The Aeroplane of Adventure

©2009 David Marlor

This novel is based on the characters created by Enid Bylton in the Adventure Series. In this regard, it is the ninth adventure and follows The River of Adventure.

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Chapter 18: The Secret of the Island

"Jack," hissed a familiar voice from behind the torch light. "Jack," hissed Dinah a second time. "Jack, it's me, Dinah. Did you find Philip?"

"Oh Dinah," said Jack joyfully. "Are we ever glad to see you! Yes, Philip is right behind me. We're coming up." Jack and Philip climbed up the ladder and out of the submarine. Lucy-Ann, looking anxious, stood beside Dinah on the metal deck of the submarine.

Jack gave Lucy-Ann a big hug and then gave Dinah an equally big hug. "Come on, we've got no time to lose," said Jack, and led the way off the submarine.

"Hadn't we better close that hatch?" asked Dinah.

"Golly, yes," said Philip. "I'm glad you're thinking, Dinah. No need to make them suspicious." Philip managed to close the hatch and watched as it settled down with a hiss and click.

The children used their torches and went back to their hiding place near the kitchen. They were all tired with the adventures of the last couple of days. Dinah got together some tongue and sardines and the children had a strange meal in the middle of a hill in the middle of the night.

"What time is it'?" asked Philip. Jack checked the luminous hands on his watch. "It's five o'clock in the morning," he said. "Would you believe it? No wonder we're hungry."

After they had eaten the children felt much better.

"Philip, tell us what happened to you after I saw you disappear below that lamp last night," said Jack, as he tickled Kiki's bill. Kiki raised her crest and made some low grumbling noises in the back of her throat.

Philip finished off his late dinner with some water that Dinah had found in the stores behind the kitchen area. "Wow, that's much better," he said. Philip told the other children how he had wandered underground, going down and down the stairs. He told how he had found a train tunnel and followed it to an underground hangar. Jack and the girls held their breath when he told them of watching the men loading cylindrical objects onto an aeroplane. How extraordinary! "Then, I got back to the treehouse and you were gone. I was half afraid you'd left me on the island and sailed off. Though if you did, I knew you'd have a good enough reason to do so. But I checked the raft and it was still there. I was stumped. I had no idea what had happened to you."

Philip stopped to take a drink. The others waited patiently. "Well," Philip continued, "I was just so tired to search all over for you, so I simply curled up and fell asleep under a tree near the pool. I don't know how long I slept but I awoke with a jump. I sat up wondering what had woken me and where I was. All I could see was the dark sky – must have slept hours for it was dark when I woke up. Then I remembered. As I turned to look to see what had awoken me, Morris the mynah bird flew down and landed on my shoulder. At first, I thought it was the mynah bird that had awoken me and I was pretending to tell it off for waking me up when I heard voices. The voices didn't sound like you so I crept up to a large bush to see what was happening. And golly, was I surprised at what I saw."

"Let me guess," said Dinah. "The pools had drained and there was a submarine in the lagoon. Right?"

Philip looked at his sister in surprise. "You've seen it too? Yes, I couldn't believe what I saw. The men were unloading what looked like big crates from the submarine onto that conveyor belt thing. I've never seen anything like it. I crept closer to see what was really going on. Two men, both English-looking, walked over and stood next to the bush I was hiding behind. The taller of the two lit a cigarette and threw the match into my bush. It burned my left hand, look!" Philip showed the others the small scar from the match burn. "Careless, they could have set the whole island on fire. The tall man said to his companion that tonight would be the last load. He said that their London Station said that British Intelligence were watching the island closely now and believed that some activity had been spotted. Then he said that all of the missiles had to be shipped out in two days' time."

"The smaller man finished his cigarette," continued Philip, "and said that he would signal 'Seahunter' one last time tomorrow night at the usual time. Then he said, 'We launch Big Bertha in 48 hours. Will she be ready?' The other man nodded. The two men stood for a while watching the operation and were just about to go down to the submarine when an air-raid siren sounded. The men looked startled and then shouted commands in a language I didn't know. The submarine was closed up fast and men pulled some sheets coloured like the rocks over the conveyor felt and submarine. And then I was caught. You see, I wasn't the only one who thought that the bush was a good place to hide. So did the two men. They dived into the bush and landed on me. I don't know who was more surprised. The smaller man recovered first and quickly had my arm behind my back."

Philip paused to take a sip of water. Then: "We sat and listened and could hear the drone of an aeroplane. The taller man muttered that this wasn't right. I could still see through the bush and we watched as an aeroplane few high above the island. The plane few over and just as it went out of sight I thought I saw something fall out of the plane. I don't think the men noticed as they were too busy watching me."

"The tall man questioned me and asked what I was doing here and were there other people and how did I get here. I don't think they liked all of my answers because I got quite a few boxes around the ear." Philip stopped and rubbed his ear. "Well, then they dragged me down to the pool and they didn't seem to know what to do with me. They posted two armed guards to watch me while they went about their business. The tall man and the short man held a heated argument and I think I was the centre of that discussion. At least, the way they kept looking at me suggested that I was. After they had finished all of their unloading, the men disappeared into the cave behind the hot pool. The two guards marched me into the cave, and then into this bigger one, and finally into the submarine where they locked me up."

Philip sighed. "The tall man said that they would release me when they were finished, but that I should make myself comfortable as I would be in the submarine for a long time. Then he left and the next thing I know, old Jack here was rescuing me." He finished and took a long drink of cold water.

The others had listened to Philip's story without interrupting.

"Missiles." said Jack slowly, and to answer Lucy-Ann's questioning look, "Missiles are bombs that can fly by themselves and hit targets many miles away."

"You know what I think?" said Philip, his eyes glinting in the torchlight. "I think that we've stumbled onto a gang that is stealing and reselling missiles to terrorist groups or anybody who wants to cause our government damage."

Jack nodded. "I think you're right. This island is perfect for them. It is in the middle of nowhere. The gang has submarines and aeroplanes. They can easily transport their missiles in and out of here."

Dinah asked. "But what is Big Bertha?" The others looked at each other. Nobody knew what was meant by Big Bertha!

"Maybe it's a code word," said Jack at last, unable to think of a better explanation. "I know we should get some sleep, but I really think we need to get off this island as fast as we can and I won't sleep knowing we could be easily caught here at any time."

The other children agreed that their first priority was to get out of the hill and off the island. They debated on how to find a way out.

"I know," said Philip. "We can escape the way I got out of the hill the last time, by following the railway through to the underground hangar and out of the small door there – through it would mean a long hike over the hill to get to our raft."

Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann agreed, Kiki was the only one who disagreed "No. No. Bad idea," she said from her perch on Jack's shoulder.

"Sorry you disagree, old thing," said Philip to the bird. "But we're going to try it anyway."

"Jack," said Lucy-Ann. "Hadn't we better find some candles in case our torches go out? Mine's already getting dim."

"My word, yes," said Jack. "We really should conserve our batteries. Are there any candles over in that supply cave, Dinah?" Dinah looked and found several large candles and some matches. Good!

Using one torch to conserve batteries, the boys led the girls around the dark cave to try to find the railway tunnel. It was easy to spot and Jack's torch picked out the glinting steel rails. He followed the rails with his torch and saw that they disappeared into a dark tunnel. The children had just entered the train tunnel when the floodlights in the main cave snapped on. The children shrank bag into the shadows at the side of the train tunnel. Voices could be heard as the men entered the tunnel for another day of work.

"We'd better watch for trains or men in this tunnel," whispered Jack. "Come on, I'll lead." Jack had turned his torch off and now he moved forward, switching it on briefly but always shielded by his hand. The tunnel wound around and seemed to climb up constantly.

The children had walked for almost an hour in the dark train tunnel, when a faint rumbling noise could be heard. Jack stopped and listened. Then he felt a rush of air against his check. "Train," he hissed to the others. "Quick, crouch into one of these little niches."

Jack, Lucy-Ann and Kiki crouched into one niche and Philip and Dinah crowed into the one on the opposite side of the tunnel. The rumbling got louder and louder and the rush of air became greater. Finally the train screeched past them, sparks flying off the wheels on the metal rail. The children could hear the rumble of the carriages, and then the train was gone.

"Come on," said Jack, a little shaken. "Let's keep moving." The children walked another half hour before coming to a junction in the tunnel. Jack stopped and looked down both tunnels.

"Now which way do we go? Do you recognise this, Tufty?"

Philip didn't. "No, we haven't come to where I joined this tunnel yet."

"Look over here," said Lucy-Ann, her keen eyes spotting something near the ground.

Jack swung his torch over. "It's a small wooden sign, half rotted."

Lucy-Ann read the sign. "Hangar left, Big Bertha right." The children looked at each other. Big Bertha. They had to solve the mystery of Big Bertha. What was it? "Let's just go down here and see if we can see Big Bertha. If we don't see anything after a short while, we'll go the other way and find the hangar and get out of here.

"Lucy-Ann and Dinah didn't want to go looking for Big Bertha. They thought they should get out of the hill. But they said nothing and went with the boys.

The new tunnel was just like the last, with a single train track down the middle The tunnel widened in one place and the tracks split into two and then narrowed to one track again. The train tunnel soon opened up into a large cave. The children walked out of the tunnel and Jack pulled them behind some rocks on the right, for in front of them men sat around consoles doing something –. although what exactly, the children didn't know.

Philip let out a gasp and clutched at Jack. "Jack, I've seen this cave before, from up there." He pointed up to the left. "Remember, I told you fell down a small tunnel when I was hiding from a train? Well, this is the room that I looked down into."

It wasn't the cave or the men that held the children's attention. It was what was in the middle of the cave – a huge version of the small missiles that the children had seen on the trains. This one was very tall and rose ten stories or more. Lights on the cave floor lit the huge missile. Steam hissed from the bottom.

"What is it?" asked Lucy-Ann.

"It's a huge missile, Lucy-Ann," said Jack soberly. "Who knows how far this one can fly before exploding."

"Philip silently pointed to one side of the missile, opposite to the side he could see when he last saw the cave. On it was a large T with a cross through it. Below that were two words printed in red, one above the other. Big Bertha. So, Big Bertha was a huge missile. Lucy-Ann didn't like it and wished they were anywhere but on this island.

Continues tomorrow...

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