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

‘We found the treasure!’ said Julian. ‘Come on - we’ll tell you all about it!’ And he led the way up the spiral stairway, with Tinker and the excited girls close behind.
Soon the boys were telling their story, and George and Anne and Tinker listened and exclaimed and danced about, and were altogether marvellous listeners to a marvellous tale.
‘It MUST have been the treasure - in an iron-bound chest - oh, Ju, weren’t you excited when the coins poured out?’
‘Yes. It was certainly a very fine moment,’ said Julian. ‘Mischief, stop pulling my hair. My word. It’s been an exciting morning! What about a drink of lemonade - and by the way, what’s the weather been like? We couldn’t see a thing down below!’
‘Oh, it’s awful again, Julian!’ said Anne. ‘There’s another storm coming - look at those scurrying black clouds.’
‘It does look bad,’ said Julian, his excitement leaving him, as he saw clearly that another big storm was blowing up. ‘We certainly shouldn’t be able to get out of here today, even if we could get out of the door!’
‘Julian, Tinker found his father’s old pocket radio in a cupboard,’ said Anne. ‘And it still works. We listened to the weather report, and it gave an important warning to all ships at sea or by the coast. It said they must run to safety as soon as they could.’
‘Well, I’m blessed if I know what to do for the best,’ said Julian, looking out of the window. ‘How in the world are we to let people know we’re here, marooned in the light-house? We’ll simply have to think of something!’
But that was easier said than done! How did one get help when there was no way to get help? How did one escape out of a locked light-house when there was no key?


Chapter Twenty-one

A WONDERFUL IDEA

‘I’m thirsty,’ said Tinker. ‘I’ll get some lemonade.’
‘Well, go slow with it, then,’ said Dick. ‘You don’t know how long we may be locked up here - and we haven’t endless food and drink!’
Tinker looked alarmed. ‘Might we be locked up here for weeks and weeks?’ he said.
‘If people thought we had left the light-house and gone back home because of the bad weather, we might easily be here for some time,’ said Julian, soberly. ‘Nobody would bother about us - they’d think we were safe at home.’
‘But Mother would soon feel worried if she didn’t hear from us,’ said George. ‘We said we’d send her a card each day, you know - and if she doesn’t have one for a day or two, she would be sure to get worried, and send someone over here.’
‘Hurrah for mothers!’ said Dick, relieved. ‘All the same - I don’t fancy a week or so here with hardly anything to eat. We’ll have plenty of one thing though - and that’s rain water!’
‘There must be some way out of this,’ said Julian, who had been sitting silent, frowning at his thoughts.
‘Can’t we get a message out somehow? Are there any flags here, Tinker, that we could wave out of a window?’
‘No,’ said Tinker. ‘I’ve never seen any. What about a white table-cloth? We’ve one of those.’
‘Yes. That would do,’ said Julian. ‘Fetch it, Tinker.’
Tinker pulled it off the table and gave it to Julian. Julian went to the window and looked through the glass, which was misted with spray. ‘I don’t expect anyone will notice a table-cloth being shaken out of this window,’ he said. ‘But I’ll try it. My word - the window’s hard to open. It seems to have stuck.’
He opened it at last, and immediately an enormous gust of wind came in, and everything went flying - papers, books, carpets - chairs fell over, and poor Mischief was blown from one side of the light-house room to the other. Timmy barked in fright and tried to catch the flying papers as they went by his nose. The table-cloth disappeared at once!
Julian managed to close the window again after a terrific effort, and once more the room became peaceful. ‘Whew!’ said Julian. ‘I didn’t guess there was such a gale outside. I should think that table-cloth is about five miles away by now! The gulls will get a surprise when it comes flapping along in the sky.’
George couldn’t help laughing at that, frightened though she was. ‘Oh, Julian - it was a jolly good thing you didn’t fly off with the table-cloth! My word, what a gale! I wonder the light-house stands it.’
‘Well, we do feel a buffet now and again,’ said Dick. ‘There - did you feel that? It was either a wave bumping into the rocks, or spray forced against us - I distinctly felt the light-house shake a little.’
‘Rubbish!’ said Julian, seeing Anne’s scared face. ‘Don’t make silly jokes like that.’
‘You’re quite sure that the light-house can’t be blown down?’ said Anne, in a small voice.
‘Dear Anne, use your common-sense,’ said Julian. ‘Would it have stood for all these years if it hadn’t been strong enough to stand against storms far worse than this?’
‘Mischief is feeling frightened too,’ said Tinker. ‘He’s gone and hidden, look.’
‘Well, long may he stay there,’ said Julian. ‘At least, he’s not trying to open the biscuit-tin, or delve into the bag of sweets! I should just like to know how many of our sweets he has eaten up to now!’
WHOOOOOOOOSH!
That was an extra big gale of wind that buffeted the light-house, and made Timmy stand up and growl. Rain pattered against the window, sounding as if someone was throwing pebbles.
Julian was very worried. It really did look as if the stormy weather was going on and on. It might quite well continue for a few days, and their food certainly would not last long. There were still some tins left, and they had plenty of water, of course - the rain saw to that - but somehow they were all always so hungry!
‘Cheer up, Julian,’ said George. ‘You do look grim.’
‘I feel it,’ said Julian. ‘I cannot for the life of me think of any way to escape from here, or even to get help. We’ve no way of signalling...’
‘Pity the light-house lamp is no longer going,’ said Tinker. ‘That would have been a fine signal.’
To Tinker’s enormous surprise Julian suddenly gave a shout, leapt up, came over to Tinker, and gave him such a clap on the back that the surprised boy almost fell off his chair!
‘W-w-what’s the matter?’ stammered Tinker, rubbing his shoulder.
‘Don’t you see - perhaps we can set the old lamp going, and make it shine out as it used to do - not to warn ships, of course - but to make people realize that we are prisoners in the light-house!’ said Julian, jubilantly. ‘Tinker - do you know if it’s possible to light the lamp?’
‘I think so,’ said Tinker. ‘My father showed me how it worked, and I think I remember. Oh - and there’s a bell that can be struck, too!’
‘Better and better!’ said Julian. ‘Where is the bell?’
‘It was dismantled and put away,’ said Tinker. ‘It used to hang in that sort of verandah place that runs outside, round the lamp-room - there’s a big hook for it there.’
‘Oh - it hung in that outside gallery, did it?’ said Julian. ‘Well - that means that one of us would have to go out there in the wind and hang it up - not too good! There must be a ninety-mile-an-hour gale up there. Anyway, let’s get the bell and have a look at it.’
The great bell was down in the store-room, covered up. It was made of brass, and once had had a hammer that struck it at intervals, worked by some simple machinery. But the machinery was in pieces - no good at all!
‘We’ll take the bell upstairs,’ said Julian. ‘Gosh, it’s heavy as lead. Dick, I’ll want your help.’