The track which they knew so well was now a mass of churned-up mud and shingle. In some places bundles of faggots had been laid down in an attempt to make a surface fit for traffic, but so much of it had slipped down into the water that the lorries would never be able to get back until the floods had subsided. They scrambled along the top of the shingle bank on the right of the track until they reached their hill and climbed up to the old hut. From here they could see an army of men filling the great gap. A huge mechanical excavator was at work and fire engines were pumping water from the pits which the incoming sea had torn in the soft earth. As the light faded the strange scene was lit by searchlights from the fire engines, and even on the bank, fires made by the workmen, flickered weirdly in the dusk.

"I want to see that digger machine working," Dickie said. "Will you take me, Dad? Or shall we have the cake first?"

"I'll come, too," Mary said. "An' I can't see why we can't eat cake as we go."

The others watched them go down the hill, pick their way through some pools and climb the great bank.

"Funny," said David, "but we've hardly had a chance to say a word to each other since last night - or this morning, wasn't it?... I never told you, Penny, how glad I was you found the treasure after all... But last night was the best, wasn't it? .. I've got a letter I want to talk to you about."

Jon and Penny were leaning against the hut looking out over the burned-out ruin of Beach View to the sea. It was a good idea to have come back here, because it was always fun to live an adventure over again in the same place, and they were both thinking that nothing that could ever happen to them would be as exciting as the adventure of the Gay Dolphin's treasure. Jon was thinking, although he did not say so, how plucky Penny must have been with the twins in that locked room in the dark and how splendid it had been of her not to write the note to him. And Penny was thinking - and she was too shy to say so - how calm and steady Jon had been when he rescued them and how certain she had been that he would come in the end just because he had never let her down. And so although they both liked David very much, they were not really listening to what he was saying, but just enjoying their thoughts and each other's company as good friends always can.

"Wake up, you two. I want to tell you about this letter I've had from Peter."

Penny grinned and stretched her arms over her head. "Sorry! I was dreaming. Tell us about Peter."