“Oh no, oh no,” said the old fellow at once, a cunning look coming over his yellow face. “There are secrets here, you know. My secrets. Nobody who comes in may go out — until my experiments are finished. I’m the king of this place — my brain runs it all!”
He finished up on a high shrill note that gave the children a queer feeling. Was the old fellow mad? Surely he couldn’t be the “king” they had seen in the throne-room?
“You don’t look like the king,” said Lucy-Ann. “We saw the king in the throne-room — he was tall and had a great crown, and black hair round his face.”
“Ah, yes. They make me appear like that,” said the old man. “I want to be king of the world, you know, the whole world — because of my great brain. I know more than anyone else. Meier says I shall be ruler of the world as soon as my experiments are done. And they are nearly finished, very very nearly!”
“Does Meier dress you up like a king then, when you appear in the throne-room?” asked Jack, astonished. He turned to the others and spoke in an undertone. “That’s to impress the paratroopers, I suppose! He wouldn’t cut any ice with them if they saw him like this.”
“I am a king,” said the old man, with dignity. “Because of my great brain, you know. I have a secret and I am using it. You have seen my great laboratory, have you? Ah, my little children, I know how to use all the great powers of the world — the tides, the metals, the winds — and gravitation!”
“What’s gravitation?” said Lucy-Ann.
“It is the power that keeps you on the earth — that makes you come back to it when you jump, that brings a ball back when you have thrown it,” said the old man. “But I — I have conquered gravitation!”
This seemed a lot of nonsense to the children. They were quite sure the poor old man was mad. He might have had a marvellous brain at one time — but he couldn’t be much good now.
“You don’t believe me?” said the old fellow. “Well, I have discovered some rays that repel the pull of the earth. Do you understand that, my little children? No, no, it is too difficult for you.”
“It’s not,” said Jack, interested. “What you mean is — you think you’ve got hold of some rays that, if we use them, will cancel out gravitation? So that if you used the rays say, on a ball, it wouldn’t feel the pull of the earth to bring it back here, but would speed through the air and not fall to earth?”
“Yes, yes — that is it — very very simply,” said the old man. “And now, you see, I have invented these wings. I send the rays through them. I imprison them in the wings. And then, when a man jumps from an aeroplane, he presses a button to release the power of the rays — and he does not fall to earth! Instead he can glide and soar, flap his wings, and fly like a bird until he tires of it — then he can imprison the rays again and glide to earth!”
The children listened to all this in silence. It was the most extraordinary thing they had ever heard.
“But — is it really true?” asked Lucy-Ann at last. The idea of flying like that was very tempting!
“Do you think we would have come here to this lonely mountain for our experiments, do you think Meier and Erlick would have poured out their money if they had not known I could do this?” demanded the old man, looking rather angry.
“Well — it just sounds so extraordinary, that’s all,” said Lucy-Ann. “It sounds perfectly lovely, of course — I mean, I’d give anything to be able to fly like that. How clever you must be!”
“I have the biggest brain in the world,” said the old man solemnly. “I am the greatest scientist that ever lived. I can do anything, anything!”
“Could you show us the way out of here?” asked Jack, in an innocent voice. The old man looked uncomfortable.
“If you use my wings, then you can go,” he said at last. “We are all prisoners here till then, even I! Meier has said this must be so. He says I must hurry, hurry to get my wings quite perfect — time is short. Then I shall be made king of the whole world, and everyone will honour me.”
“Poor old man,” thought Philip. “He believes everything that rogue of a Meier says. Meier and Erlick are using his brains for their own purposes.”
As suddenly as he had appeared the old man went. He seemed to forget they were there. He vanished through the curtains and left them alone. They looked at one another, feeling uneasy.
“I don’t know how much to believe,” said Jack. “Has he really got hold of the secret of how to cancel out the pull of gravitation? Do you remember how queer we felt when we were looking at that extraordinarily brilliant mass down in that pit — we felt sort of light, as if we ought to cling onto the balcony, or we’d float off into the air? Well, I bet some of those rays he spoke of were flying loose then!”
“Gosh, yes — that was strange,” said Philip thoughtfully. “And, of course, all this would have to be done underground — so that the rays couldn’t go flying off everywhere! The heart of a mountain seems a jolly good place for a terrific experiment like this — Avails of thick rock all round. No wonder we heard rumblings and felt the earth shaking! That old scientist knows a thing or two. I’d be scared stiff to meddle with all the powers that scientists use nowadays. This is more extraordinary than splitting the atom.”
“I don’t understand about things like that,” said Lucy-Ann. “I feel like the people of old must have felt towards their magicians — I don’t understand what they’re doing, but it all seems like magic, and I’m scared!”
“You wait till you put on a pair of nongravitation wings or whatever he calls them,” said Philip, helping himself to a peach. “That’ll be magic if you like.”
“Meier and Erlick must believe in the ideas the old man has,” said Jack. “Or they wouldn’t go to all the terrific trouble they do — and try to keep everything such a secret. I suppose, if the idea really came to something, they’d make such a colossal fortune that they’d be the richest men the world has ever known — and the most powerful.”
“Yes. They’d be the rulers — not the old man,” said Philip. “They’re just using him, and stuffing him up with all kinds of stories. He’s as simple as can be, though he’s got such a brain. They would give out that they were the inventors, not the old man. Fancy keeping him a prisoner here like that — and everyone else too!”
“Us included,” said Dinah. “Well, I’m beginning to see daylight a bit now — understanding what’s going on here — but I just can’t believe it. Nor will Bill!”
They finished a very good meal. Nobody came to interrupt them. There was no sound from the old man’s room. The children thought perhaps he had gone to bed for a rest, or had returned to his weird underground pit. They all made up their minds that nothing would persuade them ever to go down there again!
“What shall we do now?” said Jack. “Snowy, tell us! Kiki, you’ve had enough peaches.”
“Poor Polly,” said Kiki sorrowfully, and wiped her beak on the table-cloth.
“Someone’s coming!” suddenly said Lucy-Ann. “Quick, hide!”
“Behind the hangings on the wall,” whispered Dinah, and the four children fled to the loose hangings. They squeezed behind them and waited, holding their breath.
It was two of the Japanese who had entered the room to clear away the meal. They talked to one another in surprised voices, and, indeed, they were filled with astonishment to see so much of the food eaten.
The children heard their little feet pattering to and fro. Then one of them gave a sharp exclamation, which the children didn’t understand. They stood behind the curtains, their hearts beating fast. Kiki was on Jack’s shoulder, silent and puzzled.
Suddenly Lucy-Ann gave a loud scream, and the two boys leapt out from behind their curtains at once. One of the Japanese had seen her foot below the hangings, and had pounced on her.
“Jack! Philip! Quick, save me!” she cried, and they rushed to her rescue.
Chapter 21
ON THE MOUNTAIN-TOP
BOTH the Japanese had got hold of poor Lucy-Ann. She was screaming wildly, and the two boys flew at the men. But to their great surprise they were thrown back as easily as if they had been feather-weights. Just a twist of the men’s arms, and back they went, falling headlong to the floor.