14 the poor prisoner

sure enough, it was the men’s plane. the children all recognised it quite well as they watched itvanishing into the distance. it flew towards the west.

‘wonder if it’s going back to bill’s aerodrome?’ said jack. ‘wonder if bill knows what thosemen are up to?’

‘we don’t know very much ourselves, except that they are after some sort of treasure,’ saidphilip. ‘but, honestly, what treasure they think they can find here in this place beats me.’

‘beats me too,’ said jack. ‘well – there they go! do you suppose they’ll come back?’

‘sure to,’ said philip. ‘they won’t give up as easily as that. maybe they’ve gone to report thatthere are other people here now – for all they know, after the treasure too! and they might bringback more men to smell us out.’

‘oh,’ said lucy-ann in alarm. ‘i don’t want to be smelt out.’

‘do you think both men have gone?’ asked philip.

‘i should think so,’ said jack. ‘but we can go and have a jolly good look round and see. if oneman is left, he’ll be somewhere near that shed of theirs. he won’t know how many of us there arehere – he may think there are men with us, you know, and not dare to move about too much byhimself.’

but when the children left the cave later in the morning and went to ‘have a squint,’ as jacksaid, they could find no sign of either juan or pepi. there was no fire. it had been stamped out.

and this time the shed was well and truly locked, and the key taken. no amount of shaking orkicking would open the door.

‘well, if we’d known the men were going to fly off, we might have asked them for a lift,’ saidjack with a grin. ‘i wonder when they’ll come back – if they do come back, that is.’

‘not till it’s daylight tomorrow, i should think,’ said philip. ‘i expect they’ll take off at nightagain. let’s go and have another squint at those crates.’

but there was really nothing to see. they were empty as before, and the tarpaulin was overthem. the children played about for some hours, and had a meal under a tree. they went to get atin or two from the rest of the store still hidden in the bush. jack opened them.

after the meal philip suggested that they should go back to the waterfall and the girls shouldtake them to the cave of echoes, and down the passage that led behind the water. so off they went,first hiding all trace of having been near the men’s shed.

but when they got back to their cave, jack gave a most annoyed exclamation and began to feelin all his pockets.

‘what’s the matter?’ said lucy-ann.

‘well, do you know what i’ve done? i’ve gone and left the tin-opener behind,’ said jack. ‘thinkof that! what an idiotic thing to do! i thought we might want another tin opened, so i put it downat the roots of that tree we had our picnic under – and i must have left it there. i haven’t got it,anyway.’

‘oh, jack! but we can’t have a meal without opening a tin,’ said philip, seeing awful visions ofa hungry night. ‘gosh – you are an ass!’

‘yes, i know,’ said jack gloomily. ‘well, there’s only one thing to be done. i must go back andget it. you explore the cave of echoes with the girls, philip, and i’ll take kiki and go back for theopener. serves me right.’

‘i’ll come with you, jack,’ said lucy-ann, sorry for her brother.

‘no, you’ve had a jolly long walk already,’ said jack. ‘you go with the others. anyway, i’ll bequicker by myself. i’ll just have a sitdown before i start back. i can always explore the caveanother time.’

he sat down on the moss. the others sat with him, sorry for him, knowing how annoyed hemust feel with himself. but it would be still more annoying to have to go without meals. theopener must certainly be fetched.

after about half an hour jack felt able to start back again. he said a cheery goodbye to theothers, and left, scrambling quickly down the rocks. they knew he would not lose his way. theyall felt they knew it quite well by this time.

jack had kiki on his shoulder, and they talked together all the way. kiki was simply delightedto have jack all to herself. he was nearly always with the others. they talked complete nonsenseand both of them thoroughly enjoyed it.

jack arrived at last at the tree under which they had had their lunch. he looked for the opener,half fearful in case it had been removed by somebody. but it was still there, lying where he hadleft it. he picked it up and put it into his pocket.

‘three cheers,’ he said.

‘three blind mice,’ said kiki. ‘handy spandy, humpy dumpy.’

‘i agree with you,’ said jack. ‘well, we’ll get back, i think. twilight will soon be coming and idon’t fancy going back in the dark. off we go, kiki, up the hill.’

‘jack and jill,’ agreed kiki.

‘jack and kiki, you mean,’ grinned jack, turning to go. then he stood still suddenly andlistened. away in the distance he could hear a sound he knew – a familiar, throbbing sound. rr-rr-rr-rr-rr!

‘gosh, kiki! – are those fellows coming back so soon?’ said jack, staring into the western sky,which was still faintly gold. ‘yes – that’s a plane all right. but is it theirs?’

the plane came nearer, growing larger and larger. an idea came into jack’s mind. he ran towhere the men’s shed was, and climbed quickly up into a tree not far from where they had theircamp-fire. he spoke sternly to kiki.

‘now, quiet, kiki. not a word. do you understand? shhhhhhh!’

‘what a pity, what a pity!’ said kiki in a curious hoarse whisper, and then was silent, pressingagainst jack’s neck as she sat on his shoulder.

the plane roared nearer. it circled lower and lower. it dropped to the long smooth strip thatmade such an excellent runway. it bounced along on its high wheels and then came to a stop. jackcould not see the plane from where he was.

but he was counting on the men coming to the shed or to their fire, and he was right. they soonarrived, and jack peered out through the leaves, nearly overbalancing in his efforts to see properly,for twilight was almost there.

this time there were four men. jack looked very hard. he could see that one man was evidentlya prisoner. he had his hands tied behind him. how strange!

he shambled along, his head bent, going from side to side a little as if he was dizzy. now andagain one of the others would give him a shove to keep him straight. they came straight to thecampfire.

juan set to work to light it. pepi went off to the shed to get some tins. he took a key from hispocket and unlocked the door. he came out carrying tins of soup and meat.

the prisoner sat down on the grass, his head bent. it was obvious that he was not feeling well –or was he merely afraid? jack couldn’t tell. the fourth man, who was a kind of guard for theprisoner, as far as jack could make out, sat by the fire saying nothing, watching juan and pepi.

at first they talked in low voices and jack could not hear their words. they drank hot soup, andthen carved up a tongue from a glass jar. they ate bread with it which they had brought from theplane. the prisoner looked up and saw them eating, but the three men did not offer him anything.

he said something in a low voice. juan laughed.

he spoke to the guard. ‘tell him he won’t get anything to eat or drink till he tells us what wewant to know,’ he said.

the guard repeated this in some language that jack could not make out. the prisoner saidsomething and the guard struck him on the cheek. jack watched in horror. fancy hitting a manwhen his hands were tied! what cowards!

the man tried to dodge. he bent his head again and sat dismally there.

‘he says you’ve got the map, what else do you want?’ said the guard.

‘we can’t read the map,’ said juan. ‘it’s all messed up. if he can’t explain it to us, he’ll have toshow us the way tomorrow.’

the guard translated this to the prisoner. he shook his head. ‘he says he is too weak to walk sofar,’ said the guard.

‘we’ll drag him all right,’ said pepi, and took another piece of tongue, making himself a thicksandwich. ‘tell him he’s to take us tomorrow. if he won’t, he gets nothing to eat or drink. he’llsoon come round when he’s half starved.’

they finished their meal. then juan yawned. ‘me for bed,’ he said. ‘there’s a chair for you,luis, in the hut. the floor’s good enough for the prisoner.’

the man begged to have his hands untied, but they would not allow him to. jack felt very sorryfor him. they stamped out the fire and went to the hut. jack imagined pepi and juan on themattress, and luis in the only comfortable chair. the poor prisoner would have to lie on the cold,hard floor, with his hands still tied behind him.

jack waited till he thought the coast was clear, then he slipped quietly down the tree. kiki hadbeen as good as gold all the time. not even a whisper had come from her beak. jack tiptoed to thehut. he peeped cautiously in at the window. a candle burned in the hut, and by its flickering lighthe could make out the four men. the prisoner was trying to make himself comfortable on thefloor.

it was almost dark. jack hoped he would be able to get back to the cave all right. he slipped hishand into his pocket and was relieved to find a small torch there. that was good!

he was very clever in the dark, for he had eyes like a cat. once or twice he stopped, unable tothink which way to go – but kiki always knew. she simply flew a little way in front and called tohim, or whistled.

‘good old kiki!’ said jack. ‘i couldn’t find my way without you, that’s certain.’

the others were very worried about him. when darkness fell and still no jack had arrived,lucy-ann wanted to go and look for him.

‘i’m sure he’s lost, i’m certain of it,’ she said, almost in tears.

‘yes, and we’d all get lost too, if we went out on the mountainside in this darkness,’ said philip.

‘i expect he hunted about for that opener, saw that twilight was coming and decided not to riskcoming back in the dark. he’ll be back tomorrow morning early, for certain.’

it was too dark to do anything. dinah had made the ‘bed’ and they lay down on it, lucy-annvery worried. she was sure something had happened to jack.

then there came a scrambling noise up near the cave, and the fern was parted and pushed aside.

all the children sat up, their hearts beating. was it jack – or had their hiding place beendiscovered?

‘hallo, there!’ came jack’s familiar voice. ‘where’s everybody?’

he switched on his torch and saw three delighted faces. lucy-ann almost fell on him.

‘jack! we thought you were lost. what have you been doing? and we’re so hungry too. haveyou brought the tin-opener?’

‘yes, i’ve brought that – and plenty of news as well!’ said jack. ‘what about a meal whilst i tellyou all about it?’