Lima Sekawan - Rahasia di Pulau Kirrin

Warning: this entry here is definitely a spoiler.

Not the most exciting book in the Famous Five series by any means. If anything, it makes me wanna smack George in the head a few times throughout. Which, of course, is every writer's dream -- to make your readers feel strongly about your characters, in a good or bad way. So, good job, Enid.

The story opens with George and Anne at their boarding school. George has just received a letter from her mom and is furious about her dad wanting to spend some time on her Kirrin Island for some secret experiments. We are reminded that George is a girl trying hard to act like a boy, that her dad is a very famous scientist and "such a hot-tempered, impatient man," and that George is very fond of her island, where she, her three cousins, and Timmy have "had one or two amazing adventures."

Anne sensibly tries to calm her cousin, telling George that she should be proud of her dad and pleased to let him borrow the island for a while. In fact, she adds, it may make their stay at Kirrin Cottage more pleasant since they don't have to bother with the temperamental Uncle Quentin. George is having none of that. It's her island and everyone else, parent or not, must first ask her for permission before going, let alone living, there. And this is my Smack-George Moment #1. Dude, it's not like you worked hard earning money to buy that island or something!

Soon, the girls and Timmy are on the coach taking them to the station, where they board the train to meet Julian and Dick in London. It's the Easter holidays, BTW. The kids talk a bit -- over buns and ginger-beer, naturally -- about how they may not be able to spend time on Kirrin Island, now that George's dad is there. Together now, they then catch another train to Kirrin. Aunt Fanny meets them at the station. On their way to Kirrin Cottage -- on a horse carriage, the illustration suggests -- they catch a sight of Kirrin Island. Uncle Quentin has built a temporary tower and George again complains that it spoils her island.

The next day, the Five and Aunt Fanny take George's boat -- Julian and George row -- to Kirrin Island. Aunt Fanny tells them that due to the secretive nature of the scientific work, all fishermen have been instructed not to bring anyone near the island. Additionally, the project has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Research. Damn, must be some kind of project.

When they arrive on the island. Uncle Quentin is nowhere to be seen. How queer! Pardon me, but "queer" occurs pretty liberally throughout the book -- at least twenty by my count. The children go round the tiny island and its ruins of Kirrin Castle in search of George's father. They even climb that queer tower to the top. No signs of Uncle Quentin. And the Five thought they knew the island inside out!

Then seemingly out of nowhere, the man appears! He doesn't want to say where he was. He does say that he is starving, prompting his wife to accuse him of forgetting meals again. The kids and George's parents proceed to enjoy the picnic prepared by Joanna -- the Kirrins' friendly cook. Julian and his uncle agree on some kind of signaling every morning and night, to make sure that the scientist is OK all by himself on the island. He's soon by himself again, as the Five and Aunt Fanny return to the main island, George's mom having told her husband to have the soup she brought -- still with no idea whatsoever where Uncle Quentin was. The kids declare this a mystery. Cool!

Actually, it does not make any sense to me that Timmy is unable to track Uncle Quentin. The children discuss this on the island, but without any conclusion. And at this point you can be sure that where that man was will play an important part later in the story. After all, Enid spent two full chapters on this bit.

It rains the next day. The Five take a walk up a cliff. Hmm, aren't rain and cliff a dangerous combo? Apparently not. They meet a boy and a man on the cliff. It's unlike Enid to come up with one-off appearances, so the boy-man pair are surely part of the story. Meanwhile, the Five visit an old coastguard at his cottage. They borrow his telescope to look at Kirrin Island and the queer tower on it. Timmy spills a can of paint that the coastguard says belongs to the boy they saw earlier. This leads to the kids talking to the boy -- Martin -- and his father -- Mr Curton.

The man and his son show a lot of interest in Kirrin Island and George's dad's project. They think George is a boy and this pleases her to no end. She then happily answers their inquiries. Later, Dick scolds her for that -- "I don't believe that boy thought you were a boy at all. He was just sucking up to you" -- and the two have a brief fight. This is Smack-George Moment #2.

The night comes and Uncle Quentin gives the agreed signals -- six flashes from a lantern. Julian and Dick are allowed to stay up until then, but not the girls. Isn't being a boy great? The signals also come in the morning -- six flashes of a mirror. Everyone is happy. The children then decide to explore a quarry, where apparently prehistoric arrowheads can be found lying around. Is this quarry ever mentioned in the previous books? I can't remember. If so, bad children, aren't they supposed to notify the Ministry of Prehistoric Weapons of this great site?

Anyway. They meet Martin again in the quarry. Timmy finds a stone arrowhead while digging what he thinks is a rabbit hole. According to Martin he has come to look for some weapons as well, yet when they find one, he doesn't seem interested. Dick thinks he's "a queer fellow." Careful, Dick. Nowadays, you can get sued for less. Meanwhile, George blabs again, telling Martin about the her father's arrangement to signal every day and night at half past ten. Oh, that is so like a boy, George.

Timmy digs another hole and this time it happens to be an entrance to some underground passage. Dick and Julian don't want Martin to be around when the Five explore the tunnel, so they say they'll go back later and go instead to visit Martin's cottage, next to the coastguard's. They watch TV and chat with Mr Curton. The books was first published in 1947 and I can't help but think -- that's wrong, incidentally; use can't help thinking instead -- how these kids were enjoying TV while their counterparts in Indonesia were carrying sharpened bamboo spears to fight the aggressors. George continues telling the outsiders her father's business on Kirrin Island, or so Dick thinks. The two get into a fight again and George runs home with Timmy.

They make up later that night. But then something strange happens. Uncle Quentin flashes eighteen times instead of the agreed six! In the morning, the Five and Aunt Fanny again take George's boat to Kirrin Island. Over yet another fulfilling picnic (no, he didn't have that soup his wife brought him; what soup?) George's dad says that he thinks someone is on the island. But how? No fishermen will bring anyone to the island and without familiarity of the waters around, it's virtually impossible for anyone to ever land on Kirrin Island, with all the dangerous rocks guarding its coasts.

Uncle Quentin wants to have Timmy with him on the island. This, of course, angers George. First her island, now her dog? What will her father want from her next, her mother? I would've declared this Smack-George Moment #N, except that I forgot N at this point. In the end, she relents and Timmy is staying on the island after all, but not before her dad promises to take the dog with him whenever he signals. So, Aunt Fanny and the kids return without Timmy, who according to the children is better than a dozen policemen. Julian speculates that whoever has mysteriously landed on the island must've been parachuted down. The others think this explanation makes sense.

Two things occur to me. Number one: parachuted? Onto a tiny island with all those dangerous rocks around it? Unless the guy is a member of SAS, I don't think so. Besides, nighttime or not, someone would surely have noticed had there been any planes flying around. The didn't have any silent planes back in 1947. And number two: what standards the British Police must've had those days if a dozen of them barely matched a dog -- a mongrel nonetheless.

It has started to rain, so the children scrap the plan to explore the tunnel in the quarry on the ground that it'll be wet and slippery. So, apparently a wet cliff is all right, but not a wet quarry. Back at Kirrin Cottage, the kids retrieve the old map from Treasure Island -- theirs, not R.L. Stevenson's -- and from it see that there are two entrances to the dungeons. It kinda surprises me that they're not called Kirrin Dungeons. They know one from their previous adventure, but another one? That must be where Uncle Quentin emerged from the other day! Furthermore, they think they know roughly where the entrance is! Full of spirit, the Four visit the coastguard again to have a peep through his telescope and visit Martin.

Martin has twisted his ankle from clambering down the quarry. See, Martin, a wet quarry is not a place to be after rain. Next time, try a cliff. He has also got into an argument with his father and is feeling down -- this queer fellow. The kids cheer him up by looking at his paintings, good ones. This time, the kids safely go home without any fight between George and Dick. Night comes and so do the six flashes.

In the morning, George goes alone to the coastguard's cottage to have a look at Timmy through the telescope. The six flashes come but there's no Timmy! George makes a big fuss out of this. She cooks up a plan to visit the island after dark, to see if her dog is all right. No one else needs to know! Smack, smack.

And off she goes, in the middle of the night, with no one noticing. In Blytonian world, it's very easy to slip out unnoticed. Just wear a pair of rubber-soled shoes and dark clothes and you'll be fine. She arrives on the island, goes to the castle room where she thinks the other dungeon entrance is, and sees two mysterious men get out of it! She finds the secret entrance easily enough and goes in.

The passage goes on and on and on, and George suspects she's right below the bed of Kirrin Bay. She finds her dad in one of the connected caves there, unharmed but under the control of the two mysterious men. Which I find strange. Why not go to the other direction of the tunnel? It turns out the other direction has the tunnel branches into three and then more, so one will surely get lost -- clever of our Enid.

Uncle Quentin gives George a black book. A very important book that contains all his scientific notes, that he does not want to fall into the bad guys' hands. George frees Timmy from another cave -- so much for bettering a dozen policemen -- and puts the black book in his mouth, before getting captured herself. But of course, now that Timmy is free, he can run all the way back to the island. A Blytonian dog will never get lost, no matter how new the place is to him. So run he does, all the way to Kirrin Cottage, all the way to Julian's bed.

After having Aunt Fanny secure the black book, Julian, Dick, and Anne follow Timmy to the quarry. They meet Martin, who's so scared of them that he tells them how his guardian -- not father, after all -- is working with some men to steal Uncle Quentin's invention. The two men currently on the island are expected to return via the underwater passage, but because of the tunnel's complex layout, he and Mr Curton will meet them from this end. Martin offers his help -- and his spades -- to redeem himself. The three of them squeeze into the hole.

Anne, left behind, turns to go back to Kirrin Cottage. At this moment, Mr Curton appears and soon slips down the quarry, just like Martin yesterday. Except that he falls worse and breaks his ankle. Or something. Fact is, he can't get up and Anne screams at him, "You're a very wicked man. I shan't fetch help for you. I simply can't bear you!" Good for you, Anne.

Hang on, it'll finish soon. The three boys easily navigate the underground -- and undersea -- tunnels without difficulties, thanks to Timmy and Martin's spades. They find George and her father and all of them are getting ready to tackle the bad guys. Let's see now, Timmy is better than a dozen policemen, so Timmy plus four kids and a scientist should be worth, well, at least three dozen policemen. Agree?

It turns out that they don't have to do anything. The bad guys plan to blow up the island and are now running away in the passage's other direction, to the main island. How do you blow up an island anyway? Let's see now. With all this terrorism-related info lately, I know that to properly blow up a cafe, you'll need at least three suitcases worth of good explosives. Remember that these two men have supposedly been parachuted down onto the island -- later, we learn that they have indeed. Uncle Quentin explains this away by saying that they must've hooked up something to his queer tower -- he doesn't say "queer" but I'm writing in Blytonian now -- to generate enough power to blow the entire island. Now you know how he becomes a very famous scientist.

They make their way to Kirrin Island, but they can't open the entrance from the inside, oh no! According to Enid, the men have "altered the mechanism so that it could now only be opened from the outside." These two men must be scientists in their own rights. Not only do they figure out how to blow an island apart, they also know how to quickly reverse a centuries-old mechanism.

But not to worry. The cavalry -- Anne, Aunt Fanny, and two or three fishermen -- have come to their rescue! Out at last, Uncle Quentin rushes to the top of his tower, smashes a few pieces of glass, and Kirrin Island is safe, phew! "Another ten minutes and I should have been too late," he says. What, ten minutes? That's eternity! We were expecting a mere two or three seconds to spare -- didn't Enid watch Hollywood movies?

With two strong fishermen left on the island to guard the entrance, everyone hurries back to the main island and to the quarry. There, they find the helpless Mr Curton. Police come and take care of him and eventually his two associates, who have indeed been lost in the confusing tunnels and needed Timmy to chase them out.

Well, then. Everything's settled, everyone's happy. Except for Uncle Quentin, who complains to his wife, "I tried some soup you left for me, the night before last. And my dear, it was horrible! Quite bad!" Good stuff.

And with that the story is concluded. Final queer count: 23.

Like I said, not the most exciting in the series. But it does bring a lot of memories back. For example, I totally forgot about Martin and his so-called father. I did recall the undersea passage, but not the quarry with prehistoric arrowheads. All in all, not a bad way to start revisiting Blytons.

BTW, I just took another look at the books. Guess what, no more Famous Five books! All right, then. Next, I'll go with, let's see now... The Mystery of Banshee Towers.

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Current mood: happy