Five On A Treasure Island

Chapter Fourteen. PRISONERS!

GEORGE couldn't say a word. She just stood there, staring at the pile of ingots, holding one in her hand. She could hardly believe that these strange brick-shaped things were really gold. Her heart thumped fast. What a wonderful, marvellous find!

Suddenly Tim began to bark loudly. He stood with his back to the children, his nose towards the door- and how he barked!

"Shut up, Tim!" said Julian. "What can you hear? Is it the others coming back?"

He went to the door and yelled down the passage outside. "Dick! Anne! Is it you? Come quickly, because we've found the ingots! WE'VE FOUND THEM! HURRY! HURRY!"

Tim stopped barking and began to growl. George looked puzzled. "Whatever can be the matter with Tim?" she said. "He surely can't be growling at Dick and Anne."

Then both children got a most tremendous shock- for a man's voice came booming down the dark passage, making queer echoes all around.

"Who is here? Who is down here?"

George clutched Julian in fright. Tim went on growling, all the hairs on his neck standing up straight. "Do be quiet, Tim!" whispered George, snapping off her torch.

But Tim simply would not be quiet. He went on growling as if he were a small thunderstorm.

The children saw the beam of a powerful torchlight coming round the corner of the dungeon passage. Then the light picked them out, and the holder of the torch came to a surprised stop.

"Well, well, well!" said a voice. "Look who's here! Two children in the dungeons of my castle."

"What do you mean, your castle!" cried George.

"Well, my dear little girl, it is my castle, because I'm in the process of buying it," said the voice. Then another voice spoke, more gruffly.

"What are you doing down here? What did you mean when you shouted out ‘Dick’ and ‘Anne,’ and said you had found the ingots? What ingots?"

"Don't answer," whispered Julian to George. But the echoes took his words and made them very loud in the passage."DON'T ANSWER! DON'T ANSWER!"

"Oh, so you won't answer," said the second man, and he stepped towards the children. Tim bared his teeth, but the man didn't seem at all frightened of him. The man went to the door and flashed his torch inside the dungeon. He gave a long whistle of surprise.

"Jake! Look here!" he said. "You were right. The gold's here all right. And how easy to take away! All in ingots -my word, this is the most amazing thing we've ever struck."

"This gold is mine," said George, in a fury. "The island and the castle belong to my mother- and so does anything found here. This gold was brought here and stored by my great-great-great-grandfather before his ship got wrecked. It's not yours, and never will be. As soon as I get back home I shall tell my father and mother what we've found- and then you may be sure you won't be able to buy the castle or the island! You were very clever, finding out from the map in the old box about the gold -but just not clever enough for us. We found it first!"

The men listened in silence to George's clear and angry voice. One of them laughed. "You're only a child," he said. "You surely don't think you can keep us from getting our way? We're going to buy this island- and everything in it- and we shall take the gold when the deeds are signed. And if by any chance we couldn't buy the island, we'd take the gold just the same. It would be easy enough to bring a ship here and transfer the ingots from here by boat to the ship. Don't worry- we shall get what we want all right."

"You will not!" said George, and she stepped out of the door. "I'm going straight home now- and I'll tell my father all you've said."

"My dear little girl, you are not going home," said the first man, putting his hands on George and forcing her back into the dungeon. "And, by the way, unless you want me to shoot this unpleasant dog of yours, call him off, will you?"

George saw, to her dismay, that the man had a shining revolver in his hand. In fright she caught hold of Tim's collar and pulled him to her. "Be quiet, Tim," she said. "It's all right."

But Tim knew quite well that it wasn't all right. Something was very wrong. He went on growling fiercely.

"Now listen to me," said the man, after he had had a hurried talk with his companion. "If you are going to be sensible, nothing unpleasant will happen to you. But if you want to be obstinate, you'll be very sorry. What we are going to do is this- we're going off in our motor-boat, leaving you nicely locked up here- and we're going to get a ship and come back for the gold. We don't think it's worth while buying the island now we know where the ingots are."

"And you are going to write a note to your companions above, telling them you've found the gold and they are to come down and look for it," said the other man. "Then we shall lock up all of you in this dungeon, with the ingots to play with, leaving you food and drink till we come back. Now then- here is a pencil. Write a note to Dick and Anne, whoever they are, and send your dog up with it. Come on."

"I won't," said George, her face furious. "I won't. You can't make me do a thing like that. I won't get poor Dick and Anne down here to be made prisoners. And I won't let you have my gold, just when I've discovered it."

"We shall shoot your dog if you don't do as you're told," said the first man, suddenly. George's heart sank down and she felt cold and terrified.

"No, no," she said, in a low, desperate voice.

"Well, write the note then," said the man, offering her a pencil and paper. "Go on. I'll tell you what to say."

"I can't!" sobbed George. "I don't want to get Dick and Anne down here to be made prisoners."

"All right- I'll shoot the dog then," said the man, in a cold voice and he levelled his revolver at poor Tim. George threw her arms round her dog and gave a scream.

"No, no! I'll write the note. Don't shoot Tim, don't shoot him!"

The girl took the paper and pencil in a shaking hand and looked at the man. "Write this," he ordered. " "Dear Dick and Anne. We've found the gold. Come on down at once and see it." Then sign your name, whatever it is."

George wrote what the man had said. Then she signed her name. But instead of writing ‘George’ she put ‘ Georgina.’ She knew that the others would feel certain she would never sign herself that- and she hoped it would warn them that something queer was up. The man took the note and fastened it to Tim's collar. The dog growled all the time, but George kept telling him not to bite.

"Now tell him to go and find your friends," said the man.

"Find Dick and Anne," commanded George. "Go on, Tim. Find Dick and Anne. Give them the note."

Tim did not want to leave George, but there was something very urgent in her voice. He took one last look at his mistress, gave her hand a lick and sped off down the passage. He knew the way now. Up the rocky steps he bounded and into the open air. He stopped in the old yard, sniffing. Where were Dick and Anne?

He smelt their footsteps and ran off, his nose to the ground. He soon found the two children out on the rocks. Dick was feeling better now and was sitting up. His cheek had almost stopped bleeding.

"Hallo," he said in surprise, when he saw Tim. "Here's Timothy! Why, Tim, old chap, why have you come to see us? Did you get tired of being underground in the dark?"

"Look, Dick- he's got something twisted into his collar," said Anne, her sharp eyes seeing the paper there. "It's a note. I expect it's from the others, telling us to go down. Isn't Tim clever to bring it?"

Dick took the paper from Tim's collar. He undid it and read it.

"Dear Dick and Anne," he read out aloud, "We've found the gold. Come on down at once and see it. Georgina."

"Oooh!" said Anne, her eyes shining. "They've found it. Oh Dick- are you well enough to come now? Let's hurry."

But Dick did not get up from the rocks. He sat and stared at the note, puzzled.

"What's the matter?" said Anne, impatiently.

"Well, don't you think it's funny that George should suddenly sign herself ‘ Georgina ’?" said Dick, slowly. "You know how she hates being a girl, and having a girl's name. You know how she will never answer if anyone calls her Georgina. And yet in this note she signs herself by the name she hates. It does seem a bit funny to me. Almost as if it's a kind of warning that there's something wrong."

"Oh, don't be so silly, Dick," said Anne. "What could be wrong? Do come on."

"Anne, I'd like to pop over to that inlet of ours to make sure there's no one else come to the island," said Dick. "You stay here."

But Anne didn't want to stay there alone. She ran round the coast with Dick, telling him all the time that she thought he was very silly.

But when they came to the little harbour, they saw that there was another boat there, as well as their own. It was a motor-boat! Someone else was on the island!

"Look," said Dick, in a whisper. "There is someone else here. And I bet it's the men who want to buy the island. I bet they've read that old map and know there's gold here. And they've found George and Julian and want to get us all together down in the dungeons so that they can keep us safe till they've stolen the gold. That's why they made George send us that note- but she signed it with a name she never uses- to warn us! Now- we must think hard. What are we going to do?"