27 a discovery – and a fine idea
the next day the men were all back again in the four planes. they soon arrived once more at thetreasure caves, going through the old books and papers, unrolling the dozens of canvases andlooking at the pictures. they had gone to find the children and the old couple and had shouted atthem again.
they had found out that somebody had helped himself to food from the hut, and they could notmake it out. hadn’t they imprisoned all the children and the old people in the caves?
the children, of course, guessed at once that it was philip who had helped himself to the food.
but they were not going to say so. so jack put on a bewildered air and replied quite stupidly, anddinah did the same. lucy-ann sobbed and the men soon gave up questioning her.
as for the old couple, they knew nothing, of course. they did not even appear to have missedphilip. the men gave up their questioning after a while, and returned to their work.
elsa was sad to see lucy- ann sobbing. she took her by the hand and led her into the‘bedroom.’ she took down a picture she had put on a ledge there, and showed lucy-ann a spacebehind. lucy-ann stared at it.
‘what is it?’ she said. then she called to jack. ‘jack! come here, and bring the old man. theold woman doesn’t understand what i say.’
they came, and when jack saw the yawning space behind the picture, he turned to the old man.
‘what’s that? a hidey-hole?’
‘oh, it is only a hole in the wall,’ said the old fellow. ‘my wife did not like it, so she covered itwith a picture.’
the old woman poured out a torrent of words to him. he turned to jack. ‘my wife is sadbecause your little sister is frightened by those men. she says she can hide in this hole and theywill not find her.’
‘let me see what it’s like,’ said jack, and climbed into it. it was more than a hole. it was a tiny,round dark tunnel that had once been a waterway. where could it lead to – if it led anywhere?
‘it’s a little tunnel!’ jack called back. ‘rather like the one that led out of our fern cave into thecave of echoes. i’ll see if it goes anywhere.’
he crawled on for some way, and then it suddenly dipped down so steeply that he could haveslid down it if it had not been so narrow. it ended in a hole that seemed to open out in the roof of amuch bigger passage. jack flashed his torch down. yes, that really was a passage down there! hecrawled back to the girls.
‘come behind me,’ he said. ‘i may have found a way of escape. we’ll have to use a ropethough.’
they crawled in single file till they came to the hole that dropped into the wide passage. jackundid the rope he always carried round his waist. he tied it to a rock and let it drop down into thepassage, then down he went.
the girls followed. jack flashed his torch up and down the passage. ‘which way shall we go?’
he said.
‘i can hear a funny noise,’ said lucy-ann. ‘it’s the waterfall, i do believe!’
they went down the passage towards the noise – and to their intense surprise and delight theycame out on to the ledge behind the waterfall, the one on which lucy-ann and dinah had caperedabout to hold the attention of pepi some days before.
‘i say! it’s the waterfall ledge – and that is the passage that leads back to the cave of echoes!’
said jack. ‘would you believe it? we can get back to our old fern cave and we shan’t be prisonersin the treasure caves any more. let’s go and fetch the old couple too.’
he went back down the passage, swarmed up the rope, wriggled back up the little tunnel andcame out into the sitting room. he told the old man where the passage led to. ‘come too,’ he said.
‘we will take you to a safe place.’
the old man laughed sadly. ‘we cannot do as you do and crawl and climb,’ he said. ‘it isimpossible. you go, and we will put back the picture over the hole and no one will guess.’
jack went back to the girls, kiki with him. ‘pity we couldn’t take martha too,’ he said. ‘i gotquite fond of her. but the old people would miss her. they simply won’t come with us. i thinkthey’re right too – they’d never be able to swarm along that little tunnel, and swing down that rope– nor would they ever be able to get down into the fern cave. come on! i’m longing to get back toour own cave. ha ha – we’ve escaped after all! won’t those men be wild!’
‘i hope they won’t hurt those two old people,’ said lucy-ann anxiously. ‘she is such a dear,gentle old woman.’
they went down the winding passage and came to the cave of echoes, where kiki annoyedthem by squawking and screeching all the time, bringing back echoes of hundreds of magnifiedsquawks and screeches that almost deafened them.
they got through the little drainpipe-like tunnel that led to the back of the fern cave, anddropped thankfully down to the rugs still spread out there.
‘home again,’ said jack, and laughed. ‘funny to think we feel this is home – but i really do.’
they settled down for a rest. ‘those men must have gone off somewhere in their planes lastnight, unloaded their goods and taken off again almost at once to get back so quickly,’ said dinahthoughtfully. ‘i really hardly expected to see them in the caves today. i didn’t hear the planescome back, did you?’
‘no – but the wind has changed, so maybe the sound didn’t blow in our direction,’ said jack.
‘it’s not so sunny now – looks like rain again. the wind’s jolly strong.’
‘we shall have to keep a look out for bill and philip if they come,’ said dinah. ‘philip won’tknow we’re here, will he?’
‘do you girls mind if i go this evening and just have a snoop round about the men’s hut?’ askedjack. ‘you know – in case by any chance old tufty didn’t get away but got caught and is aprisoner.’
‘golly! i didn’t even think of that!’ said lucy-ann in horror. ‘oh, jack, surely you don’t thinkhe got caught, do you?’
‘not for a minute,’ said jack cheerfully. ‘but it would be just as well to make sure. i’d better gonow whilst the men are busy in the caves. by the way, were all eight of them there, do you know?’
‘i think so,’ said dinah, frowning. ‘but i really couldn’t be certain. do you remember, lucy-ann?’
‘no. i didn’t look at them,’ said lucy-ann. ‘horrid things!’
‘i expect they were all there,’ said jack. ‘brr-r-r-r – the wind’s cold today. i’ll put on an extrajersey. so long, girls, i’ll be back in a short time!’
off he went, following the familiar way back to the men’s hut. he did not think that philipwould have been caught, but still, he must make sure. he scouted cautiously about. the hut doorwas shut. he went up to it and peeped in at the window. no philip there. good!
‘better just pop up to the cowshed,’ thought jack. ‘they might have got him tied up there.’ sooff he went. no – it was empty – good!
there was a sudden rush of wind such as often sweeps through a mountainside valley. a torrentof rain came down and the boy ran for a tree. it was the tree in which they had once all hidden, agood big thick one, that would keep the rain off. he crouched there whilst the wind whipped roundhim.
there was such a noise of wind that the boy did not hear footsteps coming behind the tree. hedid not see the burly figure of pepi there, staring in surprise at the crouched boy.
in a trice pepi was round the tree and had got hold of jack’s shoulders. the boy gave a howl offright. pepi gripped him tightly.
‘let me go!’ yelled jack. ‘you brute, let me go! you’re twisting my shoulder!’
pepi took up a stick and grinned. ‘a little of this will do you good,’ he said. ‘you boys are a lotof trouble to us. where are the others? you will tell me or i will beat you black and blue.’
‘let me go!’ yelled jack, and kicked hard at pepi’s ankles. the man gave a yelp of pain and hitjack on the back with the heavy stick. jack kicked him again.
what would have happened to poor jack is easy to guess – if something hadn’t happened topepi first! the wind howled round and shook the tree violently. something fell from the tree andhit the raging man full on the shoulder. he dropped down at once, shouting, clutching at hisshoulder. jack sped off into the wind. he turned and looked back. pepi was trying to get up,groaning. the wind howled again, and the big tree spat out something else that hit pepi on thehead. he fell back and did not move.
‘golly!’ said jack, staring. ‘it’s two of our suitcases that we left up the tree! they just blewdown at the right moment. i hope they haven’t killed him.’
he went back cautiously to the still man. no, he wasn’t killed – just completely knocked out.
jack saw his chance at once. he took his rope and roped the man’s hands firmly together, and thenhis feet. then he tied him to the tree.
‘now you won’t be able to come after me, my dear pepi,’ said jack, taking a quick look up thetree in case the remaining two suitcases should come down. ‘i suppose the others left you here onguard today, as they knew somebody had been at the food. well, you won’t be much use as aguard for the rest of the day, but never mind. the tree will shelter you from the storm.’
suddenly such an extraordinary idea struck jack that he stood perfectly still and gasped. thenhe struck his hands together and yelled out loudly: ‘i must do it, i must, i must! but have i time?
have i time?’
he began to run as fast as he could through the wind and the rain. ‘why didn’t i think of itbefore? if those men are in the treasure caves, i can bolt the door on them, just as they did to us –and make them prisoners! why didn’t i think of it before? it may be too late now.’
he ran and ran, gasping and panting, hot as fire in spite of the wind and the rain.
‘it won’t be any good. the men will be out of the caves by now,’ he thought. ‘i may see them atany minute. oh, why didn’t i think of this before? i could have gone and bolted them in before ileft dinah and lucy-ann!’
it certainly was a most wonderful idea. the men would be absolute prisoners. they did notknow the way out behind the picture, and would never think of looking for it there. certainly theold people would not tell them. oh, if only they were still in the caves!
the rain poured down. the wind blew like a gale. fortunately it was behind jack now and ithelped him on. he was soaked through, but he didn’t care.
there was no sign of the men. jack slowed down when he came near the waterfall. he didn’twant to run right into them. he began to think more calmly.
‘maybe they won’t come out till the rain stops and the storm dies down. rain would spoil theold books and papers and pictures. yes, they’ll be sure to wait. i may be in time yet. the men mayeven decide to stay the night there if the storm doesn’t clear.’
jack was right. the men, having looked out of the entrance hole of the caves, had seen the rainstorm sweeping over the mountainside and had decided not to venture out with their treasures.
they would be ruined.
‘better spend the night here,’ said one of the men. ‘in that room with the rugs. we’ll turn theold people and children out.’
only the old people were there. they made vague gestures when the men asked where thechildren were, pointing towards the passage that led to the sunny ledge. the men settled down onthe rugs, and one of them got out a pack of cards. he set the lamp so that they could all see, andthen began to deal the cards. the old people went into their ‘sitting room,’ sad and afraid. howthey hoped that the men would not look behind the picture in the next room!
when jack arrived at the treasure caves he could hardly walk through the passages. hestumbled along, past the cave of stalactites, past the cave of stars and into the first treasure cave,through the open door at the bottom of the curving stairway. he could see no men at all. his heartsank. had they gone then? had he missed them?
he went cautiously on. when he came to the ‘sitting room’ he peeped in and saw the old couplethere, with martha the hen.
then he heard the noise of the men in the next room. he beckoned to the old couple. they rosesilently and followed him in surprise. jack did not speak till he was well out of earshot of the men.
‘come,’ he said, leading them out of the cave of statues and out of the stout door. ‘i am going tobolt the men in. but i don’t want to lock you in too.’
he shot all the bolts triumphantly. crash! crash! crash! he’d done it! he’d done it!
