chapter 18 a few surprises

it seemed so very queer to hear a bell ringing in that dead and silent city that the little company feltreally startled. the sound came nearer.

"dong-dong-dong." kiki didn't like it either and crouched against jack's cheek. micky chatteredquietly.

"dong-dong-dong!"

"something's coming round that corner," said jack suddenly. and something did.

it was a donkey, a little grey donkey with a big bell hanging from his neck! with him was a smallboy, an imp of a boy, riding astride, with panniers each side of the donkey, great baskets that werefull of something covered in white cloths.

"good gracious!" said dinah, and she sat down on a big stone, most relieved to see that it was just adonkey-bell that had startled them all. "i don't know what i thought was coming!""i suppose the boy's from one of the farms," said bill, looking puzzled. "but why has he come here?

there is nobody living here."

then an even more surprising thing happened. the boy caught sight of the five people watching him,and grinned a welcome. he leapt off the donkey, pointed to the pannier baskets and screamed outsomething that sounded like sheer gibberish, but which the children imagined must be the speech ofthamis. then he brought the donkey right up to them, and began to throw back the cloths thatcovered whatever was in the panniers.

"it's food," said bill, in amazement. "bread — cheeses — meat. gosh, he's unpacking the lot."the boy unpacked everything, chattering all the time. he evidently couldn't understand why nobodyhelped him, and addressed quite a few cutting remarks to the two boys, who, of course, couldn't makehead or tail of them.

"here, boy," said bill. "what's all this?"he pointed to the pile of food. the boy sent out a stream of gibberish again, pointing to bill, and thenpointing to the food.

"anyone would think he had brought all this for us," said bill, exasperated. "i can't understand it atall."

the boy mounted his donkey again. he held out his hand to bill, palm upwards. that was plainenough. he wanted money!

"well, well — it beats me," said bill, astounded. "a very fine welcome to thamis, i must say — butmost unexpected. we don't want the food, sonny. we don't want it. take it back!"no amount of shouting could make the boy understand. he got very angry, and tapped his palmsmartly to make bill understand he wanted money. in the end bill tipped a handful of coins into hishand. he counted them carefully, nodded his head, grinned brilliantly, and then very rudely spat atmicky. micky spat back, and kiki growled like a dog.

the donkey backed away from kiki and began to bray. "eee-yore! eee-eee-yore!"kiki was extremely startled, but she soon recovered, and produced a very good bray herself. the boygave a yelp of surprise, kicked his donkey hard with both his bare heels, and galloped away round thecorner, the donkey's bell ringing hard. "dong-dong-dong-dong-dong!"bill sat down and scratched his head. "well, what do you make of that!" he said. "a present of somevery fine country food, sent by somebody we don't know, who can't possibly have known we werehere."

"it's a bit queer," said jack. "i wouldn't mind one of those rolls."they all had one. they were very good. they sat and munched them, wondering about the boy. theycouldn't make head or tail of his appearance.

"what are we going to do with this food?" said philip. "it won't keep if it's left out in the sun. itseems an awful waste of good food to leave it mouldering here.""it does," said bill. "well — the only thing we can do is to carry it into a cool place somewhere —and hope that boy will come back!"

they picked up the food and went into a near-by building. there was a hole in the floor, shaded by ahalf-ruined wall. they packed all the food there, wondering what would happen to it.

"now we'd better go down to the creek and see if we can find the entrance, or whatever it is, shownon the map," said bill. he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it. the children looked too. "weshan't find it, so don't think it!" said bill, who was now secretly of the opinion that there was nothingto be discovered in this poor, "dead" island.

they went down the overgrown, stone-strewn street, and came to the rocky creek. the motor-boatwas there, rocking gently. andros was fast asleep on the shady side of the boat.

the little party walked down the rocky ledge to the boat. then they looked up the creek. bill gave anexclamation. "of course! that's it!"

"what, bill?" said the children at once.

"well, 'two-fingers' is marked on the map, apparently for no reason at all. the expert swore that'swhat the old greek word meant. i just thought it might be an old name for someone — but now i seewhat it meant. look up there."

the children looked where bill pointed — and above their heads some way away to the left they sawa queer rock. it was like a clenched hand — with two fingers raised! yes — two fingers. there theywere. and "two-fingers" was marked on the map!

"come on. that's a guide of some sort," said bill, and they climbed along till they came to the queertwo-fingered rock. they found a hole behind it, a hole that would quite easily allow a person to stepinto it. bill fumbled for a torch. he switched it on.

"there may be a passage of some kind," he said. "yes — there is! this is really extraordinary! ithink, jack, you'd better go back to the boat and get a lantern or two, if you can find them. my torchisn't too good."

jack sped down to the boat. andros was still asleep. jack spotted two lanterns and brought themcarefully up to the two-fingered rock, handing them at awkward places to philip, who had come tomeet him.

"good," said bill. "we'll light these. i'll take one, and you can take the other, jack. i'll save mytorch."

they lighted the oil lanterns inside the hole. it wasn't big enough for a cave. it really was just a largehole behind the queer rock — but at the back was what looked like an entry into the hill. could itpossibly be the entrance shown in the map?

"do you think it is, bill?" asked lucy-ann eagerly, when the lanterns were lighted and bill held oneup to peer into the narrow rocky passage behind the hole.

"no. i can't believe it is," said bill. "it must have been known for years by everyone in the city, whenit was alive with people. it's just a coincidence, i expect."the children, of course, didn't think it was. they felt very thrilled indeed as they made their wayalong the dark little passage. it went for a few hundred yards and then came out into a wide space.

bill held up his lantern. it shone on to rocky walls — but what was that at the back? the wall lookeddifferent there.

he took his lantern over to it. the beam shone on to large blocks of stone built like a great irregulardoor. "i wonder why that was built here," said bill, surprised. he swung the lantern round to light upthe rest of the cave. the walls were of smooth, shiny rock. there was not the smallest opening thereat all. the only opening was the one they had come in by, from the narrow passage.

bill swung the light on to the built-in stones again. then he put the lantern down.

"this was built to block up some other opening," he said at last. the children's hearts sank. "it isimmensely strong, as you can see for yourselves — a door of great blocks of stone, a door that can'tpossibly be opened, or got through in any way.""bill — do you think it's blocking up the entrance shown on the map?" asked jack, dismayed.

"well, yes — i do," said bill. "it's been built many many years — it's old, as you can see. why it wasbuilt goodness knows! anyway, there it is — and we're stopped right at the very outset! if this is theway shown on the map, the way that one must follow to get to wherever the treasure was hidden, it'simpossible to follow it. quite impossible!""oh, bill!" said lucy-ann, almost in tears. "it's too bad. isn't there any way through?""well — send micky to see," said bill. "if there's even a small hole micky will find it. you knowwhat monkeys are. send him, philip."

"go, micky — go and hunt about," said philip. micky looked at him enquiringly. he didn't like thisbusiness of exploring dark passages. he leapt off philip's shoulder and obediently went off on anexploration of his own. kiki watched him and then flew to a ledge at the top of the immense stonedoorway.

"send for the doctor," she said in a hollow voice. "polly's got a cold. send for the doctor."micky bounded up to join her. he scurried about, putting his little paw here and there, into cranniesand crevices. but obviously there was nothing to find, for he soon came back and leapt on to philip'sshoulder, nestling closely to his neck.

"no go," said bill. he set the lantern down on the floor, meaning to put the map away. just as he wasfolding it up lucy-ann gave an astonished cry.

"what's the matter?" said jack, startled.

"look — what's that over there — on the floor? surely, it's — it's — a torch battery!"philip saw the thing she meant and went to pick it up. he brought it to the light of the lamp. "yes —that's just what it is — an old worn-out battery from a torch rather like bill's. bill — you haven'tdropped a battery, have you?"

"of course not," said bill. "yes, this is certainly on old battery — somebody must have thrown itdown and put a new battery into his torch — whoever he may be! we are obviously not the only onesto know this place!"

lucy-ann shivered. she was sorry she had spotted that battery now. it made her feel queer. who hadbeen in this walled-up cave, and why?

"let's go, bill," she said. "we can't do any good here — it's all walled up. let's go back to andros. idon't like this."

"right. we'll go back," said bill. "in any case, we ought to go now. we've been here ages, and we'vegot to get back to the ship tonight. come along."they made their way out of the cave, down the narrow passage in the rocky hill and came to the hole.

they climbed round the two-fingered rock and made their way to the creek.

and then they got a terrible shock. the motor-boat was gone! they stared as if they couldn't believetheir eyes.

"where's the boat?" said dinah feebly.

they looked up the creek and down. no sign of the boat at all. how very extraordinary! and thenjack gave a cry, and pointed out to sea.

"isn't that it? look — right out there?"they all strained their eyes, and bill nodded his head grimly. "yes — that looks like it. what onearth made andros go off without us? what an astounding thing to do!""he was fast asleep in the boat when i got the lantern," said jack. "never stirred. everything seemedall right then."

"blessed if i understand it," said bill, looking bewildered. "he seemed a good trustworthy chap —and i haven't even paid him. what in the world has possessed him to act like that?""the boat's going pretty fast," said philip. "almost out of sight now. well, well, well — here we aremarooned on our treasure island, sure as eggs are eggs!"lucy-ann was very much alarmed. she took bill's arm. "what are we going to do?" she said. "arewe to stay here, bill?"

"lucy-ann, don't be an idiot," said jack, before bill could answer. "where are we to go if we don'tstay here? have you got an aeroplane stowed away somewhere, ready for this emergency?""shut up, jack," said bill, putting his arm round lucy-ann. "we shall be all right, don't fret, lucy-ann. it's only one of our adventures!"