FIVE RUN AWAY TOGETHER - by Enid Blyton

22 BACK TO KIRRIN ISLAND!

SOON everyone was at Kirrin Cottage. Joanna, the old cook they had had before, gave them a good welcome, and listened to their adventures in astonishment, getting the lunch ready all the while.

It was while they were having lunch that Julian, looking out of the window, suddenly caught sight of a figure he knew very well, someone skulking along behind the hedge.

"Old Pa Stick!" he said, and jumped up. "I'll go after him. Stay here, everyone."

He went out of the house, ran round a corner and came face to face with Mr. Stick."

"Do you want to know where Edgar is?" said Julian mysteriously.

Mr. Stick looked startled. He stared at Julian not knowing what to say.

"He's down in the dungeons, locked in that cave," said Julian, even more mysteriously.

"You don't know nothin' about Edgar," said Mr. Stick. "Where have you been? Didn't you go home?"

"Never you mind," said Julian. "But if you want to find Edgar, look in that cave!"

Mr. Stick gave the boy a glare and left him. Julian hurried indoors and rang up the police station. He felt sure that Mr. Stick would tell Mrs. Stick what he had said, and that Mrs. Stick would insist on going back to the island to see if what he had said was true. So all that needed to be done was for the police to keep a watch on the boats along the shore and see when the Sticks left.

The children finished their dinner, and Uncle Quentin announced that he must return to his wife, who would want to know his news. "I'll tell her you are having a fine time on the island," he said, "and we can tell her all the extraordinary details when she returns home, better."

He left in a car, and the children wondered whether they might now return to their island or not. But they decided to wait a little, for they did not know what to do with Jennifer.

Very soon a large car drove up and stopped outside the gate of Kirrin Cottage. Out jumped a tall man with dark red hair, and a pretty woman. "They must be your father and mother, Jenny," said Julian.

They were, and Jennifer got so many hugs and kisses that she quite lost her breath. She had to tell her story again and again, and her father could not thank Julian and the others enough for all they had done.

"Ask me for any reward you like!" he said, "and you can have it. I shall never, never be able to tell you how grateful I am to you for rescuing our little Jenny."

"Oh, we don't want anything, thank you," said Julian, politely. "We enjoyed it all very much. We like adventures."

"Ah, but you must tell me something you want!" said Jenny's father.

Julian glanced round at the others. He knew that none of them wanted a reward. Jenny nudged him hard and nodded her head vigorously. Julian laughed.

"Well," he said, "there is one thing we'd all like very much."

"It's granted before you ask it!" said Jenny's father.

"Will you let Jenny come and spend a week with us on our island?" said Julian. Jenny gave a squeal and pressed Julian's arm very hard between her two small hands.

Jenny's parents looked rather taken-aback. "Well," said her father, "well, she's just been kidnapped, you know, and we don't feel inclined to let her out of our sight at the moment  and..."

"You promised Julian you'd grant what he asked, you promised, Daddy," said Jenny, urgently. "Oh please do let me. I've always wanted to live on an island. And this one has got a perfectly marvellous cave, and a wonderful ruined castle, and the dungeons where I was kept, and ..."