They were rushing now along the narrow winding road which led to the beach - the road along which she and Jon had trudged after their first tea-party at Beach View - and had just turned a sharp corner when Slinky muttered something under his breath and jammed on the brakes suddenly. A white-faced man in a sodden raincoat was standing in the middle of the road with his arms outstretched, and as soon as the car stopped he spoke through the driver's window.

"Thanks for stopping. Do you mind very much turning round and taking me back to the nearest telephone?... We must have help and it's urgent... They say the great bank will break tonight when the tide is high, but we can't do more without proper assistance. Sorry to bother you, but..."

"Nonsense!" said Miss Ballinger loudly. "Absolute nonsense. Drive on at once," and without questioning these orders, Slinky let in the clutch and the car moved forward. The man gave a shout of fury and toppled back into the wet grass at the side of the road, and when Penny looked through the window behind her he was shaking his fist at them.

"What did he mean and why couldn't we give him a lift?" Mary asked. "I want to go back to Rye now, anyway, and I don't think I want any tea even if Dickie does... And I don't like this weather."

"What did he mean about the great bank breaking?" Dickie persisted.

"Just hysteria, my dears," Miss Ballinger replied. "Don't take any notice. No such thing could happen. We haven't time now to give strangers a lift and he had no right to stop us like that. I want my tea and so do you."

But Penny was not sure that it was nonsense. She knew what the man meant and she remembered Vasson's views about the weather changing and what the old fisherman at Hastings had said less than an hour ago. She remembered the bank, too, for she had walked along it with Jon and they had talked then about what would happen if the sea broke through.

The car had left the road now and was bumping over the rough track that led to the beach. Ahead of them was the little hill with the black shed on top - the hill that was marked so clearly on the smugglers' map - and in its shelter Mr. Grandon stopped the car. He took a coloured handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his forehead. He was a bad colour and had lost the jaunty mood of the morning, and Penny, trying to keep a cool head, realized how they had all accepted without question his domination by Miss Ballinger. Meanwhile, the latter seemed to have recovered her hospitable mood as she turned round and smiled at the children.