Five Go to Billycock Hill (15 page)

There was soon a great deal of acrobatic work on the part of Jeff, Julian and Dick! The two boys managed to haul up Jeff by lying down on the floor above, and putting their arms and shoulders through the hole to drag him up! Toby and George had to hold on to their legs to prevent them from being pulled into the hole! And Anne had to hold the little pig, which did its best to try and get down the hole, too!

At last Jeff was up through the hole, and then the two boys, Julian and Dick, leapt down to Ray. He seemed rather dazed and Jeff said that he thought he had hurt his head as well as his leg when the men pushed them down the hole. Julian pulled him gently to his feet and then he and Dick lifted him until he could reach Jeff"s swinging hands as he leaned down through the hole.

Poor Ray was pul ed up at last, and then up went Julian and Dick in the same way. Timmy thought the whole procedure was most extraordinary, and produced vol eys of excited barks, scaring the little pig almost out of its skin!

„Phew!" said Jeff, when at last Ray was up, and being helped by the others. „I never thought we"d get out of there. Let"s get away from this nightmare place as quickly as possible. What we want is a little fresh air and food - and water! Those brutes haven"t been near us for what seems like weeks!"

They made their way back to the cave entrance, Timmy leading the way confidently, not even troubling to smell it. He never forgot a path once he had beep along it.

They came out into the bright June sunshine, and it was so very dazzling to the two men who had been so long in pitch-black darkness that they had to shade their eyes.

„Sit down a bit til you get used to it," said Julian. „And tell us how you wrote your message on the pig! Did he suddenly appear down the hole?"

Jeff laughed. „Well," he said, „there we were down in that awful hole, Ray and I - with no watch to tell us the time, no means of knowing if it was night or day, or even if it was last Thursday or next Monday! And suddenly we heard a pitter-pattering noise - and the next thing we knew was that something had fal en down through the hole and landed on top of us! It began to squeal like bil y-o, so we guessed it was a little pig - though why a pig should suddenly descend on us out of the dark tunnel above us we simply couldn"t imagine!"

Everyone laughed, even Ray. „Go on," said Dick. „What did you do?"

„Well, we felt the pig al over and knew it was a baby," said Jeff, „but it didn"t occur to us for some time that we might use it as a messenger! That was Ray"s bright idea!"

„We could hardly read your message," said Dick. „It was just touch and go that we made it out."

„I dare say - but when you consider that we had been robbed of everything - even my silver pencil taken, and my old fountain pen - to say nothing of my money, my watch and my torch - and Ray"s, too - and that it was pitch-dark in the hole, I"m sure you wil agree that we didn"t make a bad job of printing that message!" said Jeff.

„But what did you print it with if your pockets had been emptied?" asked George, in wonder.

„Well, Ray found a tiny bit of black chalk at the bottom of his trouser pocket," said Jeff. „It"s chalk we use to mark out our air-routes, on big maps - and that was all we had to use! Ray held the pigling and I printed our initials and the word CAVES on his back. I couldn"t see what I was doing in the dark, but I just hoped for the best. Then I stood up and tossed the poor little pig through the hole! It was a jol y good shot, I must say - I heard him scrambling on the edge, and then away he trotted, the finest little pig in the world!"

„What a tale!" said Julian. „My word, you"re lucky, Jeff, that the pigling came home all right! It"s a wanderer, that pig, always running away. And to think that I nearly washed your message off his back before we read it."

„Whew! It gives me the creeps to hear that," said Jeff. „Now tell me what happened when it was discovered that we"d disappeared from the airfield - wasn"t there an uproar?"

„Rather! You knew your planes were stolen, didn"t you?" said Dick.

„I guessed that, when I heard two planes take off, just as some great thugs were hauling us up the hil ," said Jeff. „I heard a dog barking as we were being kicked and dragged up

- was it Timmy? I did hope he would come to our rescue."

„Oh, yes - that must have been the time when he began to bark that night of the storm!"

said George, remembering. „So it was you and those thugs we heard - oh, what a pity he didn"t know it!'

„Those two stolen planes crashed into the sea during the storm, Jeff," said Toby. „The pilots weren"t found."

„Oh," said Jeff and was silent for a moment. „I shal miss my dear old bus - wel let"s hope I get another plane - and Ray, too. Ray! How do you feel now? Can you hobble along again or not?"

„Yes - if the boys can help me as they did just now," said Ray, who was already looking much better since he had been in the open air. „Let"s get along."

It was very slow going - but fortunately the police met them half-way, on their way to the caves! Mr Thomas had telephoned them and they had come along immediately. They took Ray in hand, and the little party made better progress.

„Put that pig down, Anne, you must be tired of carrying it," said Dick. „You look like Alice in Wonderland. She carried a pig, too!"

Anne laughed. „I think it"s gone to sleep, just like Alice"s pig!" she said. And so it had!

They were al very thankful when at last they arrived at Bil ycock Farm. What a welcome they had from Mrs Thomas, her husband and Benny. The little boy dragged his pigling from Anne"s arms and hugged it. „You runned away, you"re bad, you runned fast!" he scolded, and set it down. It immediately scampered over to the barn, with Benny in pursuit, and Anne went to fetch them back.

„Now we"ll all have tea - I"ve got it ready, hoping that everyone would be back in time from their extraordinary adventures!" said Mrs Thomas. „I know Jeff and Ray must be starved - you look quite thin in the face, Jeff."

They all sat round the big table, Toby next to his hero, Cousin Jeff. They gazed with pleasure at the food there - surely never, never had there been such a spread before!

„Mother!" said Toby, his eyes gleaming. „Mother, this isn"t a meal - it"s a BANQUET! Jeff -

what wil you have?"

„Everything!" said Jeff. „Some of every single thing. I"l start with two boiled eggs, three slices of ham, two thick pieces of bread and butter, and some of that wonderful salad. My word, it"s almost worth being down that hole for ages, to end up with a feast like this!"

It was a most hilarious tea, and for once Benny sat at the table throughout the whole meal, and didn"t slip from his chair to go and find Curly. Why didn"t they have parties like this every day? Why, even his father was there, roaring with laughter! What a pity the two policemen hadn"t been able to stop to tea, too - Benny had a lot of questions to ask policemen! Where was Timmy? Yes, he was under the table - Benny could feel him with his foot. And, yes, Binky was there, too, just by Toby.

He slid his hand down with a large piece of cake in it, and immediately it was taken gently from his hand by a hairy mouth - Timmy was having a wonderful time, too!

Everyone was sorry when the grand meal was over. Jeff and Ray now had to report to the airfield, and Mr Thomas offered to take them in his car. The children went to see them off.

„It wil seem awfully dull now, up in our camp on the hil -side," said Dick. „So many things have happened in the last few days - and now nothing wil happen at all!"

„Rubbish!" said Jeff. „I promise you something wil happen - something grand!"

„What?" asked everyone eagerly.

„I shall see that you"re all given a free flight in a plane as soon as possible - perhaps tomorrow," said Jeff. „And - I shal pilot it! Now then - anyone want to loop the loop with me?"

What shouts and squeals from everyone! Jeff made a face and put his hands to his ears.

„Me too, me too - and Curly!" came Benny"s little high voice.

„Where is Curly?" said Jeff, looking out of the car. „I really must shake hooves with him -

he"s been a wonderful friend to me and Ray! Wherever is he?"

„I don"t know," said Benny, looking al round. „He must have..."

„Runned away!" chorused everyone, and Timmy barked at the sudden shout. He put his paws up on the car and licked Jeff"s hand.

„Thanks, old boy," said Jeff. „We couldn"t have done without you either! So long, everybody - see you tomorrow - and then whoooops! - up in the clouds we"ll go!„