‘Well, we’ve now got a pretty good picture of what has happened,’ said Philip grimly. ‘Uma suspected old Bill of knowing too much – and so he’s captured him very neatly. But what a pity Mother had to be captured too! We were going to be neatly put out of the way as well. Thank goodness for Oola!’
‘And Tala,’ said Jack. ‘Tala’s about too, apparently – all tied up. We must get him. What in the world are we going to do?’
They got up and walked down to the edge of the water. Oola pointed to a dark shadow close by the bank, away from the jetty.
‘Bad man’s boat,’ he said. ‘Why he no take that?’
‘I suppose because he wanted to hide away all evidence of us and our boat,’ said Jack. ‘I wish he had taken his own boat. Hallo – that sounds like Tala.’
Groans could now be heard somewhere nearby. Oola disappeared and then they heard him calling.
‘Tala here!’
They all hurried over to him and there was Tala, so securely tied up that it was very difficult to free him! He was in two different states of mind at once – he felt extremely sorry for himself, and also extremely angry. He wriggled impatiently as the boys tried to untie him. In the end they cut the ropes and he rolled free.
Tala poured out his version of the happenings, pausing to bang his chest in anguish when he related how he saw Big Mister Bill and Little Missus being dragged away, and then yelled out in anger at the idea of him, Tala, being bound and thrown out like a sack of rubbish.
‘Tala, listen,’ said Philip. ‘Was it Uma who came?’
‘No. Other men,’ said Tala. ‘Servants. Bad men. Tala spit on them!’
‘Where have they taken Big Mister Bill and Missus?’ asked Jack.
‘Down river,’ said Tala, pointing. ‘I hear them say Wooti. Tala not know Wooti. Tala very angry!’
‘What are we going to do?’ said Dinah. ‘We can’t spend the night out here – but where can we go? We don’t know the way to anywhere.’
‘Oola know,’ said Oola’s eager voice. ‘Oola show you,’ and he pulled at Philip’s sleeve.
He took the boy away from the jetty, to the corner where Uma’s motor-boat was tied. ‘See – bad man’s boat. We take, yes?’
‘Oola! What a brainwave!’ said Philip, delighted. ‘Of course! Tit for tat. We’ll go off in it now, straight away – back up the river!’
‘No – let’s go down to Wooti,’ said Jack. ‘It’s probably just as near as the last village we visited. Let’s hope it’s a big place and we can get word about this to someone in authority. We can get news of our own launch there too.’
‘Yes – that’s the best idea, I think,’ said Philip. ‘Tala, can you manage this motor-boat?’
‘Yes, yes, Tala know,’ said Tala eagerly. ‘We chase bad men, yes?’
‘I don’t quite know what’s going to happen!’ said Jack. ‘But we’re certainly not going to stay here and let Uma catch us in the morning! Come on – in we all get!’
And one by one they clambered into the motor-boat, while Tala tinkered with the engine. Now where were they off to? Wooti? And what would happen there?
18
Away through the night
They were all in the motor-boat very quickly indeed, half afraid that someone might come out of the shadows to stop them. Jallie might have gone to tell his friends that after all he had been compelled to bring back the children, instead of abandoning them far off in the darkness – and three or four of Uma’s men might have come to look for them, and taken them captive.
But nobody came. Nothing stirred except the murmuring river, and the only other noises were the little sounds made by Tala as he tried to start up the engine. Oola patiently held a torch for him to see by.
‘Click-click! Click-click!’ The engine was coming to life – good! There – it was going!
‘Buck up, Tala!’ whispered Philip urgently, for the noise now sounded very loud in the stillness of the night. ‘We may get some unpleasant callers if we don’t go off soon.’
With a sudden roar the boat went off into midstream, and the children heaved sighs of relief. It steadied, and then, keeping in the starlit centre of the river, it headed downstream.
There were no angry shouts behind them. Nobody seemed to know that they had gone in Uma’s own motor-boat. Jack spoke to Tala.
‘You said you didn’t know Wooti. Do you know how far down the river it is?’
‘Yes, Tala hear about Wooti,’ said Tala. ‘It is far down. Oola know Wooti?’
Oola didn’t, but he remembered that another village was near to Wooti.
‘Village name Hoa,’ he said. ‘We come to Hoa, Oola go there, ask about Wooti, yes?’
‘Right,’ said Jack. ‘We don’t particularly want to arrive at Wooti all set to be captured! We must tie up somewhere some distance away, and then go in cautiously and see what we can learn.’
‘Tala – will you keep going for an hour, say, then tie up somewhere so that we can sleep?’ asked Philip. ‘If we sail through the night we shall probably miss Wooti – we’d far better bed down for a few hours, as soon as we feel safely out of reach of Uma’s men.’
‘Well, as far as we know there were no more boats at Uma’s place, so no one could chase us,’ said Jack. ‘Still, it’s no good taking risks. Yes, drive the boat for an hour, Tala, and then we’ll tie up somewhere.’
Tala steered on through the starlit night, and the children talked quietly among themselves. Oola was contentedly sitting close to Philip, perfectly happy. Why should he worry? Were these children not clever enough to do anything, clever enough even to defeat bad man Uma? And anyway, he had the thrill of being near Philip all the time now, because the motor-boat was much smaller than the launch.
After about an hour Jack called to Tala. ‘All right, Tala. We’ll tie up somewhere. We don’t seem to have passed any villages at all. This must be a deserted part of the river. Tie up anywhere.’
Tala’s trained eye picked out a straight young tree on the edge of the left bank. He steered towards it, and it came to rest by the tree with a gentle bump. The engine stopped, and the quiet night closed in round them.
‘Good, Tala,’ said Jack. ‘I’ll help you to tie up. Then we’ll all curl up and sleep.’
In five minutes’ time everyone was fast asleep, though, like a dog on guard, Oola slept with one ear open! The two girls were huddled together, and the boys lay beside them, with Oola at Philip’s feet. Tala slept by the wheel in a most uncomfortable attitude, snoring loudly at intervals. Kiki sat on Jack’s leg and slept, head under wing.
They slept on and on. Dawn came and silvered the water. The sun rose and a pleasant warmth fell on the six sleepers. The bargua snake felt it, and slid silently out of Philip’s shirt, to lie on his shoulder, basking in the sun.
Dinah awoke first, wondering why she felt so stiff. She lay still, remembering the events of the night before. She moved a little to look round at the others – and she saw, quite close beside her, Philip’s snake, lying on his shoulder, enjoying the sun.
She gave a scream before she could stop herself. Everyone awoke immediately, and Tala reached automatically for a knife he had somewhere about him. Oola leapt to his feet in front of Philip, ready to protect him to the death!
‘Who screamed?’ demanded Jack. ‘What’s up?’
‘I screamed,’ said Dinah penitently. ‘I’m sorry – but the first thing I saw when I woke was Philip’s snake looking at me. I just couldn’t help it. I’m so sorry.’
‘So sorry, so sorry!’ chanted Kiki, and then gave a scream like Dinah’s.
‘Now don’t you make a habit of screaming!’ said Lucy-Ann. The snake had now slid into hiding somewhere about Philip, and Dinah felt better. They all rubbed their eyes and took a good look round.
There was nothing of much interest as far as the river was concerned. It ran on as smoothly as ever, lined on each side with trees that came down to the water’s edge. What was of interest to the children was the moto
r-boat!
Was there any food or drink in it? Was it merely a boat that ran Uma here and there, as a car would run him about on roads?
‘Let’s see if there’s any food,’ said Philip, and they hunted round at once.
‘Look at this!’ said Jack, swinging open the door of a cupboard set under a seat in the bows.
They looked. It was full of tins! They read the names – there was tinned ham, bacon, sardines, fruit of many kinds and even soup.
‘Funny!’ said Philip. ‘Why does Uma want to take food about in a motor-boat like this? He must have gone off sometimes on queer little jaunts, and stayed away long enough to need food – and yet not near enough to villages to get any.’
‘Well, I don’t care why he takes food about with him,’ said Dinah. ‘All I care is that he conveniently left some for us! And drink too – look, there are tins of lime-juice and orange-juice – they’ll be very strong so we shall need water with those.’
Tala nodded his head towards a small enclosed tank. ‘Water there,’ he said.
But he was wrong. It was empty. So if the children wanted anything to drink it would have to be very strong undiluted orange- or lime-juice.
In another cupboard were ropes, powerful torches and big strong hooks. ‘Whatever are these hooks for?’ said Lucy-Ann, in surprise.
‘They’re grappling hooks – often used for climbing,’ said Jack. ‘Now why did Uma want those?’
‘I know! For his hobby – archaeology,’ said Dinah. ‘Don’t you remember? Well, if he goes about exploring all the old, deep-hidden places here, I suppose he would use these. Anything else of interest?’
‘Some spades,’ said Jack, ‘and a small pick. Well, if Uma uses his hobby of studying old buildings as a camouflage for his other dirty work, whatever it is, I must say he seems to take it pretty seriously. Look – there are books about it here too.’
He pulled out books, some new, some old, all evidently well read, for there were small notes written here and there on certain pages.
‘I’ll have a snoop into these when I’ve had something to eat!’ said Jack. ‘I’m beginning to feel hungry now!’
So were the others. They found two tin-openers hanging on a nail in the cupboard. Jack promptly put one into his pocket for safety! They opened a tin of ham and two tins of pineapple, feeling that these might go quite well together. They drank the juice in the tins, but still felt rather thirsty.
‘We ought to try and fill this water-tank,’ said Philip, peering into it. ‘It looks perfectly clean.’
‘Tala and Oola fetch water next village,’ proposed Tala. ‘And bread.’
‘Right. But we’ll have to make sure it’s not Wooti before we go boldly into it,’ said Jack. ‘Look at Kiki! That’s her fifth bit of pineapple! Hey, Kiki, are you enjoying it?’
Kiki swallowed the last bit and flew over to the tin again. It was empty. She gave a squawk of disappointment. ‘All gone!’ she said, in a sing-song voice. ‘All gone. Send for the doctor!’
‘Fathead,’ said Jack. ‘Tala, are you ready to start? Stop at a village that you think is safe.’
Tala untied the boat and set the engine going. They chugged into midstream and set off. The sun was lovely and warm now, and everyone felt more cheerful – though nagging at their minds all the time was the worry of what had happened to Bill and his wife.
They came to a small village whose huts ran right down to the edge of the water. At once eager children ran to watch the boat. Tala swung in towards shore, where there was a small jetty for boats.
He conversed rapidly with a boy standing near. Then he turned to the others.
‘He say this Hoa village. Wooti long way on. Two-three hours. He say will give Tala waterbag and bread. Yes?’
‘Right,’ said Jack. ‘We’ll come ashore and stretch our legs too. You and Oola go and see what the water’s like. It must be drawn straight from the well. Draw it yourself, Tala. Come on, you others – it seems quite safe here, but all the same, we’ll keep near the boat!’
19
The river is very peculiar
It was good to stretch their legs. Kiki as usual was on Jack’s shoulder and created great interest among the excited children. They crowded round, pointing and chattering. Philip kept his snake hidden – he knew what a stampede it would cause if it so much as showed its head!
Tala and Oola had fortunately discovered a couple of large pails in the boat and had taken those to fetch the water. The children were glad – none of them liked the big skin bags, made of animal-hide, that water was so often carried in by the villagers.
Tala and Oola were a long time coming back, and the children began to feel worried.
‘Why don’t they come?’ said Jack. ‘I do hope nothing has happened to them. We should be in a fix without Tala.’
However, at last the two came, each carrying a heavy pail of water, and with loaves of bread strapped over their bare shoulders. Fortunately Tala knew enough of the ways of this family to know that they liked their bread wrapped and he had managed to get some cloths to wrap it in.
‘You’ve been too long, Tala,’ said Jack, not at all pleased.
‘He talk and talk,’ said Oola. ‘Oola want to come back, but Tala talk.’
Tala glared at him, and then drew himself up to his full height. ‘Yes, Tala talk. Tala find out much things. All peoples know Uma. He diggy-diggy-dig. Much, much dig. Peoples say Uma know where is big treasure. Much gold.’
Jack laughed. ‘You’ve been gossiping. Uma likes to make people think he’s digging for lost, long-ago things – but that’s not what he’s really doing. He’s got something else up his sleeve – and I wish I knew what it was.’
Tala didn’t understand this. ‘What he got up sleeve?’ he enquired. ‘Big knife?’
‘Come on,’ said Philip impatiently. ‘Let’s put the water in the tank. I’d like a drink of orangeade straight away. I’m jolly thirsty.’
They all were. As the water splashed into the tank Jack considered it. It didn’t really look very much for six people!
‘Let’s go on,’ he said to Tala. ‘We can look out for Wooti after two hours, if it’s really two or three hours away.’
Tala started up the engine and on they went again. They passed quite a few small villages, and then came a larger one. Could this be Wooti? Jack glanced at his watch. No – they had only been going for an hour and a half, and Tala had been told that Wooti was two or three hours away.
‘Tala stop?’ called Tala. ‘Tala ask name of village?’
‘No. It can’t be Wooti yet,’ said Jack, and on they went. And then, quite suddenly, the river became very wide! The children were most astonished as the banks receded farther and farther away. It almost seemed as if the river had become a lake!
‘Goodness! If the river gets much wider we shan’t be able even to see the banks!’ said Dinah.
Lucy-Ann stared out in amazement. ‘Jack,’ she said, ‘we – we’re not out at sea, are we?’
Everyone roared. Even Tala smiled. Lucy-Ann went red, and Jack clapped her on the back.
‘Never mind! It certainly looks as if we’re all at sea! I expect the river will narrow soon. Maybe the river bed is very shallow here, so the water has spread itself out well and made itself wide.’
Philip called to Tala.
‘Tala! Better keep to one or other of the banks, or we’ll lose our sense of direction. I can hardly see the right-hand one as it is!’
Tala swung over to the left to find the bank there. It was quite a long way away!
‘I wish we had a map of the river here,’ said Jack. ‘Like the one Bill had, do you remember? It showed every village on it, and it would have shown us where Wooti came, and what happens to the river here – why it gets so wide, and if it narrows again!’
They were now close to the left bank instead of in midstream. The opposite bank could not be seen. The water seemed to stretch away interminably on their right, giving the impression that they were on
the edge of the sea, sailing close to the shore – just as Lucy-Ann had imagined!
Tala was surprised, and a little afraid. ‘The river’s very wide here,’ he said to Oola in his own language. ‘We shan’t see Wooti if it’s on the other bank.’
This had also occurred to Philip. He pulled at Jack’s sleeve. ‘Jack – suppose Wooti is on the other bank? We’d miss it!’
‘Gosh, yes,’ said Jack. ‘We can’t even see the bank, let alone any village on it. Well – let’s see – we’ll get Tala to stop at the next little village on the left here, and ask about Wooti. If it is on the opposite bank we’ll have to chug over there and look for it! Let’s hope we haven’t gone right past it!’
They looked out for the next little village, but the undergrowth was thick and grew right down to the water’s edge, so that even if any village had been on the left-hand side, they could not have seen it. An hour passed, and the children grew uneasy.
‘I wish we had a map!’ said Jack. ‘Blow Uma! Why didn’t he keep maps on his boat! They would have been such a help. Hallo – I can see something on the right – yes, it’s the right-hand bank come back into view at last!’
Sure enough a line of brown could be seen over to the right. It seemed rapidly to come nearer, which meant, of course, that the river was narrowing again, so that both its banks could be seen.
In fact, it narrowed so much that the banks were far nearer to one another than they had ever been before!
‘This is extraordinary!’ said Philip suddenly. ‘The river flows in the direction we’re going, as you know – we’ve been taking advantage of the current the whole time. Well – rivers usually keep either more or less the same width as they flow to the sea, or they get wider as other streams feed them by joining them. And they are at their widest as a rule when they flow into the sea.’
Jack stared at him. ‘Yes. I know. Then – how is it this river has suddenly gone so small and narrow? Especially after being so wide! I know we’re nowhere near the sea, and I can’t imagine why it went so wide – just as I can’t imagine now why it’s gone so narrow!’