He climbed back into the cave above. The children looked at each other gloomily by the light of their torches.
“What idiots we are!” said Mike. “We never thought about the tide. If we had thought we’d have known it was coming in and that we’d be nicely caught by it. It won’t be out of this cave for ages.”
“What are we going to do?” said Nora. “I’m so hungry. Can’t we eat our dinner now?”
“It’s damp and cold here,” said Jack, with a shiver. “We shall all get chills if we sit in this cave. We’d better go back to that underground room. At least it’s dry there. We can light our candles and eat our food by their light. Our torches won’t last much longer if we use them such a lot.”
So back they toiled up the secret passage till they came to the underground room. And there, where many a time the smugglers had sat and feasted and smoked, the four children undid their kit-bags and took out all the delicious things that Dimmy had put in for them.
Veal and ham pies had never tasted quite so good! And as for the ginger cake, the children could have done with twice as much! They finished up every scrap of everything, hard-boiled eggs and all, and then drank the sweet lemonade.
“That’s better,” said Jack, grinning round at the others by the light of four shining candles. “I was hungry.”
Mike looked at his watch. “It’s four o’clock,” he said. “I don’t suppose that cave will be clear till at least half-past five - and even then the beach is washed by huge waves that might sweep us off our feet. What a bore!”
“I’m simply longing to have a look at the tower of the Old House from the window of our tower,” said Nora. “I do want to see who the prisoner is. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could rescue him!”
“Jack, couldn’t we escape through the grounds straightaway now?” said Peggy. “If we went up into the cellars again, and into the scullery, and down the tradesmen’s entrance to the back gate we could easily get home in ten minutes - instead of waiting for hours for the tide to go out of the cave!”