The two men were quite helpless. They could neither of them swim, they had no boat - they could do nothing but shout angrily, and that was no good at all! The boys simply laughed and waved to them.
When they reached their own boat, feeling rather cold and shivery, for they had no clothes on, they found the girls and Paul wide awake and rather scared. Peggy threw the boys their clothes, and called out to know where they had been and what all the noise was and where they had got the other boat.
“Can’t you guess!” cried Nora. “They’ve taken the enemies’ boat - and now they are prisoners on our secret island, hurrah! Oh, Jack, what a marvellous idea! We were so scared when we woke up and found you two gone - but we might have guessed you were off on some wonderful idea!”
“It’s Mike’s idea,” said Jack, dressing quickly. “It’s one of the best ideas he’s ever had! It acted beautifully too - Mr. Diaz and Luiz are as angry as can be, but they can’t do anything about it! As soon as it’s light we’ll row to the village at the end of the lake, get a car, and go off to Peep-Hole to see what Dimmy and George have done - and Mr. Diaz and Luiz can have a nice little holiday on the island!”
Everybody laughed. They felt sure they would never be able to go to sleep again that night, but after a while they began to yawn - and before the moon had begun to slide down the sky they were all fast asleep once more, with Mr. Diaz’s boat tied safely alongside their own.
They woke when the stars had gone and the moon had slipped away. The sun was coming up in the east and the lake looked peaceful and blue. Not a cloud was in the sky.
“Goodness, I am hungry!” said Peggy. “And we haven’t got a single thing to eat!”
Mike grinned. He put his hand into his pocket and brought out a large packet of chocolate!
“I kept this till this morning, thinking it would come in very useful!” he said. “We’ll share it, and then we’ll have to wait till we get to the village at the end of the lake for breakfast.”
“Good old Mike!” said every one, delighted to see the chocolate. It had nuts in it and was most delicious. They sat in the early morning sunshine, munching it and giggling whenever they thought of Mr. Diaz and Luiz!