22 the treasure at last!

the four children stared breathlessly through the open door. they saw something that made themfeel very creepy.

in the dim light figures stood about all over the place. their eyes gleamed queerly and theirteeth shone in the darkness. their arms and necks flashed and glittered with jewels.

the children clutched one another in fright. who were these strange, silent folk, standing aboutwith gleaming eyes, covered with jewels?

the people in the cave did not move. they did not speak a word either. not one of them wassitting. all were standing. they stood there, some turned towards the frightened children, someturned away. why didn’t they speak? why didn’t they point to the children and say, ‘look –who’s there?’

lucy-ann began to shiver. ‘let’s go back. i don’t like them. they’re not alive. only their eyesare.’

kiki suddenly gave a squawk, left jack’s shoulder, and flew to the shoulder of one of the nearbyfigures, a woman dressed in clothes that glowed richly in the half-light of the cave.

still the woman did not move. how strange! the children suddenly felt much better when theysaw that kiki did not seem in the least afraid of the queer company.

‘polly put the kettle on,’ said kiki, and pecked at the hair of the woman he was sitting on.

the children held their breath again. what would the woman do to kiki – enchant her with herstrange eyes, cast a spell on her and turn her into stone? perhaps all these people had been turnedinto stone?

‘let’s go back,’ said lucy-ann urgently. ‘i don’t like this cave. i don’t like these people, ortheir horrid gleaming eyes.’

jack suddenly jumped down the step that was below the great open door. he marched boldlyinto the silent cave. lucy-ann squealed and tried to catch his sleeve.

jack walked right up to the woman on whose shoulder kiki sat. he peered closely at her. helooked into her wide open glittering eyes. he touched her hair. then he turned to the horrifiedchildren.

‘what do you think? she’s a statue – all dressed up beautifully – with real hair – and jewels foreyes! what do you think of that?’

the others could not believe it – but they were very thankful to hear jack’s words, and to seehim wandering among the crowd of still figures, apparently quite unharmed.

philip and dinah stepped down into the cave of figures too, but lucy-ann still did not quitedare to. she watched the others looking at the strange, beautiful statues, and tried to make herselfjoin them.

at last she screwed up her courage to step down into the cave. she looked fearfully at thewoman on whose shoulder kiki had flown. yes – jack was right. she was nothing but a beautifulstatue, with a finely-moulded face and a cloud of dark hair. she had magnificent jewels for eyes,and her glittering teeth were exquisite jewels too. round her neck were golden chains, set withprecious stones, and her waxen fingers gleamed with rings. round her waist was the mostbeautiful belt that lucy-ann had ever seen, carved and set with shining red and blue stones.

there were dozens of these statues in the cave, some of men and some of women. some ofthem carried small babies in their arms, fat, smiling babies dressed in the most exquisite clothes,set with thousands of tiny pearls.

it was the babies that gave jack the clue to what the statues were.

‘do you know what they are?’ he said. ‘they are statues taken from churches somewhere in thiscountry. this one represents mary, the mother of jesus – and the little baby is meant to be jesushimself. that’s why they are adorned with such lovely jewels. people have spent heaps of moneyon them to make them beautiful.’

‘oh yes – and some of them are carried in processions at church festivals,’ said dinah,remembering how her mother had once described such a festival to her. ‘well, fancy – statuestaken from churches! whatever for?’

‘stolen, i should think,’ said jack. ‘stolen by people who took advantage of the troubled war-times, and hid them here – meaning to collect them when they had a chance.’

‘they must be worth a lot of money,’ said philip, fingering the magnificent jewels. ‘gosh, i didget a terrible fright when i first saw them! i honestly thought they were real people.’

‘so did i,’ said lucy-ann, who had now recovered. ‘i couldn’t bear them to stand so still andsilent. i nearly screamed with fright!’

‘we were idiots not to guess they were statues,’ said dinah. ‘i say – where does the light comefrom that lights these statues? it’s only a faint sort of light, but it’s enough to see them by quitewell.’

jack looked all round. ‘it must be a sort of phosphorescent glow from the walls and roof of thecave,’ he said. ‘it’s rather a greenish light, isn’t it?’

‘i say – there’s another archway here!’ called philip, from beyond the statues. ‘come and see. ibelieve there’s another cave beyond.’

they all went to see. through the archway was yet another cave, lighted with the same dim,greenish glow. in it were stacked great square, oblong or round, flat things. there were no statuesat all. the children went to see what the flat things were.

‘pictures!’ said jack, as he tried to swing one to face him. ‘enormous ones! where did theycome from? churches too, do you think?’

‘oh – picture galleries very likely,’ said philip. ‘maybe they are famous and quite pricelesspictures – very old too. look at that one – it looks terribly old-fashioned. my word – these thingsmay be worth a fortune – heaps of fortunes! i remember reading not so long ago about picturesthat were worth two or three million pounds!’

‘i didn’t know there was so much money in the world,’ said lucy-ann, startled. she gazed inawe at the dusty, dim old pictures, tracing their great carved frames with her finger.

‘some of the pictures have been taken out of their frames to bring them here,’ said jack, pullingat a roll of thick canvas. ‘look, this one must have been cut from its frame and rolled up so as tobe taken away easily.’

there were about fifty rolls of canvas besides the framed pictures. jack shone his torch on tomany of the pictures, but none of the children thought the subjects interesting. so many wereportraits of rather fat and stern-looking men. others were scenes from the bible, or from oldlegends.

‘well, this really is a find!’ said jack. ‘i bet if those men could have found these, they wouldhave made a simply enormous fortune selling them.’

‘of course – they were after all these,’ said philip. ‘and that’s what those crates were for. topack them in. they meant to crate them carefully and fly them away little by little. what a brainwave on their part!’

‘and otto fooled them!’ said jack. ‘took them to a rock-fall and said the treasure cave wasbehind it – so they meekly gave up and flew off. what idiots!’

‘and we found everything!’ rejoiced lucy-ann. ‘oh, i wish we could tell bill!’

‘are there any more caves?’ wondered jack, and walked over to the end of the second cave.

‘yes! here’s another archway and another cave. books here! and old documents! come andlook!’

‘old books are sometimes as precious and as rare as old pictures,’ said philip, gazing round atthe piles of enormous, heavily-bound books. ‘i say – look at this one! it’s a bible, but in a foreignlanguage. isn’t it enormous? look at the old printing!’

‘these really are caves of treasure,’ said jack. ‘treasure from churches, libraries and picturegalleries. i suppose the war-lords must have hidden them away, meaning to get them when peacecame and make a lot of money out of their loot. how awful to steal things like this, though!’

‘there’s a little cave here, just off this book cave,’ called dinah, who was exploring by herself.

‘there is a big chest here. oh, and another – and another! what’s in them, i wonder?’

jack came over to her and lifted up the heavy lid of one chest. he stared down in surprise at theglittering coins piled together in the chest.

‘gold!’ he said. ‘the gold coinage of some country, i can’t tell which. i’ve never seen goldcoins like these before. my goodness, there’s a fortune in that box too – and in that chest, and thatone! fortunes everywhere!’

‘it’s like a dream,’ said lucy-ann, and she sat down on one of the chests. ‘it really is. a cave ofgleaming icicles, or stalags— whatever you call them! a cave of stars! a cave of glittering,jewelled statues! a cave of pictures, and a cave of old books! and now a cave of gold! i can’tbelieve it.’

it did seem extraordinary. they all sat down on the oak chests and rested. the dim greenishlight still shone everywhere, a kind of pale glow that did not seem to come from anywhere inparticular, and yet was everywhere.

it was very quiet there. the children could hear themselves breathing, and a cough from jacksounded startlingly loud.

then another sound came through the stillness – a sound so completely unexpected andsurprising that nobody could believe their ears!

‘cluck! cluck-luck-luck!’

‘whatever’s that?’ said lucy-ann at last. ‘it sounded like a hen clucking.’

‘must have been old kiki,’ said jack, looking around for her. but she was just near by, sittingon another chest, humped up, looking rather dismal. she had had enough of caves. the childrenstared at her. could it have been kiki?

they listened to see if she would make the same noise again. but she didn’t stir. and then thenoise came once more, quite clearly, from another direction altogether.

‘cluck-luck-lurrrrrrk! cluck-luck-lurrrrk!’

‘it is a hen!’ said jack, jumping up. ‘making an egg-laying noise. but – a hen – in these caves!

it’s impossible!’

all the children were now on their feet. dinah pointed to some steps at the back of the littlecave of gold. ‘that’s where the noise comes from,’ she said.

‘i’ll go up first and see if it really is a hen,’ said jack. ‘i can’t believe it.’

he went cautiously up the steps, and at the same time the clucking began again. kiki woke upand heard it in astonishment. she immediately began to cluck too, which evidently astonished thehidden clucker, who got very excited and let off a perfect volley of clucks.

jack came to the top of the steps. there was another door there, but not a very stout one. it wasajar. he pushed it open a little more, very slowly, so that he might see in without attractingattention, though he did not expect to see anything but a hen.

what he saw transfixed him with astonishment. philip dug his fingers into his back.

‘go on, jack – what’s up?’

jack turned round to the others. ‘i say,’ he said in a half whisper, ‘it’s awfully odd – but there’sa little cell-like room up here – furnished – table and chairs and a lighted lamp! and – there’s ameal on the table!’

‘come down quickly then,’ whispered dinah. ‘we don’t want to bump into anyone. it must besomeone who’s guarding the treasure till the others come to get it. come down!’

but it was too late. a curious, quavering voice came from the cell-like room into which jackhad peeped. a few strange words reached them – but they couldn’t understand a single one. nowwhat was going to happen?