Part 7 (1/2)

”I can't find Kiki,” said Lucy-Ann. ”I've looked everywhere.”

”Don't be so silly. She's gone out of the cave after Jack, I expect,” said Dinah, even crosser. She lay down again and yawned. Lucy-Ann shook her.

”You're not to go to sleep again, Dinah. I tell you, Kiki was here a little while ago - at the back of the cave - and now she's gone. Absolutely vanished.”

”Well, let her - she'll come back all right,” said Dinah. ”Leave me alone, Lucy-Ann.”

She shut her eyes. Lucy-Ann didn't like to say any more. Dinah could be so fierce when she was cross. The little girl sighed and wished the boys were back. What had happened to Kiki?

She got up and walked across the moss to the back of the cave. The rock was folded in on. itself there, and there was a s.p.a.ce behind one of the folds. Lucy-Ann looked cautiously into the dark s.p.a.ce, expecting to see Kiki hiding there, ready to cry ”Bo” at her, as she sometimes most annoyingly did.

But Kiki wasn't there. Lucy-Ann flashed her torch up and down the little hidden corner, and suddenly her torch came to a stop, focussed on one place.

”Why - there's a hole there!” said Lucy-Ann in surprise. ”That's where Kiki must have gone!”

She clambered up to the hole, which was about shoulder-high. It was just big enough for her to squeeze through. She expected to drop down into another cave the other side, but she didn't. The hole went upwards slightly, a round, narrow tunnel. Lucy-Ann felt sure Kiki must have disappeared into this queer, dark little tunnel.

”Kiki!” she yelled, and flashed her torch in front of her. ”Where are you, idiot? Come back!”

No sound from Kiki. Lucy-Ann squeezed herself right into the round tunnel, wondering how long It was. It was almost as round as a pipe. Maybe water had forced its way through at one time, but now it was quite dry. Lucy-Ann could not hear any sound of the waterfall once she was in the tunnel, though she listened hard. It was very quiet there.

”KIKI!” she yelled. ”KIKI!”

Dinah heard the yell in her dreams and awoke with a jump. She sat up crossly again. But this time Lucy-Ann was not in the cave with her. Now it was Dinah's turn to feel scared. She remembered that Lucy-Ann said that Kiki had suddenly disappeared. Now it seemed as if Lucy-Ann had too. The fronds of fern were hanging over the entrance. Lucy-Ann would not have pushed out through them without telling Dinah she was going out.

Dinah examined the cave well. No Lucy-Ann. Oh, goodness, now what had happened to her and Kiki?

She heard another yell, sounding rather m.u.f.fled and distant. She went to the back of the cave and discovered the hidden s.p.a.ce. She fetched another torch from the ledge and shone it up and down. She stared in amazement when she saw two shoes sticking out of a round hole about as high as her shoulder.

She tugged at Lucy-Ann's ankles and yelled at her. ”Lucy-Ann! What do you think you're doing? Where are you going? What's up that hole?”

Lucy-Ann yelled back. ”I don't know, Dinah. I found it by accident. I think Kiki must have gone up it. Shall I go up and see if I can find her? You come too.”

”All right,” called Dinah. ”Go on up.”

Lucy-Ann wriggled further up the narrow pipe-like tunnel. It suddenly widened out, and by the light of her torch she saw below her another cave - but a vast one this time.

She managed to get out of the hole, and had a look round at the cave. It was more like an underground hall. Its roof was very high indeed. From somewhere in its dim vastness came a mournful voice.

”What a pity, what a pity!”

”Kiki! So you are here!” cried Lucy-Ann, and then listened in astonishment to the echo that sounded immediately. ”Here, here, here, are here, are here!” cried the echoes, repeating themselves in a weird and strange manner.

”Hurry up, Dinah!” called Lucy-Ann, not liking the echoes at all.

”Up, Dinah, Dinah, Dinah!” called the echoes at once. Kiki flew over to Lucy-Ann, frightened. So many voices! Whatever could they all be?

”Poor Kiki!” said the parrot, in a fright. ”Poor Kiki!”

”Kiki, Kiki, Kiki!” called the echoes. The parrot s.h.i.+vered and gazed all round, trying to see who called her. She suddenly gave a loud and defiant squawk.

At once a score of squawks sounded all round, as if the cave was filled with hundreds of parrots. Kiki was simply astounded. Could there be so many birds there that she couldn't see?

Dinah crawled out of the hole and stood by Lucy-Ann. ”What an enormous place!” she said.

”Place!” shouted the echoes.

”Everything we say is repeated,” said Lucy-Ann. ”It's weird.”

”Weird, it's weird,” said the echoes.

”Well, let's whisper, then,” said Dinah, whispering herself. The cave was at once filled with mysterious whispers, which scared the girls even more than the repeated shouts they had heard. They clutched one another. Then Dinah recovered herself.

”It's only the echoes,” she said. ”You often get them in enormous caves like this. I wonder if anyone has ever been here before.”

”Never, I should think,” said Lucy-Ann, flas.h.i.+ng her torch all round. ”Fancy! We may be treading in a place that no one else has ever trodden in before!”

”Let's explore the cave a bit,” said Dinah. ”Not that there seems much to see, but we might as well do something whilst we're waiting for the boys.”

So they walked slowly round the great dark cave, their footsteps repeated a hundred times by the echoes. Once, when Dinah sneezed, the girls were really frightened by the enormous explosive noises that came from all round them. The echoes certainly enjoyed themselves then.

”Oh, don't sneeze again, Dinah,” begged Lucy-Ann. ”It's really awful to hear the echoes sneezing. Worse than hearing them squawk like Kiki.”

They had gone almost all the way round the cave when they came to a pa.s.sage leading out of it - a high, narrow pa.s.sage, between two walls of rocks.

”Look at that!” said Dinah, surprised. ”A pa.s.sage! Do you suppose it leads anywhere?”

”It might,” said Lucy-Ann, and her eyes gleamed. ”Don't forget, Dinah, that those men are after treasure. We don't know what kind - but it's just possible it might be hidden somewhere in these mountains.”

”Let's follow the pa.s.sage, then,” said Dinah. ”Kiki! Come along. We don't want to leave you behind.”

Kiki flew to her shoulder. In silence the two girls entered the narrow, rocky pa.s.sage, their torches gleaming in front of them. What were they going to find?

Chapter 12.

BEHIND THE WATERFALL.

THE pa.s.sage was a very winding one. It led a little downwards, and the floor was very uneven to the feet. The girls tripped and stumbled very often. Once the roof came down so low that they had to crawl under it. But it grew high again almost at once.

After a while they heard a noise. They couldn't imagine what it was. It was a deep and continuous roar that never stopped even for a second.

”What's that?” said Dinah. ”Are we getting into the heart of the mountain, do you think, Lucy-Ann? That's not the roar of a mighty fire, is it? What can it be? What is there that could make that noise in the middle of a mountain?”

”I don't know,” said Lucy-Ann, and immediately wanted to go back. A fire in the heart of a mountain, a fire that roared like that? She didn't in the least want to see it. She felt hot and breathless at the thought.

But Dinah wasn't going back now that they had come so far.