But Timmy simply would NOT stop barking, and even growled when Julian tried to drag him into the tent.
‘Whatever’s up with him?’ said Julian, bewildered. ‘Oh, stop it, Timmy! You’re deafening us!’
‘Something’s upsetting him - something unusual,’ said George. ‘Listen - was that a yell?’
Everyone listened, but the rain was pelting down so hard that it was impossible to hear anything but the slashing rain and the wind.
‘Well, we can’t do much about it, whatever it is that’s upsetting Timmy,’ said Dick. ‘We can’t possibly go wandering about in this storm - we’d get soaked through and probably lost!’
Timmy was still barking, and George grew cross. ‘Timmy! Stop! Do you hear me? I won’t have it.’
It was so seldom that George was angry with him that Timmy turned in surprise. George pounced at his collar and dragged him forcibly into the tent. ‘Now - be QUIET!’ she commanded. ‘Whatever it is, we can’t do anything about it!’
Just then another noise rose above the howling of the wind and the torrents of rain, and the Five pricked up their ears at once, sitting absolutely still.
‘R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r! R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R! R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R!’
They all looked round at one another. ‘Aeroplanes!’ said Dick. ‘Aeroplanes! In this weather, too. Whatever is going on?’
Chapter Twelve
WHAT HAPPENED IN BILLYCOCK CAVES
The little company in the tent were amazed. Why should aeroplanes take off from the airfield in the middle of a stormy night?
‘For experiments in storms, perhaps?’ said Dick. ‘No - that would be rather unnecessary.’
‘Perhaps they were aeroplanes landing there, not leaving,’ suggested Anne.
‘Possibly - perhaps seeking the shelter of the airfield when they were caught in this storm,’ said Dick. But Julian shook his head.
‘No,’ he said. ‘This airfield is too far off the ordinary air-routes - nobody would bother about it; it’s so small for one thing - more of a little experimental station than anything else. Any aeroplane in difficulties could easily go to a first-class airfield for shelter or help.’
‘I wonder if Jeff went up in one of the two we heard,' said George.
Anne yawned. ‘What about bedding down?’ she said. ‘This tent is so hot and stuffy that I feel half-asleep.’
‘Yes - it’s getting late,’ said Julian, looking at his watch. ‘You two girls and Timmy can have this tent - it will save you going out into the rain. Fasten the flap after we’ve gone - and yell if you want anything.’
‘Right. Good night, Ju, good night, Dick,’ said the girls, and the boys scrambled out into the rain. Anne fastened the flap of the tent, and wrapped her rug round her. She burrowed into her heathery bed and made herself comfortable. George did the same.
‘Good night,’ said Anne, sleepily. ‘Keep Tim on your side. I can’t bear him on my legs, he’s so heavy.’
The Five slept soundly and awoke the next morning to a dismal scene of rain and dark clouds.
‘How disappointing!’ said Dick, peering out of his tent. We ought to have listened to the weather forecast to see if it would clear today. What’s the time, Julian?’
‘Just gone eight,’ said Julian. ‘My word, we are sleepy these days! Well, it’s not raining so very hard now - let’s see if the girls are awake, and put on our macs and go and wash at the spring.’
They all had breakfast - not quite so merry as usual, because it was a bit of a crowd in the tent and not nearly so much fun as having it in the sunshine. Still, the day might clear, and then they could go down to see Toby at the farm.
‘I suppose we’d better go and explore those caves this morning,’ said Dick, after breakfast. ‘There’s nothing else to do, and I refuse to play cards all morning.’
‘We all refuse!’ said George. ‘Let’s put on our macs and see if we can find the caves.’
‘We can look at the map,’ said Julian. ‘It’s a large-scale one. There must be a road or lane to them - they are quite well-known. They’re probably round the hill a bit - lower down.’
‘Well, never mind - we’ll see if we can find them, and if we can’t it won’t matter. We shall have been for a walk!’ said Dick.
They set off in a fine drizzle, walking through the damp heather, Timmy leaping in front.
‘Everyone got torches!’ said Dick suddenly. ‘I’ve got mine. We’ll need them in the caves!’
Yes, everyone had a torch - except Timmy, and he, as Anne pointed out, had eyes that were far better for seeing in the dark than any torch could ever be!
They made their way down the hill and then veered off to the north side - and came suddenly upon a wide, rather chalky path, where the heather had been cut well back.
‘This rather looks as if it led somewhere,’ said Julian, stopping.
‘It might lead to an old chalk quarry,’ said Dick, kicking some loose white lumps of chalk. ‘Like the one near Kirrin.’
‘Well, let’s follow it up and see,’ said George, and they went along it, kicking the lumps of chalk as they went. They rounded a corner and saw a notice.
TO BILLYCOCK CAVES
Warning
Keep only to the roped ways.
Beware of losing your way in the
unroped tunnels.
‘This sounds good,’ said Julian. ‘Let’s see - what did Toby tell us about the caves?’
‘They’re thousands of years old - they’ve got stalagmites and stalactites,’ said George.
‘Oh - I know what those are,’ said Anne. ‘They look like icicles hanging from the roof - while below, on the floor of the cave, other icicles seem to grow upwards to meet them!’
‘Yes - the roof ones are stalactites and the ground ones are stalagmites,’ said Dick.
‘I simply never can remember which is which,’ said Anne.
‘It’s easy!’ said Julian. ‘The stalactite icicles have to hold tight to the roof - and the stalagmite might some day join with the ones above them!’
The others laughed.
‘I shall never forget which are which now,’ said Anne.
The path they were following altered as they came near to the caves, and lost its chalky look. Just in front of the entrance the way was properly paved, and was no longer rough. The entrance was only about six feet high, and had over it a white board with two words painted very large in black.
BILLYCOCK CAVES
The warning they had read on the first notice they had come to was repeated on another one just inside the entrance. ‘Read it, Tim,’ said George, seeing him looking at it. ‘And keep close to us!’
They went right in, and had to switch on their torches at once. Timmy was amazed to see the walls around him glittering suddenly in the light of the four torches. He began to bark, and the noise echoed all around in a very weird manner.
Timmy didn’t like it, and he pressed close to George. She laughed. ‘Come on, silly. These are only caves. You’ve been in plenty in your life, Timmy! Goodness - don’t they feel cold! I’m glad of my mac!’
They passed through one or two small and ordinary caves and then came to a magnificent one, full of what looked like gleaming icicles. Some hung down from the roof, others rose up from the ground. In some places the one below had reached to the one hanging down, so that they had joined, making it look as if the cave was held up by great shining pillars.
‘Oh!’ said Anne, catching her breath. ‘What a wonderful sight! How they gleam and shine!’
‘It reminds me of cathedrals I have seen,’ said Julian, looking up at the roof of the cave. ‘I don’t know why. All these finely-wrought pillars... come along, let’s go into the next cave.’
The next one was smaller, but contained some splendid coloured ‘icicles’ that shone and gleamed in the light of the torches. ‘It’s like a cave in Fairyland,’ said Anne. ‘Full of rainbow colours!’
The following cave had no colour, but was of a dazzling w
hite, walls, roof, floor and pillars. So many stalactites and stalagmites had joined that they almost formed a snow-white screen through which the children peered - only to see even more of the strange ‘icicles’.
They came to a threefold forking of the ways. The centre one was roped, but the other two tunnels were not. The children looked down the unroped tunnels, stretching away so dark and quiet, and shivered. How awful to go down one and lose the way, never to be found again, perhaps!
‘Let's go down the roped way,’ said George.
‘Just to see where it leads to - more caves, probably.’
Timmy ran sniffing down one of the other ways, and George called him. ‘Tim! You’ll get lost! Come back.’
But Timmy didn’t come back. He ran off into the darkness and the others felt cross. ‘Blow him,’ said Dick. ‘What’s he after? TIM! TIM!’ The echoes took up the last word and sent it repeatedly up and down the passage.
Timmy barked in answer, and at once the place was full of weird barking, echoing everywhere and making Anne put her fingers to her ears.
‘Woof-oof-oof-oof!’ said the echoes, sounding as if a gang of dogs were barking madly in the caves. Then Timmy appeared in the light of their torches, looking extremely surprised at the enormous noise he had created with his barking.
‘I shall put you on the lead, Timmy,’ scolded George, ‘Keep to heel now. Surely you understand what that word means after all these years?’
Timmy did. He kept faithfully to heel as the little company went along a narrow, roped tunnel and came out into a succession of dazzling caves, all linked together by little passages or tunnels. They kept only to those that were roped. Many of them were not, and the Five longed to see where they led to, but were sensible enough not to try.
And then, as they were examining what looked like a frozen pool, which reflected the snowy roof above like a mirror, a curious noise came to their ears. They straightened themselves and listened.
It was a whistling sound, high-pitched and shrill, that filled the cave, and filled their ear-drums, too, until they felt like bursting. It rose high, then died down - then rose again till the children were forced to put their hands to their heads - and died away.
Timmy couldn’t bear it. He barked frantically and ran round and round like a mad thing. And then the second noise began - a howling! A howling that seemed to be tossed to and fro, and grew louder as the echoes threw it about from cave to cave! Anne clutched Dick, terrified.
‘What is it?’ she said. ‘Quick, let’s go!’ And, led by an extremely scared Timmy, the Five raced pell-mell out of Billycock Caves as if a hundred dogs were after them!
Chapter Thirteen
A DREADFUL SHOCK
The Five stood panting outside the entrance of the caves, feeling decidedly sheepish at having run away from a noise.
‘Whew!’ said Julian, mopping his forehead. ‘That was decidedly weird. That whistling - it got inside my head. It was like a - like a police whistle gone mad or something. As for the howling... well.’
‘It was horrible,’ said Anne, looking quite pale. ‘Like wild animals. I’m not going into those caves again for anything. Let’s get back to the camp.’
They walked soberly down the chalk-strewn path that led away from the caves and made their way back to their camp. The rain had stopped now, and the clouds were beginning to break.
The Five sat down inside a tent, and discussed the matter. ‘We’ll ask Toby if it’s usual for noises like that to be heard,’ said Dick. ‘I wonder anyone ever visits the caves if it is infested with horrible whistles and screeches like that.’
‘All the same, we were a bit cowardly,’ said Julian, now feeling rather ashamed of himself.
‘Well, go back and do a bit of howling yourself,’ suggested George. ‘It may frighten the howler as much as his howling scared you.’
‘Nothing doing,’ said Julian promptly. ‘I’m not going in for any howling matches.’ He burrowed down under the rug for his field-glasses and slung them round his neck.
‘I’m going to have a squint at the airfield,’ he said. ‘Just to see if I can spot Cousin Jeff,’ He put the glasses to his eyes and focused them on the airfield below them. He gave a sudden exclamation.
‘There’s quite a lot doing on the airfield this morning!’ he said in surprise. ‘Dozens of people there! I wonder what’s up. There are quite a lot of planes, too - they must all have arrived this morning!’
Each of the others took a turn at looking through the glasses. Yes - Julian was right. There was certainly something going on at the airfield today. Men hurried about, and then came the noise of yet another aeroplane, which zoomed neatly down to the runway.
‘Gosh - another plane!' said Dick. ‘Where did all the others come from? We never heard them.’
‘They must have arrived while we were in the caves,’ said Dick. ‘I wish we could ask Toby’s Cousin Jeff what all the excitement is about.’
‘We could go down to the farm after our lunch and see if he has heard anything,’ suggested Anne, and the others agreed.
‘Thank goodness the sun’s coming out again,’ said George, as a shaft of warm sunlight burst out from behind a cloud, and the sun sailed into a patch of blue sky. ‘The heather will soon dry now. Let’s have the news on - we may just catch the weather forecast. I don’t want to carry my mac about if it’s going to clear up.’
They switched on the little radio set - but they had missed the weather news. ‘Blow!’ said Dick, and raised his hand to switch off - and then he heard two words that stopped him. They were ‘Billycock Hill’! He left his hand suspended in the air and listened, full of surprise. The announcer’s voice came clearly to the four.
‘The aeroplanes stolen from Billycock Hill airfield were two valuable ones, into which had been incorporated new devices,’ said the voice from the radio. ‘It is possible that they were stolen because of these. We regret that it appears that two of our best pilots flew them away - Flight-Lieutenant Jeffrey Thomas and Flight-Lieutenant Ray Wells. No news has been received of either plane. Both disappeared during a storm over Billycock Hill during the night.’
There was a pause, and then the announcer went on to another item of news. Dick switched off the radio and looked blankly at the others. No one had a word to say at first.
‘To think that Jeff could do a thing like that - Jeff a traitor - flying off with a plane of ours to sell to an enemy!’ said Julian at last, voicing the thought of all the others.
‘We heard the planes go!’ said Dick. ‘Two of them. Gosh - we ought to go to the police and tell what we know. Not that it’s much. But, I say - fancy Jeff doing that! I liked him so much.’
‘So did I,’ said Anne, turning her head away.
‘So did Timmy,’ said George. ‘And he hardly ever makes a mistake in anyone.’
'What will poor Toby do?’ said Dick. ‘He thought the world of Jeff.’
Timmy suddenly ran off a few yards and began barking - a welcoming bark this time. Julian looked to see who was coming. It was Toby!
He came up to them and sat down beside them. He looked pale and shocked, though he tried to smile at them.
‘I’ve got awful news,’ he said in a queer, croaking voice.
‘We know,’ said Dick. ‘We’ve just heard it on the radio. Oh, Toby - fancy - Jeff!’
To everyone’s horror Toby’s face crumpled up and tears poured down his cheeks. He made no attempt to wipe them away; indeed, he hardly seemed to know that they were there. Nobody knew what to do - except Timmy. Dear old Tim scrambled over Julian and most sympathetically licked Toby’s wet face, whining as he did so. Toby put his arm round the dog’s neck and began to speak.
‘It wasn’t Jeff! Jeff couldn’t have done such a thing. He couldn’t! You know he couldn’t, don’t you?’ He turned quite fiercely on the others as he spoke.
‘I can’t believe that he did,’ said Julian. ‘He seemed to me to be absolutely straight and trustworthy, even though I only met
him that once.’
‘He was - well - a sort of hero to me,’ said Toby, beginning to mop his cheeks with his hanky, and staring in surprise to see it so damp. ‘Gosh, I’m a sissy to go on like this! But when the military police came to our farm this morning to ask questions about Jeff - he’s my Dad’s nephew, you know - I couldn’t believe my ears. I was so furious with one fat-head that I punched him - and Mother sent me out of the room.’
‘I suppose both Jeff and the other fellow have definitely gone?’ asked Julian. ‘No other pilots are missing, are they?’
‘No. I asked that,’ said Toby dismally. ‘Everyone answered roll-call at the camp this morning except Jeff and Ray. Ray is Jeff’s best friend, you know.’
‘It looks bad,’ said Dick, after a long pause.
‘But it’s not true that Jeff’s a traitor!’ cried Toby, up in arms again. ‘Are you suggesting that he is?’
‘No, I’m not,’ said Dick. ‘Don’t be an ass. I don’t...’ Then he stopped as Timmy ran off and barked fiercely. Now who was coming?
A deep voice called to Timmy. ‘Down, boy, down! Where are your friends?’
Julian scrambled up and saw two military policemen standing facing the excited Timmy. ‘Here, Tim,’ called Julian. ‘It’s all right. Friends!’
Timmy ran to him and the two burly men came up. ‘You the children camping on this hill?’ asked the fist one. ‘Well, we want to ask you a few questions about last night. You were here then, weren’t you?’
‘Yes, sir. We know what you’ve come about, too,’ said Julian. ‘We’ll tell you all we know - but we’re pretty certain that Flight-Lieutenant Thomas hadn’t anything to do with it, sir.’
‘That’s as may be,’ said the man. ‘Well, sit down, all of you, and we’ll have a little talk.’
Soon they were sitting down in the heather, while Julian told all they knew, which wasn’t much - just the sound of the two aeroplanes flying off together.