chapter 18 a way of escape

the four children and timmy went into the big cave. they made their way round piles of boxes,chests and crates, marvelling at the amount the men must have stolen from time to time.

'these aren't man-made caves,' said julian. 'they're natural. i expect the roof did perhaps fall inwhere the two tunnels met, and the entrance between them was actually blocked up.'

'but were two walls built then?' said dick.

'oh, no. we can't guess how it was that this black market hiding-place came into existence,' saidjulian, 'but it might perhaps have been known there were caves here - and when someone cameprospecting along the tunnel one day, maybe they even found an old train buried under a roof-fall or something like that.'

'and resurrected it, and built another wall secretly for a hiding-place - and used the train for theirown purposes!' said dick. 'made that secret entrance, too. how ingenious!'

'or it's possible the place was built during the last war,' said julian. 'maybe secret experimentswere carried on here - and given up afterwards. the place might have been discovered by theblack marketeers then, and used in this clever way. we can't tell!'

they had wandered for a good way in the cave by now, without finding anything of interestbeyond the boxes and chests of all kinds of goods. then they came to where a pile was veryneatly arranged, with numbers chalked on boxes that were built up one on top of another. julianhalted.

'now this looks as if these boxes were about to be shifted off somewhere,' he said. 'all put inorder and numbered. surely the exit must be somewhere here?'

he took george's torch from her and flashed it all round. then he found what he wanted. thebeam of light shone steadily on a strong roughly-made wooden door, set in the wall of the cave.

they went over to it in excitement.

'this is what we want!' said julian. 'i bet this is the exit to some very lonely part of the moors,not far from a road that lorries can come along to collect any goods carried out of here! there aresome very deserted roads over these moors, running in the middle of miles of lonely moorland.'

'it's a clever organisation,' said dick. 'lorries stored at an innocent farm, full of goods for hidingin the tunnel-caves at a convenient time. the train comes out in the dark to collect the goods, and93

takes them back here, till the hue and cry after the goods has died down. then out they gothrough this door to the moorlands, down to the lorries which come to collect them and whiskthem away to the black market!'

'i told you how i saw peters late one night, locking up the barn, didn't i?' said jock, excitedly.

'well, he must have got the lorry full of stolen goods then - and the next night he loaded them onto the spook-train!'

'that's about it,' said julian, who had been trying the door to see if he could open it. 'i say, thisdoor's maddening. i can't make it budge an inch. there's no lock that i can see.'

they all shoved hard, but the door would not give at all. it was very stout and strong, thoughrough and unfinished. panting and hot, the four of them at last gave it up.

'do you know what i think?' said dick. 'i think the beastly thing has got something jammed hardagainst it on the outside.'

'sure to have, when you come to think of it,' said julian. 'it will be well hidden too - heather andbracken and stuff all over it. nobody would ever find it. i suppose the lorry-drivers come acrossfrom the road to open the door when they want to collect the goods. and shut it and jam it afterthem.'

'no way of escape there, then,' said george in disappointment.

'fraid not,' said julian. george gave a sigh.

'tired, old thing?' julian asked kindly. 'or hungry?'

'both, 'said george.

'well, we've got some food somewhere, haven't we?' said julian. 'i remember one of the menslinging my bag in after me. we've not had what we brought for tea yet. what about having ameal now? we can't seem to escape at the moment.'

'let's have it here,' said george. 'i simply can't go a step further!'

they sat down against a big crate. dick undid his kit-bag. there were sandwiches, cake andchocolate. the four of them ate thankfully, and wished they had something to wash down thefood with. julian kept wondering about anne.

'i wonder what she did,' he said. 'she'd wait and wait, i suppose. then she might go back to thecamp. but she doesn't know the way very well, and she might get lost. oh dear -1 don't knowwhich would be worse for anne, being lost on the moor or a prisoner down here with us!'

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'perhaps she's neither,' said jock, giving timmy his last bit of sandwich. 'i must say i'm jollyglad to have timmy. honest, george, i couldn't believe it when i heard tim whine, and thenheard your voice, too. i thought i must be dreaming.'

they sat where they were for a little longer and then decided to go back to the tunnel where thetrain was. 'it's just possible we might find the switch that works the open-sesame bit,' saidjulian. 'we ought to have looked before, really, but i didn't think of it.'

they went back to where the train stood silently on its pair of lines. it seemed such an ordinaryold train now that the children couldn't imagine why they had ever thought it was strange andspooky.

they switched on the light again, then they looked about for any lever or handle that mightperhaps open the hole in the wall. there didn't seem to be anything at all. they tried a fewswitches, but nothing happened.

then george suddenly came across a big lever low down in the brick wall itself. she tried tomove it and couldn't. she called julian.

'ju! come here. i wonder if this has got anything to do with opening that hole.'

the three boys came over to george. julian tried to swing the lever down. nothing happened. hepulled it but it wouldn't move. then he and dick pushed it upwards with all their strength.

and hey presto, there came a bang from somewhere, as something heavy shifted, and then aclanking as if machinery was at work. then came the sliding, grating noise and a great piece ofthe brick wall moved slowly back, and then swung round sideways and stopped. the way ofescape was open!

'open sesame!' said dick, grandly, as the hole appeared.

'better switch off the light here,' said julian. 'if there's anyone still in the tunnel they might seethe reflection of it on the tunnel-wall beyond, and wonder what it was.'

he stepped back and switched it off, and the place was in darkness again. george put on hertorch, and its feeble beam lighted up the way of escape.

'come on,' said dick, impatiently, and they all crowded out of the hole. 'we'll make for olly'syard.' they began to make their way down the dark tunnel.

'listen,' said julian, in a low voice. 'we'd better not talk at all, and we'd better go as quietly as wecan. we don't know who may be in or out of this tunnel this evening. we don't want to walkbang into somebody.'

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so they said nothing at all, but kept close to one another in single file, walking at the side of thetrack.

they had not gone more than a quarter of a mile before julian stopped suddenly. the othersbumped into one another, and timmy gave a little whine as somebody trod on his paw. george'shand went down to his collar at once.

the four of them and timmy listened, hardly daring to breathe. somebody was coming up thetunnel towards them! they could see the pin-point of a torch, and hear the distant crunch offootsteps.

'other way, quick!' whispered julian, and they all turned. with jock leading them now, theymade their way as quickly and quietly as they could back to the place where the two tunnels met.

they passed it and went on towards kilty's yard, hoping to get out that way.

but alas for their hopes, a lantern stood some way down the tunnel there, and they did not dare togo on.

there might be nobody with the lantern-on the other hand there might. what were they to do?

'they'll see that hole in the wall is open!' suddenly said dick. 'we left it open. they'll knowwe've escaped then. we're caught again! they'll come down to find us, and here we'll be!'

they stood still, pressed close together, timmy growling a little in his throat. then georgeremembered something!

'julian! dick! we could climb up that vent that i came down,' she whispered. 'the one poor oldtimmy fell down. have we time?'

'where is the vent?' said julian, urgently. 'quick find it.'

george tried to remember. yes, it was on the other side of the tunnel - near the place where thetwo tunnels met. she must look for the pile of soot. how she hoped the little light from her torchwould not be seen. whoever was coming up from olly's yard must be almost there by now!

she found the pile of soot that timmy had fallen into. 'here it is,' she whispered. 'but, oh julian!

how can we take timmy?'

'we can't,' said julian, 'we must hope he'll manage to hide and then slink out of the tunnel byhimself. he's quite clever enough.'

he pushed george up the vent first and her feet found the first rungs. then jock went up, hisnose almost on george's heels. then dick - and last of all, julian. but before he managed toclimb the first steps, something happened.

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a bright glare filled the tunnel, as someone switched on the light that hung there. timmy slunkinto the shadows and growled in his throat. then there came a shout.

'who's opened the hole in the wall? it's open! who's there?'

it was mr. andrews's voice. then came another voice, angry and loud: 'who's here? who'sopened this place?'

'those kids can't have moved the lever,' said mr. andrews. 'we bound them up tightly.'

the men, three of them, went quickly through the hole in the wall. julian climbed up the firstfew rungs thankfully. poor timmy was left in the shadows at the bottom.

out came the men at a run. 'they've gone! their ropes are cut! how could they have escaped?

we put kit down one end of the tunnel and we've been walking up this end. those kids must beabout here somewhere.'

'or hiding in the caves,' said another voice. 'peters, go and look, while we hunt here.'

the men hunted everywhere. they had no idea that the vent was nearby in the wall. they did notsee the dog that slunk by them like a shadow, keeping out of their way, and lying downwhenever the light from a torch came near him.

george climbed steadily, feeling with her feet for the iron nails whenever she came to brokenrungs. then she came to a stop. something was pressing on her head. what was it? she put upher hand to feel. it was the collection of broken iron bars that timmy had fallen on that morning.

he had dislodged some of them, and they had then fallen in such a way that they had lodgedacross the vent, all twined into each other. george could climb no higher. she tried to move thebars, but they were heavy and strong - besides, she was afraid she might bring the whole lot ontop of her and the others. they might be badly injured then.

'what's up, george? why don't you go on?' asked jock, who was next.

'there's some iron bars across the vent - ones that must have fallen when timmy fell,' saidgeorge. 'i can't go any higher! i daren't pull too hard at the bars.'

jock passed the message to dick, and he passed it down to julian. the four of them came to afull-stop!

'blow!' said julian. 'i wish i'd gone up first. what are we to do now?'

what indeed? the four of them hung there in the darkness, hating the smell of the sooty old vent,miserably uncomfortable on the broken rungs and nails.

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'how do you like adventures now, jock?' asked dick. 'i bet you wish you were in your own bedat home!'

'i don't!' said jock. 'i wouldn't miss this for worlds! i always wanted an adventure - and i'm notgrumbling at this one!'