Nobody stirred, except Philip when the lizard woke up, felt cramped, and made her way to another nice warm spot, this time behind his ear. He awoke for a second, felt Lizzie moving, and then shut his eyes immediately again, pleased with the feel of the tiny feet.
Towards morning a throbbing sound awoke all four children. It penetrated into the cave, sounding even louder than the waterfall. Jack sat up at once, surprised. What could that be?
The noise grew louder and louder, it seemed as if it was coming right down on their heads. Whatever could it be?
Rr-rr-rr-rr-rr-rrRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
“It’s a plane!” cried Jack. “A plane! Come to rescue us. Out of the cave, quick!”
They all tumbled out of the cave and looked for the plane. One was climbing into the air, a large shape against the sky. It had evidently come very near the side of the mountain, and had awakened them by its noise.
“A plane to rescue us?” said Philip scornfully. “Not likely! That’s the plane we came here in — the men’s plane, idiot!”
Chapter 14
THE POOR PRISONER
SURE enough, it was the men’s plane. The children all recognised it quite well as they watched it vanishing into the distance. It flew towards the west.
“Wonder if it’s going back to Bill’s aerodrome?” said Jack. “Wonder if Bill knows what those two men are up to?”
“We don’t know very much ourselves, except that they are after some sort of treasure,” said Philip. “But, honestly, what treasure they think they can find here in this place beats me.”
“Beats me too,” said Jack. “Well — there they go! Do you suppose they’ll come back?”
“Sure to,” said Philip. “They won’t give up as easily as that. Maybe they’ve gone to report that there are other people here now — for all they know, after the treasure too! And they might bring back more men to smell us out.”
“Oh,” said Lucy-Ann in alarm. “I don’t want to be smelt out.”
“Do you think both men have gone?” asked Philip.
“I should think so,” said Jack. “But we can go and have a jolly good look round and see. If one man is left, he’ll be somewhere near that shed of theirs. He won’t know how many of us there are here — he may think there are men with us, you know, and not dare to move about too much by himself.”
But when the children left the cave later in the morning and went to “have a squint,” as Jack said, they could find no sign of either Juan or Pepi. There was no fire. It had been stamped out. And this time the shed was well and truly locked, and the key taken. No amount of shaking or kicking would open the door.
“Well, if we’d known the men were going to fly off, we might have asked them for a lift,” said Jack with a grin. “I wonder when they’ll come back — if they do come back, that is.”
“Not till it’s daylight tomorrow, I should think,” said Philip. “I expect they’ll take off at night again. Let’s go and have another squint at those crates.”
But there was really nothing to see. They were empty as before, and the tarpaulin was over them. The children played about for some hours, and had a meal under a tree. They went to get a tin or two from the rest of the store still hidden in the bush. Jack opened them.
After the meal Philip suggested that they should go back to the waterfall and the girls should take them to the cave of echoes, and down the passage that led behind the water. So off they went, first hiding all trace of having been near the men’s shed.
But when they got back to their cave, Jack gave a most annoyed exclamation and began to feel in all his pockets.
“What’s the matter?” said Lucy-Ann.
“Well, do you know what I’ve done? I’ve gone and left the tin-opener behind,” said Jack. “Think of that! What an idiotic thing to do! I thought we might want another tin opened, so I put it down at the roots of that tree we had our picnic under — and I must have left it there. I haven’t got it, anyway.”
“Oh, Jack! But we can’t have a meal without opening a tin,” said Philip, seeing awful visions of a hungry night. “Gosh — you are an ass!”
“Yes, I know,” said Jack gloomily. “Well, there’s only one thing to be done. I must go back and get it. You explore the cave of echoes with the girls, Philip, and I’ll take Kiki and go back for the opener. Serves me right.”
“I’ll come with you, Jack,” said Lucy-Ann, sorry for her brother.
“No, you’ve had a jolly long walk already,” said Jack. “You go with the others. Anyway, I’ll be quicker by myself. I’ll just have a sitdown before I start back. I can always explore the cave another time.”
He sat down on the moss. The others sat with him, sorry for him, knowing how annoyed he must feel with himself. But it would be still more annoying to have to go without meals. The opener must certainly be fetched.
After about half an hour Jack felt able to start back again. He said a cheery good-bye to the others, and left, scrambling quickly down the rocks. They knew he would not lose his way. They all felt they knew it quite well by this time.
Jack had Kiki on his shoulder, and they talked together all the way. Kiki was simply delighted to have Jack all by herself. He was nearly always with the others. They talked complete nonsense and both of them thoroughly enjoyed it.
Jack arrived at last at the tree under which they had had their lunch. He looked for the opener, half fearful in case it had been removed by somebody. But it was still there, lying where he had left it. He picked it up and put it into his pocket.
“Three cheers,” he said.
“Three blind mice,” said Kiki. “Handy spandy, humpy dumpy.”
“I agree with you,” said Jack. “Well, we’ll get back, I think. Twilight will soon be coming and I don’t fancy going back in the dark. Off we go, Kiki, up the hill.”
“Jack and Jill,” agreed Kiki.
“Jack and Kiki, you mean,” grinned Jack, turning to go. Then he stood still suddenly and listened. Away in the distance he could hear a sound he knew — a familiar, throbbing sound. Rr-rr-rr-rr-rr!
“Gosh, Kiki! — are those fellows coming back so soon?” said Jack, staring into the western sky, which was still faintly gold. “Yes — that’s a plane all right. But is it theirs?”
The plane came nearer, growing larger and larger. An idea came into Jack’s mind. He ran to where the men’s shed was, and climbed quickly up into a tree not far from where they had their camp-fire. He spoke sternly to Kiki.
“Now, quiet, Kiki. Not a word. Do you understand? Shhhhhh!”
“What a pity, what a pity!” said Kiki in a curious hoarse whisper, and then was silent, pressing against Jack’s neck as she sat on his shoulder.
The plane roared nearer. It circled lower and lower. It dropped to the long smooth strip that made such an excellent runway. It bounced along on its high wheels and then came to a stop. Jack could not see the plane from where he was.
But he was counting on the men coming to the shed or to their fire, and he was right. They soon arrived, and Jack peered out through the leaves, nearly overbalancing in his efforts to see properly, for twilight was almost there.
This time there were four men. Jack looked very hard. He could see that one man was evidently a prisoner. He had his hands tied behind him. How strange!
He shambled along, his head bent, going from side to side a little as if he was dizzy. Now and again one of the others would give him a shove to keep him straight. They came straight to the camp-fire.
Juan set to work to light it. Pepi went off to the shed to get some tins. He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. He came out carrying tins of soup and meat.
The prisoner sat down on the grass, his head bent. It was obvious that he was not feeling well — or was he merely afraid? Jack couldn’t tell. The fourth man, who was a kind of guard for the prisoner, as far as Jack could make out, sat by the fire saying nothing, watching Juan and Pepi.
At first they talked in low voices and Jack could not hear their words. They drank hot soup, and then carved up a tongue from a glass jar. They ate bread with it which they had brought from the plane. The prisoner looked up and saw them eating, but the three men did not offer him anything. He said something in a low voice. Juan laughed.