Five Fall Into Adventure (12 page)

The boat went on and on, scudding at times before a fairly strong wind. Julian took the tiller from Jo. ‘We’ve come a long way already,’ he said. ‘Where is this place? Are you sure you’ll know it, Jo?’

‘Of course,’ said Jo, scornfully. ‘I think it’s round that far-off rocky cliff.’

She was right. As they rounded the high cliff, which jutted fiercely with great slanting rocks, she pointed in triumph.

‘There you are! See that place up there? That’s Red’s place.’

The boys looked at it. It was a dour, grey stone building, and was, as Jo had said, a little like a small castle. It brooded over the sea, with one square tower overlooking the waves.

‘There’s a cove before you come to the place,’ said Jo. ‘Watch out for it - it’s very well hidden.’

It certainly was. The boat went right past it before they saw it. ‘There it is!’ cried Jo, urgently.

They took the sail down and then rowed back. The cove lay between two high layers of rock that jutted out from the cliff. They rowed right into it. It was very quiet and calm there, and their boat merely rose and fell as the water swelled and subsided under it.

‘Can anyone see us from the house above?’ asked Dick, as they rowed right to the back of the cove.

‘I don’t know,’ said Jo. ‘I shouldn’t think so. Look - pull the boat up behind that big rock.

We don’t know who else might come here.’

They dragged the boat up. Dick draped it with great armfuls of seaweed, and soon it looked almost like a rock itself.

‘Now, what next?’ said Julian. ‘Where’s this cave you were talking about?’

‘Up here,’ said Jo, and began to climb up the rocky cliff like a monkey. Both the boys were very good climbers, but soon they found it impossible to get any further.

Jo scrambled down to them. ‘What’s the matter?’ she said. ‘If my Dad can climb up, surely you can!’

‘Your Dad was an acrobat,’ said Julian, sliding down a few feet, much too suddenly.

‘Oooh! I don’t much like this. I wish we had a rope.’

‘There’s one in the boat. I’ll get it,’ said Jo, and slithered down the cliff to the cove below at a most alarming rate. She limbed up again with the rope. She went on a good bit higher, and tied the rope to something. It hung down to where Dick and Julian stood clinging for dear life.

It was much easier to climb up with the help of a rope. Both boys were soon standing on a ledge, looking into a curious shaped cave. It was oval-shaped, and very dark.

‘In here,’ said Jo, and led the way. Dick and Julian followed stumblingly. Where in the world were they going to now?

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Jo led them into a narrow rocky tunnel, and then out into a wider cave, whose walls dripped with damp. Julian was thankful for his torch. It was eerie and chilly and musty.

He shivered. Something brushed his face and he leapt back.

‘What was that?’ he said.

‘Bats,’ said Jo, ‘there’s hundreds of them here. That’s why the place smells so sour.

Come on. We go round this rocky bit here into a better cave.’

They squeezed round a rocky corner and came inta a drier cave that did not smell so strongly of bats. ‘I haven’t been any farther than this,’ said Jo. ‘This is where me and Dad came and waited for Red. He suddenly appeared, but I don’t know where from.’

‘Well, he must have come from somewhere,’ said Dick, switching on his torch, too.

‘There’s a passage probably. We’ll soon find it.’

He and Julian began to hunt round the cave, looking for a passage or little tunnel, or even a hole that led into the cliff, upwards towards the house. Obviously Red must have come down some such passage to reach the cave. Jo stayed in a corner, waiting. She had no torch.

Suddenly the boys had a tremendous shock. A voice boomed into their cave, a loud and angry voice that made their hearts beat painfully.

‘SO! YOU DARE TO COME HERE!’

Jo slipped behind a rock immediately, like an animal going to cover. The boys stood where they were, rooted to the spot. Where did the voice come from?

‘Who are you?’ boomed the voice.

‘Who are you?’ shouted Julian. ‘Come out and show yourself! We’ve come to see a man called Red. Take us to him.’

There was a moment’s silence, as if the owner of the voice was rather taken aback.

Then it boomed out again.

‘Why do you want to see Red? Who sent you?’

‘Nobody. We came because we want our cousin back, and her dog, too,’ boomed Julian, making a funnel of his hands and trying to outdo the other voice.

There was another astonished silence. Then two legs appeared out of a hole in the low ceiling, and someone leapt lightly down beside them. The boys started back in surprise.

They hadn’t expected that the voice came from the roof of the cave!

Julian flashed his torch on the man. He was a giantlike fellow with flaming red hair. His eyebrows were red, too, and he had a red beard that partly hid a cruel mouth. Julian took one look into the man’s eyes and then no more.

‘He’s mad,’ he thought. ‘So this is Red Tower. What is he? A scientist like Uncle Quentin, jealous of uncle’s work? Or a thief working on a big scale, trying to get important papers and sell them? He’s mad, whatever he is.

Red was looking closely at the two boys. ‘So you think I have your cousin,’ he said.

‘Who told you such a stupid tale?’

Julian didn’t answer. Red took a threatening step towards him. ‘Who told you?’

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‘I’ll tell you that when the police come,’ said Julian boldly.

Red stepped back.

‘The police! What do they know'' Why should they come here? Answer me, boy!’

‘There’s a lot to know about you, Mr. Red Tower,’ said Julian, ‘Who sent men to steal my uncle’s papers? Who sent a note to ask for another lot? Who kidnapped our cousin, so that she could be held till the papers were sent? Who brought her here from Simmy’s old caravan. Who...?’

‘Aaaaaah!’ said Red, and there was panic in his voice. ‘How do you know all this? It isn’t true! But the police - have they heard this fantastic tale, too?’

‘What do you suppose?’ said Julian, wishing with all his heart that the police did know, and that he was not merely bluffing. Red pulled at his beard. His green eyes gleamed as he thought quickly and urgently.

He suddenly called loudly, turning his head up to the hole in the ceiling. ‘Markhoff! Come down!’

Two legs were swung down through the hole, and a short burly man leapt down beside the two startled boys,

‘Go down the cliff. You will find a boat in the cove, somewhere - the boat we saw these boys coming in,’ said Red sharply. ‘Smash it to pieces. Then come back here and take the boys to the yard. Tie them up. We must leave quickly, and take the girl with us.’

The man stood listening, his face sullen. ‘How can we go?’ he said. ‘You know the helicopter is not ready. You know that.’

‘Make it ready then,’ snapped Red. ‘We leave tonight. The police will be here - do you hear that? This boy knows everything - he has told me - and the police must know everything too. I tell you, we must go.’

‘What about the dog?’ said the man.

‘Shoot it,’ ordered Red. ‘Shoot it before we go. It’s a brute of a dog. We should have shot it before. Now go and smash the boat.’

The man disappeared round the rocky corner that led into the cave of bats. Julian clenched his fist. He hated to think of George’s boat being smashed to bits. Red stood there waiting, his eyes glinting in the light of the torches.

‘I’d take you with us too, if there was room!’ he suddenly snarled at Julian. ‘Yes, and drop you into the sea!

‘You can tell your uncle he’ll hear from me about his precious daughter - we’ll make an exchange. If he wants her back he can send me the notes I want. And many thanks for coming to warn me. I’ll be off before the police break in.’

He began to pace up and down the cave, muttering. Dick and Julian watched in silence.

They felt afraid for George. Would Red really take her off in his helicopter? He looked mad enough for anything.

The sullen man came back at last. ‘It’s smashed,’ he said.

‘Right,’ said Red. ‘I’ll go first. Then the boys. Then you. And boot them if they make any trouble.’

Red swung himself up into the hole in the roof. Julian and Dick followed, not seeing any point in resisting. The man behind was too sulky to stand any nonsense. He followed immediately.

There had been no sign of Jo. She had kept herself well hidden, scared stiff. Julian didn’t know what to do about her. He couldn’t possibly tell Red about her - and yet it

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seemed terrible to leave her behind all alone. Well - she was a sharp-brained little monkey. Maybe she would think up something for herself.

Red led the way through another cave into a passage with such a low roof that he had to walk bent almost double.

The man behind had now switched on a very powerful torch, and it was easier to see.

The passage sloped upwards and was obviously leading to the building on the cliff. At one part it was so steep that a hand-rail had been put for the climber to help himself up.

Then came a flight of steps hewn out of the rock itself - rough, badly-shaped steps, so steep that it was quite an effort to climb from one to the next.

At the top of the steps was a stout door set on a broad ledge. Red pushed it open and daylight flooded in. Julian blinked. He was looking out on an enormous yard paved with great flat stones with weeds growing in all the crevices and cracks.

In the middle stood a helicopter. It looked very strange and out-of-place in that old yard.

The house, with its one tall square tower, was built round three sides of the yard. It was covered with creeper and thick-stemmed ivy.

A high wall ran along the fourth side, with an enormous gate in the middle. It was shut, and from where he stood Julian could see the huge bolts that were drawn across.

‘It’s almost like a small fort,’ thought Julian, in astonishment. Then he felt himself seized and taken to a shed nearby. His arms were forced behind him and his wrists were tightly tied. Then the rope was run through an iron loop and tied again.

Julian glared at the burly fellow now doing the same to Dick. He twisted about to try to see how the rope was tied, but he couldn’t even turn, he was so tightly tethered.

He looked up at the tower. A small, forlorn face was looking out of the window there.

Julian’s heart jumped and beat fast. That must be poor old George up there. He wondered if she had seen them. He hoped not, because she would know that he and Dick had been captured, and she would be very upset.

Where was Timmy? There seemed no sign of him. But wait a minute - what was that lying inside what looked like a summer-house on the opposite side of the yard? Was it Timmy? Surely he would have barked a welcome when he heard them coming into the yard, if it was Timmy!

‘Is that my cousin’s dog?’ he asked the sullen man.

The man nodded. ‘Yes. He’s been doped half the time, he barked so. Savage brute, isn’t he? Ought to be shot, I reckon.’

Red had gone across the yard and had disappeared through a stone archway. The sullen man now followed him. Julian and Dick were left by themselves.

‘We’ve muddled things again,’ said Julian, with a groan. ‘Now these fellows will be off and away, and take George with them - they’ve been nicely warned!’

Dick said nothing. He felt very miserable, and his bound wrists hurt him, too. Both boys stood there, wondering what would happen to them.

‘Psssssst!’

What was that? Julian turned round sharply and looked in the direction of the door that led from underground into the yard. Jo stood there, half-hidden by the archway over the door. ‘Pssssst! I’ll come and untie you. Is the coast clear?’

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‘Jo!’ said the boys together, and their spirits lifted at once. ‘Come on!’

There was no one about in the yard. Jo skipped lightly across from the doorway and slipped inside the shed.

‘There’s a knife in my back pocket,’ said Julian. ‘Get it out. It would be quicker to cut these ropes than to untie them. My word, Jo - I was never so pleased to see anyone in my life!’

Jo grinned as she hauled out Julian’s sturdy pocketknife. She opened it and ran her thumb lightly over the blade. It was beautifully sharp. She set to work to saw the blade across the thick rope. It cut easily through the fibres.

‘I waited behind,’ she said, rapidly. ‘Then I followed when it was safe. But it was very dark and I didn’t like it. Then I came to that door and peeped out. I was glad when I saw you.’

‘Good thing the men didn’t guess you were there,’ said Dick. ‘Good old Jo! I take back any nasty thing I’ve ever said about you!’

Jo beamed. She cut the last bit of rope that bound Julian, and he swung himself away from the iron loop and began to rub his stiff, aching wrists. Jo set to work on Dick’s bonds. She soon had those cut through, too.

‘Where’s George?’ she asked, after she had helped Dick to rub his wrists and arms.

‘Up in that tower,’ said Julian. ‘If we dared to go out in that yard you could look up and see her. And there’s poor old Tim, look - half-doped - lying in that summerhouse place over there.’

‘I shan’t let him be shot,’ said Jo. ‘He’s a nice dog. I shall go and drag him down into those caves underground.’

‘Not now!’ said Julian, horrified. ‘If you’re seen now, you’ll spoil everything. We’ll all be tied up then!’

But Jo had already darted over to the summer-house and was fondling poor old Timmy.

The slam of a door made the boys jump and sent Jo into the shadows at the back of the summer-house at once. It was Red, coming across the yard!

‘Quick! He’s coming over here!’ said Dick, in a panic. ‘Let’s get back to the iron loops and put our hands behind us so that he thinks we’re still bound.’