He listened. He could hear the men’s voices from the next cave, where the pictures were. Then footsteps again, farther away. Then only a faint murmur of voices.
“They’ve gone to the cave of books — and then they’ll go to the cave where the gold is,” thought Philip. “I’ve plenty of time to get through the door and away.”
He dropped his shawl on the floor and went quietly to the door. He was through it in a trice. Up the winding steps he went, off to the cave of stars — then to the cave of gleaming stalactites. He began to feel safer. He didn’t think there would be anyone on guard outside the hole, but he meant to be careful there.
There was nobody on guard. The hillside was empty. Philip climbed out of the hole and began to make his way downwards. Soon he was well on his way, keeping a sharp look-out all the time just in case all the men had not gone down into the caves.
He was tired and hungry by the time he reached the men’s hut. Thank goodness the door was open and there was nobody about! The boy got himself a good meal. He found a box containing bars of chocolate, and slipped some of the bars into his pocket, in case he had to go some time without food.
Then he went along to the planes. There they were, four of them, looking quite big as he walked beside them. Which should he get into?
He climbed up into the cabin of each and looked inside. In the last one there was a big heap of coats and rugs. It seemed the best plane to get into. He could pile the things over him and hide himself that way. He didn’t at the moment see any chance of squeezing himself into a crate, as Dinah had suggested. Anyway, the crates were not in the plane, they were under the tarpaulins, where they had always been.
Having decided exactly what he was going to do, he had plenty of time left on his hands. He knew that the men would not be back for some time. They would be carrying heavy, awkward loads and would go far more slowly than he had gone.
He amused himself by snooping round. He went into the hut and found a coat hanging up there. He ran his hands through the pockets, thinking that any information he could get hold of might be useful to Bill, when he got to him.
There was a notebook in one of the pockets. Philip flipped over the pages. He could make nothing of it. It contained sentences in some kind of code, and plenty of numbers. Perhaps Bill could make head or tail of it. He couldn’t!
He went to the cowshed. There was nothing to be seen there but the still-open tins of fruit, swarming with flies. Philip stared at them. “Oh yes — they are what Jack left for Otto,” he thought. “Ugh, look at the flies!”
He took a stick, dug a hole and buried the evil-smelling tins and their contents. Then he strolled off again and came to the tree where they had all once hidden. He squinted up and saw something. “Golly, what’s that?”
Then he remembered. “Of course — we left our suitcases up there. I’d forgotten all about them. Fancy them still being there!”
He debated whether to get them down and hide them. “No,” he thought, “they might be found, and then the men might start looking for me. I’ll leave them there.”
He kept a good look-out for the returning men as the afternoon wore on. He helped himself to some biscuits and a tin of peaches about five o’clock. Still no sign of the men.
But about ten minutes later he saw them far away in the distance. He was by the planes, waiting, ready to jump into the one he had chosen as soon as he saw the men coming.
He counted the men quickly. Yes — eight — so they were all back. He climbed up the steps and leapt into the cabin. He went to the pile of rugs and coats and got underneath, pulling them over him so that not even the toe of his shoe showed.
“Good thing it’s a hot day,” he thought. “The men certainly won’t want their coats or macks.”
He heard the voices of the men. Evidently they were pleased with their successful day. Then there was a silence. They had passed the planes, and were on their way to the hut. “Probably get themselves a meal, and then pack up the things they have brought from the treasure caves,” thought Philip. He yawned. He felt sleepy now that he was lying down.
Soon he was asleep, and he slept so soundly that he did not even stir when, some hours later, two men entered his plane. But he did wake when the propellers swung round as the engines suddenly roared out! He nearly gave himself away by sitting up in a fright.
Then he remembered where he was, and lay perfectly still, wondering if it was night-time. He could see nothing under the pile of coats, of course. It might have been midnight or noon for all he knew.
One by one the planes took off. Philip’s plane went last of all. He felt it leave the ground like a bird and then he was away in the air.
“They haven’t seen me! They don’t guess they’ve got me on board!” thought Philip, delighted. “It was easy after all. Hurrah!”
He fell asleep again, and the planes roared on through the night. Where were they going? To a secret landing-place? To an ordinary aerodrome?
The other children, who were sleeping that night out on the ledge, heard the roar of the planes as they left. It was such a hot night that they had felt stifled indoors and had begged the old couple to let them take the rugs out on the ledge.
“You will not walk in your sleep?” the old man had said. “You might walk off the ledge!”
“None of us walk in our sleep,” said Jack. “We’ll be all right.”
Elsa, the old woman, had not wanted Lucy-Ann to sleep out on the ledge at all, and had almost cried when Lucy-Ann had insisted. Kiki and Martha were both there too. But the lizard wasn’t. She was with Philip, sharing his adventure.
The children had had a horrid day. The men had found both them and the old couple in the “sitting-room” and had shouted at them and questioned them, and frightened them very much. The old man had told them that he had been living in the caves for a long time, guarding the treasure, and the men had jumped to the conclusion that the children also had been living there with them.
“Good thing they didn’t ask us how we got to this valley,” said Jack afterwards. “They just took it for granted that we and the old people came here together ages ago.”
The old man and woman had flown to the rescue of their beloved statues when the men had begun to strip off the jewellery. The men had struck the poor old things and shouted at them. The old man had taken his weeping, trembling wife away, and the children had done their best to comfort them.
They had not gone near the men again, but had gone to sit on the sunny ledge, and wondered if Philip had managed to escape. “I’m sure he did,” said Lucy-Ann. “All the men kept together, and Philip could easily have slipped out of the cave of statues when they came to question us.”
The men had gone at last, taking with them a haul of jewels, one very precious figure, some pictures and a few old papers. Two of them carried a box of the gold between them. The children pictured their difficulties, hauling it up and down the mountainside.
The men had bolted the door behind them again, and once more the little company were prisoners. How they wondered what was happening to Philip! Had he managed to hide in one of the aeroplanes? Would he slip into a crate? When would the planes go off?
They knew that the planes had gone when they awoke in the night to hear the throb of the engines. They all sat up and listened. Kiki gave a squawk and pecked Martha to wake her.
“There go the planes,” said Jack. “I bet Philip’s in one. Now we shall soon be rescued. What a shock for Bill when he hears all about us! Do you think Bill will fly over in his aeroplane too?”
“I hope so,” said Lucy-Ann fervently. “I’m longing to see Bill again. I sometimes feel as if we’ll be in this valley all our lives.”
“Don’t be silly,” said Dinah. “Oh, Kiki, leave Martha alone. Whatever are you doing to her to make her cluck like that?”