FIVE ON KIRRIN ISLAND AGAIN by Enid Blyton

05 A MYSTERY

EVERYONE stared at Uncle Quentin. There he was, intently watching the jackdaws, his hands in his trousers pockets. He hadn't seen the children or his wife.

Timmy leapt to his feet, and gamboled over to George's father. He barked loudly. Uncle Quentin jumped and turned round. He saw Timmy - and then he saw all the others, staring at him in real astonishment.

Uncle Quentin did not look particularly pleased to see anyone. He walked slowly over to them, a slight frown on his face. 'This is a surprise,' he said. 'I had no idea you were all coming today.' 

'Oh Quentin!' said his wife, reproachfully. 'I wrote it down for you in your diary. You know I did.'

 'Did you? Well, I haven't looked at my diary since, so it's no wonder I forgot,' said Uncle Quentin, a little peevishly. He kissed his wife, George and Anne, and shook hands with the boys.

'Uncle Quentin - where did you come from?' asked Dick, who was eaten up with curiosity. 'We've looked for you for ages.' 

'Oh, I was in my workroom,' said Uncle Quentin, vaguely.

'Well, but where's that?' demanded Dick. 'Honestly, Uncle, we can't imagine where you hide yourself. We even went up the tower to see if you were in that funny glass room at the top.'

 'What!' exploded his uncle, in a sudden surprising fury. 'You dared to go up there? You might have been in great danger. I've just finished an experiment, and all those wires in there were connected with it.' 

'Yes, we saw them acting a bit queerly,' said Julian.

'You've no business to come over here, and interfere with my work,' said his uncle, still looking furious. 'How did you get into that tower? I locked it.'

 'Yes, it was locked all right,' said Julian. 'But you left the key in, you see, Uncle - so I thought it wouldn't matter if...'

 'Oh, that's where the key is, is it?' said his uncle. 'I thought I'd lost it. Well, don't you ever go into that tower again. I tell you, it's dangerous.' 

'Uncle Quentin, you haven't told us yet where your workroom is,' said Dick, who was quite determined to know. 

'We can't imagine 'where you suddenly came from.' 'I told them you would turn up, Quentin,' said his wife. 'You look a bit thin, dear. Have you been having regular meals. You know, I left you plenty of good soup to heat up.'

 'Did you?' said her husband. 'Well, I don't know if I've had it or not. I don't worry about meals when I'm working. I'll have some of those sandwiches now, though, if nobody else wants them.' He began to devour the sandwiches, one after another as if he was ravenous. Aunt Fanny watched him in distress.

'Oh Quentin - you're starving. I shall' come over here and stay and look after you!' 

Her husband looked alarmed. 'Oh no! Nobody is to come here. I can't have my work interfered with. I'm working on an extremely important discovery.' 

'Is it a discovery that nobody else knows about?' asked Anne, her eyes wide with admiration. How clever Uncle Quentin was!

 'Well - I'm not sure about that,' said Uncle Quentin, taking two sandwiches at once. 'That's partly why I came over here - besides the fact that I wanted water round me and above me. I have a feeling that somebody knows a bit more than I want them to know. But there's one thing - they can't come here unless they're shown the way through all those rocks that lie round the island. Only a few of the fishermen know that, and they've been given orders not to bring anyone here at all. I think you're the only other person that knows the way, George.'