19 a great disappointment – and a plan
it certainly was a stiff climb again, up the steep, rather stony slope to the ledge they could seesome way above. lucy-ann almost cried because her feet kept slipping so.
‘i take one step up, and slip two steps back,’ she wailed.
‘well, hang on to me then,’ said philip, and gave her a tug up each time she took a step.
they all wanted a rest when they came to the next ledge, and to their delight they saw a patch ofwild raspberries growing there. they could sit down in the canes and feast as they rested. lovely!
kiki liked the raspberries very much indeed, and ate so many that jack called to her.
‘kiki! you’ll go pop!’
‘pop goes the weasel,’ answered kiki, and helped herself to a few dozen more raspberries.
soon they all felt they could go on again. they were very high up now, and could see evenmore mountains towering behind the ones they knew. it was a most magnificent sight.
‘i feel very small and lost somehow, with all those great mountains sitting there,’ said lucy-ann, and the others felt the same. ‘come on – let’s go round the ledge now. we shall soon see theroad. thank goodness this ledge isn’t narrow. it’s almost wide enough to take a car.’
it was not so easy walking round the ledge as lucy-ann thought, however, for there had been afall of rocks there, further along, and there was a good deal of scrambling about to be done. theywere thankful when they had got over the rock-fall and come to smoother ground again.
the ledge rounded a bend in the mountainside, and then, quite suddenly, the children saw theroad below them. yes, it was really a road! they stood and looked at it in delight.
‘i never thought i should be so pleased to see a road again,’ said dinah. ‘the road out of thevalley! the road to somewhere at last!’
‘look,’ said lucy-ann, ‘it winds up from quite a long way down. we can’t see where it goes tofrom here, because it’s hidden round the bend.’
‘you can see the pass, the windy pass, from here, though,’ said jack, pointing. ‘see where thismountain and the next almost touch? that’s where the pass must be – fairly high up and awfullynarrow. i bet we’ll have to go through it in single file.’
‘no, we won’t,’ said philip scornfully. ‘it’s bound to be wide enough to take a cart. it onlylooks narrow because we’re far off.’
‘come on, let’s get down to the road,’ said dinah, and began to climb down to it. they wereabout twenty feet above it.
‘i say, isn’t it overgrown with grass and weeds!’ said jack, astonished. ‘that shows how little ithas been used lately. strange, isn’t it? you’d think the people would put their only road out of thevalley into some sort of order.’
‘it’s jolly peculiar, i think,’ said philip. ‘come on – we can at least see it’s a road, even if it isovergrown with weeds.’
they walked along the road for some way. it wound upwards always, following long curves inand out on the slopes of the mountain. at last the children could clearly see where the windy passmust be, a narrow passage between the two mountains, theirs and the next.
it was cold so high up and the wind was very strong. if the children had not been warm withclimbing they would have shivered. as it was, they were all as warm as toast.
‘now – round this next corner – and i bet we shall see the pass!’ cried jack. ‘then hurrah forthe way out of this mysterious valley!’
they rounded the corner. yes – there lay the pass – or what must once have been the pass. butit was a pass no longer.
something had happened. the narrow way between the great mountains was blocked high withgreat rocks and black boulders. it was impassable.
at first the four children didn’t quite take it in. they stood and stared in wonder.
‘what’s happened there?’ said jack at last. ‘it looks like an earthquake or something. did youever see such a terrible mess?’
‘great holes have been blown in the rocky walls on either side of the pass,’ said philip. ‘look,even high up there are holes like craters.’
they stared in silence, and then jack turned to the others. ‘do you know what i think hashappened?’ he said. ‘well, when enemies were here, fighting, they bombed the pass – and blockedit. all that devastation has been caused by bombs – i’m sure it has.’
‘yes, i think you’re right, jack,’ said philip. ‘it’s just what it looks like. aeroplanes must haveflown just over the pass, and dropped scores of bombs on the narrow road there. it’s absolutelyimpassable.’
‘do you mean – we can’t get out?’ asked lucy-ann in a trembling voice. philip nodded.
‘afraid so,’ he said. ‘nobody could get over that steep, high, dangerous wall of blown up rocks.
this explains why people haven’t come along to live in this valley yet. i suppose most of thoseliving here were killed, and the rest escaped over the pass. then it was blown up and nobodycould come back. those men in the plane, juan and the rest, must have got wind of some treasurehidden in the valley, and thought they would try to enter the place by plane. about the only way toenter it too.’
lucy-ann sat down and cried. ‘i’m so disappointed,’ she wailed. ‘i thought we were going toescape from this horrid, lonely valley, i really did. but now we’re still prisoners here – and n-n-n-nobody can come in to rescue us!’
the others sat down by lucy-ann, feeling rather desperate too. they stared hopelessly at theblocked pass. what a terrible blow! just as they had so hoped they would be able to escape, andget to julius, and tell him about the treasure.
‘let’s have something to eat,’ suggested dinah. ‘we’ll feel better then. no wonder we feel a bitdumpy now.’
‘humpy dumpy,’ said kiki at once. that made them laugh.
‘idiot!’ said philip. ‘you don’t care about a blocked up pass, do you, kiki? you could fly over.
it’s a pity we can’t tie a message to your leg and send you over to julius for help.’
‘oooh – couldn’t we do that?’ said lucy-ann at once.
‘no, silly! for one thing, kiki would probably tear the message off her leg,’ said jack, ‘and foranother she’d never know who to go and look for. she’s a clever bird, but not as clever as that.’
they felt a lot better after their meal. they ate it with their backs to the blocked pass. nobodycould bear to look at it.
‘i suppose we’ll have to go back to our cave,’ said dinah at last. ‘doesn’t seem anything else todo really.’
‘no, i suppose there isn’t,’ said jack rather gloomily. ‘what a sell, isn’t it?’
they had a good long rest. the sun was very fierce, but the wind was so strong that they werenever too hot. in fact lucy-ann went to a rock that sheltered her from the wind, because she felttoo cool.
they started back after their rest. they were not nearly so cheerful and talkative as when theyhad set out that morning. the thought of having to stay in the lonely valley, after having such highhopes of escaping, was very damping to all of them.
lucy-ann looked so miserable that jack tried to think of something to cheer her up. he thoughtof something really startling.
‘cheer up, lucy- ann,’ he said. ‘maybe we’ll find the treasure now, to make up for ourdisappointment.’
lucy-ann stopped and stared at him, thrilled. ‘really?’ she said. ‘oh, jack – yes, let’s look forthe treasure ourselves now!’
everyone stopped and thought about it for a few exciting moments. ‘well, why not?’ saidphilip. ‘we can’t get word about it to julius, because we can’t get over the pass. those men havegone, and otto is gone too. there’s only us left. we might as well hunt for the treasure. it wouldbe something exciting to do, to pass away the time.’
‘how simply gorgeous!’ cried dinah. ‘just what i’ve always wanted to do – hunt for treasure.
when shall we start? tomorrow?’
‘i say – suppose we really found it!’ said philip, looking thrilled. ‘should we get a share of it, iwonder?’
‘what a good thing otto gave you the map, freckles!’ said dinah to jack. she always calledhim freckles when she felt in a very good humour. ‘let’s have a look at it.’
jack took it out of his pocket. he unfolded the sheet of paper and spread it out. otto had markedit with compass directions, just as he had marked the map showing the way to the pass.
‘see the things he has drawn or printed,’ said jack. ‘see this funny shaped rock – it’s shapedlike a man in a cloak, with a ball-like head. if we saw that rock, we’d know it was a signpost to thetreasure.’
‘and what’s this – a bent tree?’ asked dinah. ‘yes, but how are we to know where to look forthem? we can’t go wandering all over the mountainside looking for queer-shaped rocks and benttrees and things.’
‘of course not,’ said jack. ‘we’d have to begin properly, from the beginning – and thebeginning is the waterfall we know. otto drew a path from where the cowshed is to the waterfall,see – well, we can start right at the waterfall without bothering about the path. then, from the topof the fall we must look for that bent tree, and walk to there. then from the bent tree we look forthis – let’s see, what did he say that was? – oh yes, it’s a stretch of smooth black rock – well, whenwe get there, we look next for a spring of water – and from there we look out for that funnyshaped rock. then somewhere about there is the treasure.’
‘golly!’ said lucy- ann, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. ‘let’s get back to thewaterfall and start straight away. come on!’
jack folded up the map and looked round at the three excited faces. he grinned. ‘the treasurewon’t be much use to us, cooped up in this valley as we are,’ he said. ‘but it will be somethingreally thrilling to do.’
they set off once again, their minds busy with treasure hunting. if only they could find whatthose men had been looking for and had not found! what would bill say? he would wish togoodness he had been with them. he always said they fell into adventure after adventure.
when they got back to the waterfall, the sun had gone in, and huge black clouds hung over theirmountain. enormous drops of rain began to fall. the children gazed in disappointment at thelowering sky.
‘blow! said philip. ‘there’s going to be a rain storm, i should think. no good going off treasurehunting in this. better get into the cave before we get soaked. here comes the rain properly!’
they only just got into their cosy cave in time. then the rain pelted down in torrents, and addedits voice to the roar of the waterfall.
‘rain all you like!’ called jack. ‘but do be sunny tomorrow – we’re going treasure hunting!’
