The Marlows and the Traitor Summary

Warning: this chapter-by-chapter summary is a "spoiler". Don't read on unless you want to know what happens when!

Chapters

WEDNESDAY MORNING: Encounter in a Thunderstorm
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: The Hidden Sea
THURSDAY MORNING: Return to Mariners
THURSDAY AFTERNOON (1): Lawrie Runs for It
THURSDAY NIGHT (1): Midnight Conference
THURSDAY AFTERNOON (2): Shipwreck
THURSDAY NIGHT (2): The Lighthouse
FRIDAY MORNING: Breakfast at the Lighthouse
FRIDAY AFTERNOON: "The Children are Expendable"
SATURDAY MORNING: Peter Makes a Plan
SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Mutiny in the Golden Enterprise
SATURDAY NIGHT: Foley's Folly Light
SUNDAY MORNING: Ships in the Bay

Summary

Summary text copyright Kate Dixon, 1999.

1: WEDNESDAY MORNING: Encounter in a Thunderstorm

It is the Easter holidays, and Mrs. Marlow has taken the four youngest Marlows to a hotel in the seaside town of St.-Anne's-Byfleet. Peter is brooding about a recent episode at Dartmouth when he lost his head during a crisis and was publicly taken to task by one of the instructors, Lieutenant Foley. There is a thunderstorm, but despite this Peter and Nicola go for a walk along the rather dangerous Undercliff. Peter tells Nicola about what happened at Dartmouth; also that his friend Selby thinks there is something wrong about Lieutenant Foley, who is rather a hero of Peter's. Peter and Nicola almost get washed off the Undercliff in the storm. Squelching back, they meet Foley, who pretends not to know Peter, much to Peter's astonishment.

2: WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON: The Hidden Sea

Mrs. Marlow scolds Peter and Nicola for their recklessness on the Undercliff. Later that day Peter and Nicola catch a bus to Farthing Fee, out in the countryside. They find a remote, apparently deserted house, Mariners, and sneak in, finding a rooftop telescope and discovering that a lighthouse out to sea is called "Foley's Folly Light". Nicola sees a yacht, Talisman, coming in and guesses it is Foley's yacht. They return to the hotel to find that Mrs. Marlow has left them in the hotel's care for a week and gone to meet their father, who is on Naval manoeuvres not far away.

3: THURSDAY MORNING: Return to Mariners

Nicola visits a fisherman friend, Robert Anquetil, who lets her help on his boat, the Golden Enterprise. He tells her that Mariners and the lighthouse belong to the Foley family. He knows Lt. Foley but does not trust him and says he "can be very unpleasant". Anquetil warns Nicola not to return to Mariners. However, Peter, Ginty and Lawrie insist on exploring the house despite Nicola's reluctance. In the basement they find a box of formulae and microfilm and suspect that these are stolen Naval secrets. Ginty hears someone in the house, panics and calls out, revealing their whereabouts. Lt. Foley appears with a gun and forces Ginty, Peter and Nicola into his dinghy, but Lawrie escapes.

4. THURSDAY AFTERNOON (1): Lawrie Runs for It

Lawrie slips away but is terrified when she realises the others have gone in the boat and she is alone in thick fog. She trudges back, planning to ring her parents from St-Anne's. She gets on a bus but has no fare, and in a panic jumps off the bus and is hit by a car. A crowd gathers, including Robert Anquetil who identifies her as Nicola. The unconscious Lawrie is taken to hospital.

5: THURSDAY NIGHT (1): Midnight Conference

Anquetil meets with Commander Whittier, a Naval Intelligence high- up; we learn that Anquetil secretly works for Intelligence. Mrs. Marlow is at the hospital, Lawrie is still unconscious and the other three children are missing. Whittier and Anquetil discuss how they have been trying to discover who has been passing information to a U-boat full of Nazi war criminals. Anquetil suspects Foley of being the spy and of abducting the children. Foley's yacht, Talisman, is also missing. Anquetil is horrified when the coastguard finds wreckage from Talisman.

6: THURSDAY AFTERNOON (2): Shipwreck

Foley and his captives are in the Talisman. Nicola is in the cockpit with Foley because of her seasickness, Peter and Ginty are locked in the cabin. Nicola gets into conversation with Foley and he lets her steer the yacht. When he goes below, Nicola changes course and puts sugar in the petrol tank. Foley doesn't realise what she's done until the yacht is swept on to the rocks at the Foley lighthouse.

7: THURSDAY NIGHT (2): The Lighthouse

Foley and the Marlows escape from the grounded yacht into the lighthouse. They save the dinghy. Foley plans to refloat the yacht and go that night, leaving the children at the lighthouse with stores until they are rescued. He does not tell them that he has received orders from the U-boat to kill them. But when he tries to leave, he finds the yacht is a wreck. He radios the U-boat and is told it will pick them up on Sunday morning. Foley reflects that he would rather be killed than face trial and imprisonment.

8: FRIDAY MORNING: Breakfast at the Lighthouse

Nicola and Foley talk about why he became a traitor. Foley tells the children they will be taken off in the U-boat on Sunday, terrifying Ginty. They see the Naval Fleet in the distance, too far away to wave to. Peter thinks about using the old lighthouse lantern to signal. Nicola sees Anquetil's boat, Golden Enterprise, passing, but Foley holds her at gunpoint until the boat has gone. However, Anquetil sees the dinghy moored at the lighthouse and realises that Foley and the children must be there.

9: FRIDAY AFTERNOON: "The Children are Expendable"

Anquetil tells Commander Whittier of his discovery. Whittier tells Anquetil that their top priority is to capture the U-boat and Foley; and that rescuing the children must come second. Anquetil visits Lawrie in hospital. She is now conscious but cannot tell him much. Mrs. Marlow is frantic with worry but Anquetil cannot tell her about the U-boat, the espionage or the lighthouse.

10: SATURDAY MORNING: Peter Makes a Plan

Peter gets up early and investigates the old paraffin signal lantern at the top of the lighthouse. Peter decides to hide in the lantern room while his sisters pretend he has drowned during an escape attempt. Nicola and Ginty capsize the dinghy and just avoid genuinely drowning, thanks to Foley's intervention. Ginty sobs uncontrollably with shock and fear, convincing Foley that Peter must have drowned. Nicola fears that Foley will discover that Peter is in the lantern room before they can send SOS signals.

11: SATURDAY AFTERNOON: Mutiny in the Golden Enterprise

Anquetil keeps watch on the lighthouse in his boat in case the U-boat arrives. One of his colleagues, Bill, develops appendicitis and the other, David, insists they go back to port. Anquetil refuses because he fears for the children's lives. David knocks Anquetil out and steers back to port. While David takes Bill to hospital, Anquetil waits in the harbour intending to leave again on the next tide, but a motor-cruiser, the Fair Wind, accidentally damages Golden Enterprise, making her unseaworthy. When the Fair Wind's owner has gone ashore that evening, Anquetil boards the boat. He is caught by Johnnie Thorpe, the owner's teenage son, who agrees to help Anquetil take the boat, after Anquetil tells him he is a smuggler. They set off back towards the lighthouse.

12: SATURDAY NIGHT: Foley's Folly Light

Peter has had a long day waiting in the lantern room. Foley comes up to the lantern room and Peter, despite his terror of heights, has to go outside on the gallery to avoid being seen. Nicola and Ginty come up when Foley is asleep. They see the distant Fleet and keep signalling, but with no answer until hours later a response finally comes. While Peter and Nicola signal back, Ginty hears Foley coming up the stairs, panics and throws her oil lamp in his face. He falls downstairs and is badly injured. Peter takes Foley's gun, but wonders if the answering signals were from the Navy or the U-boat...

13: SUNDAY MORNING: Ships in the Bay

Foley comes round. It is dawn and they wait for the U-boat or rescue. Fog closes in. A group from the U-boat land in a dinghy. Peter shoots one of them with Foley's revolver. The fog lifts to reveal three Naval destroyers. Foley swims for the U-boat just as it crash-dives, and the Navy fires depth charges at it. The U-boat is destroyed and Foley killed but the Nazis in the dinghy and the children are taken on board a destroyer. The stolen papers and films are retrieved from the lighthouse, and the children tell their story to Whittier and Anquetil, who swear them to secrecy about the espionage. Nicola learns that their signals were not seen by the Navy but by Anquetil and Johnnie Thorpe in the Fair Wind. She has mixed feelings about Foley's death. Safely back on dry land, Ginty, Peter and Nicola go to the hospital, where they find Lawrie, typically, more interested in what happened to her than in what has been happening to them.