Go and lie down;' and Laddie, looking heart-broken, retired to the turf d.y.k.e and lay watching the fray in consternation.

The battle raged long and furiously, neither side appearing to gain the advantage.

The attacking party pressed round the walls of the cottage, only to be beaten back by the projectiles which were showered upon them. Nerving themselves to fresh efforts, they rushed to the attack, Allan calm, Reggie intrepid, and the two Grahams animated by the wildest excitement.

Seeing one spot undefended, Gerald made a dash for it, and had already one foot on the wall, preparatory to scaling the cottage, when 'swish'

came a lump of sea-weed in his face; and before he had recovered from the shock a pair of strong hands seized him and Marjorie's voice shouted, 'A prisoner!'

A wild rush was made to effect a rescue, but Hamish came to Marjorie's a.s.sistance, and Gerald was pulled kicking and struggling up on the roof.

'Now you had better sit down quietly,' said Hamish; 'you can watch the fight from behind the chimney,' and Gerald was reluctantly obliged to remain inactive.

Furious at the loss of one of their number, the attacking party precipitated themselves against the walls of the fort and the battle became fiercer than ever. For some time the issue appeared doubtful, but gradually the besiegers gained a footing on the walls from which they could not be dislodged. Panting, buffeted, they forced their way upwards, while the defenders rained blows and clods upon them.

With a shout of victory, Allan had swung himself on to the roof, when a cry of dismay was raised.

'The roof is giving way!'

Hastily they all jumped, and not a minute too soon, for some gaping holes appeared in the thatch, and there was a rumble of falling stones.

'It's all right,' panted Marjorie; 'we can put that right in a morning's work. Oh, wasn't it a first-rate fight!'

'Capital,' agreed the others, and Tricksy's voice piped in. 'I fought very well too, didn't I, Marjorie?'

'Oh, very well,' replied Marjorie, who had been greatly hampered by Tricksy getting in her way at critical moments. 'But I think we all need a rest now, don't we?'

No second suggestion was needed; and they all flung themselves on the ground and lay where they were, letting the sea-breeze blow upon their heated faces.

'Awfully jolly,' murmured Gerald; 'I should like to have a fight like that every day.'

Harry lay stretched out with a restless face looking about him with eyes that sparkled notwithstanding his fatigue, and kicking his heels when he had the energy to do so. Had he been less completely exhausted, he would have got up and explored the island, taking Gerald with him, but a cricket match and a siege in one afternoon, following a long walk in the morning, are as much as most boys are capable of.

Presently Reggie jumped up.

'Allan,' he said, 'don't you think we ought to be going?'

Allan looked at the waves which were beginning to jostle one another in mid-channel.

'Just about time,' he said.

'Couldn't we show them the inside of the house first,' said Marjorie; 'it won't take a minute.'

'All right,' said Allan, 'but we must be quick.'

'Is this where you stay when it is wet,' said Harry, as they pushed open the door of the cottage. 'What a jolly place. Can you light fires on the hearth?'

'Of course we can,' said Marjorie, 'and bake bannocks--why, Allan; some one has been here since we left!'

'Nonsense,' said Allan, looking about him. 'Why, I declare, some one has!'

'There has been a fresh fire lighted on the hearth,' said Marjorie, 'and the things are not as we left them. There are marks like footprints on the floor too.'

'What impudence,' said Reggie, with a darkening face. 'We must put up a notice board. No one has any business to come here except ourselves.'

Allan had been looking about him, and he suddenly darted forward and took possession of some object lying upon the floor. After a glance at it he turned white, gave an odd little gasp and slipped it into his pocket.

'What is it, Allan?' asked the others, crowding around.

'Nothing,' he said; 'nothing at all. I don't think any one has been here; it's all fancy.'

Reggie's eyes looked very much astonished at this change of front.

'Come along,' said Allan impatiently; 'it's time we went home,' and he swept them out of the cottage with so much decision that they obeyed, looking at him with puzzled faces.

'Hulloa!' cried Hamish; 'we had better be going.'

'Going?' echoed Allan; 'why, yes, we have no time to lose. Come along, all of you.'

'What's the matter?' asked Harry of Marjorie as they hurried towards the boat.

'It's a very high tide,' she said. 'Soon there will be a dangerous current flowing between the two islands, and if we get into it we might be swept out to sea. We are allowed to have the boat on condition that we watch the tide-ways; so we have to be careful.'

It took some hard rowing to gain the opposite sh.o.r.e; and when they had landed, Reggie turned to Hamish. 'A near thing that, eh, Hamish?' he said; and they all looked at the dark swift current which filled the channel.

'Ten minutes later, and we couldn't have crossed,' said Marjorie.

'What do you think, Allan?'

Despite the danger so recently escaped, Allan's thoughts were wandering. He looked round abstractedly, and slid into his pocket some object which he had been turning over un.o.bserved; and Reggie fancied he caught a glimpse of a sailor's knife with some elaborate carving on the handle.

Reggie looked at his brother with a gleam of curiosity in his eyes.

'Come along,' said Allan authoritatively; 'don't let's stand dawdling about.'

CHAPTER VIII

A CRUISE IN THE 'HEROIC'

'I can't understand Allan at all,' declared Marjorie. She and Reggie, armed with large pocket-knives, were engaged in cutting heather on the moor, which stretched, a ma.s.s of purple, to the verge of the cliffs. A pile of heather lay beside them, the result of an hour's hard sawing of the wiry stems.

Marjorie's remark had interrupted a busy silence.

Reggie looked up with a twinkle in his eyes. He had been growing thinner and browner during the summer, and his wrists came further beyond the sleeves of his jacket.

'What's the matter with Allan?' he asked.

'Why,' said Marjorie impatiently, 'he is going on so oddly. First of all, he wasn't to be found when we came here this morning--had been away for hours--and he isn't usually in such a hurry to get up in the holidays. Then when he comes back we all have to go off and get heather to patch up the roof of the Pirates' Den. I can't make out why he has grown so particular all of a sudden.'