They'll make a nice change.'
'Right, Captain!' said Dick. 'And just you
be careful, old boy. These men will stick at nothing — bad-tempered brutes they
are.'
'Look after the girls,' said Julian. 'Don't
let George do anything mad!'
Dick grinned. 'Who can stop George doing
what she wants to? Not me!'
They were now at the bottom of the hill. The
circus camp lay nearby. The children could hear the barking of the dogs and the
shrill trumpeting of Old Lady.
They looked about for Nobby. He was nowhere
to be seen. Blow! It wouldn't be any good setting off to the town and laying
such a good plan if they couldn't tell Nobby they were going!
Nobody dared to go into the camp. Julian
thought of the two red cloths that Nobby and Pongo had waved. Double-danger! It
would be wise not to go into the camp that morning. He stood still, undecided
what to do.
Then he opened his mouth and yelled:
'Nobby! NOBBY!'
No answer and no Nobby. The elephant man
heard him shouting and came up. 'Do you want Nobby? I'll fetch him.'
Thanks,' said Julian.
The little man went off, whistling. Soon
Nobby appeared from behind a caravan, looking rather scared. He didn't come
near Julian, but stood a good way away, looking pale and troubled.
'Nobby! We're going into the town for the
day,' yelled Julian at the top of his voice. 'We're . . .'
Tiger Dan suddenly appeared behind Nobby and
grabbed his arm fiercely.  Julian yelled again:
'We're going into the town, Nobby! We shan't
be back till evening. Can you hear me? WE'RE GOING TO THE TOWN!'
The whole camp must have heard Julian. But
he was quite determined that, whoever else didn't hear, Tiger Dan certainly
should.

'HOW'S BARKER?' yelled Julian. But Nobby had
disappeared, dragged into his uncle's caravan by Dan. The little elephant man
heard, however.
'Barker's bad,' he said. 'Not dead yet. But
nearly.  Nobby's fair upset!'
The children walked off with Timmy. George
had had to hold his collar all the time, for once he saw Dan he growled without
stopping, and tried to get away from George.
Thank goodness Barker isn't dead,' said
Anne. 'I do hope he'll get better.'
'Not much chance,' said Julian. 'That meat
must have been chockful of poison. Poor old Nobby. How awful to be under the
thumb of a fellow like Tiger Dan.'
'I just simply can't imagine him as a clown
— Tiger Dan, I mean,' said Anne. 'Clowns are always so merry and gay and
jolly.'
'Well, that's just acting,' said Dick. 'A
clown needn't be the same out of the ring as he has to be when he's in it. If
you look at photographs of clowns when they're just being ordinary men, they've
got quite sad faces.'
'Well, Tiger Dan hasn't got a sad face. He's
got a nasty, ugly, savage, cruel, fierce one,' said Anne, looking quite fierce
herself.
That made the others laugh. Dick turned
round to see if anyone was watching them walking towards the bus-stop, where
the buses turned to go to the town.
'Lou the acrobat is watching us,' he said.
'Good! Can he see the bus-stop from where he is, Ju?'
Julian turned round. 'Yes, he can. He'll
watch to see us all get into the bus — so I'd better climb in, too, and I'll
get out at the first stop, double back, and get into the hills by some path he
won't be able to see.'
'Right,' said Dick, enjoying the thought of
playing a trick on Lou. 'Come on. There's the bus. We'll have to run for it.'
They all got into the bus. Lou was still
watching, a small figure very far away. Dick felt inclined to wave cheekily to
him, but didn't.
The bus set off. They took three tickets for
the town and one for the nearest stop. Timmy had a ticket, too, which he wore
proudly in his collar. He loved going in a bus.
Julian got out at the first stop. 'Well, see
you this evening!' he said. 'Send Timmy on ahead to the caravans when you come
back — just in case the men are anywhere about. I may not be able to warn you.'
'Right,' said Dick. 'Good-bye — and good
luck!'
Julian waved and set off back down the road
he had come. He saw a little lane leading off up into the hills and decided to
take it. It led him not very far from Mrs Mackie's farm, so he soon knew where
he was. He went back to the caravans, and quickly made himself some sandwiches
and cut some cake to take to his hiding-place. He might have a long wait!
'Now — where shall I hide?' thought the boy.
'I want somewhere that will give me a view of the track so that I can see when
the men come up it. And yet it must be somewhere that gives me a good view of
their doings, too. What would be the best place?'
A tree? No, there wasn't one that was near
enough or thick enough. Behind a bush? No, the men might easily come round it
and see him. What about the middle of a thick gorse bush? That might be a good
idea.
But Julian gave that up very quickly, for he
found the bush far too prickly to force his way into the middle. He scratched
his arms and legs terribly.
'Blow!' he said. 'I really must make up my
mind, or the men may be here before I'm in hiding!'
And then he suddenly had a real brainwave,
and he crowed in delight. Of course! The very place!
'I'll climb up on to the roof of one of the
caravans!' thought Julian. 'Nobody will see me there — and certainly nobody
would guess I was there! That really is a fine idea. I shall have a fine view
of the track and a first-rate view of the men and where they go!'
It wasn't very easy to climb up on to the
high roof. He had to get a rope, loop it at the end, and try to lasso the
chimney in order to climb up.
 He
threw his packet of food up on to the roof and then climbed up himself. He
pulled up the rope and coiled it beside him.
Then he lay down flat. He was certain that
nobody could see him from below. Of course, if the men went higher up the hill
and looked down on the caravans, he could easily be spotted — but he would have
to chance that.
He lay there quite still, watching the lake,
and keeping eyes and ears open for anyone coming up the hillside. He was glad
that it was not a very hot sunny day, or he would have been cooked up on the
roof. He wished he had thought of filling a bottle with water in case he was
thirsty.
He saw spires of smoke rising from where the
circus camp lay, far below. He saw a couple of boats on the lake, a good way
round the water — people fishing, he supposed. He watched a couple of rabbits
come out and play on the hillside just below.
The sun came out from behind the clouds for
about ten minutes and Julian began to feel uncomfortably hot. Then it went in
again and he felt better.
He suddenly heard somebody whistling and
stiffened himself in expectation — but it was only someone belonging to the
farm, going down the hill some distance away. The whistle had carried clearly in
the still air.
Then he got bored. The rabbits went in, and
not even a butterfly sailed by. He could see no birds except a yellow-hammer
that sat on the topmost spray of a bush and sang: '
Little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese', over and over again in a most maddening
manner.
Then it gave a cry of alarm and flew off. It
had heard something that frightened it.
Julian heard something, too, and glued his
eyes to the track that led up the hill. His heart began to beat. He could see
two men. Were they Lou and Dan?
He did not dare to raise his head to see
them when they came nearer in case they spotted him. But he knew their voices
when they came near enough!
Yes — it was Lou and Tiger Dan all right.
There was no mistaking those two harsh, coarse voices. The men came right into
the hollow, and Julian heard them talking.
'Yes, there's nobody here. Those kids have
really gone off for the day at least — and taken that wretched dog with them!'
'I saw them get on the bus, dog and all, I
told you,' growled Lou. 'There'll be nobody here for the day. We can get what
we want to.'
'Let's go and get it, then,' said Dan.
Julian waited to see where they would go to.
But they didn't go out of the hollow. They stayed there, apparently beside the
caravans. Julian did not dare to look over the edge of the roof to see what
they were up to. He was glad he had fastened all the windows and locked the
doors.
Then there began some curious scuffling
sounds, and the men panted. The caravan on which Julian was lying began to
shake a little.
'What are they doing?' thought Julian in
bewilderment. In intense curiosity he slid quietly to the edge of the caravan
roof and cautiously peeped over, though he had firmly made up his mind not to
do this on any account.
He looked down on the ground. There was
nobody there at all. Perhaps the men were the other side. He slid carefully
across and peeped over the opposite side of the caravan, which was still
shaking a little, as if the men were bumping against it.
There was nobody the other side either! How
very extraordinary! 'Golly! They must be underneath the caravan!' thought
Julian, going back to the middle of the roof. 'Underneath! What in the wide
world for?'
It was quite impossible to see underneath
the caravan from where he was, so he had to lie quietly and wonder about the
men's doings. They grunted and groaned, and seemed to be scraping and
scrabbling about, but nothing happened. Then Julian heard them scrambling out from
underneath, angry and disappointed.
'Give us a cigarette,' said Lou in a
disagreeable voice. 'I'm fed up with this. Have to shift this van. Those
tiresome brats! What did they want to choose this spot for?'
Julian heard a match struck and smelt
cigarette smoke. Then he got a shock. The caravan he was on began to move!
Heavens! Were the men going to push it over the ledge and send it rolling down
the hillside?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SEVERAL THINGS HAPPEN
Julian was suddenly very scared. He wondered
if he had better slide off the roof and run. He wouldn't have much chance if
the caravan went hurtling down the hill! But he didn't move. He clung to the
chimney with both hands, whilst the men shoved hard against the caravan.
It ran a few feet to the rocky ledge, and
then stopped. Julian felt his forehead getting very damp, and he saw that his
hands were trembling. He felt ashamed of being so scared, but he couldn't help
it.
'Hey! Don't send it down the hill!' said Lou
in alarm, and Julian's heart felt lighter. So they didn't mean to destroy the
caravan in that way! They had just moved it to get at something underneath. But
what could it be? Julian racked his brains to try and think what the floor of
the hollow had been like when Dobby and Trotter pulled their caravans into it.
As far as he could remember it was just an ordinary heathery hollow.
The men were now scrabbling away again by
the back steps of the caravan. Julian was absolutely eaten up with curiosity,
but he did not dare even to move. He could find out the secret when the men had
gone. Meantime he really must be patient or he would spoil everything.
There was some muttered talking, but Julian
couldn't catch a word.  Not a word. Not a bump against the caravan. Not a pant or even a
grunt. Nothing at all.
Julian lay still. Maybe the men were still
there. He wasn't going to give himself away. He lay for quite a long time,
waiting and wondering. But he heard nothing.
Then he saw a robin fly to a nearby bramble
spray. It flicked its wings and looked about for crumbs. It was a robin that
came around when the children were having a meal — but it was not as tame as
most robins, and would not fly down until the children had, left the hollow.
Then a rabbit popped out of a hole on the
hillside and capered about, running suddenly up to the hollow.
'Well,' thought Julian, 'it's plain the men
aren't here now, or the birds and animals wouldn't be about like this. There's
another rabbit. Those men have gone somewhere — though goodness knows where. I
can peep over now and have a look, quite safely, I should think.'
He slid himself round and peered over the
roof at the back end of the caravan. He looked down at the ground. There was
absolutely nothing to be seen to tell him what the men had been doing, or where
they had gone! The heather grew luxuriantly there as it did everywhere else.
There was nothing to show what the men had been making such a disturbance
about.
'This is really very queer,' thought Julian,
beginning to wonder if he had been dreaming. 'The men are certainly gone —
vanished into thin air, apparently! Dare I get down and explore a bit? No, I
daren't. The men may appear at any moment, and it's quite on the cards they'll
lose their temper if they find me here, and chuck both me and the caravans down
the hill! It's pretty steep just here, too.'
He lay there, thinking. He suddenly felt
very hungry and thirsty. Thank goodness he had been sensible enough to take
food up to the roof! He could at least have a meal while he was waiting for the
men to come back — if they ever did!
He began to eat his sandwiches. They tasted
very good indeed. He finished them all and began on the cake. That was good,
too. He had brought a few plums up as well, and was very glad of them because
he was thirsty. He flicked the plum stones from the roof before he thought what
he was doing.
'Dash! Why did I do that? If the men notice
them they may remember they weren't there before. Still, they've most of them
gone into the heather!'
The sun came out a little and Julian felt
hot. He wished the men would come again and go down the hill. He was tired of
lying flat on the hard roof. Also he was terribly sleepy.
How long he slept he had no idea — but he
was suddenly awakened by feeling the caravan being moved again! He clutched the
chimney in alarm, listening to the low voices of the two men.
They were pulling the caravan back into
place again. Soon it was in the same position as before. Then Julian heard a
match struck and smelt smoke again.
The men went and sat on the rocky ledge and
took out food they had brought, Julian did not dare to peep at them, though he
felt sure they had their backs to him. The men ate, and talked in low voices,
and then, to Julian's dismay, they lay down and went to sleep! He knew that
they were asleep because he could hear them snoring.
'Am I going to stay on this awful roof all
day long?' he thought. 'I'm getting so cramped, lying flat like this. I want to
sit up!'
'R-r-r-r-r-r!' snored Lou and Dan. Julian
felt that surely it would be all right to sit up now that the men were obviously
asleep. So he sat up cautiously, stretching himself with pleasure.
He looked down on the two men, who were
lying on their backs with their mouths open. Beside them were two neat sacks,
strong and thick. Julian wondered what was inside them. They certainly had not
had them when they came up the track.
The boy gazed down the hillside, frowning,
trying to probe the mystery of where the men had been, and what they were doing
up here — and suddenly he jumped violently. He stared as if he could not
believe his eyes.
  Who could
it be? Was it someone spying on Lou and Dan? But what a face! It didn't seem
human.
A hand came up to rub the face — and Julian
saw that it was hairy. With a start he knew who the face belonged to — Pongo
the chimpanzee!  It was
all right on a chimp, of course — quite a nice face — but not on a man.
Pongo stared at Julian solemnly, and Julian
stared back, his mind in a whirl. What was Pongo doing there? Was Nobby with
him? If so, Nobby was in danger, for at any moment the men might wake up. He
couldn't think what to do. If he called out to warn Nobby, he would wake the
men.
Pongo was pleased to see Julian, and did not
seem to think the roof of a caravan a curious place to be in at all. After all,
he often went up on the roofs of caravans. He nodded and blinked at the boy,
and then scratched his head for a long time.
Then beside him appeared Nobby's face — a
tear-stained face, bruised and swollen. He suddenly saw Julian looking over the
roof of the caravan, and his mouth fell open in surprise. He seemed about to
call out, and Julian shook his head frantically to stop him, pointing downwards
to try and warn Nobby that somebody was there.
But Nobby didn't understand. He grinned and,
to Julian's horror, began to climb up the hillside to the rocky ledge! The men
were sleeping there, and Julian saw with dismay that Nobby would probably heave
himself up right on top of them.
'Look out!' he said, in a low, urgent voice.
'Look out, you fathead!'
But it was too late. Nobby heaved himself up
on to the ledge, and, to his utmost horror, found himself sprawling on top of
Tiger Dan! He gave a yell and tried to slide away — but Dan, rousing suddenly,
shot out a hand and gripped him.
Lou woke up, too. The men glared at poor
Nobby, and the boy began to tremble, and to beg for mercy.
'I didn't know you were here, I swear it!
Let me go, let me go! I only came up to look for my knife that I lost
yesterday!'
Dan shook him savagely. 'How long have you
been here? You been spying?'
'No, no! I've only just come! I've been at
the camp all morning — you ask Larry and Rossy. I been helping them!'
'You been spying on us, that's what you've
been doing!' said Lou, in a cold, hard voice that filled the listening Julian
with dread. 'You've had plenty of beatings this week, but seemingly they ain't
enough. Well, up here, there's nobody to hear your yells, see? So we'll show
you what a real beating is! And if you can walk down to the camp after it, I'll
be surprised.'
Nobby was terrified. He begged for mercy, he
promised to do anything the men asked him, and tried to jerk his poor swollen
face away from Dan's hard hands.
Julian couldn't bear it. He didn't want to
give away the fact that it was he who had been spying, nor did he want to fight
the men at all, for he was pretty certain he would get the worst of it. But
nobody could lie in silence, watching two men treat a young boy in such a way.
He made up his mind to leap off the roof right on to the men, and to rescue
poor Nobby if he could.
Nobby gave an anguished yell as Lou gave him
a flick with his leather belt — but before Julian could jump down to help him,
somebody else bounded up! Somebody who bared his teeth and made ugly animal
noises of rage, somebody whose arms were far stronger than either Lou's or Dan's
— somebody who loved poor Nobby, and wasn't going to let him be beaten any
more!
It was Pongo.  He had still hidden himself in
the bush, for he was afraid of Lou and Dan — but now, hearing Nobby's cries, he
leapt out of the brambles and flung himself on the astonished men.
He bit Lou's arm hard. Then he bit Dan's
leg. The men yelled loudly, much more loudly than poor Nobby had. Lou lashed
out with his leather belt, and it caught Pongo on the shoulder. The chimpanzee
made a shrill chattering noise, and leapt on Lou with his arms open, clasping
the man to him, trying to bite his throat.
Tiger Dan rushed down the hill at top speed,
terrified of the angry chimpanzee. Lou yelled to Nobby.
'Call him off!  'Stop it! Pongo!
Come here.'
Pongo gave Nobby a look of the greatest
surprise. 'What!' he seemed to say, 'you won't let me punish this bad man who
beat you? Well, well — whatever you say must be right!'
And the chimpanzee, giving Lou one last
vicious nip, let the man go. Lou followed Dan down the hill at top speed, and
Julian heard him crashing through the bushes as if a hundred chimpanzees were
after him.
Nobby sat down, trembling. Pongo, not quite
sure if his beloved friend was angry with him or not, crept up to him putting a
paw on the boy's knee. Nobby put his arm round the anxious animal, and Pongo
chattered with joy.
Julian slid down from the roof of the
caravan and went to Nobby. He, too, sat down beside him. He put his arm round
the trembling boy and gave him a hug.
'I was just coming to give you a hand, when
Pongo shot up the hill,' he said.
 'You're a real friend, you are. Good as Pongo, here.'
And Julian felt quite proud to be ranked in
bravery with the chimpanzee!
 The sound of voices could be heard coming up the
hill. Then a dog barked.
'It's all right. It's Timmy — and the
others,' said Julian, unspeakably glad to welcome them back. He stood up and
yelled.
'All right! Come along!'
George, Timmy, Dick and Anne came running up
the track. 'Hallo!' shouted Dick. 'We thought it would be safe, because we saw
Lou and Dan in the distance, running along at the bottom of the hill. I say —
there's Pongo!'
Pongo shook hands with Dick, and then went
to the back of Timmy, to shake hands with his tail. But Timmy was ready for
him, and backing round, he held out his paw to Pongo instead. It was very funny
to see the two animals solemnly shaking hands with one another.
'Hallo, Nobby!' said Dick. 'Goodness — what
have you been doing to yourself?  He was very much shaken, and did not get up. Pongo ran to Anne and
tried to put his arms round her.
'Oh, Pongo — you squeeze too hard,' said
Anne. 'Julian, did anything happen? Did the men come? Have you any news?'
'Plenty,' said Julian. 'But what I want
first is a jolly good drink. I've had none all day. Ginger-beer, I think.'
'We're all thirsty. I'll get five bottles —
no, six, because I expect Pongo would like some.'
Pongo loved ginger-beer. He sat down with
the children on the rocky ledge, and took his glass from Anne just like a
child. Timmy was a little jealous, but as he didn't like ginger-beer he
couldn't make a fuss.
Julian began to tell the others about his
day, and how he had hidden on the caravan roof. He described how the men had
come — and had gone under the caravan — and then moved it. They all listened
with wide eyes. What a story!
Then Nobby told his part. 'I butted in and
almost gave the game away,' he said, when Julian had got as far as the men
falling asleep and snoring. 'But, you see, I had to come and warn you. Lou and
Dan swear they'll poison Timmy somehow, even if they have to dope him, put him
into a sack and take him down to the camp to do it. Or they might knock him on
the head.'
'Let them try!' said George, in her fiercest
voice, and put her arm round Timmy. Pongo at once put his arm round Timmy too.

The four children stared at him in horror.
'But they wouldn't do a thing like that, surely?' said Julian, at last. They'd
get into trouble with the police if they did.'
'Well, I'm just telling you what they said,'
Nobby went on. 'You don't know Lou and Tiger Dan like I do. They'll stick at
nothing to get their way — or to get anybody out of their way. They tried to
poison Timmy, didn't they? And poor old Barker got it instead.'
'Is — is Barker — all right?' asked Anne.
'No,' said Nobby. 'He's dying, I think. I've
given him to Lucilla to dose.  I've put Growler
with the other dogs. He's safe with them.'
He stared round at the other children, his
mouth trembling, sniffing as if he had a bad cold.
 They'll half-kill me.'
'You're not going back, so that's settled,'
said Julian, in a brisk voice. 'You're staying here with us. We shall love to
have you. It was jolly decent of you to come up and warn us — and bad luck to
have got caught like that. You're our friend now — and we'll stick together.'
Nobby couldn't say a word, but his face
shone.  He
nodded his head, not trusting himself to speak, and the children all thought
how nice he was. Poor old Nobby.
They finished their ginger-beer and then
Julian got up. 'And now,' he said, 'we will do a little exploring and find out
where those men went, shall we?'
'Oh yes!' cried George, who had sat still
quite long enough. 'We must find out! Do we have to get under the caravan,
Julian?'
''Fraid so,' said Julian. 'You sit there
quietly, Nobby, and keep guard in case Lou or Dan come back.'
He didn't think for a moment that they
would, but he could see that Nobby needed to sit quietly for a while. Nobby,
however, had different ideas. He was going to share this adventure!
'Timmy's guard enough, and so is Pongo,' he
said. They'll hear anyone coming half a mile away. I'm in on this!'
And he was. He went scrabbling underneath
the low-swung base of the caravan with the others, eager to find out anything
he could.
But it was impossible to explore down in the
heather, with the caravan base just over their heads. They had no room at all.
Like Dan and Lou they soon felt that they would have to move the van.
It took all five of them, with Pongo giving
a shove, too, to move the caravan a few feet away. Then down they dropped to
the thick carpet of heather again.
The tufts came up easily by the roots,
because the men had already pulled them up once that day and then replanted
them. The children dragged up a patch of heather about five feet square, and
then gave an exclamation.
'Look! Boards under the heather!'
'Laid neatly across and across. What for?'
'Pull them up!'
The boys pulled up the planks one by one and
piled them on one side. Then they saw that the boards had closed up the
entrance of a deep hole. 'I'll get my torch,' said Julian. He fetched it and
flashed it on.
The light showed them a dark hole, going
down into the hillside, with footholds sticking out of one side. They all sat
and gazed down in excitement.
'To think we went and put our caravan
exactly over the entrance of the men's hiding-place!' said Dick. 'No wonder
they were wild! No wonder they changed their minds and told us we could go down
to the lake and camp there instead of here!'
'Gosh!' said Julian, staring into the hole.
'So that's where the men went! Where does it lead to? They were down there a
mighty long time. They were clever enough to replace the planks and drag some
of the heather over them, too, to hide them when they went down.'
Pongo suddenly took it into his head to go
down the hole. Down he went, feeling for the footholds with his hairy feet,
grinning up at the others. He disappeared at the bottom. Julian's torch could
not pick him out at all.
'Hey, Pongo! Don't lose yourself down
there!' called Nobby, anxiously. But Pongo had gone.
'Blow him!' said Nobby. 'He'll never find
his way back, if he goes wandering about underground. I'll have to go after
him. Can I have your torch, Julian?'
'I'll come too,' said Julian. 'George, get
me your torch as well, will you?'
'It's broken,' said George. 'I dropped it
last night. And nobody else has got one.'
'What
an awful nuisance!' said Julian. 'I want us to go and explore down there — but
we can't with only one torch. Well, I'll just go down with Nobby and get Pongo
— have a quick look round and come back. I may see something worth seeing!'
Nobby went down first, and Julian followed,
the others all kneeling round the hole, watching them enviously. They
disappeared.
'Pongo!' yelled Nobby. 'Pongo! Come here,
you idiot!'
Pongo had not gone very far. He didn't like
the dark down there very much, and he came to Nobby as soon as he saw the light
of the torch. The boys found themselves in a narrow passage at the bottom of
the hole, which widened as they went further into the hill.
'Must be caves somewhere,' said Julian,
flashing his torch round. 'We know that a lot of springs run out of this hill.
I daresay that through the centuries the water has eaten away the softer stuff
and made caves and tunnels everywhere in the hill. And somewhere in a cave Lou
and Dan store away things they don't want anyone to know about. Stolen goods,
probably.'
The passage ended in a small cave that
seemed to have no other opening out of it at all. There was nothing in it.
Julian flashed his torch up and down the walls.
He saw footholds up one part, and traced
them to a hole in the roof, which must have been made, years before, by running
water. That's the way we go!' he said. 'Come on.'
'Wait!' said Nobby. 'Isn't your torch
getting rather faint?'
'Goodness — yes!' said Julian in alarm, and
shook his torch violently to make the light brighter. But the battery had
almost worn out, and no better light came. Instead the light grew even fainter,
until it was just a pin-prick in the torch.
'Come on — we'd better get back at once,'
said Julian, feeling a bit scared. 'I don't want to wander about here in the
pitch dark. Not my idea of fun at all.'
Nobby took firm hold of Pongo's hairy paw
and equally firm hold of Julian's jersey. He didn't mean to lose either of
them! The light in the torch went out completely. Now they must find their way
back in black darkness.
Julian felt round for the beginning of the
passage that led back to the hole. He found it and made his way up it, feeling
the sides with his hands. It wasn't a pleasant experience at all, and Julian
was thankful that he and Nobby had only gone a little way into the hill. It
would have been like a nightmare if they had gone well in, and then found
themselves unable to see the way back.
They saw a faint light shining further on
and guessed it was the daylight shining down the entrance-hole. They stumbled
thankfully towards it. They looked up and saw the anxious faces of the other
three peering down at them, unable to see them.
'We're back!' called Julian, beginning to
climb up. 'My torch went out, and we daren't go very far. We've got Pongo,
though.'
The others helped to pull them out at the
top of the hole. Julian told them about the hole in the roof of the little
cave.
That's where the men went,' he said. 'And
tomorrow, when we've all bought torches, and matches and candles, that's where
we're going, too! We'll go down to the town and buy what we want, and come back
and do a Really Good Exploration!'
'We're going to have an adventure after
all,' said Anne, in rather a small voice.
''Fraid so,' said Julian. 'But you can stay
at the farm with Mrs Mackie for the day, Anne dear.  'So there! I wouldn't dream of not coming.'
'All right,' said Julian. 'We'll all go
together. Golly, things are getting exciting!'
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ANOTHER VISIT FROM LOU AND DAN
Nobody disturbed the children that night,
and Timmy did not bark once. Nobby slept on a pile of rugs in the boy's
caravan, and Pongo cuddled up to him. The chimpanzee seemed delighted at
staying with the caravanners. Timmy was rather jealous that another animal
should be with them, and wouldn't take any notice of Pongo at all.
The next morning, after breakfast, the
children discussed who was to go down to the town. 'Not Nobby and Pongo,
because they wouldn't be allowed in the bus together,' said Julian. 'They had
better stay behind.'
'Not by ourselves?' said Nobby, looking
alarmed. 'Suppose Lou and Uncle Dan come up? Even if I've got Pongo I'd be
scared.'
'Well, I'll stay here, too,' said Dick. 'We
don't all need to go to buy torches. Don't forget to post that letter to Daddy
and Mother, Julian.'
They had written a long letter to their
parents, telling them of the exciting happenings. Julian put it into his
pocket. 'I'll post it all right,' he said. 'Well, I suppose we might as well go
now.  Keep a look-out, Dick, in case those rogues come back.'
George, Timmy, Anne and Julian went down the
hill together, Timmy running on in front, his tail wagging nineteen to the
dozen. Pongo climbed up to the roof of the red caravan to watch them go. Nobby
and Dick sat down in the warm sun on the ledge, their heads resting on springy
clumps of heather.
'It's nice up here,' said Nobby. 'Much nicer
than down below. I wonder what everyone is thinking about Pongo and me. I bet
Mr Gorgio, the head of the circus, is wild that the chimpanzee's gone. I bet
he'll send up to fetch us.'
Nobby was right. Two people were sent up to
get him — Lou and Tiger Dan. They came creeping up through the bracken and
heather, keeping a sharp eye for Timmy or Pongo.
Pongo sensed them long before they could be
seen and warned Nobby. Nobby went very pale. He was terrified of the two
scoundrels.
'Get into one of the caravans,' said Dick in
a low voice. 'Go on. I'll deal with those fellows — if it is them. Pongo will
help me if necessary.'
Nobby scuttled into the green caravan and
shut the door. Dick sat where he was. Pongo squatted on the roof of the
caravan, watching.
Lou and Dan suddenly appeared. They saw
Dick, but did not see Pongo. They looked all round for the others.
'What do you want?' said Dick.
'Nobby and Pongo,' said Lou with a scowl.
'Where are they?'
'They're going to stay on with us,' said
Dick.
'Oh, no, they're not!' said Tiger Dan.
'Nobby's in my charge, see? I'm his uncle.'
'Funny sort of uncle,' remarked Dick. 'How's
that dog you poisoned, by the way?'
Tiger Dan went purple in the face. He looked
as if he would willingly have thrown Dick down the hill.
'You be careful what you say to me!' he
said, beginning to shout.
Nobby, hidden in the caravan, trembled when
he heard his uncle's angry yell. Pongo kept quite still, his face set and ugly.
'Well, you may as well say good-bye and go,'
said Dick in a calm voice to Dan. 'I've told you that Nobby and Pongo are
staying with us for the present.'
'Where is Nobby?' demanded Tiger Dan,
looking as if he would burst with rage at any moment. 'Wait till I get my hands
on him. Wait . . .'
He began to walk towards the caravans — but
Pongo was not having any of that! He leapt straight off the roof on to the
horrified man, and flung him to the ground. He made such a terrible snarling
noise that Dan was terrified.
'Call him off!' he yelled.  'You'd better go before he bites big
pieces out of you.'
Dan staggered to the rock ledge, looking as
if he would box Dick's ears. But the boy did not move, and somehow Dan did not
dare to touch him. Pongo let him go and stood glowering at him, his great hairy
arms hanging down his sides, ready to fly at either of the men if they came
near.
Tiger Dan picked up a stone — and as quick
as lightning Pongo flung himself on him again and sent the man rolling down the
hill. Lou fled in terror. Dan got up and fled, too, yelling furiously as he
went. Pongo chased them in delight. He, too, picked up stones and flung them
with a very accurate aim, so that Dick kept hearing yells of pain.
Pongo came back, looking extremely pleased
with himself. He went to the green caravan, as Dick shouted to Nobby.
'All right, Nobby. They've gone. Pongo and I
won the battle!'
Nobby came out. Pongo put his arm round him
at once and chattered nonsense in his ear. Nobby looked rather ashamed of
himself.
'Bit of a coward, aren't I?' he said.
 'And
I'm sure Pongo did!'
'You don't know what dangerous fellows Lou
and Dan are,' said Nobby, looking down the hillside to make sure the men were
really gone. 'I tell you they'd stick at nothing.  You don't know them like I do!'
'Well, as a matter of fact, we've had some
pretty exciting adventures with men just as tough as Dan and Lou,' said Dick.
'We always seem to be falling into the middle of some adventure or other. Now,
last hols we went to a place called Smuggler's Top — and, my word, the
adventures we had there! You wouldn't believe them!'
'You tell me and Pongo,' said Nobby, sitting
down beside Dick. 'We've plenty of time before the others come back.'
So Dick began to tell the tale of all the
other thrilling adventures that the five of them had had, and the time flew.
Both boys were surprised when they heard Timmy barking down the track, and knew
that the others were back.
George came tearing up with Timmy at her
heels. 'Are you all right? Did anything happen while we were away? Do you know,
we saw Lou and Tiger Dan getting on the bus when we got off it! They were
carrying bags as if they meant to go away and stay somewhere.'
Nobby brightened up at once. 'Did you
really? Good! They came up here, you know, and Pongo chased them down the hill.
They must have gone back to the camp, collected their bags, and gone to catch
the bus. Hurrah!'
'We've got fine torches,' said Julian, and
showed Dick his. 'Powerful ones. Here's one for you, Dick — and one for you,
Nobby.'
'Oooh — thanks,' said Nobby. Then he went
red. 'I haven't got enough money to pay you for such a grand torch,' he said
awkwardly.
'It's a present for you,' said Anne at once,
'a present for a friend of ours, Nobby!'
'Coo! Thanks awfully,' said Nobby, looking
quite overcome. 'I've never had a present before. You're decent kids, you are.'
Pongo held out his hand to Anne and made a
chattering noise as if to say: 'What about one for me, too?'
'Oh — we didn't bring one for Pongo!' said
Anne. 'Why ever didn't we?'
'Good thing you didn't,' said Nobby. 'He
would have put it on and off all day long and wasted the battery in no time!'
'I'll give him my old torch,' said George.
'It's broken, but he won't mind that!'
Pongo was delighted with it. He kept
pressing down the knob that should make the light flash — and when there was no
light he looked all about on the ground as if the light must have dropped out!
The children roared at him. He liked them to laugh at him. He did a little dance
all round them to show how pleased he was.
'Look here — wouldn't it be a jolly good
time to explore underground now that we know Lou and Dan are safely out of the
way?' asked Julian suddenly. 'If they've got bags with them, surely that means
they're going to spend the night somewhere and won't be back till tomorrow at
least. We'd be quite safe to go down and explore.'
'Yes, we could,' said George eagerly, 'I'm
longing to get down there and Make Discoveries!'
'Well, let's have something to eat first,'
said Dick. 'It's long past our dinner-time. It must be about half-past one.
Yes, it is!'
'George and I will get you a meal,' said
Anne. 'We called at the farm on our way up and got a lovely lot of food. Come
on, George.'
George got up unwillingly. Timmy followed
her, sniffing expectantly. Soon the two girls were busy getting a fine meal
ready, and they all sat on the rocky ledge to eat it.
'Mrs Mackie gave us this enormous bar of
chocolate for a present today,' said Anne, showing a great slab to Dick and
Nobby. 'Isn't it lovely? No, Pongo, it's not for you. Eat your sandwiches
properly, and don't grab.'
'I vote we take some food down into the hill
with us,' said Julian. 'We may be quite a long time down there, and we shan't
want to come back at tea-time.'
'Oooh — a picnic inside the hill!' said
Anne. That would be thrilling. I'll soon pack up some food in the kitbag. I
won't bother to make sandwiches. We'll take a new loaf, butter, ham and a cake,
and cut what we want. What about something to drink?'
'Oh, we can last out till we get back,' said
Julian. 'Just take something to eat to keep us going till we have finished
exploring.'
George and Nobby cleared up and rinsed the
plates. Anne wrapped up some food in greased paper, and packed it carefully
into the kitbag for Julian to carry. She popped the big bar of chocolate into
the bag, too. It would be nice to eat at odd moments.
At last they were all ready. Jimmy wagged
his tail. He knew they were going somewhere.
The five of them pushed the caravan back a
few feet to expose the hole. They had all tugged the van back into place the
night before, in case Lou and Dan came to go down the hole again. No one could
get down it if the caravan was over it.
 As soon as Pongo saw
the hole he drew back, frightened.
'He's remembered the darkness down there,'
said George. 'He doesn't like it. Come on, Pongo. You'll be all right. We've
all got torches!'
But nothing would persuade Pongo to go down
that hole again. He cried like a baby when Nobby tried to make him.
'It's no good,' said Julian. 'You'll have to
stop up here with him.'
'What — and miss all the excitement!' cried
Nobby indignantly. 'I jolly well won't. We can tie old Pongo up to a wheel of
the van so that he won't wander off. Lou and Dan are away somewhere, and no one
else is likely to tackle a big chimp like Pongo. We'll tie him up.'
So Pongo was tied firmly to one of the
caravan wheels. 'You stay there like a good chimp till we come back,' said
Nobby, putting a pail of water beside him in case he should want a drink.
'We'll be back soon!'
Pongo was sad to see them go — but nothing
would have made him go down that hole again! So he sat watching the children
disappear one by one. Timmy jumped down, too, and they were all gone. Gone on
another adventure. What would happen now?
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
INSIDE THE HILL
The children had all put on extra jerseys,
by Julian's orders, for he knew it would be cold inside the dark hill. Nobby
had been lent an old one of Dick's. They were glad of them as soon as they were
walking down the dark passage that led to the first cave, for the air was very
chilly.
They came to the small cave and Julian
flashed his torch to show them where the footholds went up the wall to a hole
in the roof.
'It's exciting,' said George, thrilled. 'I
like this sort of thing. Where does that hole in the roof lead to, I wonder?
I'll go first, Ju.'
'No, you won't,' said Julian firmly. 'I go
first. You don't know what might be at the top!'
Up he went, his torch held in his mouth, for
he needed both hands to climb. The footholds were strong nails driven into the
rock of the cave-wall, and were fairly easy to climb.
He got to the hole in the roof and popped
his head through. He gave a cry of astonishment.
'I say! There's a most ENORMOUS cavern here
— bigger than six dance-halls — and the walls are all glittering with something
— phosphorescence, I should think.'
He scrambled out of the hole and stood on
the floor of the immense cave.  There was almost enough phosphorescent light in the
cavern to see by!
One by one the others came up and stared in
wonder. 'It's like Aladdin's cave!' said Anne. 'Isn't that a queer light
shining from the walls — and from the roof, too, Julian?'
Dick and George had rather a difficulty in
getting Timmy up to the cavern, but they managed it at last. Timmy put his tail
down at once when he saw the curious light gleaming everywhere. But it went up
again when George patted him.
'What an enormous place!' said Dick. 'Do you
suppose this is where the men hide their stuff, whatever it is?'
Julian flashed his torch on again and swung
it round and about, picking out the dark, rocky corners. 'Can't see anything
hidden,' he said. 'But we'd better explore the cave properly before we go on.'
So the five children explored every nook and
cranny of the gleaming cave, but could find nothing at all. Julian gave a
sudden exclamation and picked something up from the floor.
'A cigarette end!' he said. 'That shows that
Lou and Dan have been here. Come on, let's see if there's a way out of this
great cave.'
Right at the far end, half-way up the
gleaming wall, was a large hole, rather like a tunnel. Julian climbed up to it
and called to the others. 'This is the way they went. There's a dead match just
at the entrance to the tunnel or whatever this is.'
It was a curious tunnel, no higher than
their shoulders in some places, and it wound about as it went further into the
hill. Julian thought that at one time water must have run through it. But it
was quite dry now. The floor of the tunnel was worn very smooth, as if a stream
had hollowed it out through many, many years.
'I hope the stream won't take it into its
head to begin running suddenly again!' said George. 'We should get jolly wet!'
The tunnel went on for some way, and Anne
was beginning to feel it must go on for ever. Then the wall at one side widened
out and made a big rocky shelf. Julian, who was first, flashed his torch into
the hollow.
'I say!' he shouted. 'Here's where those
fellows keep their stores! There's a whole pile of things here!'
The others crowded up as closely as they
could, each of them flashing their torch brightly. On the wide, rocky shelf lay
boxes and packages, sacks and cases. The children stared at them. 'What's in
them?' said Nobby, full of intense curiosity. 'Let's see!'
He put down his torch and undid a sack. He
slid in his hand — and brought it out holding a piece of shining gold plate!
'Coo!' said Nobby. 'So that's what the
police were after last year when they came and searched the camp! And it was
hidden safely here. Coo, look at all these things. Jumping Jiminy, they must
have robbed the Queen herself!'
 The children set them all out on the
ledge. How they gleamed in the light of their torches!
'They're thieves in a very big way,' said
Julian. 'No doubt about that. Let's look in this box.'
The box was not locked, and the lid opened
easily. Inside was a piece of china, a vase so fragile that it looked as if it
might break at a breath!
'Well, I don't know anything about china,'
said Julian, 'but I suppose this is a very precious piece, worth thousands of
pounds. A collector of china would probably give a very large sum for it. What
rogues Lou and Dan are!'
'Look here!' suddenly said George, and she
pulled leather boxes out of a bag. 'Jewellery!'
She opened the boxes. The children exclaimed
in awe. Diamonds flashed brilliantly, rubies glowed, emeralds shone green.
Necklaces, bracelets, rings, brooches — the beautiful things gleamed in the
light of the five torches.
There was a tiara in one box that seemed to
be made only of big diamonds. Anne picked it out of its box gently. Then she
put it on her hair.
'I'm a princess! It's my crown!' she said.
'You look lovely,' said Nobby admiringly.
'You look as grand as Delphine the Bareback Rider when she goes into the ring
on her horse, with jewels shining all over her!'
Anne put on necklaces and bracelets and sat
there on the ledge like a little princess, shining brightly in the magnificent
jewels. Then she took them off and put them carefully back into their
satin-lined boxes.
'Well — what a haul those two rogues have
made!' said Julian, pulling out some gleaming silver plate from another
package. 'They must be very fine burglars!'
'I know how they work,' said Dick. 'Lou's a
wonderful acrobat, isn't he? I bet he does all the climbing about up walls and
over roofs and into windows — and Tiger Dan stands below and catches everything
he throws down.'
'You're about right,' said Nobby, handling a
beautiful silver cup. 'Lou could climb anywhere — up ivy, up pipes — even up
the bare wall of a house, I shouldn't wonder! And jump! He can jump like a cat.
He and Tiger Dan have been in this business for a long time, I expect. That's
where Uncle Dan went at night, of course, when we were on tour, and I woke up
and found him gone out of the caravan!'
'And I expect he stores the stolen goods in
that wagon of his you showed us,' said Julian, remembering. 'You told us how
angry he was with you once when you went and rummaged about in it. He probably
stored it there, and then he and Lou came up here each year and hid the stuff
underground — waiting till the police had given up the search for the stolen
things — and then they come and get it and sell it somewhere safe.'
'A jolly clever plan,' said Dick. 'What a
fine chance they've got — wandering about from place to place like that hearing
of famous jewels or plate — slipping out at night — and Lou climbing up to
bedrooms like a cat. I wonder how they found this place — it's a most wonderful
hidey-hole!'
'Yes. Nobody would ever dream of it!' said
George.
'And then we go and put our caravan bang on
the top of the entrance — just when they want to put something in and take
something out!' said Julian. 'I must have annoyed them.'
'What are we going to do about it?' said
Dick.
Tell the police, of course,' said Julian,
promptly. 'What do you suppose?
They put everything back carefully. Julian
shone his torch up the tunnel. 'Shall we explore a bit further, or not?' he
said. 'It still goes on. Look!'
'Better get back,' said Nobby. 'Now we've
found this we'd better do something about it.'
'Oh, let's just see where the tunnel goes
to,' said George. 'It won't take a minute!'
'All right,' said Julian, who wanted to go
up the tunnel as much as she did. He led the way, his torch shining brightly.
The tunnel came out into another cave, not
nearly as big as the one they had left behind. At one end something gleamed
like silver, and seemed to move. There was a curious sound there, too.
'What is it?' said Anne, alarmed. They stood
and listened.
'Water!' said Julian, suddenly. 'Of course!
Can't you hear it flowing along? It's an underground stream, flowing through
the hill to find an opening where it can rush out.'
'Like that stream we saw before we came to
our caravan camping-place,' said George. 'It rushed out of the hill. Do you
remember? This may be the very one!'
'I expect it is!' said Dick. They went over
to it and watched it. It rushed along in its own hollowed out channel, close to
the side of the cave-wall.
'Maybe at one time it ran across this cave
and down the tunnel we came up by,' said Julian. 'Yes, look — there's a big
kind of groove in the floor of the cave here — the stream must have run there
once. Then for some reason it went a different way.'
'Let's get back,' said Nobby. 'I want to
know if Pongo's all right. I don't somehow feel very comfortable about him. And
I'm jolly cold, too. Let's go back to the sunshine and have something to eat. I
don't want a picnic down here, after all.'
'All right,' said Julian, and they made
their way back through the tunnel. They passed the rock shelf on which lay the
treasure, and came at last to the enormous gleaming cavern. They went across it
to the hole that led down into the small cave. Down they went. Julian and
George trying to manage Timmy between them. But it was very awkward, for he was
a big dog.
Then along the passage to the entrance-hole.
They all felt quite pleased at the idea of going up into the sunshine again.
'Can't see any daylight shining down the
hole,' said Julian puzzled. 'It would be near here.'
He came up against a blank wall, and was
surprised. Where was the hole? Had they missed their way? Then he flashed his
torch above him and saw the hole there — but there was no daylight shining in!
'I say!' said Julian, in horror. 'I say!
What do you think's happened?'
'What?' asked everyone, in panic.
'The hole is closed!' said Julian.  Somebody's been along and put those planks across — and I bet they've
put the caravan over them, too. We can't get out!'
Everyone stared up at the closed entrance in
dismay. They were prisoners.
'Whatever are we to do?' said George.
'Julian — what are we going to do?'
CHAPTER NINETEEN
PRISONERS UNDERGROUND
Julian didn't answer. He was angry with
himself for not thinking that this might happen! Although Lou and Dan had been
seen getting on the bus with bags, they might easily not have been spending the
night away — the bags might contain things they wanted to sell — stolen goods
of some kind.
'They came back quickly — and came up the
hill, I suppose, to have another try at getting Nobby and Pongo back,' said
Julian, out loud.  Well
— I'll have a try at shifting these planks. I should be able to, with luck.'
He did his best, and did shift them to a
certain extent — but, as he feared, the caravan had been run back over the
hole, and even if he managed to shift some of the planks it was impossible to
make a way out.
'Perhaps Pongo can help,' he said suddenly.
He shouted loudly: 'Pongo! Pongo! Come and help!'
Everyone stood still, hoping that they would
hear Pongo chattering somewhere near, or scraping at the planks above. But
there was no sign or sound of Pongo.
Everyone called, but it was no use. Pongo
didn't come. What had happened to him? Poor Nobby felt very worried.
'I wish I knew what has happened,' he kept
saying. 'I feel as if something horrid has happened to poor old Pongo. Where
can he be?'
Pongo was not very far away.  He was quite unconscious, and could not hear the
frantic calls of the children at all. Poor Pongo!
What Julian had feared had actually
happened. Lou and Dan had come back up the hill, bringing money with them to
tempt Nobby and Pongo back. When they had got near to the hollow, they had
stood still and called loudly.
'Nobby! Nobby! We've come to make friends,
not to hurt you! We've got money for you. Be a sensible boy and come back to the
camp. Mr Gorgio is asking for you.'
When there had been no reply at all, the men
had gone nearer. Then they had seen Pongo and had stopped. The chimpanzee could
not get at them because he was tied up. He sat there snarling.
'Where have those kids gone?' asked Lou.
Then he saw that the caravan had been moved back a little, and he at once
guessed.
'They've found the way underground! The
interfering little brutes! See, they've moved one of the caravans off the hole.
What do we do now!'
'This first,' said Tiger Dan, in a brutal
voice, and he picked up an enormous stone. He threw it with all his force at
poor Pongo, who tried to leap out of the way. But the rope prevented him, and
the stone hit him full on the head.
He gave a loud scream and fell down at once,
lying quite still.
'You've gone and killed him,' said Lou.
'So much the better!' said Tiger Dan. 'Now
let's go and see if the entrance-hole is open. Those kids want their necks
wringing!'
They went to the hollow and saw at once that
the hole had been discovered, opened, and that the children must have gone down
it.
'They're down there now,' said Tiger Dan,
almost choking with rage. 'Shall we go down and deal with them — and get our
stuff and clear off? We meant to clear off tomorrow, anyway. We might as well
get the stuff out now.'
'What — in the daylight — with any of the
farm men about to see us!' said Lou with a sneer. 'Clever, aren't you?'
'Well, have you got a better idea?' asked
Tiger Dan.
'Why not follow our plan?' said Lou. 'Go
down when it's dark and collect the stuff. We can bring our wagon up as we
planned to do tonight. We don't need to bother about forcing the children to go
now — they're underground — and we can make them prisoners till we're ready to
clear off!'
'I see,' said Dan, and he grinned suddenly,
showing his ugly teeth.  We'll send a
card to Gorgio when we're safe and tell him to go up and set the kids free.'
'Why bother to do that?' said Lou, in a
cruel voice. 'Let 'em starve underground, the interfering little beasts. Serve
'em right.'
'Can't do that,' said Dan. 'Have the police
after us worse than ever. We'll have to chuck some food down the hole, to keep
them going till they're set free. No good starving them, Lou. There'd be an
awful outcry if we do anything like that.'
The two men carefully put back the boards
over the top of the hole and replaced the heather tufts. Then they ran the
caravan back over the place. They looked at Pongo. The chimpanzee was still
lying on his side, and the men could see what a nasty wound he had on his head.
'He ain't dead,' said Lou, and gave him a
kick. 'He'll come round all right. Better leave him here. He might come to
himself if we carried him back to camp, and fight us. He can't do us any harm
tonight, tied up like that.'
They went away down the track. Not ten
minutes afterwards the children came to the hole and found it blocked up! If
only they hadn't stopped to explore that tunnel a bit further, they would have
been able to get out and set Timmy on the two men.
But it was too late now. The hole was well
and truly closed. No one could get out. No one could find poor Pongo and bathe
his head. They were real prisoners.
They didn't like it at all. Anne began to
cry, though she tried not to let the others see her. Nobby saw that she was
upset, and put his arm round her.
'Don't cry, little Anne,' he said. 'We'll be
all right.'
'It's no good staying here,' said Julian, at
last. 'We might as well go somewhere more comfortable, and sit down and talk
and eat. I'm hungry.'
They all went back down the passage, up
through the hole in the roof, and into the enormous cavern. They found a sandy
corner and sat down. Julian handed Anne the kitbag and she undid it to get the
food inside.
'Better only have one torch going,' said
Julian. 'We don't know how long we'll be here. We don't want to be left in the
dark!'
Everybody immediately switched off their
torches. The idea of being lost in the dark inside the hill wasn't at all nice!
Anne handed out slices of bread and butter, and the children put thin slices of
Mrs Mackie's delicious ham on them.
They felt distinctly better when they had
all eaten a good meal. That was jolly good,' said Dick. 'No, we won't eat that
chocolate, Anne. We may want it later on. Golly, I'm thirsty!'
'So am I,' said Nobby. 'My tongue's hanging
out like old Timmy's. Let's go and get a drink.'
'Well, there was a stream in that other cave
beyond the tunnel, wasn't there?' said Dick. 'We can drink from that. It'll be
all right.'
'Well, I hope it will,' said Julian. 'We
were told not to drink water that wasn't boiled while we were caravanning — but
we didn't know this sort of thing was going to happen! We'll go through the
tunnel and get some water to drink from the stream.'
They made their way through the long,
winding tunnel, and passed the shelf of stolen goods. Then on they went and
came out into the cave through which the stream rushed so quickly. They dipped
in their hands and drank thirstily. The water tasted lovely — so clear and
cold.
Timmy drank too. He was puzzled at this
adventure, but so long as he was with George he was happy. If his mistress
suddenly took it into her head to live underground like a worm, that was all
right — so long as Timmy was with her!
'I wonder if this stream does go to that
hole in the hillside, and pours out there,' said Julian, suddenly. 'If it does,
and we could follow it, we might be able to squeeze out.'
'We'd get terribly wet,' said George, 'but
that wouldn't matter. Let's see if we can follow the water.'
They went to where the stream disappeared
into a tunnel rather like the dry one they had come along. Julian shone his
torch into it.
'We could wade along, I think,' he said. 'It
is very fast but not very deep. I know — I'll go along it myself and see where
it goes, and come back and tell you.'
'No,' said George, at once. 'If you go, we
all go. You might get separated from us. That would be awful.'
'All right,' said Julian. 'I thought there
was no sense in us all getting wet, that's all. Come on, we'll try now.'
One by one they waded into the stream. The
current tugged at their legs, for the water ran very fast. But it was only just
above their knees there. They waded along by the light of their torches,
wondering where the tunnel would lead to.
Timmy half-waded, half-swam. He didn't like
this water-business very much. It seemed silly to him. He pushed ahead of
Julian and then a little further down, jumped up to a ledge that ran beside the
water.
'Good idea, Tim,' said Julian, and he got up
on to it too. He had to crouch down rather as he walked because his head
touched the roof of the tunnel if he didn't — but at least his legs were out of
the icy-cold water! Ail the others did the same, and as long as the ledge ran
along beside the stream they all walked along it.
But at times it disappeared and then they
had to wade in the water again, which now suddenly got deeper. 'Gracious! It's
almost to my waist,' said Anne. 'I hope it doesn't get any deeper. I'm holding
my clothes up as high as I can, but they'll get soaked soon.'
Fortunately the water got no deeper, but it
seemed to go faster. 'We're going down hill a bit,' said Julian at last.
'Perhaps we are getting near to where it pours out of the hill.'
They were! Some distance ahead of him Julian
suddenly saw a dim light, and wondered whatever it could be. He soon knew! It
was daylight creeping in through the water that poured out of the hole in the
hillside — poured out in a torrent into the sunshine.
'We're almost there!' cried Julian. 'Come
on.'
With light hearts the children waded along
in the water. Now they would soon be out in the warm sunshine. They would find
Pongo, and race down the hill in the warmth, catch the first bus, and go to the
police station.
But nothing like that happened at all. To
their enormous disappointment the water got far too deep to wade through, and
Nobby stopped in fright. 'I dursent go no further,' he said. 'I'm almost off my
feet now with the water rushing by.'
'I am, too,' said Anne, frightened.
'Perhaps I can swim out,' said Julian, and
he struck out. But he gave it up in dismay, for the torrent of water was too
much for him, and he was afraid of being hurled against the rocky sides and
having his head cracked.
It's no good,' he said, gloomily. 'No good
at all. All that wading for nothing. It's far too dangerous to go any further —
and yet daylight is only a few yards ahead. It's too sickening for words.'
'We must go back,' said George. 'I'm afraid
Timmy will be drowned if we don't. Oh, dear — we must go all that way back!'
CHAPTER TWENTY
MORE EXCITEMENT
It was a very sad and disappointed little
company that made their way back to the cave. Along the tunnel they went,
painfully and slowly, for it was not so easy against the current. Julian
shivered; he was wet through with trying to swim.
At last they were back in the cave through
which the stream flowed so swiftly. 'Let's run round and round it to get warm,'
said Julian. 'I'm frozen. Dick, let me have one of your dry jerseys. I must
take off these wet ones.'
The children ran round and round the cave,
pretending to race one another, trying to get warm. They did get warm in the
end, and sank down in a heap on some soft sand in a corner, panting. They sat
there for a little while to get their breath.
Then they heard something. Timmy heard it
first and growled. 'Jumping Jiminy, what's up with Timmy?' said Nobby, in
fright. He was the most easily scared of the children, probably because of the
frights he had had the last few days.
They all listened, George with her hand on
Timmy's collar. He growled again, softly. The noise they all heard was a loud
panting coming from the stream over at the other side of the cave!
'Someone is wading up the stream,' whispered
Dick, in astonishment. 'Did they get in at the place where we couldn't get out?
They must have!'
'But who is it?' asked Julian. 'Can't be Lou
or Dan. They wouldn't come that way when they could come the right way. Sh!
Whoever it is, is arriving in the cave.
Darkness fell in the cave as the light from
Julian's torch was clicked off. They all sat and listened, and poor Nobby shook
and shivered. Timmy didn't growl any more, which was surprising. In fact, he
even wagged his tail!
There was a sneeze from the other end of the
cave — and then soft footsteps padded towards them. Anne felt as if she must
scream. WHO was it?
Julian switched on his torch suddenly, and
its light fell on a squat, hairy figure, halting in the bright glare. It was
Pongo!
'It's Pongo!' everyone yelled, and leapt up
at once. Timmy ran over to the surprised chimpanzee and sniffed round him in
delight. Pongo put his arms round Nobby and Anne.
'Pongo! You've escaped! You must have bitten
through your rope!' said Julian. 'How clever you are to find your way through
that hole where the stream pours out. How did you know you would find us here!
Clever Pongo.'
Then he saw the big wound on poor Pongo's
head. 'Oh look!' said Julian. 'He's been hurt! I expect those brutes threw a
stone at him. Poor old Pongo.'
'Let's bathe his head,' said Anne. 'I'll use
my hanky.'
But Pongo wouldn't let anyone touch his
wound, not even Nobby. He didn't snap or snarl at them, but simply held their
hands away from him, and refused to leave go. So nobody could bathe his head or
bind it up.
'Never mind,' said Nobby at last, 'animals'
wounds often heal up very quickly without any attention at all. He won't let us
touch it, that's certain. I expect Lou and Dan hit him with a stone, and
knocked him unconscious when they came.  Beasts!'
'I say,' suddenly said Dick. 'I say! I've
got an idea. I don't know if it will work — but it really is an idea.'
'What?' asked everyone, thrilled.
'Well — what about tying a letter round
Pongo's neck and sending him out of the hole again, to take the letter to the
camp?' said Dick. 'He won't go to Lou or Dan because he's scared of them — but
he'd go to any of the others all right, wouldn't he? Larry would be the best
one. He seems to be a good fellow.'
'Would Pongo understand enough to do all
that, though?' asked Julian, doubtfully.
'We could try him,' said Nobby. 'I do send
him here and there sometimes, just for fun — to take the elephant's bat to
Larry, for instance — or to put my coat away in my caravan.'
'Well, we could certainly try,' said Dick.
'I've got a notebook and a pencil. I'll write a note and wrap it up in another
sheet, pin it together and tie it round Pongo's neck with a bit of string.'
So he wrote a note. It said:
'To whoever gets this note — please come up
the hill to the hollow where there are two caravans. Under the red one is the
entrance to an underground passage. We are prisoners inside the hill. Please
rescue us soon.
Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Nobby.'
He read it out to the others. Then he tied
the note round Pongo's neck. Pongo was surprised, but fortunately did not try
to pull it off.
 So Nobby spoke slowly and importantly to the listening chimpanzee.
'Where's Larry? Go to Larry, Pongo. Fetch
Larry. Go. GO!'
Pongo blinked at him and made a funny little
noise as if he was saying: 'Please, Nobby, I don't want to go.'
Nobby repeated everything again. 'Understand
Pongo? I think you do. GO, then, GO. GO!'
And Pongo turned and went! He disappeared
into the stream, splashing along by himself. The children watched him as far as
they could by the light of their torches.
'He really is clever,' said Anne. 'He didn't
want to go a bit, did he? Oh, I do hope he finds Larry, and that Larry sees the
note and reads it and sends someone to rescue us.'
'I hope the note doesn't get all soaked and
pulpy in the water,' said Julian, rather gloomily. 'Gosh, I wish I wasn't so
cold. Let's run round a bit again, then have a piece of chocolate.'
They ran about and played 'He' for a time
till they all felt warm again. Then they decided to sit down and have some
chocolate, and play some sort of guessing game to while away the time. Timmy
sat close to Julian, and the boy was very glad.
'He's like a big hot-water bottle,' he said.
'Sit closer, Tim. That's right. You'll soon warm me up!'
It was dull after a time, sitting in the
light of one torch, for they dared not use them all. Already it seemed as if
Julian's torch was getting a little dim. They played all the games they could
think of and then yawned.
'What's the time? I suppose it must be
getting dark outside now. I feel quite sleepy.'
'It's nine o'clock almost,' said Julian. 'I
hope Pongo has got down to the camp all right and found someone. We could
expect help quite soon, if so.'
'Well, then, we'd better get along to the
passage that leads to the hole,' said Dick, getting up. 'It's quite likely that
if Larry or anyone else comes they'll not see the footholds leading up the wall
out of that first little cave. They might not know where we were!'
This seemed very likely. They all made their
way down the tunnel that led past the hidden store of valuables, and came out
into the enormous cave. There was a nice sandy corner just by the hole that led
down into the first small cave, and the children decided to sit there, rather
than in the passage or in the first rocky and uncomfortable little cave. They
cuddled up together for warmth, and felt hungry.
Anne and Nobby dozed off to sleep. George
almost fell asleep, too. But the boys and Timmy kept awake, and talked in low
voices. At least, Timmy didn't talk, but wagged his tail whenever either Dick
or Julian said anything. That was his way of joining in their conversation.
After what seemed a long while Timmy
growled, and the two boys sat up straight. Whatever it was that Timmy's sharp
ears had heard, they had heard nothing at all. And they continued to hear
nothing. But Timmy went on growling.
Julian shook the others awake. 'I believe
help has come,' he said. 'But we'd better not go and see in case it's Dan and
Lou come back. So wake up and look lively!'
They were all wide awake at once. Was it
Larry come in answer to their note — or was it those horrid men, Tiger Dan and
Lou the acrobat?
They soon knew!  Timmy growled ferociously and
struggled to fly at the head, but George held on firmly to his collar, thinking
it might be Larry.
But it wasn't! It was Lou the acrobat, as
the children knew only too well when they heard his voice. Julian shone his
torch on to him.
'I hope you've enjoyed your little selves,'
came Lou's harsh voice. 'And you keep that dog under control, boy, or I'll
shoot him. See?  Have a
look at this here gun!'
To George's horror she saw that Lou was
pointing a gun at poor Timmy.   I'll — I'll — I'll . . .'
She couldn't think of anything bad enough to
do to the man who could shoot Timmy, and she stopped, choked by tears of rage
and fear. Timmy, not knowing what the gun was, couldn't for the life of him
understand why George wouldn't let him get at his enemy — such a nice position,
too, with his head poking through a hole like that. Timmy felt he could deal
with that head very quickly.
'Now, you kids, get up and go into that
tunnel,' said Lou. 'Go on — go right ahead of me, and don't dare to stop. We've
got work to do here tonight, and we're not going to have any more interference
from kids like you. See?'
The children saw quite well. They began to
walk towards the entrance of the tunnel. One by one they climbed into it.
George first with Timmy. She dared not let his collar go for an instant. A few
paces behind them came Lou with his revolver, and Dan with a couple of big
sacks.
The children were made to walk right past
the shelf on which were the hidden goods.
Then Lou sat down in the tunnel, his torch
switched on fully so that he could pick out each child. He still pointed his
revolver at Timmy.
'Now we'll get on,' he said to Tiger Dan.
'You know what to do. Get on with it.'
Tiger Dan began to stuff the things into one
of the big sacks he had brought. He staggered off with it. He came back in
about ten minutes and filled the other sack. It was plain that the men meant to
take everything away this time.
'Thought you'd made a very fine discovery,
didn't you?' said Lou, mockingly, to the children. 'Ho, yes — very smart you
were!
'Surely you wouldn't leave us here to starve?'
'Not to starve. We're too fond of you,'
grinned Lou. 'We'll chuck you down some food into the tunnel. And in two or
three days maybe someone will come and rescue you.'
Julian wished desperately that Pongo would
bring help before Lou and Dan finished their business in the tunnel and went,
leaving them prisoners. He watched Tiger Dan, working quickly, packing
everything, carrying it off, coming back again, and packing feverishly once
more. Lou sat still with his torch and revolver, enjoying the scared faces of
the girls and Nobby. Julian and Dick put on a brave show which they were far
from feeling.
Tiger Dan staggered away with another
sackful. But he hadn't been gone for more than half a minute before a wail
echoed through the tunnel.
'Lou! Help! Help! Something's attacking me!
HELP.'
Lou rose up and went swiftly down the tunnel.
'It's Pongo, I bet it's old Pongo,' said Julian thrilled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
DICK HAS A GREAT IDEA!
'Listen,' said Dick, in an urgent voice. 'It
may be Pongo by himself — he may not have gone back to the camp at all — he may
have wandered about and at last gone down the entrance-hole by the caravans,
and come up behind Tiger Dan. If so he won't have much chance because Lou's got
a gun and will shoot him. And we shan't be rescued. So I'm going to slip down
the tunnel while there's a chance and hide in the big cave.'
'What good will that do?' said Julian.
'Well, idiot, I may be able to slip down
into the passage that leads to the entrance-hole and hop out without the others
seeing me,' said Dick, getting up. 'Then I can fetch help, see? You'd better
all clear off somewhere and hide — find a good place, Julian, in case the men
come after you when they find one of us is gone. Go on.'
Without another word the boy began to walk
down the tunnel, past the rocky shelf on which now very few goods were left,
and then came to the enormous cave.
Here there was a great noise going on, for
Pongo appeared to have got hold of both men at once! Their torches were out,
and Lou did not dare to shoot for fear of hurting Dan. Dick could see very
little of this; he could only hear snarlings and shouting. He took a wide
course round the heaving heap on the floor and made his way as quickly as he
could in the dark to where he thought the hole was that led down into the first
passage. He had to go carefully for fear of falling down it. He found it at
last and let himself down into the cave below, and then, thinking it safe to
switch on his torch in the passage he flashed it in front of him to show him
the way.
It wasn't long before he was out of the hole
and was speeding round the caravans. Then he stopped. A thought struck him. He
could fetch help all right — but the men would be gone by then! They had laid
their plans for a getaway with all the goods; there was no doubt about that.
Suppose he put the boards over the hole,
ramming them in with all his strength, and then rolled some heavy stones on
top? He couldn't move the caravan over the boards, for it was far too heavy for
a boy to push. But heavy stones would probably do the trick. The men would
imagine that it was the caravan overhead again!
In great excitement Dick put back the
boards, lugging them into place, panting and puffing. Then he flashed his torch
round for stones. There were several small rocks nearby. He could not lift
them, but he managed to roll them to the boards. Plonk! They went on to them
one by one. Now nobody could move the boards at all.
'I know I've shut the others in with the
men,' thought Dick. 'But I hope Julian will find a very safe hiding-place just
for a time. Gosh, I'm hot! Now, down the hill I go — and I hope I don't lose my
way in the darkness!'
Down below, the two men had at last freed
themselves from the angry chimpanzee. They were badly bitten and mauled, but
Pongo was not as strong and savage as usual because of his bad head-wound. The
men were able to drive him off at last, and he went limping in the direction of
the tunnel, sniffing out the children.
He would certainly have been shot if Lou
could have found his revolver quickly enough. But he could not find it in the
dark. He felt about for his torch, and found that although it was damaged, he
could still put on the light by knocking it once or twice on the ground. He
shone it on to Dan.
'We ought to have looked out for that ape
when we saw he was gone,' growled Dan. 'He had bitten his rope through. We
might have known he was somewhere about. He nearly did for me, leaping on me
like that out of the darkness. It was lucky he flung himself on to my sack and
not me.'
'Let's get the last of the things and clear
out,' said Lou, who was badly shaken up. 'There's only one more load. We'll get
back to the tunnel, scare the life out of those kids once more, shoot Pongo if
we can, and then clear out. We'll chuck a few tins of food down the hole and
then close it up.'
'I'm not going to risk meeting that chimp
again,' said Dan. 'We'll leave the rest of the things. Come on. Let's go.'
Lou was not particularly anxious to see
Pongo again either. Keeping his torch carefully switched on and his revolver
ready, he followed Dan to the hole that led down to the first cave. Down they
went, and then along the passage, eager to get out into the night and go with
their wagon down the track.
They got a terrible shock when they found
that the hole was closed. Lou shone his torch upwards, and gazed in amazement
at the underside of the boards. Someone had put them back into place again.
They were prisoners now!
Tiger Dan went mad.  But the
heavy stones held them down, and the raging man dropped down beside Lou.
'Can't budge the boards! Someone must have
put the caravan overhead again. We're prisoners!'
'But who's made us prisoners? Who's put back
those boards?' shouted Lou, almost beside himself with fury. 'Could those kids
have slipped by us when we were having that fight with the chimp?'
'We'll go and see if the kids are still
there,' said Tiger Dan, grimly. 'We'll find out. We'll make them very, very
sorry for themselves. Come on.'
The two men went back again to the tunnel.
The children were not there. Julian had taken Dick's advice and had gone off to
try and find a good hiding-place. He had suddenly thought that perhaps Dick
might get the idea of shutting up the entrance-hole — in which case the two men
would certainly be furious!
So up the tunnel the children went, and into
the cave with the stream. It seemed impossible to find any hiding-place there
at all.
'I don't see where we can hide,' said
Julian, feeling rather desperate. 'It's no good wading down that stream again —
we shall only get wet and cold — and we have no escape from there at all if the
men should come after us!'
'I can hear something,' said George,
suddenly. 'Put your light out, Julian — quick!'
The torch was snapped off, and the children
waited in the darkness. Timmy didn't growl. Instead George felt that he was
wagging his tail.
'It's someone friendly,' she whispered.
'Over there. Perhaps it's Pongo. Put the torch on again.'
The light flashed out, and picked out the
chimpanzee, who was coming towards them across the cave. Nobby gave a cry of
joy.
'Here's old Pongo again!' he said. 'Pongo,
did you go to the camp? Did you bring help?'
'No — he hasn't been down to the camp,' said
Julian, his eyes catching sight of the note still tied round the chimpanzee's
neck. There's our letter still on him. Blow!'
'He's clever — but not clever enough to
understand a difficult errand like that,' said George.
'Oh, Pongo — and we were depending on you!
Never mind — perhaps Dick will escape and bring help. Julian, where shall we
hide?'
'Up the stream?' suddenly said Anne. 'We've
tried going down it. But we haven't tried going up it. Do you think it would be
any good?'
'We could see,' said Julian, doubtfully. He
didn't like this business of wading through water that might suddenly get deep.
'I'll shine my torch up the stream and see what it looks like.'
He went to the stream and shone his light up
the tunnel from which it came. 'It seems as if we might walk along the ledge
beside it,' he said. 'But we'd have to bend almost double — and the water runs
so fast just here we must be careful not to slip and fall in.'
'I'll go first,' said Nobby. 'You go last,
Julian. The girls can go in the middle with Pongo and Timmy.'
He stepped on to the narrow ledge inside the
rocky tunnel, just above the rushing water. Then came Pongo. Then Anne, then
George and Timmy — and last of all Julian.
But just as Julian was disappearing, the two
men came into the cave, and by chance Lou's torch shone right on to the
vanishing Julian. He gave a yell.
'There's one of them — look, over there!
Come on!'
The men ran to where the stream came out of
the tunnel, and Lou shone his torch up it. He saw the line of children, with
Julian last of all. He grabbed hold of the boy and pulled him back.
Anne yelled when she saw Julian being pulled
back. Nobby had a dreadful shock. Timmy growled ferociously, and Pongo made a
most peculiar noise.
'Now look here,' came Lou's voice, 'I've got
a gun, and I'm going to shoot that dog and that chimp if they so much as put
their noses out of here. So hang on to them if you want to save their lives!'
He passed Julian to Tiger Dan, who gripped
the boy firmly by the collar. Lou shone his torch up the tunnel again to count
the children. 'Ho, there's Nobby,' he said. 'You come on out here, Nobby.'
'If I do, the chimp will come out too,' said
Nobby. 'You know that. And he may get you before you get him!'
Lou thought about that. He was afraid of the
big chimpanzee. 'You stay up there with him, then,' he said. 'And the girl can
stay with you, holding the dog. But the other boy can come out here.'
He thought that George was a boy. George
didn't mind. She liked people to think she was a boy. She answered at once.
'I can't come.
'I'm going to show you two boys what happens to kids who keep spying and
interfering.  He's had his lesson.

Dan called to him. There ought to be another
girl there, Lou. I thought Nobby said there were two boys and two girls.
Where's the other girl?'
'Gone further up the tunnel, I suppose,'
said Lou, trying to see. 'Now, you boy — come on out!'
Anne began to cry. 'Don't go, George; don't
go. They'll hurt you.
'Shut up,' said George, fiercely. She added,
in a whisper: 'If I say I'm a girl they'll know Dick is missing, and will be
all the angrier. Hang on to Timmy.'
Anne clutched Timmy's collar in her
trembling hand. George began to walk back to the cave. But Julian was not going
to let George be hurt. She might like to think of herself as a boy, but he
wasn't going to let her be treated like one. He began to struggle.
Lou caught hold of George as she came out of
the tunnel — and at the same moment Julian managed to kick high in the air, and
knocked Lou's torch right out of his hand. It flew up into the roof of the cave
and fell somewhere with a crash. It went out. Now the cave was in darkness.
'Get back into the tunnel, George, with
Anne,' yelled Julian. 'Timmy, Timmy, come on! Pongo, come here!'
'I don't want Timmy to be shot!' cried out
George, in terror, as the dog shot past her into the cave.
Even as she spoke a shot rang out. It was
Lou, shooting blindly at where he thought Timmy was. George screamed.
'Oh, Timmy, Timmy! You're not hurt, are
you?'
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
THE END OF THE ADVENTURE
No, Timmy wasn't hurt. The bullet zipped
past his head and struck the wall of the cave. Timmy went for Lou's legs. Down
went the man with a crash and a yell, and the revolver flew out of his hand.
Julian heard it slithering across the floor of the cave, and he was very
thankful.
'Put on your torch, George, quickly!' he
yelled. 'We must see what we're doing. Goodness, here's Pongo now!'
Tiger Dan gave a yell of fright when the
torch flashed on and he saw the chimpanzee making straight for him.  Lou was trying to keep Timmy off his throat, kicking frantically at the
excited dog.
Dan ran to the tunnel — and then stopped in
astonishment. Four burly policemen were pushing their way out of the tunnel,
led by Dick! One of them carried a revolver in his hand. Dan put his hands up
at once.
'Timmy! Come off!' commanded George, seeing
that there was now no need for the dog's delighted help. Timmy gave her a
reproachful glance that said: 'Mistress! I'm really enjoying myself! Let me eat
him all up!'
Then the dog caught sight of the four
policemen and yelped furiously. More enemies! He would eat the lot.
'What's all this going on?' said the first
man, who was an Inspector. 'Get up, you on the floor. Go on, get up!'
Lou got up with great difficulty. Timmy had
nipped him in various places. His hair was over his eyes, his clothes were
torn. He stared at the policemen, his mouth open in the utmost surprise. How
had they come here? Then he saw Dick.
 'I might have guessed. You . . .'
'Hold your tongue, Lewis Allburg,' rapped
out the Inspector. 'You can talk when we tell you. You'll have quite a lot of
talking to do, to explain some of the things we've heard about you.'
'Dick! How did you get here so soon?' cried
Julian, going over to his brother. 'I didn't expect you for hours! Surely you
didn't go all the way to the town and back?'
'No. I shot off to the farm, woke up the
Mackies, used their telephone and got the police up here double-quick in their
car,' said Dick, grinning. 'Everyone all right? Where's Anne? And Nobby?'
'There they are — just coming out of the
tunnel, upstream,' said Julian, and swung his torch round. Dick saw Anne's
white, scared face, and went over to her.
'It's all right,' he said. 'The adventure is
over, Anne! You can smile again!'
Anne gave a watery sort of smile. Pongo took
her hand and made little affectionate noises, and that made her smile a little
more. George called Timmy to her, afraid that he might take a last nip at Lou.
Lou swung round and stared at her. Then he
looked at Dick and Julian. Then at Anne.
'So there was only one girl!' he said. 'What
did you want to tell me there were two boys and two girls for?' he said to
Nobby.
'Because there were,' answered Nobby. He
pointed to George. 'She's a girl, though she looks like a boy. And she's as
good as a boy any day.'
George felt proud. She stared defiantly at
Lou. He was now in the grip of a stout policeman, and Tiger Dan was being
hustled off by two more.
'I think we'll leave this rather gloomy
place,' said the Inspector, putting away the notebook he had been hastily
scribbling in. 'Quick march!'
Julian led the way down the tunnel. He
pointed out the shelf where the men had stored their things, and the Inspector
collected the few things that were still left. Then on they went, Tiger Dan
muttering and growling to himself.
'Will they go to prison?' whispered Anne to
Dick.
'You bet,' said Dick. That's where they
ought to have gone long ago. Their burglaries have been worrying the police for
four years!'
Out of the tunnel and into the cave with
gleaming walls. Then down the hole and into the small cave and along the narrow
passage to the entrance-hole. Stars glittered over the black hole, and the
children were very thankful to see them. They were tired of being underground!
Lou and Dan did not have a very comfortable
journey along the tunnels and passages, for their guards had a very firm hold
of them indeed. Once out in the open they were handcuffed and put into the
large police car that stood a little way down the track.
'What are you children going to do?' asked
the big Inspector, who was now at the wheel of the car. 'Hadn't you better come
down into the town with us after this disturbing adventure?'
'Oh, no, thanks,' said Julian politely.
'We're quite used to adventures. We've had plenty, you know. We shall be all
right here with Timmy and Pongo.'
'Well, I can't say I'd like a chimpanzee for
company myself,' said the Inspector. 'We'll be up here in the morning, looking
round and asking a few questions, which I'm sure you'll be pleased to answer.
And many thanks for your help in capturing two dangerous thieves!'
'What about the wagon of goods?' asked Dick.
'Are you going to leave it up here? It's got lots of valuables in it.'
'Oh, one of the men is driving it down,'
said the Inspector, nodding towards a policeman, who stood near by. 'He'll
follow us. He can drive a horse all right. Well, look after yourselves. See you
tomorrow!'
The car started up suddenly. The Inspector
put her into gear, took off the brake and the car slid quietly down the hill,
following the winding track. The policeman with the wagon followed slowly,
clicking to the horse, which didn't seem at all surprised to have a new driver.
'Well, that's that!' said Julian thankfully.
'I must say we were well out of that. Gosh, Dick, I was glad to see you back
with those bobbies so quickly. That was a brain wave of yours to telephone from
the farm.'
Dick suddenly yawned. 'It must be frightfully
late!' he said. 'Long past the middle of the night. But I'm so fearfully hungry
that I simply must have something to eat before I fall into my bunk!'
'Got anything, Anne?' asked Julian.
Anne brightened up at once. 'I'll see,' she
said. 'I can find something, I'm sure!'
And she did, of course. She opened two tins
of sardines and made sandwiches, and she opened two tins of peaches, so they
had a very nice meal in the middle of the night! They ate it sitting on the
floor of George's caravan. Pongo had as good a meal as anyone, and Timmy
crunched at one of his bones.
It didn't take them long to go to sleep that
night. In fact they were all so sleepy when they had finished their meal that
nobody undressed! They clambered into the bunks just as they were and fell
asleep at once. Nobby curled up with Pongo, and Timmy, as usual, was on
George's feet. Peace reigned in the caravans — and tonight no one came to
disturb them!
All the children slept very late the next
morning. They were awakened by a loud knocking on Julian's caravan. He woke up
with a jump and yelled out:
'Yes! Who is it?'
'It's us,' said a familiar voice, and the
door opened. Farmer Mackie and his wife peeped in, looking rather anxious.
'We wondered what had happened,' said the
farmer.  He pushed it back. 'But I
forgot. The police went down into the hills with us and got the two men.
They're well-known burglars. The police got all the goods, too. It was a very
thrilling night. Thanks most awfully for letting me use the 'phone.'
'You're very welcome,' said Mrs Mackie. 'And
look — I've brought you some food.'
She had two baskets stacked with good
things. Dick felt wide awake and very hungry when he saw them. 'Oh, thanks,' he
said gratefully. 'You are a good sort!'
Nobby and Pongo suddenly uncurled themselves
from their pile of rugs, and Mrs Mackie gave a squeal.
'Land-snakes, what's that? A monkey?'
'No, an ape, Mam,' said Nobby politely. 'He
won't hurt you. Hi, take your hand out of that basket!'
Pongo, who had been hoping to find a little
titbit unnoticed, covered his face with his hairy paw and looked through his
fingers at Mrs Mackie.
'Look at that now — he's like a naughty
child!' said Mrs Mackie. 'Isn't he, Ted?'
'He is that,' said the farmer. 'Queer sort
of bedfellow, I must say!'
'Well, I must be getting along,' said Mrs
Mackie, nodding and smiling at George and Anne, who had now come out of their
caravan with Timmy to see who the visitors were. 'You come along to the farm if
you want anything. We'll be right pleased to see you.'
'Aren't they nice?' said Anne as the two
farm-folk went down the cart-track. 'And oh, my goodness — what a breakfast
we're going to have! Cold bacon — tomatoes — fresh radishes — curly lettuces —
and who wants new honey?'
'Marvellous!' said Julian. 'Come on — let us
have it now, before we clean up.'
But Anne made them wash and tidy themselves
first! 'You'll enjoy it much more if you're clean,' she said. 'We all look as
black as sweeps! I'll give you five minutes — then you can come to a perfectly
wonderful breakfast!'
'All right, Ma!' grinned Nobby, and he went
off with the others to wash at the spring. Then back they all went to the sunny
ledge to feast on the good things kind Mrs Mackie had provided.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
GOOD-BYE, NOBBY — GOOD-BYE, CARAVANNERS!
 There was one
sharp-eyed policeman with him to take down notes.
'Hallo, hallo!' said the Inspector, eyeing
the good things set out on the ledge. 'You seem to do yourselves well, I must
say!'
'Have some new bread and honey?' said Anne
in her best manner. 'Do! There's plenty!'
'Thanks,' said the Inspector, and sat down
with the children. The other policeman wandered round the caravans, examining
everything. The Inspector munched away at honey and bread, and the children
talked to him, telling him all about their extraordinary adventure.
'It must have been a most unpleasant shock
for those two fellows when they found that your caravan was immediately over
the entrance to the place where they hid their stolen goods,' said the
Inspector. 'Most unpleasant.'
'Have you examined the goods?' asked Dick
eagerly. 'Are they very valuable?'
'Priceless,' answered the Inspector, taking
another bit of bread and dabbing it thickly with honey. 'Quite priceless. Those
rogues apparently stole goods they knew to be of great value, hid them here for
a year or two till the hue and cry had died down, then got them out and quietly
disposed of them to friends in Holland and Belgium.'
'Tiger Dan used to act in circuses in
Holland,' said Nobby. 'He often told me about them. He had friends all over
Europe — people in the circus line, you know.'
'Yes. It was easy for him to dispose of his
goods abroad,' said the Inspector. 'He planned to go across to Holland today,
you know — got everything ready with Lou — or, to give him the right name,
Lewis Allburg — and was going to sell most of those things. You just saved them
in time!'
'What a bit of luck!' said George. They
almost got away with it. If Dick hadn't managed to slip out when Pongo was
attacking them, we'd still have been prisoners down in the hill, and Lou and
Dan would have been half-way to Holland!'
'Smart bit of work you children did,' said
the Inspector approvingly, and looked longingly at the honey-pot. That's fine
honey, I must buy some from Mrs Mackie.'
'Have some more,' said Anne, remembering her
manners. 'Do. We've got another loaf.'
'Well, I will,' said the Inspector, and took
another slice of bread, spreading it with the yellow honey. It looked as if
there wouldn't even be enough left for Pongo to lick out! Anne thought it was
nice to see a grown-up enjoying bread and honey as much as children did.
'You know, that fellow Lou did some very
remarkable burglaries,' said the Inspector. 'Once he got across from the third
floor of one house to the third floor of another across the street — and nobody
knows how!'
'That would be easy for Lou,' said Nobby,
suddenly losing his fear of the big Inspector. 'He'd just throw a wire rope
across, lasso something with the end of it, top of a gutter-pipe, perhaps, draw
tight, and walk across! He's wonderful on the tight-rope. There ain't nothing
he can't do on the tight-rope.'
'Yes — that's probably what he did,' said
the Inspector. 'Never thought of that! No, thanks, I really won't have any more
honey.
Pongo took away the jar, sat himself down
behind one of the caravans, and put a large pink tongue into the remains of the
honey. When Timmy came running up to see what he had got, Pongo held the jar
high above his head and chattered at him.
'Yarra-yarra-yarra-yarra!' he said. Timmy
looked rather surprised and went back to George. She was listening with great
interest to what the Inspector had to tell them about the underground caves.
They're very old,' he said. The entrance to
them used to be some way down the hill, but there was a landslide and it was
blocked up. Nobody bothered to unblock it because the caves were not
particularly interesting.'
'Oh, but they are,' said Anne, 'especially
the one with the gleaming walls.'
'Well, I imagine that quite by accident one
day Dan and Lou found another way in,' said the Inspector. The way you know — a
hole going down into the hill. They must have thought what a fine hiding-place
it would make for any stolen goods — perfectly safe, perfectly dry, and quite
near the camping-place here each year. What could be better?'
'And I suppose they would have gone on
burgling for years and hiding the stuff if we hadn't just happened to put our
caravan over the very spot!' said Julian. 'What a bit of bad luck for them!'
'And what a bit of good luck for us!' said
the Inspector. 'We did suspect those two, you know, and once or twice we raided
the circus to try and find the goods — but they must always have got warning of
our coming and got them away in time — up here!'
'Have you been down to the camp, mister?'
asked Nobby suddenly.
The Inspector nodded. 'Oh, yes. We've been
down already this morning — seen everyone and questioned them. We created quite
a stir.'
Nobby looked gloomy.
'What's the matter, Nobby?' said Anne.
'I shan't half cop it when I get back to the
camp,' said Nobby. They'll say it's all my fault the coppers going there. We
don't like the bobbies round the camp. I shall get into a whole lot of trouble
when I go back. I don't want to go back.'
Nobody said anything.
Then Anne asked him: 'Who will you live with
now in the camp. Nobby?'
'Oh, somebody will take me in and work me
hard,' said Nobby. 'I wouldn't mind if I could be with the horses — but Rossy
won't let me. I know that. If I could be with horses I'd be happy. I love them
and they understand me all right.'
'How old are you, Nobby?' asked the
Inspector, joining in the talk.
'I'm just over fourteen, so I reckon I never will go now!'
He grinned. He didn't look fourteen. He
seemed more like twelve by his size. Then he looked solemn again.
'Reckon I won't go down to the camp today,'
he said. 'I'll be proper set on by them all — about you going there and
snooping round like. And Mr Gorgio, he won't like losing his best clown and
best acrobat!'
'You can stay with us as long as you like,'
said Julian. 'We'll be here a bit longer, anyway.'
But he was wrong. Just after the Inspector
had left, taking his policeman with him, Mrs Mackie came hurrying up to them
with a little orange envelope in her hand.
'The telegraph boy's just been up,' she
said. 'He was looking for you. He left this telegram for you. I hope it's not
bad news.'
Julian tore the envelope open and read the
telegram out loud.
 THEY SOUND DANGEROUS. COME HOME AT ONCE.
DADDY.'
'Oh dear,' said Anne. 'Now we shall have to
leave. What a pity!'
'I'd better go down to the town and telephone
Daddy and tell him we're all right,' said Julian.
'You can 'phone from my house,' said Mrs
Mackie, so Julian thought he would. They talked as they went along and suddenly
a bright idea struck Julian.
'I say — I suppose Farmer Mackie doesn't
want anyone to help him with his horses, does he?' he asked. 'He wouldn't want
a boy who really loves and understands them and would work hard and well?'
'Well, now, I dare say he would,' said Mrs
Mackie. 'He's a bit short-handed now. He was saying the other day he could do
with a good lad, just leaving school.'
'Oh, do you think he'd try our friend Nobby
from the circus camp?' said Julian. 'He's mad on horses. He can do anything
with them. And he's been used to working very hard. I'm sure he'd do well.'
Before Julian had left the farmhouse after
telephoning to his amazed parents, he had had a long talk with Farmer Mackie —
and now he was running back with the good news to the caravans.
'Nobby!' he shouted as he got near. 'Nobby!
How would you like to go and work for Farmer Mackie and help with the horses?
He says you can start tomorrow if you like — and live at the farm!'
'Jumping Jiminy!' said Nobby, looking
startled and disbelieving. 'At the farm? Work with the horses? Coo — I wouldn't
half like that. But Farmer Mackie wouldn't have the likes of me.'
'He will. He says he'll try you,' said
Julian. 'We've got to start back home tomorrow, and you can be with us till
then. You don't need to go back to the camp at all.'
'Well — but what about Growler?' said Nobby.
'I'd have to have him with me. He's my dog. I expect poor old Barker's dead.
Would the farmer mind me having a dog?'
'I shouldn't think so,' said Julian. 'Well,
you'll have to go down to the camp, I suppose, to collect your few things — and
to get Growler. Better go now, Nobby, and then you'll have the rest of the day
with us.'
Nobby went off, his face shining with
delight. 'Well, I never!' he kept saying to himself. 'Well, I never did! Dan
and Lou gone, so they'll never hurt me again — and me not going to live in the
camp any more — and going to have charge of them fine farm horses. Well, I
never!'
The children had said good-bye to Pongo
because he had to go back with Nobby to the camp. He belonged to Mr Gorgio, and
Nobby could not possibly keep him. Anyway, it was certain that even if he could
have kept him, Mrs Mackie wouldn't have let him live at the farm.
Pongo shook hands gravely with each one of
them, even with Timmy. He seemed to know it was good-bye. The children were
really sorry to see the comical chimpanzee go. He had shared in their adventure
with them and seemed much more like a human being than an animal.
When he had gone down the hill a little way
he ran back to Anne. He put his arms round her and gave her a gentle squeeze,
as if to say: 'You're all nice, the lot of you, but little Anne's the nicest!'
'Oh, Pongo, you're really a dear!' said
Anne, and gave him a tomato. He ran off with it, leaping high for joy.
The children cleared up everything, put the
breakfast things away, and cleaned the caravans, ready for starting off the
next day. At dinner-time they looked out for Nobby. Surely he should be back
soon?
They heard him whistling as he came up the track.
He carried a bundle on his back. Round his feet ran two dogs. Two!
'Why — one of them is Barker!' shouted
George in delight. 'He must have got better! How simply marvellous!'
Nobby came up, grinning. They all crowded
round him, asking about Barker.
'Yes, it's fine, isn't it?' said Nobby,
putting down his bundle of belongings. 'Lucilla dosed him all right. He almost
died — then he started to wriggle a bit, she said, and the next she knew he was
as lively as could be — bit weak on his legs at first — but he's fine this
morning.'
Certainly there didn't seem anything wrong
with Barker. He and Growler sniffed round Timmy, their tails wagging fast.
Timmy stood towering above them, but his tail wagged, too, so Barker and
Growler knew he was friendly.
'I was lucky,' said Nobby. 'I only spoke to
Lucilla and Larry. Mr Gorgio has gone off to answer some questions at the
police station, and so have some of the others. So I just told Larry to tell Mr
Gorgio I was leaving, and I got my things and hopped it.'
'Well, now we can really enjoy our last
day,' said Julian. 'Everybody's happy!'
And they did enjoy that last day. They went
down to the lake and bathed. They had a fine farmhouse tea at Mrs Mackie's, by
special invitation. They had a picnic supper on the rocky ledge, with the three
dogs rolling over and over in play. Nobby felt sad to think he would so soon
say good-bye to his 'posh' friends — but he couldn't help feeling proud and
pleased to have a fine job of his own on the farm — with the horses he loved so
much.
Nobby, Barker, Growler, Farmer Mackie and
his wife all stood on the cart-track to wave good-bye to the two caravans the
next morning.
'Good-bye!' yelled Nobby. 'Good luck!  'Give our
love to Pongo when you see him.'
'Woof! woof!' barked Timmy, but only Barker
and Growler knew what that meant. It meant, 'Shake paws with Pongo for me!'
Good-bye, five caravanners . . . till your next
exciting adventure!