11 the cave of echoes

it was very early in the afternoon. the boys knew they would have plenty of time to go to the bushwhere their tins were hidden and fetch them to the cave. perhaps between them they could carryone sack.

‘we’d better go now,’ said jack. ‘we’ll have to keep a sharp lookout for those men, becausethey were going to have a jolly good look round, and we don’t want them to spot us. now, you’resure you girls will be all right?’

‘quite,’ said dinah lazily. she felt glad she was not going to go all the way back to the bush andthen drag a heavy sack to the cave. she lay back on the moss. it was so very very soft, and springytoo.

jack slung his field glasses round him. they might be useful in trying to spot any men from faroff. he and philip slid through the green fronds of fern. jack called back to the girls, raising hisvoice high.

‘if you should happen to spot anyone near here, remember to untie the string that ties back theseferns at once, see?’ he said. ‘then they will swing back and the cave will be completely hidden.

lucy-ann, see that kiki doesn’t follow us.’

lucy-ann had kiki on her shoulder, where jack had just put her. she put her hand round thebird’s ankles and held her. kiki knew then that she was not supposed to go with jack and philipand she gave a dismal squawk.

‘what a pity, what a pity!’ she said gloomily, and raised up her crest fiercely. but lucy-annwould not let her go. she held her until jack and philip were out of sight. then she lowered herhand and kiki flew off her shoulder and out of the cave. she perched on a rock looking for jack.

‘down the well,’ she said grumpily. ‘blackbirds down the well.’

‘no, blackbirds in a pie,’ said lucy. ‘what a bird you are for getting things mixed up, kiki!’

‘poor kiki!’ said kiki, and cracked her beak loudly. ‘poor kiki!’

she flew back into the cave. dinah was fast asleep, stretched out on the green moss, her mouthopen. kiki flew over and put her head on one side, looking at dinah’s open mouth. then sheplucked up a bit of moss with her curved beak.

‘kiki! don’t you dare to put that into dinah’s mouth!’ cried lucy- ann, knowing kiki’smischievous ways. ‘you’re a bad bird!’

‘wipe your feet,’ said kiki crossly, and flew to the back of the cave. lucy-ann turned over onher tummy and watched her. she didn’t trust kiki in this mood.

the sun poured into the cave. it felt breathless in there. lucy-ann thought it would be a goodidea to untie the fronds and let them swing together, to keep out the sun. so she pulled the bit ofstring that jack had shown her and at once the ferny curtain descended, and the cave was lost in adim green twilight, rather exciting to be in.

dinah didn’t wake. lucy-ann lay on her tummy again, thinking of all that had happened. thenoise of the waterfall came in, rather muffled now, for the curtain of fronds was very thick.

‘kiki,’ said lucy-ann. ‘kiki, where are you?’

there was no answer from kiki. lucy-ann tried to make out where the parrot was. she must besulking because philip and jack hadn’t taken her with them. silly old kiki!

‘kiki! come over here!’ said lucy-ann. ‘come and talk to me. i’ll teach you “three littlekittens have lost their mittens”.’

still there was no answer from kiki, not even a squawk. lucy-ann wondered why. even if kikisulked she would usually talk back if anyone spoke to her.

she peered towards the back of the cave. no kiki there. she looked at the ledge on which theirgoods were neatly arranged. no kiki there.

well, where was she then? she hadn’t flown out between the fern fronds, that was certain. shemust be somewhere in the cave!

on the rocky ledge was a torch. lucy-ann felt for it and took it into her hand. she switched iton and flashed it round the cave. kiki was nowhere to be seen. she was not even perched upanywhere in the low roof of the cave. how very mysterious!

lucy-ann now felt quite alarmed. she awoke dinah, who sat up, rubbing her eyes, cross to beawakened.

‘what’s the matter?’ she said. ‘i was having such a lovely snooze.’

‘i can’t find kiki,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’ve looked everywhere.’

‘don’t be silly. she’s gone out of the cave after jack, i expect,’ said dinah, even crosser. shelay down again and yawned. lucy-ann shook her.

‘you’re not to go to sleep again, dinah. i tell you, kiki was here a little while ago – at the backof the cave – and now she’s gone. absolutely vanished.’

‘well, let her – she’ll come back all right,’ said dinah. ‘leave me alone, lucy-ann.’

she shut her eyes. lucy-ann didn’t like to say any more. dinah could be so fierce when shewas cross. the little girl sighed and wished the boys were back. what had happened to kiki?

she got up and walked across the moss to the back of the cave. the rock was folded in on itselfthere, and there was a space behind one of the folds. lucy-ann looked cautiously into the darkspace, expecting to see kiki hiding there, ready to cry ‘boo’ at her, as she sometimes mostannoyingly did.

but kiki wasn’t there. lucy-ann flashed her torch up and down the little hidden corner, andsuddenly her torch came to a stop, focused on one place.

‘why – there’s a hole there!’ said lucy-ann in surprise. ‘that’s where kiki must have gone!’

she clambered up to the hole, which was about shoulder-high. it was just big enough for her tosqueeze through. she expected to drop down into another cave the other side, but she didn’t. thehole went upwards slightly, a round, narrow tunnel. lucy- ann felt sure kiki must havedisappeared into this cold, dark little tunnel.

‘kiki!’ she yelled, and flashed her torch in front of her. ‘where are you, idiot? come back!’

no sound from kiki. lucy-ann squeezed herself right into the round tunnel, wondering howlong it was. it was almost as round as a pipe. maybe water had forced its way through at one time,but now it was quite dry. lucy-ann could not hear any sound of the waterfall once she was in thetunnel, though she listened hard. it was very quiet there.

‘ kiki !’ she yelled. ‘ kiki !’

dinah heard the yell in her dreams and awoke with a jump. she sat up crossly again. but thistime lucy- ann was not in the cave with her. now it was dinah’s turn to feel scared. sheremembered that lucy-ann said that kiki had suddenly disappeared. now it seemed as if lucy-ann had too. the fronds of fern were hanging over the entrance, lucy-ann would not havepushed out through them without telling dinah she was going out.

dinah examined the cave well. no lucy-ann. oh, goodness, now what had happened to her andkiki?

she heard another yell, sounding rather muffled and distant. she went to the back of the caveand discovered the hidden space. she fetched another torch from the ledge and shone it up anddown. she stared in amazement when she saw two shoes sticking out of a round hole about as highas her shoulder.

she tugged at lucy-ann’s ankles and yelled at her. ‘lucy-ann! what do you think you’redoing? what’s up that hole?’

lucy-ann yelled back. ‘i don’t know, dinah. i found it by accident. i think kiki must havegone up it. shall i go up and see if i can find her? you come too.’

‘all right,’ called dinah. ‘go on up.’

lucy-ann wriggled further up the narrow pipe-like tunnel. it suddenly widened out, and by thelight of her torch she saw below her another cave – but a vast one this time.

she managed to get out of the hole, and had a look round at the cave. it was more like anunderground hall. its roof was very high indeed. from somewhere in its dim vastness came amournful voice.

‘what a pity, what a pity!’

‘kiki! so you are here!’ cried lucy-ann, and then listened in astonishment to the echo thatsounded immediately. ‘here, here, here, are here, and here!’ cried the echoes, repeatingthemselves in a weird and strange manner.

‘hurry up, dinah!’ called lucy-ann, not liking the echoes at all.

‘up, dinah, dinah, dinah!’ called the echoes at once. kiki flew over to lucy-ann, frightened.

so many voices! whatever could they all be?

‘poor kiki!’ said the parrot, in a fright. ‘poor kiki!’

‘kiki, kiki, kiki!’ called the echoes. the parrot shivered and gazed all round, trying to see whocalled her. she suddenly gave a loud and defiant squawk.

at once a score of squawks sounded all round, as if the cave was filled with hundred of parrots.

kiki was simply astounded. could there be so many birds there that she couldn’t see?

dinah crawled out of the hole and stood by lucy-ann. ‘what an enormous place!’ she said.

‘place!’ shouted the echoes.

‘everything we say is repeated,’ said lucy-ann. ‘it’s weird.’

‘weird, it’s weird,’ said the echoes.

‘well, let’s whisper then,’ said dinah, whispering herself. the cave was at once filled withmysterious whispers, which scared the girls even more than the repeated shouts they had heard.

they clutched one another. then dinah recovered herself.

‘it’s only the echoes,’ she said. ‘you often get them in enormous caves like this. i wonder ifanyone has ever been here before.’

‘never, i should think,’ said lucy- ann, flashing her torch all round. ‘fancy! we may betreading in a place that no one else has ever trodden in before!’

‘let’s explore the cave a bit,’ said dinah. ‘not that there seems much to see, but we might aswell do something whilst we’re waiting for the boys.’

so they walked slowly round the great dark cave, their footsteps repeated a hundred times bythe echoes. once, when dinah sneezed, the girls were really frightened by the enormous explosivenoises that came from all round them. the echoes certainly enjoyed themselves then.

‘oh, don’t sneeze again, dinah,’ begged lucy- ann. ‘it’s really awful to hear the echoessneezing. worse than hearing them squawk like kiki.’

they had gone almost all the way round the cave when they came to a passage leading out of it– a high, narrow passage, between two walls of rocks.

‘look at that!’ said dinah, surprised. ‘a passage! do you suppose it leads anywhere?’

‘it might,’ said lucy-ann, and her eyes gleamed. ‘don’t forget, dinah, that those men are aftertreasure. we don’t know what kind – but it’s just possible it might be hidden somewhere in thesemountains.’

‘let’s follow the passage then,’ said dinah. ‘kiki! come along. we don’t want to leave youbehind.’

kiki flew to her shoulder. in silence the two girls entered the narrow, rocky passage, theirtorches gleaming in front of them. what were they going to find?