They were up again in a trice — but this time one of the Japanese caught Philip in a vicious grip, and the boy found himself turning over in the air, and flying right over the man’s head! He landed with a crash on the table, and sent all the dishes into the air.
What with Lucy-Ann’s screams, the boys’ yells, and the crashes of the dishes there was a terrific commotion. Kiki added to it by screeching loudly. Then she flew down and attacked one of the men. He fended her off.
Four more Japanese suddenly appeared, and that was the end of the children’s resistance. They were all captured. Kiki flew off somewhere, still screeching. Snowy had disappeared completely.
The four children were marched out of the room and taken to a bigger room, well furnished, but not nearly so elaborate as the king’s rooms. Hangings covered the walls, but they were plain and simple. The roof of the cave was not covered, and the children could see the rough rock above their heads.
Lucy-Ann was sobbing. Dinah looked very pale and the boys were angry and defiant. They were all stood in a row against the wall. Philip felt in his pocket to see if his slow-worm was hurt in the scuffle. Sally Slithery had not liked life in the mountain. She had become lethargic and dull. But she would not leave Philip.
She was still there, coiled up. Philip wondered where Kiki and Snowy were. It was not like Kiki to fly off like that. She must have been very scared — or perhaps one of the dishes had struck her as it flew off the table.
In a few minutes Meier and Erlick, the two men who were the real power behind the poor old “king,” came into the room. Meier was glowering, and his piercing eyes glanced from one child to another sharply.
“So! There are four of you! Three of you came to find this boy, I suppose — and let him out of the cave he was in. You thought you could all escape — you thought it would be easy, so easy. And it was not?”
He fired this question at them, with a twisted smile on his hawk-like face.
Nobody answered. “How did you find the way to let down the rope-ladder?” The man fired this question at them so suddenly that they jumped. “Who told you how to get it down?”
Nobody said a word. Meier’s eyes began to narrow, and the girls felt uneasy. He was horrid!
“I asked you a question,” he said. “You, boy, answer me!”
“I used my brains,” said Jack shortly, seeing Meier looking at him.
“Does anyone else know of that entrance?” said Erlick suddenly. The children looked at him with dislike. He was like an ape, they thought! Meier was bad enough — but Erlick was ten times worse.
“How do we know?” said Philip, beginning to boil at the way these two men spoke to them. “What does it matter if they do? Is what you’re doing here so shameful that you need to hide even the entrance to the mountain?”
Erlick stepped forward and slapped Philip across the face. Lucy-Ann stopped crying, in greater fright than ever. Philip did not flinch. He looked the man boldly in the face, and did not even rub his smarting cheek.
“Leave him alone, Erlick,” said Meier. “There are better ways of bringing a boy like that to heel than by slapping his face. And now we will send out the dogs to scour the countryside. If these children have friends anywhere near, the dogs will find them, and bring them in.”
The children’s hearts sank. Would the Alsatians capture Bill and David then — and bring them to the mountain to make them prisoners too? That would be dreadful.
From somewhere outside came a hollow cough. Meier and Erlick jumped. Meier went to the entrance of the cave and looked out. There was nobody there at all.
“Is there another of you?” asked Meier. “Is it boy or girl?”
“Neither,” said Jack, who had recognised Kiki’s cough, and was hoping she would keep out. It would be just like these men to wring her neck.
“Pooh! Gah!” came Kiki’s voice, and then a cackle that was enough to make the men’s blood curdle. They went to the entrance of the cave again, and had a good look round, but Kiki was safely perched on a shelf of rock above their heads, and they could not see her at all.
“Send for the doctor,” said Kiki, in a sepulchral voice, that sent shivers down the men’s backs. “Send for the doctor.”
“Good heavens! Who is it?” said Erlick. He looked threateningly at the four children. “If that’s another boy out there, being funny, I’ll skin him alive!”
“There are only four of us, two boys and two girls,” said Jack.
“And here we all are,” said Philip, in an insolent voice. He knew it was foolish to talk like this to the two men, but he couldn’t help it. Both he and Dinah were foolhardy when their tempers were up.
“Oh! And here you’ll all stay!” said Meier. “And I’ll think up something to take the spirit out of you, my boy. You may have gone through your life cheeking everyone and throwing your weight about — but you won’t do it with me. Now — walk in front of us, and keep going!”
The children were forced to walk out of the cave in front of the two men. They soon found themselves stumbling up the stone spiral stairs, going up and up. They came to the openings where the stores were, and then went on past those till they came to the door of the cave in which Philip had been bolted.
“Hey, you, boy! You’re to go into that cave again,” ordered Meier. “A few days without much to eat will soon take the insolence out of you. You others go on up.”
Poor Philip! He was shut once more into the cave that looked out to the sky — but this time he had no Negro to keep him company. He sat down, wishing he hadn’t been so foolish as to cheek the two grim men. Then he was glad he had. He wasn’t going to kow-tow to two rogues like that. All the same it was a pity he wasn’t with the others — especially as now there was only Jack to look after the girls.
The other three were forced to go on higher, climbing steadily. And then — what a surprise!
They came up a broad flight of steps hewn out of the rock, onto the very top of the mountain itself. They stood there, breathing in sharply at the amazing panoramic view all round them. The top of the world! Surely they must be touching the sky itself!
The three forgot their troubles for a moment as they gazed round in wonder. Everywhere they looked were mountains, rising high. Valleys, deep in shadow, lay far far below. It was wonderful to be up there in the blazing sunshine and cool breeze, after being in the dark mountain for so long.
The top of the mountain was extraordinarily flat. On three sides rose steep rocks, like teeth. Jack knew in a flash what mountain it was — Fang Mountain, the one he had noticed when they had set out. He looked round the mountain-top. Nothing grew there at all. It was bare, flat rock, the size of a great courtyard. At one side, playing cards in the shade, were the paratroopers.
They stared in surprise at the children. Sam the Negro was with them and he pointed to Jack and was evidently telling his companions about him and the others. Jack was glad that Philip had told Sam so little about himself and the other three. He did not want Meier to know any more than he already did.
There was an awning rigged up on the side opposite the paratroopers. Meier pushed the children towards it.
“You will stay here,” he said. “You will not talk to those men over there at all. You will not go near them. You are prisoners, you understand? You have forced your way in here, where you are not wanted, and now we shall keep you here as long as we wish.”
“Can’t Philip come with us?” begged Lucy-Ann. “He’ll be so lonely away from us.”
“Is that the other boy? No. He needs a little punishment,” said Meier. “A little starvation diet! Then we will see if he will talk civilly.”
Meier and Erlick then left the three and disappeared into the mountain again. Jack and the girls sat down looking doleful. Things weren’t too good! It was a thousand pities that poor old Philip was apart from them.
Evidently the paratroopers had been warned that they were not to go near the children, for they made no attempt even to shout to them. It was obvious that Meier and Erlick were used to being obeyed.