Part 12 (1/2)

”Here's the end of the wood!” called Jack. ”Now for another steep bit to another ledge - and we'll look down on the road. Come on, everybody!”

Chapter 19.

A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT - AND A PLAN.

IT certainly was a stiff climb again, up the steep, rather stony slope to the ledge they could see some way above. Lucy-Ann almost cried because her feet kept slipping so.

”I take one step up, and slip two steps back,” she wailed.

”Well, hang on to me, then,” said Philip, and gave her a tug up each time she took a step.

They all wanted a rest when they came to the next ledge, and to their delight they saw a patch of wild raspberries growing there. They could sit down in the canes and feast as they rested. Lovely! Kiki liked the raspberries very much indeed, and ate so many that Jack called to her.

”Kiki! You'll go pop!”

”Pop goes the weasel,” answered Kiki, and helped herself to a few dozen more raspberries.

Soon they all felt they could go on again. They were very high up now, and could see even more mountains towering behind the ones they knew. It was a most magnificent sight.

”I feel very small and lost somehow, with all those great mountains sitting there,” said Lucy-Ann, and the others felt the same. ”Come on - let's go round the ledge now. We shall soon see the road. Thank goodness this ledge isn't narrow. It's almost wide enough to take a car.”

It was not so easy walking round the ledge as Lucy-Ann thought, however, for there had been a fall of rocks there, further along, and there was a good deal of scrambling about to be done. The boys went first to find a safe way for the girls. They were thankful when they had got over the rock-fall and come to smoother ground again.

The ledge rounded a bend in the mountainside, and then, quite suddenly, the children saw the road below them. Yes, it was really a road! They stood and looked at it in delight.

”I never thought I should be so pleased to see a road before,” said Dinah. ”The road out of the valley! The road to Somewhere at last!”

”Look,” said Lucy-Ann, ”it winds up from quite a long way down. We can't see where it goes to from here, because it's hidden round that bend.”

”You can see the pa.s.s, the Windy Pa.s.s, from here, though,” said Jack, pointing. ”See where this mountain and the next almost touch? That's where the pa.s.s must be - fairly high up and awfully narrow. I bet we'll have to go through it in single file.”

”No, we won't,” said Philip scornfully. ”It's bound to be wide enough to take a cart. It only looks narrow because we're far off.”

”Come on, let's get down to the road,” said Dinah, and began to climb down to it. They were about twenty feet above it.

”I say, isn't it overgrown with gra.s.s and weeds!” said Jack, astonished. ”That shows how little it has been used lately. Queer, isn't it? You'd think the people would put their only road out of the valley into some sort of order.”

”It's jolly peculiar, I think,” said Philip. ”Come on - we can at least see it's a road, even if it is overgrown with weeds.”

They walked along the road for some way. It wound upwards always, following long curves in and out on the slopes of the mountain. At last the children could clearly see where the Windy Pa.s.s must be, a narrow pa.s.sage between the two mountains, theirs and the next.

It was cold so high up and the wind was very strong. If the children had not been warm with climbing they would have s.h.i.+vered. As it was, they were all as warm as toast.

”Now - round this next corner - and I bet we shall see the pa.s.s!” cried Jack. ”Then hurrah for the way out of this mysterious valley!”

They rounded the corner. Yes - there lay the pa.s.s - or what must once have been the pa.s.s. But it was a pa.s.s no longer.

Something had happened. The narrow way between the high mountains was blocked high with great rocks and black boulders. It was impa.s.sable.

At first the four children didn't quite take it in. They stood and stared in wonder.

”What's happened there?” said Jack at last. ”It looks like an earthquake or something. Did you ever see such a terrible mess?”

”Great holes have been blown in the rocky walls on either side of the pa.s.s,” said Philip. ”Look, even high up there are holes like craters.”

They stared in silence, and then Jack turned to the others. ”Do you know what I think has happened?” he said. ”Well, when enemies were here, fighting, they bombed the pa.s.s - and blocked it. All that devastation has been caused by bombs - I'm sure it has.”

”Yes, I think you're right, Jack,” said Philip. ”It's just what it looks like. Aeroplanes must have flown just over the pa.s.s, and dropped scores of bombs down on the narrow road there. It's absolutely impa.s.sable.”

”Do you mean - we can't get out?” asked Lucy-Ann in a trembling voice. Philip nodded.

”Afraid so,” he said. ”n.o.body could get over that steep, high, dangerous wall of blown-up rocks. This explains why people haven't come along to live in this valley yet. I suppose most of those living here were killed, and the rest escaped over the pa.s.s. Then it was blown up and n.o.body could come back. Those men in the plane, Juan and the rest, must have got wind of some treasure hidden in the valley, and thought they would try to enter the place by plane. About the only way to enter it, too.”

Lucy-Ann sat down and cried. ”I'm so disappointed,” she wailed. ”I thought we were going to escape from this horrid, lonely valley, I really did. But now we're still prisoners here - and n-n-n-n.o.body can come in to rescue us!”

The others sat down by Lucy-Ann, feeling rather desperate too. They stared hopelessly at the blocked pa.s.s. What a terrible blow! Just as they had so hoped they would be able to escape, and get to Julius, and tell him about the treasure.

”Let's have something to eat,” suggested Dinah. ”We'll feel better then. No wonder we feel a bit dumpy now.”

”Humpy dumpy,” said Kiki at once. That made them laugh.

”Idiot!” said Philip. ”You don't care about a blocked-up pa.s.s, do you, Kiki? You could fly over. It's a pity we can't tie a message to your leg and send you over to Julius for help.”

”Oooh - couldn't we do that?” said Lucy-Ann at once.

”No, silly! For one thing, Kiki would probably tear the message off her leg,” said Jack, ”and for another she'd never know who to go and look for. She's a clever bird, but not as clever as that.”

They felt a lot better after their meal. They ate it with their backs to the blocked pa.s.s. n.o.body could bear to look at it.

”I suppose we'll have to go back to our cave,” said Dinah at last. ”Doesn't seem anything else to do, really.”

”No, I suppose there isn't,” said Jack rather gloomily. ”What a sell, isn't it?”

They had a good long rest. The sun was very fierce, but the wind was so strong that they were never too hot. In fact, Lucy-Ann went to a rock that sheltered her from the wind, because she felt too cool.

They started back after their rest. They were not nearly so cheerful and talkative as when they had set out that morning. The thought of having to stay in the lonely valley, after having such high hopes of escaping, was very damping to all of them.

Lucy-Ann looked so miserable that Jack tried to think of something to cheer her up. He thought of something really startling.

”Cheer up, Lucy-Ann,” he said. ”Maybe we'll find the treasure now, to make up for our disappointment.”

Lucy-Ann stopped and stared at him, thrilled. ”Really?” she said. ”Oh, Jack - yes, let's look for the treasure ourselves now!”

Everyone stopped and thought about it for a few exciting moments. ”Well, why not?” said Philip. ”We can't get word about it to Julius, because we can't get over the pa.s.s. Those men have gone, and Otto is gone too. There's only us left. We might as well hunt for the treasure. It would be something exciting to do, to pa.s.s away the time.”