“Oh yes — and some of them are carried in processions at church festivals,” said Dinah, remembering how her mother had once described such a festival to her. “Well, fancy — statues taken from churches! Whatever for?”
“Stolen, I should think,” said Jack. “Stolen by people who took advantage of the troubled war-times, and hid them here — meaning to collect them when they had a chance.”
“They must be worth a lot of money,” said Philip, fingering the magnificent jewels. “Gosh, I did get a terrible fright when I first saw them! I honestly thought they were real people.”
“So did I,” said Lucy-Ann, who had now recovered. “I couldn’t bear them to stand so still and silent. I nearly screamed with fright!”
“We were, idiots not to guess they were statues,” said Dinah. “I say — where does the light come from that lights these statues? It’s only a faint sort of light, but it’s enough to see them by quite well.”
Jack looked all round. “It must be a sort of phosphorescent glow from the walls and roof of the cave,” he said. “It’s rather a greenish light, isn’t it?”
“I say — there’s another archway here!” called Philip, from beyond the statues. “Come and see. I believe there’s another cave beyond.”
They all went to see. Through the archway was yet another cave, lighted with the same dim, greenish glow. In it were stacked great square, oblong or round, flat things. There were no statues at all. The children went to see what the flat things were.
“Pictures!” said Jack, as he tried to swing one to face him. “Enormous ones! Where did they come from? Churches too, do you think?”
“Oh — picture galleries very likely,” said Philip. “Maybe they are famous and quite priceless pictures — very old, too. Look at that one — it looks terribly old-fashioned. My word — these things may be. worth a fortune — heaps of fortunes! I remember reading not so long ago about pictures that were worth two or three million pounds!”
“I didn’t know there was so much money in the world,” said Lucy-Ann, startled. She gazed in awe at the dusty, dim old pictures, tracing their great carved frames with her finger.
“Some of the pictures have been taken out of their frames to bring them here,” said Jack, pulling at a roll of thick canvas. “Look, this one must have been cut from its frame and rolled up so as to be taken away easily.”
There were about fifty rolls of canvas besides the framed pictures. Jack shone his torch on to many of the pictures, but none of the children thought the subjects interesting. So many were portraits of rather fat and stern-looking men. Others were scenes from the Bible, or from old legends.
“Well, this really is a find!” said Jack. “I bet if those men could have found these, they would have made a simply enormous fortune selling them.”
“Of course — they were after all these,” said Philip. “And that’s what those crates were for. To pack them in. They meant to crate them carefully and fly them away little by little. What a brain-wave on their part!”
“And Otto fooled them!” said Jack. “Took them to a rock-fall and said the treasure cave was behind it — so they meekly gave up and flew off. What idiots!”
“And we found everything!” rejoiced Lucy-Ann. “Oh, I wish we could tell Bill!”
“Are there any more caves?” wondered Jack, and walked over to the end of the second cave. “Yes! Here’s another archway and another cave. Books here! And old documents! Come and look!”
“Old books are sometimes as precious and as rare as old pictures,” said Philip, gazing round at the piles of enormous, heavily-bound books. “I say — look at this one! It’s a Bible, but in a foreign language. Isn’t it enormous? Look at the old printing!”
“These really are caves of treasure,” said Jack. “Treasure from churches, libraries and picture galleries. I suppose the war-lords must have hidden them away, meaning to get them when peace came and make a lot of money out of their loot. How awful to steal things like this, though!”
“There’s a little cave here, just off this book-cave,” called Dinah, who was exploring by herself. “There is a big chest here. Oh, and another — and another! What’s in them, I wonder?”
Jack came over to her and lifted up the heavy lid of one chest. He stared down in surprise at the glittering coins piled together in the chest.
“Gold!” he said. “The gold coinage of some country, but I can’t tell which. I’ve never seen gold coins like these before. My goodness, there’s a fortune in that box too — and in that chest, and that one! Fortunes everywhere!”
“It’s like a dream,” said Lucy-Ann, and she sat down on one of the chests. “It really is. A cave of gleaming icicles, or stalags — whatever you call them! A cave of stars! A cave of glittering, jewelled statues! A cave of pictures, and a cave of old books! And now a cave of gold! I can’t believe it.”
It did seem extraordinary. They all sat down on the oak chests and rested. The dim greenish light still shone everywhere, a kind of pale glow that did not seem to come from anywhere in particular, and yet was everywhere.
It was very quiet there. The children could hear themselves breathing, and a cough from Jack sounded startlingly loud.
Then another sound came through the stillness — a sound so completely unexpected and surprising that nobody could believe their ears!
“Cluck! Cluck-luck-luck!”
“Whatever’s that?” said Lucy-Ann at last. “It sounded like a hen clucking.”
“Must have been old Kiki,” said Jack, looking round for her. But she was just near by, sitting on another chest, humped up, looking rather dismal. She had had enough of caves. The children stared at her. Could it have been Kiki?
They listened to see if she would make the same noise again. But she didn’t stir. And then the noise came once more, quite clearly, from another direction altogether.
“Cluck-luck-lurrrrrrk! Cluck-luck-lurrrrk!”
“It is a hen!” said Jack, jumping up. “Making an egg-laying noise. But — a hen — in these caves! It’s impossible!”
All the children were now on their feet. Dinah pointed to some steps at the back of the little cave of gold. “That’s where the noise comes from,” she said.
“I’ll go up first and see if it really is a hen,” said Jack. “I can’t believe it.”
He went cautiously up the steps, and at the same time the clucking began again. Kiki woke up and heard it in astonishment. She immediately began to cluck too, which evidently astonished the hidden clucker, who got very excited and let off a perfect volley of clucks.
Jack came to the top of the steps. There was another door there, but not a very stout one. It was ajar. He pushed it open a little more, very slowly, so that he might see in without attracting attention, though he did not expect to see anything but a hen.
What he saw transfixed him with astonishment. Philip dug his fingers into his back.
“Go on, Jack — what’s up?”
Jack turned round to the others. “I say,” he said in a half-whisper, “it’s awfully queer — but there’s a little cell-like room up here — furnished — table and chairs and a lighted lamp! And — there’s a meal on the table!”
“Come down quickly, then,” whispered Dinah. “We don’t want to bump into anyone. It must be someone who’s guarding the treasure till the others come to get it. Come down!”
But it was too late. A curious, quavering voice came from the cell-like room into which Jack had peeped. A few strange words reached them — but they couldn’t understand a single one. Now what was going to happen?
Chapter 23
THE GUARDIANS OF THE TREASURE
THE children stood absolutely still, holding their breath. Who was there, in that little room at the top of the steps? The voice came again, repeating the words that the children could not understand.
Then to the top of the little flight of steps came a brown hen! It stood there, its head on one side, peering down at the children. “Cluck!” it said, in a friendly kind of voice. “Cluck-luck!”
“Cluck!” said Kiki at once.
Lucy-Ann clutched Dinah. “Was it the hen talking before?” she whispered in amazement.
It wasn’t, of course. The quavering voice came again, and to the children’s surprise it sounded really frightened.
Nobody came to where Jack stood almost at the top of the steps. The boy screwed up his courage and marched into the little room.
At the other end of it, under a small archway of rock, stood an old old man. Behind him was a woman, just as old, but more bent. They stared at Jack in amazement, and then, turning to one another, they poured out a stream of hurried words that the children could not understand at all.