"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 19 - Five Go to Demon's Rock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

They stopped to look at something - a strange jellylike thing, like an enormous sea anemone. Ebby caught them up, and bumped into Dick. He rounded on Ebby at once.
‘Keep off! Follow us if you like, but don’t come so near. We don’t like you!’
Ebby took no notice but kept as close behind everyone as he possibly could, and Dick realized that he was probably feeling very scared! Then, as they rounded another corner of' the tunnel, and saw yet another cave, Tinker gave a yell that echoed everywhere.
‘MISCHIEF! LOOK! THERE HE IS! MISCHIEF!’
And sure enough, there was the little monkey, crouched under a small shelf of rock, shivering in fright. He wouldn’t even go running to Tinker. Tinker had to pick him up and hug him.
‘Mischief! Poor Mischief - were you very frightened?’ he said. ‘You’re trembling all over! You shouldn’t have run away! You might have been lost for ever!’
Mischief had something clutched in his tiny paw. He chattered to Tinker, and put his little furry arms round his neck. As he did so, he opened one paw - and something fell out and rolled over the rocky floor.
‘What have you dropped, Mischief?’ said Dick, and shone his torch down on to the floor of the cave. Something was glittering there - something round and yellow! Everyone stared, and a shock of excitement went through Julian, who was nearest. ‘A gold coin!’ he cried, and picked it up. ‘As bright as when it was minted. Mischief, where did you get it from? Look, Dick, look, George - it’s gold all right!’
Immediately everyone was full of the greatest excitement, one thought only in their heads.
The treasure! Mischief must have found the treasure! It was an old coin - very old. Where could Mischief have found it?
‘Oh let’s go farther on and see!’ cried Dick.
‘Jeremiah, it must bc the treasure! Mischief will lead us to it!’
But Mischief would do nothing of the sort. He was NOT going to lose himself again. He was going to sit on Tinker’s shoulders, with an arm safely round the boy’s neck! He hadn’t liked being lost, all by himself in the dark.
Jeremiah would not go any farther, either. He shook his head. ‘No - not today, young sirs. Tide will soon be sweeping up these tunnels - faster than we can walk. Better turn back now, in case we’re caught. Many’s the visitor that’s had to run for his life, when the tide came up all of a sudden!’
George’s sharp ears caught the sound of swoosh-swoosh! Somewhere the tide had crept in! ‘Come on!’ she said. ‘We’d better do what Jeremiah says. The sea’s coming up the tunnel now as well as over it - and soon it will be sweeping up the beach too, and in at the cliff-passages. We’ll be caught in the middle, and have to stay here for ages!’
‘No need for alarm, missy,’ said old Jeremiah. ‘There’s a bit of time yet. Hallo - where’s Ebenezer gone?’
‘Blow - he must have heard us talking about Mischief’s gold piece,’ said George. ‘I forgot all about him! Now he knows that Mischief has found a gold coin, he’ll feel sure that the treasure may be somewhere down here - and he’ll look for it as soon as ever he can! WHY didn’t we keep quiet about it?’
‘I forgot he was standing near us,’ groaned Dick. ‘Well I suppose the whole of Demon’s Rocks Village will know by now that a monkey has found the treasure - and hordes of sight-seers will swarm down here, hoping to find it. It must have been put in a pretty dry place, surely, for that coin to be so bright and untarnished.’
‘Buck up - we’d better go back as quickly as possible,’ said Julian. ‘Look at old Jeremiah - he’s too thrilled for words! He’s planning to find the treasure himself at the earliest possible moment!’
‘Well, I vote we have a shot at it ourselves tomorrow,’ said Dick, excitement welling up in him at the thought. ‘Good old Mischief! You’re better than any detective!’
Then away up the tunnels they went, making all kinds of plans. WHAT an excitement!


Chapter Eighteen

BACK IN THE LIGHT-HOUSE - AND AN EXCITING TALK!

Old Jeremiah was as excited as the others, but he said very little. He was angry to think that Ebenezer should have been there to see the find. He didn’t trust that Ebby - nor that Jacob either! They’d be ferreting after that treasure as sure as nuts were nuts, and monkeys were monkeys! Ha - wouldn’t they like to know where it was! He stumped on, up the old tunnels, thinking hard, and at last they came out into the welcome daylight again!
‘Here, Jeremiah - buy yourself some more baccy,’ said Julian, putting twenty pence into the old man’s hand. ‘And don’t count too much on that treasure! I expect it’s just an odd coin that Mischief found in a dry corner somewhere!’
‘Thank you, young sir,’ said the old man. ‘I’m not wanting the treasure myself - I’m just hoping that Ebby and Jacob don’t find it. They’ll be hunting all the time for it now!’
They were glad to be out in the open again. The sun had gone now, and the wind had whipped up. It was raining hard.
‘I say - we’d better buck up, else we shan’t be able to walk back to the light-house over the rocks!’ said Julian, worried. But fortunately the wind was against the tide and they just had time to wade over to the light-house steps.
‘There’s our little boat bobbing-about,’ said Tinker. ‘And hark - I can hear old Timmy barking! He’s heard us coming!’
So he had. He had been lying on the door-mat, his ears glued to the crack under the door, listening, listening. Nobody had come near the light-house and not a sound did old Timmy hear but the wind and the sea, and a few gulls gliding by.
‘We’re back, Timmy!’ yelled George, and she pushed at the door. It opened, and Timmy leapt out, almost knocking her over. Mischief sprang on to the dog’s back, and chattered at him without stopping.
‘He’s telling him about the gold coin he found,’ said Tinker, with a laugh. ‘Oh, I wish you’d been with us, Timmy. It was grand!’
‘It feels as if we’ve been away for ages,’ said George. ‘But it isn’t very late after all - unless my watch is slow! I'm hungry. Let’s have something to eat and talk about everything - and what we’re going to do!’
So, over biscuits and sandwiches and coffee, they talked and talked. ‘We must get down to the caves again as soon as possible!’ said George. ‘I’m absolutely certain that Jacob and Ebby will be down there, hunting for coins, as soon as the tide’s out again.’
‘Well, we can’t do anything today, that’s certain,’ said Dick. ‘For one thing the tide’s in now - and for another thing it’s blowing up for a storm. Just hark at the wind!’
Timmy was sitting as close to George as he possibly could. He hadn’t liked her going out without him. She sat with her arm round him, eating her biscuits, occasionally giving him half of one. Tinker was doing the same with Mischief!
The children talked and talked. Where could Mischief have found that coin? Was it one on it’s own, that the sea had swept into the tunnel? Or was it part of a whole lot of coins? Had it come from an ironbound box, whose wooden sides had rotted away? They talked endlessly, their eyes bright, the round gold coin on the table in front of them.
‘I suppose it would be treasure-trove if we found it?’ said Dick. ‘I mean - it would be so old that it would belong to the Crown, and not to anyone in particular.’
‘I expect we’d be allowed to keep a few coins ourselves,’ said George. ‘If only we could go straightaway now and hunt in that tunnel! I feel as if I can’t wait!’
‘Woof,’ said Timmy, agreeing though he really hadn’t much idea of what they were talking about!
‘I say - LISTEN to the sea crashing over the rocks between us and the jetty!’ said Julian, startled at the sudden booming. ‘The wind must be working up to a gale!’
‘Well, bad weather’s been forecast for some time,’ saicl Dick gloomily. ‘Blow! It’ll be jolly difficult rowing to and fro in that little Bob-About boat. I doubt if we’d be able to walk across the rocks even at low tide, with a big sea running before the wind.’
‘Oh don’t be so gloomy!’ said Anne.
‘Well, do you want us to be prisoners here in the light-house?’ demanded Dick.
‘It wouldn’t matter - there’s plenty of food,’ said Anne.
‘No there isn’t! Remember there are five of us - and Timmy and Mischief as well,’ said Dick.