chapter 17 trapped!

the six children stumbled down the tunnel, still hearing the far-off sound of the drills, and fearingthat at any moment the cellars would be discovered by mr. henning, who, no doubt, would beanxiously watching from above!

they came to where they thought the burrow must be, that dick had dug through - but instead, therewas nothing but a great mass of earth, some of it seeping into the tunnel! julian gazed at it by thelight of his torch, dismayed.

'the burrow's fallen in!' he said, his voice shaking. 'what are we to do? we've no spades to digourselves out!'

'we can use our hands,' said dick, and began to scrabble at the fallen earth, sweeping it into thetunnel. but as he scrabbled, more and more earth fell into the widened burrow, and julian stoppeddick at once. 'no more of that, dick - you might start an earth-fall, and we'd all be buried alive. ohgosh - this is awful! we'll have to go back up the passage and try to make the men hear us shouting.

blow! that means mr. henning will know what we're up to.'

'i don't believe the men will be there much longer,' said dick, looking at his watch. 'they pack up atfive, and it's almost that now. my word, we've been ages - mrs. philpot will wonder where we all are.'

'the drilling has just stopped,' said anne. 'i haven't got that awful noise inside my ears any longer.'

'in that case, it's certainly no good going back up the tunnel,' said julian. 'they'd be gone before wegot there. i say, you know - this is serious. i ought to have thought of this - any idiot knows thatground entrances to passages should be strengthened, if they're newly-dug!'

'well, we can always go back to the cellars and wait for the men to come tomorrow,' said george,sounding more cheerful than she felt.

'how do we know they'll be there tomorrow?' said dick. 'henning may have paid them off today, ifhe's disappointed in his hopes!'

'don't be such a dismal jimmy!' said george, sensing that the twins were getting panicky. theycertainly were worried - but more because they were certain that their mother would be scared todeath if they didn't come home, than for their own safety.

timmy had been standing patiently beside george, waiting to get out of the hole. at last, tired ofwaiting, he trotted away - but down the tunnel - not up!

'timmy! where are you going?' cried george, and shone her torch on him. he turned his head andlooked at her, showing quite clearly by his manner that he was tired of standing about, and intendedto find out where the tunnel led!

'ju, look at timmy! he wants us to go down the tunnel!' cried george. 'why didn't we think of that?'

'i don't know! i'm afraid i thought it would be a sort of blind alley!' said julian. 'i fear it will, too.

nobody knows where the chapel entrance to the tunnel is, do they, twins?'

'no,' they said, both together. 'it's never been discovered, as far as we know.'

'anyway, it's worth trying,' said george, her voice sounding muffled as she went down the passageafter the impatient timmy. 'i'm getting suffocated in here!'

the others followed, snippet dancing along behind, thinking the whole thing was a huge joke.

the tunnel, as the children had imagined, went downwards in more or less a straight line. it hadfallen in slightly here and there, but by bending their heads and crouching low, they managed to getthrough. finally they came to a bad fall of earth from the roof, and had to crawl through on hands andknees. anne didn't like that part at all!

they came at last into a strange little place, where the tunnel ended abruptly. it was like a stone vault- a little chamber about five feet high and seven feet square. julian looked up fearfully at its low roof.

was it of stone? if so, they were trapped. they would never be able to lift a heavy stone slab!

no - not all the roof was made of stone. a piece in the middle about three feet square was made ofstrong stout wood, which rested on ledges cut in the stone.

'it looks like a trap-door,' said julian, examining it by the light of his torch. 'i wonder if we are justbelow the floor of the old chapel? dick, if you and i and harry all heave at the same time, we mightbe able to move this trap-door.'

so they all heaved, george, too - but although the door did lift a little at one corner, it simply couldnot be moved upwards.

'i know why we can't move it,' said harry, red in the face with heaving. 'there are sacks of grain andfertilizer and all kinds of stuff spread over the floor of the old chapel! they're heavy as lead!

we'd never be able to move that trap-door if two or three sacks are on it!'

'gosh - i didn't think of that,' said julian, his heart sinking. 'didn't you know of this entrance into thetunnel, twins?'

'of course not!' said harry. 'nobody did. i can't think why it wasn't known, though. except, of course,that a store- house like this has its floor always covered with sacks of something, and with thespillings out of those sacks! it may not have been cleaned out or swept for hundreds of years!'

'well, what are we to do now?' demanded dick. 'we can't stay here in this stuffy little place!'

'listen - i can hear something!' said george suddenly. 'noises overhead.'

they listened intently, and, through the tightly-fitting oak trap-door above them, they heard a loudvoice shouting. 'give us a hand, bill, will you?'

'it's jamie - the men are working overtime this week!' said harry. 'he's come to get something out ofthe chapel. quick, let's all yell and hammer on the trap-door with whatever we've got that'll make anoise!'

at once there was a perfect babel of sound from the little vault - yells, shouts, barks, and thehammering of sword-handles and fists on the wooden slab overhead. then the children ceased theirhammering, and fell silent, listening. they heard jamie's voice, lifted in wonder.

'bill! what in the name of goodness was that? a rat-fight, do you suppose?'

'they heard us,' said julian, excited. 'come on - once again. and bark the place down, timmy!'

timmy was only too ready to oblige, for he was very tired of tunnels and dark, echoing places bynow! he barked long and fiercely, frightening snippet so much that the little poodle actually ran backup the tunnel! what with tim's barking, and everyone's yelling, and the constant hammering, thenoise was even louder than before, and bill and jamie listened in amazement.

'comes from over yonder,' said bill. 'summat's going on there. beats me what it is though. if'twere night-time, i'd think it were ghosties having a game! come on - we'll get over yonder.'

the place was so full of sacks that the two men had to clamber over the rows, disturbing the cat andher kittens. she had curled herself round them, scared of the unexpected noise.

'this corner, bill,' said jamie, standing on top of two layers of sacks. he put his hand to his mouthand bellowed like a bull.

'anyone about?'

the six below answered frantically at the tops of their voices, timmy barking too.

'there's a dog barking down there,' said bill, scratching his head, puzzled, looking down at the sacksas if he thought there might be a dog in one of them.

'a dog! there's folks as well,' said jamie, astounded. 'where are they? can't be under these sacks!'

'maybe they're in that little old store-place we found one day, in the floor,' suggested bill.

'remember? under an old trap- door, it were, that were covered by a great slab of stone. youremember, man!'

'oh ay,' said jamie, and then the clamour began again, for the children were now getting near despair.

'come on, bill,' said jamie, hearing the note of urgency, though he couldn't make out a word frombelow. 'heave over these here sacks. we've got to get to the bottom of this!'

they heaved a dozen sacks away, and then at last the trap-door was uncovered. the stone slab thathad once hidden it had been taken up some years ago by the two men and now stood against the wall.

they had not bothered to replace it, not guessing that the 'little old store-place' as they had thought it,was really an entrance to a secret, long-forgotten passage. it was fortunate indeed for the children thatonly the old wooden trap-door was between them and the men, for if the stone slab had been theretoo, no sound of their shouting would have been heard in the old chapel above!

'now for this here trap-door,' said bill. he tapped on it with his great boot. 'who's down here?'

he demanded, wondering what the answer would be.

'us!' shrieked the twins, and the others joined in, with timmy barking frantically again.

'bless us all - them's the twins' voices i heard!' said jamie. 'how did they climb into that storeroomwithout moving these here sacks?'

with a great heave the two men pulled up the heavy wooden slab, and looked down in the greatestastonishment at the little crowd below! they couldn't believe their eyes! timmy was the first out. heleapt upwards and landed beside the men, wagging his great tail and licking them lavishly.

'oh, thanks bill, thanks jamie,' cried the twins as the two men pulled them up. 'gosh, i'm thankfulyou were working overtime - and happened to come in here!'

'your ma's been hollering for you,' said bill, disapprovingly. 'and didn't you say you was going tohelp me with them poles?'

'how did you get down there?' demanded jamie, pulling up the others one by one. julian was the last,and he handed up poor scared little snippet, who really felt he had had quite enough adventures forone day!

'oh - it's too long a story to tell you just now,' said harry. 'but thanks again most awfully, bill andjamie. can you put that slab back? don't tell anyone we were down there till we tell you how ithappened, see? now we'll have to rush and tell mother we're all right!'

and away they all went, longing for tea, tired out, full of thankfulness at their escape from the littlestone room under the chapel floor! what would everyone say when they displayed the treasures theyhad brought back with them?