“Get inside the cave, you two girls,” whispered Jack. “I think you’ll be safe there. I’m going to slip round the hill and come up behind this person, whoever he is.”
The girls crept just inside the cave and parted the bracken that grew around it to see what Jack was going to do. He was just slipping away when the person creeping up the hillside stopped his crawling. The bracken kept still. This was worse than seeing it move! Oh dear!
Then a head popped out of the bracken, and Nora gave a loud squeal.
“Mike!” she said. "Mike!”
“Sh, you silly chump!” hissed Peggy, shaking her. “You’ll be heard by the trippers!”
Fortunately the gramophone was going loudly, so Nora’s squeal was not heard. The three children stared in delight at Mike. It was he who had been creeping up through the bracken after all! What a relief! He grinned at them and put his head down again. Once more the bracken fronds began to move slightly as Mike made his way through them up to the cave.
“Oh, Mike,” said Nora, when he came up to them. “You did give us such a fright. We thought you were a tripper coming after us!”
“I got a good view of them,” said Mike, sitting down beside the others. “There are three men and two women. They are tucking into an enormous supper.”
“Do you think they’ll explore the island as they said?” asked Peggy anxiously.
“Perhaps this thunderstorm will put them off,” said Mike, looking up at the black sky. “My word, it’s brought the bats out early! Look at them!”