In the dimming light they could see a dark stain spreading over the thin, patterned carpet - spreading even as they watched - and over by the fireplace, where the boards were bare, water was sucking and bubbling up from under the floor. Penny felt her face go white and her scalp tickled with fear as she realized that the sea must either have broken through the great bank and be swirling round the house or else forcing its way up through the shingle. Dickie knew what it meant, too!

"The sea's coming in!" he yelled. "We'll have to smash the windows and try the shutters again," and it was just as he was scrambling out that Penny, through all the turmoil, thought she heard a heavy crash which might have been the front door.

She tried to keep her voice steady as she shouted:

"Help! Help us, whoever you are! We're locked in the front room!"

Mackie began to bark madly again and to make little angry dashes at the water bubbling in the corner by the fireplace. Mary scrambled off her damp cushion and climbed on the table as Dickie lifted a vase of flowers and threw it with all his strength at the window. Above the tinkle of falling glass Penny heard him laugh in triumph. He liked smashing things!

"Don't cut yourself, Dickie," Penny yelled. "Wait till I get the light on... Right! Now break the rest and we'll see if there's any way of forcing up that iron bar from inside."

"I'll jolly well..." CRASH went two more panes. "I'll jolly well smash the jolly lot..." CRASH!... "and the iron bar and everything. I'm feeling jolly strong."

Now the wind whistled through the narrow gap between the shutters, and Penny was shining the torch round the untidy room when there came a heavy knocking on the door and a muffled shout. They all stood still - Dickie with a wooden cake-stand poised above his head ready for a new assault on the shutter, Mary on the table and Penny, by the fireplace, with the beam of the torch focused on the door.

"It's Jon!" she shouted. "I knew he'd come."

And the lock clicked and the door opened and there was Jon's cheerful, bespectacled face, crowned with an unruly mop of hair, blinking and grinning rather sheepishly. Over his shoulder David was peering, and it was he who spoke first.

"Are you there, kids?" and then, "All right, Penny?"

Then Jon said, "I can't see you, but I s'pose it's you flashing that thing right on my face... It would be! Point it down!... Quick now. Out this way. The great bank is breaking."

Dickie dashed for the door in his excitement, but Mary waited for Penny, who felt more like crying than laughing now that they were safe, and did not know what to say as she splashed through the puddles to the hall.