“Well, dear — how is your work getting on?” asked Aunt Fanny, watching her husband devour sandwich after sandwich. She began to wonder if he had had anything at all to eat since she had left him two days ago.

“Oh very well indeed,” said her husband. “Couldn’t be better. Just got to a most tricky and interesting point. I’ll have another sandwich, please.”

“Why did you signal eighteen times, Uncle Quentin?” asked Anne.

“Ah, well — it’s difficult to explain, really,” said her uncle. “The fact is — I can’t help feeling there’s somebody else on this island besides myself!”

“Quentin! What in the world do you mean?” cried Aunt Fanny, in alarm. She looked over her shoulder as if she half expected to see somebody there. All the children stared in amazement at Uncle Quentin.

He took another sandwich. “Yes, I know it sounds mad. Nobody else could possibly have got here. But I know there is someone!”

“Oh don’t Uncle!” said Anne, with a shiver. “It sounds horrid. And you’re all alone at night too!”

“Ah, that’s just it! I wouldn’t mind a bit if I was all alone at night!” said her uncle. “What worries me is that I don’t think I shall be all alone.”

“Uncle, what makes you think there’s somebody here?” asked Julian.

“Well, when I had finished the experiment I was doing last night — about half past three in the early morning it would be — but pitch dark, of course,” said Uncle Quentin, “I came into the open for a breath of fresh air. And I could swear I heard somebody cough — yes, cough twice?”

“Good gracious!” said Aunt Fanny, startled. “But Quentin — you might have been mistaken. You do imagine things sometimes, you know, when you’re tired.”

“Yes, I know,” said her husband. “But I couldn’t imagine this, could I?”

He put his hand into his pocket and took something out. He showed it to the others. It was a cigarette end, quite crisp and fresh.

“Now, I don’t smoke cigarettes. Nor do any of you! Well then — who smoked that cigarette? And how did he come here? No one would bring him by boat — and that’s the only way here.”

There was a silence. Anne felt scared. George stared at her father, puzzled. Who could be here? And why? And how had they got there?

“Well, Quentin — what are you going to do?” said his wife. “What would be best?”

“I’ll be all right if George will give her consent to something,” said Uncle Quentin. “I want Timmy here, George! Will you leave him behind with me?”

Chapter Eleven

George makes a hard choice

There was a horrified silence. George stared at her father in complete dismay. Everyone waited to see what she would say.

“But Father — Timmy and I have never been separated once,” she said at last, in a pleading voice. “I do see you want him to guard you — and you can have him — but I’ll have to stay here too!”