21

escape – but what about jack?

the bolts were shot back. the door opened and jake appeared, carrying atin plate of biscuits, and a big open tin of sardines. he also put on the tablea jug of water.

then he stared in amazement at the three children. philip seemed to bechoking, and he rolled off his bench on the floor. dinah was making themost extraordinary noises, and holding her head tightly in her hands. lucy?ann appeared to be on the point of being sick, and made the most alarminggroans.

‘what’s up?’ asked jake.

air! we want air!’ gasped philip. ‘we’re choking! air! air!’

dinah rolled on to the ground as well. jake pulled her up and hustled herto the door. he pushed the others out into the passage. he thought they mustreally be on the point of choking – the air in the cell must be used up.

philip watched his chance and reeled towards jake as if he could notstand straight. as he came towards him he lifted his right foot, and aimed amighty kick at the lantern in jake’s hand. it fell and smashed at once, andthe light went out. there was a tinkling of glass, a shout from jake – andthen philip sought for the hands of the two frightened girls. he found themand pushed the two hurriedly in front of him towards a passage on the left.

jake, left in the darkness, began to grope about, shouting for the other man.

‘oily! hi, oily! bring a lamp! quick! these dratted kids have fooled me.

hi, olly!’

philip, trying hard to keep his sense of direction correct, hurried the girlsalong. their hearts were beating painfully, and lucy-ann really did feel asif she was going to choke now. soon they had left jake’s shouts behind andwere in the wide main passage down which they had come not many hoursbefore. philip was now using his torch, and it was pleasant to see the thin,bright beam of light.

‘thank goodness – we’re in the right tunnel,’ said philip, pausing tolisten. he could hear nothing but the boom of the sea far above their heads.

he swung his torch around. yes – they were on the right road. good!

‘can we have a little rest?’ panted lucy-ann.

‘no,’ said philip. ‘those men will be after us almost at once – as soon asthey get another lamp. they will guess we are making for the shaft. comeon. there’s no time to be lost.’

the children hurried on again – but after a time, to their great dismay,they heard shouts behind them. that meant that the men were after them –and what was more, were catching them up. lucy-ann felt so alarmed thatshe could hardly run.

they came at last to the big shaft-hole. it was so deep that the childrencould not see the entrance to it, far above. the daylight was not to be seen.

‘up you go,’ said philip anxiously. ‘you first, lucy-ann. be as quick asyou can.’

lucy-ann began to climb. dinah followed her, philip came last. hecould hear the men’s voices even more clearly now. and then – quitesuddenly, they stopped, and philip could hear them no more. what hadhappened?

an extraordinary thing had happened. kiki the parrot, hearing the tumultin the distance, had become excited and was shouting. she and jack werestill wandering about, quite lost, in the maze of passages and galleries.

kiki’s sharp ears heard the men and she began to screech and yell.

‘wipe your feet! shut the door! hi, hi, hi, polly put the kettle on!’

the men heard the shouting voice and thought it belonged to thechildren. ‘they’ve lost themselves,’ said jake, stopping. ‘they don’t knowthe way back to the shaft. they’re lost and are shouting for help.’

‘let them shout,’ said olly sourly. ‘they’ll never find the way to theshaft. i told you they wouldn’t. let them get lost and starve.’

‘no,’ said jake. ‘we can’t do that. we don’t want to have to explain half?starving children to search-parties, do we? we’d better go and get them.

they are over in that direction.’

they went off the main passage, meaning to try and find the childrenwhere the shouts had come from. kiki’s voice came again to them. ‘wipeyour feet, idiot, wipe your feet!’

this astonished the two men. they went on towards the voice, but evenas they went, jack and kiki wandered into a passage that the two menmissed. kiki fell silent, and the men paused.

‘can’t hear them any more,’ said jake. ‘better go to the shaft. they mayhave found their way there after all. we can’t afford to let them escape tillwe’ve decided what to do about all this.’

so they retraced their steps to the shaft, and looked up it. a shower ofstones came down and hit them.

‘gosh! the children are up there!’ cried jake, and started up the ladder atonce.

the children were almost at the top. lucy-ann felt as if her arms andlegs could not climb one more rung – but they held out, and at last the tiredgirl reached the top, climbed out, and rolled over on the ground, exhausted.

dinah came next, and sat down with a long sigh. and then philip, tired too,but determined not to rest for one moment.

‘i’m sure those men will come up the shaft after us,’ he said. ‘we haven’ta minute to lose. do come on, girls. we must get to the boat and be offbefore anyone stops us.’

it was getting dark. what a long time they must have been underground!

philip dragged the girls to their feet and they set off to the shore. the boatwas there, thank goodness.

‘i don’t want to go without jack,’ said lucy-ann obstinately, her heartwrung with anxiety for her beloved brother. but philip bundled her into theboat at once.

‘no time to lose,’ he said. ‘come on. we’ll send help back for jack assoon as ever we can. i can’t bear leaving him behind either – but i’ve got toget you girls away safely.’

dinah took one pair of oars and philip the other. soon the two wererowing the boat away quickly, across the calm channel of water to where, inthe distance, the waves thundered over the reef of rocks. philip felt anxious.

it was one thing to get through the gap safely when he could see where hewas going, but quite another when it was almost dark.

he heard shouting, but he was too far away from the shore to see the menthere. jake and olly had climbed up the shaft, raced over the island to theshore, and were looking for a boat. but there was none. the tide wascoming in and there was not even a mark on the sand to show where theboat had rested. in fact, it had been almost afloat when the children had gotin, and it was lucky that it had not floated away.

‘no boat here,’ said olly. ‘how did those kids come? it’s strange. theymust have escaped by boat. they can’t still be underground. we’d bettersignal tonight and get someone over here. we must warn them that kidshave found us underground.’

they went back to the shaft and climbed down it, not knowing that oneof the children was still wandering about in the mines. poor jack was stillmaking his way down a maze of tunnels, all looking exactly alike to him.

in the meantime philip, lucy-ann and dinah had, by great good luck,just struck the gap in the rocks. it was really because of lucy-ann’s sharpears that they had been so lucky. she had listened to the pounding of thewater over the rocks, and her ears had noticed a softening of the thunder.

‘that’s where the gap must be,’ she thought. ‘the noise dies away a littlethere.’ so, sitting at the tiller, she tried to guide the boat to where sheguessed the gap to be, and by good chance she found it. the boat slippedthrough, scraping its keel once more on the rock just below the surface –and then it was in the open sea, rocking up and down.

how philip put up the sail in the half darkness, and sailed the boat home,he never quite knew. he was desperate; they must get back safely, so withgreat courage he went about his task. when at last he reached the mooring?place, under the cliff, he could not get out of the boat. quite suddenly hisknees seemed to give way, and he could not walk.

‘i’ll have to wait a minute or two,’ he said to dinah. ‘my legs have gonefunny. i’ll be all right soon.’

‘you’ve been awfully clever,’ said dinah, and from her those wordsmeant a lot.

they tied up the boat at last and went up to the house. aunt polly metthem at the door, in a great state of alarm.

‘wherever have you been? i’ve been so worried about you. i’ve beennearly off my head with anxiety. i really feel faint.’

she looked very white and ill. even as she spoke, she tottered a little, andphilip bounded forward and caught her as she fell.

‘poor aunt polly,’ he said, dragging her indoors as gently as he could andputting her on the sofa. ‘we’re so sorry we upset you. i’ll get some water –no, dinah, you get some.’

soon aunt polly said she felt a little better, but it was quite plain that shewas ill. ‘she never could stand any worry of this sort,’ dinah said to lucy?ann. ‘once philip nearly fell down the cliff, she was ill for days. it seems tomake her heart bad. i’ll get her to bed.’

‘don’t say a word about jack being missing,’ philip warned dinah in alow voice. ‘that really will give her a heart attack.’

dinah went off upstairs with her aunt, supporting her as firmly as shecould. philip went to look for joe. he wasn’t back yet. good! then hewouldn’t have missed the boat. he looked at lucy-ann’s white little face,its green tired eyes and worried expression. he felt sorry for her.

‘what are we going to do about jack?’ said lucy-ann, with a gulp.

‘we’ve got to rescue him, philip.’

‘i know,’ said philip. ‘well – we can’t tell aunt polly – and unclejocelyn wouldn’t be any good – and we’d be idiots to tell joe. so there is noone left but bill, i’m afraid.’

‘but – you said we’d better not tell bill we knew his secret,’ said lucy?ann.

‘i know. but we’ve got to, now that jack is alone on the island,’ saidphilip. ‘bill will have to go and tell those fierce friends of his that jack is apal, and he’ll find him and bring him back safely. so don’t worry, lucy?ann.’

‘will you go and tell him now, straight away?’ asked lucy-ann tearfully.

‘i’ll go just as soon as ever i’ve had something to eat,’ said philip,suddenly feeling so hungry that he felt he could eat a whole loaf, a pound ofbutter, and a jar of jam. ‘you’d better have something too, lucy-ann – youlook as white as a sheet. cheer up! jack will soon be safe here, and we’ll allbe laughing and talking like anything.’

dinah came down then, and set about getting some food. they were allvery hungry, even lucy-ann. dinah agreed that the only thing to do was togo to bill smugs and get him to go and rescue jack before the men foundhim.

‘they’ll be so wild that we’ve escaped that they may be really tough withjack,’ said dinah, and then wished she hadn’t spoken the words, for lucy?ann looked scared to death.

‘please go, philip,’ begged the little girl. ‘go now. if you don’t, i shall.’

‘don’t be silly,’ said philip, getting up. ‘you don’t want to make yourway across the cliff on a dark night. you’d fall over the edge! well – solong! i’ll be back.’

off went the boy, climbing the steep path to the top of the cliff. then heset off to find bill. he saw the lights of joe’s car in the distance, cominghome, and heard the noise of the engine. he hurried so that he would not beseen.

‘bill will be surprised to see me,’ he thought. ‘he’ll wonder whoever itis, knocking at his door in the middle of the night.’

but alas – bill wasn’t there when philip at last arrived at the shack. nowwhat was he to do?