The man was frowning hard in his attempt to follow all that Jack was saying. He shook his head.
‘No treesure there,’ he said. ‘I fool Juan and Pepi. Ah, ah, how they hurt their hands when they pull – so – at the rocks!’
Jack couldn’t help grinning. What a fine trick to play! Well, then – where was the ‘treesure’?
‘I draw you map,’ said Otto. ‘And I tell you way out of valley too. By the Windy Pass. You will go that way, you and your friends, and you will take the map to a good friend of mine. It is time now to find the hidden treesure.’
‘But why can’t you come with us?’ said Jack. ‘Surely you could show us the way, Otto – the pass – and come to your good friend?’
‘I am very ill man,’ said Otto. ‘If I do not get doctor and – how you say it? – middisin . . .’
‘Yes, medicine,’ said Jack.
‘. . . middisin soon, I die,’ said Otto. ‘I have bad heart, very very bad. I get pain very bad. I not walk far now. So you take treesure map, you good boy, and you take pass out of valley, and go to Julius, my good friend. Then all will be well.’
‘All right,’ said Jack. ‘I’m very sorry about you, Otto. Wish I could do something. I’ll do my best to get to Julius quickly and bring back help to you. Do you think you might be able to walk to our hiding place tomorrow, and hide there whilst we go?’
‘Pardon?’ said Otto. You talk too quick, I not understand.’
Jack spoke more slowly. Otto nodded. He understood the second time.
‘You leave me here today, and tomorrow perhaps I be strong enough to go with you to your place,’ he said. ‘We will see. If not, you must go through the pass and find Julius. I draw you map now, and I draw you also the way to the pass. Windy Pass. It is very, very narrow, but not difficult to, to . . .’
‘To travel through?’ said Jack. Otto nodded. He found a pencil and a notebook and began to draw. Jack watched him with interest. The waterfall appeared in the map. So did an oddly shaped rock. A bent tree came into the map, and a spring of water. Little arrows were drawn showing in what direction to go. It was really rather exciting.
Otto folded up the map. He gave it to Jack. ‘Julius will know,’ he said. ‘He will read the map. Once he lived in the big farmhouse not far from here. But our enemies burnt it down, and all the other farms too, and took our cows and our horses, our pigs and everything we had. Many they killed, and only few of us escaped.’
‘Now tell me the way to the pass,’ said Jack.
Otto once more drew a map. The waterfall appeared in it. Jack put his finger on it.
‘I know this water,’ he said, speaking slowly so that Otto would understand. ‘Our hiding place is near. Very near.’
‘So!’ said Otto, pleased. ‘The way to the pass is above the waterfall. You must climb to where it flows out of a hole in the mountainside. There – I have drawn you the way.’
‘How shall we find Julius?’ asked Jack.
‘On the other side of the pass is a village, half burnt,’ said Otto. ‘You will ask anyone you meet to tell you where Julius is. They will know. Ah, Julius worked against the enemy all the time. Everyone knows Julius. He should be a great man now among his people – but times are strange and maybe he is no longer great, now that we have peace. But still, everyone knows Julius, and he will know what to do when you give him the treesure map. I will also write him a letter.’
Otto scribbled a short note, and gave that also to Jack. It was addressed to Julius Muller.
‘Now you must leave me,’ said Otto. ‘You must go back to your friends. If I am better tomorrow I will come with you. But my heart is bad today, so bad. Always it pains me here.’ He pressed his hand over his heart.
‘Well, goodbye, and thank you,’ said Jack, getting up. ‘I do hope you will be safe here. There is meat for you, and tinned fruit, all ready opened. Well – so long till tomorrow.’
The man smiled a tired smile, sank back against the wall of the cowshed and closed his eyes. He was completely exhausted. Jack felt very sorry for him. He must get help as soon as he could, if Otto was not better by tomorrow. He and others would get out of the valley by the pass and go and find Julius at once, whoever he was. If he was a friend of Otto’s, he might be able to get a doctor immediately.
Feeling much more cheerful about things, Jack went out of the cowshed. Golly, what would the others say when they knew he had the map of where the treasure-cave was to be found – and directions as to how to get out of the valley!
Philip came running up, out of breath. ‘The men have just left the plane and are walking towards their hut,’ he said. ‘Come on, we’d better go. Is the prisoner safely in the shed?’
‘Yes. Hope the men don’t go there looking for him,’ said Jack. ‘Come on – let’s get back to the girls. We shall have been away from them for ages.’
‘We must look out for Pepi on the way back,’ said Philip, as they set off. ‘He may have got tired of watching the waterfall and the girls capering about, and have decided to cut back to the others.’
‘I say – do you know what I’ve got?’ said Jack, unable to keep the news to himself for a moment longer.
‘What?’ asked Philip.
‘A map showing where the treasure is!’ said Jack.
‘But we know where it is,’ said Philip. ‘Behind that fall of rocks we saw this morning.’
‘Well, it isn’t!’ said Jack triumphantly. ‘The prisoner – his name’s Otto – he fooled them properly. He pretended the treasure was in a cave behind the fall of rocks – he knew the rocks had fallen, but he thought he could pretend he didn’t know about them, and say the treasure was blocked by the landslide there. See?’
‘Golly, and all the time the treasure was somewhere else!’ said Philip. ‘That was good work. Have you really got a map of the whereabouts of the treasure, Jack? And did you find out exactly what the treasure is?’
‘No, I forgot to ask him that,’ said Jack. ‘But I found out an awful lot. I’ve got directions to find the pass that leads out of this valley – and a note to a man called Julius – and I know how these houses and things got burnt and why. Otto says if he’s strong enough tomorrow he’ll take us to the pass himself – but he gave me the maps in case he wasn’t able to come with us. They’re quite clear.’
This was really exciting news. Philip felt overjoyed. It looked as if they would be able to escape from the valley at last – and get help – and perhaps be in at the discovery of the treasure.
‘Look out! – I believe I saw something moving over there,’ whispered Jack suddenly, and the two boys crouched behind a bush. It was a good thing they did, for Pepi emerged from a thicket of trees and walked rapidly towards them. But it was obvious that he hadn’t seen them.
Without a glance at their bush he strode on. ‘I bet he’s hungry and wants a meal,’ grinned Jack. ‘Good thing I spotted him. We’d have bumped right into him in two seconds. Well, that’s good – we can hurry on now without being afraid of being seen. Gosh, I’m hungry!’
They both were. It was ages since they had had anything to eat. Thoughts of tinned salmon, sardines, tongue, apricots, peaches and pears floated before the mind’s eye of both boys. They hurried as much as they could.
They were thankful when they pushed aside the fern fronds and saw the girls sitting in the cave behind. Dinah had got a fine meal ready and waiting.
‘Good old Dinah!’ cried Jack. ‘I could almost give you a hug!’
Dinah grinned. ‘Pepi’s gone,’ she said. ‘Did you meet him?’
‘Almost collided with him,’ said Philip. ‘Gosh, I could eat a whole tin of salmon by myself. How have things been with you and Lucy-Ann, Dinah? All right?’
‘Very dull,’ said Dinah. ‘Nothing doing at all, except a few capers now and again behind the waterfall to keep Pepi interested. You should have seen his efforts to find the way up. Once Lucy-Ann and I really thought he had been swept away by the water. He slipped and fell, and disappe
ared for about twenty minutes. We were quite relieved when we saw him again.’
‘What about you boys?’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘You look cheerful. Got good news? What about that poor prisoner?’
With their mouths full the boys told of all they had done that day. The girls listened eagerly. When Jack fished the maps out of his pocket they fell on them with delight.
‘A treasure map!’ cried Lucy-Ann. ‘I always wanted to see a real one. Oh, here’s our waterfall, look! Surely the treasure isn’t anywhere near it?’
‘When are we going to find the treasure?’ asked Dinah, her eyes shining.
‘We’re not going to,’ said Jack, and her face fell at once. He explained why. ‘We’ve got to get out of this valley, and find this fellow Julius. Apparently he will see to the unearthing of the treasure, whatever it is. Sorry to disappoint you, girls – but honestly, I do really think we ought to get out as quickly as we can, and let Aunt Allie and Bill know where we are. We should waste a lot of time looking for the treasure, and I think that now we’ve been told where to look for the pass out of the valley we ought to take it, and get help for ourselves and for poor old Otto too. He’s a very ill man.’
It was clear that Jack was right. Dinah heaved a sigh of regret. ‘I would so very much have liked to go and find that treasure,’ she said. ‘But never mind – perhaps this Julius man, whoever he is, will let us join the treasure-hunt with him. We might stay for that!’
It was now almost dark. The boys were tired out. They lay down on the ‘bed’ which Dinah had already made, feeling very sleepy. But the girls wanted to talk, and so did Kiki. They had had a very dull day. They chattered away, Kiki joining in, but the boys could hardly find the energy to answer.
‘Kiki’s been in and out of the cave of echoes today, yelling and squawking for all she was worth,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘She’s not afraid of the echoes any more. ‘You should have heard the echoes when she did her express-train screech!’
‘Jolly glad I didn’t,’ said Jack sleepily. ‘Shut up, now, everyone. Get to sleep, because we’ve got an exciting day before us tomorrow, fetching Otto – and going to find the pass – and looking for Julius.’
‘It looks as if this adventure is about to come to an end,’ said Lucy-Ann.
But she was quite wrong. It wasn’t anywhere near its end.
18
Now for Windy Pass!
Next morning the children peeped cautiously through the fern fronds to see if by any chance Pepi was on guard again. But there was no sign of him.
‘I do wonder what Juan and Luis thought when they got back to their hut, unlocked it – and found the prisoner flown,’ said Jack with a grin. ‘They’ll be astonished to find he went through a locked door.’
‘Oh, they’ll guess one of us rescued him,’ said Dinah. ‘Won’t they be wild? I do hope they don’t find him in that cowshed. He might tell tales of us.’
‘He wouldn’t,’ said Jack at once. ‘He’s got a nice trustable face – rather like Bill’s but not so strong.’
‘I wish Bill would suddenly arrive here,’ said Lucy-Ann with a sigh. ‘I do really. I know we have managed things awfully well, but somehow when Bill comes along I feel really safe.’
‘Well, you’re safe enough now, aren’t you?’ demanded Jack. ‘Didn’t I find you a jolly good hiding place?’
‘Yes, fine,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Oh, look, Philip – Kiki’s after Lizzie!’
Lizzie had appeared down Philip’s leg, and Kiki, who happened to be sitting near, had given a delighted squawk and pecked at her – but the lizard was a little too quick. She ran into Philip’s shoe.
‘Stop it, Kiki!’ said Philip. ‘Well – now we’d better get busy.’
‘Busy Dizzy Lizzie,’ said Kiki at once, and the children laughed.
‘Really, Kiki’s awfully clever at putting the same-sounding words together,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Busy Dizzy Lizzie – I’d never have thought of that. Clever Kiki!’
Kiki squawked and raised her crest high. She rocked herself from side to side, as she often did when she felt pleased with herself.
‘Vain bird! Conceited bird!’ said Jack, and scratched her poll. ‘You leave Lizzie alone. She’s about the most harmless pet Philip’s ever had.’
‘Well, she’s better than those awful rats and mice and spiders and beetles and hedgehogs he’s had running about him,’ said Dinah with a shudder. ‘I really quite like Lizzie, compared with them.’
‘Gracious!’ said Lucy-Ann, astonished. ‘You are improving, Dinah!’
Lizzie and Kiki both joined in the breakfast the children had, though Kiki kept a sharp eye to see that Lizzie didn’t take anything she wanted. When they had all finished they made their plans for the day.
‘We’ll fetch Otto first,’ said Jack. ‘Philip and I, I mean. No need for us all to go. Perhaps you two could pack up a few tins for us all to take with us when we go to look for the pass through the mountains. We shall want a meal on the way.’
‘Right,’ said Dinah. ‘I hope you’ll find Otto better. Then when you bring him here, we’ll have a snack before we set out. Then over the pass we’ll go, and find Julius – and somehow manage to send off a message to Mother and Bill. Maybe Bill will fly over in his plane . . .’
‘And join the treasure hunt and let us help,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘What a nice plan!’
It did seem a very nice one indeed. The boys set off, leaving Kiki behind with the girls. They went quickly over the mountain slope, keeping a good lookout, however, for Pepi and the others.
But they saw nobody. They made their way carefully to the cowshed. Jack left Philip on guard near by to give warning if anyone came near. Then he tiptoed to the shed and peeped in. There was no sound in there at all.
He could not see the last cowstall from where he stood. He walked softly in, stepping over the fallen rubble. He spoke softly.
‘Otto! I’m back! Are you better?’
There was no reply. Jack wondered if the man was asleep. He made his way to the last stall.
It was empty. Otto was not there. Jack glanced round quickly. What could have happened?
The boy saw that the opened tins of meat and fruit that he had left for Otto were untouched. Otto had not eaten anything left for him. Why?
‘Blow! Those men must have come looking for him when they found that he was gone from the hut,’ thought Jack. ‘And they found him here. Gosh! – what have they done with him? We’d better look out for ourselves, in case the men are on the watch for us. They’ll know someone must have set Otto free, even if he has held his tongue about me.’
He went back to Philip. ‘Otto’s gone,’ he said. ‘Dare we have a squint at the hut? We might find out something then – what they’ve done with Otto, for instance.’
‘Let’s shin up that big tree we’ve climbed before,’ said Philip. ‘The one that we can see the plane from. If we saw all the men round about the plane, we’d know it was safe to go to the hut; but I don’t feel inclined to run into danger if we think the men are by the hut. They might be watching for us to come again. If we’re captured, the girls wouldn’t know what to do.’
‘All right. I’ll climb the tree,’ said Jack, and up he went, with Philip close behind him. He put his field glasses to his eyes to focus them on the plane – and then he gave a loud exclamation.
‘Gosh! The plane’s gone again! It isn’t there!’
‘No – it isn’t,’ said Philip in surprise. ‘Well – I never heard it go this time, did you, Jack?’
‘Well, I did think I heard a throbbing noise last night when I was half asleep,’ said Jack. ‘Yes, now I come to think of it, it must have been the plane I heard. Well, we’ve probably frightened the men away. They got the wind up when they knew other people were here – in a hiding place they couldn’t find – people who rescued their prisoner.’
‘Yes – and when they found they couldn’t get at the treasure because a rock-fall had apparently blocked the entrance to it, I suppose they thought
it wasn’t much use staying,’ said Philip. ‘So they’ve gone. Thank goodness! Now we can go back to the girls, and shoot off to the pass quickly. To tell you the truth, I was a bit worried about taking Otto with us, because from what you said it didn’t sound as if we’d be able to go very fast with him. And if he’d had a heart attack by the way we wouldn’t have known what to do.’
‘I wonder where they’ve taken him to,’ said Jack. ‘Let’s hope that now they find they can’t get any more out of him they’ve taken him back to where he belongs, and will get a doctor to him.’
They climbed down the tree, and set off back to the girls as fast as they could. Now for the pass.
The girls were most surprised to see the two boys back so soon – but they were even more surprised to see they were alone.
‘Where’s Otto?’ asked Dinah.
‘Down the well,’ said Kiki. Nobody took any notice of her and she screeched.
Jack explained. ‘The plane’s gone – and Otto’s gone – so I suppose they’ve all gone off, disgusted at not being able to get at the treasure. Good riddance to them!’
‘Hear! hear!’ said Dinah, very much relieved to know that their enemies were safely out of the way. ‘Well, what are we going to do now?’
‘Go and look for the pass,’ said Jack. ‘I’ve got the map Otto drew. What a mercy he gave it to me! We’d never find the pass by ourselves without a map, I’m sure of that. I mean, the pass out of these mountains might be anywhere. Apparently there is only one pass, and that’s this one – the Windy Pass. Come on, let’s go. Packed up a few tins, Dinah?’
‘Yes,’ said Dinah. ‘Now, where do we go from here? Up or down?’
‘Up,’ said Philip, poring over the map that Jack took from his pocket. ‘Up – to where the waterfall begins – here, look. Then we go along a rocky ledge – see, Otto’s drawn it – then we come to a thick wood, look – and then up a steep bit to another ledge. Then we come to a proper road – the pass road that I suppose all the people of the valley used when they wanted to leave this district and visit another. Once we’re on that road I shall feel better.’