“Shhhh!” said Kiki cheekily.
“Don’t talk back to me!” said Dinah, lying down again. “Well, I’m glad we heard those planes. Good luck to you Philip, wherever you are!”
“Good luck!” called the others, and Kiki echoed the words too. “Good luck!”
“Cluck-luck-luck!” said Martha the hen, sounding exactly as if she was joining in with the good wishes as well!
Chapter 27
A DISCOVERY — AND A FINE IDEA
THE next day the men were all back again in the four planes. They soon arrived once more at the treasure caves, going through the old books and papers, unrolling the dozens of canvases and looking at the pictures. They had gone to find the children and the old couple and had shouted at them again.
They had found out that somebody had helped himself to food from the hut, and they could not make it out. Hadn’t they imprisoned all the children and the old people in the caves?
The children, of course, guessed at once that it was Philip who had helped himself to the food. But they were not going to say so. So Jack put on a bewildered air and replied quite stupidly, and Dinah did the same. Lucy-Ann sobbed and the men soon gave up questioning her.
As for the old couple, they knew nothing, of course. They did not even appear to have missed Philip. The men gave up their questioning after a while, and returned to their work.
Elsa was sad to see Lucy-Ann sobbing so. She took her by the hand and led her into the “bedroom.” She took down a picture she had put on a ledge there, and showed Lucy-Ann a space behind. Lucy-Ann stared at it.
“What is it?” she said. Then she called to Jack. “Jack! Come here, and bring the old man. The old woman doesn’t understand what I say.”
They came, and when Jack saw the yawning space behind the picture, he turned to the old man.
“What’s that? A hidey-hole?”
“Oh, it is only a hole in the wall,” said the old fellow. “My wife did not like it, so she covered it with a picture.”
The old woman poured out a torrent of words to him. He turned to Jack. “My wife is sad because your little sister is frightened by those men. She says she can hide in this hole and they will not find her.”
“Let me see what it’s like,” said Jack, and climbed into it. It was more than a hole. It was a tiny, round dark tunnel that had once been a waterway. Where could it lead to — if it led anywhere?
“It’s a little tunnel!” Jack called back. “Rather like the one that led out of our fern-cave into the cave of echoes. I’ll see if it goes anywhere.”
He crawled on for some way, and then it suddenly dipped down so steeply that he could have slid down it if it had not been so narrow. It ended in a hole that seemed to open out in the roof of a much bigger passage. Jack flashed his torch down. Yes, that really was a passage down there! He crawled back to the girls.
“Come behind me,” he said. “I may have found a way of escape. We’ll have to use a rope though.”
They crawled in single file till they came to the hole that dropped into the wide passage. Jack undid the rope he always carried round his waist. He tied it to a rock and let it drop down into the passage, then down he went.
The girls followed. Jack flashed his torch up and down the passage. “Which way shall we go?” he said.
“I can hear a funny noise,” said Lucy-Ann. “It’s the waterfall, I do believe!”
They went down the passage towards the noise — and to their intense surprise and delight they came out on to the ledge behind the waterfall, the one on which Lucy-Ann and Dinah had capered about to hold the attention of Pepi some days before.
“I say! It’s the waterfall ledge — and that is the passage that leads back to the cave of echoes!” said Jack. “Would you believe it? We can get back to our dear old fern-cave and we shan’t be prisoners in the treasure caves any more. Let’s go and fetch the old couple too.”
He went back down the passage, swarmed up the rope, wriggled back up the little tunnel and came out into the sitting-room. He told the old man where the passage led to. “Come too,” he said. “We will take you to a safe place.”
The old man laughed sadly. “We cannot do as you do and crawl and climb,” he said. “It is impossible. You go, and we will stay here. We will not say where you have gone. We will put back the picture over the hole and no one will guess.”
Jack went back to the girls, Kiki with him. “Pity we couldn’t take Martha too,” he said. “I got quite fond of her. But the old people would miss her. They simply won’t come with us. I think they’re right, too — they’d never be able to swarm along that little tunnel, and swing down the rope — nor would they ever be able to get down into the fern-cave. Come on! I’m longing to get back to our own cave. Ha ha — we’ve escaped after all! Won’t those men be wild!”
“I hope they won’t hurt those two old people,” said Lucy-Ann anxiously. “She was such a dear, gentle old woman.”
They went down the winding passage and came to the cave of echoes, where Kiki annoyed them by squawking and screeching all the time, bringing back echoes of hundreds of magnified squawks and screeches that almost deafened them.
They got through the little drainpipe-like tunnel that led to the back of the fern-cave, and dropped thankfully down to the rugs still spread out there.
“Home again,” said Jack, and laughed. “Funny to think we feel this is home — but I really do.”
They settled down for a rest. “Those men must have gone off somewhere in their planes last night, unloaded their goods and taken off again almost at once to get back so quickly,” said Dinah thoughtfully. “I really hardly expected to see them in the caves today. I didn’t hear the planes come back, did you?”
“No — but the wind has changed, so maybe the sound didn’t blow in our direction,” said Jack. “It’s not so sunny now — looks like rain — again. The wind’s jolly strong.”
“We shall have to keep a look-out for Bill and Philip if they come,” said Dinah. “Philip won’t know we’re here, will he?”
“Do you girls mind if I go this evening and just have a snoop round about the men’s hut?” asked Jack. “You know — in case by any chance old Tufty didn’t get away but got caught and is a prisoner.”
“Golly! I didn’t even think of that!” said Lucy-Ann in horror. “Oh, Jack, surely you don’t think he got caught, do you?”
“Not for a minute,” said Jack cheerfully. “But it would be just as well to make sure. I’d better go now whilst the men are busy in the caves. By the way, were all eight of them there, do you know?”
“I think so,” said Dinah, frowning. “But I really couldn’t be certain. Do you remember, Lucy-Ann?”
“No. I didn’t look at them,” said Lucy-Ann. “Horrid things!”
“I expect they were all there,” said Jack. “Brr-r-r-r — the wind’s cold today. I’ll put on an extra jersey. So long, girls, I’ll be back in a short time!”
Off he went, following the familiar way back to the men’s hut. He did not think that Philip would have been caught, but still, he must make sure. He scouted cautiously about. The hut door was shut. He went up to it and peeped in at the window. No Philip there. Good!
“Better just pop up to the cowshed,” thought Jack. “They might have got him tied up there.” So off he went. No — it was empty — good!
There was a sudden rush of wind such as often sweeps through a mountainous valley. A torrent of rain came down and the boy ran for a tree. It was the tree in which they had once all hidden, a good big thick one, that would keep the rain off. He crouched there whilst the wind whipped round him.
There was such a noise of wind that the boy did not hear footsteps coming behind the tree. He did not see the burly figure of Pepi there, staring in surprise at the crouched boy.
In a trice Pepi was round the tree and had got hold of Jack’s shoulders. The boy gave a howl of fright. Pepi gripped him tightly.
“Let me go!” yelled Jack. “You brute, let me go! You’re twisting my shoulder!”