Five Get Into a Fix (14 page)

“It isn"t Matthew,” said Julian. “It"s us - we"ve come to set you free.”

The old woman turned at once, gaping in amazement. She got up and went over to the door, and the Five saw that she was trembling.

“Who are you? Let me out of that door before Matthew comes! Let me out, I tell you!”

She pushed by the four children and the dog, and then stood uncertainly in the passage.

“What shall I do? Where shal I go? Are those men here stil ?”

She went back into her room and sank down in her chair again, covering her face with her hands.

“I feel faint. Get me some water.”

Anne sprang to pour out a glass of water from a jug on a table. The old woman took it and drank it. She looked at Anne.

“Who are you? What is the meaning of this? Where is Matthew? Oh, I must be going mad!”

“Mrs. Thomas - you are Mrs. Thomas, aren"t you?” said Julian. “Little Aily, the shepherd"s daughter, brought us here. She knew you were locked up. You remember her mother, don"t you? She told us she used to come and wait on you.”

“Aily"s mother - Maggy - yes, yes. But what has Aily to do with this? I don"t believe it. It"s another trick. Where are the men who kil ed my son?”

Julian looked at Dick. It was clear that the poor old lady was not herself - or else this sudden appearance of the children had upset her.

“Those men that my Llewellyn brought here - they wanted to buy my house,” she said.

“But I wouldn"t sel it, no, I wouldn"t. Do you know what they said to me? They said that in this hil , far, far below my house, was a rare metal - a powerful metal - worth a fortune.

What did they call it now?”

She looked at the children, as if expecting them to know. She shook her head as they didn"t answer.

“Why should you know about it - you are only children. But I wouldn"t sell it - no, I wouldn"t sell my house - nor the metal below. Do you know what they wanted it for? For bombs to kil people with! And I said NO, never wil I sel this place so that men can dig the metal and make bombs. It is against the law of God, I said, and I, Bronwen Thomas, wil not do such a thing!”

The children listened in awe. The old lady seemed beside herself, and rocked to and fro as she spoke.

“So they asked my son, and he said no, as I had. But they took him away and kil ed him -

and now they are at work below. Yes, yes, I hear them - I hear the noises creeping up, I feel my house shake, I see strange things. But who are you? And where is Matthew? He keeps me here, locked in my room. He told me about Llewellyn, my poor dead son; he is a wicked man, Matthew, he works with those men, those evil men!”

She seemed to forget the four children for a little while. They wondered what to do. Julian saw that the poor woman was not fit to take down the stairs with them, and through the tunnel - and certainly she could not get out of the pot-hole. He began to wish that he hadn"t been so hasty in his ideas of rescue. It would really be best to lock the door again and leave her here in safety until he could get the police - for certainly now the police must come.

“We wil leave you now,” he said, “and send someone soon to bring you out of here. We are sorry we disturbed you.”

And, to the astonishment of the others, he pushed them out of the room, turned the key in the lock again, and put it into his pocket!

“Aren"t we going to take her with us?” said George, surprised. “Poor, poor old thing!”

“No. How can we?” said Julian, troubled. “We must go to the police, no matter what Morgan says. I see it al now, don"t you? The mother forbidding the son to sell the old place, in spite of the enormous amount of money offered - the son refusing too - and the men making a plot to get in somehow and down to this metal, whatever it is - and work it...”

“And kil ing the son?” said Dick. “Well, it may be so - but I should have thought that was a pretty drastic thing to do! Surely the son would have been reported missing very quickly, and the police would have made enquiries. Nobody said the son was missing or dead, did they, except the old lady?”

“Well, let"s not talk about it now,” said Julian. “We"ve got to do something. I"m sorry to leave old Mrs. Thomas stil locked up in that room, but I honestly think she would be safer there than anywhere else.”

They went down the two flights of stairs to the picture gal ery. Aily was there, stil cuddling her two pets. She was pleased to see them, and ran up smiling. She didn"t seem to notice that they hadn"t the old woman with them.

“Man down there very cross!” she said, and laughed. “He wake now - he shout and bang!”

“Goodness - I hope he won"t see us,” said Julian. “We"ve got to get out of here, quick, and go to the police. Let"s hope he won"t come rushing at us, or cal in that fierce dog.”

They went downstairs at top speed, looking out for Matthew. But there was no sign of him in person - though there was a most tremendous row going on somewhere, of shouting and banging.

“Aily lock door,” said Aily, suddenly, pointing in the direction of the sounds. “Man lock old woman - Aily lock man!”

“Did you? Did you real y lock him in?” said Julian, delighted. “You real y are a monkey -

but what a good idea! I wish I"d thought of it!”

He went to the door of the room in which the angry Matthew was.

“Matthew!” he called sternly. There was a dead silence, and then Matthew"s astonished voice came through the shut door.

“Who"s that? Who locked me in? If it"s one of you men, you"l be sorry for it! Silly joke to play on me, when you know I"ve got to go up and see to old Mrs. Thomas!”

“Matthew - this isn"t one of the men,” said Julian, and how the others admired his cool, determined voice! “We have come to rescue Mrs. Thomas from that tower - and now we are going to the police to report al this, and to report too that her son has been kil ed by the men who are working far below this house.”

There was an astonished silence. Then Matthew"s voice came again.

“What"s all this? I don"t understand! The police can"t do anything. Mr. Llewel yn, the son, isn"t dead - my word, no, he"s all alive and kicking - and he won"t be very pleased with you, whoever you are. Clear off at once - but let me out before you go. I"m surprised that Alsatian outside didn"t get you, that I am!”

It was the children"s turn to be amazed now. So the son wasn"t dead! Then where was he? And why had Matthew told old Mrs. Thomas such a cruel untruth? Julian asked him at once.

“Why did you tell Mrs. Thomas her son was dead then?”

“What"s it to do with you? Mr. Llewel yn, he told me to tell his mother that. The old lady wouldn"t let him sel that stuff deep down under the house - the stuff that gets hold of cars and bicycles, and ploughs, and makes them heavy as lead. Magnetises them, so they say. Well, if he wants to sell it, why shouldn"t he? But what I say is this - he shouldn"t sel it to foreigners, no, that he shouldn"t! If I"d have known that - well - I wouldn"t have taken money from him to act like I did!”

The voice rose and fel as Matthew told his extraordinary tale. Then the man banged frantically on the door again.

“Who are you? You let me out! I"ve been kind to the old lady - you ask her - though she"s difficult, and strange in her ways. I"ve been loyal to Mr. Llewel yn, though he"s not easy, no, that he"s not. Who are you, I say? Let me out; let me out! If Mr. Llewellyn catches me locked in here, he"ll kil me! He"l say I"ve let his secret out. He"l say... LET ME OUT, I say!”

“He sounds a bit mad,” said Julian, thankful that the man was locked up. “He must be a bit simple too, to believe all that the son told him, and do everything he was told to do.

Well - we"d better go to the police. Come on - we"ll go back the way we came.”

“Let"s just have a look down that river to see what the men are up to,” said Dick. “Just you and I, Julian. It"s such a chance - we needn"t be seen, and it would only take a few minutes. The girls could wait somewhere with Tim.”

“I don"t think we ought to stop now,” said Julian, “I really don"t.”

“No, don"t let"s,” said Anne. “I don"t like this house. It"s got a horrid „feel" about it. And I can"t imagine what the „shuddering" would be like, when the men start their work again deep down below - whatever it is!”

“Well, come along then,” said Julian, and, completely ignoring Matthew"s yells and bangs, the children made their way through the kitchen and down the cel ar-steps, flashing on their torches to light their way.

“I bet Matthew is wild that we"ve left him locked up,” said Dick, as they went through the vast cellars. “Serves him right! Taking bribes from the son - and telling lies to that poor old woman. Hal o, we"ve come to where the men smashed the wal s here, to get along the river tunnel. I suppose they found that was the easiest way to go down to where the precious metal was - whatever it is!”

They stood looking through the smashed wal s at the gurgling river.

“Come, come,” said Aily, dragging at Julian"s hand. “Bad mans there!”

She was holding Dave, her little dog, in case he fel into the rushing river, but Fany the lamb was gambolling loose as usual. And, quite suddenly, she skipped off down the river tunnel, her tail whisking behind her madly.

“Fany, Fany!” cried Aily. “Fany bach!”

But the lamb, thinking that she was going the right way, gambol ed on, deafened by the rushing of the water. Aily ran after her, as sure-footed as the lamb, hopping and skipping over the rough rocky bank of the river.

“Come back, you little ass!” yel ed Julian. But Aily either did not or would not hear, and she disappeared into the blackness of the tunnel almost at once.

“She hasn"t got a torch, Ju - she"ll fal in and drown!” yel ed George, in a panic. “Timmy, go after her, Fetch her back!”

And away went Timmy obediently, running as fast as he could beside the black, churning water, hurrying on its way downwards to the sea.

Julian and the others waited anxiously. Aily didn"t come back, nor did any of the animals -

and George began to be very panicky about Timmy.

“Oh, Julian - what"s happened to Tim - and the others?” she said. “They"ve no torches -

oh, why did I let Timmy go? We all ought to have gone!”

“They"l come back al right,” said Julian, much more confidently than he felt. “That child Aily can see in the dark, I real y do believe - and she knows her way about like a dog.”

But when, after five minutes, not one of the four had come back, George started forward, flashing her torch on the rocky path beside the river.

“I"m going to find Timmy,” she said. “And nobody"s going to stop me!”

And she was gone before the boys could get hold of her! Julian gave a shout of aggravation.

“George! Don"t be an ass! Timmy wil find his own way back. Don"t go down there - you don"t know what you may find!”

“Come on,” said Dick, starting off down the river too. “George won"t come back, we know that - not unless she finds Tim and the others. We"d better go quickly before anything awful happens!”

Anne had to follow the boys, her heart beating fast. What a thing to happen! Just the very worst possible!

It seemed like a bad dream to the four children, making their way over the rocky edge of the underground river. Their torches had good batteries, fortunately, and gave a bright light, so that they could see their way alongside the river. But at times this rocky “path”

they had to walk on grew very narrow indeed!

“Oh dear!” thought Anne, trying to keep up with the boys, “I know I shall slip! I wish I hadn"t these heavy snow-boots on. What a noise the river makes, booming along, and how fast it goes!”

Some way in front of the two boys and Anne was George, stil cal ing for Timmy. She was very worried because he didn"t come back to her, as he always did when she cal ed him.

She didn"t realise that Timmy couldn"t hear her! The river made such a noise in the enclosed rocky tunnel that Timmy heard nothing at al but the sound of the churning waters!

Quite suddenly the tunnel widened tremendously - the river making a big, broad pool before it tore on down the tunnel again. The walls opened out into an enormous cave, half of which was water and the other half a stretch of rough, rocky floor. George was most astonished. But she was even more astonished at other things she saw!

Two rafts, sturdy and immensely strong, were moored at the side of the deep pool! And on the floor of the cave were what looked like tin barrels, standing in rough rows -

presumably waiting to be packed on to the rafts.

At one side of the cave were stacked great heaps of tins and bottles and cans, none of them opened - and on the other side an equally vast heap of discarded ones - al opened and thrown to one side. Big wooden crates stood about too - though George could not imagine what they were for.

The cave was dimly lighted by electricity of some kind - probably from a battery fixed up somewhere. Nobody seemed to be about at all! George gave a cal , hoping that Timmy was somewhere there.

“Timmy! Where are you?”

And at once Timmy came from behind one of the big crates, his tail wagging hard!

George was so glad that she fel on one knee and hugged him tight.

“You naughty dog,” she said, fondling him. “Why didn"t you come when you were cal ed? Did you find the others? Where is Aily?”

A small face peeped from behind the crate near by, the one from which Timmy had appeared. It was Aily. She looked terrified, and tears were on her cheeks. She clasped her lamb to her, and Dave was at her heels. She ran straight across to George, crying out something in Welsh, pointing back up the tunnel. George nodded.

“Yes. We"ll go back straightaway! Look - here come the others! ”

Aily had already seen them. She ran to Julian with a cry of delight, and he swung her up in his arms, lamb and al . He was very glad to see George and Timmy too.

They all had a good look round the strange cave.

“I see what the idea is,” said Julian. “Jolly clever too! They are mining that precious metal down here somewhere - and putting it on those rafts there, so that the underground river can take it right down to the sea. I bet they"ve got barges or something waiting down at some secret creek, to take the stuff away at night!”