Part 17 (1/2)

But about ten minutes later he saw them far away in the distance. He was by the planes, waiting, ready to jump into the one he had chosen as soon as he saw the men coming.

He counted the men quickly. Yes - eight - so they were all back. He climbed up the steps and leapt into the cabin. He went to the pile of rugs and coats and got underneath, pulling them over him so that not even the toe of his shoe showed.

”Good thing it's a hot day,” he thought. ”The men certainly won't want their coats or macks.”

He heard the voices of the men. Evidently they were pleased with their successful day. Then there was a silence. They had pa.s.sed the planes, and were on their way to the hut. ”Probably get themselves a meal, and then pack up the things they have brought from the treasure caves,” thought Philip. He yawned. He felt sleepy now that he was lying down.

Soon he was asleep, and he slept so soundly that he did not even stir when, some hours later, two men entered his plane. But he did wake when the propellers swung round as the engines suddenly roared out! He nearly gave himself away by sitting up in a fright.

Then he remembered where he was, and lay perfectly still, wondering if it was night-time. He could see nothing under the pile of coats, of course. It might have been midnight or noon for all he knew.

One by one the planes took off. Philip's plane went last of all. He felt it leave the ground like a bird and then he was away in the air.

”They haven't seen me! They don't guess they've got me on board!” thought Philip, delighted. ”It was easy after all. Hurrah!”

He fell asleep again, and the planes roared on through the night. Where were they going? To a secret landing-place? To an ordinary aerodrome?

The other children, who were sleeping that night out on the ledge, heard the roar of the planes as they left. It was such a hot night that they had felt stifled indoors and had begged the old couple to let them take the rugs out on the ledge.

”You will not walk in your sleep?” the old man had said. ”You might walk off the ledge!”

”None of us walk in our sleep,” said Jack. ”We'll be all right.”

Elsa, the old woman, had not wanted Lucy-Ann to sleep out on the ledge at all, and had almost cried when Lucy-Ann had insisted. Kiki and Martha were both there too. But the lizard wasn't. She was with Philip, sharing his adventure.

The children had had a horrid day. The men had found both them and the old couple in the ”sitting-room” and had shouted at them and questioned them, and frightened them very much. The old man had told them that he had been living in the caves for a long time, guarding the treasure, and the men had jumped to the conclusion that the children also had been living there with them.

”Good thing they didn't ask us how we got to this valley,” said Jack afterwards. ”They just took it for granted that we and the old people came here together ages ago.”

The old man and woman had flown to the rescue of their beloved statues when the men had begun to strip off the jewellery. The men had struck the poor old things and shouted at them. The old man had taken his weeping, trembling wife away, and the children had done their best to comfort them.

They had not gone near the men again, but had gone to sit on the sunny ledge, and wondered if Philip had managed to escape. ”I'm sure he did,” said Lucy-Ann. ”All the men kept together, and Philip could easily have slipped out of the cave of statues when they came to question us.”

The men had gone at last, taking with them a haul of jewels, one very precious figure, some pictures and a few old papers. Two of them carried a box of the gold between them. The children pictured their difficulties, hauling it up and down the mountainside.

The men had bolted the door behind them again, and once more the little company were prisoners. How they wondered what was happening to Philip! Had he managed to hide in one of the aeroplanes? Would he slip into a crate? When would the planes go off?

They knew that the planes had gone when they awoke in the night to hear the throb of the engines. They all sat up and listened. Kiki gave a squawk and pecked Martha to wake her.

”There go the planes,” said Jack. ”I bet Philip's in one. Now we shall soon be rescued. What a shock for Bill when he hears all about us! Do you think Bill will fly over in his aeroplane too?”

”I hope so,” said Lucy-Ann fervently. ”I'm longing to see Bill again. I sometimes feel as if we'll be in this valley all our lives.”

”Don't be silly,” said Dinah. ”Oh, Kiki, leave Martha alone. Whatever are you doing to her to make her cluck like that?”

”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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.p.a.ce 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 pa.s.sage. Jack flashed his torch down. Yes, that really was a pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage. Jack undid the rope he always carried round his waist. He tied it to a rock and let it drop down into the pa.s.sage, then down he went.

The girls followed. Jack flashed his torch up and down the pa.s.sage. ”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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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.”