An Exciting Discovery
Nobody could think how to rescue Tom. After all, if there was someone guarding the cave-entrance, how could Andy possibly get in without being seen?
The boy gave it up after a time, and for a change he set the gramophone going. There was only one record that was not broken, and that was the one with the lullaby on one side and the nursery rhymes on the other. The girls listened, rather bored, for they had heard that record scores of times since they had come to the island.
"Turn it off, Andy," said Jill. "If I hear that voice crooning that lullaby any more I shall go to sleep!"
Andy switched off the gramophone and went to the doorway of the shack. He was not afraid of the men coming back again for he was sure they thought there was no one on this island, at any rate.
A thought came into Andy's bead. He went back to the girls.
"I think it would be a good thing if I crossed to the second island to-night, when it's dark," he said. "I might be able to get into touch with Tom somehow and hear what has happened, even if I can't rescue him."
"Oh, Andy—we shall be left all alone," said Mary in dismay.
"We don't mind that, if Andy can help Tom," said Jill. "We'll stay here in the hut, Andy, and try to sleep whilst you go. But do be careful, won't you?"
"I'll be careful," said Andy. "I don't want to be made a prisoner, too—but you needn't be afraid of that! No enemy can catch me!"
So that night, when he had only the starlight to guide him, for the moon was not up, Andy crossed the line of rocks to the second island. He went very cautiously, for he did not want a single sound to come to the ears of anyone on the cave-beach.
He waded through the shallow water to the sand at the nearer end of the beach. He stood there, listening—and not very far off, close against the cliff where the cave-entrance was, he heard a cough!
"Oho!" said Andy to himself. "Thanks for that cough, dear sentry! I now know exactly where you are. You are behind the big rock at the cave opening. Well. I shall not go near you!"
The boy stood quite still for a while, listening. The sentry most obligingly cleared his throat and coughed again very loudly. Andy grinned. He made his way carefully round the end of the cliff and then began to climb up, feeling his way cautiously. The cliff there was not very steep, and Andy was soon at the top. He had not made a single sound.
He found a little hollow where heather and gorse grew thickly. He crept under an overhanging piece of bush, piled the heather beneath him, and slept peacefully. He knew he could do nothing till morning came, and he could see where he was.
The sun rose and Andy awoke. He was stiff and he stretched himself and yawned. He was hungry, but there was nothing for him to eat but bilberries.
He wriggled carefully to the edge of the cliff and looked over. Almost below him was the sentry he had heard last night, behind a rock at the cave-entrance. As Andy looked down he saw a boat coming to the shore, and a man stepped off, and walked up the beach to change places with the sentry. They stood talking for a while and then the first sentry went to the boat, yawning, and the new one settled down to his task of waiting and watching.
Andy sat and thought. He wriggled back to a place where he imagined he must be exactly over the Round Cave. He wondered if Tom could hear him, if he drummed on the ground with his feet. After all, the boy could not be very far below, for the Round Cave was fairly high up in the cliff.
And then a most extraordinary thing happened—so startling that Andy's heart jumped almost out of his body!
A groan came from somewhere under his legs! Andy was lying on the heather, and when the groan came, he shot his legs up beneath him and stared at the place where the groan had come from as if he simply couldn't believe his eyes or ears!
A smaller groan sounded, more like a long yawn. Andy stared at the heather, and wondered if his ears could be right! Heather couldn't yawn or groan! Then what was it?
Very cautiously and gently, the boy turned himself about and began to feel in the heather. He pulled it to one side, and to his enormous astonishment he found a hole below the roots of the heather—a hole that must lead down to the Round Cave for Andy reckoned that he must be exactly over that cave.
Andy felt so excited that he began to tremble. "No wonder that cave didn't smell as musty and stuffy as we expected it to," he thought. "There is an air-hole leading right down to it! Golly! I wonder if there's any chance of rescuing Tom this way."
He pulled up the heather and examined the hole. The earth was dry and sandy. Andy scraped away hard, and found that it was quite easy to make it bigger. Just suppose he could make it big enough to get down—or for Tom to get up!
"I knew there'd be a way if we didn't give up hope!" thought the excited boy. "I just knew it!"
He crawled to the top of the cliff and looked over it. The sentry was there still, and he was busy eating his breakfast. He was all right for some time.
Andy crawled back to the hole. He scraped about a little more, and then lay down with his face in the hole. It seemed to go down and down into the darkness.
Andy spoke in a low voice. "Tom! Are you there?"
And was Tom there? Yes, he was! He had been in the Round Cave, alone and lonely, ever since he had been caught. It had seemed ages to him. The boy had worried dreadfully about the others. He had eaten a little of the food around him, but he had no appetite now. He was miserable and frightened, though he would not show this to any of the sentries who occasionally came up the rocky passage-way to see if he was all right.
The man who could speak English had come to see him the evening before.
"We have searched the first island and this one," he had told Tom. "We have found your shack—and we have found your friends, too!"
Tom's heart sank when he heard this. The man was really telling an untruth, hoping to trap Tom into saying something that would show him there were others to be found. But Tom said nothing.
"I tell you we have found your friends," said the man. "They fought hard but they have been captured."
Tom stared at the man in surprise. He knew quite well that the girls would not fight men. What did mis man mean? Could he be telling an untruth?
Then Tom suddenly knew that the man was hoping to trap him into saying something about the others. This mail did not know that the «others» were only two girls and a boy. He did not even know for certain that there were any others!
"Well, two can play at a game of pretend like that!" thought the boy. So he put on a face of great surprise and said:
"Golly! Are there others on these islands then? I wish I'd known! I could have asked them for help!"
The man looked surprised. So perhaps this boy had no friends then? Could it be that he was really alone? The man did not know what to think. He said no more but turned and went out of the cave. Tom couldn't help feeling pleased. The man had thought he might trap him—but he felt sure he had tricked the man!
It was very lonely in the Round Cave. Tom slept heavily all the night through, but found the day very, very dull.
He sat on a box and groaned deeply. Then he yawned loudly. He was bored. He was lonely.
He sat there, doing nothing; and then he heard a very peculiar noise above his head—a kind of scraping noise. Tom wondered what it could be.
"Perhaps it's a rabbit or something," he thought. "But no—it couldnt be. The roof of the cave is of rock."
The scraping noise went on—and then something happened that made Tom leap up in fright.
A strange hollow voice came into the cave from somewhere! — It ran all round the cave and Tom could just make out the words. The funny deep voice said, "Tom! Are you there?"
It was really Andy's voice, of course, coming down the hole to the cave—and the hote had made it sound deep and strange, not a bit like Andy's.
Tom trembled and said nothing. He couldn't understand this queer voice suddenly coming into the cave. So Andy spoke again.
"Tom! It's Andy speaking. Are you there?"
The voice rumbled round the cave—but this time Tom was not so scared. Could it really be Andy, somehow managing to speak to him? He answered as loudly as he dared.
"I'm here! In the Round Cave!"
Tom's voice came up to Andy, all muddled and jumbled, for Tom was not near the opening of the hole. Andy could not make out what he said, but he knew it was Tom speaking.
"Good!" he thought. "Tom's in there all right. I'll speak to him again and see if I can find out what's happened to him."
So once more Andy's voice came rumbling down into the cave. "Tom! I'm speaking down a hole that must somehow lead into your cave. See if you can find it and speak up it. I can't hear you properly. But whatever you do, don't let anyone hear you speaking to me."
Tom felt excited. Good old Andy! He got upland began to hunt around for the hole that led upwards to Andy. He must find it, he simply must!