The Flight To Adventure

Chapter 15 Behind The Waterfall

The passage was a very winding one. It lead a little downwards and the floor was very uneven to the feet. The girls tripped and stumbled very often.Once the roof came down so low that they had to crawl under it.
But it grew high again after a few moments.
After a while, they heard a voice and could not imagine what it was.
"What's that?" Asked Clara" Are we going into the heart of the mountain, do you think so Jenny? What is there that could make such a terrible noise in the heart of the mountain."
"I don't know" said Jenny, feeling scared now. She immediately wished that they could go back.
But Clara was not going back now that they had come so far.
"What, go back before we have found where this passage goes to" she said" ofcourse not, the boys would laugh like anything if we tell them that we came back even after coming all the way here. We don't often get the chance of discovering things before they do. We might even be very close to the treaure, Jenny. Whatever it may be."
Jenny felt that she didn't care in the least about the treasure now. All she wanted now was to go back to the safety of the cave she knew, The cave with the green fern curtains.
" Well, you go back then" said Clara unkindly" but i'm definitely going on"
It was even more frightening for the little girl to go back to the cave of echoes all alone than to go with Clara. So poor Jenny chose unwilingly to go on. With that queer muffled roar in her ears, she followed Clara, staying close by her side. The roar became even more louder now.
And the girls knew instantly what it was. It was the waterfall ofcourse. How stupid of them not to think about that.But it sounded so different in the mountain.
"We are not going into the heart of the mountain,afterall" said Clara " We are coming somewhere near the waterfall. I wonder where."
They got a tremendous surprise when they did saw daylight up ahead. The passage suddenly took one last turn and took them into the daylight. A draught of cold air met them and something wetted their hair.
" Jenny, we have come out onto a flat ledge, just behind the waterfall. Look, there's the great mass of water infront of us. Oh and look at the colours in it. Can you hear me? The water is making such a noise.
Overwhelmed by surprise and noise, Jenny just stood and stared. The water made a great rushing curtain between them and the open air. The girls felt very small and feeble, when they watched the great volume of water pouring down, a few feet infront of them.
It was amazing to be able to stand on a ledge just behind a waterfall and to feel the fine spray misting the air. The ledge was very wide and ran the whole width of the fall. There was a rock, about a foot high at one aide of the ledge. The girls sat down on it to enjoy the beautiful scene infront of them.
"What will the boys say?" Wondered Clara.
"Let's stay here, till we see them coimng back" she told Jenny " if we sit on this rock, just at the edge of the waterfall, we can wave to them . Thy will be so astounded to see us here. There is no way of getting to this ledge either from above or below, except from the passage we found."
"Yes" said Jenny" we will surprise the boys. She felt no longer scared. " look , we can see our cave up there. At least we can see the giant ferns, whose fronds are hiding it. We shall be easily able to see the boys when they come back."
Lili had been veey quite indeed. She was very surprised to come out behind the great waterfall. She sat donw on the ledge and watched the water, blinking every now and again.
"I hope she will not be silly enough to try and fly through the waterfall" said Jenny" she would be taken down with it and dashed to pieces"
" She won't do anything so silly" said Clara" She is wise enough to know that what would hapen if she tried something like that. She may fly out onto the edge of the waterfall though. Still there shouldn't be much danger for her in that."
The girls sat there for quite a long time feeling that they would never get tired of watching the turbulence of the waterfall. After a long time, Jenny gave a cry and caught Clara's arm
"Look, is that the boys coming.Yes, it is. They have got a sac between them. Good! Now we shall have plenty of food."
They wached the two boys labouring up the rocks that led to the cave. It was no good waving to them . Then suddenly Clara stiffened with horror. "What's the matter?" Asked Jenny seeing Clara getting frightened.
"Look, someone is following the boys" said Clara" See it's one of the men and there's the other one too. I don't believe either Jack or Charles know that they are being followed. They will watch where they go and our hiding place will be found.
"JACK, CHARLES, OH GOOD! LOOK OUT YOU GUYS." She yelled at thw top of her lungs.
She went to the very ledge of the waterfall and holding onto a fern growing there, yelling and waving, quite forgettting that the men could see and hear her as well as the boys.
But alas, the boys engrossed in the heavy activity of getting the sac up the rocks, neither saw nor heard Clara, but the men suddenly caught sight of her and stared at her in utmost antonishment. They could not make out if she was a boy or a girl, men or women. All they could make out was that somene was dancing behind the fall.
"Look" one man aaid to the other" Just look at that. See behind the water. That's where they are hiding. My word, what a place. How do they get there?"
The men stared open mouth at the fall, there eyes searching for a way upto it that would lead to the ledge, where the excited figure stood waving.
Meanwhile the boys, quite unaware of the following men and of Clara either, had reached the curtain of ferns. Charles pushed the ferns aside and Jack hauled the sac through them, panting loudly for it was very heavy.
At last the sac lay on the moss. The boys flung themselves down, their hearts thumping with the labour of climbing up steeply to the cave, dragging suh a heavy sac. At first they did not even notice that the girls were not there.
Not far of, somewhere below, the two men atood, cometely bewildered. In watching Clara behind the waterfall, they had just missed seeing the two boys creep through the ferns into the cave.
So when they turned their gaze from the waterfall, they found that the boys they had so warily followed had utterly dissapeared.
"Where have they gone? " demanded Julian " They were on that rock there, when we last saw them."
"Yes, then i caught sight of that person behind the waterfall and took my eyes off them for a minute and now they have gone." Growled Tim" Well, there's no doubt where they have gone now. They have taken some path that leads to the waterfall. They hide behind it and what a clever place too, who would think of anyone hiding just behind a great curtain of water like that. Well we know where to find them now. We will make our way to the water and climb upto the ledge. We will soon hunt the rats out."
They began to climb down, hoping to find a way that would lead them to the ledge behind the waterfall. It was a very dangerous task climbing up those slippery rocls
In the cave the boys soon recovered. They sat and looked around for the girls.
"Hey, where are Clara and Jenny?" said Jack in antonishment" they had promised to stay here, till we got back. I hope they have not gone wandering about anywhere. They would be sure to get lost."
The girls were no where to be seen. The boys did not see the hole in the wall at the back of the cave. They were extremely puzzled. Jack parted the ferns and looked out.
To his enormous surprise, he at once saw the two men, clambering about the rocks near the waterfall. His eyes nearly droped out of his head.
"Look there" he said to Charles and closed the fronds hurriedly, in case the men saw them." Those two men. God they might have seen us getting here. How did they get here? We saw them safely by the plane, on our way to the bush."
Clara had now dissapppeared from behind the waterfall. She could not make up her mind whether or not the men has seen the two boys, climbing in through the ferns into the cave. In any case, she thought she ought to inform the boy's of their presence. She felt sure that neither Jack nor Charles knew of them.
"Come on Jenny, she said urgently" We must get back to the boys. Oh God, look at those men, i believe they are now trying to get over here somehow. They must have spotted me waving. Come one let's go now.
Shivering with excitement, Jenny followed Clara along the dark winding passage back to the cave of echoes. Clara went as quickly as she could flashing her torch in front of her. Both girls forgot all about Lili. The parrot was left all alone sitting behind the waterfall, spray misting her feathers. She watched the two climbing men with great interest. She had not heard the girls going back.
The girls came to the the cave of wchoes atlast. Clara stopped and considered " Now exactly where was that hole from where we came through?"she said.
And the cave echoed" Come, through , through, thtough".
" Oh, be quite" Cried Clara to the echoes.
" Quite, Quite, Quite" yelled back the echoes. Clara falshed her torch here and there and by a lucky chance she soon found out the hole. In a trice, she was in it, crawling along with Jenny close behind here.
Jack and Charles were peeping through the ferns, watching the men, when the girls droped out of the hole at the back of the cave. They came around the folds of the rocks and flung themselves on the boys. They almost jumped out of their skins with fright.
Charles even hit out thinking that the enemies had attacked them. Clara got a stinging box on her left ear and yelled" It's us you stupids"
" but where did you come from?" asked Charles in amazement. Golly you gave me a heart attack. I tell you, jumping on us like that. Where have you been?"
"There's a hole at the back where we went into." Explained Clara" I say, do you guys know that those two men were following you? They were not very far behind you. We were scared stiff that they would see you climbing in here."
"Were they following us?" Asked Jack" Gosh, we didn't know that. Peep out from between those fronds girls and see them hunting for us down there."

AURTHOR'S NOTE:
Hey everyone!
How are you all doing?
Hope you are all liking the book so far.
300+ reads already. I'm so happy. Can't thank you all guys enough who read the book.
Comment and suggest your ideas. What will happen next? Will these kids get the treasre? What will be the treasure actually?
Comment, Comment,Comment.
Have a good day all.
Nimz