the lamp be lighted, Tinker, or is it broken now?’

‘Anne - if you think we’re going to scramble round that lamp-room and light the lamp just because you feel sorry about it, you’re mistaken,’ said Dick, firmly. ‘Anyway, it’s sure to be out of order after all these years.’

‘I don’t see why it should be,’ objected Tinker. ‘The lamp’s never been interfered with.’

‘Look - are we going to go on with our game, or are we not?’ said Julian. ‘l may as well remind you that I have won practically every game so far! Unless someone else wins a game soon I shall consider that I’m playing with a set of nitwits!’

That was quite enough to make everyone pick up their cards, and see if they couldn’t possibly beat Julian!

‘We’ll jolly well play till you’re well and truly beaten!’ said Dick.

But no - nobody could beat Julian that night. Luck went his way all the time. At the end of the fifth game Anne yawned loudly.

‘Oh sorry!’ she said. ‘Don’t think I’m bored. That yawn came too suddenly for me to stop it.’

‘Well, I feel decidedly yawny too,’ said Dick. ‘What about a snack of something - and then we’ll go to bed. We had such an enormous tea-sup that I feel I can’t manage another meal - but a chocolate biscuit or two would be quite welcome.’

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‘Woof!’ said Timmy at once, agreeing heartily, and Mischief said something in his little chattering voice, and tugged at Tinker’s sleeve.

‘I’ll bring you a snack or two,’ said Anne, getting up. She soon came back with a tray on which she had put lemonade, large slices of Joan’s new cake, and a chocolate biscuit for everyone, including Timmy and Mischief.

They ate with enjoyment, feeling lazy and comfortable. ‘And now to bed!’ said Julian.

‘Girls, do you want any help with your mattress or rugs or anything?’