“Oh, do put your torch out!” begged Lucy-Ann. “I want to watch those stars a bit longer. I never saw anything so fascinating in my life! They shine like phosphorescence — all blue and green and green and blue; look how they flicker off and on. Oh, I wish I could take a hundred home and put them on my bedroom ceiling at home!”
The others laughed at her, but they too thought that the shining, flickering stars were most entrancing to watch. Jack did not put on his torch again until each had gazed his fill.
“That’s two simply wonderful caves,” said Lucy-Ann with a sigh. “What will the next one be? I really do feel as if we’d discovered Aladdin’s Cave, or something like that!”
A long passage, leading downwards, led out of the cave of stars, as Lucy-Ann named it.
“We found a cave of echoes, a cave of stalactites and a cave of stars,” she said. “I like this part of our adventure. Now I’d like to find a cave of treasure.”
The tunnel they were in was wide and high like the first passage they had entered. Jack’s torch suddenly shone brightly on something on the floor. He stopped.
“Look at that!” he said. “What is it?”
Dinah bent to pick it up. “It’s a brooch,” she said. “A brooch without its pin. The pin’s gone. It must have broken and the brooch fell off whoever was wearing it. Isn’t it perfectly lovely?”
It certainly was. It was a large gold brooch, about three inches wide, set with brilliant red stones, as red as blood.
“Are they rubies?” said Dinah in awe. “Look how they glow! Oh, Jack, do you think this is a bit of the treasure?”
“Probably,” said Jack, and at once excitement caught hold of the children again, and their hearts began to beat fast. A ruby brooch, set in carved gold! What would the other treasure be? Wonderful visions arose in the children’s minds, and they stumbled on their way eagerly, their eyes searching the ground for any other gleaming jewel.
“If we could find a cave of jewels,” said Lucy-Ann. “Oooooh — all gleaming like stars and suns! That’s what I would love.”
“We might find something like that,” said Dinah. “If we do, I shall deck myself from head to foot with them and pretend I’m a princess.”
The passage went on and on, still leading downwards, but, when Jack looked at his compass, he saw that he was no longer going into the heart of the mountain, but in the opposite direction. He hoped they wouldn’t suddenly come out into the daylight without finding the cave of treasure.
Suddenly they came to steps that led downwards. They were carved out of the solid rock, steep, wide steps that curved as the passage curved.
“Almost a spiral stairway,” said Jack. “Where are we coming to now?”
There were about twenty of the steps. Then came an enormous door, made of some kind of stout wood, set with iron studs. The children stood and stared at it.
A door! What was behind it? Was it locked and bolted? Who had put it there, and why? Was it to shut in the treasure cave and guard it?
There was no handle to turn. There was not even a lock to be seen. There were great bolts, but these were not shot into place.
“How can you open a door without a handle?” said Jack in despair. He pushed at the door, but it remained quite firm.
“Kick it, like you did the door of the hut,” said Philip, and Jack kicked it hard. But the door did not open.
They stared at it in despair. To come so far and then to be stopped by a door! It was too bad. Jack shone his torch all over the door, from top to bottom.
Lucy-Ann’s sharp eyes noticed something. “See that iron stud?” she said, pointing. “It’s much brighter than the others. I wonder why.”
Jack shone his torch on it and saw that it was slightly bigger than the others — and also, as Lucy-Ann said, it was brighter, as if it had had some handling.
He pressed it. Nothing happened. He banged on it with a stone. No result at all.
“Let me try,” said Philip, and pushed Jack aside. “Shine your torch on it closely. That’s right.”
Philip took hold of the iron stud and shook it. It seemed to give a little. He shook it again. Nothing happened. Then he thought of twisting it.
It twisted round very easily indeed. There was a loud click — and the door swung slowly open. Jack switched off his torch, afraid that anyone in the cave might see them — though if anyone had been there surely they would have heard the bangs and kicks at the door.
The door now stood wide open. A dim light shone beyond, showing another cave. Lucy-Ann clutched Jack’s arm in fright.
“It’s full of people,” she whispered. “Look!”
Chapter 22
THE TREASURE AT LAST!
THE four children stared breathlessly through the open door. They saw something that made them feel very creepy.
In the dim light figures stood about all over the place. Their eyes gleamed queerly, and their teeth shone in the half darkness. Their arms and necks flashed and glittered with jewels.
The children clutched one another in fright. Who were these strange, silent folk, standing about with gleaming eyes, covered with jewels?
The people in the cave did not move. They did not speak a word either. Not one of them was sitting. All were standing. They stood there, some turned towards the frightened children, some turned away. Why didn’t they speak? Why didn’t they point to the children and say, “Look — who’s there?”
Lucy-Ann began to sob. “Let’s go back. I don’t like them. They’re not alive. Only their eyes are.”
Kiki suddenly gave a squawk, left Jack’s shoulder, and flew to the shoulder of one of the near-by figures, a woman dressed in clothes that glowed richly in the half-light of the cave.
Still the woman did not move. How strange! The children suddenly felt much better when they saw that Kiki did not seem in the least afraid of the queer company.
“Polly put the kettle on,” said Kiki, and pecked at the hair of the woman he was sitting on.
The children held their breath again. What would the woman do to Kiki — enchant him with her strange eyes, cast a spell on him and turn him into stone? Perhaps all these people had been turned into stone?
“Let’s go back,” said Lucy-Ann urgently. “I don’t like this cave. I don’t like these people, or their horrid gleaming eyes.”
Jack suddenly stepped down the step that was below the great open door. He marched boldly into the silent cave. Lucy-Ann squealed and tried to catch his sleeve.
Jack walked right up to the woman on whose shoulder Kiki sat. He peered closely at her. He looked into her wide-open glittering eyes. He touched her hair. Then he turned to the horrified children.
“What do you think? She’s a statue — all dressed up beautifully — with real hair — and jewels for eyes! What do you think of that?”
The others could not believe it — but they were very thankful to hear Jack’s words, and to see him wandering among the crowd of still figures, apparently quite unharmed.
Philip and Dinah stepped down into the cave of figures too, but Lucy-Ann still did not quite dare to. She watched the others looking at the strange, beautiful statues, and tried to make herself join them.
At last she screwed up her courage to step down into the cave. She looked fearfully at the woman on whose shoulder Kiki had flown. Yes — Jack was right. She was nothing but a beautiful statue, with a finely-moulded face and a cloud of dark hair. She had magnificent jewels for eyes, and her glittering teeth were exquisite jewels too. Round her neck were golden chains, set with precious stones, and her waxen fingers gleamed with rings. Round her waist was the most beautiful belt that Lucy-Ann had ever seen, carved and set with shining red and blue stones.
There were dozens of these statues in the cave, some of men and some of women. Some of them carried small babies in their arms, fat, smiling babies dressed in the most exquisite clothes, set with thousands of tiny pearls.
It was the babies that gave Jack the clue to what the statues were.
“Do you know what they are?” he said. “They are statues taken from churches somewhere in this country. This one represents Mary, the mother of Jesus — and the little baby is meant to be Jesus Himself. That’s why they are adorned with such lovely jewels. People have spent heaps of money on them to make them beautiful.”