He ran, crouching, to the back of the car. He hadn’t had time to shut the luggage boot properly when he had opened it to look inside. Could he get into it before the car drove off? It was such a fine big one.
The car began to move very slowly out of the quarry, bumping over rough places. Jack flung himself at the back of it, and clambered up on to the luggage boot. It swung right open, and Jack half-fell into it. Kiki was astounded, and flew off his shoulder at once. Jack stared at her anxiously. He dared not call her back.
But, as soon as she saw Jack settled in the boot, she flew down again, and found his shoulder. She talked solemnly into his ear, in a very low voice, trying to tell him in parrot language that she thought these goings-on were extremely peculiar, but that so long as Jack approved of them, she did too-and she was coming with him, even in this dark, smelly car boot!
Jack felt comforted to have her. He puzzled over everything. Where was Bill? And Aunt Allie? How was it these fellows had been able to get into Quarry Cottage so easily and capture every one? But what had they done with Bill? Was he lying knocked out in the cottage? Ought Jack to have gone to see, instead of climbing into the boot?
The car had now gathered speed and was going down country lanes very fast. It drew up once, at some dark little house, where a man came out. There was another car there and one of the men in the first car thankfully got out and went to the second car. This went on ahead, as if guiding the other. Jack was glad. He didn’t want bright head-lights behind him, showing him sitting in the boot!
‘I ought to close the boot and shut myself in. But suppose I can’t get it open again?’ he thought. ‘I simply must see what place they’re taking the others to. If I can do that, I can soon raise the alarm, have the place surrounded, and everyone rescued! I hope no one sees me here.’
Another hour’s run in the smooth-running powerful car-then it stopped. There was a sharp exchange of words, a light flashed, and a gate creaked open.
‘Hallo! We’re here already, wherever that may be!’ thought Jack. ‘Had I better get out now, while the car has stopped? Blow-it’s too late. They’re going on again.’
The car bumped over a dark field. And then suddenly a strange, extraordinarily loud noise started up not far ahead. Jack jumped violently, and Kiki gave a loud screech, which fortunately couldn’t possibly be heard in the enormous noise going on.
‘An aeroplane!’ said Jack. ‘So that’s what they’ve planned. They’re going off to Tauri-Hessia! They must be. And they’ll hide Gussy somewhere till their plans are all ready, and the girls and Philip with him. Nobody will know where they are.’
He felt the car come to a stop with a bump. He crawled out of the boot at once, and ran to a big shape looming up nearby. It was a lorry. Jack crouched beside it, watching.
He saw an aeroplane not far off, its propellers whirring. It hadn’t all its lights on yet, but men were round it with lamps. It was obviously soon going to take off.
What was this place? A private airfield? Jack had no idea at all. He watched all the passengers in the big black car tumbling out, one after the other. He thought he heard Lucy-Ann crying, and his heart sank. She would hate all this! She wasn’t tough, like Dinah. Where would she be tomorrow?
Everyone was hurried towards the plane. Jack left his hiding-place and hurried too. He had had another idea! Could he hide in the plane? He had hidden in the car, and no-one had suspected it. Would there be any place to hide in the plane?
He thought of the planes he had flown in. The luggage-space would be the only place. There probably wouldn’t be much there. It was a risk, but he’d take it. If he was discovered, well, at least he’d be with the others.
‘But I mustn’t be discovered!’ he thought desperately. ‘If I am I’ll be hidden away somewhere too-and I simply must find out where the others are being taken, so that I can somehow get word to Bill.’
Kiki came to his help, quite unexpectedly. She didn’t see why she shouldn’t talk to the others, whose voices she had recognized as soon as she heard them getting out of the car. She left Jack’s shoulder and flew towards Lucy-Ann.
‘Pop goes the weasel!’ she cried. ‘God save the King! Send for the doctor!’
The four children in front turned round in utter amazement. ‘Kiki! KIKI! How did you get here?’
The men pushing them forward stopped at once. They had no idea that Kiki was only a parrot, and had not even spotted her in the darkness. They thought she must be someone coming after the children, on the airfield, someone quite unexpected, who had followed them!
Orders were shouted. Lamps flashed here and there. Kiki was frightened and flew back to Jack.
‘Wipe your feet!’ she called, much to the amazement of the men with the lamps.
Jack ran round the other side of the lorry, for the men were coming too near him. Then he saw his chance. Everyone’s attention was on the men who were searching the field with lamps. Nobody was watching the plane.
Jack ran to it in the darkness, stumbling as he went. Thank goodness the moon had conveniently gone behind a remarkably black cloud. He felt a drop of rain. Perhaps the moon wouldn’t come out till he was safely in the plane.
He reached the plane, and thankfully saw the steps up to it. He ran up and found himself in the plane. No one was there. He groped his way to the back, where he hoped to find the luggage-space. He felt something that was shaped like a crate. Yes-this must be where they put the luggage! He felt round again, and came across a box. It had a lid, and he lifted it up, hoping that the box was empty.
It wasn’t. It was full of something soft, that might be clothes, or material of some kind. It felt like silk. Jack pulled most of it out and stuffed it into a corner, behind the big crate.
Then he hurriedly got into the box and pulled the lid down. Only just in time! Kiki was with him, of course, silent and astonished. Jack had tapped her beak to tell her she must be absolutely quiet.
He heard the sound of voices and the noise of feet going up the steps into the plane. He heard shouts, and bangs and whirs. The propellers, which had stopped, were started up again, and the aeroplane shook violently.
The wheels bumped very slowly over the field and then the bumping stopped.
‘We’ve taken off,’ thought Jack, thankfully. ‘And I’m here with the others, though they don’t know it. Now will my luck hold? Shall I get to wherever they’re going without being discovered? I do hope so! If only I can find out where they will be hidden, things will be easy.’
It was uncomfortable in the box, but as Jack had left some of the soft material at the bottom, at least he had something soft to crouch on. Kiki didn’t like it at all. She grumbled in his ear, and then suddenly produced a tremendous sneeze.
It sounded very loud indeed to Jack. He sat as quiet as a mouse, waiting for someone to come and look round the luggage-space. But nobody did. The noise of the engines was too loud for Kiki’s sneeze to be heard. It was a real sneeze, not a pretend one, and Kiki was just as surprised as Jack was when it came.
The children in the front of the plane talked in low voices, sure that the engines would drown what they were saying. It seemed queer to be sitting in a plane dressed in night-clothes-all but Philip, of course.
‘Was that Kiki we heard out on the field?’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘It must have been. I’m sure I heard “Pop goes the weasel”!’
‘I believe it was,’ said Philip. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if old Jack hung on to that car somehow. After all, we know he was in that quarry-he probably saw what was happening, and managed to hang on behind somewhere.’
‘I wish he was with us now,’ sighed Lucy-Ann. ‘I shan’t like being without him. Where are we going, I wonder? To some horrid old castle-or perhaps a palace? Gussy, have you got a palace?’
‘Yes,’ said Gussy. ‘But only a small one. We shan’t go there, because the people know me. They would see me. I have heard these men talking, and they do not want me to be seen yet. First they must deal with my uncle. I hope they will not kill him. He is nice, my uncle.’