Five Go Off In A Caravan Chapter Twenty-One DICK HAS A GREAT IDEA!

Chapter Twenty-One DICK HAS A GREAT IDEA!

'Listen,' said Dick, in an urgent voice. 'It may be Pongo by himself - he may not have gone back to the camp at all - he may have wandered about and at last gone down the entrance-hole by the caravans², and come up behind Tiger Dan. If so he won't have much chance because Lou's got a gun and will shoot him. And we shan't  be rescued. So  I'm  going to  slip down the tunnel while there's a chance and hide in the big cave.'

'What good will that do?' said Julian.

'Well, idiot, I may be able to slip down into the passage that leads to the entrance-hole and hop³ out without the others seeing me,' said Dick, getting up. 'Then I can fetch help, see? You'd better all  clear  off  somewhere  and  hide  -  find  a  good  place,  Julian,  in  case  the  men  come  after  you when they find one of us is gone. Go on.'

Without another word the boy began to walk down the tunnel, past the rocky shelf on which now very few goods were left, and then came to the enormous cave.

Here there was a great noise going on, for Pongo appeared to have got hold of both men at once!

Their  torches  were  out,  and  Lou  did  not  dare  to  shoot  for  fear  of  hurting  Dan.  Dick  could  see very  little  of  this;  he  could  only  hear  snarlings  and  shouting.  He  took  a  wide  course  round  the heaving  heap  on  the  floor  and  made  his  way  as  quickly  as  he  could  in  the  dark  to  where  he thought  the  hole  was  that  led  down  into  the  first  passage.  He  had  to  go  carefully  for  fear  of falling down it. He found it at last and let himself down into the cave below, and then, thinking it safe to switch on his torch in the passage he flashed it in front of him to show him the way.

It  wasn't  long  before  he  was  out  of  the  hole  and  was  speeding  round  the  caravans.  Then  he stopped.  A  thought  struck  him.  He  could  fetch  help  all  right  -  but  the  men  would  be  gone  by then! They had laid their plans for a getaway with all the goods; there was no doubt about that.

Suppose he put the boards over the hole, ramming⁴ them in with all his strength, and then rolled some  heavy  stones  on  top?  He  couldn't  move  the  caravan¹  over  the  boards,  for  it  was  far  too heavy for a boy to push. But heavy stones would probably do the trick. The men would imagine that it was the caravan overhead again!

In great excitement Dick put back the boards, lugging⁵ them into place, panting and puffing⁶. Then he flashed his  torch round for stones. There were several  small  rocks nearby. He could  not  lift 96

them, but he managed to roll them to the boards. Plonk! They went on to them one by one. Now nobody could move the boards at all.

'I know I've shut the others in with the men,' thought Dick. 'But I hope Julian will find a very safe hiding-place just for a time. Gosh, I'm hot! Now, down the hill I go - and I hope I don't lose my way in the darkness!'

Down below, the two men had at last freed themselves from the angry chimpanzee. They were badly  bitten  and  mauled,  but  Pongo  was  not  as  strong  and  savage  as  usual  because  of  his  bad head-wound. The men were able to drive him off at last, and he went limping in the direction of the tunnel, sniffing⁸ out the children.

He would certainly have been shot if Lou could have found his revolver quickly enough. But he could not find it in the dark. He felt about for his torch, and found that although it was damaged, he could still put on the light by knocking it once or twice on the ground. He shone it on to Dan.

'We  ought  to  have  looked  out  for  that  ape  when  we  saw  he  was  gone,'  growled¹⁰  Dan.  'He  had bitten his rope through. We might have known he was somewhere about. He nearly did for me, leaping on me like that out of the darkness. It was lucky he flung himself on to my sack and not me.'

'Let's get the last of the things and clear out,' said Lou, who was badly shaken up. 'There's only one  more  load.  We'll  get  back  to  the  tunnel,  scare  the  life  out  of  those  kids  once  more,  shoot Pongo if we can, and then clear out. We'll chuck a few tins of food down the hole and then close it up.'

'I'm  not  going  to  risk  meeting  that  chimp⁷  again,'  said  Dan.  'We'll  leave  the  rest  of  the  things.

Come on. Let's go.'

Lou was not particularly anxious to see Pongo again either. Keeping his torch carefully switched on and his revolver ready, he followed Dan to the hole that led down to the first cave. Down they went, and then along the passage, eager to get out into the night and go with their wagon¹¹ down the track.

They  got  a  terrible  shock  when  they  found  that  the  hole  was  closed.  Lou  shone  his  torch upwards¹², and  gazed in  amazement at  the underside of the boards. Someone had put  them back into place again. They were prisoners now!

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Tiger  Dan  went  mad.  One  of  his  furious  rages  overtook  him,  and  he  hammered  against  those boards like a mad-man. But the heavy stones held them down, and the raging man dropped down beside Lou.

'Can't budge¹³ the boards! Someone must have put the caravan overhead again. We're prisoners!'

'But who's made us prisoners? Who's put back those boards?' shouted Lou, almost beside himself with fury. 'Could those kids have slipped by us when we were having that fight with the chimp?'

'We'll go and see if the kids are still there,' said  Tiger Dan, grimly. 'We'll find out. We'll make them very, very sorry for themselves. Come on.'

The two men went back again to the tunnel. The children were not there. Julian had taken Dick's advice  and  had  gone  off  to  try  and  find  a  good  hiding-place.  He  had  suddenly  thought  that perhaps  Dick  might  get  the  idea  of  shutting  up  the  entrance-hole  -  in  which  case  the  two  men would certainly be furious!

So up the tunnel the children went,  and into the  cave with the stream.  It  seemed impossible to find any hiding-place there at all.

'I don't see where we can hide,' said Julian, feeling rather desperate. 'It's no good wading¹⁴ down that stream again - we shall only get wet and cold - and we have no escape from there at all if the men should come after us!'

'I can hear something,' said George, suddenly. 'Put your light out, Julian - quick!'

The torch was snapped off, and the children waited in the darkness. Timmy didn't growl⁹. Instead George felt that he was wagging his tail.

'It's someone friendly,' she whispered. 'Over there. Perhaps it's Pongo. Put the torch on again.'

The light flashed out, and picked out the chimpanzee, who was coming towards them across the cave. Nobby gave a cry of joy.

'Here's old Pongo again!' he said. 'Pongo, did you go to the camp? Did you bring help?'

'No - he hasn't been down to the camp,' said Julian, his eyes catching¹⁵ sight of the note still tied round the chimpanzee's neck. There's our letter still on him. Blow!'

'He's clever - but not clever enough to understand a difficult errand like that,' said George.

'Oh, Pongo - and we were depending on you! Never mind - perhaps Dick will escape and bring help. Julian, where shall we hide?'

'Up the stream?' suddenly said Anne. 'We've tried going down it. But we haven't tried going up it. Do you think it would be any good?'

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'We could see,' said Julian, doubtfully. He didn't like this business of wading through water that might suddenly get deep. 'I'll shine my torch up the stream and see what it looks like.'

He went to the stream and shone his light up the tunnel from which it came. 'It seems as if we might  walk  along  the  ledge  beside  it,'  he  said.  'But  we'd  have  to  bend  almost  double  -  and  the water runs so fast just here we must be careful not to slip and fall in.'

'I'll  go  first,'  said  Nobby.  'You  go  last,  Julian.  The  girls  can  go  in  the  middle  with  Pongo  and Timmy.'

He  stepped  on  to  the  narrow  ledge  inside  the  rocky  tunnel,  just  above  the  rushing  water.  Then came Pongo. Then Anne, then George and Timmy - and last of all Julian.

But just as Julian was disappearing, the two men came into the cave, and by chance Lou's torch shone right on to the vanishing Julian. He gave a yell.

'There's one of them - look, over there! Come on!'

The men ran to where the stream came out of the tunnel, and Lou shone his torch up it. He saw the line of children, with Julian last of all. He grabbed hold of the boy and pulled him back.

Anne  yelled  when  she  saw  Julian  being  pulled  back.  Nobby  had  a  dreadful  shock.  Timmy growled ferociously¹⁶, and Pongo made a most peculiar¹⁷ noise.

'Now  look  here,'  came  Lou's  voice,  'I've  got  a  gun,  and  I'm  going  to  shoot  that  dog  and  that chimp if they so much as put their noses out of here. So hang on to them if you want to save their lives!'

He passed Julian to Tiger Dan, who gripped the boy firmly by the collar. Lou shone his torch up the  tunnel  again  to  count  the  children.  'Ho,  there's  Nobby,'  he  said.  'You  come  on  out  here, Nobby.'

'If I do, the chimp will come out too,' said Nobby. 'You know that. And he may get  you before you get him!'

Lou thought about that. He was afraid of the big chimpanzee. 'You stay up there with him, then,'

he said. 'And the girl can stay with you, holding the dog. But the other boy can come out here.'

He thought that George was a boy. George didn't mind. She liked people to think she was a boy.

She answered at once.

'I can't come. If I do the dog will follow me, and I'm not going to have him shot.'

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'You  come  on  out,'  said  Lou,  threateningly.  'I'm  going  to  show  you  two  boys  what  happens  to kids who keep spying and interfering¹⁸. Nobby knows what happens, don't you, Nobby? He's had his lesson. And you two boys are going to have yours, too.'

Dan  called  to  him.  There  ought  to  be  another  girl  there,  Lou.  I  thought  Nobby  said  there  were two boys and two girls. Where's the other girl?'

'Gone further up the tunnel, I suppose,' said Lou, trying to see. 'Now, you boy - come on out!'

Anne began to cry. 'Don't go, George; don't go. They'll hurt you. Tell them you're a . . .'

'Shut up,' said George, fiercely. She added, in a whisper: 'If I say I'm a girl they'll know Dick is missing, and will be all the angrier. Hang on to Timmy.'

Anne clutched Timmy's collar in her trembling hand. George began to walk back to the cave. But Julian  was  not  going  to  let  George  be  hurt.  She  might  like  to  think  of  herself  as  a  boy,  but  he wasn't going to let her be treated like one. He began to struggle.

Lou  caught  hold  of  George  as  she  came  out  of  the  tunnel  -  and  at  the  same  moment  Julian managed to kick high in the air, and knocked Lou's torch right out of his hand. It flew up into the roof of the cave and fell somewhere with a crash. It went out. Now the cave was in darkness.

'Get back into the tunnel, George, with Anne,' yelled Julian. 'Timmy, Timmy, come on! Pongo, come here!'

'I don't want Timmy to be shot!' cried out George, in terror, as the dog shot past her into the cave.

Even as she spoke¹⁹ a shot rang out. It was Lou, shooting blindly at where he thought Timmy was.

George screamed.

'Oh, Timmy, Timmy! You're not hurt, are you?' 

1 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

2 caravans   

（可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队）

参考例句：

• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles that are pulled by horses. 旧式的吉卜赛大篷车是由马拉的涂了颜色的木质车辆。
• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles. 旧时的吉普赛大篷车是涂了颜色的木质车辆。

3 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

4 ramming   

n.打结炉底v.夯实（土等）( ram的现在分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• They are ramming earth down. 他们在夯实泥土。 来自辞典例句
• Father keeps ramming it down my throat that I should become a doctor. 父亲一直逼我当医生。 来自辞典例句

5 lugging   

超载运转能力

参考例句：

• I would smile when I saw him lugging his golf bags into the office. 看到他把高尔夫球袋拖进办公室，我就笑一笑。 来自辞典例句
• As a general guide, S＄1 should be adequate for baggage-lugging service. 一般的准则是，如有人帮你搬运行李，给一新元就够了。 来自互联网

6 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 chimp   

n.黑猩猩

参考例句：

• In fact,the color of gorilla and chimp are light-color.其实大猩猩和黑猩猩的肤色是较为浅的。
• The chimp is the champ.猩猩是冠军。

8 sniffing   

n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说

参考例句：

• We all had colds and couldn't stop sniffing and sneezing. 我们都感冒了，一个劲地抽鼻子，打喷嚏。
• They all had colds and were sniffing and sneezing. 他们都伤风了，呼呼喘气而且打喷嚏。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

9 growl   

v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣

参考例句：

• The dog was biting,growling and wagging its tail.那条狗在一边撕咬一边低声吼叫，尾巴也跟着摇摆。
• The car growls along rutted streets.汽车在车辙纵横的街上一路轰鸣。

10 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

12 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

13 budge   

v.移动一点儿；改变立场

参考例句：

• We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来，但它连动都没动一下。
• She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。

14 wading   

（从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The man tucked up his trousers for wading. 那人卷起裤子，准备涉水。
• The children were wading in the sea. 孩子们在海水中走着。

15 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

16 ferociously   

野蛮地，残忍地

参考例句：

• The buck shook his antlers ferociously. 那雄鹿猛烈地摇动他的鹿角。
• At intervals, he gritted his teeth ferociously. 他不时狠狠的轧平。

17 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

18 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

19 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。