‘Gone further up the tunnel, I suppose,’ said Lou, trying to see. ‘Now, you boy come on out!’
Anne began to cry. ‘Don’t go, George; don’t go. They’ll hurt you. Tell them you’re a …’
‘Shut up,’ said George, fiercely. She added, in a whisper: ‘If I say I’m a girl they’ll know Dick is missing, and will be all the angrier. Hang on to Timmy.’
Anne clutched Timmy’s collar in her trembling hand. George began to walk back to the cave. But Julian was not going to let George be hurt. She might like to think of herself as a boy, but he wasn’t going to let her be treated like one. He began to struggle.
Lou caught hold of George as she came out of the tunnel and at the same moment Julian managed to kick high in the air, and knocked Lou’s torch right out of his hand. It flew up into the roof of the cave and fell somewhere with a crash. It went out. Now the cave was in darkness.
‘Get back into the tunnel, George, with Anne,’ yelled Julian. ‘Timmy, Timmy, come on! Pongo, come here!’
‘I don’t want Timmy to be shot!’ cried out George, in terror, as the dog shot past her into the cave.
Even as she spoke a shot rang out. It was Lou, shooting blindly at where he thought Timmy was. George screamed.
‘Oh, Timmy, Timmy! You’re not hurt, are you?’
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE END OF THE ADVENTURE
No, Timmy wasn’t hurt. The bullet zipped past his head and struck the wall of the cave. Timmy went for Lou’s legs. Down went the man with a crash and a yell, and the revolver flew out of his hand. Julian heard it slithering across the floor of the cave, and he was very thankful.
‘Put on your torch, George, quickly!’ he yelled. ‘We must see what we’re doing. Goodness, here’s Pongo now!’
Tiger Dan gave a yell of fright when the torch flashed on and he saw the chimpanzee making straight for him. He dealt the ape a smashing blow on the face that knocked him down, and then turned to run. Lou was trying to keep Timmy off his throat, kicking frantically at the excited dog.
Dan ran to the tunnel and then stopped in astonishment. Four burly policemen were pushing their way out of the tunnel, led by Dick! One of them carried a revolver in his hand. Dan put his hands up at once.
‘Timmy! Come off!’ commanded George, seeing that there was now no need for the dog’s delighted help. Timmy gave her a reproachful glance that said: ‘Mistress! I’m really enjoying myself! Let me eat him all up!’
Then the dog caught sight of the four policemen and yelped furiously. More enemies! He would eat the lot.
‘What’s all this going on?’ said the first man, who was an Inspector. ‘Get up, you on the floor. Go on, get up!’
Lou got up with great difficulty. Timmy had nipped him in various places. His hair was over his eyes, his clothes were torn. He stared at the policemen, his mouth open in the utmost surprise. How had they come here? Then he saw Dick.
‘So one of you kids slipped out and shut the boards on us!’ he said, savagely. ‘I might have guessed. You …’
‘Hold your tongue, Lewis Allburg,’ rapped out the Inspector. ‘You can talk when we tell you. You’ll have quite a lot of talking to do, to explain some of the things we’ve heard about you.’
‘Dick! How did you get here so soon?’ cried Julian, going over to his brother. ‘I didn’t expect you for hours! Surely you didn’t go all the way to the town and back?’
‘No. I shot off to the farm, woke up the Mackies, used their telephone and got the police up here double-quick in their car,’ said Dick, grinning. ‘Everyone all right? Where’s Anne? And Nobby?’
‘There they are just coming out of the tunnel, upstream,’ said Julian, and swung his torch round. Dick saw Anne’s white, scared face, and went over to her.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘The adventure is over, Anne! You can smile again!’
Anne gave a watery sort of smile. Pongo took her hand and made little affectionate noises, and that made her smile a little more. George called Timmy to her, afraid that he might take a last nip at Lou.
Lou swung round and stared at her. Then he looked at Dick and Julian. Then at Anne.
‘So there was only one girl!’ he said. ‘What did you want to tell me there were two boys and two girls for?’ he said to Nobby.
‘Because there were,’ answered Nobby. He pointed to George. ‘She’s a girl, though she looks like a boy. And she’s as good as a boy any day.’
George felt proud. She stared defiantly at Lou. He was now in the grip of a stout policeman, and Tiger Dan was being hustled off by two more.
‘I think we’ll leave this rather gloomy place,’ said the Inspector, putting away the notebook he had been hastily scribbling in. ‘Quick march!’
Julian led the way down the tunnel. He pointed out the shelf where the men had stored their things, and the Inspector collected the few things that were still left. Then on they went, Tiger Dan muttering and growling to himself.
‘Will they go to prison?’ whispered Anne to Dick.
‘You bet,’ said Dick. That’s where they ought to have gone long ago. Their burglaries have been worrying the police for four years!’
Out of the tunnel and into the cave with gleaming walls. Then down the hole and into the small cave and along the narrow passage to the entrance-hole. Stars glittered over the black hole, and the children were very thankful to see them. They were tired of being underground!
Lou and Dan did not have a very comfortable journey along the tunnels and passages, for their guards had a very firm hold of them indeed. Once out in the open they were handcuffed and put into the large police car that stood a little way down the track.
‘What are you children going to do?’ asked the big Inspector, who was now at the wheel of the car. ‘Hadn’t you better come down into the town with us after this disturbing adventure?’
‘Oh, no, thanks,’ said Julian politely. ‘We’re quite used to adventures. We’ve had plenty, you know. We shall be all right here with Timmy and Pongo.’
‘Well, I can’t say I’d like a chimpanzee for company myself,’ said the Inspector. ‘We’ll be up here in the morning, looking round and asking a few questions, which I’m sure you’ll be pleased to answer. And many thanks for your help in capturing two dangerous thieves!’
‘What about the wagon of goods?’ asked Dick. ‘Are you going to leave it up here? It’s got lots of valuables in it.’
‘Oh, one of the men is driving it down,’ said the Inspector, nodding towards a policeman, who stood near by. ‘He’ll follow us. He can drive a horse all right. Well, look after yourselves. See you tomorrow!’
The car started up suddenly. The Inspector put her into gear, took off the brake and the car slid quietly down the hill, following the winding track. The policeman with the wagon followed slowly, clicking to the horse, which didn’t seem at all surprised to have a new driver.
‘Well, that’s that!’ said Julian thankfully. ‘I must say we were well out of that. Gosh, Dick, I was glad to see you back with those bobbies so quickly. That was a brain wave of yours to telephone from the farm.’
Dick suddenly yawned. ‘It must be frightfully late!’ he said. ‘Long past the middle of the night. But I’m so fearfully hungry that I simply must have something to eat before I fall into my bunk!’
‘Got anything, Anne?’ asked Julian.
Anne brightened up at once. ‘I’ll see,’ she said. ‘I can find something, I’m sure!’
And she did, of course. She opened two tins of sardines and made sandwiches, and she opened two tins of peaches, so they had a very nice meal in the middle of the night! They ate it sitting on the floor of George’s caravan. Pongo had as good a meal as anyone, and Timmy crunched at one of his bones.
It didn’t take them long to go to sleep that night. In fact they were all so sleepy when they had finished their meal that nobody undressed! They clambered into the bunks just as they were and fell asleep at once. Nobby curled up with Pongo, and Timmy, as usual, was on George’s feet. Peace reigned in the caravans and tonight no one came to disturb them!
All the children slept very late the next morning. They were awakened by a loud knocking on Julian’s caravan. He woke up with a jump and yelled out: