But no smoke arose. Dick had a turn at looking through the glasses, and he looked puzzled. He took them down from his eyes and turned to the others.

“We ought to be able to see the rabbits running about,” he said. “But I can’t see a single one. Did either of you, Julian and George?”

“Well — now I come to think of it — no, I didn’t,” said Julian, and George said the same.

“They were frightened by whoever was there, of course,” said Dick. “I suppose it will be all right to take Leslie with us when we go to the island this afternoon? I mean — it’s just a bit queer that anyone should be using the island to spy from.”

“Yes. I see what you mean,” said Julian. “If it occurred to the kidnappers, whoever they are, that Berta might be down here with us, it would be quite a good idea on their part to land on the island and use it as a place from which to spy on the beach. They would guess we would come down to bathe every day.”

“Yes. And they would see five children instead of four, and would begin to make inquiries about the fifth!” said Dick. “They would hope actually to see Berta on the beach — they’ve probably got a photograph of her — and they would be looking for a girl with long wavy hair.”

“And there isn’t one!” said Anne. “Mine’s not wavy and it’s not right down to my shoulders as Leslie’s was. How muddled they would be!”

“There’s one thing that would tell them that Berta was here though,” said Julian, suddenly. He pointed to Sally.

“Good gracious, yes!” said Dick. “Sally would give the game away all right! Whew! We’ll have to think about all this!”

Chapter Eleven

On Kirrin Island again

George wanted to get her boat and go across to the island immediately. She was so furious at the thought of anyone else being there without permission, that all she wanted to do was to chase them away.

But Julian said no. “For one thing the boat won’t be ready till two,” he said. “For another thing we’ve got to consider whether it’s a sensible thing to do, to go to the island if possible kidnappers are here, on the look-out for Berta — Leslie, I mean.”

“We could go without her,” said George. “We could leave her safely with Joan.”

“That would be a foolish thing to do,” said Dick. “Anyone watching us coming across in the boat would see that one of the five was missing, and would guess at once it was Berta. If we go, all of us must go.”

“Actually I think it might be a good thing to go,” said Julian. “Carry the war right into the enemy’s camp, so to speak — if there are enemies! It would be a most useful thing if we could see what they are like and give a description to the police. I rather vote we go.”