‘Poor Kiki! Poor, poor Kiki!’ she groaned. ‘Pop goes Kiki!’
Jack and Philip soon hauled everything up and stowed it safely away in the forks of the big spreading branches. Then Jack shinned up a bit higher and put his glasses to his eyes. What he saw made him call urgently to the girls.
‘The men are coming! Quick, get up! Have you left anything behind? Have a look and see!’
The girls took a quick look round. They could see nothing. Lucy-Ann climbed the tree quickly, with Dinah just behind her. They settled themselves on broad branches and peered down. They could see nothing at all, for the leaves were far too thick. Well, if they couldn’t see down, certainly nobody could see up. So that was all right.
Soon they could hear voices. The men were coming near. The children sat as quiet as mice in the tree. Lucy-Ann felt a terrible longing to cough and she put her hand over her mouth.
Down below, the men were making a good search of the old cowshed. They found nothing, of course, for everything had been removed by the children. Then they wandered out again and looked at the flattened grass. It puzzled them very much.
‘I’ll just have one more look in that shed,’ said the man called Juan. He disappeared into the shed once more. Kiki, who was still up on the blackened beam, sulking, was annoyed to see him again.
‘Wipe your feet,’ she said severely. ‘And how many times have I told you to shut the door?’
The man jumped violently and peered all round. Kiki was huddled in a corner up in the roof and he could not see her. He looked in all the other corners of the room, hardly believing his ears. He called to his companion.
‘Look here,’ he said, ‘somebody just now told me to wipe my feet and shut the door.’
‘You’re mad,’ said the other man. ‘You can’t be feeling well.’
‘Pussy down the well,’ announced Kiki. ‘Well, well, well! Use your handkerchief.’
The men clutched one another. Kiki’s voice was so unexpected in that dark shed.
‘Let’s be quiet and listen,’ said Juan. Kiki heard the words ‘be quiet.’
‘Shhhhhhhhhshhhhhhh!’ she said at the top of her voice. That was too much for the men. They fled out into the open air.
9
New plans
Kiki was glad to see the two men go. ‘Shut the door!’ she shouted after them. ‘Shut the door!’
The men ran off, and only stopped when they were well away from the shed. Juan mopped his forehead.
‘What do you make of that?’ he said. ‘A voice – and nothing else!’
The other man was rapidly recovering.
‘Where there’s a voice there’s a body,’ he said. ‘There’s somebody here – somebody playing tricks on us. I thought when I saw that flattened piece this morning that we were not alone here. Who’s here? Do you think anybody’s got wind of the treasure?’
The four children, hidden well in the leaves of the tree, just above the heads of the two men, pricked up their ears at once. Treasure! Oho! So that was what the men were after in this lonely, deserted valley. Treasure!
‘How could anyone know what we know?’ said Juan scornfully. ‘Don’t get nerves just because you heard a voice, Pepi. Why, maybe it was just a parrot.’
Pepi laughed loudly. It was his turn to be scornful now. ‘A parrot! What will you say next, Juan?’ he said with a sneer.
‘Have you ever known parrots to live here before? And talking ones too? If that’s a parrot, I’ll eat my hat and yours as well!’
The listening children grinned at one another. Lucy-Ann thought she would like to see Pepi, whoever he was, eating his hat. He would have to eat Juan’s too, for Kiki was most certainly a parrot.
‘It’s somebody hiding about here,’ said Pepi. ‘Though how they got here goodness knows. Juan, maybe there is a cellar beneath that cowshed. We will go and find out if anyone is hiding there. He will be very – very – sorry for himself.’
The children didn’t like the tone of his voice at all. Lucy-Ann shivered. What horrid men!
They went cautiously to the cowshed. Juan stood at the broken-down doorway. He called loudly: ‘Come out of the cellar, whoever you are! We give you this one chance!’
No one came out, of course. For one thing there was no one to come out, and for another there was no cellar to come from. Juan held a revolver in his hand. Kiki, rather alarmed at the shouting voice, said nothing at all, which was fortunate for her.
The silence was too much for Juan. He took aim at where he supposed a cellar might be and a shot rang out. BANG!
Kiki almost tumbled off the beam in fright and the four children nearly fell out of their tree. Jack just clutched Lucy-Ann in time and held her tightly.
BANG! Another shot. The children imagined that Juan must be firing blindly, merely to frighten the person he thought he had heard talking. What a pity Kiki had been in the shed, sulking. Jack felt most alarmed. He was afraid she might have been shot.
The men came out again. They stood looking about for some moments and then walked near to the chestnut tree, talking.
‘No one there now. Must have slipped off. I tell you, Pepi, there has been someone here – maybe spying on us!’
‘Well, he surely wouldn’t give himself away by telling us to wipe our feet and shut the door,’ said Pepi scornfully.
‘We’ll come back tomorrow and search this place completely,’ said Juan. ‘I’m certain there’s somebody here. Talking English too! What does it mean? I feel very alarmed about it. We didn’t want anyone to get wind of our mission.’
‘Certainly we must search this place well,’ said Pepi. ‘We must find out who is the owner of that voice. No doubt about that. I’d start a good hunt now, but it’s getting dark and I’m hungry. Come on – let’s get back.’
To the children’s huge relief the men disappeared. Jack, who by climbing to the very top of the tree could see the aeroplane, waited till he could see the two men passing by it on their way to their own hut.
Then he called down to the others, ‘All clear now. They’re by the plane. My word – what a shock I had when those shots went off! Lucy-Ann nearly fell off her branch.’
‘Lizzie shot out of my pocket and disappeared,’ said Philip. ‘I say, I hope Kiki’s all right, Jack. She must have been scared out of her life when the shots rang out in that little shed.’
Kiki was sitting petrified on the beam when the children went into the cowshed. She crouched down, trembling. Jack called to her softly.
‘It’s all right, Kiki. Come on down. I’m here to fetch you.’
Kiki flew down at once and landed on Jack’s shoulder. She made a great fuss of him. ‘Mmm-mm-mm!’ she kept saying. ‘Mmm-mm-mm!’
It was dark in the shed. The children didn’t like it. Lucy-Ann kept feeling there might be someone hiding in the corners. ‘Let’s go out,’ she said. ‘What are we going to do tonight? Is it safe to sleep where we did last night?’
‘No. We’d better take our rugs and things somewhere else,’ said Jack. ‘There’s a patch of bushes higher up where we’d be sheltered from the wind and hidden from view too. We could take them there.’
‘I say – do you know what we left in the shed?’ said Philip suddenly. ‘We left our sacks of tins. Look, there they are in that corner.’
‘What a mercy the men didn’t notice they were full of something!’ said Jack. ‘Still, I’m not surprised they took no notice of them really. They just look like heaps of rubbish. We’ll drag them up to the bushes, though. Our store of food is too precious to be left behind.’
They dragged the sacks to the patch of bushes and left them there. Then they debated what to do about the things up the tree.
‘Let’s just bring down the rugs and our macks,’ said Jack. ‘The clothes we used for pillows are wrapped in the rugs. We could leave the suitcases up there. We don’t want to drag them about with us.’
It was now getting so dark that it was quite difficult to get the rugs and macks down, but t
hey managed it somehow. Then they made their way again to the bushes. Dinah and Lucy-Ann spread out the ‘bed,’ as they called it.
‘It won’t be so warm here,’ said Dinah. ‘The wind creeps round rather. Where are we going to hide tomorrow? Those men will look behind these bushes, that’s certain.’
‘Do you remember that waterful?’ asked Philip. ‘There seemed to be a nice lot of rocks and hiding places down towards the foot. I believe we could climb down there and find quite a good place.’
‘Yes, let’s,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I’d like to see that waterfall again.’
They all lay down on the rug. They pressed close together, for it was certainly cold. Dinah took a pullover from her ‘pillow’ and put it on.
Suddenly she gave a scream, making the others jump. ‘Oh! Oh! There’s something running over me! It must be a rat!’
‘Well, it isn’t,’ came Philip’s delighted voice. ‘It’s Lizzie! She’s found me. Good old Lizzie!’
So it was. How the little lizard had discovered where Philip was nobody could imagine. It was part of the spell that Philip always seemed to exercise on wild creatures.
‘Don’t worry, Dinah,’ said Philip. ‘Lizzie is safe in my pocket now. Poor thing. I bet she felt dizzy falling down the tree.’
‘Dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, delighted with the two words. ‘Dizzy Lizzie.’
Everyone laughed. Kiki was really funny at times. ‘Doesn’t she love to put words together that have the same sounds?’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Do you remember last hols she kept saying “Fusty-musty-dusty” till we nearly screamed at her?’
‘Fusty-musty-dusty, dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, and screeched.
‘Don’t,’ said Jack. ‘You’re only showing off now, Kiki. Go to sleep. And if you dig your claws into my tummy like you did this morning, I’ll smack you.’
‘God save the Queen,’ said Kiki devoutly, and said no more.
The children talked for a little while longer. Then the girls and Philip fell asleep. Jack lay on his back, with Kiki on one of his ankles. He looked up at the stars. What was the good of promising Aunt Allie they wouldn’t have any more adventures? The very night they had promised her, they had whizzed off in a strange aeroplane to an unknown valley, where, apparently, some sort of ‘treasure’ was hidden. Most extraordinary. Most – extra – And then Jack was asleep too, and the stars shone down on the four children, moving across the sky till dawn slid into the east and put out all the stars one by one.
Philip awoke early. He had meant to, for he did not know how early the men might start hunting for the owner of the ‘voice’. He awoke the others and would not listen to their protests.
‘No, you’ve really got to wake up, Dinah,’ he said. ‘We must start early today. Go on – wake up! – or I’ll put Dizzy Lizzie down your neck.’
That woke poor Dinah up properly. She sat up and tried to slap Philip, but he dodged away. She hit Kiki instead. The parrot gave a surprised and aggrieved squawk.
‘Oh, sorry, Kiki,’ said Dinah. ‘Sorry. I didn’t mean that for you. Poor, poor Kiki!’
‘What a pity, what a pity!’ said Kiki, flying off in case Dinah sent out any more slaps.
‘We’ll have a quick breakfast,’ said Jack. ‘Sardines, biscuits and milk, I think. I saw a tin of sardines at the top of one of our sacks. Yes, here it is.’
They saw smoke rising up from where the two men were, and knew that they too were up. So they finished their breakfast quickly, and Dinah once more pushed the tins down a convenient rabbit hole. Then they ruffled up the grass on which they had been lying, so that it didn’t look quite so flat.
‘I think we’d better find a good hiding place for most of these tins,’ said Philip, ‘and take just a few of them with us to last us for today. We can’t possibly lug these heavy sacks along all the way.’
‘Couldn’t we drop them into the middle of these bushes?’ said Dinah. ‘They’re awfully thick. Nobody would guess they were there. We could slip back and fetch any we wanted.’
So the sacks were dropped into the middle of the bushes, and certainly no one could see them unless they actually crawled into the very middle. Then the children gathered up their rugs, macks and odd clothes and set off. The boys carried the tins, and Jack had his camera and his glasses as well. So they were heavily laden and could not go very fast.
They took the same way that they had taken before. When they came to the grassy, flower-strewn hillside they sat down for a rest. After all, the men would hardly be following them! They would be hunting all round and about the cowshed.
Suddenly, from far off, Jack caught sight of a brilliant, twinkling flash. He lay down flat at once, telling the others to do the same. ‘There’s someone using field-glasses down there,’ he said. ‘We may not be seen if we lie flat. I just caught the flash of the sun on the eye-lenses. Dash! I forgot the men might sweep the mountainside with glasses. They’ll be after us if they’ve seen us.’
‘Let’s crawl to that rock and get behind it,’ said Philip. ‘Come on. Once we’re behind there we can get on and find the waterfall.’
10
A fine hiding-place
When they were behind the rock the children felt sure they could not be seen, and they breathed more easily. Philip looked round and about. The gully they had been in before lay a little to the left. They could reach it without being seen from below.
‘Come on,’ said Philip, choosing a path that put rocks or bushes between them and the valley below. ‘This way.’
Up the hot gully went the children, and came to the ledge that ran round a steep bit of the mountain. They made their way round and once more saw the wonderful view they had seen before. Above them stood the ruined, burnt-out farmhouse. Lucy-Ann carefully didn’t look at it. It gave her such a miserable feeling to see the blackened beams and fallen walls.
They stood and listened for the sound of the waterfall. It came softly to their ears, a continous, musical sound, like a far-off orchestra playing a simple tune.
‘What a lovely noise!’ said Dinah. ‘Philip, shall we climb down or up now? If you want to go to the foot of the waterfall and hide somewhere among the rocks there, we ought to climb down, oughtn’t we? Last time we climbed up – over that rocky, stony bit.’
The boys stood and considered. ‘It would perhaps be best if we went down this time,’ said Jack at last. ‘Those rocks just above the waterfall may be slippery to climb down on, for they will be wet with the spray. We don’t want to slip, and we’re carrying so many things that we haven’t free hands to use.’
So they chose a way that led downwards. Philip went first, finding the safest path he could; not that there was a real path, of course, for there was not. As they came near to the waterfall, spray blew around them, and left a fine wet mist on their hair. They were hot with climbing and the spray was deliciously cool.
They rounded a corner, and saw the whole of the cascading water at once. What a sight! Lucy-Ann drew a quick breath of awe and delight, and stood staring.
‘What a thunderous noise!’ shouted Jack, trying to make his voice heard. ‘It makes me feel all excited.’
‘It does me too,’ agreed Dinah. ‘As if I want to do a jig or a hornpipe or something. And it makes me want to shout and yell.’
‘Well, let’s!’ said Jack, and he began to caper and shout as if he was mad. The others did the same, except Lucy-Ann. It was almost as if they were trying to out-shout and outdance the tumbling, roaring water.
They soon stopped, quite exhausted. They were on a flat rock which was wet with the flying spray. They were not nearly at the foot of the water after all, but about a quarter of the way up the fall. The noise filled their ears, and sometimes the force of the spray made them gasp. It was somehow very exciting.
‘Well,’ said Jack at last, when they had gazed their fill at the waterfall, ‘let’s think about a good hiding place. I must say I don’t think those men would dream of coming here to look for us.’
They all looked about for a cave or mass of rocks in or behind which they could hide. Lucy-Ann looked a little doubtful.
‘I don’t know if I can bear to hear this terrific noise going on in my ears all the time,’ she called to Jack. ‘It makes me feel a bit dizzy.’
‘Dizzy Lizzie,’ remarked Kiki at once. She too had been excited by the waterfall and had shouted with the others.
‘Well, you’ll have to put up with the noise,’ said Jack. ‘You’ll soon get used to it.’
Lucy-Ann looked worried. She was quite sure she wouldn’t get used to that thundering going on all the time. She would never, never be able to sleep through it.
The children wandered about by the waterfall, not going too near it because of the thick spray around it. They couldn’t seem to find any good place to hide in at all. All the rocks there seemed to be wet, and there seemed to be no comfortable spot in which to put their things.
‘Our rugs would be soaked in no time with the fine mist that hangs about the fall,’ said Dinah. ‘And we can’t possibly lie on wet rugs. I don’t believe this is such a good idea after all.’
Jack was climbing a little higher. He came to where a giant fern grew. It hung down like a great green curtain and was lovely to see. Jack wondered whether they could hide behind it.
He pushed aside the hanging green fronds and gave a shout at once. The others didn’t hear it because of the noise of the water.
‘Golly!’ said Jack to himself. ‘There’s a cave behind this hanging fern – and it will be quite dry because the fern screens it from the spray. It’s like a great thick curtain! Hey, you others!’
But again nobody heard him. Jack couldn’t wait for them to pay attention to him. He went through the hanging fronds and found himself in a dim dry cave, with a fairly low roof, and moss growing on the floor. He felt it. It was dry. Probably when the fern died down in the autumn, the spray flew into the cave and the moss then grew damp and flourished well. But now it was like a soft, dry green bed.
‘This is just – exactly – the place for us,’ said Jack, delighted. ‘Absolutely marvellous! Nobody could possibly see us here because the fern hangs down over the entrance, and it was only quite by accident I found it. It would be a most exciting place for us.’