Five Get Into a Fix (16 page)

Not the roar of the torrent in the underground tunnel. Not the roar of the strange rumbling mine. No - the roar of a giant voice, that crashed out of the tunnel, and echoed round the cave.

It was Morgan"s enormous voice. Morgan, calling the names of his seven great dogs! The children listened in amazement at this unbelievable voice.

“DAI! BOB! TANG! COME TO ME! DOON! JOLL! RAFE! HAL!”

The names echoed round and round the cave, and it seemed as if the place was full of giant voices. Aily, who was used to hearing the dogs called, didn"t turn a hair - but the others crouched back in amazement at the sound of such a voice. Surely no one in al the world had ever shouted so loudly before!

“DAI! DAI! RAFE! RAFE!”

The great voice boomed again and again, seeming to be louder each time. At first Llewel yn Thomas, the boss, was taken aback - but then he laughed sneeringly.

“Does he think he can get his dogs up from the beach?” he said. “Al that way down the tunnel. He"s mad! Let him be!”

Then again the great voice roared out the names of the seven dogs belonging to Morgan and the shepherd.

“DAI! BOB! TANG! DOON! JOLL! RAFE! HAL!”

At the last name, Morgan"s voice seemed to crack. The shepherd raised his head in dismay. Morgan had over-strained that great voice of his, and no wonder. No megaphone could possibly have been louder!

There was silence after that. Morgan called no more. Neither did he appear again. The children felt scared and depressed, and Aily began to whimper.

The curious shuddering vibration began to creep into everything again, and the boss turned sharply, giving some more orders. Two of the men ran to the tunnel at the back of the cave and disappeared. Then things took on a curious shimmer, as if a heat-haze had spread everywhere, and it began to feel very warm in the cave.

Suddenly something happened. At first it sounded far-off in the distance, a confused noise that made Tirnmy tug at his col ar again and prick his ears. He barked, and the man who was holding him hit him.

“What"s that noise?” said Llewellyn Thomas, sharply, looking all round. There was no telling where it came from. But it grew louder - and louder - and then suddenly Julian knew what it was!

It was the loud barking of seven angry dogs! The shepherd knew it too, and a glad smile came over his face. He glanced at Llewel yn to see if he recognised it as well.

Yes - the boss had certainly recognised that dreadful sound now. He could hardly believe it! Surely it was not possible that Morgan"s voice, enormous as it was, had echoed al the way down the tunnel, and been heard by the sharp, pricked-up ears of the dogs who loved him?

But so it was! Dai, the oldest dog, who loved his master more than any of them, had stood tense and listening ever since Morgan and the shepherd had left them. And, from somewhere far distant, echoing down to the end of the tunnel they were guarding, Dai had heard the faint echoes of his master"s beloved voice!

His bark had told the other dogs the news - and, led by Dai, they had all rushed up the rocky tunnel, sure-footed on the slippery, rocky path beside the racing river.

They came to Morgan, sitting beside the river, not far from the big cave, a little way down the tunnel. It was a moment of joy for Morgan and his dogs!

Dai soon snuffled at his hands and bit the ropes in half. Morgan was free!

“Down now - and hush!” commanded Morgan. He began to walk steadily back to the cave, then motioned the dogs before him.

“Attack!” he cried in Welsh.

And then, to the men"s horror, the seven dogs raced out of the tunnel at a great speed, barking, growling, snarling - with a triumphant Morgan behind them, so tall that he had to bend double to leave the tunnel.

The men fled, every one of them. Llewellyn had turned to run even before the dogs appeared, and was gone. Dai leapt at one man and got him down, and Tang leapt at another. The cave was fil ed with snarls and growls and excited barking.

Timmy delightedly joined in, for his captor had rushed away too. Even little Dave ran to join this wonderful fight, while the children stood amazed and thankful to see their enemy defeated!

“Who would have thought of this?” said Dick, sending the crates crashing down. “What an astounding thing! Hurrah for Morgan and his seven dogs!”

Morgan would not let the children stay underground any longer.

“We have things to do,” he said, in his deep voice, which sounded rather hoarse now.

“You wil go back to the farm and telephone to the police for me. You wil say „Morgan has won" and tell them to send a boat to the little creek I have already told them of.

There I wil bring these men all the way down the tunnel to the sea. Go now, at once.

Obey me this time, boy.”

“Yes, sir,” said Julian. This man was a hero! And he had thought him a vil ain! He was ready to obey his smal est command now. Then a thought struck him, and he turned back.

“The old woman,” he said. “Mrs. Thomas - that man"s mother. What about her? And we"ve locked the caretaker up in his room!”

“You wil not do anything but go to the farm and telephone,” said Morgan, sternly. “I wil do everything there is to be done. Take Aily with you to the farm. She must not be here.

Now go.”

And Julian went! He and the others took one last look round at the men, all pinioned by the dogs, lying stil and panic-stricken. Then, with Aily and her lamb and dog, he led the others up the tunnel again, and at last back into the cellars.

“I don"t like leaving that old lady up there, in the tower,” said Dick.

“No. But obviously Morgan has his plans,” said Julian, who was not going to disobey orders in any way this time. “I expect he has arranged something with the police. We can"t interfere now. We messed things up a bit, I"m afraid.”

They climbed soberly up to the place where they had left their toboggans. It took them some time, and they were beginning to feel very hungry. But Julian wouldn"t let them stop even to eat some sandwiches.

“No,” he said. “I"ve to telephone to the police as soon as ever I can. No stopping now!

We"ll munch our sandwiches on the way down to the farm.”

It wasn"t very dificult to get out of the pot-hole, for they had left the ropes dangling down.

Julian and Dick helped the two girls up by pushing them, and they in turn helped to pul up the boys from the top of the hole.

Aily scrambled up easily, swinging delightedly on a rope, and then flinging herself out of the hole. The lamb leapt up in a miraculous manner, and Julian handed Dave to the smal girl.

Timmy was hauled up in the same way as he had been let down. He had badly wanted to stay with the other dogs - but nothing would make him leave George!

“Well, that"s that,” said Julian, scrambling out last of al . “Now, let"s see. We could toboggan down this slope, and half-way up our own slope. That would save a lot of time.

Aily, you"re to come with us to the farm.”

“No,” said Aily.

“Yes, Aily bach,” said Julian. “I want you to.” He took her smal hand in his and she smiled her sudden little smile, quite content to go along with this big kind boy, even though she was afraid of going down to the farm for fear she should meet her mother.

“Aily good girl,” said Julian, setting the little thing on his toboggan. “Aily shall have big piece of chocolate at the farm!”

They tobogganed down the slope at a great speed without any mishap, and half-way up the opposite slope. It seemed queer to be out in the dazzling daylight after the dark tunnels underground. Their adventure below began to seem slightly unreal!

“We"ll leave the toboggans at the hut,” said Julian, as they dragged them up the rest of the slope. “Anyone thirsty? I am. I think it must be something to do with that mine - my mouth got as dry as anything as soon as we were down there.”

Everyone said the same.

“I"l run into the hut and pour out some orangeade,” said Anne. “You stack the toboggans in their place, Ju, and just see if there"s enough oil in the can out in the bunker - we"ll need to fil the stove tonight. And if there isn"t enough we must bring some up with us.”

Julian gave her the key of the hut and she unlocked it and went in with George. They poured orangeade into five cups, and drank thirstily. Their mouths were drier than they had ever been before! Anne felt thankful that she didn"t have to wait any longer for a drink.

“I think the roof of my mouth would have stuck to my tongue!” she said, putting down her cup. “That was lovely!”

“There"s plenty of oil,” reported Julian, coming to drink his orangeade. “My word - I needed this. I"d not like to work down in that mine.”

They locked the hut and set off down to the farm, munching their sandwiches hungrily.

They tasted very good indeed, and even Aily asked for one after another. Timmy had his share, and once they missed him, and had to stop and cal him.

“Has he lost his bit of meat in the snow?” wondered Anne. But no - he, like the rest of them, was suffering from a very dry mouth and was busy licking the snow, letting it melt in his mouth and trickle down his dry throat!

Mrs. Jones was most surprised to see them. When she heard Julian"s request to telephone to the police, she looked worried.

“It"s al right, Mrs. Jones,” said Julian, comfortingly. “It"s a message to them from Morgan.

Everything is fine. We"ll tell you what"s happened as soon as he comes home. He might not like us to say anything til then!”

The police did not seem at all surprised to hear Julian"s message - they appeared to be expecting it!

“We wil see to the matter,” said the sergeant, in his deep, stolid voice. “Thank you.” And he rang off at once. Julian wondered what would happen next - what had Morgan arranged?

They were pleased to see Mrs. Jones bringing in bowls of hot chicken soup, as they sat talking round the wood fire she had hurriedly lighted in the living-room.

“Oh! Just what we feel like!” said Anne, gratefully. “I"m stil awful y thirsty - aren"t you, George? And look, Timmy - there"s a nice meaty bone for you! You are kind, Mrs. Jones!”

“You know - I feel pretty awful about all this now,” said Julian. “We shouldn"t have interfered after Morgan said we weren"t to. I wish we hadn"t. He can"t think much of us!”

“I vote we al apologise humbly,” said Dick. “How could we have thought he was the vil ain of the piece? I know he"s dour and silent - but he didn"t look mean or cruel.”

“We"d better stay down here at the farm til Morgan comes back,” said George. “Quite apart from wanting to say I"m sorry, I"d like to know what happened!”

“So would I,” said Anne. “And Aily ought to wait for her father. He"l want to know that she"s safe.”

So they asked Mrs. Jones if they could stay til Morgan came home. She was delighted.

“Of course, now,” she said. “We"ve a roasting turkey today - and you shall come and sup with us in our room for a change!”

This al sounded rather good. The children gathered round their fire to talk, and Timmy rested his head on George"s knee. She looked at his neck.

“That man almost choked him,” she said. “Oh look, Julian - he"s bruised all round his poor neck!”

“Now don"t start moaning over Timmy"s neck again, for goodness" sake!” said Dick.

“Honestly, George, I"m sure Tim thinks the adventure was worth a bruised neck! He"s not grumbling. He was jol y brave, I think - and didn"t he enjoy himself when the other dogs rushed into the cave, and he joined in the fight!”

“I wonder what they"l do about that poor old woman,” said Anne. “She wil be glad her son is alive, I suppose - but what a shock for her to know he"s lied to her, and sold what is real y hers - that strange metal under the hil !”

“Well - I imagine it won"t be allowed to be sold now,” said Julian. “What a plan that was!

To get men up that tunnel to mine the stuff - and to send it down by rafts to waiting ships, hidden in that creek. We ought to go down and examine the creek - it would be interesting to see what sort of a place it is down there. It must be well hidden in a fold of the cliff, I should think.”

“Yes - let"s do that tomorrow,” said George, thrilled. “I vote we stay here tonight. I feel tired after such an adventure! Don"t you?”

“I do a bit,” said Julian. “Well - I suppose there won"t be quite so much shuddering and shimmering and rumbling now! Funny that that hil should always have been so queer, isn"t it - „ploughs that wil not plough, spades that wil not dig!" Must be some kind of iron, I suppose, that magnetises things. Oh wel - it"s all beyond me!”

Morgan came back with the shepherd when it was dark. Julian went straight up to the burly farmer.

“We want to apologise for being such idiots,” he said. “We shouldn"t have interfered after what you said.”

Morgan gave a broad smile. He seemed to be in a very good humour indeed.

“Forget it, boy,” he said. “Al "s wel now. The police came up the river tunnel, and all the men are safe in jail. Llewellyn Thomas is a sad man tonight. His mother is free and is staying with friends - poor lady, she doesn"t understand what has happened, and that is as wel .

And maybe now the right people wil get that strange metal - it"s worth a hundred times its weight in gold!”

“Come you in to your supper, Morgan bach, and shepherd too!” said Mrs. Jones, in her lilting voice. “The children too are coming. We"ve a roasting turkey - it"s your birthday, Morgan boy!”

“Well there now, I didn"t know it!” said Morgan and gave his mother such a hug that she squealed. “Let"s go in to the turkey. I"ve had nothing al day.”

Soon they were al sitting down before the most enormous turkey that the children had ever seen in their lives! Morgan carved it swiftly. Then he said something to his mother in Welsh and she smiled and nodded.

“Yes, you do that,” she said.

Morgan col ected some slices of turkey on a big enamel dish, and then went to the door that led from the living-room into the farmyard. He roared loudly and the children jumped.

What a voice!

“DAI! TANG! BOB! DOON! JOLL! RAFE! HAL!”