25

a thrilling night

only lucy-ann, jack and dinah knew what the last shout meant. meier and the others had no ideaat all. they hardly heard what was shouted.

but the children had heard all right! they gasped. jack’s hand found lucy-ann’s and dinahsqueezed jack’s arm. they didn’t say a single word until meier, erlick, the king and the servantshad all disappeared once more. then they made their way to their awnings, linking hands to keeptogether.

‘jack! that was bill! bill himself!’ said lucy-ann, her voice going all funny as she spoke.

‘yes. and he knew if he yelled out, “don’t forget bill smugs,” that we’d know it was him,’

said dinah. ‘he called himself bill smugs the very first adventure we had – do you remember?

gosh – i never had such a surprise in my life!’

‘and philip’s safe,’ said jack, in intense satisfaction. ‘that’s one good thing. the other fellowwith bill must be one of his friends. philip will just chuck those wings overboard and that’ll bethat.’

‘i feel as if i simply must sit down at once,’ said lucy-ann. ‘my legs will hardly carry me. ifeel so joyful!’

she sat down and the others followed suit. they all let out a terrific sigh of relief. a heavy loadrolled away from them. philip was safe! he didn’t have to jump out of the helicopter to try out anexperiment for a mad old scientist, or for meier and erlick. he was with bill.

‘what made bill think of getting a helicopter?’ wondered jack. ‘landing on the mountain-topwith it too – under the noses of meier and erlick.’

‘well, don’t you remember, you put in your note something about the helicopter we thoughtwas landing up here?’ said dinah. ‘the note we left with dapple.’

‘yes, so i did,’ said jack. ‘well, that looks rather as if old bill did come along here then – andfound dapple. good for him! trust bill to get going somehow!’

‘what’s he going to do next?’ said dinah. ‘do you think he’ll come back for us?’

‘you bet he will!’ said jack. ‘he’ll park philip somewhere safe and he’ll be back as soon as hecan. perhaps tonight!’

‘oh, how lovely!’ sighed lucy-ann. ‘i don’t like this mountain. i like mrs evans’ farmhousebest. i don’t like anyone here – that horrid meier, and that awful fat erlick, and those nasty littlepussy-footing soldiers – and the king.’

‘well – i feel sorry for him,’ said jack. ‘he’s just got into the hands of rogues. no doubtthey’ve made plenty of money already from his inventions. now they’re going all out for this one.

i do wonder if there’s anything in it.’

‘well, i’m jolly glad philip hasn’t got to find out!’ said dinah. ‘good old philip – he was asplucky as could be, wasn’t he?’

‘yes. and lucy-ann was jolly brave too,’ said jack. ‘whatever made you think of trying to goin philip’s place, lucy-ann?’

‘i don’t know. it sort of came over me all at once,’ lucy-ann tried to explain. ‘but i wasn’tbrave. my legs were wobbling like jelly.’

‘the only thing that worries me is kiki,’ said jack. ‘i hope those men haven’t done anything toher. she’s never been away from us so long. i haven’t heard so much as a hiccup from her!’

the others were worried too. dinah couldn’t help feeling pretty certain that kiki had come tosome harm. if meier caught her that would be the end of her. dinah shivered when she thought ofhis cold, piercing eyes.

suddenly she gave a small shriek. ‘oh! something’s wriggling over my leg! what is it, quick?’

‘it’s the slow-worm,’ said jack, making a grab at it. ‘sorry, dinah. you see, philip didn’t wantto make poor old sally share his jump – so he slipped her into my pocket when he thought youweren’t looking. i didn’t know she’d got out. don’t yell, dinah. with everybody being sofrightfully brave tonight, you might as well show your pluck too!’

and, surprisingly, dinah did. after all, what was a slow-worm compared to philip’s jump – ifhe had had to jump? nothing at all. dinah drew her leg away, but made no fuss at all. sallyslithered round them for a little while and then went into jack’s pocket again.

‘i just simply can’t get over knowing it was bill in that helicopter!’ said lucy-ann for thetwentieth time. ‘my heart jumped nearly out of my body when he suddenly changed his voice tohis own and yelled out, “don’t forget bill smugs!”’

‘we’ll have to be on the look-out for when he comes back,’ said jack. ‘i’m sure it will betonight. perhaps no one will hear him but us, because we’ll be the only ones expecting him. youcan’t hear a thing down in that mountain.’

‘oooh – wouldn’t that be super, if bill came back without being heard, and took us off?’ saidlucy-ann. ‘what would meier and the others think! they’d hunt all over the place for us!’

‘and send the dogs out too,’ said jack.

‘shall we keep awake to look out for him?’ said dinah.

‘no, you girls have a nap. i’ll keep watch,’ said jack. ‘i’m much too wide awake to go to sleep.

i’ll wake you as soon as ever i hear anything.’

‘what about that beam of light that shows the helicopter where to land at night?’ said dinahsuddenly. ‘can you turn it on when you hear it coming, jack?’

‘i expect so,’ said jack, and went into the middle of the courtyard to find the switch that turnedon the powerful beam.

but he couldn’t find it anywhere. he hunted all over the place and gave it up at last. ‘can’t findwhere the wretched thing turns on,’ he said. ‘sickening!’

‘well, i daresay bill can land all right,’ said lucy-ann, who had the utmost faith in bill’sability to do anything, no matter how impossible. ‘you keep watch, jack. i’m going to have anap.’

she and dinah shut their eyes, and in spite of all the terrific excitement of that night, they wereboth asleep in half a minute. jack sat up, keeping watch. it was a cloudy night, and onlyoccasionally did he see a star peeping out from between the clouds.

good old bill! how had he got that helicopter? how did he know how to fly one? jack felt verythankful indeed that they had had the sense to leave a note behind with dapple, telling everythingthey knew. otherwise bill wouldn’t have known a thing about the mountain or its secret, andcertainly wouldn’t have guessed that helicopters landed on the top!

from far away a noise came through the night. jack strained his ears. yes – it was the helicoptercoming back. it hadn’t been long then – just long enough to drop philip somewhere, hear his storyand come back for the others. what a sell for meier to find them all gone – and not to know whathad happened to the wonderful wings!

the boy went to try and put on the lamp again, but could not find the switch at all. this was notsurprising, because it was set in a tiny trap-door, let into the yard.

the helicopter came nearer. it circled the mountain. it rose vertically to land on the courtyard.

jack shook the two girls.

‘it’s here! bill’s back!’

the girls woke up at once. snowy, who was asleep by then, woke up and leapt to his feet. hecould feel the terrific excitement of the others, and sprang about madly.

‘look – it’s landing!’ said jack, and the three of them strained their eyes to see the helicopter, abig dark shadow in the blackness of the night.

there came a slight crashing sound, and then the helicopter suddenly swung over to where jackand the girls were. they had to dodge out of the way.

bill’s voice came on the air. ‘jack! are you there?’

jack ran to the helicopter as bill switched on a powerful torch. ‘i’m here, bill. the coast’s clear.

nobody’s up here. gosh, it’s good to have you! is philip all right?’

‘quite all right. he’s down on the mountain-side with johns, the fellow who came with me,waiting for us. get into the helicopter, all of you, and we’ll go while the going’s good.’ billswitched his torch round to see where the girls were, and in a moment all three were being helpedup into the machine.

‘i couldn’t quite see where to land,’ said bill. ‘i must have hit something coming down. i felt agood old jolt, and the helicopter swung round like mad. i hope she’s all right!’

‘you went into part of the rocky parapet, i think,’ said jack, helping the girls in. ‘oh bill! thisis grand! how did you . . .’

‘all explanations later!’ said bill, and began to fiddle about with something in front of him.

‘now – here we go!’

the helicopter rose a foot or two in the air and then swung round in a peculiar way. bill put herback to earth again at once. ‘now what’s wrong? she shouldn’t do that.’

lucy-ann was so longing to be off that she could hardly bear this. ‘let’s go, let’s go,’ she keptsaying, till dinah nudged her to stop. snowy was on lucy-ann’s knee, as good as gold. she heldon to him tightly, tense with excitement.

bill tried again. once more the machine rose into the air, and then did its peculiar swing-round.

‘something’s wrong with the steering,’ said bill, in an exasperated voice. ‘why did i leave johnsdown there? he might have been able to put it right. but i didn’t think this machine would holdhim as well as you three!’

in deepening dismay the children sat whilst poor bill tried his best to get the helicopter to riseand fly properly. but each time it swung round violently, and bill could do nothing with it. he wassecretly rather afraid that it would get completely out of control and swing right off the mountain-top. he could not risk an accident with the three children on board.

for at least an hour bill experimented with the steering of the helicopter, but it would notanswer to the controls at all. he made the children get out to see if lightening the load made anydifference, but it didn’t.

‘it must have got damaged when you struck the parapet,’ said jack. ‘oh, bill – what are wegoing to do now?’

‘what about the way out by the wall?’ said bill. ‘philip told me all about it – something about arope-ladder and so on. as a matter of fact, i did go to find the entrance there, when i came to lookfor you the other day – you spoke of it in your note, you remember – and i went behind the greencurtain, found the crack in the rock and went in. but i couldn’t go any further than that curiouscave with no roof and the black pool at the bottom.’

‘no. nobody would find how to get out of that cave except by accident,’ said jack. ‘wediscovered how to get the rope-ladder down from above – by turning a wheel under the water inthe pool. down came the ladder!’

‘well – it seems to me we’ll have to try to get out that way,’ said bill. ‘this pest of a helicopterwon’t answer to her controls now. i daren’t try and take off. we’d crash – and we haven’t anywonderful wings to save us, either!’

‘oh, bill – can’t we really fly off in the helicopter?’ said lucy-ann, her heart sinking like lead.

‘oh, i don’t want to go down into that horrid mountain again! we might lose our way. we mightget caught!’

‘we’ll have to try, i’m afraid, lucy-ann,’ said bill. ‘never mind – i’m here to protect you now.

and, after all, it’s the middle of the night, and nobody is likely to be about.’

‘if only that helicopter would go properly!’ said jack. ‘it’s a piece of real bad luck that it won’t.

it’s such a giveaway too. as soon as anyone sees it, they’ll know something’s up and will come tolook for us.’

‘all the more reason why we should get a move on now,’ said bill. ‘come on. gosh, what’s thisbanging against me? oh, it’s you, snowy. well, if you come too, you’ll have to keep at our heelsor you’ll give the game away! by the way – where’s kiki? i haven’t seen or heard her tonight.’

‘we don’t know where she is,’ said jack miserably. ‘we haven’t seen her for days – not sincewe were captured. she may be caged somewhere – or hiding in the mountain – or even killed!’

‘oh, no!’ said lucy-ann. ‘don’t say that. kiki’s too clever to let herself be captured. perhapswe’ll find her tonight!’

‘where’s the way out of this place?’ asked bill, switching on his torch. ‘over there? are theresteps that go down into the mountain? well, come on then. every minute is precious now.’

they left the damaged helicopter in the yard and went towards the stone steps that led downinto the mountain. lucy-ann shivered.

‘i hoped i’d not go down there again! take my hand, bill, i don’t like this!’