NICK

Lenny is running in the wrong direction.

“Not upstairs!” Lampie calls after him. “Not to the tower! Anywhere but there!” But he is already on his way, around the corner, down the dark corridor, up the narrow staircase. Lampie looks across the hallway, at the staircase leading down, to the front door, where she can leave the house. But then she turns and runs after her friends.

Fish is shivering, with his arms clasped around Lenny’s neck and his eyes tightly shut. As soon as they are up in his room, he drops onto the floor, wriggles under his bed and disappears.

Lampie comes into the room, panting. “Fish, you have to leave with me, we can’t stay here. Fish!”

But Fish stays where he is.

Lampie wants to drag him out from under the bed, but she can’t reach him.

“Piss and bile!” Lampie curses. “Don’t you understand? They’ll be up here any minute now, he’ll give you to Earl, and you’ll end up in the aquarium, just like your aunt. You don’t want that!”

It is so quiet under the bed, as if there were no one there.

“And your father is going to… I have to warn my father. Fish, help me. Come on!”

Fish does not respond.

Lampie bends down and looks under the bed, her cheek on the floor. Right at the back she sees a small black shadow.

“Fish,” she whispers. “Edward. I really have to go. I need to warn my father. Come with me. Please! But I have to go anyway, whether you come or not.” Then she realizes that tears are rolling down her face and dropping onto the carpet. She can’t leave him like this, can she?

Lampie looks at Lenny, who is still standing where he dropped Fish.

“Lenny,” says Lampie. “What should we do?” The boy looks at her with his round eyes in his round head. He can’t help her this time.

 

Then someone whistles, outside in the garden. The sound blows in through one of the windows. And then again.

Lampie stands up and walks over to the window. Down there, beside the rhinoceros, stands Nick. He looks up at her, waving something in his hand.

Lampie leans out of the window, as far as she dares. “Nick!” she cries. “You have to help us. Please! I need to get to my father, and…”

Yes, nods Nick. He beckons her and points at the thing in his hand. Lampie can’t quite see what it is, some kind of short stick with straps on it. What is she supposed to do with that? Nick beckons her again. Come on!

Lampie looks back at the bed. Should she do it? And leave Fish behind?

Downstairs she hears the dogs barking away. There is some shouting and then a bang.

“Have you lost your mind, Flint?” says the furious voice of the admiral. “Shooting at my dogs?! You idiot! Lucky you’re such a poor shot!”

Lampie shakes her head. That rules out that escape route; she would never dare to go past them.

“Nick!” she screams. “Could you maybe?… Someone has to go to my father and tell him that…” Around her, the wind is rising. The trees and the hedges are rattling and rustling. “He needs to know that… that the admiral has come home!” she yells over the noise. “And that he… he has to…”

Nick shouts something back to her, but she can’t hear him.

“What did you say?” she screams.

Again his words disappear into the wind.

Lampie looks around. “Wait! Wait, Nick! I’m going to throw something down!”

He nods. He waits.

 

Her hands shaking, Lampie takes the top off the inkpot and kneels down at the low desk. I can do this, she thinks. I’ve learnt how. And maybe this is why. She dips her pen into the ink and immediately makes a blot.

Dear Father, she thinks. Dear Father, This is your daughter, Lampie. How are you? No, that’s not right. What she has to say is: That ship was the admiral’s ship and he owns this house too, and now he’s here and you have to leave, you have to leave right away, because otherwise… She grips her pen. More blots. Otherwise…

It feels as if her brain is shaking too. And she really needs to hurry. Is that someone coming upstairs? And does Nick even know where her father lives? And what exactly did the admiral say? Do you know what the punishment is for drunkenness and something else? he said. But he did not say what the punishment was. Bread and water, or something worse than that, much, much worse, but she has no idea what.

Lenny sits on the bed, watching her with frightened eyes.

From downstairs she hears more shouting and bumping and banging. One of the dogs suddenly yelps. Lenny jumps to his feet and is about to run to the door, but Lampie grabs his sleeve and pulls him back down.

“Please, Lenny. Please stay here!” Lenny slowly sits back down, but keeps his eyes on the door.

Lampie looks at the piece of paper again. There is still nothing written on it.

“Fish,” she whispers. “What should I write? What is the punishment on board for drunkenness and… and?…”

The voice from under the bed is very quiet, but she still understands.

“Hanging,” he says. “From the highest mast.” Of course he would know the answer. “Your father needs to run. Right away. That’s what you have to write.”

Lampie’s hands start shaking even more. Dear Father, dear Father… She can’t even remember how to write a D – what does it look like again?

“I was so good at writing,” she cries. “And now I’ve forgotten everything…”

“Give it here,” says Fish. He crawls out from under the bed. “Let me.”

*

He starts writing, quickly and neatly. Before long, the page is full.

Will it really help? Lampie wonders. Will her father ever get it and read it and… and?…

Down in the garden, Nick whistles on his fingers again. Lampie runs over to the window. “It’s coming!” she calls. “Just a moment!”

Downstairs a door slams; it sounds really close. The key! she suddenly remembers. She digs around in her pocket, shuts the door, and quickly locks it.

“Have you finished? Fish? Please?”

The boy nods, waving the sheet of paper to dry the ink. “Finished,” he says. “But how?…”

They hear someone climbing the stairs, with heavy, uneven steps. Someone who is panting and limping and quietly cursing.

Fish finally seems to wake up now. He looks around, at the window, at the door, at the girl.

“Lampie,” he says. “Lampie, what should we do? What should I do?”

Lampie wishes she knew, but she only knows one thing at a time. Her eyes find the stone with the vein of gold, which is on the chest of drawers. She ties the note around it, using one of her shoelaces. This first, she thinks. And then everything else. She leans out of the window.

 

Nick is still standing down there, his coat flapping around him. Lampie carefully throws the stone; it lands some distance away from Nick but then rolls neatly towards him. He puts it in his pocket and then looks up at the girl, far above him. Lampie wishes that she were the stone. She wishes she could go with him.

“Will you really take it, Nick?” she whispers.

He nods, as if he can hear her, and smiles. Then he puts his hands up to his mouth and slowly shouts three words.

“The!”

“Sixth!”

“Window!”

“The sixth window?” repeats Lampie.

Nick nods again and turns around.

“What do you mean?” Lampie yells after him. “What window? Nick! Wait!”

But he does not wait, he turns around and walks quickly across the garden and down the road, on his way to the lighthouse. Or at least that is where she really, really hopes he is going.

Someone rattles the doorknob.

“Are you in there, you wretched little boy?” calls Lieutenant Flint through the keyhole. “Oh yes, you are, aren’t you?”