Five Go to Billycock Hill (14 page)

„Well, can you make some sandwiches very quickly?" asked Dick. „We"re all hungry, and it won"t take a minute. We can munch them as we go. Let"s make a plan of campaign while you"re cutting them."

George and Anne set to work with the sandwiches. Anne"s finger were al thumbs, she was so shocked to hear that.little Benny was missing. „Oh, I hope nothing"s happened to him!" she said. „Missing all the morning - for hours! Poor Mrs Thomas!"

„The sandwiches are ready," said George. „Now, what"s the plan, Julian? We all separate, I suppose, and quarter the hil , shouting all the time?"

„That"s it," said Julian, beginning on his sandwiches hungrily, and slipping some tomatoes and radishes into his pocket. „You go round that side, Anne and George, one of you high up on the hil , and one lower down, so that your shouts cover as much distance as possible. And Dick and I wil do the same on this side. We"ll go down to Butterfly Farm, too, in case he has wandered there."

They all set off, and soon the hil echoed to stentorian shouts. „BENNY! BE-ENNY! BENNY!

Coo-ee, Benny! Coo-ee!"

Over the heather scrambled the four, with Timmy excitedly leaping about, too. He knew that Benny was lost, and he was sniffing for some smel of the smal boy - but his sharp nose could find nothing.

Julian went to Butterfly Farm and searched al about, but there was no sign of the boy there. In fact, there was no sign of anyone, not even old Mrs Janes. She had gone off somewhere, and the two men were out butterflying as usual. In fact, George and Anne saw them as they searched their side of the hil , and called to them.

„Have you seen anything of a small boy and a little pig?"

The two men were curt and unhelpful. „No. No sign at al ."

„I suppose they"re annoyed because they stil think the boys broke the glass of their Butterfly House!" said George „Well, I wish they would hunt for Benny instead of butterflies."

It was two hours before Benny was found, and the Five had almost given up looking for him. They had met together as they came round the hil , and were standing in despair, wondering what to do next, when Timmy suddenly pricked up his ears. Then he barked -

an excited little bark that said as plainly as possible, „I"ve heard something interesting."

„What is it then, Tim, what is it?" cried George at once. „Go find, go find!"

Timmy trotted off, his ears wel pricked. He stopped every now and again and listened, then went on again. The children listened, too, but they could hear nothing - no call, no groan, no whimper.

„Why - he"s going downhil towards the caves," said Julian at last. „The caves! Why didn"t we think of those? But how could that tiny little fel ow have found the way there - it"s a long and complicated way from Bil ycock Farm?"

„He might have fol owed Curly, the pig," said Anne, „We always thought that he only pretended that the pig ran away, so that he could wander where he liked and blame it on the pig. But this time the pig might real y have “runned away”!"

„Let"s hope it"s Benny that Timmy can hear," said Julian. „I must say I can"t hear a single sound and I"ve got pretty sharp ears!"

And then the next minute they all heard something - a smal , tired voice cal ing high and clear - „Curly! Curly! I want you!"

„BENNY!" yelled everyone and leapt ahead so fast that the heathery ground shook beneath their trampling feet.

Timmy was there first, of course, and when the four children came up, they saw him gently licking the golden-haired little boy, who had put his arms round the dog"s neck in delight.

Benny was sitting just outside the entrance of the caves, all by himself - his pigling was not there.

„Benny! Oh, Benny darling, we"ve found you," cried Anne, and knelt down beside him. He looked up at the others, not seeming at all surprised to see them.

„Curly runned away," he said. „He runned right away. Curly"s gonned in there," and he pointed into the caves.

„Thank goodness you didn"t follow him!" said George. „You might never have been found!

Come along - we must take you home!"

But as soon as she lifted up the child he began to kick and scream. „No! No! I want Curly! I want Curly!"

„Darling, he"ll come along when he"s tired of the caves," said Anne. „But your Mummy wants you now - and your dinner is waiting for you."

„I"m hungry," announced Benny. „I want my dinner - but I want Curly, too. Curly! Curly!

Come here!"

„We must take Benny back," said Dick. „His mother wil be so terribly worried. Curly wil eventually come out if he"s got sense enough to remember the way - if not, well - it"s just too bad! We daren"t go wandering down the unroped paths in case we get lost. Come on, bring Benny, George."

„Curly wil come when he"s ready," George said, as she carried the little boy away from the entrance to the caves. „But now your Mummy wants you, and your dinner"s waiting."

With Timmy jumping up delightedly beside her, she carried the smal boy down the chalky path, talking to him. They were al so thankful to have found him that they felt quite cheerful, forgetting Jeff and Ray for a time. They teased little Benny, trying to make him forget his lost pet.

Mrs Thomas was overjoyed to see the smal boy again. She cried over him as she took him into her arms. „Oh, Benny, Benny - what a bad pair you are, you and your pigling."

„He runned away," said Benny, of course. He was set down at the table to have his dinner and began to eat very fast indeed because he was so hungry. Everyone sat and watched him, so glad to have him safe again that they hardly took their eyes off him while he gobbled his meal.

He finished at last. „I"m going to look for Curly," he announced as he got down from his chair.

„Oh, no, you"re not," said his mother. „You"re going to stay with me. I want you to help me to make some cakes. Curly wil come home when he"s ready."

And in an hour"s time, when Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Toby were busy at the messy job of cleaning out the duck-pond, Curly did come back. He trotted into the farmyard, making his usual funny little squeals, arid everyone looked round at once.

„CURLY! You have come back! Oh, you bad little pig!" cried George, and Timmy ran up to the pigling and sniffed him and licked him. The pig turned himself round to look for Benny -

and Julian laughed.

„Someone"s written something on him - in black! Come here, Curly, and let"s see."

Curly trotted over to him, and Julian examined the rather smudged black lettering. „Can"t make it out," he said. „Somebody"s printed something on his pink little body - sil y thing to do - but it wil wash off."

„Wait!" said Dick sharply, as Julian bent to get one of the rags they were using, to wash the pigling"s body. „WAIT, I say! Look - isn"t that a J and a T and below those are letters that look like R and V - no, W, because half that letter has been rubbed off by heather or something."

Now everyone was staring in excitement. „J... T, and R... W!" said Toby in a breathless voice. Then it rose to a shout. „They stand for JEFF THOMAS AND RAY WELLS. What does it mean - who put those letters there?"

„There are some more letters, smaller and rather smudged," said Julian. „Hold the pigling stil , Dick. We must, we must make out what they are! It"s some kind of message from Jeft and Ray. The pigling must have been where they are hidden!"

They all looked earnestly at the smudgy letters, which appeared to be five in number.

They were almost unreadable - but Dick"s sharp brain got hold of them at last.

„The word is CAVES!" he said. „See - the first letter might be G or O or C - but the third one is certainly V and last is S. I"m sure it"s CAVES - and that"s where Curly went, we know."

„Whew! That"s where Jeff and Ray are hidden then," said Julian. „Quite near, after all -

and we thought they had been taken away by car and hidden miles away! Quick -

where"s your father, Toby?"

Mr Thomas was found and was shown Curly, with the smudgy black letters on his back. He was astounded. „So Curly went wandering in the caves, did he - what a pig he is! Can"t keep his nose out of anything! And somehow he went to where Jeff and Ray were. What a strange way to send a message - they could surely have tied one on to his tail, or round his neck - these letters are almost unreadable!"

„I nearly washed them off, thinking that somebody had played a sil y joke on Curly," said Julian. „My word - if I had, we"d not have known where Jeff and Ray were. What shall we do now, sir? Go to the caves at once? Telephone the police?"

„Both!" said Mr Thomas. „The police must know because they are searching everywhere, of course. Now - you start off to the caves - but take a bal of string with you, because Jeff and Ray won"t have been hidden in any of the roped tunnels, where sightseers so often go, and without string you might not be able to find your way back down the unroped ones. You may find that you need to unwind the string in order to get back safely. And take Timmy. He"l be useful."

„He certainly wil !" said Julian. „And we"ll take the little pig, too, so that Timmy can smell him, and then smel the tracks Curly made as he wandered through the caves, and follow them! We shan"t have to wander all about wondering where Jeff and Ray are then."

The Five set off at once, with Toby, too, all as excited as they could possibly be.

„Good old Jeff! Good old Ray!" Toby kept saying. „We"re coming! Hang on, we"re coming!"

Up the heathery hil panted the five children and Timmy. Julian carried the frightened little pig, who was not at all sure what was happening to him. He kicked and squealed but nobody took any notice of him - he would be of importance when they reached the caves, but not til then!

At last they reached the chalky roadway to the caves and pounded along it, the loose bits of chalk flying between their feet. They came to the entrance where the warning notice stood.

„Timmy!" called George as Julian put down the trembling little pig and held him tightly.

„Timmy - come here! Smell Curly - that"s right - smel him all over - now follow, follow, follow! Smell where he went in the caves - and follow, Tim, follow!"

Timmy knew perfectly well what tracking meant and obediently smelt Curly thoroughly, and then put his nose to the ground to follow the scent of the pigling"s footsteps. He soon picked it up, and began to run into the first cave.

He stopped and looked back enquiringly. „Go on, Tim, go on - I know this seems peculiar to you when we"ve got Curly here - but we want to know where he went!" called George, afraid that Timmy might think it was just a sil y game and give up. Timmy put his nose to the ground again.

He came to the magnificent cave, ful of the gleaming „icicles", the stalactites and stalagmites, some of them looking like shining pillars. Then into the next cave, which, with its glowing rainbow colours, had reminded Anne of a Fairyland cave. Then through the next cave they went - and came to the forking of the ways.

„Here we are - at the three tunnels," said George. „I bet Timmy won"t go down the usual roped one that all visitors would take...."

As she spoke the words Timmy, nose to ground, stil following the scent of the pigling"s footsteps, took the left-hand, unroped way - and everyone fol owed, torches shining brightly.

„I thought so!" said George, and her voice began to echo round. „Thought so, thought so, so, so...!"

„Do you remember those awful noises we heard the other day - that piercing whistling, and those howls?" said Dick. „Well, I bet they were made by the bul ies who dragged Jeff and Ray here! I expect they heard Timmy barking - he must have heard the men, probably, though we didn"t - and they were scared in case we were coming. So they made those frightful noises to scare us off, and the echoes magnified them horribly."

„Well, they certainly scared us away all right," said Anne, remembering. „Yes - it must have been those men - there aren"t any awful noises today! My word, what a long, winding tunnel this is - and look, it"s forking into two!"

„Timmy wil know which way to take," said George - and, of course he did. With his nose to the ground, he chose the left-hand one without any hesitation.

„You didn"t real y need to bring a ball of string, Julian," said Toby. „Timmy wil easily be able to take us the right way back, won"t he?"

„Yes," said Julian. „He"s better than any unwinding ball of string! But without Tim we"d never find the way back - there are so many caves, and so many tunnels. We must be well into the heart of the hil now."

Timmy suddenly stopped in his tracking, raised his head, and listened. Could he hear Jeff and Ray? He barked loudly - and from somewhere in the near distance came a shout.

„Hoy! Hoy! This way! This way!"

„It"s Jeff!" shouted Toby, dancing in the dark tunnel with excitement. „JEFF! CAN YOU HEAR

ME? JEFF!"

And a voice came back at once. „Hie, Toby! This way, this way!"

Timmy ran down the passage and stopped. At first the children could not see why - and then they saw that the passage came to an end there - a blank wal faced them just beyond Timmy - and yet Jeff"s voice came quite clearly to them!

„Here we are, here!"

„Why - there"s a hole in the floor of the tunnel just by Timmy!" cried Julian, shining his torch on it. „That"s where Jeff and Ray are - down that hole. Hey, Cousin Jeff - are you down there?"

Julian shone his torch right through the hole - and there, lying on the floor of a cave below was Ray - and standing beside him, looking up eagerly, was Jeff!

„Thank God you"ve found us!" he said. „Those fellows told us they were leaving us here and not coming back. Ray"s got a twisted ankle - he can"t stand on it. They pushed us down this hole without any warning, and he fell awkwardly. But with your help we can get him up."

„Jeff, oh, Jeff - I"m so glad we"ve found you!" yelled Toby, trying to look down into the hole with Julian. „What"s the best way to get you up? This entrance hole isn"t very big."

„If you can manage to pul me up, that"s the first thing to do," said Jeff, considering the matter. „Then two of you boys can go down to Ray, and help him to stand, and I think I could haul him up. This is an awful place - no outlet except through that small hole up there, which was too high for me to jump up to - and Ray couldn"t stand, of course, to help me!"