George went to the ruined room and gazed round in anger. Yes, the Sticks certainly had helped themselves to her mother's things, no doubt about that! There were blankets and silver and all kinds of food. Mrs. Stick must have gone into the big cupboard under the stairs and taken out various things stored there for weekly use.

George ran to d.i.c.k. "There are heaps of our things!" she said, in a fierce whisper. "Come and help me to get them. We'll see if we can take them all before Edgar appears, or the Sticks come back."

Just as they were whispering together, they heard a low whistle. They looked round, and saw Julian coming along. He joined them.

"The Sticks have rowed off to the wreck," he said. "They've got an old boat somewhere down among those rocks. Old Pa Stick must be a good sailor to be able to take the boat in and out of those awful hidden rocks."

"Oh, then we've got time to do what we want to do," said d.i.c.k, pleased. He hurriedly told Julian of the things George had seen in the ruined room.

"Awful thieves!" said Julian, indignantly. "They don't mean to go back to Kirrin Cottage, that's plain. They've got some business on with the smugglers here-and when that is done they'll go off with all their stolen goods, join a ship somewhere, and get off scot-free."

"No, they won't," said George at once. "We are going to get everything and take it to the cave! d.i.c.k's going to keep watch for Edgar at the cave entrance, and you and I, Julian, can quickly carry the things away. We can drop them down the hole into the cave."

"Hurry then!" said Julian. "We must do it before the Sticks return, and I don't expect they'll be long. They've probably gone to fetch the trunk and anything else in the wreck. You know I saw a light out to sea last night-maybe that's a signal that the smugglers were leaving something in the wreck for the Sticks to fetch."

George and Julian ran to the ruined room, piled their arms with the goods there, and then ran to hide them on the cliff, ready to take them to the hole when they had time. It looked as if the Sticks had just taken whatever was easiest to lay their hands on. They had even got the kitchen clock!

Edgar did not appear at all, so d.i.c.k had nothing to do but sit by the steps of the dungeon and watch the others. After some time Julian and George gave a sigh of relief and beckoned to d.i.c.k. He left his place and went to join them.

"We've got everything now," said Julian. "I'm just going to the cliff-edge to see if the Sticks are returning yet. If they're not we'll all carry the things to the hole in the roof of the cave."

He soon returned. "I can see their boat tied to the wreck," he said. "We're safe for some while yet. Come on, let's get the things to safety! This really is a bit of luck."

They carried the things to the hole and called down it to Anne. "Anne! We've got tons of things to put down the hole. Stand by to catch!"

Soon all kinds of things came down the hole into the cave! Anne was most astonished. The silver and anything that might be hurt by a fall was first wrapped up in the blankets, and then let down by a rope.

"My goodness!" said Anne. "This cave will really look like a house soon, when I have arranged all these things too!"

Just as they were finishing their job the children heard voices in the distance.

"The Sticks are back!" said Julian, and looked cautiously over the cliff-top. He was right. They had returned to their boat, and were even now on their way back to the castle, carrying the trunk from the wreck.

"Let's follow them, and see what happens when they find everything gone," grinned Julian. "Come on, everyone!"

They wriggled over the cliff on their tummies, and came to a clump of bushes behind which they could hide and watch. The Sticks put the trunk down, and looked round for Edgar. But Edgar was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's that boy?" said Mrs. Stick, impatiently. "He's had plenty of time to do everything. Edgar! Edgar! Edgar!"

Mr. Stick went to the ruined room and peeped inside. He came back to Mrs. Stick.

"He's taken everything down," he said. "He must be down in the dungeon. That room's quite empty."

"I told him to come up and sit in the sun when he'd finished," said Mrs. Stick. " 'Tisn't healthy down in them dungeons. EDGAR!"

This time Edgar heard, and his head appeared, looking out of the entrance to the dungeon. He looked extremely scared.

"Come on up!" said Mrs. Stick. "You've got all the things down, and. you'd better stay up here in the sunshine now."

"I'm scared," said Edgar. "I'm not staying up here alone."

"Why not?" said Mr. Stick, astonished. .

"It's them cows again!" said poor Edgar. "Hundreds of them, Pa, all a-mooing round me, and throwing things at me. They're dangerous animals, they are, and I'm not coming up here alone!"

Chapter Eighteen.

AN UNEXPECTED PRISONER.

THE Sticks stared at Edgar as if he was mad.

"Cows throwing things?" said Mrs. Stick at last. "What do you mean by that? Cows don't throw any thing."

"These ones did," said Edgar, and then began to exaggerate in order to make his parents sympathise with him. "They were dreadful cows, they were-hundreds of them, with horns as long as reindeer, and awful mooing voices. And they threw things at me and Tinker. Proper scared he was, and so was I. I dropped the cushions I was taking down, and rushed away to hide."

"Where are the cushions?" said Mr. Stick, looking round. "I can't see no cushions. I suppose you'll tell us the cows ate them."

"Didn't you take everything down into the dungeons?" demanded Mrs. Stick. "Because that room's empty now. There's not a thing in it."

"I didn't take nothing down at all," said Edgar, coming cautiously out of the dungeon entrance. "I dropped the cushions just about where you're standing. What's happened to them?"

"Look "ere!" said Mr. Stick, in amazement. " 'Oo's been 'ere since we've been gone? Someone's taken them cushions and everything else too. Where have they put them?"

"Pa, it was them cows," said Edgar, looking all round as if he expected to see cows walking off with cushions and silver and blankets.

"Shut up about them cows," said Mrs. Stick, suddenly losing her temper. "For one thing there aren't any cows on this island, and that we do know, for we looked all over it this morning. What we heard last night must have been queer sort of echoes rumbling round. No, my boy - there's something funny about all this. Looks as if there w somebody on the island!"

A dismal howl came echoing up from below the ground. It was Stinker, terrified at being alone below, and not daring to come up.

"Poor lamb!" said Mrs. Stick, who seemed much fonder of Stinker than of anyone else.

"What's up with him?"

Stinker let out an even more doleful howl, and Mrs. Stick hurried down-the steps to go to him. Mr. Stick followed her, and Edgar lost no time in going after them.

"Quick!" said Julian, standing up. "Come with me, d.i.c.k. We may just have time to get that trunk! Run!"

The two boys ran quickly down to the courtyard of the ruined castle. Each took a handle of the small trunk, and lifted it between .them. They staggered back to George with it.

"We'll take it to the cave," whispered Julian. "You stay here a few minutes and see what happens."

The boys went over the cliff with the trunk. George flattened herself behind her bush and watched. Mr. Stick appeared again in a few minutes, and looked round for the trunk. His mouth fell open in astonishment when he saw that it was gone. He yelled down the entrance to the dungeon.

"Clara! The trunk's gone!"

Mrs. Stick was already on her way up, with Stinker close beside her and Edgar just behind. She climbed out and stared round.

"Gone?" she said, in enormous surprise. "Gone? Where's it gone?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" said Mr. Stick. "We leave it here a few minutes - and then it goes. Walks off by itself-just like all the other things!"

"Look here! There's someone on this island," said Mrs. Stick. "And I'm going to find out who it is. Got your gun, Pa?"

"I have," said Mr. Stick, slapping his belt. "You get a good stout stick too, and we'll take Tinker. If we don't ferret out whoever's trying to spoil our plans, my name's not Stick!"

George slipped away quietly to warn the others. Before she slid down the rope into the cave, she pulled several bramble sprays across the hole. She dropped down to the floor of the cave, and told the others what had happened.

Julian had been trying to open the trunk, but it was still locked.. He looked up as George panted out" her tale.

"We'll be all right here so long as no one falls down that hole in the roof!" he said. "Now keep quiet everyone, and don't you dare to growl, Timmy!"

Nothing was heard for some time, and then Stinker's bark came in the distance. "Quiet now," said Julian. "They are near here."

The Sticks were up on the cliff once more, searching carefully behind every bush. They came to the great bush behind which the children often hid, and saw the flattened gra.s.s there.

"Someone's been here," said Mr. Stick. "I wonder if they're in the middle of this bush-it's thick enough to hide half an army! I'll try and force my way in, Clara, while you stand by with my gun."

Edgar wandered off by himself while this was happening, feeling certain that n.o.body would be foolish enough to live in the middle of such a p.r.i.c.kly bush. He walked across the cliff- and then, to his awful horror, he found himself falling! His legs disappeared into a hole, he clutched at some th.o.r.n.y sprays but could not save himself. Down he went, and down and down-and down-crash!

Edgar had fallen down the hole in the roof of the cave. He suddenly appeared before the children's startled eyes, and landed in a heap on the soft sand. Timmy at once pounced on him with a fearsome growl, but George pulled him off just in time.

Edgar was half-stunned with fright and his fall. He lay on the floor of the cave, groaning, his eyes shut. The children stared at him and then at one another. For a few moments they were completely taken aback and didn't know what to do or say. Timmy growled ferociously-so ferociously that Edgar opened, his eyes in fright. He stared round at the four children and their dog in the utmost surprise and horror.

He opened his mouth to yell for help, but at once found Julian's large hand over it. "Yell just once and Timmy shall have a bite out of any part of you he likes!" said Julian, in a voice as ferocious as Timothy's growl. "See? Like to try it? Timmy's waiting to bite."

"I shan't yell," said Edgar, speaking in such a low whisper that the others could hardly hear him. "Keep that dog off. I shan't yell."

George spoke to Timothy. "Now you listen, Timothy-if this boy shouts, you just go for him! Lie here by him and show him your big teeth. Bite him wherever you like if he yells."

"Woof!" said Timmy, looking really pleased. He lay down by Edgar, and the boy tried to move away. But Timmy came nearer every time he moved.

Edgar looked round at the children. "What you doing on this island?" he said. "We thought you'd gone home."

"It's our island!" said George, in a very fierce voice. "We've every right to be on it if we want to-but you have no right at all. None! What are you and your father and mother here for?"

"Don't know," said Edgar, looking sulky.

"You'd better tell us;" said Julian. "We know you're in league with smugglers."

Edgar looked startled. "Smugglers?" he said. "I didn't know that. Pa and Ma don't tell me nothing. I don't want nothing to do with smugglers."

"Don't you know any-thing?" said d.i.c.k. "Don't you know why you've come to Kirrin Island?"

"I don't know nothing," said Edgar, in an injured tone. "Pa and Ma are mean to me. They never tell me nothing. I do as I'm told, that's all. I don't know nothing about smugglers, I tell you that."

It was quite plain to the children that Edgar really did not know anything of the reasons for his parents coming to the island. "Well, I'm not surprised they don't let Spotty-Face into their secrets," said Julian. "He'd blab them if he could, I bet. Anyway, we know it's smuggling they're mixed up in."

"You let me go," said Edgar, sullenly. "You got no right to keep me here."

"We're not going to let you go," said George at once. "You're our prisoner now. If we let you go back to your parents, you'd tell them all about us, and we don't want them to know we're here. We're going to spoil their pretty plans, you see."

Edgar saw. He saw quite a lot of things. He felt rather sick. "Was it you that took the cushions and things?"

"Oh no, dear Edgar," said d.i.c.k. "It was the cows, wasn't it? Don't you remember how you told your mother about the hundreds of cows that mooed at you and threw things and stole the cushions you dropped? Surely you haven't forgotten your cows already?"

"Funny, aren't you?" said Edgar, sulkily. "What you going to do with me? I won't stay here, that's flat."

"But you will, Spotty-Face," said Julian. "You will stay here till we let you go-and that won't be till we've cleared up this little smuggling mystery. And let me warn you that any nonsense on your part will be punished by Timmy."

"Lot of beasts you are," said Edgar, seeing that he could do nothing but obey the four children. "My Pa and Ma won't half be furious with you."

His Ma and Pa were feeling extremely astonished. There had, of course, been n.o.body hiding in the big thick bush, and when Mr. Stick had wriggled out, scratched and bleeding, he had looked round for Edgar. And Edgar was not to be seen.

"Where's that dratted boy?" he said, and shouted for him. "Edgar! ED-GAR!"

But Edgar did not answer. The Sticks spent a very long time looking for Edgar, both above ground and underground. Mrs. Stick was convinced that poor Edgar was lost in the dungeons, and she tried to send Stinker to find him. But Stinker only went as far as the first cave. He remembered the peculiar noises of the night before and was not at all keen on exploring the dungeons.

Julian turned his attention to the little trunk, once Edgar had been dealt with. "I'm going to open this somehow," he said. "I'm sure it's got smuggled goods in, though goodness knows what."

"You'll have to smash the locks then," said d.i.c.k. Julian got a small rock and tried to smash the two locks. He managed to wrench one open after a while, and then the other gave way too. The children threw back the lid.

On the top was a child's blanket, embroidered with white rabbits. Julian pulled it off, expecting to see the smuggled goods below. But to his astonishment there were a child's clothes!

He pulled them out. There were two blue jerseys, a blue skirt, some vests and knickers and a warm coat. At the bottom of the trunk were some dolls and a teddy bear!

"Golly!" said Julian, in amazement. "What are all these for? Why did the Sticks bring these to the island-and why did the smugglers hide them in the wreck? It's a puzzler!"

Edgar appeared to be as astonished as the rest. He too had expected valuable goods of some kind. George and Anne pulled out the dolls. They were lovely ones. Anne cuddled them up to her. She loved dolls, though George scorned them.

"Who do they belong to?" she said. "Oh won't she be-sad not to have them? Julian, isn't it funny? Why should anyone bring a trunk full of clothes and dolls to Kirrin Island?"