21 the strange caves

jack went down the hole first. he lowered himself right in, and only had to drop about a foot to theground below.

‘lucy-ann, you come next,’ he said, and helped her down. then came the others, excited andeager. had they really found the treasure cave?

‘it simply must be the hiding place for the treasure!’ said jack. ‘there isn’t another hole or caveanywhere. now, let me flash my torch round a bit.’

at the back of the hole, as dinah had thought, there was a passage – quite a wide one, and fairlyhigh. a very tall man could have walked down it with ease.

‘come on!’ said jack, his voice shaking with excitement. ‘we’re getting warm!’

they followed him down the passage, kiki sitting on his shoulder. lucy-ann held on to hissleeve, half fearful of what they might find.

the passage was wide and high all the way along, but wound about a little. it went downwards,and kept more or less in the same direction, for all its windings – that is, towards the heart of themountain.

suddenly the passage came to an abrupt end. jack paused, and gasped. in front of him was amost extraordinary sight.

his torch shone brightly on to an unending mass of brilliant columns, hanging from the highroof of a cave. whatever could they be?

lucy-ann clutched his arm and gasped too. she stared at the shining white things. she saw thatother white columns were growing up from the floor of the cave too. some had met the hangingones, and had joined, so that it seemed as if the cave roof was being supported by pillars.

‘jack! what is it? is it the treasure?’ whispered lucy-ann.

‘it’s icicles, isn’t it?’ said dinah in an awed tone. ‘i’ve never seen anything so beautiful in mylife! look at them hanging down – so still and white and lovely!’

‘no – they’re not icicles,’ said jack. ‘they are stalactites – at least, the hanging ones are.

they’re not made of ice, either – but of limestone, i think. my word – what a sight!’

the children stood quite still and gazed their fill at the silent, beautiful cave. its roof was as highas a cathedral, and the graceful stalactites hung down from it in dozens, gleaming in the light ofjack’s torch.

‘the ones growing up from the floor are stalagmites, i think,’ said jack. ‘aren’t they, philip?

do you know anything about them? i’ve never in my life seen anything like this before!’

‘yes – they’re stalagmites,’ said philip. ‘i remember seeing pictures of them. stalactites andstalagmites. gosh, what a sight!’

kiki tried to say the two words and couldn’t. even she seemed to be awed by the amazing andunexpected discovery.

‘oh, look!’ said lucy-ann suddenly, and pointed to what looked like an old, old shawl carvedin ivory. ‘look – this has grown here too – it’s just like a shawl – even to the pattern in it! andlook at that sort of gate over there – all carved too! surely somebody made them – surely theydidn’t just grow!’

‘well – they formed,’ said jack, trying to explain. ‘you know – just as the crystals in asnowflake form. they don’t grow because they’re not alive – they form.’

lucy- ann couldn’t quite understand. secretly she thought that all the marvellous hangingpillars had grown, and then got frozen in their beauty.

i thought this must be the treasure!’ she said, half laughing.

‘i’m not surprised,’ said jack. ‘it’s too beautiful for words. fancy finding a cave like this! it’slike an enormous underground cathedral – it just wants an organ to begin playing a grand andmagnificent hymn.’

‘there’s a kind of path down the middle,’ said dinah. ‘i don’t know if it’s just a natural path,jack, or whether it has been made by man. do you see what i mean?’

‘yes,’ said jack, flashing his torch along it. ‘bit of both, i think. well – shall we go on? there’sno treasure here.’

they went along the middle of the great silent hall, surrounded on all sides by the hangingicicle-like pillars. lucy-ann pointed out many that had joined with columns growing from theground.

‘the drops of water from the stalactites must have dripped to the ground, and made stalagmitesform there, growing up to meet the column above,’ said philip. ‘they must have taken ages andages to form – hundreds of years. i say – no wonder this cave feels awfully old to us. i feel as ifthere is no time here at all – no years, or days of the week or hours – just nothing.’

lucy-ann didn’t like that very much. it gave her a strange feeling of being only a dream, andnot real. she took hold of jack’s arm and was glad to feel its nice, solid warmth.

they walked slowly to the end of the enormous cave. a great archway stood there, and that toowas set with stalactites, which, however, did not hang far down. the children could walk underthem with ease.

‘this archway is quite like a tunnel,’ said philip. his voice sounded big and hollow there andmade them all jump. kiki gave a mournful cough, which was magnified to a hollow, giant coughthat startled everyone very much.

they came to another cave. the roof of this was not so high as the one before, and only small,icicle-like stalactites hung from it.

‘do those stalactites shine in the dark?’ asked dinah suddenly. ‘i thought i saw somethingglowing in the corner over there.’

jack switched off his torch – and immediately the children gasped. for up in the roof and overthe walls there glowed thousands of tiny stars. they were green and blue, and shone and flickeredin a most enchanting manner.

‘gracious! what are they?’ whispered dinah, amazed. ‘are they alive?’

the boys didn’t know. they watched the shimmering flickering stars, that seemed to go in andout like elfin lights. ‘might be a kind of glowworm,’ said jack. ‘aren’t they lovely?’

he put on his torch again and the roof shone brightly in the yellow-white light. the starsdisappeared.

‘oh, do put your torch out!’ begged lucy-ann. ‘i want to watch those stars a bit longer. i neversaw anything so fascinating in my life! they shine like phosphorescence – all blue and green andgreen and blue; look how they flicker off and on. oh, i wish i could take a hundred back with meand put them on my bedroom ceiling at home!’

the others laughed, but they too thought that the shining, flickering stars were most entrancingto watch. jack did not put on his torch again until each had gazed his fill.

‘that’s two simply wonderful caves,’ said lucy-ann with a sigh. ‘what will the next one be? ireally do feel as if we’d discovered aladdin’s cave, or something like that!’

a long passage, leading downwards, led out of the cave of stars, as lucy-ann named it.

‘we found a cave of echoes, a cave of stalactites and a cave of stars,’ she said. ‘i like this part ofour adventure. now i’d like to find a cave of treasure.’

the tunnel they were in was wide and high like the first passage they had entered. jack’s torchsuddenly shone brightly on something on the floor. he stopped.

‘look at that!’ he said. ‘what is it?’

dinah bent to pick it up. ‘it’s a brooch,’ she said. a brooch without its pin. the pin’s gone. itmust have broken and the brooch fell off whoever was wearing it. isn’t it perfectly lovely?’

it certainly was. it was a large gold brooch, about three inches wide, set with brilliant redstones, as red as blood.

‘are they rubies?’ said dinah in awe. ‘look how they glow! oh, jack, do you think this is a bitof the treasure?’

‘probably,’ said jack, and at once excitement caught hold of the children again, and their heartsbegan to beat fast. a ruby brooch, set in carved gold! what would the other treasure be?

wonderful visions arose in the children’s minds and they stumbled on their way eagerly their eyessearching the ground for any other gleaming jewel.

‘if we could find a cave of jewels,’ said lucy-ann. ‘oooooh – all gleaming like stars and suns!

that’s what i would love.’

‘we might find something like that,’ said dinah. ‘if we do, i shall deck myself from head tofoot with them and pretend i’m a princess.’

the passage went on and on, still leading downwards, but, when jack looked at his compass, hesaw that he was no longer going into the heart of the mountain, but in the opposite direction. hehoped they wouldn’t suddenly come out into the daylight without finding the cave of treasure.

suddenly they came to steps that led downwards. they were carved out of the solid rock, steep,wide steps that curved as the passage curved.

‘almost a spiral stairway,’ said jack. ‘where are we coming to now?’

there were about twenty of the steps. then came an enormous door, made of some kind of stoutwood, set with iron studs. the children stood and stared at it.

a door! what was behind it? was it locked and bolted? who had put it there, and why? was itto shut in the treasure cave and guard it?

there was no handle to turn. there was not even a lock to be seen. there were great bolts, butthese were not shot into place.

‘how can you open a door without a handle?’ said jack in despair. he pushed at the door, but itremained quite firm.

‘kick it, like we did the door of the hut,’ said philip, and jack kicked it hard. but the door didnot open.

they stared at it in despair. to come so far and then to be stopped by a door! it was too bad.

jack shone his torch all over the door, from top to bottom.

lucy-ann’s sharp eyes noticed something. ‘see that iron stud?’ she said, pointing. ‘it’s muchbrighter than the others. i wonder why.’

jack shone his torch on it, and saw that it was slightly bigger than the others – and also, aslucy-ann said, it was brighter, as if it had had some handling.

he pressed it. nothing happened. he banged on it with a stone. no result at all.

‘let me try,’ said philip, and pushed jack aside. ‘shine your torch on it closely. that’s right.’

philip took hold of the iron stud and shook it. it seemed to give a little. he shook it again.

nothing happened. then he thought of twisting it.

it twisted round very easily indeed. there was a loud click – and the door swung slowly open.

jack switched off his torch, afraid that anyone in the cave might see them – though if anyone hadbeen there surely they would have heard the bangs and kicks at the door.

the door now stood wide open. a dim light shone beyond, showing another cave. lucy-annclutched jacks arm in fright.

‘it’s full of people,’ she whispered. ‘look!’