Chapter 7
Where Priya comes into the story
Even though Katrina had said nothing, Harshit knew in his heart of hearts that they were lost. Katrina led Harshit to nowhere in particular, for both of them had lost the sense of direction.
At last, in despair, Harshit asked Katrina desperately, “Are we lost or not? Do say yes if we are; I can’t bear this confounded silence any longer!”
“We’re lost,” admitted Katrina, slowly and regretfully. Harshit said nothing, for the very good reason that he had nothing to say. They went on in silence, turning right and left, only to be disappointed. Once they got sight of a big thing, grey against the black sky; and walked towards it. They felt a glimmer of hope warming up in their hearts. But their hope was dashed to pieces when they found that it was only a big rock. They sat down at the foot of the rock, tired and unhappy. And soon they were sleeping soundly though they didn’t mean to sleep at all.
They woke up, to find that they had slept throughout the night. It was morning and Harshit estimated the time looking at the sun, and thought it must be around seven o’ clock. He glanced around and was startled when he saw what he saw. Katrina hadn’t awaked yet. It was high time she awoke. But thing which was startling was that there was a big dog (evidently wild) sniffing at Katrina’s face. Was she eatable?
Harshit threw a stone at the dog which ran away yelping madly.
Harshit went over to Katrina and gave her a push and shook her. But Katrina just turned over, absent-mindedly. Harshit looked around and noticed that a small spring ran by, not far off. He went to the spring, sat on one knee, and scooped up some water in his hands. He ran towards Katrina as fast as he could, so as to reach there before the water ran through his fingers and then he dashed the water onto Katrina face who awoke at once; but very annoyed.
“Hey! Stop it!” She shouted, angrily. “Didn’t you find any other way to wake me up!?” Harshit laughed, irritatingly, but retreated to a safe distance, hastily, as Katrina shook her fists and got up. Katrina ran after Harshit, and Harshit ran into the jungle, laughing.
Katrina chased him, in a most annoyed mood.
“And I was having such a nice dream too!” said Katrina. And then she added, “About a dog!”
The two ran towards the river, with Katrina intent on catching Harshit. Katrina could see Harshit running ahead, dodging a tree or two now and then. Katrina followed with determination till suddenly Harshit stopped short in his tracks and Katrina almost bumped into him.
“Hurrah! I’ve caught you!” shouted Katrina in glee.
“Shhhhh……” whispered Harshit, turning around with his finger on his mouth.
“What’s the matter?” whispered Katrina.
“See for yourself,” was the reply.
Katrina peeped over Harshit’s sturdy shoulders, cautiously; resting her hands on his shoulders as she did so. Katrina could hardly contain herself with astonishment at what she saw.
What Katrina saw was this: Harshit and Katrina were on the edge of a clearing or on the edge of the forest, whichever you would like to call it. Whatever, there was a clearing ahead, which was not astonishing, but the real astonishing thing was a helicopter, yes, a helicopter was landing onto the clearing!
(‘Course, the helicopter made a lot of noise, and Harshit and Katrina had heard long before they reached this clearing, but as aircrafts frequently passed over the Andhar-ana-mana mountains thousands of kilometers above, the two had it was just another aero plane flying overhead.)
The clearing was in a perfect circle, and on the other side of the clearing was a hut or a shack or something like that. The helicopter landed, its propellers continued whirring round and round. It made a lot of noise as it landed slowly and vertically. It was a blue helicopter and was a real beauty! Its windows merged into one another as if a strip of glass had been wound around its body which seemed to be made of some strong kind of metal.
A door opened on its side, not sideways as doors usually do, but downwards. Its hinges were located at the bottom. It lay down like a bridge from the cabin of the helicopter to the ground. The children could see that the surface of the curious door was shaped like small “neat” steps, so that whoever was inside wouldn’t have to run the risk of slipped and tumbling down the “stairs” (or door). Harshit, as soon as he saw the door open rushed up a tree and beckoned to Katrina to follow. Katrina came up behind Harshit and the two settled themselves on the branches, parting the leaves to peer at the helicopter.
The children held their breaths as they saw two men coming out of the helicopter with a girl who seemed to be about Sumit’s age. Her hands were tied tightly, and her feet were tied a little loosely so that the girl could just walk and not run. She was brown like most Indians; but still her frank, open face made her look very pretty. Unfortunately, she had put on a very sulky expression, just now, so that the children couldn’t see her face in her full beauty.
The two men (who seemed to be too white to be Indians) took the sulky Indian girl, rather roughly, to the hut. One of the men produced a key and opened the door and the whole trio, sulky girl and all, disappeared into the hut (which by the way, seemed to have been built quite recently).
“There’s something queer about this,” said Katrina, in a low voice, “Who are those foreigners, and that sulky girl, who seems to be an Indian? Why come here, to this lonely spot? I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I,” responded Harshit, and then after a good deal of thinking, he said: “I think that that girl’s been kidnapped (“So I thought,” said Katrina), and those men have brought her here to hide her.”
“What a good hiding place, though,” remarked Katrina, “who would’ve thought of it?”
“I feel sorry for that girl,” said Harshit, “I think we should think of something to rescue her.”
“Let’s go down and do a bit of spying,” suggested Katrina.
“Not now,” declared Harshit, “those men are coming out.”
“And they’ve left that girl in that hut,” added Katrina, as they peered through the leaves.
“Let’s go down after those foreigners have gone,” said Harshit.
The children waited, and the men disappeared into the jungle. The children waited another five minutes; they didn’t want to run any risk.
Soon Harshit and Katrina were on the ground once again, and they advanced to the hut keeping to the shadows in the edge of the jungle. They were soon at the hut and Harshit looked in through a window.
The hut contained only one room and its walls were shelved from top to bottom. The shelves were stacked with tins and tins of food and Harshit's mouth watered when he saw them. Presently his eyes rested on the girl, who was sitting on the floor with a miserable expression and eating out of a tin of pineapple. She suddenly looked up and fixed her mournful eyes on Harshit.
Harshit grinned and whispered, “Cheer up! We’re friends, you’ll be rescued soon.”
Then Katrina, who was growing impatient, and who was craving to look inside the hut; pushed Harshit aside (who got quite annoyed), and glued her face onto the window. She also gave some cheering words to the pretty girl and joined Harshit who had gone to the door. To their delight, they found the key in the lock! The two young rescuers soon had the door wide open. And then, the girl did a surprising thing! She flung herself on them both and hugged them tightly, till they almost choked.
From that moment that girl was one of their best friends.
After the two children had rescued the girl, they took a look around the room and found a map of Andhar- ana-mana Mountains, with the secret entrance through which Harshit and Katrina had come into the “ring” marked on it.
“The men had a duplicate of this map,” informed the girl (who by the way was called Priya Subhi).
“Where’s that duplicate map?” asked Katrina.
“The men took it with them,” replied Priya, “they said they were going to find out that secret entrance and block it up.”
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br /> “No!!!” shouted Harshit and Katrina in dismay. “They mustn’t do it!” said Katrina, and the three filed out of the room. Harshit locked the door behind him and left the key in the lock.
He grinned and said, “What a surprise for them! They’ll probably think that you obviously walked through a locked door.”
The three children went into the jungle, Harshit taking the lead. He led them to the river, thinking they could walk by the river and reach the secret entrance in time to do something to stop the men from blocking it.
They soon came to the river and walked along it. Half an hour later they suddenly spotted the two men walking ahead of them, evidently keeping to the river to reach the secret entrance. Harshit stopped as well as the others. They stood around in a circle and consulted as to the best course to pursue.
“I think we might hide in the bushes,” suggested Priya in a whisper, “and make them rustle and then dart away before the men could look around.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea!” said Harshit. “And we might lead them a fine dance all around the jungle!”
“And what about leading them to their own hut?” suggested Katrina, “We might make them go right in and then we’ll lock them in!”
“Right!” agreed Harshit, “But we must do some planning first. You Katrina must hide in that bush and give off the first rustle, then climb that tree over there before the men spot you, then when they have passed you climb down again.”
“Right, sir!”
“I’ll give off the second rustle, further in the jungle, and you Priya must give off the third even more further, ok?”
“All right!”
“Then Katrina’ll go behind you, even further into the jungle and rustle again, got it?”
“Oh I see!” said Priya, “We’ll do this again and again right down to the hut I suppose?”
“That’s it,” said Harshit. “So, one, two, three, here we go!”
By now the men were a little further than they were before but they were not quite out of hearing. Harshit gave the signal and the children disappeared into the forest, hiding behind bushes.