“There’s one thing, even if we have to hide away for days, we’ve enough food!” said Peggy.
“What about Daisy, though?” said Mike. “She won’t have anything to eat. A cow eats such a lot.”
“We should have to take her out to feed at night,” said Jack. “And by the way, Peggy, don’t light the fire for cooking until the very last minute and stamp it out as soon as you have finished. A spire of smoke gives us away more than anything!”
“What about someone hopping up to the hill-top now?” said Mike. “The sun is getting high. We ought to keep a watch from now on.”
“Yes, we ought,” said Jack. “You take first watch, Mike. I’ll give you a call when it’s time to come down. We’ll take turns all the day long. Keep watch all round. We don’t know from which end of the lake a boat might come, though it’s more likely to be from the end I was at yesterday.”
Mike sped up the hill and sat down there. The lake lay blue below him. Not a swan, not a moorhen disturbed its surface. Certainly no boat was in sight. Mike settled down to watch carefully.
The others were busy. Everything was taken up to the caves in the hillside and stored there. Nora left a sack by the hen-yard ready to bundle the hens into when the time came. She also put a pile of sand by the yard, ready for Mike to scatter after the fences had been pulled up. Nora was no longer the careless little girl she had been. Nor was she lazy any more. She had learned that when she did badly everyone suffered, so now she did her best - and it was a very good best too.
After a while Jack went up to take Mike’s place on the hill-top. Mike set to work to sink the boat. She soon sank to the bottom of the water, under the bramble bushes. Mike felt sure that no one would ever know she was there.
Peggy went hunting round looking for anything that might give them away. She did not find very much, for all the children tidied up after any meal or game. Broken egg-shells were always buried, uneaten food was given to the hens, and it was only things like snippings of wool or cotton that the wind had blown away that could be found.
Peggy went on guard next and then Nora. It was dull work, sitting up on the hill-top doing nothing but watch, so Nora took her pencil and drawing-book and drew what she could see. That made the time go quickly. Peggy took her mending. She always had plenty of that to do, for every day somebody tore their clothes on brambles. After every stitch Peggy looked up and down the lake, but nothing could be seen.