It wasn’t long before he was out of the hole and was speeding round the caravans. Then he stopped. A thought struck him. He could fetch help all right but the men would be gone by then! They had laid their plans for a getaway with all the goods; there was no doubt about that.
Suppose he put the boards over the hole, ramming them in with all his strength, and then rolled some heavy stones on top? He couldn’t move the caravan over the boards, for it was far too heavy for a boy to push. But heavy stones would probably do the trick. The men would imagine that it was the caravan overhead again!
In great excitement Dick put back the boards, lugging them into place, panting and puffing. Then he flashed his torch round for stones. There were several small rocks nearby. He could not lift them, but he managed to roll them to the boards. Plonk! They went on to them one by one. Now nobody could move the boards at all.
‘I know I’ve shut the others in with the men,’ thought Dick. ‘But I hope Julian will find a very safe hiding-place just for a time. Gosh, I’m hot! Now, down the hill I go and I hope I don’t lose my way in the darkness!’
Down below, the two men had at last freed themselves from the angry chimpanzee. They were badly bitten and mauled, but Pongo was not as strong and savage as usual because of his bad head-wound. The men were able to drive him off at last, and he went limping in the direction of the tunnel, sniffing out the children.
He would certainly have been shot if Lou could have found his revolver quickly enough. But he could not find it in the dark. He felt about for his torch, and found that although it was damaged, he could still put on the light by knocking it once or twice on the ground. He shone it on to Dan.
‘We ought to have looked out for that ape when we saw he was gone,’ growled Dan. ‘He had bitten his rope through. We might have known he was somewhere about. He nearly did for me, leaping on me like that out of the darkness. It was lucky he flung himself on to my sack and not me.’
‘Let’s get the last of the things and clear out,’ said Lou, who was badly shaken up. ‘There’s only one more load. We’ll get back to the tunnel, scare the life out of those kids once more, shoot Pongo if we can, and then clear out. We’ll chuck a few tins of food down the hole and then close it up.’
‘I’m not going to risk meeting that chimp again,’ said Dan. ‘We’ll leave the rest of the things. Come on. Let’s go.’
Lou was not particularly anxious to see Pongo again either. Keeping his torch carefully switched on and his revolver ready, he followed Dan to the hole that led down to the first cave. Down they went, and then along the passage, eager to get out into the night and go with their wagon down the track.
They got a terrible shock when they found that the hole was closed. Lou shone his torch upwards, and gazed in amazement at the underside of the boards. Someone had put them back into place again. They were prisoners now!
Tiger Dan went mad. One of his furious rages overtook him, and he hammered against those boards like a mad-man. But the heavy stones held them down, and the raging man dropped down beside Lou.
‘Can’t budge the boards! Someone must have put the caravan overhead again. We’re prisoners!’
‘But who’s made us prisoners? Who’s put back those boards?’ shouted Lou, almost beside himself with fury. ‘Could those kids have slipped by us when we were having that fight with the chimp?’
‘We’ll go and see if the kids are still there,’ said Tiger Dan, grimly. ‘We’ll find out. We’ll make them very, very sorry for themselves. Come on.’
The two men went back again to the tunnel. The children were not there. Julian had taken Dick’s advice and had gone off to try and find a good hiding-place. He had suddenly thought that perhaps Dick might get the idea of shutting up the entrance-hole in which case the two men would certainly be furious!
So up the tunnel the children went, and into the cave with the stream. It seemed impossible to find any hiding-place there at all.
‘I don’t see where we can hide,’ said Julian, feeling rather desperate. ‘It’s no good wading down that stream again we shall only get wet and cold and we have no escape from there at all if the men should come after us!’
‘I can hear something,’ said George, suddenly. ‘Put your light out, Julian quick!’
The torch was snapped off, and the children waited in the darkness. Timmy didn’t growl. Instead George felt that he was wagging his tail.
‘It’s someone friendly,’ she whispered. ‘Over there. Perhaps it’s Pongo. Put the torch on again.’
The light flashed out, and picked out the chimpanzee, who was coming towards them across the cave. Nobby gave a cry of joy.
‘Here’s old Pongo again!’ he said. ‘Pongo, did you go to the camp? Did you bring help?’
‘No he hasn’t been down to the camp,’ said Julian, his eyes catching sight of the note still tied round the chimpanzee’s neck. There’s our letter still on him. Blow!’
‘He’s clever but not clever enough to understand a difficult errand like that,’ said George.
‘Oh, Pongo and we were depending on you! Never mind perhaps Dick will escape and bring help. Julian, where shall we hide?’
‘Up the stream?’ suddenly said Anne. ‘We’ve tried going down it. But we haven’t tried going up it. Do you think it would be any good?’
‘We could see,’ said Julian, doubtfully. He didn’t like this business of wading through water that might suddenly get deep. ‘I’ll shine my torch up the stream and see what it looks like.’
He went to the stream and shone his light up the tunnel from which it came. ‘It seems as if we might walk along the ledge beside it,’ he said. ‘But we’d have to bend almost double and the water runs so fast just here we must be careful not to slip and fall in.’
‘I’ll go first,’ said Nobby. ‘You go last, Julian. The girls can go in the middle with Pongo and Timmy.’
He stepped on to the narrow ledge inside the rocky tunnel, just above the rushing water. Then came Pongo. Then Anne, then George and Timmy and last of all Julian.
But just as Julian was disappearing, the two men came into the cave, and by chance Lou’s torch shone right on to the vanishing Julian. He gave a yell.
‘There’s one of them look, over there! Come on!’
The men ran to where the stream came out of the tunnel, and Lou shone his torch up it. He saw the line of children, with Julian last of all. He grabbed hold of the boy and pulled him back.
Anne yelled when she saw Julian being pulled back. Nobby had a dreadful shock. Timmy growled ferociously, and Pongo made a most peculiar noise.
‘Now look here,’ came Lou’s voice, ‘I’ve got a gun, and I’m going to shoot that dog and that chimp if they so much as put their noses out of here. So hang on to them if you want to save their lives!’
He passed Julian to Tiger Dan, who gripped the boy firmly by the collar. Lou shone his torch up the tunnel again to count the children. ‘Ho, there’s Nobby,’ he said. ‘You come on out here, Nobby.’
‘If I do, the chimp will come out too,’ said Nobby. ‘You know that. And he may get you before you get him!’
Lou thought about that. He was afraid of the big chimpanzee. ‘You stay up there with him, then,’ he said. ‘And the girl can stay with you, holding the dog. But the other boy can come out here.’
He thought that George was a boy. George didn’t mind. She liked people to think she was a boy. She answered at once.
‘I can’t come. If I do the dog will follow me, and I’m not going to have him shot.’
‘You come on out,’ said Lou, threateningly. ‘I’m going to show you two boys what happens to kids who keep spying and interfering. Nobby knows what happens, don’t you, Nobby? He’s had his lesson. And you two boys are going to have yours, too.’
Dan called to him. There ought to be another girl there, Lou. I thought Nobby said there were two boys and two girls. Where’s the other girl?’