There was a Christmas-tree after tea, with more presents - and as for the crackers, you should have seen them! Red ones and yellow ones, blue ones and green ones! Soon everyone was wearing a gay cap, and how the children laughed when Captain Arnold pulled a cracker and got a tiny aeroplane out of it!
“Well, you can’t fly away in that, Daddy,” cried Peggy.
“You won’t ever fly away again, Daddy, will you?” said Nora, suddenly frightened in case her father and mother should fly off again and be lost, so that the four children would be alone once more.
“No, never again,” said her father. “Mummy and I have made such a lot of money out of our flying now, that we can afford to stay at home and look after you. We shall never leave you again!”
It was four happy children who went to bed that night. The boys left the door open between their room and the girls’, so that they might all talk to one another till they fell asleep. They could not get out of this habit, for they had always been able to talk to one another in bed on the island.
“It’s been a lovely day,” said Peggy sleepily. “But I do just wish something now.”
“What?” asked Mike.
“I do just wish we could all be back in our cosy cave on our secret island for five minutes,” said Peggy.
“So do I,” said everyone, and they lay silent, thinking of the happy days and nights on the island.
“I shall never, never forget our island,” said Nora. “It’s the loveliest place in the world, I think. I hope it isn’t feeling lonely without us! Good-night, secret island! Wait for us till we come again!”