"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 03 - Five Run Away Together" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"You're a very stupid person sometimes, aren't you, George?" said Julian. "As if we'd care about getting into trouble, so long as we were all together, sticking by one another! Of course we'll come with youЧand I'll take all the responsibility for this escape, and tell your father it's my fault."
"Oh no you won't," said George, quickly. "I shall say it was my idea. If I do wrong, I'm not afraid to own up to it. You know that."
"Well, we won't argue that now," said Julian. "We shall have at least a week or ten days on Kirrin Island to do all the arguing we want to. The thing isЧlet's get back now, wake up the others for a bit, and have a nice quiet
talk in the dead of night about this plan of yours. I must say it's a very, very good idea!"
George was overjoyed. "I feel as if I could hug you, Julian," she said. "Where are the oars? Oh, here they are! The boat's floated quite a long way out."
She rowed strongly back to the shore. Julian jumped out and pulled the boat up the beach, with George's help. He shone his torch into the boat and gave an exclamation.
"You've quite a nice little store of things here," he said. "Bread and ham and butter and stuff. How did you manage to get them without old Mr. Stick seeing you tonight? I suppose you slipped down and got them out of the larder?" "
"Yes, I did," said George. "But there was no one in the kitchen tonight. Perhaps Mr. Stick has gone to sleep upstairs. Or maybe he has gone back to his ship. Anyway, there was no one there when I crept down, not even Stinker."
"We'd better leave them here," said Julian. "Stuff them into that locker and shut down the lid. No one will guess there's anything there. We'll have to bring down a lot more stuff if we're all going to live on the island. Golly, this is going to be fun!"
The children made their way back to the house, feeling thrilled and excited. Julian's wet dressing-gown flapped round his legs, and he pulled it up high to be out of the way. Timothy gambolled round, not seeming at all surprised at the night's doings.
When they got back to the house they woke the other two, who listened in astonishment to what had happened
that night. Anne was so excited to think that they were all going to live on the island that she raised her voice in joy.
"Oh! That's the loveliest thing that could happen! Oh, I do think . . ."
"Shut up!" said three furious voices in loud whispers. "You'll wake the Sticks!"
"Sorry!" whispered Anne. "But ohЧit's so terribly, awfully exciting."
They began to discuss their plans. "If we go for a week or ten days, we must take plenty of stores," said Julian.
"The thing isЧcan we possibly find food enough for so long? Even if we entirely empty the larder I doubt if that would be enough for a week or so. We all seem such hungry people, somehow."
"Julian," said George, suddenly remembering something, "I know what we'll do! Mother has a store-cupboard in her room. She keeps dozens and dozens of tins of food there, in case we ever get snowed up in the winter, and can't go to the village. That has happened once or twice you know. And I know where Mother keeps the key! Can't we open the cupboard and get out some tins?"
"Of course!" said Julian, delighted. "I know Aunt Fanny wouldn't mind. And anyway, we can make a list of what we take and replace them for her, if she does mind. It will be my birthday soon, and I am sure to get money then."
"Where's the key?" whispered Dick.
"Let's-go into Mother's room, and I'll show you where
she keeps it," said George. "I only hope she hasn't" taken it with her."
But George's mother had felt far too ill when she left home to think of cupboard keys. George fumbled at the back of a drawer in the dressing-table and brought out two or three keys tied together with thin string. She fitted first one and then another into a cupboard set in the wall. The second one opened the door.
Julian shone his torch into the cupboard. It was filled with tins of food of all kinds, neatly arranged on the shelves.
"Golly!" said Dick, his eyes gleaming. "SoupЧtins of meatЧtins of fruitЧtinned milkЧsardinesЧtinned butterЧbiscuitsЧtinned vegetables! There's everything we want here!"
"Yes," said Julian, pleased. "It's fine. We'll take all we can carry. Is there a sack or two anywhere about, George, do you know?"
Soon the tins were quietly packed into two sacks. The cupboard door was shut and locked again. The children stole to their own rooms once more.
"Well, that's the biggest problem solvedЧfood," said Julian. "We'll raid the larder too, and take what bread there isЧand cake. What about water, George? Is there any on the island?"
"Well, I suppose there is some in that old well," said George, thinking, "but as there's no bucket or anything, we can't get any. I was taking a big container of fresh water with meЧbut we'd better fill two or three more now you are all coming! I know where there are some, quite clean and new."
So they filled some containers with fresh water, and put them with the sacks, ready to take to the boat. It was so exciting doing all these things in the middle of the night! Anne could hardly keep her voice down to a whisper, and it was a wonder that Timothy didn't bark, for he sensed the excitement of the others.
There was a tin of cakes in the larder, freshly made, so those were added to the heap that was forming in the front garden. There was a large joint of meat too, and George wrapped it in a cloth and put that with the heap,
telling Timmy in a fierce voice that if he so much as sniffed at it she would leave him behind!
"I've got my little stove for boiling water on, or heating up anything," whispered George. "It's in the boat. That's what I bought the methylated spirit for, of course. You didn't guess, did you? And the matches for lighting it. I sayЧwhat about candles? We can't use our torches all the time, the batteries would soon run out."
They found a pound of candles in the kitchen cupboard, a kettle, a saucepan, some old knives and forks and spoons, and a good many other things they thought they might possibly want. They also came across some small bottles of ginger-beer, evidently stored for their own use by the Sticks.
"All bought out of my mother's money!" said George. "Well, we'll take the ginger-beer too. It will be nice to drink it on a hot day."
"Where are we going to sleep at night?" said Julian. "In that ruined part of the old castle, where there is just one room with a roof left, and walls?"
"That's where I planned to sleep," said George. "I was going to make my bed of some of the heather that grows on the island, covered by a rug or two, which I've got down in the boat."
"We'll take all the rugs we can find," said Julian. "And some cushions for pillows. I say, isn't this simply thrilling? I don't know when I've felt so excited. I feel like a prisoner .escaping to freedom! Won't the Sticks be amazed when they find us gone!"
"Yes Ч we'll have to decide what to say to them," said George, rather soberly. "We don't .want them sending
people after us to the island, making us come back. I don't think they should know we've gone there."
"We'll discuss that later," said Dick. "The thing is to get everything to the boat while it's dark. It will soon be dawn."
"How are we going to get all this down to George's boat?" said Anne, looking at the enormous pile of goods by the light of her torch. "We'll never be able to carry them all!"
Certainly it looked a great pile. Julian had an idea, as usual. "Are there any barrows in the shed?" he asked George. "If we could pile the things into a couple of barrows, we could easily take everything in one journey. We could wheel the barrows along on the sandy side of the road so that we don't make any noise."
"Oh, good idea!" said George, delighted. "I wish I'd thought of that before. I had to make about five journeys to and from the boat when I took my own things. There are two barrows in the shed. We'll get them. One has a squeaky wheel, but we'll hope no one hears it."
Stinker heard the squeak, as he lay in a corner of Mrs. Stick's room. He pricked up his ears and growled softly. He did not dare to bark, for he was afraid of bringing Timothy up. Mrs. Stick did not hear the growl. She slept soundly, not even stirring. She had no idea what was going on downstairs.
The things were all stowed into the boat. The children didn't like leaving them there unguarded. In the end they decided to leave Dick there, sleeping on the rugs. They stood thinking for a moment before they went back without Dick.
"I do hope we've remembered all we shall want," said George, wrinkling up her forehead. "GollyЧI know! We haven't remembered a tin-openerЧnor a thing to take off the tops of the ginger-beer bottles. They've got those little tin lids that have to be forced off by an opener."
"We'll put those in our pockets when we get back to the house and find them," said Julian. "I remember seeing some in the sideboard drawer. Good-bye, Dick. We'll be down very early to row off. We must get some bread at the baker's as soon as he opens, because we've got hardly any, and we'll see if we can pick up a very large bone at the butcher's for Timmy. George has got a bag of biscuits in the boat for him too."
The three of them set off back to the house with Timmy, leaving Dick curled up comfortably on the rugs. He soon fell asleep again, his face upturned to the stars that would soon fade from the sky.
The others talked about what to tell the Sticks. "I think we won't tell them anything," said Julian, at last. "I don't particularly want to tell them deliberate lies, and I'm certainly not going to tell them the truth. I know what we'll doЧthere is a train that leaves the station about eight o'clock, which would be the one we'd catch if we were going back to our own home. We'll find a time-table, leave it open on the dining-room table, as if we'd been looking up a train, and then we'll all set off across the moor at the back of the house, as if we were going to the station."