The Flight To Adventure

Chaper 12 New Plans

Lili was really glad to see the two men go .
  "Shut the door" she shouted after them." Shut the door."
  The men stoped only when they were well away from the shed.
  Julian moped his forehead and said to his companiom" What do you think of that? A strange voice and nothing else."
The other man was slowly recovering.
"When there is a voice, there is a body too" he said." There's somebody here, somebody playing tricks on us.I thought when I saw the flattened patch this morning, that we were not alone here.Who's here? Do you think somebody has got wind of the treasure? "
The four children still well hidden by the leaves of the trees, pricked up their ears at once. 'Treasure'. Oh so that was what the men were after in such a deserted valley.
" How could anyone know what we know Tim?" said Julian scornfully." Don't get upset just becasue you heard a voice, it could have been a parrot"
  Now it was Julian's turn to laugh,"A parrot my friend, what will you say next? Have  you ever known parrots to live here before and my word a  talking one too.If that was a parrot i will eat my shoes and your's too".
   The children listening from up in the trees grinned at one another for Lili was certainly a parrot.
" It's somebody hiding here"said Tim" though how they got here God knows only.Maybe there is a cellar below that cowshed.We will go and find out if anyone is hiding there.He will be very,very sorry."
  The children didn't like the tone of his voice at all.
They went back to the cowshed. Julian stood by the broken door of the shed and yelled
  " Come out of the cellar, whoever you are. We give you this chance only once.
No one came out, ofcourse. For one there was no one hiding there and second, there were no cellars present in the old shed.
Julian now had a revolver in his hand.Lili who was now afarid of all the shouting going on, said nothing at all, which was very fortunate for her.
  The silence was too much for Julian.He took aim to where he supposed a cellar was and a shot was sound in the deserted valley.
  'BANG'
Lili almost stumbled off the beam in fright and the children nearly fell off the tree, clutching onto one another in fright.
   'BANG'
  Another shot ran through the air.
The children imagined Julian firing blindly, merely to frighten the person he thought he had heard talking.
What a pity that Lili had been sulking in the shed, alone.Jack felt most alarmed.He was afraid that she might have been shot.
The men came out again.They stood looking about for some moments and then walked near the chestnut tree talking.
" No one there. Must have slipped off now. I tell you Tim, there has been someone here."
  "Well, he surely would'nt give himself away by telling us to wipe our feet or shut the door." Said Tim scornfully.
" We will come back tomorrow and search this place completely.I am certain somebody is here and talking English too. What does that mean?I feel very alarmed about it.I don't want anyone to get wind of our mission." Excalimed Julian worriedly.
  " Certainly, we must search this place well.We must find out who is the owner of that voice. No doubt about that.I'd start a good hunt now but it's getting dark and I'm hungry.Come on let's get back." Said Tim.
  To the children's huge relief, the two men dissapeared very soon. Jack who by climbing to  the very top of the tree could see the plane in the valley, waited till he could see the two men passing by it, on their way to their own hut.
Then he called down to the others.
  " All clear now.They are by the plane now" said Jack" My word, what a shock I had when the shots went off. Jenny nearly fell off her branch."
  "I hope Lili is alright, Jack.She must have been scared out of her life, when the shots ran out in that little shed." Said Charles.
  Lili was sitting petrified on the beam, when the children went into the cowshed.She crouched down trembling.Jack called to her softly.
  "It's alright Lili.Come on down. I am here to fetch you"
Lili flew down at once and landed on Jack's shoulder.She made a great fuss at him."Mmm, mmmm, mm" she kept saying.
   It was dark in the shed. The children didn't like it at all.Jenny kept feeling that someone might creep out on them from the corners.
  "Let's come out" she said" What are we gonna do tonight? Is it safe to sleep, where we did last night."
  "No we would better take our things and rugs somewhere else"said Jack" There is a patch of bushes higher up, where we would be sheltered from the wind and hidden from view too. We could sleep there."
"I say, do you know what we left in the shed? Said Charles suddenly" We left our sacks of tins.Look there they are in that corner."
  "What a mercy the men didn't notice that they were filled with some thing ." Said Jack " Still i'm not surprised, they took no notice of them, really they just look like heaps of rubbish.We will drag them upto the bushes though.Our store of food is too precious to be left behind."
  They dragged the sacks to the patch of bushes and left them there. Then they debated about what to do of the things up the tree.
  " Let's just bring down our rugs . The clothes we used for pillows are wrapped up in the rugs."We could leave the suitcases up there" said Jack " We don't want to drag them with us."
  It was getting so dark now that it was quite difficult to get the rugs down now, but they managed somehow. Then they made their way back to the bushes.
Clara and Jenny spread out the beds.
  "It won't be so warm here. What are we gonna do tommorow? The men are gonna look behind the bushes, thats certain." Said Clara worriedly.
  "Do you guys remember the waterfall?" Asked Charles suddenly" There were alot of rocks and hiding places down towards the foot.I  believe we could climb down there and find a good hiding place"
  "Yes, let's" said Jenny" I would like to see that waterfall again."
  They all laid down on the rugs and pressed closed together, for it was certainly cold.
Clara pulled out a pullover from her pillow and put it on.Suddenly she gave a shrill scream." Oh,Oh something is running over me. Help me please, it must be a rat."
"Well, it isn't" said Charles delightedly" It's Liz, my lizard. It has found me again."
So it was. How the little lizard had discovered him nobody could imagine.It was a part of the spell that the boy always seemed to exercise on wild creatures.
"Don't worry Clara, she's safely in my pocket now." He told his sister, who just sneered at him.
  The children  talked for a little while longer, than the girls and Charles fell asleep. Jack still laid awake with Lili on his ankle.What was the good of promising Aunt Hills that they wouldn't fall in any trouble.The very night they had promised her, they had whizzed off in a strange aeroplane to an unknown valley, where apparently some sort of treasure was hidden.Very extra ordinary. He lay thinking and then fell asleep soon .
The stars shone on the sleeping children.
  Charles woke up early.He had meant to, for he didn't know how early the men might start searching for the owner of the voices they had heard.He woke up the others and would not listen to their protests.
" No you have got to wake up Clara" he said" We must start early today.Go on, wake up everyone."
"We will have a quick breakfast" said Jack" peaches, biscuits and milk"
They saw the smoke rising from where the men were and knew that they were up too.So they finished tbeir breakfast quickly and once more pushed the empty tins down a rabbit hole.Then they ruffled up the grass on which they were lying down so that it did not look quite flat.
" I  think we must find a better hiding place for most of the tins." Said Charles "and take just a few of them with us, to last today.We can't possible drag these heavy sacks all the way."
"Couldn't we drop them on the middle of these bushes? Asked Clara" They are awfully thick. Nobody would guess that they are there. We could easily slip back and take any we want."
So the sacks were droped into the middle of the thick bushes and certainly none could see them unless they crawled into the middle of the bushes.Then the children gathered up their rugs and odd clothes and set off. The boys carried the tins and Jack had his camera and his glasses as well.So they were heavily laden and could not go very fast.
  They took the same way they had taken before and when they reached the hillside, they sat down for a rest.
Afterall, the men would hardly be following them.They would be hunting all around and about the cowshed.
Suddenly from far off Jack caught the sight of briliant twinkling flash. He lay down flat at once, telling the others to do the same.
" There's someone using field glasses down there." He explained" We may not be seen if we lay flat.I just caught the flash of the sun on the lenses.God, I forgot the men might search the mountainside with field glassses. They will be after us if they have seen us.
"Let's crawl to that rock and get behind it" said Charles" come on, once we are behind it, we can get on and find the waterfall easily."