‘What an enormous place!’ said Dick. ‘Do you suppose this is where the men hide their stuff, whatever it is?’
Julian flashed his torch on again and swung it round and about, picking out the dark, rocky corners. ‘Can’t see anything hidden,’ he said. ‘But we’d better explore the cave properly before we go on.’
So the five children explored every nook and cranny of the gleaming cave, but could find nothing at all. Julian gave a sudden exclamation and picked something up from the floor.
‘A cigarette end!’ he said. ‘That shows that Lou and Dan have been here. Come on, let’s see if there’s a way out of this great cave.’
Right at the far end, half-way up the gleaming wall, was a large hole, rather like a tunnel. Julian climbed up to it and called to the others. ‘This is the way they went. There’s a dead match just at the entrance to the tunnel or whatever this is.’
It was a curious tunnel, no higher than their shoulders in some places, and it wound about as it went further into the hill. Julian thought that at one time water must have run through it. But it was quite dry now. The floor of the tunnel was worn very smooth, as if a stream had hollowed it out through many, many years.
‘I hope the stream won’t take it into its head to begin running suddenly again!’ said George. ‘We should get jolly wet!’
The tunnel went on for some way, and Anne was beginning to feel it must go on for ever. Then the wall at one side widened out and made a big rocky shelf. Julian, who was first, flashed his torch into the hollow.
‘I say!’ he shouted. ‘Here’s where those fellows keep their stores! There’s a whole pile of things here!’
The others crowded up as closely as they could, each of them flashing their torch brightly. On the wide, rocky shelf lay boxes and packages, sacks and cases. The children stared at them. ‘What’s in them?’ said Nobby, full of intense curiosity. ‘Let’s see!’
He put down his torch and undid a sack. He slid in his hand and brought it out holding a piece of shining gold plate!
‘Coo!’ said Nobby. ‘So that’s what the police were after last year when they came and searched the camp! And it was hidden safely here. Coo, look at all these things. Jumping Jiminy, they must have robbed the Queen herself!’
The sack was full of exquisite pieces of gold plate cups, dishes, small trays. The children set them all out on the ledge. How they gleamed in the light of their torches!
‘They’re thieves in a very big way,’ said Julian. ‘No doubt about that. Let’s look in this box.’
The box was not locked, and the lid opened easily. Inside was a piece of china, a vase so fragile that it looked as if it might break at a breath!
‘Well, I don’t know anything about china,’ said Julian, ‘but I suppose this is a very precious piece, worth thousands of pounds. A collector of china would probably give a very large sum for it. What rogues Lou and Dan are!’
‘Look here!’ suddenly said George, and she pulled leather boxes out of a bag. ‘Jewellery!’
She opened the boxes. The children exclaimed in awe. Diamonds flashed brilliantly, rubies glowed, emeralds shone green. Necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches the beautiful things gleamed in the light of the five torches.
There was a tiara in one box that seemed to be made only of big diamonds. Anne picked it out of its box gently. Then she put it on her hair.
‘I’m a princess! It’s my crown!’ she said.
‘You look lovely,’ said Nobby admiringly. ‘You look as grand as Delphine the Bareback Rider when she goes into the ring on her horse, with jewels shining all over her!’
Anne put on necklaces and bracelets and sat there on the ledge like a little princess, shining brightly in the magnificent jewels. Then she took them off and put them carefully back into their satin-lined boxes.
‘Well what a haul those two rogues have made!’ said Julian, pulling out some gleaming silver plate from another package. ‘They must be very fine burglars!’
‘I know how they work,’ said Dick. ‘Lou’s a wonderful acrobat, isn’t he? I bet he does all the climbing about up walls and over roofs and into windows and Tiger Dan stands below and catches everything he throws down.’
‘You’re about right,’ said Nobby, handling a beautiful silver cup. ‘Lou could climb anywhere up ivy, up pipes even up the bare wall of a house, I shouldn’t wonder! And jump! He can jump like a cat. He and Tiger Dan have been in this business for a long time, I expect. That’s where Uncle Dan went at night, of course, when we were on tour, and I woke up and found him gone out of the caravan!’
‘And I expect he stores the stolen goods in that wagon of his you showed us,’ said Julian, remembering. ‘You told us how angry he was with you once when you went and rummaged about in it. He probably stored it there, and then he and Lou came up here each year and hid the stuff underground waiting till the police had given up the search for the stolen things and then they come and get it and sell it somewhere safe.’
‘A jolly clever plan,’ said Dick. ‘What a fine chance they’ve got wandering about from place to place like that hearing of famous jewels or plate slipping out at night and Lou climbing up to bedrooms like a cat. I wonder how they found this place it’s a most wonderful hidey-hole!’
‘Yes. Nobody would ever dream of it!’ said George.
‘And then we go and put our caravan bang on the top of the entrance just when they want to put something in and take something out!’ said Julian. ‘I must have annoyed them.’
‘What are we going to do about it?’ said Dick.
Tell the police, of course,’ said Julian, promptly. ‘What do you suppose? My word, I’d like to see the face of the policeman who first sees this little haul.’
They put everything back carefully. Julian shone his torch up the tunnel. ‘Shall we explore a bit further, or not?’ he said. ‘It still goes on. Look!’
‘Better get back,’ said Nobby. ‘Now we’ve found this we’d better do something about it.’
‘Oh, let’s just see where the tunnel goes to,’ said George. ‘It won’t take a minute!’
‘All right,’ said Julian, who wanted to go up the tunnel as much as she did. He led the way, his torch shining brightly.
The tunnel came out into another cave, not nearly as big as the one they had left behind. At one end something gleamed like silver, and seemed to move. There was a curious sound there, too.
‘What is it?’ said Anne, alarmed. They stood and listened.
‘Water!’ said Julian, suddenly. ‘Of course! Can’t you hear it flowing along? It’s an underground stream, flowing through the hill to find an opening where it can rush out.’
‘Like that stream we saw before we came to our caravan camping-place,’ said George. ‘It rushed out of the hill. Do you remember? This may be the very one!’
‘I expect it is!’ said Dick. They went over to it and watched it. It rushed along in its own hollowed out channel, close to the side of the cave-wall.
‘Maybe at one time it ran across this cave and down the tunnel we came up by,’ said Julian. ‘Yes, look there’s a big kind of groove in the floor of the cave here the stream must have run there once. Then for some reason it went a different way.’
‘Let’s get back,’ said Nobby. ‘I want to know if Pongo’s all right. I don’t somehow feel very comfortable about him. And I’m jolly cold, too. Let’s go back to the sunshine and have something to eat. I don’t want a picnic down here, after all.’
‘All right,’ said Julian, and they made their way back through the tunnel. They passed the rock shelf on which lay the treasure, and came at last to the enormous gleaming cavern. They went across it to the hole that led down into the small cave. Down they went. Julian and George trying to manage Timmy between them. But it was very awkward, for he was a big dog.
Then along the passage to the entrance-hole. They all felt quite pleased at the idea of going up into the sunshine again.
‘Can’t see any daylight shining down the hole,’ said Julian puzzled. ‘It would be near here.’
He came up against a blank wall, and was surprised. Where was the hole? Had they missed their way? Then he flashed his torch above him and saw the hole there but there was no daylight shining in!