[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

fellows wake up it won't matter  because they won't be able to see
who it is!"
This was a good idea. The light went out with a slight click and the
great hall was in darkness. The children, led by Bill, moved quietly
along one side, their feet making no noise on the soft mats.
When they came to the immense laboratory Bill stood still in amazement.
He knew a great deal more about these things than the children did,
of course, and he could see what a brilliant, ingenious mind must be
at the back of all the things at work there.
They stood in the gallery and looked down at the wires and wheels,
the glass jars and the crystal boxes, and heard the quiet, purposeful
humming going on.
"What is it all doing, Bill?" whispered Lucy-Ann.
"It's transmuting, or changing, one power or energy into another,"
said Bill soberly. "Making it into usable form, so that . . ."
"So that it can be imprisoned in those 'wings,' for instance?" said
Jack.
"Something like that," said Bill. "It's an amazing setup altogether."
There was nobody there. It did seem extraordinary that all these
humming, spinning, whirring things should go on and on seemingly of
their own accord, with just the king wandering round them occasionally.
Bill was so fascinated that for a few moments he forgot the urgency
of finding the way out of the mountain. There was something dream-like
about all this  it didn't seem real.
He was brought back to reality again by feeling Snowy butting against
him. He jumped a little. Then he took Lucy-Ann's arm. "Come along! What
am I thinking of, stopping like this!"
Jack had found the passage that led out of the laboratory. He led
them down it and they came to the great cave they had seen before. Bill's
torch swept round it but there was nothing to see. Then they went into
the passage that led to the roofless cave! The children felt they really
were getting near freedom again  if only, only, only they could find
out how to get that rope-ladder out of its place in the wall!
They passed the dim lamps, which, for some reason or other, were
lighted here. They came to the roofless cave, and Bill's torch picked
out the pitchers of ice-cold water standing at the back to refresh those
who had had the long and exhausting climb up the rope-ladder.
"This is the place where the ladder's kept," said Jack, and he took
Bill's torch and swung it to find the place in the rocky wall where
they had seen it last.
But before he could spot it, Lucy-Ann tripped over something and fell
with a thud. Bill picked her up. She had hurt her knees but she didn't
make a sound. Bill told Jack to flash his torch on Lucy-Ann to see what
she had fallen over.
She had stumbled over the rope-ladder itself! There it lay,
stretching from its place in the wall, over the floor and then
disappearing downwards over the edge of the cave  down, down, down
to the cave with the pool far below!
"Look! The ladder's out!" cried Jack, forgetting to whisper in his
excitement. "Oh, Bill  let's come on down at once!"
"Somebody must have gone out of the mountain tonight," said Dinah,
"and left the ladder down to come back by. I wonder who it was. We'd
better be careful we don't meet them!"
"Jack, you go down first," said Bill, who had been examining with
great interest the way the ladder was attached to the hole in the wall.
It was extremely ingenious. Bill could see how wires must be run up
from the wheel in the pool to a lever which released the ladder  whose
weight then compelled it to run out over the floor to the edge of the
cave, where it fell and then rolled itself undone until it had come
to its last rung. What made it able to roll itself up again Bill could
not imagine  but the brain that could devise all the amazing things
inside that mountain would find that a very simple problem!
Jack went to the place where the ladder hung over the edge. He knelt
down and put his feet one after another on a rung a little way down.
The ladder felt as firm as before. It was very well made and strong.
"Well, here I go," said Jack. "Send the girls next, Bill, and then
you come. Snowy's gone already, down whatever little hole he and the
dogs use! I don't know where that is. I only wish I knew where poor
old Kiki was. I don't like leaving her all alone in this beastly
mountain."
Bill shone his torch on him. The girls watched his head disappear
as he climbed down.
"You go now, Lucy-Ann," said Bill. "Jack must be a good way down.
You won't tread on his head. Then Dinah can go, and I'll follow last
of all. Don't attempt to leave the cave below till I am down with you."
Jack was going steadily down. What a long long way it was! And then
a very peculiar thing happened. The ladder began to shake below him!
Jack stopped climbing at once.
"Gracious! Somebody's climbing up! And I'm climbing down! Whoever
can it be!"
Chapter 27
ESCAPE AT LAST
NO sooner had he felt certain that somebody was climbing up very
steadily below him than Jack immediately stopped climbing down and began
climbing back again at top speed. He didn't want to meet Meier or Erlick
on that ladder.
Some way up he bumped into Lucy-Ann's feet. She gave a small squeal
of fright. "It's all right, Lucy-Ann. It's only me," said Jack in a
low voice. "There's somebody coming up the ladder. Go back again as
quickly as you can!"
Lucy-Ann at once began to climb up as fast as possible, in a great
fright. Gracious! How awful to feel that somebody was coming up the
ladder just as they were going down! She felt certain it was that horrid
Meier!
She in turn bumped into Dinah's feet and passed the urgent message
on to the surprised girl. Dinah began to climb back again up to the
cave at the top very quickly indeed. Lucy-Ann and Jack were immediately
below her. Jack felt as if somebody might catch his ankles at any moment.
And, of course, the next thing was that Dinah nearly got her head
trodden on by Bill's big feet. He was descending at top speed to join
the others, and was most amazed to find Dinah just below him.
"What's the matter? Didn't I tell you to buck up?" he said, and then
caught Dinah's agonized whisper.
"Somebody's coming up! Quick, before they get Jack. Quick, Bill!"
Muttering something under his breath Bill climbed back quickly. He
pulled Dinah up, then Lucy-Ann, then Jack. The ladder still shook. The
climber, or climbers, were coming up steadily.
"Back into the passages!" commanded Bill. "We can't afford to be
caught now. We'll wait till whoever it is has gone and then we'll try
again."
They came to where the passage forked into three, and Bill pushed
them all into the darkest one  but coming towards them were footsteps,
and somebody's shadow at the far end! They all rushed back again.
Now the climber had reached the top of the ladder and was behind them.
They tried the second passage and found themselves in a maze of funny
little caves, all leading one out of another.
"Wait here!" said Bill. But they had been seen, and challenging voices
began to echo along the dark passages.
"Who's there? Come out at once!"
They didn't stir. They were all crouched in a dark corner, overhung
by a rocky ledge. Bill wondered if the beam of a torch would find them.
He was afraid it would.
The feet passed by in another cave. Then came more voices. The hunt
was on! Bill groaned. It sounded as if four or five searchers were there [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • thierry.pev.pl

    •