Five on a Secret Trail (11 page)

„We"ve had no breakfast. We"ve been up for ages, and it"s very late. I"m simply starving!"

said George.

„Well, if we finish up all the food, we shan"t have to carry the tins!" said Dick. „Let"s have a meal. Ten minutes more here can"t make much difference."

They were thankful not to have to sit under the gorse-bush again. They sat outside in the sun, and discussed everything.

„I believe when Timmy began to growl and growl about six o"clock this morning, it was because he could hear those people coming quietly by to go to search the camp," said George.

„I think you"re right," said Julian. „I bet they searched the camp wel - til Guy woke and came on the scene and fought like fury. It"s a pity I didn"t squeeze out from under the bush and follow them, when Timmy growled."

„Anyone want a drink?" said George. „I"l go and fetch some water from the spring.

Where"s the pineapple tin?"

Anne passed it to her. George got up and took the little rabbit-path that led to the spring.

She could hear it gurgling and bubbling as she came near - a very pleasant noise.

„Water always sounds nice," said George to herself. „I love the sound of water."

Water! Now why did that ring a bel in her mind just then? Who had been talking about water? Oh - Dick and Julian, of course, when they had come back from the old cottage last night. They had told Anne and herself about the word on the plan - the word that might have been WATER, not WADER.

„I wonder which it was," said George to herself as she idly held the pineapple tin to the gurgling water. She gazed at the beautiful little spring, jutting up from the stony slabs - and then another bel rang loudly in her mind.

„Stone slabs! Water! Why - I wonder - I just wonder - if one of these slabs is the one! This one just here is about the right size!"

She stared at it. It was set firmly in a high little bank at the back of the place where the spring gurgled up and then ran into the clean stony channel. Did it hide anything behind it?

George suddenly dropped the tin and ran back to the others at ful speed. „Julian! Julian!

I believe I"ve found the slab! It"s been staring us in the face the whole time!"

Julian was very startled. So were the others. They stared up at George in astonishment.

„What do you mean, George?" said Julian, jumping to his feet. „Show me!"

Followed by everyone, George ran back to the spring. She pointed to the white slab behind the water. „There!" she said. „That"s the right size, isn"t it? And it"s beside WATER -

just as it said in the plan you told us about - only the people thought it was WADER."

„Gosh - I wonder if you"re right, George," said Julian, excited. „You might be - you never know. Sometimes springs come from underground passages - secret, hidden ways into the earth."

„Let"s try and move it," said Dick, his face red with sudden excitement. „It looks pretty hefty to me."

They began to struggle with the stone, getting extremely wet as they splashed about in the spring. But nobody minded that. This was too exciting for words. Harry helped too, heaving and tugging. He was very strong indeed.

The stone slab moved a little. It slid to one side and stuck. More tugging. More pulling.

More panting and puffing!

„I believe we"ll have to get help," said Julian at last. „It real y is too heavy and wel -

embedded."

„I"l go and get some of my tools," said Harry. „I"m used to heaving stones about with them.

We can easily move it if we have the right tools."

He flew off at top speed. The others sat down and mopped their streaming foreheads.

„Phew!" said Julian. „What a job this is for a hot day! I"m glad Harry remembered his tools.

Just what we want!"

„How queer that he and Guy are twins!" said George. „I never even thought of such a thing!"

„Well, they behaved so idiotically," said Julian. „Always pretending there was just one of them, and neither of them even mentioning the other. I wonder where Guy has been taken to. I don"t think he"ll come to much harm - but it wil be worrying to his people."

„Here comes Harry," said Anne, after a pause. „One of us ought to have gone with him to help him. He"s brought dozens of tools!"

The things he had fetched proved very useful indeed, especial y a big jemmy-like tool. The stone soon began to move when this was applied by Julian and Harry!

„It"s slipping - it"s coming away - look out, it wil fal right down into the spring!" cried Dick.

„Look out, you girls!"

The stone was prised right out, and fel into the stony channel where the water ran. The five children stared at the opening it left.

Julian leaned forward and looked into it. „Yes - there"s a big hole behind," he said. „Let me shine my torch in."

In great excitement he flashed his torch into the opening. He turned round, his face glowing.

„Yes! I think we"ve got it! There"s a tunnel behind, going down and down. It widens out behind this hole!"

Everyone was too thril ed for words. George gave Dick a punch, and Anne patted Timmy so hard that he whined. Harry beamed round, all his woes forgotten.

„Do we go down now?" asked Dick. „We"ll have to make the opening a bit wider. Earth and roots have narrowed it very much. Let"s make it bigger."

„Then we"ll explore it!" said George, her eyes shining. „A secret tunnel only known to us!

Quick - let"s explore it!"

Al the children were so excited that they got into each other"s way. Julian pushed them back.

„Let"s be sensible! We can"t al make the opening wider - let Harry and me get at it with the tools - and we"l soon make it bigger!"

It took only a minute to hack away at the sides of the hole to make it big enough for even Julian to climb through. He stood there panting, smiling broadly.

„There - it"s done! I"l get in first. Everyone got torches? We shall need them! It"s going to be dark in there!"

He clambered up and into the hole. He had to crawl on hands and knees for a little way, and then the hole suddenly went downwards and became considerably bigger. Julian could walk in it, if he bent down, for at that point the tunnel was about three feet high.

He cal ed back to the others. „Follow me! Take hold of each other"s coats or jerseys and hang on. It"s as dark as pitch in here!"

George followed after Julian, then Anne, then Dick, then Harry. Timmy went with George, of course, pushing and shoving like all the rest. Everyone was excited, and nobody could talk in a normal voice. They all shouted!

„I"l give you a hand! One good shove and you"re in!"

„I say - isn"t it dark!"

„What a crawl! I feel like a fox going into its den!"

„Timmy, don"t butt me from behind like that! I can"t crawl any faster!"

„Ah - thank goodness I can stand up now! What size of rabbit do you think made this burrow!"

„It was made by water at some time perhaps. Don"t shove, Timmy!"

„Water doesn"t run uphil , ass! Hang on to my coat, Harry. Don"t get left behind."

Julian, bent almost double at times, walked careful y along the narrow tunnel, which went steadily downwards. Soon it widened and became higher, and then it was easier to walk in comfort.

„Do you suppose this is the right secret way?" cal ed George, after a time. „We don"t seem to be getting anywhere."

„I can"t tell. In fact we shan"t know til we find something hidden somewhere - if we ever do!"

A sudden scuttering noise in front of him made Julian stop suddenly. Immediately everyone bumped into the one in front, and there were shouts at once.

„What"s up, Ju?"

Julian"s torch shone on to two pairs of bright, frightened eyes. He gave a laugh.

„It"s al right - just a couple of rabbits using our burrow! There are smal holes running out of the tunnel which, I imagine, are rabbit burrows. I bet we"re giving the bunnies a shock!"

The tunnel wound about a good deal, and then suddenly the rather soft ground they were treading on turned to rock. The passage was now not so high, and the children had to bend down again. It was most uncomfortable.

Julian stopped once more. He had heard another sound. What was it?

„Water!" he said. „There must be an underground stream here! How thril ing! Everyone al right?"

„Yes!" shouted those behind him. „Get on, Julian - let"s see the water!"

The tunnel suddenly ended, and Julian found himself in a big cave with a fairly high roof.

Almost in the middle of it ran a stream - not a very big one, and not a very fast one. It gurgled along in a small channel of rock, which it had carved out for itself through hundreds of years.

Julian shone his torch on it. The water looked very black and glittered in the light of the torch. The others came one by one out of the tunnel and stared at the underground stream. It looked rather mysterious, slipping through the cave, gurgling quietly as it disappeared through a hole at one end,

„Queer," said Dick.

„It"s not unusual, this," began Harry. „In some parts of the country round about here, the ground below our feet is honeycombed with little streams. Some come up as springs, of course, some join other streams when they come out into the open, others just run away goodness knows where!"

Julian was looking up round the cave. „Does our tunnel end here?" he wondered. „Is the where we have to look for whatever is hidden?"

„We"ll have a look round the cave and see if there are any exits," said Dick. Using their torches the five separated, Timmy keeping close to George, not seeming in the least surprised at this underground adventure.

„I"ve found another tunnel over here, leading out of the cave!" called Dick. No sooner had he said that than Anne called out too.

„There"s one here as well!"

„Now - which do we take?" said Julian. „How annoying that there should be two!"

„Would the fel ow - what"s his name - Paul - have marked the correct underground way on his plan?" said George. „I mean - I don"t see how he could possibly expect either himself or anyone else to find what he had hidden, if there are numbers of passages to choose from down here!"

„You"re right!" said Julian. „Let"s look about and see if we can find anything to help us."

It wasn"t long before Dick gave another shout. „It"s al right! This is the passage to take, over here - the one I found just now. There"s an arrow drawn in white chalk on the wal ."

Everyone crowded over to Dick, stepping across the little stream as they did so. Dick held his torch up and they all saw the white arrow, drawn roughly on the wall.

Julian was pleased. „Good. That helps a lot! It shows we"re going the right way - and that this is the secret way that Paul chose. Come on!"

They entered the tunnel, left the little stream behind, and went on again. „Anyone got any idea in which direction we"re going?" called Dick. „East, west, north, south?"

Harry had a compass. He looked at it. „I think we"re going rather in the direction of the old Roman camp," he said.

„Ah - that"s interesting," said Julian. „This tunnel was probably used in olden times."

„Guy and I have seen the plan of the camp as it probably used to be," said Harry. „And there are plenty of tunnels and caves and holes shown on it - just roughed in, not a proper plan of them. Gosh - I never thought I"d be exploring one! My father warned me not to, in case of roof-fal s and things like that."

The tunnel suddenly forked into two. One passage was nice and wide, the other narrow.

Julian took the wide one, thinking that the other was real y too narrow to get through. Rut after a minute of two, he stopped, puzzled.

„There"s a blank wall of rock here - the tunnel"s ended! We"ll have to turn back! I suppose we should have taken that very narrow opening."

They went back, Harry leading the way now. Timmy suddenly took it into his head that he would like to lead, too, and made himself a real nuisance, pushing his way between everyone"s legs!

They came back to the fork. Harry shone his torch in at the second opening, the very narrow one. There, clearly marked on the right hand wall, was a white arrow in chalk!

„We"re idiots," said Dick. „We don"t even look for the sign-posts! Lead the way, Julian!"

This tunnel was very narrow indeed, and had rough, jutting rocky sides. There were loud

„Aahs!" and „Oohs!" as elbows and ankles were knocked against hard rock.

And then again there came a blank wall of rock in front of Julian, and again he had to stop!

„Can"t go this way either!" he said. „There"s a blank wall again - this is a blind al ey too!"

There were cries of dismay at once.

„Blow! It can"t be!"

„What"s gone wrong! Look all round, Ju - flash your torch down at your feet and above your head!"

Julian shone his torch over his head, and gave an exclamation.

„There"s a hole above my head!"

„Is there a white arrow anywhere?" called Harry.

„Yes! And it"s pointing up, instead of forwards!" called back Julian. „We"re stil al right -

we"ve got to go upwards now - but how?"

George, who was just behind him, shone her torch on the side-wal s. „Look!" she said. „We can easily get up to the hole. There are rough, natural steps up - made by ledges of rock.

Look, Julian!"

„Yes," said Julian. „We can manage to get up quite easily, I think. George, you go first - I"l give you a boost up."

George was delighted to go first. She put her torch between her teeth, and began to climb up the ledges, Julian pushing her as best he could. She came to the hole and immediately saw that it would be quite easy to hoist herself through.

„One more boost and I"ll be through!" she cal ed to Julian. And with one last heave George, was up, rolling on the floor of a smal cave above! She called down in excitement to the others.

„I believe this is the place where those things are hidden! I can see something on a ledge.

Oh, do buck up!"

The others fol owed eagerly. Dick slipped off the rocky ledges in his excitement and almost squashed poor Harry as he fel on him. However, everyone was up at last, even Timmy, who was the most difficult of al to heave through! He seemed to have far too many vigorous legs!