“Well, all I can say is I should discourage anyone from jumping off the school roof or anything like that, and trusting to these wings,” said Bill drily. “I have a feeling that the ingenious brain behind these things is failing a little — the old ‘king’ will never discover how to make the wings he so much wants to make. But he certainly has invented some remarkable things. I have had a talk with Meier, and he has told me why he believed in Monally — that’s the ‘king’s’ real name.”
“Why did he believe in him?” asked the children curiously.
“Well, apparently he has, at one time or another, produced the most remarkable inventions,” said Bill, “and Meier has backed him and made a great deal of money out of them. How he came to find this mountain, and the rare metal in its heart, which the ‘king’ wanted for his latest idea of conquering the pull of the earth, I haven’t been able to find out yet. Dirty work of some sort, I expect.”
“What are you going to do about everything?” asked Jack.
“Well — the paratroopers will be sent back home. The Japanese will be questioned and also sent back. I have a feeling there’s something queer about them too. The ‘king’ will be taken into safety,” said Bill. “I shall send two or three scientists to the mountain to let them report on what they find there. I shouldn’t be surprised if they advise us to destroy everything in it. The ‘king’ has been meddling with dangerous things. With no one there to keep a guiding hand on them there might be a vast explosion.”
“It’s a good thing we discovered it, isn’t it?” said Lucy-Ann.
“A very good thing,” said Bill. “And it’s an even better thing you left that note with Dapple. If it hadn’t been for that I’d never have found you.”
“What happened?” asked Jack.
“I came along to find you, complete with donkeys, after David’s silly rush home,” said Bill. “Instead I found only Dapple — and the note, which talked of very peculiar things indeed, and made me smell a very large rat.”
“Go on,” said Philip, interested.
“Well, I snooped round but couldn’t find my way in through the roofless cave,” said Bill. “So the only thing to do was to start finding out about helicopters. If somebody could land on that mountain-top, then so could I!”
“Good old Bill!” said Jack.
“And then,” said Bill, “I found when I began making enquiries about all the helicopters in this country, who owned them and so on, that other people were also making enquiries about a few of them! Some of the helicopters had been flying off in suspicious circumstances, nobody knew where. So the police were even then enquiring into the matter — and I joined them, hotfoot!”
“And what did you find?” asked Dinah.
“I found a young pilot, with a terrific scar across his face!” said Bill. “Ah — you know him, I see. And he spilt the beans, as we say! Told us he was worried about paratroopers jumping without proper parachutes and so on. And so, when he went on holiday, I took his place on the next helicopter trip — and hey presto, there I was on the top of the mountain!”
“Oh, Bill — it was heavenly to see you!” said Lucy-Ann.
Bill had told them all about Mrs. Mannering too — how anxious she had been — how her hand had healed very well — and how she had begged in vain to be allowed to come with Effans and the others to meet the children, with the donkeys.
It was a long time before the children could go to sleep that night, for the day had been so exciting. The dogs lay and snoozed, one eye on the prisoners. The donkeys lay peacefully together. Snowy, sent off by each of the children, wandered off to Dapple and lay down beside him. Dapple was very pleased.
They got back to the farm-house by dinner-time the next day, for Bill had got them all up very early the next morning. Mrs. Mannering ran out in joy. She had been very worried indeed.
Mrs. Evans followed. “Indeed to gootness, it’s grand to see you, whateffer! To think what you have been through, look you — as much danger as in war-time! It’s glad we are to see you back!”
“It’s well they are looking, too,” said Effans, in his up-and-down voice, beaming. “And that bird, indeed, she is funnier than ever!”
“Whateffer, look you!” mimicked Kiki, also in a singsong voice, and Effans went off into guffaws, imitated by Kiki. The two of them sounded so silly that everyone else began to laugh too!
Mrs. Evans, of course, had got another lovely meal ready for them all. And what a lot there were to feed that day too! She even found a fine supply of bones for the dogs, and Philip had to take them a good way off because Mrs. Mannering said she really couldn’t bear to hear such a munching and crunching, as the ten dogs made short work of the bones.
What a lot there was to tell! Mrs. Evans’ eyes nearly fell out of her head as she listened, and handed out food of all kinds to everyone.
“To think of the children doing such things, look you!” she kept saying. “Inside that mountain, look you! Down in that pit too, look you!”
“Pardon, look you!” said Kiki, and gave a loud sneeze. Effans choked and Kiki copied him, making such a dreadful noise that Mrs. Mannering said she was to go out of the room if she couldn’t behave herself.
“Oh, Aunt Allie — she’s just so glad she’s back again,” said Jack, tapping Kiki on the beak.
“Send for the doctor,” said Kiki, fixing her wicked little eyes on Effans, who was still choking with laughter. “Send for the weasel! Send for the look-you!”
Nobody could help laughing. Jack gave Kiki a very large plum, hoping to keep her quiet. Holding it in one clawed foot, Kiki dug her beak into it, making juice squirt all over poor Effans.
“Pardon!” said Kiki in delight, and did it again. Effans felt that he would exchange every one of his sheep for a bird like that. He watched Kiki and quite forgot to eat.
Johns was to take the prisoners down to the town, with David, escorted by two of the dogs. Mrs. Evans said she would keep the rest of them at the farm-house until the police had decided what to do with them.
“Mother — I suppose we couldn’t possibly keep two or three of the dogs, could we?” asked Philip longingly.
“Good gracious, no!” said his mother. “It’s bad enough being landed with so many of your pets when you go back to school — but to have three great hungry Alsatians to look after would just kill me! No, they will be happier as police dogs.”
Bill was to stay until two or three scientists arrived to go with him to the mountain. Some police officers were to accompany them too, to round up the Japanese — though Bill did not expect any trouble from them at all. They probably had bad records, and had signed on with Meier to keep out of the way of the police for a while and to earn money.
“Can we go to the mountain too?” asked Jack hopefully. “You might lose your way inside, Bill.”
“Oh, no, I shan’t,” said Bill. “I found a nice little map of the inside of the mountain in Meier’s pocket. I shan’t lose my way — and you may as well give up all hope of coming with me, because you’ve been in quite enough danger these holidays. I’m afraid if I took you with me another adventure might blow up — I never saw such children for smelling out adventures! I believe if I took you to visit my dear old aunt, we should find she had suddenly been kidnapped in a submarine, and you were forced to go to the other end of the world to rescue her.”
The boys were very disappointed not to go with Bill back to the mountain. Neither of the girls wanted to. Lucy-Ann was quite certain about that.
“I don’t mind the adventure a bit now it’s all over and we can talk about it,” she said. “But I didn’t like it at the time. I hated that rumbling old mountain. Bill, Philip’s going to let me wear his wings this afternoon in return for when I offered to jump from the helicopter instead of him. I shall fly from that high rock up there down to the farm-house!”
“Indeed you won’t!” said Bill promptly. Lucy-Ann laughed at Bill’s shocked face.
“It’s all right. I was only pulling your leg,” she said. “But I’m going to wear them for a little while, and jump about flapping them. Won’t the hens be surprised?”