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had been so near freedom!
"Come," said Bill after a moment. "We'll try a better cave than this."
 But, before they could move, the flash of a torch shone into their
cave. They all stiffened and stood absolutely still. The beam came nearer
and nearer. Lucy-Ann forgot to breathe, and stood with her hand firmly
clasped in Bill's.
Just as the beam of the torch was picking out Jack's feet  or so
it seemed to Jack  a surprising interruption came. A voice came from
somewhere nearby, a hollow, mournful voice, full of misery and despair.
"Poor Kiki! Ding dong bell! Peepbo!"
Jack's heart leapt. Kiki! She wasn't dead, then! She must have been
wandering, completely lost, all about the passages and caves for days.
She didn't know they were close to her. She had seen the light of the
torch and heard voices, and as usual she had joined in the conversation.
Bill's hand squeezed Jack's arm warningly. He was afraid the boy might
call Kiki, or exclaim out loud in delight. But Jack held his tongue.
Kiki went on talking in the most melancholy voice imaginable.
"Send for the doctor! Musty, fusty, dusty, pooh, gah!"
Jack had never heard her so miserable before. Poor Kiki! She must
have thought herself quite deserted.
A sharp voice rang through the cave. "What in the world was that?
Somebody's in this cave! Erlick, come here! Did you hear that?"
"What?" asked Erlick, coming in with another torch.
"A voice," said Meier. "Somebody's in here. Two people, probably.
One talking to another. Stand there with your torch while I walk around
with mine."
Meier began to walk round, examining all the walls carefully for
hiding-places. Bill groaned silently. Now they had no chance at all
to get to another cave.
Kiki gave a realistic sneeze and then a cough. Meier stopped his search
and swung his torch in the direction of the sound.
"We can hear you! Come out or it will be the worse for you!" he shouted,
in a furious tone.
 Kiki was frightened. She had been without food for some time, and
was hungry and unhappy. The man's angry voice filled her with panic
and she flew off into the next cave, having no idea that her beloved
Jack was so near her. It was just as well that she didn't know, for
if she had known she would certainly have flown to Jack's shoulder and
given their hiding-place away at once!
Her voice came from the cave further on.
"Polly put the kettle on! Send for the doctor!" Then came a loud hiccup,
and an apologetic "Pardon!"
"Good heavens! What's going on?" cried Meier, completely puzzled.
"It's that voice again that we've been hearing at intervals. Well, where
there's a voice there's a body and I'm going to find it this time, if
I have to shoot the caves to pieces!"
A loud report made Bill and the children jump in fright. Meier had
drawn his revolver and fired wildly in the direction of Kiki's voice.
Jack didn't like that a bit. He was afraid Kiki might be hit.
Meier and Erlick went into the next cave after Kiki's voice. It came
to them from further away.
"Upsadaisy! Wipe your feet, you naughty boy."
The children couldn't help smiling, scared though they were. Kiki
always managed to say such ridiculous things in moments of urgency.
There came another shot, which echoed all round the caves.
Kiki gave a cackle of scornful laughter, and then made a noise like
a car changing gear. She came back to the next cave again, and the men
followed. They still had not caught sight of Kiki because they were
looking for a human being, running away in front of them, whereas Kiki
flew high in the roof of the caves, and perched on small ledges, well
hidden.
Somebody else ran through the cave where the children were, calling
to Meier.
"Mr. Meier, sir, sir! All children run away! Helicopter come back.
All alone on mountain-top. No one there. Children run away!"
 It was one of the Japanese servants, who had evidently discovered
the returned helicopter, and the disappearance of the pilot and the
children. There was an amazed silence.
Meier raised his voice and let forth a stream of furious foreign words,
none of which Bill or the children could understand. Then came Erlick's
voice.
"No good going on like that, Meier. Get out the dogs. The children
must have gone down the ladder. You left it down when you went out tonight,
didn't you? The dogs will soon round them all up."
"What's happened to the pilot, though?" raged Meier, and lapsed into
some foreign language again. The Japanese came pattering back through
the cave again, presumably on his way to get the dogs.
"Send for the doctor," called Kiki mournfully. She screeched like
an engine and made Meier flash his torch in and out of the caves again,
almost beside himself with rage.
Erlick, Meier and one or two others with them then began a loud
argument in many languages. Bill didn't wait to hear what it was all
about. He pushed the children out of their hiding-place and towards
the nearest passage. Very quietly and quickly they all fled back towards
the cave with the ladder. Maybe there was a chance now of escape. Jack
wished with all his heart that he could take Kiki too.
They went down the ladder in the same order as before, Jack wondering
fearfully if he would find anyone coming up this time, ready to catch
him by the ankles. But he didn't. He reached the bottom safely, his
legs shaking with the effort, panting and exhausted.
Lucy-Ann almost fell off the last rung, weeping with relief to find
she was finally at the bottom. It had seemed an endless climb down to
her. She sank to the ground beside the pool, her heart beating painfully.
Dinah followed and threw herself on the ground too. Then came Bill,
not so distressed as the others, but very glad indeed to be at the bottom
of the ladder.
"Phew! The bottom at last!" he said. "What a climb! Now come on 
out we go on the mountainside. We'll join up with Philip and Johns.
If only those wretched dogs don't find us! Philip's told me about them
and how you thought they were wolves. I don't fancy a pack of Alsatians
on my trail, somehow, with Meier and Erlick urging them on!"
The dawn was beginning to come over the mountains. The sun was not
yet above them, but a golden light was spreading upwards from the east.
The children were very glad indeed to feel the fresh wind on their faces
when they went out through the crack in the rock, and swung aside the
big green curtain of creeper and bramble. They took deep breaths and
gazed around them in the silvery light of dawn.
"Come on," said Bill. "I left Philip and Johns by a stream  where
you left Dapple. We took Dapple back with us by the way, when David,
Effans and I came with the rest of the donkeys to look for you. Philip
said you'd know where the place was, even if we landed a little way
from it in the helicopter  he thinks we're all coming through the air
of course, to land on a good flat place where we left a light burning
to guide me. It was a bit tricky landing in the dark with Philip and
Johns! The helicopter nearly overbalanced. Still, we managed it."
"Philip will be looking out for us by that light then?" said Lucy-Ann.
"Not by the stream."
"No, I told him not to, in case anyone was roaming about there, saw
the light and spotted him and Johns," explained Bill. "I thought Meier
and Company might possibly be on the look-out for Philip, if they thought [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]