So they said nothing at all, but kept close to one another in single file, walking at the side of the track.
They had not gone more than a quarter of a mile before Julian stopped suddenly. The others bumped into one another, and Timmy gave a little whine as somebody trod on his paw. George’s hand went down to his collar at once.
The four of them and Timmy listened, hardly daring to breathe. Somebody was coming up the tunnel towards them! They could see the pin-point of a torch, and hear the distant crunch of footsteps.
‘Other way, quick!’ whispered Julian, and they all turned. With Jock leading them now, they made their way as quickly and quietly as they could back to the place where the two tunnels met. They passed it and went on towards Kilty’s Yard, hoping to get out that way.
But alas for their hopes, a lantern stood some way down the tunnel there, and they did not dare to go on.
There might be nobody with the lantern-on the other hand there might. What were they to do?
‘They’ll see that hole in the wall is open!’ suddenly said Dick. ‘We left it open. They’ll know we’ve escaped then. We’re caught again! They’ll come down to find us, and here we’ll be!’
They stood still, pressed close together, Timmy growling a little in his throat. Then George remembered something!
‘Julian! Dick! We could climb up that vent that I came down,’ she whispered. ‘The one poor old Timmy fell down. Have we time?’
‘Where is the vent?’ said Julian, urgently. ‘Quick find it.’
George tried to remember. Yes, it was on the other side of the tunnel – near the place where the two tunnels met. She must look for the pile of soot. How she hoped the little light from her torch would not be seen. Whoever was coming up from Olly’s Yard must be almost there by now!
She found the pile of soot that Timmy had fallen into. ‘Here it is,’ she whispered. ‘But, oh Julian! How can we take Timmy?’
‘We can’t,’ said Julian, ‘We must hope he’ll manage to hide and then slink out of the tunnel by himself. He’s quite clever enough.’
He pushed George up the vent first and her feet found the first rungs. Then Jock went up, his nose almost on George’s heels. Then Dick – and last of all, Julian. But before he managed to climb the first steps, something happened.
A bright glare filled the tunnel, as someone switched on the light that hung there. Timmy slunk into the shadows and growled in his throat. Then there came a shout.
‘Who’s opened the hole in the wall? It’s open! Who’s there?’
It was Mr Andrews’s voice. Then came another voice, angry and loud: ‘Who’s here? Who’s opened this place?’
‘Those kids can’t have moved the lever,’ said Mr Andrews. ‘We bound them up tightly.’
The men, three of them, went quickly through the hole in the wall. Julian climbed up the first few rungs thankfully. Poor Timmy was left in the shadows at the bottom.
Out came the men at a run. ‘They’ve gone! Their ropes are cut! How could they have escaped? We put Kit down one end of the tunnel and we’ve been walking up this end. Those kids must be about here somewhere.’
‘Or hiding in the caves,’ said another voice. ‘Peters, go and look, while we hunt here.’
The men hunted everywhere. They had no idea that the vent was nearby in the wall. They did not see the dog that slunk by them like a shadow, keeping out of their way, and lying down whenever the light from a torch came near hitn.
George climbed steadily, feeling with her feet for the iron nails whenever she came to broken rungs. Then she came to a stop. Something was pressing on her head. What was it? She put up her hand to feel. It was the collection of broken iron bars that Timmy had fallen on that morning. He had dislodged some of them, and they had then fallen in such a way that they had lodged across the vent, all twined into each other. George could climb no higher. She tried to move the bars, but they were heavy and strong – besides, she was afraid she might bring the whole lot on top of her and the others. They might be badly injured then.
‘What’s up, George? Why don’t you go on?’ asked Jock, who was next.
‘There’s some iron bars across the vent – ones that must have fallen when Timmy fell,’ said George. ‘I can’t go any higher! I daren’t pull too hard at the bars.’
Jock passed the message to Dick, and he passed it down to Julian. The four of them came to a full-stop!
‘Blow!’ said Julian. ‘I wish I’d gone up first. What are we to do now?’
What indeed? The four of them hung there in the darkness, hating the smell of the sooty old vent, miserably uncomfortable on the broken rungs and nails.
‘How do you like adventures now, Jock?’ asked Dick. ‘I bet you wish you were in your own bed at home!’
‘I don’t!’ said Jock. ‘I wouldn’t miss this for worlds! I always wanted an adventure – and I’m not grumbling at this one!’
19 What an adventure!
And now, what had happened to Anne? She had stumbled on and on for a long time, shouting to Mr Luffy. And outside his tent Mr Luffy sat, reading peacefully. But, as the evening came, and then darkness, he became very worried indeed about the five children.
He wondered what to do. It was hopeless for one man to search the moors. Haifa dozen or more were needed for that! He decided to get his car and go over to Olly’s Farm to get the men from there. So off he went.
But when he got there he found no one at home except Mrs Andrews and the little maid. Mrs Andrews looked bewildered and worried.
‘What is the matter?’ said Mr Luffy gently, as she came running out to the car, looking troubled.
‘Oh, it’s you, Mr Luffy,’ she said, when he told her who he was. ‘I didn’t know who you were. Mr Luffy, something strange is happening. All the men have gone – and all the lorries, too. My husband has taken the car and nobody will tell me anything. I’m so worried.’
Mr Luffy decided not to add to her worries by telling her the children were missing. He just pretended he had come to collect some milk. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said comfortingly to Mrs Andrews. ‘You’ll find things are all right in the morning, I expect. I’ll
come and see you then. Now I must be off on an urgent matter.’
He went bumping along the road in his car, puzzled. He had known there was something funny about Olly’s Farm, and he had puzzled his brains a good deal over Olly’s Yard and the spook-trains. He hoped the children hadn’t got mixed up in anything dangerous.
‘I’d better go down and report to the police that they’re missing,’ he thought. ‘After all, I’m more or less responsible for them. It’s very worrying indeed.’
He told what he knew at the police station, and the sergeant, an intelligent man, at once mustered six men and a police car.
‘Have to find those kids,’ he said. ‘And we’ll have to look into this Olly’s Farm business, sir, and these here spook-trains, whatever they may be. We’ve known there was something funny going on, but we couldn’t put our finger on it. But we’ll find the children first.’
They went quickly up to the moors and the six men began to fan out to search, with Mr Luffy at the head. And the first thing they found was Anne!
She was still stumbling along, crying for Mr Luffy, but in a very small, weak voice now. When she heard his voice calling her in the darkness she wept for joy.
‘Oh, Mr Luffy! You must save the boys,’ she begged him. ‘They’re in that tunnel – and they’ve been caught by Mr Andrews and his men, I’m sure. They didn’t come out and I waited and waited! Do come!’
‘I’ve got some friends here who will certainly come and help,’ said Mr Luffy gently. He called the men, and in a few words told them what Anne had said.
‘In the tunnel?’ said one of them. ‘Where the spook-trains run? Well, come on, men, we’ll go down there.’
‘You stay behind, Anne,’ said Mr Luffy. But she
wouldn’t. So he carried her as he followed the men who were making their way through the heather, down to Olly’s Yard. They did not bother with Wooden-Leg Sam. They went straight to the tunnel and walked up it quietly. Mr Luffy was a good way behind with Anne. She refused to stay with him in the yard.