Somehow he stumbled along to the entrance. The clouds were so low and black that it was like night outside. Rain still swept over the hillside in great torrents. It was quite impossible to go out.
“I should get completely lost,” thought Jack. “Golly, the girls will be so worried about me! I hope they won’t be frightened all by themselves. Well, it’s no use — I’ll have to spend the night here with the old people — but it won’t be very comfortable.”
It wasn’t comfortable. They found a place in the cave of stars, a rounded, hollowed-out basin of rock, with only a few sharp edges. For the sake of warmth they all huddled together. Jack tried to make the old people take back their coat and shawl, saying that his clothes were almost dry.
But the old woman grew very angry when he suggested this, and scolded her husband hard in words that Jack could not understand, but whose meaning he could guess.
“My old one says that you are a bad bad boy to talk of putting on wet clothes,” said the old fellow. “We will press close together. It is not cold in this cave.”
It wasn’t very cold, it was true. Jack lay between the old man and his wife, looking up at the roof of the strange cave. He watched the curious greenish-blue stars shine and fade, flicker and glow. There were hundreds of them, most enchanting to watch. Jack wondered about them for a long time and then fell asleep.
In the morning the old people awoke first and felt stiff and uncomfortable. But they did not move for fear of disturbing Jack. He awoke at last and sat up. He saw the glowing stars above and around, and knew where he was at once.
“I wonder what the time is,” he said, looking at his watch. “Half-past seven! Gracious, I wonder what those men are doing! Are my clothes dry?”
Luckily they were. Jack put them on quickly, and gave back the coat and shawl with warm thanks. “Now, you stay here a bit,” he said to the old couple. “I’m just going to the bolted door to see if I can hear anything.”
He went off, feeling quite himself again now. As soon as he came to the top of the curving stairway that led down to the oaken door, he heard bangs and crashes. Ah — the men had discovered that they were bolted in!
Crash! Bang! Thud! Smash!
They were hammering at the stout door for all they were worth. How they shouted and yelled, how they kicked at that door and tried to smash it down!
Jack stood at the top of the steps and grinned in delight. Serve them right! They were getting a taste of their own medicine. They had locked the children in — and now they themselves were prisoners.
Suddenly there was a loud bang that made Jack jump. It was a revolver shot. The men were shooting at the door, hoping to smash the bolts.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jack went back a little way, afraid that a bullet might glance off somehow and hit him, though this was impossible. BANG! BANG!
The bolts could not be smashed. The men gave the door a few more blows with something and then stopped. Jack ran back to tell the old couple all about it.
But they were frightened, so it wasn’t much fun telling them. “I think I’ll take you to the fern-cave, where the girls are,” he told the old man. “We have food and rugs in that cave. Come with me.”
The old people wouldn’t stir out of the place they knew so well. They were terrified of the open air, of the hillside and the outer world. They shrank back and nothing that Jack could say would make them change their minds.
“Well, I shall just have to go to the girls myself, then,” said Jack at last. “I’ll bring them back here with food and rugs. We might as well all be together. Those men are no longer a danger to us. They can’t possibly get out. Even if they find the hole behind that picture, I’m sure they won’t get any further than the cave of echoes.”
He said good-bye to the frightened old people and went out into the sunshine. It was warm on his head and back — delicious. The sky was blue again and the wind had gone.
He made his way to the waterfall, arriving there without any mistake, for he could follow the “signposts” easily now. He was hailed by the girls as soon as they saw him. They were peeping out through the fern-fronds.
“Jack! You didn’t come back last night! Oh, Jack, I hardly slept at all, wondering what had happened to you,” cried Lucy-Ann.
“What happened?” asked Dinah, who was looking rather pale. She too had been very anxious, especially when the storm had come.
“Heaps!” said Jack. “Marvellous news! Best in the world!”
“Gracious! Is Philip back, then? — and Bill here?” cried Lucy-Ann at once.
“No — that’s not my news,” said Jack. “Do you know what I’ve done? Bolted those men into the caves. What do you think of that?”
“What a wonderful idea!” said the girls together. “But what about the old people?” asked Dinah.
“Oh, I got them out first,” said Jack. “And I found Pepi back by the cowshed place, and tied him up properly. He’s bound to that big tree where we once hid.”
“JACK! How marvellous you are!” cried Lucy-Ann. “Did you fight him?”
“Well — not exactly,” said Jack. “He caught me, and I kicked him hard. And just then the wind blew hard and a couple of our suitcases fell out of the tree and knocked him out. It was as much of a surprise to me as to him.”
“Oh — of course — we left our suitcases up there!” said Dinah. “Oh, Jack — what a good thing we did!”
“Pepi must have had a most uncomfortable night,” said Jack. “The rain and wind were his only companions.”
He told them how he had left the old couple in the cave of stars, and related the tale of the angry men trying to smash down the door.
“I can’t get the old people to leave the caves,” he said. “So we’d better take rugs and food and go back there to keep them company. They lent me their coat and shawl last night when my things were soaked. We can’t leave them alone there without food or bedding.”
“Oh dear — I do like this cave so much better than anywhere else,” sighed Lucy-Ann. “Still — those old people have been very good to us. Is Martha there too, Jack?”
“Golly! — no, I’d forgotten all about her,” said Jack, remembering. “I hope those men don’t kill and eat her.”
This was a dreadful thought, and made poor Lucy-Ann quite dumb for a minute or two. Poor Martha. Surely the men would leave her alone?
Kiki, of course, was as delighted to see Jack as the girls had been. She nestled on his shoulder, making crooning noises all the time he was talking, pulling at his ear and ruffling up his hair. Jack scratched her poll, delighted to have her again.
The girls collected a few tins, and Jack piled rugs over his shoulder. Then, with Kiki flying ahead, they set off to follow the familiar “signposts” to the treasure caves. The sun beat down hotly. It was a really lovely day.
“I wish I could draw a plan of how that hole behind the picture leads to our fern-cave,” said Dinah. “The mountain is riddled with holes and caves. I say, isn’t the waterfall loud this morning? — and it seems bigger than ever. I suppose it’s all the rain last night.”
They arrived at the entrance to the caves at last and went in. They made their way to the cave of stars and the old couple greeted them warmly and joyfully. The old woman was full of delight to see Lucy-Ann again, and fondled her lovingly.
“I’m hungry,” said Lucy-Ann, trying to wriggle out of Elsa’s arms. “Very hungry.”
They all were. It was a queer place to have a meal in — the cave of stars. The children watched the flickering, shining lights, quite entranced by them. If only Lucy-Ann could take some home for her bedroom ceiling! She wished this once again as she watched the shining stars.
“Well, now, all we’ve got to do is to wait,” said Jack, arranging the pile of rugs for everyone to sit on as comfortably as possible. “Everything rests with Philip now. Those men evidently don’t know he hid in a plane or they would have said something. He must have escaped all right. What is he doing, I wonder?”
Chapter 29
A VERY STRANGE JOURNEY
WHAT had happened to Philip? He was certainly having a most adventurous time.