14

plenty of things happen

they decided to go for a walk that evening. they would leave dapple tied up to a tree by thestream, with a note on his harness to say they would soon be back – just in case bill came whenthey were away.

‘though he couldn’t possibly be here yet,’ said jack. still, you never knew with bill. he had aremarkable way of doing impossible things extraordinarily quickly.

they went off together, snowy capering about, and kiki on jack’s shoulder. they climbed uppast the cave where they had slept the night before. their sleeping-bags were still there, pulledinto the cave out of the sun. they meant to sleep in them up on the rock again that night.

‘let’s follow snowy,’ suggested dinah. ‘he always seems to know a way to go, thought iexpect he only follows his silly little nose! but he usually chooses quite possible paths for us.’

so they followed snowy. the little kid took it into his head to climb up the mountain, but at lastthey all came to such a steep cliff of rock, almost sheer, that they had to stop. even snowy wasbrought to a halt!

‘i’m frightfully hot,’ said dinah, fanning herself. ‘let’s sit down under those trees.’

the trees were waving about in the wind. jack looked longingly up into the wind- blownbranches. ‘it would be lovely and cool up there, in the windy boughs,’ he said. ‘what aboutclimbing up? they look pretty easy to climb.’

‘a wizard idea!’ said philip. ‘i love swinging in the branches at the top of a tree. want a leg-up,lucy-ann?’

lucy-ann got a leg-up and soon they were all settled into forking branches, letting themselvesbe swung about in the wind, which was very strong just there.

‘this is lovely,’ said dinah. ‘heavenly!’

‘super!’ said jack. ‘don’t clutch my shoulder so tightly, kiki. you won’t fall off!’

snowy was left down below, bleating. he tried his best to leap up into the tree but he couldn’t.

he ran round and round philip’s tree and then, in a rage, he tore up to a rock and leapt up it anddown it without stopping. the children watched him, laughing at his antics.

then, quite suddenly, a hullabaloo broke on their ears. it was the sound of excited barking andsnarling, howling and yelping.

‘the dogs!’ said jack, straining his eyes to see where the noise came from. ‘i say – they’re afterthat man!’

there came the crashing of bushes and twigs far below them on the mountain- side,accompanied by more howls and barks. then the children caught sight of a man running across abare stony part of the mountain-side below them – about half a mile away.

the dogs poured after him. lucy-ann almost fell out of her tree in fright at seeing a man chasedby dogs. the children watched without a word, their hearts beating fast, anxious for the man toescape.

he came to a tree and flung himself up it just as the first dog reached him. he pulled himself up,and was lost to sight. the dogs surrounded the tree, clamouring loudly.

lucy-ann gulped. tears ran down her face. she felt so sorry for the hunted man that she couldhardly see through her tears. the others watched grimly. philip debated whether to go down andsee if he could call the dogs off.

then another man appeared, walking leisurely across the mountain-side towards the tree and thedogs. he was too far away for the children to see what he was like, or to hear his voice.

but on the crisp air of the mountain came the shrill sound of a whistle. the dogs at once left thetree, and trotted back to the man. he stood not far off the tree, and evidently gave orders for theman to come down. but nobody came down from the tree.

the man waved his hand to the dogs and at once they streamed back to the tree again,clamouring and howling like mad. the man turned to go back the way he came.

‘oh! he’s left the dogs to keep the poor man up the tree till he starves, or comes down to be seton!’ sobbed lucy-ann. ‘philip, what shall we do?’

‘i’ll go down and call the dogs off,’ said philip. ‘i’ll give the man a chance to get right out ofsight, so that he won’t see me. then i’ll see if i can get the dogs away and give that chap a chanceto escape from the tree.’

he climbed down his tree, after he had waited for twenty minutes, to give the second man achance to go back to wherever he had come from. he made his way cautiously through the tallbushes.

and then something happened. a rough hand pounced down on his shoulder and he was held ina grip like iron. he was swung round – and came face to face with the man who had ordered therunaway to come down from the tree!

philip wriggled, but he couldn’t possibly get away. he didn’t dare to yell for the others in casethey got caught too. blow! why hadn’t he waited longer before going off to the black man’srescue!

‘what are you doing here?’ said the man, in a strange, foreign accent. ‘who are you, boy?’

‘i’ve only come to look for butterflies,’ stammered philip, trying to look as if he knew nothingabout anything but butterflies. he didn’t like the look of the man at all. he had a fierce hawk-likeface, overhanging eyebrows, and such a sharp look in his black eyes that philip felt sure he wouldbe difficult to deceive.

‘who are you with?’ asked the man, digging his steel-like fingers into philip and making himsquirm.

‘i’m alone, as you can see,’ said philip, hoping the man would believe him. the man looked athim searchingly.

‘my dogs would have got you if you had been here for long,’ he said. ‘and all your friendstoo!’

‘what friends?’ asked philip innocently. ‘oh, you mean snowy, my kid? he always comes withme.’

snowy had bounded up at that moment, to the obvious surprise of the man. ‘he’s like a dog –never leaves me. let me go, sir. i’m looking for butterflies. i’ll be gone tonight.’

‘where did you come from?’ asked the man. ‘do your parents know where you are?’

‘no,’ said philip truthfully. ‘i just went away to hunt for butterflies. i came from over there.’

he nodded his head vaguely behind him, hoping that the man would think he was a harmlessnature-lover, and let him go. but the man didn’t.

instead he tightened his fingers on philip’s shoulders, and turned towards the tree where theblack man was still hiding, surrounded by the dogs.

‘you’ll come with me now,’ he said. ‘you’ve seen too much.’

just then there came a yelling and shouting from the tree. evidently the runaway had given in.

the man, still clutching philip by the shoulder, and followed by a puzzled snowy, went towardsthe tree. he took a whistle from his pocket and blew on it shrilly. as before, the dogs at once leftthe tree and came to him. the man shouted for the runaway to come down.

the poor man came down in such a hurry that he half fell. the dogs made no attempt to go forhim. philip saw that they had been extremely well trained.

the man fell on his knees and began to jabber something. he was terrified. the man told him toget up, in cold contemptuous tones. surrounded by the dogs, the prisoner walked stumblingly infront of the man, who still held philip firmly by the shoulder.

up in their trees the children watched in horror, hardly believing their eyes when they sawphilip held by the man. ‘sh! don’t make a sound,’ commanded jack. ‘it’s no good us beingcaptured too. if the dogs go with philip, he’ll be all right. he’ll have ten friends he can call on atany time!’

the little procession of men, boy, dogs and kid passed almost beneath the trees the childrenwere in. philip did not glance up, though he longed to. he was not going to give away the hiding-place of the others.

jack parted the branches of his tree and followed the procession anxiously with his eyes. theywere going in the direction of the steep wall of unclimbable rock. jack took up his field-glasses,which were slung round his neck as usual, and glued them to his eyes, following the companyclosely. where exactly were they going? if he knew, he might be able to go and rescue philip andsnowy.

he saw philip taken right up to the steep wall. then, before his eyes, the whole companyseemed to vanish! one moment they were there – the next they were gone! jack took his glassesfrom his eyes and rubbed the lenses, thinking something must have gone wrong with them. but no– he saw exactly the same thing – a steep wall of sheer rock – and nobody there at all, not even adog!

‘jack! can you see what’s happened to philip?’ came lucy-ann’s anxious voice. ‘oh, jack –he’s caught!’

‘yes, and he’s been taken into that mountain,’ said jack. ‘though how, i don’t know. onemoment they were all there, the next they were gone! i can’t understand it.’

he looked through his glasses again but there was nothing to be seen. he suddenly realized thatthe sun had gone down and it was getting dark. ‘girls! it’ll be dark soon. we must get down andgo to the cave, whilst we can still see our way!’ said jack. they all climbed down quickly. lucy-ann was trying to blink back tears.

‘i want philip to come back,’ she said. ‘what’s happened to him?’

‘don’t cry,’ said dinah. ‘crying won’t help him! you always burst into tears when anythinghappens!’

dinah spoke crossly because she was very near tears herself. jack put his arm round both ofthem. ‘don’t let’s quarrel. that won’t help philip. come on, let’s get back quickly. i’ll fetchdapple from the stream, and bring her up to the rock.’

they made their way back to the cave they had left their sleeping-bags in. jack fetched thepatient dapple. kiki sat silently on his shoulder. she always knew when things had gone wrongwith the children. she nipped jack’s ear gently to tell him she was sorry.

it was almost dark when they reached the cave. there was no need to make a fire tonight – theydid not fear wolves any more. indeed they would have been very glad indeed to see dark figurescome slinking up to the cave. they would have welcomed the dogs eagerly.

‘i miss snowy,’ said dinah. ‘it’s queer without him leaping about everywhere. i’m glad he’sgone with philip. i’m glad the slow-worm’s gone too!’

they didn’t want to get into the sleeping-bags and go to sleep. they wanted to talk. a lot ofthings seemed to be happening very suddenly. oh dear – when would bill come? they couldmanage quite well without grown-ups in many ways – but just at the moment all three would havewelcomed even david!

‘well – let’s get into our bags,’ said jack. ‘isn’t the moon lovely tonight?’

‘nothing seems very nice when i think of philip being captured,’ said lucy-ann dismally. allthe same, the moon was glorious, swinging up over the mountains, and making everywhere aslight as day.

they were just about to slide into their bags when lucy-ann’s sharp ears caught an unfamiliarsound.

‘listen!’ she said. ‘what’s that? no, not a noise underground this time – somewhere up in thesky!’

they went out and stood on the flat rock, listening, their faces upturned to the moonlit sky.

‘what a peculiar noise!’ said jack. ‘a bit like an aeroplane – but not an aeroplane. what can itbe?’