FIVE RUN AWAY TOGETHER - by Enid Blyton

12 THE CAVE IN THE CLIFF

CAUTIOUSLY the children made their way down the slippery deck towards the locker. The door of this had evidently been shut on the trunk but had come open, so that the trunk was not hidden, as had been intended.

Julian pulled out the little black trunk. All the children were amazed. Why should anyone put a trunk there?

"Smugglers, do you think?" said Dick, his eyes gleaming.

"Yes, it might be," said Julian, thoughtfully, trying to undo the straps of the trunk. "This would be a very good place for smugglers. Ships that knew the way could put in, cast off a boat with smuggled goods, leave them here, and go on their way, knowing that people could come and collect the goods at their leisure."

"Do you think there are smuggled goods inside the trunk?" asked Anne, in excitement. "What would there be? Diamonds? Silks?"

"Anything that has a duty to be paid on it before it can get into the country," said Julian. "Blow these straps! I can't undo them."

"Let me try," said Anne, who had very deft little fingers. She began to work at the buckles, and in a short time had the straps undone. But a further disappointment awaited them. The trunk was well and truly locked! There were two good locks, and no keys!

"Blow!" said George. "How sickening! How can we get the trunk open now?"

"We can't," said Julian. "And we mustn't smash it open, because it would warn whoever it belongs to that the goods had been found. We don't want to-warn the smugglers that we have discovered their little game. We want to try and catch them!"

"Ooooh!" said Anne, going red with excitement. "Catch the smugglers! Oh Julian! Do you really think we could?"

"Why not?" said Julian. "No one knows we are here. If we hid whenever we saw a ship approaching the island, we might see a boat coming to it, and we could watch and find out what is happening. I should think that the smugglers are using this island as a sort of dropping-place for goods. I wonder who comes and fetches them? Someone from Kirrin Village or the nearby places, I should think."

"This is going to be awfully exciting," said Dick. "We always seem to have adventures when we come to Kirrin It's absolutely full of them. This will be the third one we have had."

"I think we ought to be getting back over the rocks, said Julian, suddenly looking over the side of the ship and seeing that the tide had turned. "Come on ... we don't want to be caught by the tide and have to stay here for hours and hours! I'll go down the rope first. Then you come, Anne."

They were soon climbing over the rocks again, feeling very excited. Just as they reached the last stretch of rock leading to the rocky cliff of the island itself, Dick stopped.

"What's up?" said George, pushing behind him. "Do get on!"

"Isn't that a cave, just beyond that big rock there?" said Dick, pointing. "It looks awfully like one to me. If it was, it would be a simply lovely place to store our things in, and even to sleep in, if it was out of reach of the sea."

"There aren't any caves on Kirrin," began George, and then she stopped short. What Dick was pointing at really did look like a cave. It was worth while seeing if it was one. After all, George had never explored this line of rocks, and so had never been able to catch sight of the cave that lay just beyond. It could not possibly be seen from the land.

"We'll go and see," she said. So they changed their direction, and instead of climbing back the way they had come, they cut across the mass of rock and made their way towards a jutting-out part of the cliff, in which the cave seemed to be.