LITMIR.BIZ

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“and then you won’t have to carry so much grub when you go ashore.”

      Roger looked at her with some suspicion. Was Susan laughing or not? “We’ll all be hungry again if we go a long way,” he said.

      “We won’t starve you,” said Peggy.

      Dick was sure he had forgotten nothing. He put the small things in his pocket, put the camera in his knapsack, to make sure of keeping it dry, and, with his knapsack ready on his back, went up on deck.

      “Look over the side,” said Dorothea. “The tide’s gone down a lot already.”

      Dick looked over. A broad strip of the dark green underwater body of the Sea Bear was showing along her sides.

      “The sooner we all get ashore the better,” said Nancy. “Come on, John. Cargo of paint, brushes, scrapers. Much easier now than when she’s high and dry.”

      “Scrapers?” said Dorothea.

      “For the barnacles,” said Nancy. “She’s fairly covered with them. And slimy with weed.”

      “What about putting the folding boat over?” said John.

      “We shan’t need it,” said Captain Flint. “We’ll only have it to stow again.”

      “Let’s have it all the same,” said Nancy, looking at the queer shape of the folding boat, stowed almost flat, and lashed alongside the skylight. “We’ve never used it once. And today’s the last chance.”

      “Get the scrubbing done and you shall play about in the folder this evening, once the Sea Bear’s afloat again.”

      “Right,” said Nancy. “That’s a promise.”

      Everything had gone well and everybody knew it. They had only to look at Captain Flint, sitting on the cabin skylight smoking his pipe, to know that he was no longer the worried skipper of the night and the early morning. He was not even bothering to give advice as John and Nancy brought up mops and long-handled scrapers, and two great tins of Mariner Brand, Best Quality, Gold Medal Anti-fouling Paint out of the stores in the fo’c’sle, and lowered them down to Titty and Dorothea, who were already in the dinghy, hoping to be the first ashore.

      Peggy put her head out of the forehatch. “Susan wants to know if we’d better get grub ready now for the scrubbers as well as for the others.”

      “Much better. Horrible job climbing aboard again for it.”

      Ferrying began, and long before it was finished the tide had dropped enough to make it difficult to reach the dinghy even with the rope ladder.

      “Isn’t Captain Flint coming?” asked Titty.

      “The captain’s always last to leave the ship,” said Dorothea.

      “But the Sea Bear isn’t a wreck,” said Titty.

      “He wants to be last anyway,” said Dorothea.

      Nancy went back once more to fetch him, and there was a cheerful moment when Roger said, “He’s going to fall in,” as Captain Flint climbed heavily down to the dinghy by way of the bobstay. He did not come straight ashore but sat in the stern of the dinghy while Nancy rowed him round the ship.

      “He’s got his long boots on,” said Roger.

      “He’ll want them,” said John. “He’ll be able to get going long before we can.”

      It was quite like a camp on the beach, what with all the stuff that had been brought ashore, and the whole crew of the Sea Bear waiting by it, watching the tide fall lower and lower round their ship. The sun poured down into the little bay. There was a blue sky overhead. Little clouds flying across it were like scattered flecks of cotton wool. “A grand drying day,” said Captain Flint.

      “Her starboard side’ll be dry first,” said John, glancing towards the sun.

      “That’s the one we’ll begin on,” said Nancy. “Gosh! what waste of time it is going into harbours. This is ten times better.”

      “Hadn’t the explorers better get going?” said Dorothea.

      “Let’s just wait to see her really standing out of the water,” said Titty.

      “You needn’t go at all if you don’t want to,” said Nancy.

      “But we do,” said Titty, and Dick looked at her gratefully.

      “You won’t find anything inland half so exciting as this,” said Nancy.

      “I bet we do,” said Roger.

      “Unknown country,” said Titty.

      “It’ll be real exploring,” said Dorothea.

      “Instead of just paddling and scrubbing,” said Roger.

      “Well, get along with you,” said Nancy.

      But the explorers lingered, as the legs of their ship stood higher and higher out of the water, and Captain Flint in his long sea boots waded out with a stiff scrubbing brush and began work on the Sea Bear’s stem. They waited, with Dick growing more and more anxious, till John and Nancy waded out to join the skipper, able at last to stand in the shallow water under the Sea Bear’s bows.

      “Do let’s start,” said Dick.

      “What time have we got to be back?” asked Dorothea, and Susan repeated the question. “What time had they better be back?”

      “Oh, sevenish,” called Captain Flint. “We’ll give them a hoot with the fog horn as soon as she floats.”

      “Come on,” said Dorothea.

      “Don’t get into trouble with natives,” said Susan.

      “There aren’t any,” said Titty. “It’s beautifully uninhabited.”

      “There are houses the other side of that ridge,” said Nancy.

      “But not this side,” said Titty. “Anyhow not on the chart.”

      “So long, you scrubbers,” called Roger, and the land party turned their backs on the Sea Bear and climbed up from the shore, explorers in a strange land.

CHAPTER IV

      THE FIRST DISCOVERY

      FROM ABOVE the little bay the land party looked down just for a moment on the Sea Bear and the scrubbers working at her in water up to their knees. Then they plunged forward over springy peat among rocks and short heather.

      “Now!” said Titty.

      “Now what?” said Dorothea.

      “They’re out of sight,” said Titty.

      “Yes,” said Dorothea. “Anything may happen any minute.”

      “What’s the time?” asked Roger.

      “Dick,” said Dorothea. “What’s the time?”

      Dick was looking westward over wild, broken moorland, hoping to see the lochs marked on the chart, but they were still hidden by a lump of rising ground.

      “Dick,” said Dorothea again. “Time?”

      He started, pulled himself together, and looked at his watch.

      “Seven … seven and a half minutes to twelve. We’ve wasted a lot of time already.”

      “We’ve got six hours at least,” said Roger. “That’s six times sixty minutes for things to happen in. Three hundred and sixty different things.”

      “One’ll be enough,” said Titty. “If it’s the right sort of thing, and it’s bound to

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