15 a disappointment for the men

tins were opened once more, and kiki gave a delighted chortle at the sight of her favouritepineapple. lucy-ann pressed close to jack.

‘what happened to you? i can’t wait to hear. tell me quickly.’

‘let me have a bite first,’ said jack irritatingly, knowing quite well that all the others werelonging to hear his news. but as he was longing just as much to tell it as they were to hear it, hesoon began his story.

‘so the plane’s back!’ exclaimed philip, as jack began to tell everything. ‘both men back too?’

jack told of the four men. lucy-ann was distressed to hear about the poor prisoner.

‘i’m beginning to see daylight,’ said philip at last. ‘somewhere in this valley is hidden treasure– maybe stuff belonging to the people whose houses have been burnt. those two men heard aboutit, and somehow managed to get a map that showed them the hiding place. but they can’t find it bythat map, so they’ve got hold of somebody who knows the way.’

‘that’s it,’ said jack. ‘he’s foreign. maybe he once belonged to this valley, and even hid thethings himself. they’ve captured him and mean to make him show them the hiding-place. they’renot giving him anything to eat or drink till he shows them what they want to know’

‘brutes!’ said dinah, and the others agreed with her.

‘do you think he will show them?’ asked lucy-ann.

‘i hope he will for his own sake,’ said jack. ‘and i’ll tell you what i propose. i propose thatsomehow or other one or more of us follow them, and see where this hiding place is. the mencan’t possibly take everything away at once. we might be able to get help, and save the rest of thestuff being stolen by the men. it can’t belong to them.’

‘what do you think the stuff can be?’ asked lucy-ann, visions of gold bars and beautiful jewelsfloating in her mind.

‘can’t tell you,’ said jack. ‘i think we’re somewhere in the depths of europe, where war hasbeen, and as you know, plenty of treasure of all kinds was hidden in odd places by many, manypeople, good and bad. my guess is that it’s something of that kind these men are after. they speakenglish, but they’re not english. perhaps from south america? goodness knows.’

the others sat silent, thinking over what jack had said. they thought he was probably right. butlucy-ann didn’t at all like the idea of following the men. suppose they discovered that they werebeing followed, and captured them?

‘it might be best if philip and i did the stalking tomorrow,’ said jack. ‘i don’t think you girlsshould be mixed up in it.’

this made dinah angry, though lucy-ann was secretly relieved.

‘you’re not going to keep all the excitement to yourselves,’ said dinah. ‘i’m coming too.’

‘no, you’re not,’ said jack. he switched on his torch and shone it at dinah’s face. ‘i thoughtyou’d be glaring,’ he said. ‘cheer up, dinah. after all, you and lucy-ann had an adventureyesterday, when you found the cave of echoes and the passage that leads to the waterfall. give usboys a chance.’

‘well, it’s all very well,’ grumbled dinah, but she did not press the point any more, much tolucy-ann’s relief.

‘where’s lizzie?’ asked dinah, not liking to settle down till she was quite sure of the lizard’swhereabouts.

‘don’t know,’ said philip annoyingly ‘she might be anywhere. under your pillow, perhaps.’

‘she’s here,’ said jack. ‘kiki’s one side of my neck and lizzie’s the other, keeping me nice andwarm.’

‘what a pity!’ said kiki, and cackled loudly.

‘don’t!’ said everybody at once. nobody liked kiki’s awful cackle. she put her head under herwing, offended.

all the children lay down. they were sleepy. ‘our fourth night in this valley,’ said philip. ‘thevalley of adventure. i wonder what will happen next.’

soon they were all asleep. lizzie ran across lucy-ann and cuddled down by dinah, who wouldcertainly have objected strongly if she had known. but she didn’t know. so she slept peacefully.

everyone felt cheerful the next morning.

‘really,’ said dinah, reaching down some tins from the ledge, ‘i’m beginning to feel i’ve madethis cave my home half my life. it’s extraordinary how soon we get used to anything new.’

‘how are we going to find out when those men are starting, and what way they go?’ said philip.

‘well, if you remember, the two of them came in this direction, not the other, when they set outwith the map before,’ said jack. ‘i think if we go to that big black rock we always pass on the wayhere, we may spot them. then we can follow easily enough.’

so when they had finished their meal they set off cautiously to the big black rock. theycrouched behind it, and jack kept peering out to see if there was anything to be seen.

after about an hour he gave a low exclamation. ‘hallo! here they come – all four – prisonerstill with his hands tied, stumbling along, poor thing.’

the four men passed some distance away. the children saw them well. they recognised the twomen they knew, and jack told them the fourth man was called luis. the prisoner’s name he didn’tknow. it was plain that the poor man was giddy for lack of food and drink.

‘now, you girls stay here, see?’ said jack. ‘at any rate, till we are well out of sight. then goback to the waterfall, and keep somewhere about there. don’t get lost! take kiki, lucy-ann. wedon’t want her with us.’

lucy-ann took kiki and held her ankles. kiki gave such an angry squawk that the childrenlooked uneasily after the four men to see if by any chance they had heard. but they hadn’t.

jack and philip made ready to set off. ‘i’ve got my field glasses,’ said jack. ‘i can keep the menwell in sight, while following quite a long way behind, so that they won’t spot us. cheerio!’

the boys went off cautiously, keeping to every bit of cover they could. they could still see themen far away in the distance. ‘do we need to mark the way we’re going?’ asked philip. ‘or shallwe be able to find the way back, do you think?’

better mark things where we can,’ said jack. ‘you never know. mark rocks with white chalk.

here’s a bit. and trees we will notch.’

they went on, climbing upwards a good way behind the four men. soon they came to a verysteep place, difficult to keep their footing on, because the surface was so loose that they slid downcontinually.

‘i hope they’ve undone that poor prisoner’s hands, panted jack. ‘i’d hate to do climbing likethis and have my hands bound so that i couldn’t save myself when i slipped.’

when they came to the end of the rough piece, the men were nowhere to be seen. ‘blow!’ saidjack. ‘that bit held us up too long. now we’ve lost them!’

he put his field glasses to his eyes and swept the mountainside. some way to the east and abovethem he suddenly saw four small figures. ‘there they are!’ he said. ‘it’s all right. i can see them.

that way, tufty.’

on they went again, going more quickly now because the way was easier. they picked wildraspberries as they went, and once stopped for a drink at a little clear spring of water that gushedfrom under a rock.

they did not lose sight of the men again except for a moment or two. the men did not turnround, or use field glasses at all. plainly they did not expect anyone to follow them.

now the boys came to a very desolate part of the mountainside. big boulders had rolled down.

trees had been torn in half. great ruts had been torn out of the earth and rock, and although thegrass was growing everywhere to hide the scars, it was clear that some catastrophe had happenedhere.

‘an avalanche, i should think,’ said jack. ‘i guess a terrific fall of snow happened here –bringing down with it boulders and rocks of all sizes – knocking down trees and scoring thoseruts. last winter, i should think.’

‘where are the men?’ said philip. ‘i can’t see them now. they went round the ledge.’

‘yes. we’ll have to be careful how we go round,’ said jack. ‘we might easily be seen cominground there. there’s not much cover in this devastated bit.’

so they went very cautiously round the ledge – and it was a good thing they did, for almost atonce they heard voices and saw the four men.

jack pressed philip back. just above the ledge was a bush. the boys climbed up to it, pressedagainst it, and parted the leaves so that they might see through. they found that they were lookingdown into a rocky gully.

here, too, there had evidently been a great fall of rocks. in front of one heap stood the prisoner.

his hands were now untied. he was pointing to the heap of rocks, and saying something in hisrather dull, low voice. the guard translated, and jack strained his ears to hear what he had to say.

‘he says the entrance was here,’ the guard said. the four men stared at the fall of rock.

‘exactly where?’ said juan impatiently, and glared at the prisoner. he pointed again, mumblingsomething.

‘he says he didn’t know there had been a fall of rock here,’ said the guard. ‘he says theentrance seems to be blocked up. but if you try to lift away some of these rocks, maybe you couldfind enough room to go in.’

juan flew into a temper, but whether with the prisoner or the annoying fall of rocks it wasdifficult to say. he fell upon the boulders and began to drag at them feverishly, shouting to luisand pepi to help. the prisoner at first did nothing but sat down miserably on a rock. juan shoutedat him too, and he dragged himself up to help, though he was too weak to do anything in the wayof lifting.

he pulled at a rock, staggered and fell. the others let him lie where he fell, and went ondragging at the great stones, panting and wiping the sweat from their foreheads.

the two boys watched them. it looked impossible, from where they were, to unblock any caveentrance there. ‘why,’ whispered jack to philip, ‘hundreds of stones must have fallen there!

they’ll never, never be able to shift them like that!’

evidently the men thought so too, after a while, for they gave up pulling the boulders about andsat down to rest. the guard pointed to the fallen prisoner and spoke.

‘what about him? how are we going to take him back?’

‘oh, give him some food and a drink,’ growled juan. ‘he’ll be all right then.’

‘we’d better go now,’ whispered philip. ‘they’ll be starting back soon. come on. howdisappointing that we haven’t discovered anything, though! i did hope we might see something ofthe treasure.’

‘if it’s hidden behind that wall of fallen stone it’ll need powerful machinery to get it out,’ saidjack.

‘nobody could move those bigger stones by hand. come on, quickly.’

they set out on their way back, going as quickly as they could, glad that they had marked rocksand trees or they might have missed their way here and there.

the girls welcomed them, and poured questions on them. but the boys shook their heads mostdisappointingly.

‘the treasure cave is blocked up,’ said jack. ‘i only hope the men don’t give up and leave thisvalley altogether. we’ll be properly stranded then.’