Pepi took up a stick and grinned. “A little of this will do you good,” he said. “You boys are a lot of trouble to us. Where are the others? You will tell me or I will beat you black and blue.”
“Let me go!” yelled Jack, and kicked hard at Pepi’s ankles. The man gave a yelp of pain and hit Jack on the back with the heavy stick. Jack kicked him again.
What would have happened to poor Jack is easy to guess — if something hadn’t happened to Pepi first! The wind howled round and shook the tree violently. Something fell from the tree and hit the raging man full on the shoulder. He dropped down at once, shouting, clutching at his shoulder. Jack sped off into the wind. He turned and looked back. Pepi was trying to get up, groaning. The wind howled again, and the big tree spat out something else that hit Pepi on the head. He fell back and did not move.
“Golly!” said Jack, staring. “It’s two of our suitcases that we left up the tree! They just blew down at the right moment. I hope they haven’t killed him.”
He went back cautiously to the still man. No, he wasn’t killed — just completely knocked out. Jack saw his chance at once. He took his rope and roped the man’s hands firmly together, and then his feet. Then he tied him to the tree.
“Now you won’t be able to come after me, my dear Pepi,” said Jack, taking a quick look up the tree in case the remaining two suitcases should come down. “I suppose the others left you here on guard today, as they knew somebody had been at their food. Well, you won’t be much use as a guard for the rest of the day, but never mind. The tree will shelter you from the storm.
Suddenly such an extraordinary idea struck Jack that he stood perfectly still and gasped. Then he struck his hands together and yelled out loudly:
“I must do it, I must, I must! But have I time? Have I time?”
He began to run as fast as he could through the wind and the rain. “Why didn’t I think of it before? If those men are in the treasure caves, I can bolt the door on them, just as they did to us — and make them prisoners! Why didn’t I think of it before? It may be too late now.”
He ran and ran, gasping and panting, hot as fire in spite of the wind and the rain.
“It won’t be any good. The men will be out of the caves by now,” he thought. “I may see them at any minute. Oh, why didn’t I think of this before? I could have gone and bolted them in before I left Dinah and Lucy-Ann!”
It certainly was a most wonderful idea. The men would be absolute prisoners. They did not know the way out behind the picture, and would never think of looking for it there. Certainly the old people would not tell them. Oh, if only they were still in the caves!
The rain poured down. The wind blew like a gale. Fortunately it was behind Jack now and it helped him on. He was soaked through, but he didn’t care.
There was no sign of the men. Jack slowed down when he came near the waterfall. He didn’t want to run right into them. He began to think more calmly.
“Maybe they won’t come out till the rain stops and the storm dies down. Rain would spoil the old books and papers and pictures. Yes, they’ll be sure to wait. I may be in time yet. The men may even decide to stay the night there if the storm doesn’t clear.”
Jack was right. The men, having looked out of the entrance-hole of the caves, had seen the rain-storm sweeping over the mountainside and had decided not to venture out with their treasures. They would be ruined.
“Better spend the night here,” said one of the men. “In that room with the rugs. We’ll turn the old people and children out.”
Only the old people were there. They made vague gestures when the men asked where the children were, pointing towards the passage that led to the sunny ledge. The men settled down on the rugs, and one of them got out a pack of cards. He set the lamp so that they could all see, and then began to deal the cards. The old people went into their “sitting-room,” sad and afraid. How they hoped that the men would not look behind the picture in the next room!
When Jack arrived at the treasure caves he could hardly walk through the passages. He stumbled along, past the cave of stalactites, past the cave of stars and into the first treasure cave, through the open door at the bottom of the curving stairway. He could see no men at all. His heart sank. Had they gone, then? Had he missed them?
He went cautiously on. When he came to the “sitting-room” he peeped in and saw the old couple there, with Martha the hen.
Then he heard the noise of the men in the next room. He beckoned to the old couple. They rose silently and followed him in surprise. Jack did not speak till he was well out of earshot of the men.
“Come,” he said, leading them out of the cave of statues and out of the stout door. “I am going to bolt the men in. But I don’t want to lock you in too.”
He shot all the bolts triumphantly. Crash! Crash! Crash! He’d done it! He’d done it!
Chapter 28
THE DAY AFTER THE STORM
AS soon as he had shot the bolts safely home, Jack collapsed. His tussle with Pepi, his long run through the wind and the rain, and the terrific excitement of making the men prisoners had been too much for him. He sank down to the steps outside the bolted door, and lay there quite still.
It was dark there. The old couple felt about for Jack in alarm. What was happening to the poor boy?
They found his torch in his pocket and took it out. They switched it on and looked anxiously at Jack’s pale face and closed eyes. They tried to drag him up the steps.
“His clothes are wet,” said the old woman, feeling Jack’s soaked jersey and shorts. “He will get a chill, a terrible chill. Maybe he will die of it. What shall we do, old man?”
The old man answered her in her own language. “We will drag him up these steps. We will make him comfortable in the cave of stars. You shall wrap him in your shawl and he shall have my coat.”
Together the old couple managed to drag Jack up the steps. How they panted and groaned. They could not get him any further than the top. The old man stripped off Jack’s wet things and put his coat round him. The old woman wrapped him all round in her thick shawl. They squeezed out his wet things and hung them on the rocky wall to dry.
They were frightened. What were they going to do now? Those men were bolted in the caves with what was left of their precious treasure. How angry they would be when they discovered what had happened!
Jack soon came to himself again. He sat up, wondering where he was. He had been in a kind of half faint, half sleep. He clutched at his clothes. What on earth had he got on? A shawl? Gracious, was he dressed up as a statue again?
The old people heard him moving and switched on the torch again. They looked anxiously at him and were relieved to see that he was no longer so white.
“You are better now?” asked the old man gently.
“Yes, thanks. I’m all right,” said Jack, pulling at the shawl. “Whatever’s this?”
“Your clothes were so wet,” said the old man. “We had to take them off to dry them or you would have got a terrible chill. You have my coat and my wife’s shawl.”
“Oh — well, thank you,” said Jack, feeling rather foolish in the coat and shawl. “Sorry I gave you a fright. But I just conked out — that run up the mountainside, I suppose. I say — wasn’t it a good idea bolting those men in?”
“Ah — but what will they do to us when they know?” said the old man sadly.
“Nothing! How can they?” said Jack. “They are on the wrong side of the bolted door, aren’t they? Don’t you worry, we’re all right!”
He got up. His legs were not very steady, but he could walk all right. “I’m just going to the entrance of the caves to see if by any chance that awful wind-storm has died down,” he said. “If it has, I’ll make my way to the fern-cave, where the two girls are. They’ll be scared by themselves.”