“Not till two hours after breakfast, remember,” said Dimmy warningly. “It is dangerous to bathe after a big meal. Jack, I can trust you not to let the others do anything foolish, can’t I?”
“Jack’s our captain, Dimmy,” said Nora. “We always do what he says.”
They went down to the beach, taking with them a basket of ripe plums from the garden for their eleven o’clock lunch. They chose a rock far down the beach, that the tide was already lapping round, and sat on it.
“It’s best to be in some place where we can’t possibly be overheard.” said Jack, looking all round. “Now that Mr. Diaz thinks one of us knows the secret of the prisoner in the tower, and all about the secret passage too, we shall have to be extra careful. I think Nora’s right when she says we must go about together. Mr. Diaz and Luiz would be pleased if they could catch any of us and keep us prisoner too!”
“Let’s talk about rescuing Prince Paul,” said Nora, who was longing to get the boy out of the tower. “Couldn’t we take the rope-ladder along to-night, Jack? Now that you’ve made friends with the dogs, it would be easy.”
“Well, I don’t know if the dogs would be friends with you too,” said Jack doubtfully. “We could try. No - I know what we’ll do. I’ll take Mike along with me to help, and you two girls can stay behind. We’ll signal a message to Prince Paul with our big black letters to-day, then he will be ready to look out for the ladder to-night.”
The girls were disappointed at the thought of being left behind, but they made no fuss. It was no use all of them going if the dogs barked at them and warned Mr. Diaz that they were about. Perhaps they would be all right with just Jack and Mike.
“I’ll take some meat along with me too, tonight,” said Mike. “You can go into the grounds first, Jack, and fuss the dogs a bit - and then you can bring them to where I am and try to make them understand I am a friend, too.”
So it was all decided. The rescue was to take place that night. What fun! The children were so thrilled that they could hardly talk of anything else as they ate their plums at eleven o’clock, and then dug an enormous castle on the beach to sit on when the tide came in. It came swirling up the sand and soon surrounded their great castle.
They went back to Peep-Hole early, about noon, because for one thing the sea was rough and there was very little beach to play on, and for another thing they wanted to signal to Prince Paul. They got out their big letters and went to the window.