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Chapter Seventeen TIMMY AT LAST

'No, George!' called her father sharply. 'Come back. There is something very important I want to say. Come here!'

George  went  over  to  him,  filled  with  impatience  to  get  to  Timmy,  wherever  he  was.  She  must find him!

'Now  listen,'  said  her  father.  'I  have  a  book  in  which  I  have  made  all  my  notes  of  this  great experiment. The men haven't found it! I want you to take it safely to the mainland, George. Don't let it out of your sight! If the men get hold of it they would have all the information they needed!'

'But don't they know  everything just by looking at  your wires  and machines and things?' asked George.

'They  know  a  very  great  deal,'  said  her  father,  'and  they've  found  out  a  lot  more  since  they've been here - but not quite enough. I daren't destroy my book of notes, because if anything should happen to me, my great idea would be completely lost. So, George, I must entrust¹ it to you and you must take it to an address I will give you, and hand it to the person there.'

'It's  an  awful  responsibility,'  said  George,  a  little  scared  of  handling  a  book  which  meant  so much, not only to her father, but possibly to the whole of the world. 'But I'll do my best, Father.

I'll hide, in one of the caves till the men come back, and then I'll slip back up the passage to the hidden entrance, get out, go to my boat and row back to the mainland. Then I'll deliver your book of notes without fail, and get help sent over here to you.'

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'Good girl,' said her father, and gave her a hug. 'Honestly, George, you do behave as bravely as any boy. I'm proud of you.'

George thought that was the nicest thing her father had ever said to her. She smiled at him. 'Well, Father, I'll go and see if I can find Timmy now. I simply must see that he's all right before I go to hide in one of the other caves.'

'Very  well,'  said  her  father.  'The  man  who  took  the  biscuits  went  in  that  direction  still  further under  the  sea,  George.  Oh  by  the  way  -  how  is  it  you're  here,  in  the  middle  of  the  night?'  It seemed  to  strike  her  father  for  the  first  time  that  George  also  might  have  a  story  to  tell.  But George felt that she really couldn't waste any more time - she must find Timmy!

'I'll tell you later, Father,' she said. 'Oh where's that book of notes?'

Her father rose and went to the back of the cave. He took a box and stood on it. He ran his hand along a dark ridge² of rock, and felt about until he had found what he wanted.

He  brought  down  a  slim  book,  whose  pages  were  of  very  thin  paper.  He  opened  the  book  and George  saw  many  beautifully  drawn  diagrams,  and  pages  of  notes  in  her  father's  small  neat handwriting.

'Here you are,' said her father; handing her the book, 'do the best you can. If anything happens to me, this book will still enable my fellow-workers to give my idea to the world. If I come through this all right, I shall be glad to have the book, because it will mean I shall not have to work Out all my experiments again.'

George took the precious book. She stuffed it into her macintosh pocket, which was a big one.

'I'll keep it safe, Father. Now I must go and find Timmy, or those two men will be back before I can hide in one of the other caves.' She left her father's cave and went into the next one. There was nothing there at all. Then on she went down a passage that twisted and turned in the rock.

And then she heard a sound she longed to hear. A whine³! Yes, really a whine!

'Timmy!' shouted George, eagerly. 'Oh Timmy! I'm coming!'

Timmy's whine stopped suddenly. Then he barked joyously⁴. 'Woof, woof, woof, woof!'

George  almost  fell  as  she  tried  to  run  down  the  narrow  tunnel.  Her  torch  showed  her  a  big boulder⁵ that seemed to be blocking up a small cave in the side of the tunnel. Behind the boulder Timmy barked, and scraped frantically⁶! George tugged⁷ at the stone with all her strength.

'Timmy!' she panted. 'Timmy! I'll get you out! I'm coming! Oh, Timmy!'

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The stone moved a little. George tugged again. It was almost too heavy for her to move at all, but despair made her stronger than she had ever been in her life. The stone quite suddenly swung to one  side,  and  George  just  got  one  of  her  feet  out  of  its  way  in  time,  or  it  would  have  been crushed.

Timmy squeezed out of the space left. He flung himself on George; who fell on the ground with her arms tight round him. He licked her face and whined⁸, and she buried her nose in his thick fur in joy.

'Timmy! What have they done to you? Timmy, I came as soon as I could!'

Timmy whined again and again in joy, and tried to paw and lick George as if he couldn't have enough  of  her.  It  would  have  been  difficult  to  say  which  of  the  two  was  the  happier.  At  last George pushed Timmy away firmly.

'Timmy, we've got work to do! We've got to escape from here and get across to the mainland and bring help.'

'Woof,' said Timmy. George stood up and flashed her torch into the tiny cave where Timmy had been. She saw that there was a bowl of water there and some biscuits. The men had not ill-treated him, then, except to lasso him and half-choke him when they caught him. She felt round his neck tenderly, but except for a swollen⁹ ridge there, he seemed none the worse.

'Now hurry up - we'll go back to Father's cave -- and then find another cave beyond his to hide in till the two men come back from the tower. Then we'll creep out into the little stone room and row back to the mainland,' said George. 'I've got a very, very important book here in my pocket, Timmy.'

Timmy growled¹⁰ suddenly, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose up. George stiffened¹¹, and stood listening. A stern voice came down the passage.

'I  don't  know  who  you  are  or  where  you've  come  from  --  but  if  you  have  dared  to  let  that  dog loose he'll be shot! And, to show you that I mean what I say, here's something to let you know I've a revolver!'

Then  there  came  a  deafening  crash,  as  the  man  pulled  the  trigger,  and  a  bullet  hit  the  roof somewhere in the passage. Timmy and George almost jumped out of their skins. Timmy would have  leapt  up  the  passage  at  once,  but  George  had  her  hand  on  his  collar.  She  was  very frightened, and tried hard to think' what was best to do. The echoes of the shot went on and on. It was horrid¹². Timmy stopped growling¹³, and George stayed absolutely still.

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'Well?' said the voice, 'Did you hear what I said? If that dog is loose, he'll be shot. I'm not having my plans spoilt now. And you, whoever you are, will please come up the tunnel and let me see you. But I warn you - if the dog's with you, that's the end of him!'

'Timmy!  Timmy,  run  away  and  hide  somewhere!'  whispered  George  suddenly.  And  then  she remembered  something  else  that  filled  her  with  despair.  She  had  her  father's  precious  book  of notes with her - in her pocket! Suppose the man found it on her? It would break her father's heart to know that his wonderful secret had been stolen from him after all.

George hurriedly took the thin, flat little book from her pocket. She pushed it at Timmy. 'Put it in your mouth. Take it with  you, Tim. And go and hide till it's safe to  come. Quick! Go, Timmy, go!  I'll  be  all  right.'  To  her  great  relief  Timmy,  with  the  book  in  his  mouth,  turned  and disappeared down the tunnel that led further, under the sea. How, she hoped he would find a safe hiding place! The tunnel must end soon - but maybe before it did, Timmy would settle down in some dark corner and wait for her to call him again.

'Will  you  come  up  the  passage  or  not?'  shouted  the  voice,  angrily.  'You'll  be  sorry  if  I  have  to come and fetch you - because I shall shoot all the way along!'

'I'm coming!' called George, in a small voice, 'and she went up the passage. She soon saw a beam of  light,  and  in  a  moment  she  was  in  the  flash  of  a  powerful  torch.  There  was  a  surprised exclamation¹⁴.

'Good heavens! A boy! What are you doing here, and where did you come from?' George's short curly hair made the man with the torch think she was a boy, and George did not tell him he was wrong. The man held a revolver, but he let it drop as he saw George.

'I only came to rescue my dog, and to find my father,' said George, in a meek¹⁵ voice.

'Well, you can't move that heavy stone!' said the man. 'A kid like you wouldn't have the strength.

And you can't rescue your father either! We've got him prisoner, as you no doubt saw.'

'Yes,' said George, delighted to think that the man was sure she had not  been strong enough to move the big stone. She wasn't going to say a word about Timmy! If the man thought he was still shut  up  in  that  tiny  cave,  well  and  good!  Then  she  heard  her  father's  voice,  anxiously  calling from somewhere beyond the man.

'George! Is that you? Are you all right?'

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'Yes,  Father!'  shouted  back  George,  hoping  that  he  would  not  ask  anything  about  Timmy.  The man beckoned¹⁶ her to come to him. Then he pushed her in front of him and they walked to her father's cave.

'I've brought  your boy back,' said the man. 'Silly little idiot  -- thinking he could set that savage¹⁷ dog free! We've got him penned up in a cave with a big boulder in front!'

Another  man  came  in  from  the  opposite  end  of  the  cave.  He  was  amazed  to  see  George.  The other man explained.

'When  I  got  down  here,  I  heard  a  noise  out  beyond  this  cave,  the  dog  barking  and  someone talking to him and found this kid there, trying to set the dog free. I'd have shot the dog, of course, if he had been freed.'

'But - how did this boy get here?' asked the other man, still amazed.

'Maybe he can tell us that!' said the other. And then, for the first time, George's father heard how George had got there and why.

She told them how she had watched for Timmy in the glass room of the tower and hadn't seen him - and that had worried her and made her suspicious. So she had come across to the island in her boat  at  night,  and had seen where the men came from.  She had  gone down the tunnel, and kept on till she came to the cave, where she had found her father.

The  three  men  listened  in  silence.  'Well,  you're  a  tiresome  nuisance,'  one  of  the  men  said  to George,  'but  my  word,  you're  a  son  to  be  proud  of.  It's  not  many  boys  would  have  been  brave enough to run so much risk for anyone.'

'Yes.  I'm  really  proud  of  you,  George,'  said  her  father.  He  looked  at  her  anxiously.  She  knew what he was thinking about his precious book? Had she been sensible enough to hide it? She did not dare to let him know anything while the men were there.

'Now,  this  complicates  matters,'  said  the  other  man,  looking  at  George.  'If  you  don't  go  back home you'll soon be missed, and there will be all kinds of search parties going on  - and maybe someone  will  send  over  to  the  island  here  to  tell  your  father  you  have  disappeared!  We  don't want  anyone here at  present  -  not  till we know  what  we  want  to  know!' He turned to  George's father. 'If you will tell us what we want to know, and give us all your notes, we will set you free, give you whatever sum of money you ask us for, and disappear ourselves.'

'And if I still say I won't?' said George's father.

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'Then I am afraid we shall blow up the whole of your machines and the tower - and possibly you will never be found again because  you will be buried down here,' said the man, in  a voice that was suddenly very hard.

There was a dead silence. George looked at her father. 'You couldn't do a thing like that,' he said at last. 'You would gain nothing by it at all!'

'It's all or nothing with us,' said the man. 'All or nothing. Make up your mind. We'll give you till half  past  ten  tomorrow  morning  about  seven  hours.  Then  either  you  tell  us  everything,  or  we blow the island sky-high!'

They went out of the cave and left George and her father together. Only seven hours! And then, perhaps -- the end of Kirrin Island!