17
philip again
‘it’s peculiar there’s nobody about at all,’ said jack, staring round at the silent hall. ‘not a soul tobe seen! i wonder where everyone is. all those wheels and wires and things whirring away busilyby themselves, with nobody to see to them – and now this great empty place, with its throne andgorgeous hangings!’
‘jack!’ said dinah, pulling at his sleeve. ‘can’t we find philip now and rescue him? we’ve onlygot to go back through those long passages and down the rope-ladder! snowy will take us tophilip, and we can take him safely to the entrance of the mountain.’
‘yes. that’s a good idea,’ said jack. he stroked the little white kid by his side. ‘where’sphilip?’ he whispered, and gave snowy a push. ‘you show us, snowy.’
snowy butted jack gently. he didn’t seem to know what the boy meant. jack gave it up after abit. ‘we’ll wait and see if snowy goes off by himself,’ he said. ‘if he does, we’ll follow him.’
so they waited. snowy soon became restive and set off down the big hall past the great throne.
the children followed cautiously, keeping by the walls, as far in the shadows as possible. snowydisappeared through some deep red curtains. the children peeped through them. on the other sidewas what looked like a small library. books lined the walls. the children looked at the titlescuriously. they could not understand what any of them meant. most of them were in foreignlanguages, and all of them looked very learned and difficult.
‘scientific books,’ said jack. ‘come on. snowy has gone through that opening.’
they followed him. he saw that they were coming and waited for them. they hoped he wastaking them to philip!
he was! he led them upwards through a curiously rounded tunnel-like passage, lit at intervalsby the same kind of dim lamps they had seen in the first passages. it was weird going along in thehalf-dark, not able to see very far in front or behind. snowy trotted in front like a little white ghost.
they passed big openings filled with what looked like stores of some kind. boxes, chests,packages of all kinds were there, flung in higgledy-piggledy.
jack paused to examine some. there were foreign labels on most of them. one had beenopened, showing tins of food.
‘look,’ said jack, ‘it’s what i said. they have their food brought here – by the helicopter, iexpect. i wonder what in the world they’re up to.’
they came to some steps hewn out of the rock itself. these led upwards rather steeply in aspiral. snowy bounded up lightly, but the others panted as they went up and up, twisting andturning with the spiral of the stairway.
they came to a door set fast in the side of the stone stairway. it was a stout wooden door, withgreat bolts on the outside. snowy stopped beside this door and bleated loudly.
then the children’s hearts jumped as they heard a familiar voice. ‘snowy! i’m still here! i can’tget to you, snowy, but never mind!’
‘that’s philip!’ said jack. he knocked gently on the door. ‘philip! it’s us! we’re going to undothe bolts of this door.’
there was an astonished exclamation, and the sound of feet running across to the door. thenphilip’s excited voice came through the door, eager and thrilled.
‘gosh, jack! is it really you? can you let me out?’
jack shot the bolts back. they were well oiled and went back easily. philip pulled him into thespace beyond as soon as the door was open. the girls followed too, with snowy.
‘jack! how did you get here? i’ve been shut in this strange place with that black man. look,there he is, over there. he sleeps most of the time. he’s the one the dogs were after.’
sure enough, there was the man, lying against the side of the cave, fast asleep. jack and the girlslooked round philip’s prison in wonder.
it was nothing but a cave in the side of the top of the mountain. it opened on to the sky ... or soit seemed! at first the children could see nothing but a vast expanse of blue when they gazed outof the opening opposite to the door.
‘it’s almost at the top, this cave,’ said jack. ‘isn’t it a miraculous view? you can see right overthe tops of the mountains yonder. i’ve never been so high in my life before. it makes me quitegiddy to look out for long.’
dinah stepped to the edge of the cave but philip pulled her back. ‘no, don’t go too near. there’san almost sheer drop there. and if you look down it makes you feel very strange – as if you’re ontop of the world and might fall any minute!’
‘hold my hand then, whilst i look,’ said dinah, and jack wanted to see too.
‘lie down on the floor of the cave and look out of it that way,’ said philip. ‘you feel safer then.’
so all four lay down and peered over the edge of the cave that was almost at the top of themountain. it certainly gave them a curious feeling. far far down below were the slopes of themountain, and far below that the valley. lucy-ann clutched philip tightly. she felt as if she wastoppling over downwards! but she wasn’t, of course. she was safe on the floor of the cave. it wasjust the terrific feeling of height that made her think she must be falling down and down!
‘i don’t like it,’ she said, and came away from the ledge. the others were awed. they gazeduntil they too felt that they were going to fall, and then they pushed themselves back and sat up.
‘come with us quickly,’ said jack to philip. ‘we know the way out – and snowy will guide usif we don’t! we must go whilst there’s a good chance. the whole place seems deserted. it’s mostpeculiar.’
‘well, the men live on the very top of the mountain,’ said philip. ‘the american has beentelling me quite a lot. this cave is very near the top – so near that i can sometimes hear mentalking and laughing. there must be a plateau on the summit – or some kind of flat place – becausethe helicopters land there.’
‘oh! well, i suppose everyone must be up on the mountain-top then!’ said jack. ‘we didn’tmeet a soul coming up here. come on, let’s go, philip. don’t let’s waste a minute. we can telleach other everything when we’re safely out of this extraordinary mountain.’
they all went to the door – and then jack pushed the others back quickly. he shut the doorquietly and put his finger to his lips.
‘i can hear voices!’
so could the others. loud voices that were coming nearer their door. would the owners of thevoices spot that the bolts were undone?
the voices came nearer and nearer – and then passed! evidently nobody had looked at the boltsof the door. the children breathed again.
‘thank goodness! they’ve gone past!’ said jack. ‘shall we wait for a few minutes and then runfor it?’
‘no. wait till the men come back and go up to the roof,’ said philip. ‘i think they are only theparatroopers gone to get some stores to take up to the top.’
everyone stared at him. ‘para-troopers!’ said jack, in amazement. ‘what do you mean? whyshould there be paratroopers here?’
‘this chap told me. his name’s sam,’ said philip, nodding towards the sleeping man. ‘let’swait till those fellows come back with their stores, or whatever they’ve gone to fetch. i don’t thinkthey’ll even look at this door. they don’t know i’m here!’
‘well – for goodness’ sake tell us all about everything then,’ said jack, filled with intensecuriosity. ‘paratroopers! it sounds impossible.’
‘well, you know when i was caught, don’t you?’ began philip. ‘they took me to that steep wall,behind a thick screen of creeper, and in at an opening there. i was pushed up some kind of ladderin the dark – a rope-ladder, i should think – and we went up for ages and ages.’
the others nodded. they knew all about that.
‘we went through long passages, and came to a jolly frightening place – with wheels and things. . . did you see it too?’
‘yes. most extraordinary. but there was no one there,’ said jack.
‘i didn’t have time to see much,’ said philip. ‘then we went round a gallery – the one that looksdown on that place of wheels and wires and sparks and flames – and came into a most magnificentplace – like a room out of a palace!’
‘yes – we saw it too. a room for a king, with a throne and all,’ said jack. ‘but nobody there!’
‘well, then i was pushed up passages and steps to this cave,’ said philip. ‘and i was bolted in,and here i’ve stayed ever since! this man was pushed in too – but poor little snowy was boltedout! he’s come and bleated outside my door dozens of times. i hated that. he sounded so lost andmiserable.’
snowy was very happy now, however! he was curled up on philip’s knee, occasionally buttinghim gently to get a little more attention.
‘i’ve had food pushed in through the door – all tinned stuff,’ said philip. ‘but nobody’s said aword to me, not even that nasty foreign-looking fellow who caught me. you should see his eyes!
you often read in books about people with piercing eyes. well, he’s really got them – they goright through you! i was glad he didn’t question me much, because i felt as if he’d knoweverything by reading my very thoughts.’
the others had been listening intently. jack nodded towards the sleeping man. ‘what did he tellyou?’
‘oh, a lot of peculiar things,’ said philip. ‘he said he saw an advertisement in the paper askingfor men who had been paratroopers – you know, men who are trained to jump out of planes highin the air, and parachute to earth.’
‘yes. go on,’ said jack, impatiently.
‘well, the hawk-eyed man – the one who captured me – he goes by the name of meier, by theway – interviewed him at some office in mexico, and offered him a terrific sum of money if he’dcome and try some new kind of parachute-jumping.’
‘what kind?’ asked dinah.
‘i don’t exactly know. sam sounded a bit muddled when he told me – or else i didn’tunderstand him,’ said philip. ‘it’s something to do with flying through the air on wings – wingsfixed to his arms. apparently you can’t possibly fall to earth when you’ve got these wings on, andyou can guide yourself where and how you like – just as birds do.’
‘that’s impossible,’ said jack at once. ‘quite mad.’
‘yes. that’s why i think sam got hold of the wrong idea,’ said philip. ‘well – this fellow meierengaged a whole lot of ex-paratroopers, paid them fabulous sums, and brought them here, inhelicopters, to the top of this mountain. and their job is to try out these wings – or so sam says.’
‘has he tried them?’ asked jack.
‘no. but three of his mates have. they had these peculiar wings fitted to their arms and weregiven orders to jump from the helicopter at a given moment – or else be pushed out,’ said philip.
‘what happened?’ asked jack.
‘sam doesn’t know,’ answered philip. ‘you see, none of his mates came back. he’s prettycertain they fell to their deaths. he didn’t want to do the same – so he got away.’
