30

the end of it all!

they had to sleep out in the open that night. effans gave the children the rugs he had brought,because all their sleeping things had been left behind in the cave, on the mountain-side. theprisoners slept apart, guarded by the dogs. it was very warm, and snowy got pushed off byeveryone when he tried to cuddle down first on top of philip, then on jack, and then on the girls.

they had had a very long talk with bill and told him all their adventures down to the last detail.

bill had marvelled at their accidental discovery of the strange mountain and its even strangersecret. he had examined the ‘wings’ which philip had given to johns to take care of for him.

‘i shall take those back to school with me next term!’ philip said. ‘won’t the boys stare! i betsome of them will want to try them!’

‘well, all i can say is i should discourage anyone from jumping off the school roof or anythinglike that, and trusting to these wings,’ said bill drily. ‘i have a feeling that the ingenious brainbehind these things is failing a little – the old “king” will never discover how to make the wings heso much wants to make. but he certainly has invented some remarkable things. i have had a talkwith meier, and he has told me why he believed in monally – that’s the “king’s” real name.’

‘why did he believe in him?’ asked the children curiously.

‘well, apparently he has, at one time or another, produced the most remarkable inventions,’ saidbill, ‘and meier has backed him and made a great deal of money out of them. how he came tofind this mountain, and the rare metal in its heart, which the “king” wanted for his latest idea ofconquering the pull of the earth, i haven’t been able to find out yet. some dirty work of some sort,i expect.’

‘what are you going to do about everything?’ asked jack.

‘well – the paratroopers will be sent back home. the soldiers will be questioned and also sentback. i have a feeling there’s something strange about them too. the “king” will be taken intosafety,’ said bill. ‘i shall send two or three scientists to the mountain to let them report on whatthey find there. i shouldn’t be surprised if they advise us to destroy everything in it. the “king”

has been meddling with dangerous things. with no one there to keep a guiding hand on them theremight be a vast explosion.’

‘it’s a good thing we discovered it, isn’t it?’ said lucy-ann.

‘a very good thing,’ said bill. and it’s an even better thing you left that note with dapple. if ithadn’t been for that i’d never have found you.’

‘what happened?’ asked jack.

‘i came along to find you, complete with donkeys, after david’s rush home,’ said bill. ‘instead ifound only dapple – and the note, which talked of very peculiar things indeed, and made me smella very large rat.’

‘go on,’ said philip, interested.

‘well, i snooped round but couldn’t find my way in through the roofless cave,’ said bill. ‘so theonly thing to do was to start finding out about helicopters. if somebody could land on thatmountain-top, then so could i!’

‘good old bill!’ said jack.

‘and then,’ said bill, ‘i found when i began making enquiries about all the helicopters in thiscountry, who owned them and so on, that other people were also making enquiries about a few ofthem! some of the helicopters had been flying off in suspicious circumstances, nobody knewwhere. so the police were even then enquiring into the matter – and i joined them, hotfoot!’

‘and what did you find?’ asked dinah.

‘i found a young pilot, with a terrific scar across his face!’ said bill. ah – you know him, i see.

and he spilt the beans, as we say! told us he was worried about paratroopers jumping withoutproper parachutes and so on. and so, when he went on holiday, i took his place on the nexthelicopter trip – and hey presto, there i was on the top of the mountain!’

‘oh, bill – it was heavenly to see you!’ said lucy-ann.

bill had told them all about mrs mannering too – how anxious she had been - how her hand hadhealed very well – and how she had begged in vain to be allowed to come with effans and theothers to meet the children, with the donkeys.

it was a long time before the children could go to sleep that night, for the day had been soexciting. the dogs lay and snoozed, one eye on the prisoners. the donkeys lay peacefullytogether. snowy, sent off by each of the children, wandered off to dapple and lay down besidehim. dapple was very pleased.

they got back to the farmhouse by dinner-time the next day, for bill had got them all up veryearly the next morning. mrs mannering ran out in joy. she had been very worried indeed.

mrs evans followed. ‘indeed to gootness, it’s grand to see you, whateffer! to think what youhave been through, look you – as much danger as in war-time! it’s glad we are to see you back!’

‘it’s well they are looking, too,’ said effans, in his up-and-down voice, beaming. and that bird,indeed, she is funnier than ever!’

‘whateffer, look you!’ mimicked kiki, also in a singsong voice, and effans went off intoguffaws, imitated by kiki. the two of them sounded so jolly that everyone else began to laughtoo!

mrs evans, of course, had got another lovely meal ready for them all. and what a lot there wereto feed that day too! she even found a fine supply of bones for the dogs, and philip had to takethem a good way off because mrs mannering said she really couldn’t bear to hear such amunching and crunching as the ten dogs made short work of the bones.

what a lot there was to tell! mrs evans’ eyes nearly fell out of her head as she listened, andhanded out food of all kinds to everyone.

‘to think of the children doing such things, look you!’ she kept saying. ‘inside that mountain,indeed! down in that pit too, look you!’

‘pardon, look you!’ said kiki, and gave a loud sneeze. effans choked and kiki copied him,making such a dreadful noise that mrs mannering said she was to go out of the room if shecouldn’t behave herself.

‘oh, aunt allie – she’s just so glad she’s back again,’ said jack, tapping kiki on the beak.

‘send for the doctor,’ said kiki, fixing her wicked little eyes on effans, who was still chokingwith laughter. ‘send for the weasel! send for the look-you!’

nobody could help laughing. jack gave kiki a very large plum, hoping to keep her quiet.

holding it in one clawed foot, kiki dug her beak into it, making juice squirt all over poor effans.

‘pardon!’ said kiki in delight, and did it again. effans felt that he would exchange every one ofhis sheep for a bird like that. he watched kiki and quite forgot to eat.

johns was to take the prisoners down to the town, with david, escorted by two of the dogs. mrsevans said she would keep the rest of them at the farmhouse until the police had decided what todo with them.

‘mother – i suppose we couldn’t possibly keep two or three of the dogs, could we?’ askedphilip longingly.

‘good gracious, no!’ said his mother. ‘it’s bad enough being landed with so many of your petswhen you go back to school – but to have three great hungry alsatians to look after would just killme! no, they will be happier as police dogs.’

bill was to stay until two or three scientists arrived to go with him to the mountain. some policeofficers were to accompany them too, to round up the soldiers – though bill did not expect anytrouble from them at all. they probably had bad records, and had signed on with meier to keep outof the way of the police for a while and to earn money.

‘can we go to the mountain too?’ asked jack hopefully. ‘you might lose your way inside, bill.’

‘oh, no i shan’t,’ said bill. ‘i found a nice little map of the inside of the mountain in meier’spocket. i shan’t lose my way – and you may as well give up all hope of coming with me, becauseyou’ve been in quite enough danger these holidays. i’m afraid if i took you with me, anotheradventure might blow up – i never saw such children for smelling out adventures! i believe if itook you to visit my dear old aunt, we should find she had suddenly been kidnapped in asubmarine, and you were forced to go to the other end of the world to rescue her!’

the boys were very disappointed not to go with bill back to the mountain. neither of the girlswanted to. lucy-ann was quite certain about that.

‘i don’t mind the adventure a bit, now it’s all over and we can talk about it,’ she said. ‘but ididn’t like it at the time. i hated that rumbling old mountain. bill, philip’s going to let me wear hiswings this afternoon in return for when i offered to jump from the helicopter instead of him. i shallfly from that high rock up there down to the farmhouse!’

‘indeed you won’t!’ said bill promptly. lucy-ann laughed at bill’s shocked face.

‘it’s all right. i was only pulling your leg,’ she said. ‘but i’m going to wear them for a littlewhile, and jump about, flapping them. won’t the hens be surprised?’

‘very,’ said bill. ‘you’ll stop them laying eggs, i should think! look after her, philip. see shedoesn’t do anything mad.’

philip grinned. ‘lucy-ann’s all right,’ he said. ‘she’s the most sensible one of us all.’

he put his hand into his pocket to feel if sally the slow- worm was there. an astonishedexpression came over his face. he gave a yell.

‘oh! whatever’s the matter!’ said lucy-ann, jumping in fright.

‘the most wonderful thing has happened!’ said philip. ‘honestly, i never thought it of sally.’

‘what? what?’ cried the others. philip brought out his hand and opened it. it was full of whatlooked like little silvery darning needles, all wriggling about.

‘sally’s babies! mother, look! my slow-worm has got a whole lot of baby ones in my pocket.

oh, mother, i don’t believe any slow-worm has ever done that before to anyone! it’s absolutelyunique! aren’t they lovely?’

‘ugh!’ said dinah.

‘perfect!’ said jack.

‘do give me one for myself,’ said lucy-ann. ‘oh, philip! this is much, much more excitingthan our adventure!’

‘much,’ agreed philip. ‘good old sally! i’ve never had baby slow-worms for pets before – nowi’ve got heaps.’

‘you’re not to keep them in your pocket, philip,’ said his mother. ‘it’s not good for them or foryou.’

‘but sally will be so disappointed,’ said philip, in dismay.

the adventure was forgotten. all four heads bent over the silvery little creatures in philip’spalm. snowy came to look. kiki bent down from jack’s shoulders.

‘look you, whateffer!’ she said, with her head on one side, and opened her beak to hiccup. shecaught mrs mannering’s eye and changed her mind.

‘pardon!’ she screeched and went off into a cackle of laughter. ‘bad kiki! send for the doctor,look you! wipe your feet and blow your pardon!’