‘I expect the men will strip the statues of their jewellery and take only that, leaving the figures behind,’ said Jack. ‘They will crate the pictures and books.’
‘Why couldn’t we strip the jewels off and hide them away somewhere so that the men wouldn’t get them?’ suddenly said Dinah. ‘I don’t see why wicked men like that should have them.’
‘Good idea!’ said Jack. ‘Come on – we’ll take the jewellery now and hide it somewhere!’
But as soon as they began to remove it, the old couple flew at them in horror.
‘Not do that! Ah, bad boy!’ cried the old man, removing a brooch from Jack’s hand.
‘We only want to hide the things from those men,’ protested Jack. ‘They’ll be back and steal these things soon.’
‘They belong to these,’ said the old man, waving his hand towards the statues. ‘They must not be removed by anyone. It is against the law of the Church.’
The children did not try again. It was plain that Elsa and the old man would fly into a rage if they attempted to. They seemed to think that it was a very wicked and unholy act to take away any of the adornments belonging to the figures.
The long day passed at last. Nobody slept very well that night. They were worried about what was going to happen. It was horrid to feel they were at the mercy of rogues like Juan.
They were all out on the sunny ledge the next morning, early having breakfast there. They had no meals in the caves now if they could help it.
‘Listen,’ said Dinah suddenly. ‘I can hear the plane coming back.’
They all listened, the old couple too. The noise grew louder. It became very loud indeed. Then Jack leapt to his feet.
‘It’s not just one plane! It’s many! Look, there’s one! – circling down – and another over there! – and here comes another! Gracious! Juan’s got quite a fleet of planes!’
There were four altogether. Evidently Juan meant to do the job properly. The children pictured the planes landing one by one on the long wide strip of grass at the bottom of the valley.
‘Now we can expect things to happen,’ said Jack. ‘The whole of the treasure will be gone soon.’
‘What a shame!’ said Dinah. ‘And we can’t do a thing to stop it!’
‘If only we could get word to Bill!’ said Jack desperately. ‘But there’s no way out of the valley except in one of those planes.’
Philip stared at Jack a moment. Then he said something so exciting that the others could hardly believe their ears.
‘Yes – that’s the only way out. And I’m going to take it.’
There was silence. Then Jack spoke, astonished.
‘Whatever do you mean? You can’t fly a plane.’
‘Of course not. But I can hide in one!’ said Philip. ‘Didn’t we hide, all of us, in a plane, coming here? Well, why shouldn’t I hide in one leaving here? I bet I could hide unseen – and slip out when I had a chance, and get word to Bill about everything.’
‘Philip! It’s a grand idea!’ said Jack. ‘But I’ll go, not you.’
‘You jolly well won’t!’ said Philip. ‘It’s my idea! Nobody else is going to pinch such a gorgeous idea. I’m going, see?’
‘I don’t want either of you to go,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘You might be seen. Something awful might happen to you. Don’t leave us.’
‘Jack will be with you,’ said Philip. ‘And the old couple. You’ll be all right. I tell you, it’s the only way to get help – to fly off in one of the planes, when the men go on their next trip. They’ll have to come back two or three times to take all these things – and, if only I can get word to Bill, he can catch the men actually doing the stealing!’
‘It sounds too good to be true,’ said Dinah. ‘I don’t believe you can do it. Anyway – how are you even going to get to the plane? You know we’re bolted in. Nobody can get out.’
‘I shall watch my chance and slip out through that door when the men are going to and fro,’ said Philip, enjoying his planning. ‘Then I shall hide in the cave of stalactites and go up the passage to the hole as soon as I can. Then I’ll get along back to the planes, and choose one to hop into. I don’t reckon they will have left anyone on guard there, as they think we’re all well and truly imprisoned.’
‘It sounds easy, but it won’t be,’ said Jack. ‘Better let me do it, Tufty.’
‘Think again!’ said Philip. ‘This is my own pet adventure, see?’
‘You might even be able to squeeze into a crate,’ said Dinah thoughtfully. ‘Nobody would think of looking into a packed crate.’
‘Good idea!’ said Philip. ‘In fact, jolly good!’
‘Well, we can expect quite a horde of men here today,’ said Jack. ‘It will surprise the poor old couple. They will be in a dreadful state when they see their well-guarded treasure going.’
‘Philip, we won’t pretend that we are any of the statues today when the men come,’ said Dinah. ‘Only you. The men are sure to have a hunt round for us if they can’t find us today, so we’d better all be found, except you. You can be a statue again, and wait your chance to rush out of the door.’
‘Yes. I think I will,’ said Philip. ‘It may not work, but it’s the only thing to do. Now – when will those men be along? It will take them about an hour and a half to get here. It’s half an hour since we saw the planes. I mustn’t leave it to the last minute to put myself in place.’
‘Better go now,’ said Lucy-Ann, who was on pins and needles about the whole thing. ‘We’ll come with you and see that you’re in a good place and really look like a statue.’
They all went down the passage, and made their way through the various caves to the one in which the statues stood. Martha the hen came too. She had attached herself to Jack now, and followed him wherever he went. She had laid an egg that morning, and the old woman had made Lucy-Ann have it for breakfast.
‘Look! – there’s a half-hidden ledge here not far from the door,’ said Dinah eagerly. ‘If you stood there you would hardly be seen, it’s so dark there. And you would be near the door to creep out if you got a chance.’
‘Yes, that does seem the best place,’ said Philip. ‘It really does. Now what about a shawl or something to drape over my head? I don’t want my short hair to give me away.’
They found a very big shawl and draped it carefully round him. He went to stand on the little ledge, and everyone agreed that it was a splendid place.
‘You can hardly be seen,’ said Jack. ‘Well, good luck, Tufty. We’ll go now, and we shan’t hide. We shall let the men see us and hope they’ll think there’s nobody else in the caves at all. If you can’t escape we shall know, because you’ll still be about tonight.’
‘Goodbye,’ said Philip, looking exactly like a statue. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be off and away soon, and I’ll get word to Bill and Mother. We’ll soon rescue you, don’t you worry!’
26
The getaway
In about an hour’s time Philip heard the sound of footsteps and then the bolts of the door were shot back. Juan’s revolver appeared round the opening door again. But this time there was no Kiki to talk to him – nobody to be seen or heard except the silent company of statues.
Juan came down into the cave. Other men followed him. Philip watched them through a fold of the shawl. He hoped they wouldn’t start stripping the jewels off the statues at once, or they might discover him.
The men exclaimed in wonder at the statues. They had powerful torches with them which they switched on at once. Philip was not prepared for that. He shrank back into his corner, glad of the draping shawl.
The men were a rough-looking lot, and they called out to one another in surprise as they saw the gleaming jewels on the necks and arms of the statues. Some of them grabbed brooches and necklaces at once. Juan gave a sharp order and the men replaced them sulkily.
Philip counted the men. There were eight. Otto was not among them, but that was not surprising. Juan, Pepi and Luis were there. There were two men
for each aeroplane, apparently.
Juan led the way to the next cave, through the tunnel. Their footsteps echoed hollowly as they passed through. Philip wondered if they would all go on to the next cave – and the next. If so, he could slip out of the open door straight away, and make his way down the hillside at once.
He listened. He could hear the men’s voices from the next cave, where the pictures were. Then footsteps again, farther away. Then only a faint murmur of voices.
‘They’ve gone to the cave of books – and then they’ll go to the cave where the gold is,’ thought Philip. ‘I’ve plenty of time to get through the door and away.’
He dropped his shawl on the floor and went quietly to the door. He was through it in a trice. Up the winding steps he went, off to the cave of stars – then to the cave of gleaming stalactites. He began to feel safer. He didn’t think there would be anyone on guard outside the hole, but he meant to be careful there.
There was nobody on guard. The hillside was empty. Philip climbed out of the hole and began to make his way downwards. Soon he was well on his way, keeping a sharp look-out the whole time just in case all the men had not gone down into the caves.
He was tired and hungry by the time he reached the men’s hut. Thank goodness the door was open and there was nobody about! The boy got himself a good meal. He found a box containing bars of chocolate, and slipped some of the bars into his pocket, in case he had to go some time without food.
Then he went along to the planes. There they were, four of them, looking quite big as he walked beside them. Which should he get into?
He climbed up into the cabin of each and looked inside. In the last one there was a big heap of coats and rugs. It seemed the best plane to get into. He could pile the things over him and hide himself that way. He didn’t at the moment see any chance of squeezing himself into a crate, as Dinah had suggested. Anyway, the crates were not in the plane, they were under the tarpaulins, where they had always been.
Having decided exactly what he was going to do, he had plenty of time left on his hands. He knew that the men would not be back for some time. They would be carrying heavy, awkward loads and would go far more slowly than he had gone.
He amused himself by snooping around. He went into the hut and found a coat hanging up there. He ran his hands through the pockets, thinking that any information he could get hold of might be useful to Bill, when he got to him.
There was a notebook in one of the pockets. Philip flipped over the pages. He could make nothing of it. It contained sentences in some kind of code, and plenty of numbers. Perhaps Bill could make head or tail of it. He couldn’t!
He went to the cowshed. There was nothing to be seen there but the still-open tins of fruit, swarming with flies. Philip stared at them. ‘Oh yes – they are what Jack left for Otto,’ he thought. ‘Ugh, look at the flies!’
He took a stick, dug a hole and buried the evil-smelling tins and their contents. Then he strolled off again and came to the tree where they had all once hidden. He squinted up and saw something. ‘Golly, what’s that?’
Then he remembered. ‘Of course – we left our suitcases up there. I’d forgotten all about them. Fancy them still being there!’
He debated whether to get them down and hide them. ‘No,’ he thought, ‘they might be found, and then the men might start looking for me. I’ll leave them there.’
He kept a good look out for the returning men as the afternoon wore on. He helped himself to some biscuits and a tin of peaches at about five o’clock. Still no sign of the men.
But about ten minutes later he saw them far away in the distance. He was by the planes, waiting, ready to jump into the one he had chosen as soon as he saw the men coming.
He counted the men quickly. Yes – eight – so they were all back. He climbed up the steps and leapt into the cabin. He went to the pile of rugs and coats and got underneath, pulling them over him so that not even the toe of his shoe showed.
‘Good thing it’s a hot day,’ he thought. ‘The men certainly won’t want their coats or macks.’
He heard the voices of the men. Evidently they were pleased with their successful day. Then there was a silence. They had passed the planes, and were on their way to the hut. ‘Probably get themselves a meal, and then pack up the things they have brought from the treasure caves,’ thought Philip. He yawned. He felt sleepy now that he was lying down.
Soon he was asleep, and he slept so soundly that he did not even stir when, some hours later, two men entered his plane. But he did wake when the propellers swung round as the engines suddenly roared out! He nearly gave himself away by sitting up in a fright.
Then he remembered where he was, and lay perfectly still, wondering if it was nighttime. He could see nothing under the pile of coats, of course. It might have been midnight or noon for all he knew.
One by one the planes took off. Philip’s plane went last of all. He felt it leave the ground like a bird and then he was away in the air.
‘They haven’t seen me! They don’t guess they’ve got me on board!’ thought Philip, delighted. ‘It was easy after all. Hurrah!’
He fell asleep again, and the planes roared on through the night. Where were they going? To a secret landing-place? To an ordinary aerodrome?
The other children, who were sleeping that night out on the ledge, heard the roar of the planes as they left. It was such a hot night that they had felt stifled indoors and had begged the old couple to let them take the rugs out on the ledge.
‘You will not walk in your sleep?’ the old man had said. ‘You might walk off the ledge!’
‘Not one of us walks in our sleep,’ said Jack. ‘We’ll be all right.’
Elsa, the old woman, had not wanted Lucy-Ann to sleep out on the ledge at all, and had almost cried when Lucy-Ann had insisted. Kiki and Martha were both there too. But the lizard wasn’t. She was with Philip, sharing his adventure.
The children had had a horrid day. The men had found both them and the old couple in the ‘sitting room’ and had shouted at them and questioned them, and frightened them very much. The old man had told them that he had been living in the caves for a long time, guarding the treasure, and the men had jumped to the conclusion that the children also had been living there with them.
‘Good thing they didn’t ask us how we got to this valley,’ said Jack afterwards. ‘They just took it for granted that we and the old people came here together ages ago.’
The old man and woman had rushed to the rescue of their beloved statues when the men had begun to strip off the jewellery. The men had struck the poor old things and shouted at them. The old man had taken his weeping, trembling wife away, and the children had done their best to comfort them.
They had not gone near the men again, but had gone to sit on the sunny ledge, and wondered if Philip had managed to escape. ‘I’m sure he did,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘All the men kept together, and Philip could easily have slipped out of the cave of statues when they came to question us.’
The men had gone at last, taking with them a haul of jewels, one very precious figure, some pictures and a few old papers. Two of them carried a box of the gold between them. The children pictured their difficulties, hauling it up and down the mountainside.
The men had bolted the door behind them again, and once more the little company were prisoners. How they wondered what was happening to Philip! Had he managed to hide in one of the aeroplanes? Would he slip into a crate? When would the planes go off?
They knew that the planes had gone when they awoke in the night to hear the throb of the engines. They all sat up and listened. Kiki gave a squawk and pecked Martha to wake her.
‘There go the planes,’ said Jack. ‘I bet Philip’s in one. Now we shall soon be rescued. What a shock for Bill when he hears all about us! Do you think Bill will fly over in his aeroplane too?’
‘I hope so,’ said Lucy-Ann fervently. ‘I’m longing to see Bill again. I sometimes feel as if we’ll be in this valley all
our lives.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Dinah. ‘Oh, Kiki, leave Martha alone. Whatever are you doing to her to make her cluck like that?’
‘Shhhh!’ said Kiki cheekily.
‘Don’t talk back to me!’ said Dinah, lying down again. ‘Well, I’m glad we heard those planes. Good luck to you, Philip, wherever you are!’
‘Good luck!’ called the others, and Kiki echoed the words too. ‘Good luck!’
‘Cluck-luck-luck!’ said Martha the hen, sounding exactly as if she was joining in with the good wishes as well!
27
A discovery – and a fine idea
The next day the men were all back again in the four planes. They soon arrived once more at the treasure caves, going through the old books and papers, unrolling the dozens of canvases and looking at the pictures. They had gone to find the children and the old couple and had shouted at them again.
They had found out that somebody had helped himself to food from the hut, and they could not make it out. Hadn’t they imprisoned all the children and the old people in the caves?
The children, of course, guessed at once that it was Philip who had helped himself to the food. But they were not going to say so. So Jack put on a bewildered air and replied quite stupidly, and Dinah did the same. Lucy-Ann sobbed and the men soon gave up questioning her.
As for the old couple, they knew nothing, of course. They did not even appear to have missed Philip. The men gave up their questioning after a while, and returned to their work.
Elsa was sad to see Lucy-Ann sobbing. She took her by the hand and led her into the ‘bedroom.’ She took down a picture she had put on a ledge there, and showed Lucy-Ann a space behind. Lucy-Ann stared at it.
‘What is it?’ she said. Then she called to Jack. ‘Jack! Come here, and bring the old man. The old woman doesn’t understand what I say.’