"I don't know you when you look so dreadfully dirty!" she said. "Put on clean clothes, for goodness' sake!"
Soon they were all clean and dressed in other clothes. It felt nice to be tidy and fresh again. They hung round their mother and tried to tell her all their adventures at once.
"Andy was marvellous," said Tom. "We could never have done what we did if it hadn't been for him. The girls were pretty brave too—I was proud of them."
"And old Tom didn't do so badly—except that he left his precious camera behind and got us all into a fix!" said Jill. "He was as brave as could be."
"Well, I'm proud of you all," said their mother, hugging them. "But oh, I was so awfully worried when you didn't come back. J sent a message to your father and he came in his seaplane and hunted for you for days. He wouldn't give up hunting—and it's a good thing he didn't, for he found you just in time I You and Andy would never, never have got home on that little raft, you know, Tom."
"Wouldn't we?" said Tom, surprised. "I thought we really might."
"I don't think Andy thought there was much hope," said the children's father, "but he knew it was your only chance—and he knew, besides, that it was his duty to tell someone the great secret you had discovered. It means a lot to our country to know the secret of those desolate little islands."
There was a dull booming sound as the children's father finished speaking. Tom looked at his father.
"Is that guns?" he asked.
"Yes. It will be the end of those hateful submarines," said his father gravely. "There will be no more of our ships sunk without warning by that nest of submarines I And I rather think that our aeroplanes will drive off any seaplanes round about those islands—those that are not destroyed will fly to their own country in fear! They are no match for our pilots!"