‘That’s Philip!’ said Jack. He knocked gently on the door. ‘Philip! It’s us! We’re going to undo the bolts of this door.’
There was an astonished exclamation, and the sound of feet running across to the door. Then Philip’s excited voice came through the door, eager and thrilled.
‘Gosh, Jack! Is it really you? Can you let me out?’
Jack shot the bolts back. They were well oiled and went back easily. Philip pulled him into the space beyond as soon as the door was open. The girls followed too, with Snowy.
‘Jack! How did you get here? I’ve been shut in this strange place with that black man. Look, there he is, over there. He sleeps most of the time. He’s the one the dogs were after.’
Sure enough, there was the man, lying against the side of the cave, fast asleep. Jack and the girls looked round Philip’s prison in wonder.
It was nothing but a cave in the side of the top of the mountain. It opened on to the sky ... or so it seemed! At first the children could see nothing but a vast expanse of blue when they gazed out of the opening opposite to the door.
‘It’s almost at the top, this cave,’ said Jack. ‘Isn’t it a miraculous view? You can see right over the tops of the mountains yonder. I’ve never been so high in my life before. It makes me quite giddy to look out for long.’
Dinah stepped to the edge of the cave but Philip pulled her back. ‘No, don’t go too near. There’s an almost sheer drop there. And if you look down it makes you feel very strange – as if you’re on top of the world and might fall any minute!’
‘Hold my hand then, whilst I look,’ said Dinah, and Jack wanted to see too.
‘Lie down on the floor of the cave and look out of it that way,’ said Philip. ‘You feel safer then.’
So all four lay down and peered over the edge of the cave that was almost at the top of the mountain. It certainly gave them a curious feeling. Far far down below were the slopes of the mountain, and far below that the valley. Lucy-Ann clutched Philip tightly. She felt as if she was toppling over downwards! But she wasn’t, of course. She was safe on the floor of the cave. It was just the terrific feeling of height that made her think she must be falling down and down!
‘I don’t like it,’ she said, and came away from the ledge. The others were awed. They gazed until they too felt that they were going to fall, and then they pushed themselves back and sat up.
‘Come with us quickly,’ said Jack to Philip. ‘We know the way out – and Snowy will guide us if we don’t! We must go whilst there’s a good chance. The whole place seems deserted. It’s most peculiar.’
‘Well, the men live on the very top of the mountain,’ said Philip. ‘The American has been telling me quite a lot. This cave is very near the top – so near that I can sometimes hear men talking and laughing. There must be a plateau on the summit – or some kind of flat place – because the helicopters land there.’
‘Oh! Well, I suppose everyone must be up on the mountain-top then!’ said Jack. ‘We didn’t meet a soul coming up here. Come on, let’s go, Philip. Don’t let’s waste a minute. We can tell each other everything when we’re safely out of this extraordinary mountain.’
They all went to the door – and then Jack pushed the others back quickly. He shut the door quietly and put his finger to his lips.
‘I can hear voices!’
So could the others. Loud voices that were coming nearer their door. Would the owners of the voices spot that the bolts were undone?
The voices came nearer and nearer – and then passed! Evidently nobody had looked at the bolts of the door. The children breathed again.
‘Thank goodness! They’ve gone past!’ said Jack. ‘Shall we wait for a few minutes and then run for it?’
‘No. Wait till the men come back and go up to the roof,’ said Philip. ‘I think they are only the paratroopers gone to get some stores to take up to the top.’
Everyone stared at him. ‘Para-troopers!’ said Jack, in amazement. ‘What do you mean? Why should there be paratroopers here?’
‘This chap told me. His name’s Sam,’ said Philip, nodding towards the sleeping man. ‘Let’s wait till those fellows come back with their stores, or whatever they’ve gone to fetch. I don’t think they’ll even look at this door. They don’t know I’m here!’
‘Well – for goodness’ sake tell us all about everything then,’ said Jack, filled with intense curiosity. ‘Paratroopers! It sounds impossible.’
‘Well, you know when I was caught, don’t you?’ began Philip. ‘They took me to that steep wall, behind a thick screen of creeper, and in at an opening there. I was pushed up some kind of ladder in the dark – a rope-ladder, I should think – and we went up for ages and ages.’
The others nodded. They knew all about that.
‘We went through long passages, and came to a jolly frightening place – with wheels and things . . . Did you see it too?’
‘Yes. Most extraordinary. But there was no one there,’ said Jack.
‘I didn’t have time to see much,’ said Philip. ‘Then we went round a gallery – the one that looks down on that place of wheels and wires and sparks and flames – and came into a most magnificent place – like a room out of a palace!’
‘Yes – we saw it too. A room for a king, with a throne and all,’ said Jack. ‘But nobody there!’
‘Well, then I was pushed up passages and steps to this cave,’ said Philip. ‘And I was bolted in, and here I’ve stayed ever since! This man was pushed in too – but poor little Snowy was bolted out! He’s come and bleated outside my door dozens of times. I hated that. He sounded so lost and miserable.’
Snowy was very happy now, however! He was curled up on Philip’s knee, occasionally butting him gently to get a little more attention.
‘I’ve had food pushed in through the door – all tinned stuff,’ said Philip. ‘But nobody’s said a word to me, not even that nasty foreign-looking fellow who caught me. You should see his eyes! You often read in books about people with piercing eyes. Well, he’s really got them – they go right through you! I was glad he didn’t question me much, because I felt as if he’d know everything by reading my very thoughts.’
The others had been listening intently. Jack nodded towards the sleeping man. ‘What did he tell you?’
‘Oh, a lot of peculiar things,’ said Philip. ‘He said he saw an advertisement in the paper asking for men who had been paratroopers – you know, men who are trained to jump out of planes high in the air, and parachute to earth.’
‘Yes. Go on,’ said Jack, impatiently.
‘Well, the hawk-eyed man – the one who captured me – he goes by the name of Meier, by the way – interviewed him at some office in Mexico, and offered him a terrific sum of money if he’d come and try some new kind of parachute-jumping.’
‘What kind?’ asked Dinah.
‘I don’t exactly know. Sam sounded a bit muddled when he told me – or else I didn’t understand him,’ said Philip. ‘It’s something to do with flying through the air on wings – wings fixed to his arms. Apparently you can’t possibly fall to earth when you’ve got these wings on, and you can guide yourself where and how you like – just as birds do.’
‘That’s impossible,’ said Jack at once. ‘Quite mad.’
‘Yes. That’s why I think Sam got hold of the wrong idea,’ said Philip. ‘Well – this fellow Meier engaged a whole lot of ex-paratroopers, paid them fabulous sums, and brought them here, in helicopters, to the top of this mountain. And their job is to try out these wings – or so Sam says.’
‘Has he tried them?’ asked Jack.
‘No. But three of his mates have. They had these peculiar wings fitted to their arms and were given orders to jump from the helicopter at a given moment – or else be pushed out,’ said Philip.
‘What happened?’ asked Jack.
‘Sam doesn’t know,’ answered Philip. ‘You see, none of his mates came back. He’s pretty certain they fell to their deaths. He didn’t
want to do the same – so he got away.’
18
A little exploring
There was a long pause after this strange story. It was very hard to believe – and yet they had seen and heard such strange things the last few days that they felt anything might be true of this lonely mountain.
‘But what’s the idea?’ asked Jack, after a while. ‘And why all the wheels and wires and things? I just don’t get the hang of it all.’
‘Nor do I. But Sam reckons that if the experiment came off, and men could really fly with these wings, somebody would make a most colossal fortune!’ said Philip. ‘Everyone would want them. Everyone would fly.’
‘It sounds lovely,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I should love to fly like the birds do – much, much better than going in an aeroplane!’
They all felt the same – but nobody could really believe in these ‘wings’ that Sam had talked of.
‘How did he escape?’ asked Jack, nodding at the black man.
‘He did an absolutely mad thing – as dangerous as jumping off a helicopter to try the “wings”,’ said Philip. ‘He got a parachute out of the stores, came in here, fitted it on – and jumped!’
Everyone shuddered. ‘What! Jumped out of this cave, right from the top of the mountain?’ said Jack. ‘Gosh, he’s a brave man!’
‘He is. His parachute opened, and he floated down to earth, landing with an awful bump. But of course he’d learnt how to fall, and he soon recovered. The next thing was – to find safety somewhere.’
‘He couldn’t have found a lonelier, more deserted bit of country than in these mountains,’ said Jack. ‘I suppose he didn’t even know where he was.’
‘He hadn’t the faintest idea,’ said Philip. ‘I told him we were in Wales – but he didn’t know where that was.’
‘And then the dogs got after him, I suppose?’ said Jack. ‘Poor Sam!’
‘Yes. He knew about them, because they live up on the mountain-top with the men. He says they’re used to scare any possible wanderer who comes near this mountain – and, of course, to hunt anyone who does escape – or find anyone who crashes if the wings don’t work.’
‘That’s more likely,’ said Jack. ‘Gosh, what a horrible, callous lot of men there must be behind all this! I never heard of anything like it in my life.’
‘Sam says there’s a king,’ said Philip. ‘The king of the mountain! Isn’t it incredible? That throne must be for him. Sam’s never seen him. He must be the spider at work, catching all these fellows and making them try out his mad experiments.’
‘We thought there was some colossal brain behind all this,’ said Jack. ‘I suppose that hawk-eyed man – Meier – isn’t the king, is he?’
‘Oh, no! I don’t know what you’d call him – sort of organizer, I suppose. He sees to everything – the stores – all the arrangements – shuts up the men when the helicopters arrive – and so on. There are two men, apparently, who work together on these things. The king is somebody who only appears on state occasions – such as when another pair of wings is produced, and the men have to go down to that great stateroom, listen to some speech they don’t understand, and watch one of their number being picked to try out the wings.’
‘Picking out a victim for sacrifice, it sounds like!’ said Jack grimly. ‘I don’t like this at all. It’s so mad.’
‘Sam was ill the last time the king picked out his victims,’ said Philip. ‘So he hasn’t seen the king of the mountain, as I said. He must be a twisted sort of chap – really callous and cruel, to make these fellows try out wings that can’t possibly be any good.’
‘I agree with you!’ said Jack. ‘And I think the sooner we get out of here and get into touch with old Bill, the better. I don’t feel safe in this mountain. No wonder Lucy-Ann got “feelings” about it. I’ve got quite a lot of feelings about it myself now!’
‘Look – Sam’s waking up,’ said Lucy-Ann. They all looked at the man. He sat up, and rubbed his eyes. He looked across the cave and seemed surprised to see so many children.
Then he recognized Lucy-Ann as the little girl who had seen him up in the tree. He smiled, and then shook his head.
‘Didn’t I tell you to git away,’ said Sam, looking solemn. ‘This here is a bad mountain. Those men are bad, too.’
‘We’re going now, Sam,’ said Philip. As soon as we think it’s safe. Will you come too? We know the way out.’
Sam looked frightened. ‘I’m scared of those dogs,’ he said. ‘I reckon I’m safe right here.’
‘You’re not. I bet you’ll be the very next one chosen to try out the “wings” you told me about,’ said Philip.
‘The wings’re better than those dogs,’ said Sam.
Voices came past the door. The children fell silent and listened till they had gone past. Sam listened too.
‘That was Pete and Jo,’ he said.
‘Well, Pete and Jo have gone up to the mountain-top again,’ said Jack. ‘Come on. It seems a good time to go now. We didn’t meet anyone coming here – and the chances are we shan’t meet anyone going back. What a tale we’ll have to tell Bill!’
They opened the door cautiously. Snowy bounded out at once. Kiki was on Jack’s shoulder, having kept silent for a surprisingly long time. She did not seem to like this peculiar mountain!
They went quietly down the spiral stairway, following its many turns round and round. They came to the openings where the stores were kept. It made them feel very hungry to see all the tins of food; but there was no time to think of eating now. They had to escape as quickly as possible.
Snowy led them down the dimly lit passages. The children expected to see the curious library of books at the end of them, but Snowy had apparently taken them a different way. They stopped after a while in dismay.
‘I say – this isn’t right. We didn’t see that cave there before – I’m sure we didn’t!’ said Jack. They hesitated, not knowing whether to go on or go back. It would be awful to get lost in the heart of the mountain!
‘I can hear some kind of noises,’ said Lucy-Ann, listening. ‘Let’s creep on and see what they are.’
They went on down a wide passage that at times ran very steeply downhill. The air suddenly grew hot.
‘Phew!’ said Philip, mopping his forehead. ‘I can hardly breathe.’
They came out on a kind of balcony that overlooked a great deep pit, so vast that it took the children’s breath away. Far down in the middle of it men were at work, though what they were doing the children couldn’t possibly tell. They were as small as ants.
Great lamps lit up the pit. The children gazed in astonishment. What could be going on down there?
Suddenly Jack nudged Philip. ‘Look – the men have slid aside the floor of the pit – do you see? What’s that under it?’
Jack might well ask! Out of the hole in the pit floor shone a brilliant mass of colour – but a colour the children did not know! It was not blue or green, not red or yellow, not any colour they had ever seen before. They gaped at it in surprise.
Then, suddenly they felt a curious feeling – a feeling of lightness, as if they were in a dream, and not quite real. They clutched the balcony rail, afraid. At the same moment the men down below slid the great floor over the hole in the pit again, and shut out the brilliant mass of unknown colour. At once the strange feeling passed away from the children, and they were themselves once more.
They felt a little weak. ‘Let’s go,’ said Jack, scared. ‘I don’t like this.’
But before they could go there began that now familiar rumbling noise from the very depths of the mountain! The children clung to one another. It was so much louder now that they were inside the mountain. It was louder than thunder, an angry, unearthly noise. Then the balcony they were on began to shake.
Jack took one last look down into the strange pit. The men had disappeared – probably hidden safely behind rocky walls. Jack caught Lucy-Ann’s hand and fled! After him came Philip and Dinah. Kiki clung to Jacks shoulder
, more scared than any of them. Snowy had disappeared completely.
The four children tore up the steep wide passage that had led them down to the pit. The floor of it shook beneath their feet as they ran. The children felt sure that the whole of the great mountain was shaking. What powers were being used by these men? Surely they must have discovered some scientific secret unknown to anyone before!
The children did not stop running until they came to the end of the uphill passage. They were streaming with perspiration, and panting loudly. Snowy suddenly joined them and pressed against Philip’s legs. All four children sank down in a heap and Snowy walked over them, unheeded.
‘For goodness’ sake let’s get out of here,’ said Philip at last. ‘I daresay if we were scientists we shouldn’t be a bit scared, only intensely interested – but all I can say is – let’s get out of here!’
Everyone agreed heartily. The only thing was – which was the way? They got up and walked along a twisty little passage. It forked into two after a bit, and the children, not knowing which to take, took the right-hand one. It led them to a cell-like cave with a narrow bed in it, a jug and basin, and a shelf. Nothing more.
‘Funny!’ said Jack. ‘I expect it belongs to Meier, or one of the other men. Let’s go back.’
They went back to where the passage forked, and took the left-hand way. To their great surprise they came to hanging curtains of purple silk, patterned with great red dragons!
They stopped. Philip put his hand on Snowy to prevent him from darting forward. Jack crept to the curtains on tiptoe.
Beyond was a cave so beautifully decorated, so profusely hung with curtains and spread with thick carpets that it didn’t seem like a cave at all. A couch stood in one corner, covered with a purple silk quilt, worked with the same red dragons as on the curtains they had seen.
Jack stared. Perhaps this was where the king slept. It felt deliciously cool here. Where did the little cooling draught come from? He saw a narrow rod hanging on the wall near him, with slits in it all the way along. He put his hand up and felt a draught of air. How astonishing! It was only a rod fixed to the wall. How could fresh air come out of it? Again Jack felt that there were remarkably ingenious brains at work in this mountain.