Five Go Off In A Caravan Chapter Twenty-One DICK HAS A GREAT IDEA!（在线收听）

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 caravans, 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 hop 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, ramming them in with all his strength, and then rolled some  heavy  stones  on  top?  He  couldn't  move  the  caravan  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, lugging them into place, panting and puffing. 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, sniffing 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,'  growled  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  chimp  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 wagon down the track.

They  got  a  terrible  shock  when  they  found  that  the  hole  was  closed.  Lou  shone  his  torch upwards, 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 budge 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 wading 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 growl. 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 catching 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 ferociously, and Pongo made a most peculiar 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 interfering. 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 spoke 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?'