There came the crashing of bushes and twigs far below them on the mountain-side, accompanied by more howls and barks. Then the children caught sight of a man running across a bare stony part of the mountain-side below them — about half a mile away.
The dogs poured after him. Lucy-Ann almost fell out of her tree in fright at seeing a man chased by dogs. The children watched without a word, their hearts beating fast, anxious for the man to escape.
He came to a tree and flung himself up it just as the first dog reached him. He pulled himself up, and was lost to sight. The dogs surrounded the tree, clamouring loudly.
Lucy-Ann gulped. Tears ran down her face. She felt so sorry for the hunted man that she could hardly see through her tears. The others watched grimly. Philip debated whether to go down and see if he could call the dogs off.
Then another man appeared, walking leisurely across the mountainside towards the tree and the dogs. He was too far away for the children to see what he was like, or to hear his voice.
But on the crisp air of the mountain came the shrill sound of a whistle. The dogs at once left the tree, and trotted back to the man. He stood not far off from the tree, and evidently gave orders for the man to come down. But nobody came down from the tree.
The man waved his hand to the dogs and at once they streamed back to the tree again, clamouring and howling like mad. The man turned to go back the way he came.
“Oh! He’s left the dogs to keep that poor man up the tree till he starves, or comes down to be set on!” sobbed Lucy-Ann. “Philip, what shall we do?”
“I’ll go down and call the dogs off,” said Philip. “I’ll give the man a chance to get right out of sight, so that he won’t see me. Then I’ll see if I can get the dogs away and give that Negro a chance to escape from the tree.”
He climbed down his tree, after he had waited for twenty minutes, to give the second man a chance to go back to wherever he had come from. He made his way cautiously through the tall bushes.
And then something happened. A rough hand pounced down on his shoulder and he was held in a grip like iron. He was swung round — and came face to face with the man who had ordered the Negro to come down from the tree!
Philip wriggled, but he couldn’t possibly get away. He didn’t dare to yell for the others in case they got caught too. Blow! Why hadn’t he waited longer before going off to the Negro’s rescue!
“What are you doing here?” said the man, in a strange, foreign accent. “Who are you, boy?”
“I’ve only come to look for butterflies,” stammered Philip, trying to look as if he knew nothing about anything but butterflies. He didn’t like the look of this man at all. He had a fierce hawk-like face, overhanging eyebrows, and such a sharp look in his black eyes that Philip felt sure he would be difficult to deceive.
“Who are you with?” asked the man, digging his steel-like fingers into Philip and making him squirm.
“I’m alone, as you can see,” said Philip, hoping the man would believe him. The man looked at him searchingly.
“My dogs would have got you if you had been here for long,” he said. “And all your friends too!”
“What friends?” asked Philip innocently. “Oh, you mean Snowy my kid? He always comes with me.”
Snowy had bounded up at that moment, to the obvious surprise of the man. “He’s like a dog — never leaves me. Let me go, sir. I’m looking for butterflies. I’ll be gone tonight.”
“Where did you come from?” asked the man. “Do your parents know where you are?”
“No,” said Philip truthfully. “I just went away to hunt for butterflies. I came from over there.”
He nodded his head vaguely behind him, hoping that the man would think he was a harmless nature-lover, and let him go. But the man didn’t.
Instead he tightened his fingers on Philip’s shoulders, and turned towards the tree where the Negro was still hiding, surrounded by the dogs.
“You’ll come with me now,” he said. “You’ve seen too much.”
Just then there came a yelling and shouting from the tree. Evidently the Negro had given in. The man, still clutching Philip by the shoulder, and followed by a puzzled Snowy, went towards the tree. He took a whistle from his pocket and blew on it shrilly. As before, the dogs at once left the tree and came to him. The man shouted for the Negro to come down.
The frightened man came down in such a hurry that he half fell. The dogs made no attempt to go for him. Philip saw that they had been extremely well trained.
The Negro fell on his knees and began to jabber something. He was terrified. The man told him to get up, in cold contemptuous tones. Surrounded by the dogs, the Negro walked stumblingly in front of the man, who still held Philip firmly by the shoulder.
Up in their trees the children watched in horror, hardly believing their eyes when they saw Philip held by the man. “Sh! Don’t make a sound,” commanded Jack. “It’s no good us being captured too. If the dogs go with Philip, he’ll be all right. He’ll have ten friends he can call on at any time!”
The little procession of men, boy, dogs and kid passed almost beneath the trees the children were in. Philip did not glance up, though he longed to. He was not going to give away the hiding-place of the others.
Jack parted the branches of his tree and followed the procession anxiously with his eyes. They were going in the direction of the steep wall of unclimbable rock. Jack took up his field-glasses, which were slung round his neck as usual, and glued them to his eyes, following the company closely. Where exactly were they going? If he knew, he might be able to go and rescue Philip and Snowy.
He saw Philip taken right up to the steep wall. Then, before his eyes, the whole company seemed to vanish! One moment they were there — the next they were gone! Jack took his glasses from his eyes and rubbed the lenses, thinking something must have gone wrong with them. But no — he saw exactly the same thing — a steep wall of sheer rock — and nobody there at all, not even a dog!
“Jack! Can you see what’s happened to Philip?” came Lucy-Ann’s anxious voice. “Oh, Jack — he’s caught!”
“Yes, and he’s been taken into that mountain,” said Jack. “Though how, I don’t know. One moment they were all there, the next they were gone! I can’t understand it.”
He looked through his glasses again but there was nothing to be seen. He suddenly realised that the sun had gone down and it was getting dark. “Girls! It’ll be dark soon. We must get down and go to the cave, while we can still see our way!” said Jack. They all climbed down quickly. Lucy-Ann was trying to blink back tears.
“I want Philip to come back,” she said. “What’s happened to him?”
“Don’t be a baby,” said Dinah. “Crying won’t help him! You always burst into tears when anything happens!”
Dinah spoke crossly because she was very near tears herself. Jack put his arm round both of them. “Don’t let’s quarrel. That won’t help Philip. Come on, let’s get back quickly. I’ll fetch Dapple from the stream, and bring her up to the rock.”
They made their way back to the cave they had left their sleeping-bags in. Jack fetched the patient Dapple. Kiki sat silently on his shoulder. She always knew when things had gone wrong with the children. She nipped Jack’s ear gently to tell him she was sorry.
It was almost dark when they reached the cave. There was no need to make a fire tonight — they did not fear wolves any more. Indeed they would have been very glad to see dark figures come slinking up to the cave. They would have welcomed the dogs eagerly.
“I miss Snowy,” said Dinah. “It’s queer without him leaping about everywhere. I’m glad he’s gone with Philip. I’m glad the slow-worm’s gone too!”
They didn’t want to get into the sleeping-bags and go to sleep. They wanted to talk. A lot of things seemed to be happening very suddenly. Oh dear — when would Bill come? They could manage quite well without grown-ups in many ways — but just at the moment all three would have welcomed even David!
“Well — let’s get into our bags,” said Jack. “Isn’t the moon lovely tonight?”