12 behind the waterfall
the passage was a very winding one. it led a little downwards, and the floor was very uneven tothe feet. the girls tripped and stumbled very often. once the roof came down so low that they hadto crawl under it. but it grew high again almost at once.
after a while they heard a noise. they couldn’t imagine what it was. it was a deep andcontinous roar that never stopped even for a second.
‘what’s that?’ said dinah. ‘are we getting into the heart of the mountain, do you think, lucy-ann? that’s not the roar of a mighty fire, is it? what can it be? what is there that could make thatnoise in the middle of a mountain?’
‘i don’t know,’ said lucy-ann, and immediately wanted to go back. a fire in the heart of amountain, a fire that roared like that? she didn’t in the least want to see it. she felt hot andbreathless at the thought.
but dinah wasn’t going back now that they had come so far.
‘what, go back before we’ve found out where this passage goes to?’ she said. ‘of course not!
the boys would laugh like anything when we told them. we don’t often get the chance ofdiscovering something before they do. why, we might even happen on the treasure, whatever it is,lucy-ann.’
lucy-ann felt that she didn’t care at all about the treasure. all she wanted was to get back to thesafety of the cave with the green fern curtains.
‘well, you go back then,’ said dinah unkindly. ‘i’m going on!’
it was more frightening to think of going back to the cave of echoes by herself than to go onwith dinah. so poor lucy-ann chose unwillingly to go on. with that peculiar, muffled roar in herears she pressed on down the winding passage, keeping close to dinah. the roar became louder.
and then the girls knew what it was. it was the waterfall, of course! how stupid of them not tothink of that! but it sounded so different there in the mountain.
‘we’re not going into the heart of the mountain after all,’ said dinah. ‘we’re coming outsomewhere near the waterfall. i wonder where.’
they got a tremendous surprise when they did see daylight. the passage suddenly took one lastturn and took them into subdued daylight, that flickered and shone round them in a curious way. adraught of cold air met them, and something wetted their hair.
‘lucy- ann! we’ve come out on to a flat ledge just behind the waterfall!’ cried dinah inastonishment. ‘look, there’s the great mass of falling water just in front of us! – oh, the colours init! can you hear me? the water is making such a noise.’
overwhelmed by surprise and by the noise, lucy-ann stood and stared. the water made a greatrushing curtain between them and the open air. it poured down, shining and exultant, neverstopping. the power behind it awed the two girls. they felt very small and feeble when theywatched the great volume of water pouring down a few feet in front of them.
it was amazing to be able to stand on a ledge just behind the waterfall and yet not to be affectedby it in any way except to feel the fine spray misting the air. the ledge was very wide, and ran thewhole width of the fall. there was a rock about a foot high at one end of the ledge, and the girlssat down on it to watch the amazing sight in front of them.
‘what will the boys say?’ wondered dinah. ‘let’s stay here till we see them coming back. if wesit on this rock, just at the edge of the waterfall, we can wave to them. they will be so astonishedto see us here. there’s no way of getting to the ledge from above or below, only from behind,from the passage we found.’
‘yes. we’ll surprise the boys,’ said lucy-ann, no longer frightened. ‘look, we can see ourcave up there! – at least, we can see the giant fern whose fronds are hiding it. we shall easily beable to see the boys when they come back.’
kiki was very quiet indeed. she had been surprised to come out behind the great wall of water.
she sat on a ledge and watched it, blinking every now and again.
‘i hope she won’t be silly enough to try and fly through the waterfall,’ said lucy- annanxiously. ‘she would be taken down with it and dashed to pieces. i know she would.’
‘she won’t do anything silly,’ said dinah. ‘she’s wise enough to know what would happen ifshe tried something like that. she may fly out round the edge of the waterfall, though. still, thereshouldn’t be much danger for her in that.’
the girls sat there for a long time, feeling that they would never get tired of watching theturbulence of the waterfall. after a long time lucy-ann gave a cry and caught dinah’s arm.
‘look – is that the boys coming? yes, it is. they’ve got a sack between them. good! now weshall have plenty of food.’
they watched the two boys labouring up the rocks that led to the cave. it was no good wavingto them yet. then suddenly dinah stiffened with horror.
‘what’s the matter?’ said lucy-ann in alarm, seeing dinah’s face.
‘look – someone is following the boys!’ said dinah. ‘see – it’s one of the men! and there’s theother one too! oh, my goodness, i don’t believe either philip or jack knows it! they’ll watchwhere they go and our hiding place will be found! j ack ! philip ! oh, jack, look out !
she went to the very edge of the waterfall, and, holding on to a fern growing there, she leanedout beyond it, yelling and waving, quite forgetting that the men could see and hear her as well asthe boys.
but alas, jack and philip, engrossed in the task of getting the heavy sack up the rocks, neithersaw nor heard dinah – but the men suddenly caught sight of her and stared in the utmostastonishment. they could not make out if she was girl, boy, or woman, for the edges of thewaterfall continually moved and shifted. all they could make out was that there was definitelysomeone dancing about and waving behind the great fall.
‘look!’ said one man to the other. ‘just look at that! see – behind the water! that’s wherethey’re hiding. my word, what a place! how do they get there?’
the men stared open-mouthed at the waterfall, their eyes searching for a way up to it that wouldlead to the ledge where the excited figure stood waving.
meantime, jack and philip, quite unaware of the following men, or of dinah either, had reachedthe curtain of fern. philip pushed the ferns aside, and jack hauled the sack up through them,panting painfully, for it was heavy.
at last the sack lay on the floor of moss. the boys flung themselves down, their hearts thumpingwith the labour of climbing up steeply to the cave, dragging such a heavy sack. at first they didnot even notice that the girls were not there.
not far off, some way below, stood the two men, completely bewildered. in watching dinahbehind the waterfall, they had just missed seeing jack and philip creep through the ferns into theircave. so when they turned from gazing at the waterfall, they found that the boys they had sowarily followed had utterly disappeared.
‘where have they gone?’ demanded juan. ‘they were on that rock there when we saw themlast.’
‘yes. then i caught sight of that person waving down there, and took my eyes off them for aminute – and now they’ve gone,’ growled pepi. ‘well, there’s no doubt where they’ve gone.
they’ve taken some path that leads to that waterfall. they hide behind it – and a clever place it istoo. who would think of anyone hiding just behind a great curtain of water like that? well, weknow where to find them. we’ll make our way to the water and climb up to that ledge. we’ll soonhunt the rats out.’
they began to climb down, hoping to find a way that would lead them to the ledge behind thewaterfall. it was difficult and dangerous going, on the slippery rocks.
in the cave the boys soon recovered. they sat up, and looked around for the girls.
‘hallo – where are lucy-ann and dinah?’ said jack in astonishment. ‘they promised to stayhere till we got back. surely to goodness they haven’t gone wandering about anywhere? they’llget lost, sure as anything!’
they were not in the cave. that was absolutely certain. the boys did not see the hole in the foldof rock at the back. they were extremely puzzled. jack parted the ferns and looked out.
to his enormous astonishment he at once saw the two men clambering about on rocks near thewaterfall. his eyes nearly dropped out of his head.
‘look there!’ he said to philip, closing the fronds a little, fearful of being seen. ‘those two men!
golly, they might have seen us getting in here! how did they get here? we saw them safely by theplane, on our way to the bush!’
dinah had now disappeared from behind the waterfall. she could not make up her mind whetheror not the men had seen the boys climbing in through the fern to their cave. in any case, shethought she ought to warn them of the men’s appearance. she felt sure that neither jack nor philipknew they were there.
‘come on, lucy-ann,’ she said urgently. ‘we must get back to the boys. oh, goodness, look atthose men! i believe they are going to try and get over here now. they must have spotted mewaving. do come quickly, lucy-ann.’
shivering with excitement, lucy-ann followed dinah along the dark, winding passage that ledback to the cave of echoes. dinah went as quickly as she could, flashing her torch in front of her.
both girls forgot all about kiki. the parrot was left sitting alone behind the waterfall, spraymisting her feathers, watched the clambering men with interested eyes. she had not heard the girlsgoing off.
dinah and lucy-ann came out into the cave of echoes at last. dinah stopped and considered.
‘now, where exactly was that hole we came through?’ she said.
‘came through, through, through,’ called the echoes mockingly.
‘oh be quiet!’ cried dinah to the echoes.
‘ quiet , quiet , quiet !’ yelled back the irritating voices. dinah flashed her torch here and there,and by a very lucky chance she found the hole. in a trice she was in it, crawling along, with lucy-ann close behind her. lucy-ann had an awful feeling that somebody was going to clutch her feetfrom behind and she almost bumped into dinah’s shoes in her efforts to scramble down the hole asquickly as possible.
jack and philip were peeping through the ferns watching the men, when the girls dropped out ofthe hole at the back of the cave, came round the fold of rock and flung themselves on the boys.
they almost jumped out of their skin.
philip hit out, thinking that enemies were upon them. dinah got a stinging blow on the ear, andyelled. she immediately hit out at philip and the two rolled on the floor.
‘don’t, oh, don’t!’ wailed lucy-ann, almost in tears. ‘philip, jack, it’s us! it’s us!’
philip shook off dinah and sat up. jack stared in amazement. ‘but where did you come from?’
he demanded. ‘golly, you gave us an awful scare, i can tell you, jumping out like that! wherehave you been?’
‘there’s a hole back there we went into,’ explained dinah, giving philip an angry look. ‘i say,do you two boys know that those men were following you? they were not very far behind you.
we were scared stiff they would see you climbing in here.’
‘were they following us!’ said jack. ‘golly, i didn’t know that. peep out between these fronds,you girls, and see them hunting for us down there.’
