He seemed to hypnotize everyone as he spoke. Jack could not help feeling that a lot he said was sheer nonsense — but he couldn’t do anything but believe it while he heard it, and it was obvious that all the men there drank every word in, whether it was spoken in their own language or not. What a spell-binder, thought Jack!
Next volunteers were called for. All the men stepped forward at once. The king rose and, apparently at random, picked out two or three. He spoke a few inaudible words in an unexpectedly thin, reedy voice, that didn’t seem to go at all with his kingly presence.
Then Meier took charge again. He said that these men, among the first to fly with wings, would be sent back to their own countries after the experiment, with wealth enough to last them for a lifetime. All the others who had tried out the wings were now safely back in their homes, and were rich and honoured men.
“I don’t think!” muttered Jack to Philip, remembering what Sam had related.
The king then walked majestically out and Meier and the other man followed. The Japanese ushered the paratroopers away and soon the great throne-room was empty.
When everyone had gone and there was complete silence, Jack whispered to Philip, “We know the way out from here. Come on!”
They went to the huge laboratory, where the wheels and wires were still at their secret work. The children stood in the gallery above the big work-room and looked down at the strange lamp in the middle. Dinah suddenly clutched Jack and made him jump. He looked at her.
She pointed to where there was a great cluster of glass jars, with tubes running from one to the other. Jack saw somebody there.
It was an old man with a very large forehead, larger and rounder than any forehead Jack had seen in his life. The man was quite bald, which made his head seem queerer than ever. He bent over the glass jars and looked searchingly into them.
“Come on before he sees us,” whispered Jack, and pulled the others towards the passages that would lead them to the entrance. They went along them and at last came to the little chamber where the pitchers of water and the mugs were. Now to get down the rope-ladder and escape!
“What about Snowy?” whispered Dinah. “How can we get him down?”
“I wonder how he got up before?” said Philip. “And the dogs too. I never thought of that. I was just pushed up in the dark, and I was so scared I didn’t think of Snowy or the dogs. They couldn’t have climbed that ladder!”
“There’s probably some hole somewhere that they went into,” said Dinah. “A hole outside, I mean — too small for us, but big enough for Snowy and the dogs.”
As it turned out afterwards, Dinah was right. There was a small hole near the crack, and it was through this and up a narrow little tunnel that Snowy had passed with the dogs, who knew the way very well. The dogs’ tunnel led eventually into one of the passages, and that was how Snowy had got into the mountain but had not been imprisoned with Philip.
Snowy was still with them. He knew the way he had come in by, but he wasn’t going to leave the others. Jack switched on his torch and felt about for the rope-ladder.
“Where is the wretched thing?” he said. “Surely it was just here!”
Snowy came and pressed close to him, and nearly sent him headlong down to the black pool. “Hold Snowy!” he said to Philip. “I almost went over then. I can’t seem to find the ladder. It should be hanging down somewhere about here.”
“Let me look,” said Philip, giving Snowy to Dinah. He felt about too, and Jack flashed his torch all round and about to see if he could spy the rope-ladder up which they had all come.
But it wasn’t there — or if it was, nobody could see it! Jack flashed his torch down into the hole as far as he could. No ladder at all!
“What’s happened to it?” he said, exasperated.
“Perhaps someone has turned that little wheel in the pond the other way — and the ladder rolled up and put itself away,” suggested Dinah.
This was a dreadful thought. Jack began to look round the little chamber to see if the rope-ladder had been pulled up by the machinery set in motion by the wheel — but he couldn’t see it anywhere.
His hand touched a spike on the wall. He focussed his torch on it. “This may be a lever!” he said to the others. “Look!”
He pulled and pressed at the spike, and it suddenly gave way, pulling downwards. A slab of rock was moved smoothly — and there behind was the rope-ladder! How it worked with the wheel below the children could not imagine.
It certainly wouldn’t work for them. It was coiled or folded neatly in the hollow behind the rock — but how to get it from there nobody could make out. Some machinery put in motion was needed to set it free. Then, Jack supposed, it would come sliding smoothly out of the place it was in, fall over the edge of the rock, and uncoil all the way to the bottom — hanging ready for any climber to come up.
“How does it work from up here though?” said Jack, for the twentieth time. All of them had pulled and twisted and tugged at the ladder, lying so snugly in its hiding-place — but it was quite impossible to move it.
“Give it up!” said Jack gloomily at last. “No good! We’re done for. It’s absolutely maddening, just when we are almost out of this beastly mountain.”
Chapter 20
AN AMAZING SECRET
THEY sat in the little room for some time, disappointed and puzzled. Time and again they tried to make the rope-ladder slide out of its secret place, but it wouldn’t. In the end they got very thirsty and very hungry. They drank all the water left in the jugs, and wondered where they could get something to eat.
They could only think of the room where they had feasted before. “Let’s go back to it and see if the remains of that meal are still there,” said Jack. “I could do with another lobster or two!”
“Poor Polly!” remarked Kiki, who always seemed to know when food was being talked about. “Polly’s got a cold. Send for the doctor.”
“Oh, you’ve found your tongue again, have you?” said Jack. “I thought you’d lost it! Now don’t start screaming or cackling, for goodness’ sake, or you’ll have us caught!”
They found their way back to the throne-room, which was still empty, and then to the room where the meal had been.
There were still the remains of the meal there. The children’s eyes gleamed. Good! They felt better at once.
They sat down and reached for the food. Then suddenly Jack put his hand on Philip’s arm and frowned. A noise had come from the next room — the beautifully furnished bedroom! The children sat as still as mice. Was anybody there?
Kiki suddenly saw Snowy with her front hooves on the table, reaching for the salad. In anger she flew at the kid and screeched.
“That’s done it!” said Jack. And as he spoke, the hangings at the entrance to the room opened, and a face peered through.
It was the face they had seen down in the big workroom — the face with the enormous forehead. It had bulging eyes of a curious green-blue, a hooked nose, and sunken cheeks, yellowish in colour.
This face stared in silence at the four children, and they, in turn, stared back without a word. Who was this strange old man with the great forehead?
“Do I know who you are?” asked the face, a puzzled look coming over it. “I forget, I forget.” The curtains were swung further apart and the old man came right through. He was dressed in a kind of loose tunic of blue silk, and the children thought he looked a pathetic old thing. He had a thin high voice that Kiki immediately copied.
The old man looked astonished, especially as he could not see Kiki, who was behind a great vase of flowers. The children didn’t say anything. They were wondering if it was possible to make a dash and get away.
“What are children doing here?” said the old man, in a puzzled tone. “Have I seen you before? Why are you here?”
“Er — we came to look for somebody who was lost,” said Jack. “And now we can’t get out again. Could you tell us the way?”
The old man appeared so lost and wandering that it seemed to Jack he might quite well be foolish enough to show them the way out. But he was wrong.