25
an extraordinary find
and now – what had happened to jack and kiki all this time? a great deal –some of it most astonishing and unbelievable.
jack had not known that the others had escaped – in fact, he had not evenknown that they had been imprisoned. he had wandered off after the parrot,and had become quite lost. the men, as we know, had heard kiki squealingand shouting some hours later, when they had been chasing philip and thegirls, but they had gone down the wrong passage after them and had notseen them.
so there was poor jack, lost and terrified, with a forlorn kiki clutchinghard at his shoulder. the boy wandered down a maze of galleries, coming tomore and more old abandoned workings. he was afraid that his torch wouldgive out. he was afraid of the roof falling in on top of him. he was afraid ofa great many things.
‘i may be lost for ever down here,’ he thought. ‘i may be wanderingmiles away from that main passage.’
he suddenly came to a great hole in the roof above him, and realised thathe had come to another shaft. ‘of course – there were quite a number ofthem,’ jack thought, his heart beginning to thump. ‘thank goodness – nowi can climb up and get out into the open air.’
but, to the boy’s dismay, there was no way of getting up the shaft.
whatever ladder or rope there had once been had rotted or fallen away –there was absolutely no way of climbing up.
it was awful to stand there at the bottom, knowing that freedom, daylightand fresh air were at the top, and yet with no means of reaching them.
‘if i were a baby, i bet i’d burst into tears,’ said jack out loud, feelingsomething suspiciously like tears pricking at the back of his eyelids. ‘but iwon’t do it. i must just grin and bear it.’
he gave a determined grin. kiki listened to his words with her head onone side.
‘put the kettle on,’ she said sympathetically. that made jack give a reallygood grin.
‘you are an idiot,’ he said affectionately. ‘now, the thing is – where dowe go next? i feel as if i am probably wandering in the same passage overand over again. but wait a minute – the shafts are all on the island itself –so i must have retraced my steps somehow, because we were all under thesea-bed at one time. as far as i remember, those shafts all connected upwith one more or less straight tunnel. i’ll go down here – and see if by anychance i come to the main shaft. if i do, i can go up it.’
jack stumbled on, and came to a blocked-up part, impossible to get by.
so he had to go back a good way and start out again, only to come toanother roof-fall. it was very disheartening. kiki became tired of this longjourney in the dark passages, and gave a realistic yawn.
‘put your hand before your mouth,’ she told herself severely. ‘how manytimes have i told you to shut the door? god save the queen.’
‘well, your yawn made me yawn too,’ said jack, and he sat down. ‘whatabout a rest, kiki? i’m getting terribly tired.’
he leaned back against the rocky wall and shut his eyes. he fell into adoze, which lasted an hour or two. when he awoke he hardly knew wherehe was, and felt frightened when he remembered. he got to his feet, withkiki still firmly on his shoulder.
‘now, it’s no good getting into a panic,’ he told himself sternly. ‘just goon walking, and sooner or later you will get somewhere.’
it was whilst he was stumbling through the many passages that kikiheard the noise of the men chasing the children, and shouted loudly. butjack heard nothing, and turned off into a winding passage just before themen came up. he did not know that he was near to the wide shaft-hole – butpresently he came to the big main passage, and stopped.
‘can this be the wide passage we saw on the map?’ he thought. ‘it maybe. if only i had a brighter torch! i hope to goodness it’s not going to fadeout. it doesn’t seem so bright as it was.’
he went down the passage, and saw some rough-hewn steps in the rock,leading upwards. out of curiosity the boy climbed them, and came toanother passage, which evidently led to yet another working. he stumbledand fell against the wall, dislodging a stone or small rock, which fell downwith a crash. jack held up his torch to see where it had fallen from, afraidthat the roof was caving in.
but it wasn’t. his torch gleamed on to something that shone coppery-red– a large, irregular kind of stone, thought jack. and then he suddenlyrealised that it wasn’t a stone – it was – yes, it must be – a large coppernugget! golly, what a beauty! could he possibly carry it?
with trembling hands the boy prised the nugget carefully away from itsplace. it was on a kind of shelf made by a crack in the rock just there. hadsomeone hidden it there, years ago? or had it been placed there by one ofthe men working the mines now? or was it there naturally, a real nugget inthe depths of the earth? jack didn’t know.
it was heavy, but he could carry it. a nugget of copper! the boy keptrepeating the words to himself. almost as good as finding a great auk –not quite as thrilling of course, but almost. what would the others say?
jack thought he had better keep out of the way of the miners more thanever now. they might take the nugget from him. it might legally be theirs,of course, but he did want to have the thrill of showing it to the others as hisfind before he gave it up to anyone.
the boy went back to the main passage with the nugget in his hands. hehad to put his torch into his belt now, as he could not carry it as well as thecopper, and it was difficult to make his way along, because the torch shonealmost directly downwards instead of forwards.
‘hallo!’ said jack, stopping suddenly as he heard a noise in the distance.
‘i rather think i’m coming towards that clattering noise we heard before –where the men are working. perhaps i’m near the other children too.’
the boy crept forward. he went into a passage that turned suddenlyround a corner – and there before him was the brilliantly lighted cave again.
last time he had seen it, it had been empty – this time there were men there.
they were undoing the boxes and crates that the children had seen therebefore. jack watched, wondering what was in them.
‘i’m in the same passage as i was when kiki flew off and i went afterher,’ thought jack. ‘i do wonder what has happened to the others. golly, butit’s good to see a bright light again. if i crouch here, behind this juttingrock, i don’t believe anyone will see me.’
kiki was absolutely quiet. the brilliant light frightened her after being solong in the darkness. she crouched on the boy’s shoulder, watching.
there were tins in the boxes and crates – tins of meat and fruit. jack feltvery hungry when he saw them, for he had had nothing to eat for a longtime. the men opened a few of the tins, poured the contents out on to tinplates, and began to eat, talking to each other. jack could not hear what theywere saying. he felt so hungry that he almost walked out to the men to begfor some of their food.
but they didn’t look very nice men. they wore trousers only, belted atthe waist, and nothing else. it was so hot in the mines that it was impossibleto wear many clothes. jack wished he could wear only shorts, but he knewhe would not like kiki’s claws on his bare shoulder.
the men finished their meal, and then went down a passage or gallery atthe further end of the cave they were in. there was no one there now. theclattering, banging noise began again. evidently the men were at work oncemore.
jack crept into the brilliantly lighted cave. the light came from thesethree lamps hung from the roof. jack looked into the opened tins. there wasa little meat left in one and some pineapple chunks in another. he finishedthem up quickly. he thought that never in his life had he tasted anything sodelicious as the food in those tins.
he decided to creep over to the passage down which the men had goneback to work. it would be exciting to see how men worked in a coppermine. did they use pickaxes? did they blast out the copper? what werethey doing to make all that noise? it really sounded as if it came from somebig machine busily at work.
he crept down the passage, and then found that he was looking intoanother cave. he was most astonished at what he saw. there were about adozen men there, busy with a number of machines that clattered andbanged, making quite a deafening noise that echoed round the cave.
there was an engine of some sort which added to the din. ‘what strangemachinery!’ thought jack, staring. ‘how ever in the world did they get it alldown here into the mines? they must have brought it down in pieces, andthen put them together here. golly, how busy it all is, and what a noise itmakes!’
jack watched in wonder. were they extracting copper by means of thismachine? he knew vaguely that many metals had to be roasted or smeltedor worked in some way before they were pure. he supposed they weredoing that. it was plain, then, that the copper in these mines was not usuallyfound in big nuggets, such as the one jack was even now holding.
one of the men wiped his forehead and came from the machine towardsjack’s hiding-place. the boy darted away, and went into a small blindpassage to wait till the man had passed. he came back carrying a mug ofwater. jack waited in the little blind passage for a minute or two, leaningagainst what he thought was the wall. but suddenly the ‘wall’ gave way alittle, and the boy slipped backwards. then, putting his torch on, he foundthat it was no wall but a strong wooden door, leading into a cell-like place –rather like the one in which the other children had been imprisoned.
hearing footsteps, he hurriedly went into the cell and pushed the doorshut. the footsteps went by. jack switched on his torch again to see whatwas in the cave.
it was stacked with bundles upon bundles of crisp papers, the same sizeput together and the same colours, tightly fastened together. jack looked atthem – and then he looked again, blinking his eyes in amazement.
in that cell-like cave were thousands of bundles of paper money. therewere bundles of five-pound notes, bundles of ten-pound notes – there theywere, neatly stacked together, a fortune great enough to make anyone amillionaire in a night.
‘now i really must be dreaming,’ thought jack, rubbing his eyes.
‘there’s no doubt about it. i’m in a very extraordinary dream. in a minute ishall wake up and laugh. people simply don’t find things like this – treasurein a cave underground. why, i might be in the middle of some wonderfulfairy story. it’s quite impossible – i’d better wake up immediately.’
