20

an amazing secret

they sat in the little room for some time, disappointed and puzzled. time and again they tried tomake the rope-ladder slide out of its secret place, but it wouldn’t. in the end they got very thirstyand very hungry. they drank all the water left in the jugs, and wondered where they could getsomething to eat.

they could only think of the room where they had feasted before. ‘let’s go back to it and see ifthe remains of that meal are still there,’ said jack. ‘i could do with another lobster or two!’

‘poor polly!’ remarked kiki, who always seemed to know when food was being talked about.

‘polly’s got a cold. send for the doctor.’

‘oh, you’ve found your tongue again, have you?’ said jack. ‘i thought you’d lost it! now don’tstart screaming or cackling, for goodness’ sake, or you’ll have us caught!’

they found their way back to the throne-room, which was still empty, and then to the roomwhere the meal had been.

there were still the remains of the meal there. the children’s eyes gleamed. good! they feltbetter at once.

they sat down and reached for the food. then suddenly jack put his hand on philip’s arm andfrowned. a noise had come from the next room – the beautifully furnished bedroom! the childrensat as still as mice. was anybody there?

kiki suddenly saw snowy with his front hooves on the table, reaching for the salad. in angershe flew at the kid and screeched.

‘that’s done it!’ said jack. and as he spoke, the hangings at the entrance to the room opened,and a face peered through.

it was the face they had seen down in the big work-room – the face with the enormous forehead.

it had bulging eyes of a curious green-blue, a hooked nose, and sunken cheeks, yellowish incolour.

this face stared in silence at the four children, and they, in turn, stared back without a word.

who was this strange old man with the great forehead?

‘do i know who you are?’ asked the face, a puzzled look coming over it. ‘i forget, i forget.’ thecurtains were swung further apart and the old man came right through. he was dressed in a kind ofloose tunic of blue silk, and the children thought he looked a pathetic old thing. he had a thin highvoice that kiki immediately copied.

the old man looked astonished, especially as he could not see kiki, who was behind a greatvase of flowers. the children didn’t say anything. they were wondering if it was possible to makea dash and get away.

‘what are children doing here?’ said the old man, in a puzzled tone. ‘have i seen you before?

why are you here?’

‘er – we came to look for somebody who was lost,’ said jack. ‘and now we can’t get out again.

could you tell us the way?’

the old man seemed so lost and wandering that it seemed to jack that he might quite well befoolish enough to show them the way out. but he was wrong.

‘oh no, oh no,’ said the old fellow at once, a cunning look coming over his yellow face. ‘thereare secrets here, you know. my secrets. nobody who comes in may go out – until my experimentsare finished. i’m the king of this place – my brain runs it all!’

he finished up on a high shrill note that gave the children an odd feeling. was the old fellowmad? surely he couldn’t be the ‘king’ they had seen in the throne-room?

‘you don’t look like the king,’ said lucy-ann. ‘we saw the king in the throne-room – he wastall and had a great crown, and black hair round his face.’

‘ah, yes. they make me appear like that,’ said the old man. ‘i want to be king of the world, youknow, the whole world – because of my great brain. i know more than anyone else. meier says ishall be ruler of the world as soon as my experiments are done. and they are nearly finished, veryvery nearly!’

‘does meier dress you up like a king then, when you appear in the throne-room?’ asked jack,astonished. he turned to the others and spoke in an undertone. ‘that’s to impress the paratroopers,i suppose! he wouldn’t cut any ice with them if they saw him like this.’

‘i am a king,’ said the old man, with dignity. ‘because of my great brain, you know. i have asecret and i am using it. you have seen my great laboratory, have you? ah, my little children, iknow how to use all the great powers of the world – the tides, the metals, the winds – andgravitation!’

‘what’s “gravitation”?’ said lucy-ann.

‘it is the power that keeps you on the earth – that makes you come back to it when you jump,that brings a ball back when you have thrown it,’ said the old man. ‘but i – i have conqueredgravitation!’

this seemed a lot of nonsense to the children. they were quite sure the poor old man was mad.

he might have had a marvellous brain at one time – but he couldn’t be much good now.

‘you don’t believe me?’ said the old fellow. ‘well, i have discovered some rays that repel thepull of the earth. do you understand that, my children? no, no, it is too difficult for you.’

‘it’s not,’ said jack, interested. ‘what you mean is – you think you’ve got hold of some raysthat, if we use them, will cancel out gravitation? so that if you used the rays, say, on a ball, itwouldn’t feel the pull of the earth to bring it back here, but would speed through the air and notfall to earth?’

‘yes, yes – that is it – very very simply,’ said the old man. ‘and now, you see, i have inventedthese wings. i send the rays through them. i imprison them in the wings. and then, when a manjumps from an aeroplane, he presses a button to release the power of the rays – and he does notfall to earth! instead he can glide and soar, flap his wings, and fly like a bird until he tires of it –then he can imprison the rays again and glide to earth!’

the children listened to all this in silence. it was the most extraordinary thing they had everheard.

‘but – is it really true?’ asked lucy-ann at last. the idea of flying like that was very tempting!

‘do you think we would have come here to this lonely mountain for our experiments, do youthink meier and erlick would have poured out their money if they had not known i could do this?’

demanded the old man, looking rather angry.

‘well – it just sounds so extraordinary, that’s all,’ said lucy-ann. ‘it sounds perfectly lovely, ofcourse – i mean, i’d give anything to be able to fly like that. how clever you must be!’

‘i have the biggest brain in the world,’ said the old man solemnly. ‘i am the greatest scientistthat ever lived. i can do anything, anything!’

‘could you show us the way out of here?’ asked jack, in an innocent voice. the old man lookeduncomfortable.

‘if you use my wings, then you can go,’ he said at last. ‘we are all prisoners here till then, eveni! meier has said this must be so. he says i must hurry, hurry to get my wings quite perfect – timeis short. then i shall be made king of the whole world, and everyone will honour me.’

‘poor old man,’ thought philip. ‘he believes everything that rogue of a meier says. meier anderlick are using his brains for their own purposes.’

as suddenly as he had appeared, the old man went. he seemed to forget they were there. hevanished through the curtains and left them alone. they looked at one another, feeling uneasy.

‘i don’t know how much to believe,’ said jack. ‘has he really got hold of the secret of how tocancel out the pull of gravitation? do you remember how peculiar we felt when we were lookingat that extraordinary brilliant mass down in that pit – we felt sort of light, as if we ought to clingon to the balcony, or we’d float off into the air? well, i bet some of those rays he spoke of wereflying loose then!’

‘gosh, yes – that was strange,’ said philip thoughtfully. ‘and, of course, all this would have tobe done underground – so that the rays couldn’t go flying off everywhere! the heart of a mountainseems a jolly good place for a terrific experiment like this – walls of thick rock all round. nowonder we heard rumblings and felt the earth shaking! that old scientist knows a thing or two. i’dbe scared stiff to meddle with all the powers that scientists use nowadays. this is moreextraordinary than splitting the atom.’

‘i don’t understand about things like that,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i feel like the people of old musthave felt towards their magicians – i don’t understand what they’re doing, but it all seems likemagic, and i’m scared!’

‘you wait till you put on a pair of non-gravitation wings or whatever he calls them,’ said philip,helping himself to a peach. ‘that’ll be magic if you like.’

‘meier and erlick must believe in the ideas the old man has,’ said jack. ‘or they wouldn’t go toall the terrific trouble they do – and try to keep everything such a secret. i suppose, if the ideareally came to something, they’d make such a colossal fortune that they’d be the richest men theworld has ever known – and the most powerful.’

‘yes. they’d be the rulers – not the old man,’ said philip. ‘they’re just using him, and stuffinghim up with all kinds of stories. he’s as simple as can be, though he’s got such a brain. theywould give out that they were the inventors, not the old man. fancy keeping him a prisoner herelike that – and everyone else too!’

‘us included,’ said dinah. ‘well, i’m beginning to see daylight a bit now – understandingwhat’s going on here – but i just can’t believe it. nor will bill!’

they finished a very good meal. nobody came to interrupt them. there was no sound from theold man’s room. the children thought perhaps he had gone to bed for a rest, or had returned to hisweird underground pit. they all made up their minds that nothing would persuade them ever to godown there again!

‘what shall we do now?’ said jack. ‘snowy, tell us! kiki, you’ve had enough peaches.’

‘poor polly,’ said kiki sorrowfully, and wiped her beak on the table-cloth.

‘someone’s coming!’ suddenly said lucy-ann. ‘quick, hide!’

‘behind the hangings on the wall,’ whispered dinah, and the four children fled to the loosehangings. they squeezed behind them and waited, holding their breath.

it was two of the soldiers, who had entered the room to clear away the meal. they talked to oneanother in surprised voices, and indeed, they were filled with astonishment to see so much of thefood eaten.

the children heard their light feet pattering to and fro. then one of them gave a sharpexclamation, which the children didn’t understand. they stood behind the curtains, their heartsbeating fast. kiki was on jack’s shoulder, silent and puzzled.

suddenly lucy-ann gave a loud scream, and the two boys leapt out from behind their curtainsat once. one of the soldiers had seen her foot below the hangings, and had pounced on her.

‘jack! philip! quick, save me!’ she cried, and they rushed to her rescue.