15

behind the green curtain

the noise came nearer. ‘like a motor-bike in the sky,’ said jack.

‘or a sewing-machine,’ said dinah. ‘jack, look! what’s that? that tiny speck up there?’

jack fumbled for his glasses, which were still round his neck. he put them to his eyes, strainingto focus the little black speck up in the moonlight. it came nearer.

‘well – whatever it is i do believe it’s going to land on this mountain!’ said dinah. ‘isn’t itgoing slowly? is it an aeroplane, jack?’

‘no,’ said jack. ‘gosh – it’s a helicopter! you know – they are just the thing for travelling inmountains. they don’t fly fast but they can land in a very small space – on a lawn, or a roof even!’

‘a helicopter!’ cried dinah, and took the glasses from jack. ‘let me see.’

it was now near enough for dinah to be able to see it clearly with the glasses. jack and lucy-ann watched it with screwed-up eyes. it hovered over the mountain-top, and then flew slowlyround it, appearing in sight again after a few minutes.

it then flew up a little higher, and descended slowly, almost vertically, its engine making acurious sound in the night. then there was silence.

‘it’s landed,’ said jack. ‘but where? gosh, i wouldn’t like to land on a mountain as steep as thisone.’

‘perhaps there is a proper landing-place,’ said lucy-ann. ‘right on the very top!’

‘yes. there may be,’ said jack. ‘what a thing to do, though – land a helicopter on the verysummit of a mountain like this! what for?’

nobody knew the answer to that.

‘well,’ said jack, at last, ‘if that helicopter did land up on top, that would be one way ofbringing food and stuff to the men who are at work inside the mountain – they’d have to havefood, and there’s no way of getting it round about here!’

‘i feel as if all this must be a dream,’ said lucy-ann, in a small voice. ‘i don’t like it at all. iwish i could wake up.’

‘come on – let’s get into our bags,’ said jack. ‘we can’t do anything. we’ll just have to wait forbill. we can sleep out on the rock tonight, if you like. it’s got very warm again, and we’re snugenough in our bags.’

nibbling bars of chocolate the three of them slipped into the bags. kiki flew up into a near-bybush. she cleared her throat as david had often done. ‘look you, whateffer, look you, whateffer,’

she began, meaning to have a little practice of the new words she had learnt.

‘kiki! shut up!’ said jack.

‘whateffer!’ said kiki, and hiccuped very loudly. ‘pardon!’ she gave a cackle of laughter andsaid no more for a moment. then she took her head out from under her wing. ‘pifflebunk,’ shesaid, delighted at having remembered it, and put her head back again.

jack woke several times in the night, wondering about philip. he also puzzled his head to thinkhow the whole company of dogs, men and boy could possibly have vanished as they did, under hisvery eyes. he felt that he really would have to go and explore that steep wall of rock the next day.

perhaps he would find out where the company had gone – and how it had gone.

‘do you think bill will come today?’ asked lucy-ann, next morning. jack reckoned up andshook his head. ‘no – perhaps he will tomorrow, though, if david got back quickly, and bill cameat once. still – if we go far away from the stream, we’d better leave a note for bill, in case hecomes and we’re not there. like we did yesterday.’

they had taken the note off dapple’s harness the night before, when they had brought thedonkey back from the stream, up to their sleeping-rock. now jack set to work to write another. init he told the story of philip’s disappearance by the wall of rock, and he also wrote about thehelicopter he had seen. he had a feeling that he had better tell all he knew in case – just in case –something happened, and he and the girls were captured too. so many strange things hadhappened on this mountain. it was quite likely that if the man got out of philip the fact that he hadfriends near by the mountain, they would send to capture them too.

he took dapple back to the stream, putting him in the shade, in some long lush grass, and nearenough to the stream to stand in it, or drink if he liked. dapple liked this kind of life well enough,but he stared anxiously all around, missing snowy. where was his tiny friend?

‘snowy will come back soon, dapple,’ said jack, rubbing his hand up and down the long greynose. ‘you wait and see!’

‘what are we going to do today?’ asked lucy-ann, when jack came back. ‘i don’t feel likedoing anything now philip’s gone!’

‘well – would you like to come with me to the steep rocky wall the others went to last night?’

said jack. ‘just to see if we can find out how they disappeared so suddenly. but if you come we’llhave to keep a jolly good look-out in case we’re taken by surprise!’

lucy-ann looked as if she didn’t want to come at all, but nothing would stop her being withjack if she thought there was any likelihood of danger. if they were going to be taken by surprise,then she would be there too!

so, taking some tins with them in case they didn’t feel inclined to go all the way back to thecave in the heat of the day for a meal, the three of them set off. kiki flew over their heads,annoying the swallows, and crying ‘feetafeetit, feetafeetit!’ just as they did. they took not theslightest notice of her, but went on with their fly-catching deftly and serenely.

the three came at last to the little copse of trees where they had swung in the wind the eveningbefore. ‘wait here a minute,’ said jack, and he leapt up into a tree. ‘i’ll just have a look round tomake sure the coast is clear.’

he balanced himself in branches near the top of the tree and swept the countryside around withhis glasses. not a sound was to be heard except the wind, the trees and the birds. there was nosign of any human being, or of any of the dogs.

‘it seems all right,’ said jack when he got down to the foot of the tree again. ‘we’ll go. comeon.’

kiki began to bray like dapple, and jack turned on her fiercely. ‘kiki! stop it! just when wewant to be quiet! bad bird! silly bird!’

kiki raised her crest up and down, snapped her beak angrily, and flew up into a tree. it wasalmost as if she had said, ‘all right then – if you speak to me like that, i won’t come with you!’

she sat on a branch, sulking, keeping one eye on the three children walking towards the wall.

they reached it and looked upwards. it towered up, steep and sheer. nobody could climb that,not even snowy!

‘now where were the others when they disappeared?’ said jack. ‘about here, i think.’

he led the way to an uneven slab of rock. hanging down in front of it, over the rocky wall, wasa thick curtain of greenery, half bramble, half creepers of some kind, all matted together.

the children thought this mass of green was actually growing on the wall, in the same way thatmany other little plants and ferns grew. it was only when the wind blew strongly, and the curtain-like mass swung backwards and forwards a little that lucy-ann guessed it wasn’t growing out ofthe wall – it was hanging down, covering it!

she caught hold of it. it swung back like a curtain! behind it was the wall, right enough – butthere was a split in it, a great crack that reached up about twenty feet.

‘look!’ said lucy-ann. ‘this is a kind of curtain, jack. and look at the big crack in the wallbehind. is this where they went yesterday?’

‘gosh, yes! they must all have gone quickly behind this curtain of creepers,’ said jack. ‘and ithought they had vanished! hold it up, lucy-ann. let’s see the crack. i bet they went throughthat!’

all three passed easily behind the swinging curtain of creeper and bramble. they could slipthrough the crack without any trouble at all. once through it they found themselves in animmensely high cave, very round, and with no roof that could be seen, though jack flashed historch up as far as he could manage.

‘it’s like a hole in the mountain,’ he said. ‘it goes up goodness knows how high!’

‘did the others come in here?’ asked dinah, staring upwards. ‘where did they go then?’

‘can’t think,’ said jack, puzzled. ‘i say, look here – look what’s in the middle of the floor! ialmost went into it!’

he flashed his torch on to the floor of the cave – but there was hardly any floor to be seen! mostof it was taken up by a silent black pool, whose surface had no wrinkle or ripple!

‘it’s not a nice pool,’ said lucy-ann, with a shudder.

‘this is a most peculiar cave,’ said dinah. ‘no roof – no floor – only a deep pool! and no signof where the others went yesterday.’

‘there must be some way out,’ said jack, quite determined to search until he found it. he beganto walk all round the cave, flashing his torch on it, inch by inch. but there was no openinganywhere, not even a tiny hole. the walls were absolutely solid.

‘well, there’s no passage leading out of this cave!’ said jack, giving it up. he glanced up to theroofless top of the cave. ‘the only way is up there! but there are no footholds to climb up –nothing! nobody could possibly climb up these steep walls.’

‘well then – is there a way out through the pool?’ said dinah, half in fun.

jack looked at the black pool. ‘no, i don’t see how that pool can possibly contain a way out ofthis cave. still – it’s the only thing i haven’t examined. i’ll have a swim in it – or wade across!’

but it was too deep to wade. jack took two steps and the water came over his knees. he strippedoff his clothes and plunged in. lucy-ann didn’t like it much. she watched jack anxiously as heswam across and back.

‘can’t feel the bottom at all,’ said jack, kicking out with his legs. ‘must be awfully deep. abottomless pool and a roofless cave – sounds odd, doesn’t it? i’m coming out now. the water’s icycold.’

he found his footing almost at the edge of the pool, slipped and went in again. he reached outto grasp the edge and his hand found something else. it felt like a small steering-wheel under thewater!

jack got out and dressed. he was shivering too much to do any more investigation till he hadsome clothes on. then he knelt down by the edge of the pool and put his hand in to feel thecurious wheel-like thing again.

‘hold my torch, lucy-ann,’ he commanded. ‘there’s something odd here!’

lucy-ann held the torch in trembling fingers. what was jack going to find? ‘it’s a little wheel,’

he said. ‘why is it here? well, wheels are meant to turn, so i’ll turn it! here goes!’

he turned it to the right. it ran easily. and then he jumped violently because both the girlsscreamed loudly and clutched him hard!