11

a strange happening

it wasn’t long before dinah suggested having something to eat, and went to the big panniers thathad been unloaded from the donkeys the night before. she pulled out some tins, thinking it wouldbe a change to have sardines, and tinned peaches, or something like that. anything to take theirminds off david’s flight, and the disappearance of the donkeys!

they sat down rather silently. lucy-ann kept very close to the boys. what with wolves anddavid’s fright she felt very scared herself!

‘i hope this won’t turn into one of our adventures,’ she kept saying to herself. ‘they alwayshappen so suddenly.’

snowy the kid bounded up to philip and knocked a tin flying from his hand. he nuzzledaffectionately against him and then butted him. philip rubbed the furry little nose and then pushedthe kid away.

‘i’m glad you didn’t go off with the donkeys too!’ he said. ‘i’ve got used to having you aroundnow, you funny aggravating little thing. take your nose out of that tin! lucy-ann, push him off –he’ll eat everything we’ve got!’

kiki suddenly flew at snowy, screaming with rage. she had had her eye on that tin of slicedpeaches, and to see snowy nosing round it was too much for her. she gave him a sharp peck onthe nose, and he ran to philip, bleating. everyone laughed and felt better.

they sat there, eating by the tents, occasionally glancing up at the mountain that towered up sosteeply above them. it had no gentle slope up to the summit, as most of the mountains around had,but was steep and forbidding.

‘i don’t much like this mountain,’ said lucy-ann.

‘why?’ asked dinah.

‘i don’t know. i just don’t like it,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’ve got one of my “feelings” about it.’

the others laughed. lucy-ann often had ‘feelings’ about things, and really believed in them. itwas just like her to start having ‘feelings’ about the mountain, when everyone was also havinguncomfortable ideas about wolves and other things.

‘well, you needn’t have any “feelings” about mountains,’ said philip. ‘mountains are all thesame – just tops, middles and bottoms, sometimes with sheep on and sometimes without!’

‘but not many have wolves,’ said lucy- ann seriously, and that made the others feeluncomfortable again.

‘what are we going to do today?’ asked jack, when they had finished their meal. ‘i suppose wemust stay here till bill comes to find us. we can’t try to walk back home, because for one thing wedon’t know the way, and for another we’d never be able to carry enough food to get there withoutstarving.’

‘we’d far better stay here,’ said philip at once. ‘it’s ten chances to one david will know his wayback here all right, and can bring bill and the donkeys. whereas if we start moving about, they’llnever find us.’

‘yes – it does seem the most sensible thing to do,’ said jack. ‘we’ve got our camp here – tentsset up and everything – so we might as well make the best of it, and enjoy the camping. i wishthere was somewhere to bathe though. it’s so jolly hot. that little stream’s too small to doanything but paddle in.’

‘let’s all keep together,’ said lucy- ann. ‘i mean – we could frighten those wolves awayperhaps if we all screamed at them – but one of us alone might be – might be . . .’

‘gobbled up!’ said jack, and laughed. ‘what big eyes you’ve got, granny! and, oh, what bigteeth you’ve got!’

‘don’t tease her,’ said philip, seeing lucy- ann’s alarmed face. ‘it’s all right, lucy- ann.

wolves are only really hungry in the winter-time and it’s summer now.’

lucy-ann looked relieved. ‘well – i suppose if they’d been really hungry they would haveattacked the donkeys, wouldn’t they?’ she said. ‘oh dear – i do think it’s most extraordinary tofind wolves here.’

they were just about to get up and clear away the picnic things when something curioushappened that froze them to the ground.

first of all there was a grumbling, rumbling noise that seemed to come from the heart of themountain itself – and then the ground shook a little. the four children distinctly felt it quiveringbeneath them, and they clutched at one another in alarm. kiki flew straight up into the air,screaming. snowy leapt to a high rock and stood there, poised on his four little legs as if to take offin the air like a plane.

the ground stopped shaking. the noise died away. but almost imediately the rumbling beganagain, a little louder, but very muffled as if great depths of rock separated it from the listeners. theground quivered once more and snowy took a flying leap into the air, landing on another rock. hewas really terrified.

so were the four children. lucy-ann, very pale, clung to jack and philip. dinah, forgetting allabout the slow-worm, held on to philip too.

there were no more rumblings, and the earth beneath them stayed still. the birds, which hadstopped singing and calling, began to chirp again, and a yellow-hammer gave his familiar cry.

snowy recovered himself and came bounding up to the others. kiki landed on jack’s shoulder.

‘god save the queen,’ she said, in a relieved voice.

‘what in the world was that?’ said philip at last. ‘an earthquake? gosh, i was scared!’

‘oh, philip! this mountain isn’t a volcano, is it?’ said lucy-ann, gazing up at it fearfully.

‘of course not! you’d know a volcano all right if you saw one!’ said jack. ‘this is a perfectlyordinary mountain – and goodness knows why it should have rumbled like that, and trembledbeneath us. it gave me a horrible feeling.’

‘i told you i had one of my “feelings” about this mountain,’ said lucy-ann. ‘didn’t i? i feelvery peculiar about it. i want to go back to the farmhouse and not stay here.’

‘so do we all,’ said philip. ‘but we shouldn’t know the way, lucy-ann. it isn’t as if we’dfollowed a track – we left the track as you know, and part of the way we were in thick mist – weshouldn’t have the faintest idea of the way.’

‘i know you’re right,’ said lucy-ann. ‘but i don’t like. this mountain – especially when it startsto rumble and shake! what made it?’

nobody knew. they got up, cleared away the meal and went to splash in the little stream. thewind suddenly began to blow rather chilly, and, looking up, the children saw that big clouds werecoming up from the south-west.

‘looks like rain,’ said jack. i hope the wind doesn’t get up much more, or it will blow our tentsaway. do you remember how they were blown clean away from over us on our last adventure – onthe island of birds? that was an awful feeling.’

‘well,’ said philip, ‘if you really think the tents might blow away, jack, we’d better find a betterplace to camp than this – somewhere not too far, though, because we don’t want to miss seeingbill and david when they come for us. a copse of trees or a cave or somewhere like that – rightout of the wind.’

‘let’s look now,’ said dinah, pulling on her coat. it was extraordinary how cold it got as soonas the sun went in and the wind blew up the mountain. ‘we’d better take snowy with us, or he’lleat everything we’ve left!’

snowy had every intention of coming with them. he capered along by philip and jack, as madas ever. he was now very annoyed with kiki, and leapt at her whenever she came within reach,wanting to pay her back for nipping his nose.

when the girls had been left a little way behind, philip spoke in a low voice to jack. ‘we’dbetter find a cave, i think, jack – i don’t like the idea of those animals prowling around us at night– wolves, or whatever they are. if we were in a cave we could light a fire at the entrance and thatwould keep any animal off.’

‘yes. that’s quite a good idea,’ agreed jack. ‘i hadn’t thought of that. i can’t say i like the ideaeither of wolves nosing round our tents when we’re asleep at night! i’d feel much safer in a cave!’

they hunted about for some kind of rocky shelter or cave, but there seemed none to be found.

the mountain was so steep that it really was difficult to climb, and lucy-ann was afraid ofslipping and falling.

snowy leapt ahead of them, as sure-footed as ever. the boys wished heartily that it was as easyfor them to leap about the mountain as it was for the kid.

‘look at him up there, standing on that rock!’ said jack, feeling exasperated and far too hot withhis climbing. ‘hey, snowy, come and give us a leg up! if only we had four springy legs likeyours!’

snowy stood there, whisking his little tail, and then ran back and disappeared. ‘where’s hegone?’ said jack. ‘oh, there he comes again. philip, there must be a cave or overhanging rock upwhere he is – he keeps going back and disappearing into it, whatever it is!’

they climbed up to where snowy was, and sure enough, just at the back of the overhangingrock was a long low cave, its roof made out of another overhanging rock, its opening fringed withferns of all kinds.

‘this would do awfully well for us,’ said jack, going down on hands and knees and looking in.

‘we could light a fire on the rock outside – the one snowy stood on – and feel quite safe tonight.

clever little snowy! you found us just what we wanted!’

‘but how in the world are we going to get everything up here?’ said philip. ‘it was such a climb.

it’s not as if we are donkeys or goats, able to scramble up steep places quite easily, even with aload to carry. we need our hands to help us.’

this was certainly a problem. the boys hailed the girls and helped them up on to the rock wheresnowy stood. ‘look,’ said jack, ‘here’s a good place to sleep in tonight. we can quite well seefrom here if bill and david come – see what a good view we have from this rock – and we’d besafe from the wolves if we lighted a fire at the entrance to the cave.’

‘oh, yes!’ said lucy-ann, pleased. she went into the cave. she had to bend her head at theopening, but inside the roof grew higher. ‘it’s not really a cave!’ she said. ‘it’s just a space underthat big jutting-out rock – but it will do awfully well.’

they all sat down on the rock, wishing the sun would come out. snowy lay down beside themand kiki sat on jack’s shoulder.

but suddenly she rose up into the air and screeched loudly. snowy leapt up and stood lookingdownwards. what was the matter?

‘is it the wolves again?’ asked lucy-ann in alarm. they listened. they could hear a noise ofsome animal or animals down below in the thick bushes, under the birch-trees.

‘get back into the cave,’ said jack to the girls. ‘and keep quiet.’

the two girls went silently back into the darkness of the cave. the boys listened and watched.

what animal was it down there? it must be big, by the noise it made!