"Blyton, Enid - Adv 01 - Adventurous Four" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

The boy stayed on deck until midnight. He felt the night wind and wrapped a rug round his shoulders, though he did not feel really cold. After a while he whistled to Tom.
Tom awoke. "Coming," he said sleepily, and went up on deck. He shivered and Andy threw the rug round liim. "Keep her heading straight," he said. "Give me a call if you see anything."
It was queer up on deck all alone. The old sail flapped and creaked a little. The water went plash-lash-lash against the sides of the boat. The moon sailed in and out of the clouds as if she were a silver boat in the sky.
Then came a thick mass of clouds and the moon disappeared altogether. Tom couldn't see anything at all. He strained his eyes to try and pierce through the darkness but except for the gleaming white top of a near by wave now and then, he could see nothing.
But he could hear something, quite suddenly. It sounded like crashing waves. Tom longed for the moon to come out--and as he wished for it, it came sliding out from a cloud for a second before it disappeared again,
And in that tiny space of time Tom saw something that gave him a shock. The sea was breaking over big rocks just ahead!
"Andy! Andy!" yelled Tom, wrenching the tiller round. "Rocks ahead!"
Andy came tumbling up the steps, wide awake at once. He heard the sound of breaking waves and knew at once there were rocks ahead. He took the tiller.
And then there came a grating noise and a long groan from the ship. She was on the recks! She had run straight on to them--and there she lay, groaning, half over, slanting so much that the girls in the little cabin were thrown out of the bunk.
"Hold on, Tom," shouted Andy, clutching at Tom, who seemed about to slide overboard. "Hold on! She's settling!"
The ship did settle. She seemed to be wedged between two rocks that were holding her tightly, all on the slant. Waves splashed over one side of her deck.
For a few minutes the children hardly dared to breathe--and then Andy spoke.
"She's fast," he said. "She may have a hole in her bottom, but she won't sink while she's held like this. We must wait till dawn "
So they waited, clinging uncomfortably to the slanting sides of the ship. Dawn was not far off It silvered the eastern sky as they waited The light grew stronger, and then a gold edge appeared on the horizon. The sun was about to rise.
And in the golden light of the early sun they saw something not far off that made them shout for joy.
"Land ho!" they yelled, and would have danced in delight if only the deck had not been so slanting. And land ho there certainly was!
A sandy shore stretched to a rocky cliff Stunted trees grew further inland, touched with gold by the rising sun. It was an island of some sort, desolate, rocky and lonely--but it was at least land! Somewhere where they could light a fire and boil water to make themselves warm. Somewhere where other people might be to give them a helping hand.
"We'll have to swim for it," said Andy. "It's not very far. Once we're clear of these rocks we'll be all right. In fact, now that the tide has gone down a bit we could almost walk over the rocks, to the shallow water that runs up the shore."
Andy held out his hand to Mary. Tom helped Jill. Half-wading, half-swimming, they made their way over and between the reef of rocks, and paddled to shore. The sun had warmth in it now and warmed their cold bodies. How glad they all were that they had taken Andy's advice and had put on warm clothes!
"Well," said Andy, when they had reached the shore, "we'll climb up these cliffs and see if we can spot anyone's house."
They climbed the rocky cliffs. When they got to the top they looked around. A small stunted wood grew a little way off, on a hillside. Low bushes crouched here and there as if to hide from the strong wind that blew always across the island. Grass crept over the rocky earth, and a few daisies flowered. But there was no sign of any house, or of any human being.
Andy made up his mind quickly.
"If we've got to be stranded here for a time we must get out of our ship everything that's in her," he said. "Thank goodness we've got a certain amount of food and some rugs. The tide is at its lowest now--when it is high it will completely cover the deck of our boat--so we must wade back to her and take off everything of value in her. Come on, Tom. You girls can stand halfway to the boat in that shallow water, and we'll cany things to you over the rocks. Then you can take them back to the shore. It will be better than us all scrambling about on the rocks and dropping everything."
And so they began to empty the ship of all it held--" food, rugs, gramophone, camera, field-glasses, stool, table, tools, crockery, kettle, matches, little stove, everything! It took a long time--but before they had finished the tide had risen and the decks were awash. The cabin was full of water I
"We can't do anything more," said Andy. "Let's go and have a rest--and something to eat. I'm simply starving."


CHAPTER 4
On the Unknown Island

IT was a rather solemn set of children who sat down on the shore to eat breakfast. They had been brave during the storm--but now they all felt very tired and rather scared. It was strange to think they might have to stay for quite a long time on the unknown island until they were rescued--and supposing they were right off the route of the ships and steamers that used those seas?
Andy took charge. He was the oldest and wisest, and the others looked up to him. He was old for his fourteen years. He stared out at their wrecked ship, and wrinkled his forehead.
"Well, we're in a nice fix," he said. "But we'll forget it for a minute and enjoy our breakfast. We'd better finish up all the bread, for it will soon be stale. We'll eat all the food that might go bad--there Vthat open jar of potted meat, Tom, that we began last night--and the rest of the butter--and those buns that Mrs. Andrews gave us. And what about something hot to drink? I don't feel really cold, but it would do us good to get something hot inside us. Look--I brought the matches with me, wrapped in this oilskin so that they wouldn't get wet. We can't get the stove going till we get the tin of oil out of the locker in the boat--we forgot that--so we'd better make a fire on the beach."
Tom and Jill collected sticks, and soon there was a fine fire going. Andy went off up the cliff to see if he could find a stream to fill the kettle, which they had taken from the boat. He had to go a good way before he found a spring running down the little hill in the distance. He filled the kettle and went back to the cove.
"Good--the fire's going well," he said. "I found a spring, so we needn't worry about water. Where's the tin of cocoa--and we must finish up that Nestle's milk we opened, or it will go bad."
The kettle soon boiled, and the children made thick cocoa. They added the tinned milk to it and drank with enjoyment. The cocoa was good. The twins, who were cold, felt warmed up at once. Their clothes were still wet, and although the sun now shone down hotly they felt chffly.
Tom yawned. He was not used to keeping awake half the night. The girls were tired out, too, for they had been very sea-sick in the storm.
Andy had laid out the rugs in the sun. He felt them. They were almost dry.
"We'd better get off our wet things and hang them on the bushes to dry," he said. "We'll roll ourselves in these rugs, and lie down in that sheltered corner over there by the cliff, in the sun, and sleep off our bad night."
So in three or four minutes all that could be seen of the children were four tightly-rolled bundles lying peacefully asleep in the sunshine, well out of the wind in a cosy corner of the beach. Their damp clothes were spread out on bushes to dry, and were already steaming in the sun.
Andy awoke first. He knew at once where he was, and remembered all that had happened. He sat up to look at their ship. The tide was going down again now, and the ship looked queer, slanting sideways, caught fast between the two big rocks. Andy wondered what his father would say when he knew what had happened. It was a serious thing to lose a fishing-boat.
The sun was high in the sky. Andy threw off his rug and went to feel his clothes on the bush. They were perfectly dry. He put them on, and then went to the big pile of things they had taken from the ship. He looked among them and found a fishing-line.
He hunted about for a sand-worm, baited his hook, and clambered out on the rocks, where deep water swirled around him. He lowered his line into the water. In ten minutes he had caught his first fish, and was baiting the line again.
Tom awoke next. He sat up on the sand, astonished to hear the sea so close. Then he remembered all that had happened and leapt to his feet. He awoke the girls and they put on their warm clothes. They saw Andy, and waved to him.
"Andy's getting our dinner!" said Jill. "I suppose you're feeling as hungry as usual, Tom?"
"I could eat a whale!" said Tom, and he really felt as if he could.
It was fun cooking the fish over a fire. It smelt delicious. There was no bread left so the children had to eat the fish by itself, but they were so hungry that they didn't mind at all.
"It's about two o'clock in the afternoon," said Andy, looking at the sun. "Now the first thing to do is to find a good place to sleep forthe night. Then we'd better explore the island, if we've time. The food we've got with us won't last a great while, but at any rate we can always get fish--and I expect we'll find some berries we can eat, too."
"Look!" said Tom, suddenly pointing to the pile of things not far off. "There's a gull there. Will he peck our tins open--or eat our cocoa!"
Andy clapped his hands and the gull flew off, crying loudly. "We certainly mustn't leave any food out," said Andy. "The gulls would have it at once. Look--there's two or three fishes left we can have for our supper. We'd better make a hole in the sand and bury them under some heavy stones till we want them. The gulls would soon make a meal of them if we left them uncovered!"