They stared at it in despair. To come so far and then to be stopped by a door! It was too bad. Jack shone his torch all over the door, from top to bottom.
Lucy-Ann"s sharp eyes noticed something. "See that iron stud?" she said, pointing. "It"s much brighter than the others. I wonder why."
Jack shone his torch on it and saw that it was slightly bigger than the others - and also, as Lucy-Ann said, it was brighter, as if it had had some handling.
He pressed it. Nothing happened. He banged on it with a stone. No result at all.
"Let me try," said Philip, and pushed Jack aside. "Shine your torch on it closely. That"s right."
Philip took hold of the iron stud and shook it. It seemed to give a little. He shook it again. Nothing happened. Then he thought of twisting it.
It twisted round very easily indeed. There was a loud click - and the door swung slowly open. Jack switched off his torch, afraid that anyone in the cave might see them - though if anyone had been there surely they would have heard the bangs and kicks at the door.
The door now stood wide open. A dim light shone beyond, showing another cave. Lucy-Ann clutched Jack"s arm in fright.
"It"s full of people," she whispered. "Look!"
Chapter 22.
THE TREASURE AT LAST!.
THE four children stared breathlessly through the open door. They saw something that made them feel very creepy.
In the dim light figures stood about all over the place. Their eyes gleamed queerly, and their teeth shone in the half darkness. Their arms and necks flashed and glittered with jewels.
The children clutched one another in fright. Who were these strange, silent folk, standing about with gleaming eyes, covered with jewels?
The people in the cave did not move. They did not speak a word either. Not one of them was sitting. All were standing. They stood there, some turned towards the frightened children, some turned away. Why didn"t they speak? Why didn"t they point to the children and say, "Look - who"s there?"
Lucy-Ann began to sob. "Let"s go back. I don"t like them. They"re not alive. Only their eyes are."
Kiki suddenly gave a squawk, left Jack"s shoulder, and flew to the shoulder of one of the near-by figures, a woman dressed in clothes that glowed richly in the half-light of the cave.
Still the woman did not move. How strange! The children suddenly felt much better when they saw that Kiki did not seem in the least afraid of the queer company.
"Polly put the kettle on," said Kiki, and pecked at the hair of the woman he was sitting on.
The children held their breath again. What would the woman do to Kiki - enchant him with her strange eyes, cast a spell on him and turn him into stone? Perhaps all these people had been turned into stone?
"Let"s go back," said Lucy-Ann urgently. "I don"t like this cave. I don"t like these people, or their horrid gleaming eyes."
Jack suddenly stepped down the step that was below the great open door. He marched boldly into the silent cave. Lucy-Ann squealed and tried to catch his sleeve.
Jack walked right up to the woman on whose shoulder Kiki sat. He peered closely at her. He looked into her wide-open glittering eyes. He touched her hair. Then he turned to the horrified children.
"What do you think? She"s a statue - all dressed up beautifully - with real hair - and jewels for eyes! What do you think of that?"
The others could not believe it - but they were very thankful to hear Jack"s words, and to see him wandering among the crowd of still figures, apparently quite unharmed.
Philip and Dinah stepped down into the cave of figures too, but Lucy-Ann still did not quite dare to. She watched the others looking at the strange, beautiful statues, and tried to make herself join them.
At last she screwed up her courage to step down into the cave. She looked fearfully at the woman on whose shoulder Kiki had flown. Yes - Jack was right. She was nothing but a beautiful statue, with a finely-moulded face and a cloud of dark hair. She had magnificent jewels for eyes, and her glittering teeth were exquisite jewels too. Round her neck were golden chains, set with precious stones, and her waxen fingers gleamed with rings. Round her waist was the most beautiful belt that Lucy-Ann had ever seen, carved and set with shining red and blue stones.
There were dozens of these statues in the cave, some of men and some of women. Some of them carried small babies in their arms, fat, smiling babies dressed in the most exquisite clothes, set with thousands of tiny pearls.
It was the babies that gave Jack the clue to what the statues were.
"Do you know what they are?" he said. "They are statues taken from churches somewhere in this country. This one represents Mary, the mother of Jesus - and the little baby is meant to be Jesus Himself. That"s why they are adorned with such lovely jewels. People have spent heaps of money on them to make them beautiful."
"Oh yes - and some of them are carried in processions at church festivals," said Dinah, remembering how her mother had once described such a festival to her. "Well, fancy - statues taken from churches! Whatever for?"
"Stolen, I should think," said Jack. "Stolen by people who took advantage of the troubled war-times, and hid them here - meaning to collect them when they had a chance."
"They must be worth a lot of money," said Philip, fingering the magnificent jewels. "Gosh, I did get a terrible fright when I first saw them! I honestly thought they were real people."
"So did I," said Lucy-Ann, who had now recovered. "I couldn"t bear them to stand so still and silent. I nearly screamed with fright!"
"We were, idiots not to guess they were statues," said Dinah. "I say - where does the light come from that lights these statues? It"s only a faint sort of light, but it"s enough to see them by quite well."
Jack looked all round. "It must be a sort of phosph.o.r.escent glow from the walls and roof of the cave," he said. "It"s rather a greenish light, isn"t it?"
"I say - there"s another archway here!" called Philip, from beyond the statues. "Come and see. I believe there"s another cave beyond."
They all went to see. Through the archway was yet another cave, lighted with the same dim, greenish glow. In it were stacked great square, oblong or round, flat things. There were no statues at all. The children went to see what the flat things were.
"Pictures!" said Jack, as he tried to swing one to face him. "Enormous ones! Where did they come from? Churches too, do you think?"
"Oh - picture galleries very likely," said Philip. "Maybe they are famous and quite priceless pictures - very old, too. Look at that one - it looks terribly old-fashioned. My word - these things may be. worth a fortune - heaps of fortunes! I remember reading not so long ago about pictures that were worth two or three million pounds!"
"I didn"t know there was so much money in the world," said Lucy-Ann, startled. She gazed in awe at the dusty, dim old pictures, tracing their great carved frames with her finger.
"Some of the pictures have been taken out of their frames to bring them here," said Jack, pulling at a roll of thick canvas. "Look, this one must have been cut from its frame and rolled up so as to be taken away easily."
There were about fifty rolls of canvas besides the framed pictures. Jack shone his torch on to many of the pictures, but none of the children thought the subjects interesting. So many were portraits of rather fat and stern-looking men. Others were scenes from the Bible, or from old legends.
"Well, this really is a find!" said Jack. "I bet if those men could have found these, they would have made a simply enormous fortune selling them."
"Of course - they were after all these," said Philip. "And that"s what those crates were for. To pack them in. They meant to crate them carefully and fly them away little by little. What a brain-wave on their part!"
"And Otto fooled them!" said Jack. "Took them to a rock-fall and said the treasure cave was behind it - so they meekly gave up and flew off. What idiots!"
"And we found everything!" rejoiced Lucy-Ann. "Oh, I wish we could tell Bill!"
"Are there any more caves?" wondered Jack, and walked over to the end of the second cave. "Yes! Here"s another archway and another cave. Books here! And old doc.u.ments! Come and look!"
"Old books are sometimes as precious and as rare as old pictures," said Philip, gazing round at the piles of enormous, heavily-bound books. "I say - look at this one! It"s a Bible, but in a foreign language. Isn"t it enormous? Look at the old printing!"
"These really are caves of treasure," said Jack. "Treasure from churches, libraries and picture galleries. I suppose the war-lords must have hidden them away, meaning to get them when peace came and make a lot of money out of their loot. How awful to steal things like this, though!"
"There"s a little cave here, just off this book-cave," called Dinah, who was exploring by herself. "There is a big chest here. Oh, and another - and another! What"s in them, I wonder?"
Jack came over to her and lifted up the heavy lid of one chest. He stared down in surprise at the glittering coins piled together in the chest.
"Gold!" he said. "The gold coinage of some country, but I can"t tell which. I"ve never seen gold coins like these before. My goodness, there"s a fortune in that box too - and in that chest, and that one! Fortunes everywhere!"
"It"s like a dream," said Lucy-Ann, and she sat down on one of the chests. "It really is. A cave of gleaming icicles, or stalags - whatever you call them! A cave of stars! A cave of glittering, jewelled statues! A cave of pictures, and a cave of old books! And now a cave of gold! I can"t believe it."
It did seem extraordinary. They all sat down on the oak chests and rested. The dim greenish light still shone everywhere, a kind of pale glow that did not seem to come from anywhere in particular, and yet was everywhere.
It was very quiet there. The children could hear themselves breathing, and a cough from Jack sounded startlingly loud.
Then another sound came through the stillness - a sound so completely unexpected and surprising that n.o.body could believe their ears!
"Cluck! Cluck-luck-luck!"
"Whatever"s that?" said Lucy-Ann at last. "It sounded like a hen clucking."
"Must have been old Kiki," said Jack, looking round for her. But she was just near by, sitting on another chest, humped up, looking rather dismal. She had had enough of caves. The children stared at her. Could it have been Kiki?
They listened to see if she would make the same noise again. But she didn"t stir. And then the noise came once more, quite clearly, from another direction altogether.
"Cluck-luck-lurrrrrrk! Cluck-luck-lurrrrk!"
"It is a hen!" said Jack, jumping up. "Making an egg-laying noise. But - a hen - in these caves! It"s impossible!"
All the children were now on their feet. Dinah pointed to some steps at the back of the little cave of gold. "That"s where the noise comes from," she said.
"I"ll go up first and see if it really is a hen," said Jack. "I can"t believe it."
He went cautiously up the steps, and at the same time the clucking began again. Kiki woke up and heard it in astonishment. She immediately began to cluck too, which evidently astonished the hidden clucker, who got very excited and let off a perfect volley of clucks.
Jack came to the top of the steps. There was another door there, but not a very stout one. It was ajar. He pushed it open a little more, very slowly, so that he might see in without attracting attention, though he did not expect to see anything but a hen.
What he saw transfixed him with astonishment. Philip dug his fingers into his back.
"Go on, Jack - what"s up?"
Jack turned round to the others. "I say," he said in a half-whisper, "it"s awfully queer - but there"s a little cell-like room up here - furnished - table and chairs and a lighted lamp! And - there"s a meal on the table!"
"Come down quickly, then," whispered Dinah. "We don"t want to b.u.mp into anyone. It must be someone who"s guarding the treasure till the others come to get it. Come down!"
But it was too late. A curious, quavering voice came from the cell-like room into which Jack had peeped. A few strange words reached them - but they couldn"t understand a single one. Now what was going to happen?
Chapter 23.
THE GUARDIANS OF THE TREASURE.
THE children stood absolutely still, holding their breath. Who was there, in that little room at the top of the steps? The voice came again, repeating the words that the children could not understand.
Then to the top of the little flight of steps came a brown hen! It stood there, its head on one side, peering down at the children. "Cluck!" it said, in a friendly kind of voice. "Cluck-luck!"
"Cluck!" said Kiki at once.
Lucy-Ann clutched Dinah. "Was it the hen talking before?" she whispered in amazement.
It wasn"t, of course. The quavering voice came again, and to the children"s surprise it sounded really frightened.
n.o.body came to where Jack stood almost at the top of the steps. The boy screwed up his courage and marched into the little room.
At the other end of it, under a small archway of rock, stood an old old man. Behind him was a woman, just as old, but more bent. They stared at Jack in amazement, and then, turning to one another, they poured out a stream of hurried words that the children could not understand at all.
Lucy-Ann wondered what Jack was doing up in the little room. Somebody ought to be with him. She went up the steps and joined Jack. The two old people stared at the red-haired freckled child, so like Jack.
Then the old woman made a crooning noise, pushed past her husband and went over to Lucy-Ann. She put her arms round her and kissed her. Then she fondled her hair. Lucy-Ann was surprised and not very pleased. Who was this funny old woman who suddenly seemed so affectionate?
She called to the others. "Dinah! Philip! Come along up! It"s two old people here with their hen!"
Soon all four children were in the little underground room. As soon as the old man heard them talking, he joined in eagerly, speaking English in a queer, clipped way.
"Ah, ah! You are English children! That is goot, very goot. Once, long time ago, I was in your so-beautiful country. I was in a big London hotel."
"Thank goodness he speaks English," said Philip. "I say - what are they doing here, with the treasure? Are they in league with the other men?"
"Have to find out," said Jack. "They seem quite harmless, anyhow. But there may be others." He turned to the old man. The old woman was still making a fuss of Lucy-Ann. Evidently they had not set eyes on children for a long time.
"Who else is here besides you?" demanded Jack.
"Just me and Elsa, my old wife, and our hen Martha," answered the old man. "We guard all those things in the caves, till the day when they go back to their right homes. May that day come soon!"
"I don"t believe the poor old things know that the war is over long ago," said Jack to the others, in a low voice. "I wonder who left them here to guard these things." He turned to the old man again. "Who told you to guard these things?" he asked.
"Julius Muller," said the old man promptly. "Ah, what a great man! How he worked against the enemy, even when they were shooting and bombing and burning in our valley! It was he who discovered that the enemy was using our mountain caves to hide away these treasures - treasures stolen from our churches and many other places."
"Just what we thought," said Philip, intensely interested. "Go on - tell us more."
"Then the people fled from our valley," said the old man. "Many were killed. The valley was empty, all save me and Elsa, my old wife. We hid with our hens and our pig, and no-one found us. Then one day Julius Muller found us and ordered us to come here, by a way he knew, and guard the treasure - not for the enemy, no - but for him and the people! He said that one day the enemy would be defeated and would flee away - and then he and the others would come back to find the treasure - but he has not come."