Lucy-Ann at once began to climb up as fast as possible, in a great fright. Gracious! How awful to feel that somebody was coming up the ladder just as they were going down! She felt certain it was that horrid Meier!
She in turn bumped into Dinah’s feet and passed the urgent message on to the surprised girl. Dinah began to climb back again up to the cave at the top very quickly indeed. Lucy-Ann and Jack were immediately below her. Jack felt as if somebody might catch his ankles at any moment.
And, of course, the next thing was that Dinah nearly got her head trodden on by Bill’s big feet. He was descending at top speed to join the others, and was most amazed to find Dinah just below him.
“What’s the matter? Didn’t I tell you to buck up?” he said, and then caught Dinah’s agonized whisper.
“Somebody’s coming up! Quick, before they get Jack. Quick, Bill!”
Muttering something under his breath Bill climbed back quickly. He pulled Dinah up, then Lucy-Ann, then Jack. The ladder still shook. The climber, or climbers, were coming up steadily.
“Back into the passages!” commanded Bill. “We can’t afford to be caught now. We’ll wait till whoever it is has gone and then we’ll try again.”
They came to where the passage forked into three, and Bill pushed them all into the darkest one — but coming towards them were footsteps, and somebody’s shadow at the far end! They all rushed back again.
Now the climber had reached the top of the ladder and was behind them. They tried the second passage and found themselves in a maze of funny little caves, all leading one out of another.
“Wait here!” said Bill. But they had been seen, and challenging voices began to echo along the dark passages.
“Who’s there? Come out at once!”
They didn’t stir. They were all crouched in a dark corner, overhung by a rocky ledge. Bill wondered if the beam of a torch would find them. He was afraid it would.
The feet passed by in another cave. Then came more voices. The hunt was on! Bill groaned. It sounded as if four or five searchers were there now. They would separate and search until they had found them. And they had been so near freedom!
“Come,” said Bill after a moment. “We’ll try a better cave than this.”
But, before they could move, the flash of a torch shone into their cave. They all stiffened and stood absolutely still. The beam came nearer and nearer. Lucy-Ann forgot to breathe, and stood with her hand firmly clasped in Bill’s.
Just as the beam of the torch was picking out Jack’s feet — or so it seemed to Jack — a surprising interruption came. A voice came from somewhere nearby, a hollow, mournful voice, full of misery and despair.
“Poor Kiki! Ding dong bell! Peepbo!”
Jack’s heart leapt. Kiki! She wasn’t dead, then! She must have been wandering, completely lost, all about the passages and caves for days. She didn’t know they were close to her. She had seen the light of the torch and heard voices, and as usual she had joined in the conversation.
Bill’s hand squeezed Jack’s arm warningly. He was afraid the boy might call Kiki, or exclaim out loud in delight. But Jack held his tongue. Kiki went on talking in the most melancholy voice imaginable.
“Send for the doctor! Musty, fusty, dusty, pooh, gah!”
Jack had never heard her so miserable before. Poor Kiki! She must have thought herself quite deserted.
A sharp voice rang through the cave. “What in the world was that? Somebody’s in this cave! Erlick, come here! Did you hear that?”
“What?” asked Erlick, coming in with another torch.
“A voice,” said Meier. “Somebody’s in here. Two people, probably. One talking to another. Stand there with your torch while I walk around with mine.”
Meier began to walk round, examining all the walls carefully for hiding-places. Bill groaned silently. Now they had no chance at all to get to another cave.
Kiki gave a realistic sneeze and then a cough. Meier stopped his search and swung his torch in the direction of the sound.
“We can hear you! Come out or it will be the worse for you!” he shouted, in a furious tone.
Kiki was frightened. She had been without food for some time, and was hungry and unhappy. The man’s angry voice filled her with panic and she flew off into the next cave, having no idea that her beloved Jack was so near her. It was just as well that she didn’t know, for if she had known she would certainly have flown to Jack’s shoulder and given their hiding-place away at once!
Her voice came from the cave further on.
“Polly put the kettle on! Send for the doctor!” Then came a loud hiccup, and an apologetic “Pardon!”
“Good heavens! What’s going on?” cried Meier, completely puzzled. “It’s that voice again that we’ve been hearing at intervals. Well, where there’s a voice there’s a body and I’m going to find it this time, if I have to shoot the caves to pieces!”
A loud report made Bill and the children jump in fright. Meier had drawn his revolver and fired wildly in the direction of Kiki’s voice. Jack didn’t like that a bit. He was afraid Kiki might be hit.
Meier and Erlick went into the next cave after Kiki’s voice. It came to them from further away.
“Upsadaisy! Wipe your feet, you naughty boy.”
The children couldn’t help smiling, scared though they were. Kiki always managed to say such ridiculous things in moments of urgency. There came another shot, which echoed all round the caves.
Kiki gave a cackle of scornful laughter, and then made a noise like a car changing gear. She came back to the next cave again, and the men followed. They still had not caught sight of Kiki because they were looking for a human being, running away in front of them, whereas Kiki flew high in the roof of the caves, and perched on small ledges, well hidden.
Somebody else ran through the cave where the children were, calling to Meier.
“Mr. Meier, sir, sir! All children run away! Helicopter come back. All alone on mountain-top. No one there. Children run away!”
It was one of the Japanese servants, who had evidently discovered the returned helicopter, and the disappearance of the pilot and the children. There was an amazed silence.
Meier raised his voice and let forth a stream of furious foreign words, none of which Bill or the children could understand. Then came Erlick’s voice.
“No good going on like that, Meier. Get out the dogs. The children must have gone down the ladder. You left it down when you went out tonight, didn’t you? The dogs will soon round them all up.”
“What’s happened to the pilot, though?” raged Meier, and lapsed into some foreign language again. The Japanese came pattering back through the cave again, presumably on his way to get the dogs.
“Send for the doctor,” called Kiki mournfully. She screeched like an engine and made Meier flash his torch in and out of the caves again, almost beside himself with rage.
Erlick, Meier and one or two others with them then began a loud argument in many languages. Bill didn’t wait to hear what it was all about. He pushed the children out of their hiding-place and towards the nearest passage. Very quietly and quickly they all fled back towards the cave with the ladder. Maybe there was a chance now of escape. Jack wished with all his heart that he could take Kiki too.
They went down the ladder in the same order as before, Jack wondering fearfully if he would find anyone coming up this time, ready to catch him by the ankles. But he didn’t. He reached the bottom safely, his legs shaking with the effort, panting and exhausted.
Lucy-Ann almost fell off the last rung, weeping with relief to find she was finally at the bottom. It had seemed an endless climb down to her. She sank to the ground beside the pool, her heart beating painfully.
Dinah followed and threw herself on the ground too. Then came Bill, not so distressed as the others, but very glad indeed to be at the bottom of the ladder.
“Phew! The bottom at last!” he said. “What a climb! Now come on — out we go on the mountainside. We’ll join up with Philip and Johns. If only those wretched dogs don’t find us! Philip’s told me about them and how you thought they were wolves. I don’t fancy a pack of Alsatians on my trail, somehow, with Meier and Erlick urging them on!”
The dawn was beginning to come over the mountains. The sun was not yet above them, but a golden light was spreading upwards from the east. The children were very glad indeed to feel the fresh wind on their faces when they went out through the crack in the rock, and swung aside the big green curtain of creeper and bramble. They took deep breaths and gazed around them in the silvery light of dawn.