Free Famous Five 19 Five Go to Demons Rocks by Enid Blyton Page B

they came marching by, I’d send a stone skedaddling after them!’ said the old man. ‘Mean and cruel and wicked they were.
    And everyone was skeered of them, right down afraid! There was One-Ear, the old man.
    They say his left ear was chewed off by a monkey, but do I blame that monkey? No, I do not, no more than I’d blame your monkey for chewing off the ear of Somebody Else I know - but I won’t mention no names, he might hear me.’
    The old fellow looked over his shoulder as if the man he was thinking of might be about.
    ‘Well - there was One-Ear, the old man - and there was Nosey, the son - and Bart his nephew - and not a pin to choose between them for meanness. There was only one thing they was after - and that was money! And a mighty wicked way they chose to get it.’ The old man stopped and spat in disgust on the pavement.
    ‘Pah! I’ll tell you how they got rich, oh yes, I’ll tell you. And I’ll tell you what happened to them in the end too. Be a lesson to you and to everyone! Well now, you see that high cliff away down the coast there - the one with the flag-post and the flag a-waving in the wind?’
    ‘Yes,’ said everyone, looking at the waving flag.
    ‘Now ships mustn’t hug the coast beyond that point!’ said Grandad. ‘It they do, they’ll be forced inland by the current, and thrown on them rocks down there - Demon’s Rocks.
    And that’s the end of them. No ship has ever been able to escape the sharp teeth of them wicked rocks, once she’s caught in that current. Well now, to stop the ships going near to the cliff in those days, they flew a flag in the day-time - and lighted a lamp up there at night. And both said as plain as could be “BEWARE! KEEP OUT! DANGER!”’
    ‘Of course, all sailors knew the flag and the lamp too, and many a one blessed them, and took their ships out to sea, away from Demon’s Rocks. But that didn’t suit old One-Ear Bill. He didn’t mind a wreck or two! He’d be down on the beach picking up what he could, if a ship came smashing down on the rocks. And would he save a single soul -
    not he! There was some people said he was the Demon of Demon’s Rocks himself!’
    ‘What a wicked old man!’ said Anne horrified.
    ‘Aye, you’re right missie,’ said the old fellow. ‘Well, the wrecks didn’t come often enough for him and Nosey and Bart. So they put their ugly heads together and thought up as wicked a plan as any man could think of!’
    ‘What was it?’ said Tinker, his eyes almost falling out of his head.
    ‘Well, on a stormy night he put out the lamp a-shining brightly on the far cliff, and he and Nosey carried it to that bit of cliff over yonder, see?’ and the old man pointed to a jutting-out piece nearby. ‘And you know what’s just below that cliff, don’t you - all round the light-house!’
    ‘Rocks! Sharp, horrible rocks - the Demon’s Rocks!’ said George, horrified.
    ‘Do you mean to say that One-Ear Bill and the others deliberately shone the lamp there on stormy nights, to guide ships straight on to the rocks?’ said Julian.
    ‘Aye, that’s what I do mean,’ said Jeremiah Boogie. ‘And what’s more I met old One-Ear Bill meself one dark night when the storms were on - and what was he carrying between himself and Nosey - the lamp! They’d doused the light, of course, but I’d my own little lantern with me, and I saw the lamp plain enough. Aye, that I did! And when they saw me, they set Bart on to me, to push me over the cliff, so’s I wouldn’t tell on them. But I

    “Famous Five 19 - Five Go To Demon's Rock” By Enid Blyton 35
    got away, and I DID tell on ’em! Ho, yes, I told all right. And One-Ear Bill went to prison, and serve him right, the wicked man. But he didn’t care - and why should he? He was rich! RICH!’
    ‘But how was he rich?’ asked Dick.
    ‘Well, young sir, the ships that came sailing round this coast in those days, came from far-off countries, and many of them carried treasure,’ said