"I can"t find Kiki," said Lucy-Ann. "I"ve looked everywhere."
"Don"t be so silly. She"s gone out of the cave after Jack, I expect," said Dinah, even crosser. She lay down again and yawned. Lucy-Ann shook her.
"You"re not to go to sleep again, Dinah. I tell you, Kiki was here a little while ago - at the back of the cave - and now she"s gone. Absolutely vanished."
"Well, let her - she"ll come back all right," said Dinah. "Leave me alone, Lucy-Ann."
She shut her eyes. Lucy-Ann didn"t like to say any more. Dinah could be so fierce when she was cross. The little girl sighed and wished the boys were back. What had happened to Kiki?
She got up and walked across the moss to the back of the cave. The rock was folded in on. itself there, and there was a s.p.a.ce behind one of the folds. Lucy-Ann looked cautiously into the dark s.p.a.ce, expecting to see Kiki hiding there, ready to cry "Bo" at her, as she sometimes most annoyingly did.
But Kiki wasn"t there. Lucy-Ann flashed her torch up and down the little hidden corner, and suddenly her torch came to a stop, focussed on one place.
"Why - there"s a hole there!" said Lucy-Ann in surprise. "That"s where Kiki must have gone!"
She clambered up to the hole, which was about shoulder-high. It was just big enough for her to squeeze through. She expected to drop down into another cave the other side, but she didn"t. The hole went upwards slightly, a round, narrow tunnel. Lucy-Ann felt sure Kiki must have disappeared into this queer, dark little tunnel.
"Kiki!" she yelled, and flashed her torch in front of her. "Where are you, idiot? Come back!"
No sound from Kiki. Lucy-Ann squeezed herself right into the round tunnel, wondering how long It was. It was almost as round as a pipe. Maybe water had forced its way through at one time, but now it was quite dry. Lucy-Ann could not hear any sound of the waterfall once she was in the tunnel, though she listened hard. It was very quiet there.
"KIKI!" she yelled. "KIKI!"
Dinah heard the yell in her dreams and awoke with a jump. She sat up crossly again. But this time Lucy-Ann was not in the cave with her. Now it was Dinah"s turn to feel scared. She remembered that Lucy-Ann said that Kiki had suddenly disappeared. Now it seemed as if Lucy-Ann had too. The fronds of fern were hanging over the entrance. Lucy-Ann would not have pushed out through them without telling Dinah she was going out.
Dinah examined the cave well. No Lucy-Ann. Oh, goodness, now what had happened to her and Kiki?
She heard another yell, sounding rather m.u.f.fled and distant. She went to the back of the cave and discovered the hidden s.p.a.ce. She fetched another torch from the ledge and shone it up and down. She stared in amazement when she saw two shoes sticking out of a round hole about as high as her shoulder.
She tugged at Lucy-Ann"s ankles and yelled at her. "Lucy-Ann! What do you think you"re doing? Where are you going? What"s up that hole?"
Lucy-Ann yelled back. "I don"t know, Dinah. I found it by accident. I think Kiki must have gone up it. Shall I go up and see if I can find her? You come too."
"All right," called Dinah. "Go on up."
Lucy-Ann wriggled further up the narrow pipe-like tunnel. It suddenly widened out, and by the light of her torch she saw below her another cave - but a vast one this time.
She managed to get out of the hole, and had a look round at the cave. It was more like an underground hall. Its roof was very high indeed. From somewhere in its dim vastness came a mournful voice.
"What a pity, what a pity!"
"Kiki! So you are here!" cried Lucy-Ann, and then listened in astonishment to the echo that sounded immediately. "Here, here, here, are here, are here!" cried the echoes, repeating themselves in a weird and strange manner.
"Hurry up, Dinah!" called Lucy-Ann, not liking the echoes at all.
"Up, Dinah, Dinah, Dinah!" called the echoes at once. Kiki flew over to Lucy-Ann, frightened. So many voices! Whatever could they all be?
"Poor Kiki!" said the parrot, in a fright. "Poor Kiki!"
"Kiki, Kiki, Kiki!" called the echoes. The parrot shivered and gazed all round, trying to see who called her. She suddenly gave a loud and defiant squawk.
At once a score of squawks sounded all round, as if the cave was filled with hundreds of parrots. Kiki was simply astounded. Could there be so many birds there that she couldn"t see?
Dinah crawled out of the hole and stood by Lucy-Ann. "What an enormous place!" she said.
"Place!" shouted the echoes.
"Everything we say is repeated," said Lucy-Ann. "It"s weird."
"Weird, it"s weird," said the echoes.
"Well, let"s whisper, then," said Dinah, whispering herself. The cave was at once filled with mysterious whispers, which scared the girls even more than the repeated shouts they had heard. They clutched one another. Then Dinah recovered herself.
"It"s only the echoes," she said. "You often get them in enormous caves like this. I wonder if anyone has ever been here before."
"Never, I should think," said Lucy-Ann, flashing her torch all round. "Fancy! We may be treading in a place that no one else has ever trodden in before!"
"Let"s explore the cave a bit," said Dinah. "Not that there seems much to see, but we might as well do something whilst we"re waiting for the boys."
So they walked slowly round the great dark cave, their footsteps repeated a hundred times by the echoes. Once, when Dinah sneezed, the girls were really frightened by the enormous explosive noises that came from all round them. The echoes certainly enjoyed themselves then.
"Oh, don"t sneeze again, Dinah," begged Lucy-Ann. "It"s really awful to hear the echoes sneezing. Worse than hearing them squawk like Kiki."
They had gone almost all the way round the cave when they came to a pa.s.sage leading out of it - a high, narrow pa.s.sage, between two walls of rocks.
"Look at that!" said Dinah, surprised. "A pa.s.sage! Do you suppose it leads anywhere?"
"It might," said Lucy-Ann, and her eyes gleamed. "Don"t forget, Dinah, that those men are after treasure. We don"t know what kind - but it"s just possible it might be hidden somewhere in these mountains."
"Let"s follow the pa.s.sage, then," said Dinah. "Kiki! Come along. We don"t want to leave you behind."
Kiki flew to her shoulder. In silence the two girls entered the narrow, rocky pa.s.sage, their torches gleaming in front of them. What were they going to find?
Chapter 12.
BEHIND THE WATERFALL.
THE pa.s.sage was a very winding one. It led a little downwards, and the floor was very uneven to the feet. The girls tripped and stumbled very often. Once the roof came down so low that they had to crawl under it. But it grew high again almost at once.
After a while they heard a noise. They couldn"t imagine what it was. It was a deep and continuous roar that never stopped even for a second.
"What"s that?" said Dinah. "Are we getting into the heart of the mountain, do you think, Lucy-Ann? That"s not the roar of a mighty fire, is it? What can it be? What is there that could make that noise in the middle of a mountain?"
"I don"t know," said Lucy-Ann, and immediately wanted to go back. A fire in the heart of a mountain, a fire that roared like that? She didn"t in the least want to see it. She felt hot and breathless at the thought.
But Dinah wasn"t going back now that they had come so far.
"What, go back before we"ve found out where this pa.s.sage goes to?" she said. "Of course not! The boys would laugh like anything when we told them. We don"t often get the chance of discovering something before they do. Why, we might even happen on the treasure, whatever it is, Lucy-Ann."
Lucy-Ann felt that she didn"t care in the least about treasure. All she wanted was to get back to the safety of the cave she knew, the cave with the green fern-curtains.
"Well, you go back, then," said Dinah unkindly. "I"m going on. Baby!"
It was more frightening to think of going back to the cave of echoes by herself than to go on with Dinah. So poor Lucy-Ann chose unwillingly to go on. With that queer, m.u.f.fled roar in her ears she pressed on down the winding pa.s.sage, keeping close to Dinah. The roar became louder.
And then the girls knew what it was. It was the waterfall, of course! How stupid of them not to think of that! But it sounded so different there in the mountain.
"We"re not going into the heart of the mountain after all," said Dinah. "We"re coming out somewhere near the waterfall. I wonder where."
They got a tremendous surprise when they did see daylight. The pa.s.sage suddenly took one last turn and took them into subdued daylight, that flickered and shone round them in a curious way. A draught of cold air met them, and something wetted their hair.
"Lucy-Ann! We"ve come out on to a flat ledge just behind the waterfall!" cried Dinah in astonishment. "Look, there"s the great ma.s.s of falling water just in front of us! - oh, the colours in it! Can you hear me? The water is making such a noise."
Overwhelmed by surprise and by the noise, Lucy-Ann stood and stared. The water made a great rushing curtain between them and the open air. It poured down, shining and exultant, never stopping. The power behind it awed the two girls. They felt very small and feeble when they watched that great volume of water pouring down a few feet in front of them.
It was amazing to be able to stand on a ledge just behind the waterfall and yet not to be affected by it in any way except to feel the fine spray misting the air. The ledge was very wide, and ran the whole width of the fall. There was a rock about a foot high at one end of the ledge, and the girls sat down on it to watch the amazing sight in front of them.
"What will the boys say?" wondered Dinah. "Let"s stay here till we see them coming back. If we sit on this rock, just at the edge of the waterfall, we can wave to them. They will be so astonished to see us here. There"s no way of getting to this ledge from above or below, only from behind, from the pa.s.sage we found."
"Yes. We"ll surprise the boys," said Lucy-Ann, no longer frightened. "Look, we can see our cave up there! - at least, we can see the giant fern whose fronds are hiding it. We shall easily be able to see the boys when they come back."
Kiki was very quiet indeed. She had been surprised to come out behind the great wall of water. She sat on a ledge and watched it, blinking every now and again.
"I hope she won"t be silly enough to try and fly through the waterfall," said Lucy-Ann anxiously. "She would be taken down with it and dashed to pieces. I know she would."
"She won"t do anything so silly," said Dinah. "She"s wise enough to know what would happen if she tried something like that. She may fly out round the edge of the waterfall, though. Still, there shouldn"t be much danger for her in that."
The girls sat there for a long time, feeling that they would never get tired of watching the turbulence of the waterfall. After a long time Lucy-Ann gave a cry and caught Dinah"s arm.
"Look - is that the boys coming? Yes, it is. They"ve got a sack between them. Good! Now we shall have plenty of food."
They watched the two boys labouring up the rocks that led to the cave. It was no good waving to them yet. Then suddenly Dinah stiffened with horror.
"What"s the matter?" said Lucy-Ann in alarm, seeing Dinah"s face.
"Look - someone is following the boys!" said Dinah. "See - it"s one of the men! And there"s the other one too! Oh, my goodness, I don"t believe either Philip or Jack knows it! They"ll watch where they go and our hiding place will be found! JACK! PHILIP! OH, JACK, LOOK OUT!"
She went to the very edge of the waterfall, and, holding on to a fern growing there, she leaned out beyond it, yelling and waving, quite forgetting that the men could see and hear her as well as the boys.
But alas, Jack and Philip, engrossed in the task of getting the heavy sack up the rocks, neither saw nor heard Dinah - but the men suddenly caught sight of her and stared in the utmost astonishment. They could not make out if she was girl, boy, man or woman, for the edges of the waterfall continually moved and shifted. All they could make out was that there was definitely someone dancing about and waving behind the great fall.
"Look!" said one man to the other. "Just look at that! See - behind the water! That"s where they"re hiding. My word, what a place! How do they get there?"
The men stared open-mouthed at the waterfall, their eyes searching for a way up to it that would lead to the ledge where the excited figure stood waving.
Meantime, Jack and Philip, quite unaware of the following men, or of Dinah either, had reached the curtain of fern. Philip pushed the ferns aside, and Jack hauled the sack up through them, panting painfully, for it was heavy.
At last the sack lay on the floor of moss. The boys flung themselves down, their hearts thumping with the labour of climbing up steeply to the cave, dragging such a heavy sack. At first they did not even notice that the girls were not there.
Not far off, some way below, stood the two men, completely bewildered. In watching Dinah behind the waterfall, they had just missed seeing Jack and Philip creep through the ferns into their cave. So when they turned from gazing at the waterfall, they found that the boys they had so warily followed had utterly disappeared.
"Where have they gone?" demanded Juan. "They were on that rock there when we saw them last."
"Yes. Then I caught sight of that person waving down there, and took my eyes off them for a minute - and now they"ve gone," growled Pepi. "Well, there"s no doubt where they"ve gone. They"ve taken some path that leads to that waterfall. They hide behind it - and a clever place it is, too. Who would think of anyone hiding just behind a great curtain of water like that? Well, we know where to find them. We"ll make our way to the water and climb up to that ledge. We"ll soon hunt the rats out."
They began to climb down, hoping to find a way that would lead them to the ledge behind the waterfall. It was difficult and dangerous going, on the slippery rocks.
In the cave the boys soon recovered. They sat up, and looked round for the girls.
"Hallo - where are Lucy-Ann and Dinah?" said Jack in astonishment. "They promised to stay here till we got back. Surely to goodness they haven"t gone wandering about anywhere? They"ll get lost, sure as anything!"
They were not in the cave. That was absolutely certain. The boys did not see the hole in the fold of rock at the back. They were extremely puzzled. Jack parted the ferns and looked out.
To his enormous astonishment he at once saw the two men clambering about on rocks near the waterfall. His eyes nearly dropped out of his head.
"Look there!" he said to Philip, closing the fronds a little, fearful of being seen. "Those two men! Golly, they might have seen us getting in here! How did they get here? We saw them safely by the plane, on our way to the bush!"
Dinah had now disappeared from behind the waterfall. She could not make up her mind whether or not the men had seen the boys climbing in through the fern to their cave. In any case, she thought she ought to warn them of the men"s appearance. She felt sure that neither Jack nor Philip knew they were there.
"Come on, Lucy-Ann," she said urgently. "We must get back to the boys. Oh, goodness, look at those men! I believe they are going to try and get over here now. They must have spotted me waving. Do come quickly, Lucy-Ann."
Shivering with excitement, Lucy-Ann followed Dinah along the dark, winding pa.s.sage that led back to the cave of echoes. Dinah went as quickly as she could, flashing her torch in front of her. Both girls forgot all about Kiki. The parrot was left sitting alone behind the waterfall, spray misting her feathers, watching the clambering men with interested eyes. She had not heard the girls going off.
Dinah and Lucy-Ann came out into the cave of echoes at last. Dinah stopped and considered. "Now, where exactly was that hole we came through?" she said.
"Came through, through, through," called the echoes mockingly.
"Oh, be quiet!" cried Dinah to the echoes.
"QUIET, QUIET, QUIET!" yelled back the irritating voices. Dinah flashed her torch here and there, and by a very lucky chance she found the hole. In a trice she was in it, crawling along, with Lucy-Ann close behind her. Lucy-Ann had an awful feeling that somebody was going to clutch her feet from behind and she almost b.u.mped into Dinah"s shoes in her efforts to scramble down the hole as quickly as possible.
Jack and Philip were peeping through the fern watching the men, when the girls dropped out of the hole at the back of the cave, came round the fold of rock and flung themselves on the boys. They almost jumped out of their skin.
Philip hit out, thinking that enemies were upon them. Dinah got a stinging box on the ear, and yelled. She immediately hit out at Philip and the two rolled on the floor.
"Don"t, oh, don"t!" wailed Lucy-Ann, almost in tears. "Philip, Jack, it"s us! It"s us!"
Philip shook off Dinah and sat up. Jack stared in amazement. "But where did you come from?" he demanded. "Golly, you gave us an awful scare, I can tell you, jumping out like that! Where have you been?"
"There"s a hole back there we went into," explained Dinah, giving Philip an angry look. "I say, do you two boys know that those men were following you? They were not very far behind you. We were scared stiff they would see you climbing in here."
"Were they following us?" said Jack. "Golly, I didn"t know that. Peep out between these fronds, you girls, and see them hunting for us down there."