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her heart sinking like lead. "Oh, I don't want to go down into that
horrid mountain again! We might lose our way. We might get caught!"
"We'll have to try, I'm afraid, Lucy-Ann," said Bill. "Never mind
 I'm here to protect you now. And after all it's the middle of the
night, and nobody is likely to be about."
"If only that helicopter would go properly!" said Jack. "It's a piece
of real bad luck that it won't. It's such a giveaway too. As soon as
anyone sees it, they'll know something's up and will come to look for
us."
"All the more reason why we should get a move on now," said Bill.
"Come on. Gosh, what's this banging against me? Oh, it's you, Snowy.
Well, if you come too, you'll have to keep at our heels or you'll give
the game away! By the way  where's Kiki? I haven't seen or heard her
tonight."
"We don't know where she is," said Jack miserably. "We haven't seen
her for days  not since we were captured. She may be caged somewhere
 or hiding in the mountain  or even killed!"
"Oh, no!" said Lucy-Ann. "Don't say that. Kiki's too clever to let
herself be captured. Perhaps we'll find her tonight!"
"Where's the way out of this place?" asked Bill, switching on his
torch. "Over there? Are there steps that go down into the mountain?
Well, come on then. Every minute is precious now."
They left the damaged helicopter in the yard and went towards the
stone steps that led down into the mountain. Lucy-Ann shivered.
"I hoped I'd not go down there again! Take my hand, Bill, I'm scared!"
 Chapter 26
FLIGHT THROUGH THE MOUNTAIN
SOON they were right down inside the mountain. They had passed Jack's
cave, passed by the stores, and gone down the steep spiral stairway,
cut in the rock.
It was very difficult to choose the right way to go, because all the
dim lamps that lighted the passages were out. It was quite dark
everywhere. Bill's powerful torch sent a bright ray in front of them,
but he had to use it cautiously in case someone saw the light, and was
warned of their coming.
There was a lot of standing still and listening, a good deal of
argument on Jack's part and Dinah's about the right way to go. Bill
was very patient, but his voice was urgent as he told them to think
hard and choose the right way.
"If we followed Snowy, we'd probably go right," said Lucy-Ann at last.
"He would know the way."
"Well  but he doesn't know where we want to go," said Jack. "I mean,
if he knew we wanted to go to the rope-ladder cave, he could lead us
there all right  but we can't make him understand that."
They ended up in being completely lost. They found themselves in a
dark tunnel, with a very high roof that none of the children recognised
at all.
Bill began to feel desperate. If only he had been able to land without
damage, this long trek through dark, unknown passages wouldn't have
been necessary.
They went down very deep, and, quite suddenly, came out on to the
high gallery that overlooked the pit. Bill drew in his breath sharply
when he saw the mass of brilliance suddenly showing when the curious
floor slid back for a moment. He and the children felt the strange feeling
of lightness at once, but it passed immediately the floor slid over
the glowing mass again.
There was nobody in the pit. Apparently the floor worked
automatically by machinery of some kind, though there was none to be
seen. That was the curious part of the works in the mountain  there
was no heavy machinery anywhere. Whatever power was used was not conveyed
by iron or steel machines, and there was little noise except for the
heavy rumbling that sounded before the shaking of the earth.
"There's obviously some metal in this mountain that can be used for
that fellow's experiments," said Bill. "Some rare metal or other  like
uranium, which is used for splitting the atom. There are a few mountains
in the world which contain various rare metals  but usually they are
mined for it and the stuff is taken out. In this case they haven't mined
it  they are using it where it is! It's possible that they have to
do that  in order to use the enormous thickness of the rocks in the
mountain to protect the outer world from whatever rays they are
experimenting with. Very ingenious!"
"I think we know the way back now," said Jack, quite thankful at having
found some place they recognised, even though it was the frightening
pit!
He pointed behind them, up the wide, uphill passage that he knew went
up and up for a long way. Bill switched his torch on it. "Is that the
way?" he said. "Well, come along then."
They went up the wide, steep passage. They came to the narrow, twisty
little tunnel they had been in before and walked along till they came
to the fork.
"Left-hand fork," said Jack, and they took that. Bill was amazed to
see the beautiful silken hangings that decorated the walls further on,
and hung across the entrance to a cave.
Jack put his hand on Bill's arm. "That's the king's bedroom, beyond,"
he whispered. "Dinah, have you got Snowy? Don't let him rush on in front."
Bill tiptoed to the curtains and parted them. A dim light shone beyond.
Bill looked with interest into the king's bedroom  and then closed
the curtains quickly. He tiptoed back to the children.
"There's somebody lying on the couch there," he whispered. "An old
fellow with a colossal forehead."
 "That's the king of the mountain!" whispered back Jack. "The Great
Brain behind all these inventions. I think he is an absolute genius,
but quite mad."
"He seems to be asleep," said Bill. "Is there any way we can go round
this cave without waking him up?"
"No. I don't know of any," said Jack. "We've got to go through it,
and then through a cave where he eats his meals, and then into the
throne-room."
Bill thought for a moment. "We'll have to risk it then," he said.
"We'll go through the room one by one but for heaven's sake don't make
a sound!"
They went through the king's bedroom one at a time, hardly daring
to breathe. Dinah had tight hold of Snowy, praying that he wouldn't
bleat when he went through the room!
Fortunately there were very thick carpets on the floor, so it was
easy to make no sound. Lucy-Ann's heart beat so loudly as she tiptoed
across that she thought it must surely wake the king with a jump.
Then they were in the room where the long table had held so much lovely
food. But now it was empty and there was not so much as a dish of fruit
on it.
Then on to the throne-room  and outside this, behind the lovely
hangings patterned with the red dragons, the little company paused.
A curious noise came to their ears  was it snoring? What was it?
Bill peeped through the hangings very cautiously. He grinned. In the
throne-room, sitting or lying, were the paratroopers. A very long table
had been set down the middle, and on it were the remains of a lavish
supply of food and drink. Not a single man was awake!
"So that's where those fellows have been the last day or two!"
whispered Jack. "I wondered where they were. Gosh, they've fallen asleep
where they are  what a pretty sight!"
Bill fumbled about in the hangings they were looking through. He was
looking for a switch. He found one and whispered to the children. "Now
listen  I'm going to switch off the light so that we can get through
the hall without being seen. Keep close to one side of it and get through [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]