So far I have written about the ways in which the children have arranged accommodation, food supplies and other essentials for living on the island. The intended permanence of their stay on the island has made their efforts different to anything we’ve seen in any of Blyton’s other books. But there’s still one major element that I haven’t covered – their need to stay hidden.

Running away forever

There are plenty of Blyton’s stories where children have a need to stay hidden from enemies – but again, one difference is the length of time this is necessary. For example the Mannering-Trents must hide in the valley from Juan and Pepi, and the Adventurous four must hide from their enemies on various islands, but both are short-term, only until escape or rescue is possible.

While the Arnolds and Jack only (I say only but it really is a significant amount of time for a group of children) spend five or six months on the island, their intention is to live there potentially forever. (I imagine, though, that had their parents not returned and found them, that they would have moved on once they were old enough to no longer be legally in the care of their relatives, and could find jobs).

The other difference is that whilst most children are hiding from enemies such as smugglers, thieves and other crooks, the Arnolds live in fear of being found and returned to their aunt and uncle. To be honest I’m half-surprised that the aunt and uncle even bother to start a search – they obviously care not one jot for the children. As they think that the parents are dead they have no concerns about being accused of anything by them. I can only imagine that they decided that their slave labour was worth more than the cost of feeding them. That, or, they worried that someone locally would notice the children’s absence and it would look bad on them for not reporting it…

“Is Aunt Harriet very upset?” asked Peggy.

“Very!” grinned Jack. “She’s got no one to wash and scrub and cook for her now! But that’s all she cares, I expect!”

The secret of not attracting attention

While the Arnolds perhaps considered themselves escaped and free, Jack is obviously constantly aware of the need to stay hidden. It is he who stamps out their fire soon after they’ve eaten on their first evening –

People may be looking for us to-night, you know, and a spire of smoke from this island would give our hiding-place away nicely!

Willow House is naturally rather well-hidden as it is in a tight thicket of trees, and so Jack thinks it will be difficult for grown-ups to squeeze their way in to find it.

On their second full day on the island Jack returns in the evening from his chicken-collecting trip and has news for the other regarding the search.

“Everyone is wondering where we’ve all gone! They’ve searched everywhere for us—in all the nearby towns and villages, and in all the country round about!”

He reiterates his concern about the smoke from their fire giving the game away, but acknowledges that it’s a problem they’ll have to deal with when it comes. After all – they have to be able to cook.

The police are involved at this stage, too.

“They’ve searched barns and stacks and ditches, and gone to every town for twenty miles round, thinking we might have run away on a lorry. They don’t guess how near we are!”

So they all know that it’s really important that they are careful about staying hidden. The position of the island, far from shores which are densely treed and unpopulated, is really key here. But it doesn’t stop the trippers from coming.

A trial run

Initially, the trippers seem like a bit of a disaster. Although they are not looking for the children they could well stumble upon them by accident. It’s also a real disruption to the children’s well-ordered routine.

And yet, it also proves to be extremely useful. Although unprepared the children are able to not only hide themselves, but also most signs of their presence. It’s all done in a somewhat haphazard manner, but it does work, and it helps to better prepare them for any visits from people who are actually looking for them.

They stamp out the fire, scatter the burnt wood in the bushes and spread fresh sand over the site.

They collect up all their belongings and hide them. They stuff the cave-larder up with heather and bracken (though I’d have taken the things out, to be safe!).

They put the hens into a sack and taken to the caves, but the hen-yard is left in place.

They take the boat around the island a little and hide it under overhanging brambles.

Daisy is on the far side of the island from the best landing-place, so they decide she is probably safe unless the trippers go exploring fully.

The children themselves plan to keep lookout from the bracken on the hill.

Although the children are feeling very afraid the trippers’ conversation is quite amusing for the readers, as poor Eddie hears and sees things that are absolutely signs of the island being inhabited but his companions just laugh at him.

“Do you hear that noise?” said one of the trippers. “Sounds like a hen to me!”

“Don’t be silly, Eddie,” said a woman’s voice scornfully. “How could a hen be on an island like this! That must have been a blackbird or something.”

…

“Can you hear that cow mooing somewhere?” said one of the trippers, in surprise.

“I expect it’s a cow in a field on the mainland,” said another lazily. “You don’t suppose there is a cow wandering loose on this tiny island, do you, Eddie?”

Eddie also spots a footprint in the sand and finds a piece of string. The others put this down to other trippers having been to the island before.

As usual it is Jack who is thinking ahead once the trippers leave, thanks to bats and dark clouds.

“I hope that man called Eddie doesn’t read anywhere about four runaway children and think we might be here because of what he heard and found. We must be prepared for that, you know. We must make some plans to prevent being found if anyone comes again to look for us.”

Best laid plans

When the children discover the mess the trippers left the day before it is, of course, Jack who suggests they might use some of the rubbish.

“If we keep the tin and a carton and the empty cigarette packet in our cave-cupboard, we might put them out on the beach if anyone else ever comes—and then, if they happen to find the remains of our fire, or a bit of string or anything like that—why, they won’t think of looking for us—they’ll just think trippers have been here!”

This is ingenious, as although of course they wouldn’t intend to leave any clues to their presence lying around should anyone else come to the island, there’s always a chance that something would be missed.

Jack decides that the boat should stay hidden now, and only got out when they need it. It takes him some time, however, to decide that they should make more serious plans for hiding. The fact that trippers found the island does of course mean that others might, or others might even already know of it.

“If anyone does come here to look for us, and it’s quite likely,” he said, “we must really have all our plans made as to what to do, and know exactly where to hide. People who are really looking for us won’t just sit about on that beach as the trippers did, you know—they will hunt all over the island.”

The caves are judged the best place to hide, and explored.

Though we know that they also intend to live in them come the winter.

Possibly the best part of their hiding plans is Jack practicing walking Daisy through the narrow tunnel and into the inner cave. They can’t rely on her being on the far side of the island if people are going to search the whole place. And so he entices her along with the promise of a juicy turnip, and soon she quite happily makes the journey.

Should anyone come looking for them Jack will then be able to quickly and easily hide Daisy away. Mike’s job will be to get the hens to the caves. Peggy is to stamp out the fire and hide the remains, then put out the trippers’ rubbish and cover up the cave-larder. Nora is to collect the pail of milk and scatter heather over the seed patches.

Jack even thinks to make sure they avoid traipsing in and out of the larger cave entrance in case they leave too many marks there.

Waiting for the searchers

As they have anticipated, searchers do come for them. Jack, having nearly been caught by a policeman at the market, knows it’s only a matter of time.

Immediately he decides that one of them must keep watch from the top of the hill all though the day. He guesses that they will start searching around the lake first, before coming to the island, and he is right.

Mike, getting a chance to shine for a brief moment, suggests making a hole in the boat and letting it sink.

Jack orders Peggy to make sure every last thing is cleared away, down to any snippets of wool. Despite having the trippers’ rubbish, he’s not taking any chances. Their belongings, with the exception of a few essentials, are to be tidied away to the caves. This time the hen-yard is to be dismantled, and heather thrown over the bare, chicken-scratched ground. Their fires are to be lit for the minimum amount of time they can get away with for cooking.

After five days of watching, and living on edge, they spot a boat coming towards their island.

The children hurried off. Jack went to get Daisy. Mike went to see to the hens and the hen-yard. Peggy scattered the dead remains of the fire, and caught up the kettle and the saucepan and any odds and ends of food on the beach to take to the cave. Nora ran to cover up their patches of growing seeds with bits of heather.

As they are so organised everything goes like clockwork. Daisy goes into the caves quietly, the hens are collected, everything and everyone is hidden in the cave.

Except that Mike realises that he hasn’t got his hat. This adds a nice bit of tension as he goes off to try to find it, as the searchers approach the island. Turns out it was beside Willow House all along, and was quite safe.

He returns to the caves and helps the others pile some rocks in the inner cave passage to simulate a rockfall, just in case the men find it.

What the searchers find

In a somewhat similar manner to the trippers, the men do find a few things on the island, but dismiss most of them.

They find evidence of a fire, and the trampled area around the spring, but thanks to the trippers’ rubbish they attribute them to trippers.

The hen-yard is found, making them sure that someone has been there, and been up to something, but what? (No mention of chicken droppings, or later, cow-pats, as those would have been a dead give-away!)

The runner-beans make them think the children have been there (though later they suggest they could have been dropped by birds), but because there’s no boat, they begin to convince themselves that if they were there, they aren’t any longer. But they think they’d better check the caves just in case.

They do find the “rock fall” and one man is about to try to force his way through when another points out that if they can’t get through, the children couldn’t have.

And then Daisy begins to moo and cough. Much like with the trippers one man declares it sounds like a cow and is laughed at.

“It sounded like a cow,” said another voice.

“A cow!” cried the first man, “what next? Do you mean to say you think there’s a cow in the middle of this hill, Tom?”

Daisy doesn’t send the men away in terror, but they are somewhat spooked and decide the children would be scared by such noises and give up the search. It’s quite a funny moment but it’s almost a shame that a few noises are what truly ends the search, and not all the tremendous effort the children have gone to in hiding every element of their life on the island. I wonder how the men rationalised the strange sounds to themselves.

And with that, they are safe on the island once more – there isn’t any reason for anyone to come searching again.

The children really have been industrious up until now; turning various parts of the island into comfortable accommodation and tending to their livestock and crops.

Yet the island can’t provide everything they need and so it’s time to start looking at the Secret Island commerce!

They only steal what they can’t afford (that’s everything!)

I’m misquoting Aladdin there – and I think that the children’s stealing is justified. Normally stealing is confined to the baddies in any Blyton tale, but if the children were properly looked after by their relations then they’d be getting fed and clothed anyway.

There is a great deal of making-do on the island, which the children are happy with. Using an old sack as a towel is preferable to having to live with their cruel relatives with their proper towels.

Some things they are able to source from either Uncle Henry’s farm or Jacks granddad’s farm.

When Jack goes to fetch his cow he finds his granddad has left, and so he is able to check for anything useful left in the house. That amounts to a couple of old, dirty roller towels, and all of Jack’s remaining (and rather ragged) clothes.

Three shirts, a few vests, an odd pair of trousers, an overcoat, a pair of old shoes, and a ragged blanket!

Though when they get up the next morning they remember that they have no pail – this means that they have to milk Daisy into saucepans, the kettle, their bowls and jugs. An old pail has to then be fetched from the barn on Uncle Henry’s farm.

Various other trips are made – risky business, but obviously necessary.

Clothes being a second difficulty after food – as island life must be tough on clothes. Keeping them clean and mended with only one outfit each, especially so. Thus Mike collects some of his and the girls’ clothes from their old rooms (note that this will be mentioned in a later nitpicks post!).

two or three dresses for the girls, and a coat and shorts for
himself

In addition to the foodstuffs – mostly vegetables – I mentioned them collecting in the last post, Jack also gathers turnips for Daisy, and later can pick wild mushrooms from the mainland. More corn is needed for the hens,

It’s just as well that Jack’s granddad’s farm stays empty for so long (it all sounds rather dilapidated and shabby, so not an enticing prospect for many buyers) enabling them to pinch thing as needed. Perhaps Aunt Harriet and Uncle Henry have noticed things going missing, though, as they buy a new dog which bites a hole in Mike’s shorts. Perhaps it’s just a regular working dog, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was also there as a guard dog. I very much doubt they are thinking it’s the children who are helping themselves to things on the farm, though!

Jack the salesman

There’s a limit to what they can steal from the farms – there’s never any suggestion they could or should take anything from inside Aunt Harriet’s house except the clothes which already belong to them.

I expect it’s mostly for moral reasons, but of course if they started taking food or candles or other supplies it would likely be noticed even more than an old pail and crops. It might even end up with the police involved.

So, they have to come up with another idea when the colder weather starts and their essentials start to run out. There’s only one candle left, and a few matches.

Jack points out that they’ll want a better light in the evenings, and another blanket.

Peggy says she really needs some more wool and thread, having had to already mend grey trousers with blue wool. She’d also love some flour so she could make rolls.

The corn for the hens is running low, says Nora.

Jack’s response surprises them:

Don’t you think it would be a good idea if I took the boat and went to the village at the other end of the lake and bought some of the things we badly need?

With what money? the children (and probably the reader) ask.

The idea is one that Blyton will reuse in Hollow Tree House seven years later – selling produce in pretty little woven baskets.

They’ve already been making little basket out of willow – Peggy having taught the others how to do this – and so Jack’s plan is to fill them with the wild mushrooms, sell them at a market and then use the money to buy supplies.

It’s a pretty good idea, actually. The only other idea I could think of would be for him to go to the mainland and offer to do odd jobs, but that would be more risky and possibly less profitable.

With that plan sorted the shopping list quickly grows.

“I wish we could have a book or two,” said Peggy.
“And a pencil would be nice,” said Nora. “I like drawing things.”
“And a new kettle,” said Peggy. “Ours leaks a bit now.”
“And a few more nails,” said Mike.
“And the flour and the wool and the black cotton,” said Peggy.

Later Peggy adds soap to Jack’s list – bringing it to 21 items.

On Jack’s first trip he ends up selling mushrooms in willow baskets, and strawberries in rush baskets. It doesn’t say how many baskets of mushrooms he takes, or what he sells them for, but there are 12 baskets of strawberries which the girls suggest are worth sixpence each. The strawberries alone would earn them six shillings that way.

He sells everything, thanks, in part, to the attractive presentation of the baskets.

He spends all the money on:

• A very large bag of flour.
• Wool and cotton for Peggy.
• Scores of candles and plenty of matches.
• A new kettle and two enamel plates.
• Some storybooks, and two pencils and a rubber.
• A drawing-book
• Some nails, soap, butter for a treat
• Some bars of chocolate, some tins of cocoa, tea and rice.
• Corn
• Tins of treacle and sugar

I found this handy chart on the government website which details 1938 prices for a number of foodstuffs. For example, flour was 1s 2 ¼d for 7lbs. Jack’s ‘very large bag’ could have been a 7lb bag, or perhaps smaller as that’s pretty heavy along with all his other purchases. Butter was 1s 4½d per lb, and sugar only 2½d per lb. Tea was more expensive, at 2s 4¼d per lb, but Jack may well have been buying things in smaller amounts.

Regardless, he has to stagger back under the weight of it all when he is done.

The storybooks were Robinson Crusoe, Stories from the Bible, Animals of the World and The Boy’s Book of Aeroplanes. The first edition of The Secret Island was priced at 3s 6d, but a year later a cheaper edition was produced at 2s. I assume that the books Jack has bought are either second-hand or from cheaper print runs.

I think Jack and the others get a bit over-confident about this, though. While it has been successful his statement that we needn’t be too careful now of all our things because I can go each week and sell mushrooms and strawberries and earn money to buy more seems a bit foolish.

Peggy points out that the mushrooms are strawberries will run out, but Jack plans to sell blackberries and nuts instead. He acknowledges that these won’t fetch as much money, but added up it will be fine.

I can get enough to store up plenty of things for the winter. If we can get flour, potatoes, rice, cocoa, and things like that, we shall be quite all right. Daisy can always give us milk and cream, and we get lots of eggs from the hens, fish from the lake, and a rabbit or two.

In all, it’s not a bad plan. Gathering free wild foods, making baskets, and selling the produce to buy essentials they can’t grow themselves is pretty sensible. Stocking up for winter is a very good idea.

Maybe it’s because I know what happens later on when Jack’s at the market, but I think they should carry on being careful with their supplies. Any number of things could happen – Jack could be recognised, the boat could become unrepairable, the weather could become too bad to get to the mainland, the sellable goods could run out…

Jack goes to market each Wednesday for several weeks, selling the strawberries and mushrooms, then the hazelnuts and blackberries, coming back with sacks of goods to stockpile.

And then, of, course, it does all go wrong. Jack comes back with a little money – but money’s no use on the island.

This is the end of my marketing, he says. But it’s more than that – it’s the beginning of the end of their island life.

Next time – moving on from survival skills I’ll look at their hiding skills.