Look here! yelled the man. Look here! I found him in the store-room.
The machine was stopped at once. The men gathered round Jack and his captor. One of them stepped forward. It was Jake.
He looked very evil and the black patch he wore over one eye made him look most peculiar. He shook Jack so roughly that the boy lost his breath completely and sank down on the ground when Jake let go his arm.
Where are the rest of you? said Jake. You tell me, see! Who are you with? What are you all doing down here? What do you know?
Jack picked up his nugget, looked round for Kiki, who had flown in fright to the roof of the cave, and tried to think what to answer for the best. The men took no notice of his big copper nugget, which surprised Jack very much. He had been afraid they would take it away from him at once.
I don’t know where the others are, he said at last. We came to this island together, two boys and two girls, and I got separated from the others.
Who else was with you? demanded Jake. You kids didn’t come here by yourselves.
We did, insisted Jack. I say who does all that money in there belong to?
The listening men made some low, threatening noises, and Jack gazed round uneasily. Jake’s face grew black. He looked round at the men.
Something’s up, he said, and the men nodded. He turned again to Jack. Now look here, he said, you know a lot more than you’ve told us you’ve picked up something from others, haven’t you? well, you just tell us all you know, or you may never see daylight again. See? Is that clear?
It was horribly clear. Jack began to tremble. Kiki gave a screech that made everyone jump.
I don’t know what you mean, said Jack desperately. All we knew was that someone was working these copper-mines again, getting copper, and that Bill Smugs was taking food here in his boat. That’s honestly all I know.
Bill Smugs, repeated Jake. That’s what the other kids said. Who is this Bill Smugs?
Jack was puzzled. Isn’t that his real name? he said.
What’s his real name? suddenly said Jake, so threateningly that Jack dropped his precious nugget in a panic, thinking the man was going to strike him. It fell on the edge of Jake’s foot and the man picked it up and had a look at it.
What’s this stone you’re carrying about? he said, in curiosity. Are you kids mad? A parrot and a heavy stone Bill Smugs copper-mines. You’re all crazy.
I think this kid knows more than he’s said, said Olly, stepping beside Jake. What about locking him up without any food for a day or so? That will make him talk. Or what about a good beating?
Jack went pale, but he did not show that he was afraid. I don’t know any more than I’ve already told you, he said. What is there to know, anyway? What’s the mystery?
Take him away, said Jake roughly. He’ll talk when he’s half starved.
Olly took the boy by the shoulder and led him roughly from the cave, prodding him unkindly as he did so. He led him to the same cell-like cave in which the other children had been imprisoned. Just as he was pushing the boy in, Kiki flew down and hacked viciously at the man’s face with her curved beak. Olly put up his hands to protect himself, and dropped his torch. It went out.
Jack slipped swiftly to the side and crouched outside the cell in silence. Kiki did not know where he was. She flew into the cell and perched on the table there, in complete darkness.
Now then, now then, what a pity! she said loudly. The cell door banged. Olly had shut it on the parrot, thinking that it was Jack talking inside there. He had not even known that the bird could talk.
He turned the key in the lock. Kiki was still talking away softly, though neither Jack nor Olly could hear the words. As Olly was turning away, Jake came up.
Did you put him in? he asked, and flashed his torch on to the shut door.
Yes, said Olly. He’s gassing away to himself in there you can hear him I think he’s mad.
The men listened, and Kiki’s voice came clearly from the cell. What a pity, what a pity!
He’s sorry for himself, isn’t he? said Jake, and then he gave such a horrible laugh that Jack’s heart went cold with fear. He’ll be sorrier still soon.
The men went back to the machine cave and soon the clattering, banging noises began again. Jack stood up. Kiki had saved him from a horrible punishment poor Kiki. She didn’t know she had saved him. Jack moved to the door, meaning to unlock it and get the parrot out.
But the key was gone. One of the men must have taken it. So Kiki was a prisoner, a real prisoner, and would have to stay there till someone let her out.
But anyway Jack himself was free. There’s something wrong about all this business, the boy thought. Something wrong about all that money and those queer machines. The men are bad. They can’t be friends of Bill’s. We’ve made a mistake.
He went down the passage carefully, not daring to switch on his torch. If only he could find the shaft-hole and go up it. Perhaps the others would be at the top, waiting for him? Or had they gone back home and left him all alone? Was it still day-time or was it night?
Jack stumbled along passage after passage, wishing that Kiki was with him for company. He felt lonely and afraid now. He wanted to talk to somebody. He wanted to see the others.
At last he was so tired that he could not go on. He curled up in a corner of a small cave, shut his eyes and fell into a restless, uncomfortable kind of sleep. For hours he slept, tired out, his limbs getting stiff as he lay there. And Kiki slept too, in the cave, puzzled and angry, missing her master as much as he missed her.
When Jack awoke he put up his hand to feel Kiki, as he often did but the bird was not on his shoulder, Then he remembered. Kiki was a prisoner. Because of her and her ability to talk like a human being, he, Jack, was free.
He knew a lot. He knew about the hidden treasure. He knew about those queer machines which were so well hidden in these underground caves for some sinister reason. He knew that the men working them were bad men. If they thought their secret, whatever it was, had been discovered, they would not stop at anything.
The thing I’ve got to do, the thing I really must do, is to escape and tell what I know, thought Jack. I somehow think I ought to go to the police. I’d like to go and tell Bill because I think now he’s not in league with those men but I’m still not certain. Anyway, the thing is I’ve got to tell somebody.
So once more the boy began his endless wandering in the workings of the mines. Up and down long, musty passages he went, his torch now giving him only a very poor light.
And then suddenly it gave out altogether. Jack tapped it a little. He screwed and unscrewed the bottom. But the battery was dead no light would come from his torch unless he put in a new battery and certainly he could not do that at the moment.
Jack really did feel afraid then. There was only one hope now of escape, and that was to find, by good luck, the shaft leading up to the open air. But that was a very poor chance indeed.
He wandered on, groping his way, his hand out before his face, carrying the nugget uncomfortably under his arm, holding it there with his other hand. Then he thought he heard something. He stopped and listened. No it was nothing.
He went on again, and suddenly stopped. He couldn’t help feeling that people were near. Was that somebody breathing? He stood in the dark, holding his breath and listening. But he heard nothing. Maybe, he thought, the other person is holding his breath and listening too.
He went on and suddenly he bumped hard into somebody. Was it Jake, or Olly? He began to struggle desperately and the other person held on to him firmly, hurting his arm. The nugget dropped to the ground and hit Jack’s foot.
Oh, my foot, my foot! groaned poor Jack.
There was an astonished silence. Then a powerful torch was switched on by his captor, and a voice said in amazement, Why, it’s Jack!