Chapter twenty-five:

A thrilling night

All eight of the men stood waiting, apparently for their helicopter to arrive. They had finished up their job, the marsh was fully drained where they needed it to be. They had drained quite a wide space around where they assumed the ship had sunk so that, when the surrounding marsh land crept in towards the ship, they would have enough time to get to it before it was completely covered again. Bill and his other colleagues had planned to give the men a few moments to settle down, and then they would run out and arrest them quickly and pack them off into one of the cars. Bill nodded to the five new men and to Howard. Raymond didn’t come into any of these things. He studied machinery and he was here because of that, though if any help was needed, he would give it. And Sammy was trained to be disguised and act as another person, he too was not involved in any action. To the children’s astonishment, Bill and five others leapt out from beneath the canopy and raced towards the men. The enemies were so surprised they couldn’t move!

Bill managed to grab two men, roughly by the arms. One wriggled away and was caught deftly by Howard who had already caught one of the men, Mr Dickens, who was scowling most unpleasantly. The four men that the children didn’t know had caught five between them. All the men were caught! It had all happened in a split second, and the children felt quite dazed! The children watched the men be escorted down the hill two large cars, which they were all shoved into. The cars raced off down the hill. Bill, Howard, and two others returned. Two of the men were driving eight criminals off to prison! When the men got back Bill hissed to the children. “We’ll need your help children, I’m afraid. I never thought this out too well. There were eight men waiting and there are only four of us. We need four more to wait with us, so when the helicopter flies over, the men driving it, don’t figure out something’s up when they only see four of us.” The children were thrilled! Help Bill out and solve this case! Who could resist?

The children clamoured out from the willow tree and followed Bill to the exact spot where the men had waited. They felt rather giddy! Kiki kept silent, remaining on Jack’s shoulder. All eight waited, looking up into the sky now and again. Bill explained what was going to happen. “When the helicopter lands, we’ll all step on board and Howard, John, Fred, and I should be able to handle this one. If we are struggling, Raymond I want you to step in. We’ll then take them off down the hill and put them into the cars. I don’t know how many there will be this time, so you children are to be careful and keep as far back as you can. I dare say this could be more dangerous than it sounds.”

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Chapter twenty-four:

Hiding places again

“The men were discussing the happenings of tonight, in I’m afraid for them, much too loud a voice for us to not hear. The marsh will be fully drained by tonight at two o’clock sharp, when all the men will have to do is take a helicopter out over the land to look for the ship. They will land, search for the treasure and anything else of value, and fly off to America where they will sell all their goods! We seemed to have speeded up their process, for they had not planned to do this until tomorrow night, but they have been working all day and have asked some more men in on this trick to fly the helicopter over tonight. It will land on the top of the hill, and fly off. A good plan, but not good enough for us!” Bill said. The boys felt rather ashamed. All that going on and they never heard a word of it!

Bill hadn’t meant to embarrass the two boys and thumped them on the backs. “You both did a great job down there, though.”

“So what are we going to do tonight, Bill?” asked Dinah, suddenly.

“We’re planning to lie in wait for the helicopter and when the men all arrive, we’ll arrest them, and the men in the helicopter, too. Something tells me it wont be as easy as all that though, so things might get a bit dangerous. You are to stay right back, see? You can watch the fun, but that’s all. We’ll need a few more of my work colleagues, so I’m off to get them now. Coming?”

The children were, and of course Kiki the parrot. They walked down the hill, talking nineteen to the dozen about the exciting night which lay ahead of them. They reached the village of Lowfell at last, and stopped at the little garage there. The garage keeper was there. The children hadn’t seen him before. He was a short fellow, who wore rather dirty overalls and had all sorts of tools in his pockets. He wore a red cap on one side of his head. The children thought he would be hardly able to walk with all the weight in his pockets! Bill said a few words to the man, who ran lightly over to a black, sleek car and handed Bill the keys. Bill nodded to him, and told the children to hop in. Raymond and Howard had stayed behind and were sitting in the little dairy.

Jack, Philip and Dinah piled in the back of the car, and Lucy-Ann slipped in the front, next to Bill. Bill reversed the car out of the garage and headed out of the little village. Off they drove, along a quiet, narrow, country lane. When they reached the village where Bill’s base was, he told them to go to the little dairy and get five large ice creams and he would join them in a minute.

The children slipped over the road and walked into the dairy. A woman was cleaning up the little tables, and she smiled at them. She was a plump little woman, and wore an apron that hardly fitted her. Her hair was bundled up in neat buns on top of her head, and her face was round and jolly. “Now what would four hungry children like on this very hot afternoon?” she said, beaming at them. “Four extra big glasses of lemonade…or perhaps ginger beer? The biggest ice creams in the shop, or how abouts a frozen lolly?” she asked in a sing song voice.

“We’ll have five ginger beers, and five ice creams please!” the children said, after much discussion.

“Now I haven’t seen your faces ‘ere before, ‘ave I? You just visiting?” she asked, as she brought the little tray of ginger beers and ice cream over.

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