"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 06 - Five On Kirrin Island Again" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

And then she heard a sound She jumped and then stiffened all over, holding her breath painfully. What was it?
There was a curious grating noise. Then a slight thud. It came from the recess where people long ago had built their big log fires! George sat perfectly still, straining her eyes and ears.
She saw a beam of light in the fireplace recess. Then she heard a man's cough! Was it her father? He had a cough at times. She listened hard. The beam of light grew brighter. Then she heard another noise - it sounded as if someone had jumped down from somewhere! And then -- a voice! 'Come on!' It was not her father's voice! George grew cold with fear then. Not her father's voice! Then what had happened to him -- and to Timmy?
Someone else jumped down into the recess, grumbling. 'I'm not used to this crawling about!' That wasn't her father's voice either. So there were two unknown enemies! Not one. And they knew her father's secret workroom. George felt almost faint with horror. Whatever had happened to him and Timmy?
The men walked out of the little stone room without seeing George at all. She guessed they were going to the tower. How long would they be? Long enough for her to search for the place they had appeared from?
She strained her ears again. She heard their footsteps going into the great yard. She tiptoed to the doorway and looked out. Yes -- there was the light of their torch near the, tower! If they were going up, there would be plenty of time to look round.
She went back into the little stone room. Her hands were trembling and she found it difficult to switch on her torch. She went to the fireplace recess and flashed the light in it.
She gave a gasp! Half-way up the recess at the back was a black opening! She flashed the light up there. Evidently there was a movable stone half-way up that swung back and revealed an entrance behind. An entrance to what? Were there steps, such as were shown in the old map?
Feeling quite breathless, George stood on tip-toe and flashed her light into the hole. Yes -- there were steps! They went down into the wall at the back. She remembered that the little stone room backed on to one of the immensely thick old walls still left.
She stood there, uncertain what to do. Had she better go down and see if she could find Timmy and her father? But if she did, she might be made a prisoner too. On the other hand, if she stayed outside, and the men came back and shut up the entrance, she might not be able to open it. She would be worse off than ever! 'I'll go down!' she suddenly decided. 'But I'd better take my bag and the rug, in case the 'men come back and see them. I don't want them to know I'm on the island if I can help it! I could hide them somewhere down there, I expect. I wonder if this entrance leads to the dungeons.' She lifted up the rug and the bag and pushed them into the hole. She heard the bag roll down the steps, the tins inside making a muffled noise. Then she climbed up herself. Gracious, what a long dark flight of steps! Wherever did they lead to?
Chapter Sixteen.
DOWN TO THE CAVES
GEORGE went cautiously down the stone steps. They were steep and narrow. 'I should think they run right down in the middle of the stone wall,' thought George.
'Goodness, here's a narrow bit!' It was so narrow that she had to go sideways. 'A fat man would never get through there!' she thought to herself. 'Hallo -- the steps have ended!' She had got her rug round her shoulders, and had picked up her bag on the way down. In her other hand she held her torch. It was terribly dark and quiet down there. George did not feel scared because she was hoping to see Timmy at any moment. No one could feel afraid with Timmy just round the corner, ready to welcome them! She stood at the bottom of the steps, her torch showing her a narrow tunnel. It curved sharply to the left.
'Now will it join the dungeons from here?' she wondered, trying to get her sense of direction to help her. 'They can't be far off. But there's no sign of them at the moment.' She went on down the narrow tunnel. Once the roof came down so low she almost had to crawl. She flashed her torch on it. She saw black rock there, which had evidently been too hard to be removed by the tunnel builders long ago.
The tunnel went on and on and on. George was puzzled. Surely by now she must have gone by all the dungeons! Why - she must be heading towards the shore of the island! How very queer! Didn't this tunnel join the dungeons then? A little further and she would be under the bed of the sea itself, The tunnel took a deep slope downwards. More steps appeared, cut roughly from rock. George climbed down them cautiously. Where in the world was she going?
At the bottom of the steps the tunnel seemed to be cut out of solid rock - or else it was a natural passage, not made by man at all. George didn't know. Her torch showed her black, rocky walls and roof, and her feet stumbled over an irregular rocky path. How she longed for Timmy beside her! 'I must be very deep down,' she thought, pausing to flash her torch round her once more. 'Very deep down and very far from the castle! Good gracious - whatever's that awful noise?' She listened. She heard a muffled booming and moaning. Was it her father doing one of his experiments? The noise went on and on, a deep, never-ending boom.
'Why - I believe it's the sea!' said George, amazed. She stood and listened again. 'Yes -- it is the sea -- over my head! I'm under the rocky bed of Kirrin Bay!' And now poor George did feel a bit scared! She thought of the great waves surging above her, she thought of the restless, moving water scouring the rocky bed over her head, and felt frightened in case the sea should find a way to leak down into her narrow tunnel! 'Now, don't be silly,' she told herself sternly. 'This tunnel has been here under the sea-bed for hundreds of years -- why should it suddenly become unsafe just when you are in it, George?' Talking to herself like this, to keep up her spirits, she went on again. It was very queer indeed to think she was walking under the sea. So this was where her father was at work! Under the sea itself.
And then George suddenly remembered something he had said to them all, the first time they had visited him on the island. What was it now? 'Oh yes! He said he had to have water above and around him!' said George. 'Now I see what he meant! His workroom is somewhere down here -- so the sea-water is above him -- and it's all round the tower, because it's built on an island!' Water above and water around -- so that was why her father had chosen Kirrin Island for his experiment. How had he found the secret passage under the sea, though? 'Why, even I didn't know of that,' said George. 'Hallo -what am I coming to?' She stopped. The passage had suddenly widened out into an enormous dark cave, whose roof was unexpectedly high, lost in dark shadows. George stared round. She saw queer things there that she didn't understand at all -- wires, glass boxes, little machines that seemed to be at work without a sound, whose centres were alive with queer, gleaming, shivering light.
Sudden sparks shot up now and again, and when that happened a funny smell crept round the cave. 'How weird all this is!' thought George. 'However can Father understand all these machines and things! I wonder where he is. I do hope those men haven't made him prisoner somewhere!' From this queer, Aladdin's cave another tunnel led. George switched on her torch again and went into it. It was much like the other one, but the roof was higher.
She came to another cave, smaller this time, and crammed with wires of all kinds. There was a curious humming sound here, like thousands of bees in a hive. George half-expected to see some flying round.
'It must be these wires making the noise,' she said. There was nobody in the cave at all, but it led into another one, and George hoped that soon she would find Timmy and her father.
She went into the next cave, which was perfectly empty and very cold. She shivered. Then down another passage, and into a small cave. The first thing she saw beyond this tiny cave was a light! A light! Then perhaps she was coming to the cave her father must be in! She flashed her torch round the little cave she was now standing in and saw tins of food, bottles of beer, tins of sweets, and a pile of clothes of some sort. Ah, this was where her father kept his stores. She went on to the next cave, wondering why Timmy had not heard her and come to greet her.
She looked cautiously into the cave where the light came from. Sitting at a table, his head in his hands, perfectly still, was her father! There was no sign of Timmy.
'Father!' said George. The man at the table jumped violently and turned round. He stared at George as if he really could not believe his eyes. Then he turned back again, and buried his face in his hands. 'Father!' said George again, quite frightened because he did not say anything to her.
He looked round again, and this time he got up. He stared at George once more, and then sat down heavily. George ran to him 'What's the matter? Oh Father, what's the matter? Where's Timmy?' 'George! Is it really you, George? I thought I must be dreaming when I looked up and saw you!' said her father. 'How did you get here? Good gracious, it's impossible that you should be here!' 'Father, are you all right? What's happened - and where's Timmy?' said George, urgently. She looked all round, but could see no sign of him. Her heart went cold. Surely nothing awful had happened to Timmy?
'Did you see two men?' asked her father. 'Where were they?' 'Oh Father -- we keep asking each other questions and not answering them!' said George. 'Tell me first -- where is Timmy?' 'I don't know,' said her father. 'Did those two men go to the tower?' 'Yes,' said George. 'Father, what's happened?' 'Well, if they've gone to the tower, we've got about an hour in peace,' said her father. 'Now listen to me, George, very carefully. This is terribly important.' 'I'm listening,' said George. 'But do hurry up and tell me about Timmy.' 'These two men were parachuted down on to the island, to try and find out my secret,' said her father. 'I'll tell you what my experiments are for, George - they are to find a way of replacing all coal, coke and oil - an idea to give the world all the heat and power it wants, and to do away with mines and miners.' 'Good gracious!' said George. 'It would be one of the most wonderful things the world has ever known.' 'Yes,' said her father. 'And I should give it to the whole world - it shall not be in the power of any one country, or collection of men. It shall be a gift to the whole of mankind - but, George, there are men who want my secret for themselves, so that they may make colossal fortunes out of it.' 'How hateful!' cried George. 'Go on, Father -- how did they hear of it?' 'Well, I was at work on this idea with some of my colleagues, my fellow-workers,' said her father. 'And one 'of them betrayed us, and went to some powerful business men to tell them of my idea. So when I knew this I decided to come away in secret and finish my experiments by myself. Then nobody could betray me.' 'And you came here!' said George. 'To my island.' 'Yes -- because I needed water over me and water around me,' said her father. 'Quite by chance I looked at a copy of that old map, and thought that if the passage shown there -- the one leading from the little stone room, I mean - if the passage there really did lead under the sea, as it seemed to show, that would be the ideal place to finish my experiments.' 'Oh Father -- and I made such a fuss!' said George, ashamed to remember how cross she had been.
'Did you?' said her father, as if he had forgotten all about that. 'Well, I got all my stuff and came here. And now these fellows have found me, and got hold of me!' 'Poor Father! Can't I help?' said George. 'I could go back and bring help over here, couldn't I?' 'Yes, you could!' said her father. 'But you mustn't let those men see you, George.' 'I'll do anything you want me to, Father, anything!' said George. 'But first do tell me what's happened to Timmy?' 'Well, he kept by me all the time,' said her father. 'Really, he's a wonderful dog, George. And then, this morning, just as I was coming out of the entrance in that little room to go up into the tower with Timmy to signal, the two men pounced on me and forced me back here?
'But what happened to Timmy?' asked George, impatiently. Would her father never tell her what she wanted to know?
'He flew at the men, of course,' said her father. 'But somehow or other one of them lassoed him with a noose of rope, and caught him. They pulled the rope so tight round his neck that he almost choked.' 'Oh, poor, 'poor Timmy,' said George, and the tears ran down her cheek. 'Is he -- do you think - he's all right, Father?' 'Yes. From what I heard the men saying afterwards I think they've taken him to some cave and shut him in there,' said her father. 'Anyway, I saw one of them getting some dog-biscuits out of a bag this evening -- so that looks as if he's alive and kicking -- and hungry!' George heaved a great sigh of relief. So long as Timmy was alive and all right! She took a few steps towards what she thought must be another cave. 'I'm going to find Timmy, Father,' she said. 'I must find him!'
Chapter Seventeen
TIMMY AT LAST
'No, George!' called her father sharply. 'Come back. There is something very important I want to say. Come here!' George went over to him, filled with impatience to get to Timmy, wherever he was. She must find him! 'Now listen,' said her father. 'I have a book in which I have made all my notes of this great experiment. The men haven't found it! I want you to take it safely to the mainland, George. Don't let it out of your sight! If the men get hold of it they would have all the information they needed!' 'But don't they know everything just by looking at your wires and machines and things?' asked George.
'They know a very great deal,' said her father, 'and they've found out a lot more since they've been here -but not quite enough. I daren't destroy my book of notes, because if anything should happen to me, my great idea would be completely lost. So, George, I must entrust it to you and you must take it to an address I will give you, and hand it to the person there.' 'It's an awful responsibility,' said George, a little scared of handling a book which meant so much, not only to her father, but possibly to the whole of the world. 'But I'll do my best, Father. I'll hide, in one of the caves till the men come back, and then I'll slip back up the passage to the hidden entrance, get out, go to my boat and row back to the mainland. Then I'll deliver your book of notes without fail, and get help sent over here to you.' 'Good girl,' said her father, and gave her a hug. 'Honestly, George, you do behave as bravely as any boy. I'm proud of you.' George thought that was the nicest thing her father had ever said to her. She smiled at him. 'Well, Father, I'll go and see if I can find Timmy now. I simply must see that he's all right before I go to hide in one of the other caves.' 'Very well,' said her father. 'The man who took the biscuits went in that direction still further under the sea, George. Oh by the way - how is it you're here, in the middle of the night?' It seemed to strike her father for the first time that George also might have a story to tell. But George felt that she really couldn't waste any more time - she must find Timmy! 'I'll tell you later, Father,' she said. 'Oh where's that book of notes?' Her father rose and went to the back of the cave. He took a box and stood on it. He ran his hand along a dark ridge of rock, and felt about until he had found what 'he wanted.
He brought down a slim book, whose pages were of very thin paper. He opened the book and George saw many beautifully drawn diagrams, and pages of notes in her father's small neat handwriting.
'Here you are,' said her father; handing her the book, 'do the best you can. If anything happens to me, this book will still enable my fellow-workers to give my idea to the world. If I come through this all right, I shall be glad to have the book, because it will mean I shall not have to work Out all my experiments again.' George took the precious book. She stuffed it into her macintosh pocket, which was a big one. 'I'll keep it safe, Father. Now I must go and find Timmy, or those two men will be back before I can hide in one of the other caves.' She left her father's cave and went into the next one. There was nothing there at all. Then on she went down a passage that twisted and turned in the rock.
And then she heard a sound she longed to hear. A whine! Yes, really a whine! 'Timmy!' shouted George, eagerly. 'Oh Timmy! I'm coming!' Timmy's whine stopped suddenly. Then he barked joyously. 'Woof, woof, woof, woof!' George almost fell as she tried to run down the narrow tunnel. Her torch showed her a big boulder that seemed to be blocking up a small cave in the side of the tunnel. Behind the boulder Timmy barked, and scraped frantically! George tugged at the stone with all her strength. 'Timmy!' she panted. 'Timmy! I'll get you out! I'm coming! Oh, Timmy!' The stone moved a little. George tugged again. It was almost too heavy for her to move at all, but despair made her stronger than she had ever been in her life. The stone quite suddenly swung to one side, and George just got one of her feet out of its way in time, or it would have been crushed.
Timmy squeezed out of the space left. He flung himself on George; who fell on the ground with her arms tight round him. He licked her face and whined, and she buried her nose in his thick fur in joy. 'Timmy! What have they done to you? Timmy, I came as soon as I could!' Timmy whined again and again in joy, and tried to paw and lick George as if he couldn't have enough of her. It would have been difficult to say which of the two was the happier.
At 'last George pushed Timmy away firmly. 'Timmy, we've got work to do! We've got to escape from here and get across to the mainland and bring help.' 'Woof,' said Timmy. George stood up and flashed her torch into the tiny cave where Timmy had been. She saw that there was a bowl of water there and some biscuits. The men had not ill-treated him, then, except to lasso him and half-choke him when they caught him. She felt round his neck tenderly, but except for a swollen ridge there, he seemed none the worse.
'Now hurry up - we'll go back to Father's cave -- and then find another cave beyond his to hide in till the two men come back from the tower. Then we'll creep out into the little stone room and row back to the mainland,' said George. 'I've got a very, very important book here in my pocket, Timmy.' Timmy growled suddenly, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose up. George stiffened, and stood listening.
A stern voice came down the passage. 'I don't know who you are or where you've come from -- but if you have dared to let that dog loose he'll be shot! And, to show you that I mean what I say, here's something to let you know I've a revolver!' Then there came a deafening crash, as the man pulled the trigger, and a bullet hit the roof somewhere in the passage. Timmy and George almost jumped out of their skins. Timmy would have leapt up the passage at once, but George had her hand on his collar. She was very frightened, and tried hard to think' what was best to do.
The echoes of the shot went on and on. It was horrid. Timmy stopped growling, and George stayed absolutely still.
'Well?' said the voice, 'Did you hear what I said? If that dog is loose, he'll be shot. I'm not having my plans spoilt now. And you, whoever you are, will please come up the tunnel and let me see you. But I warn you - if the dog's with you, that's the end of him!' 'Timmy! Timmy, run away and hide somewhere!' whispered George suddenly. And then she remembered something else that filled her with despair. She had her father's precious book of notes with her - in her pocket! Suppose the man found it on her? It would break her father's heart to know that his wonderful secret had been stolen from him after all.
George hurriedly took the thin, flat little book from her pocket. She pushed it at Timmy. 'Put it in your mouth. Take it with you, Tim. And go and hide till it's safe to come. Quick! Go, Timmy, go! I'll be all right.' To her great relief Timmy, with the book in his mouth, turned and disappeared down the tunnel that led further, under the sea. How, she hoped he would find a safe hiding place! The tunnel must end soon - but maybe before it did, Timmy would settle down in some dark corner and wait for her to call him again.
'Will you come up the passage or not?' shouted the voice, angrily. 'You'll be sorry if I have to come and fetch you - because I shall shoot all the way along!' 'I'm coming!' called George, in a small voice, 'and she went up the passage. She soon saw a beam of light, and in a moment she was in the flash of a powerful torch. There was a surprised exclamation.
'Good heavens! A boy! What are you doing here, and where did you come from?' George's short curly hair made the man with the torch think she was a boy, and George did not tell him he was wrong. The man held a revolver, but he let it drop as he saw George.
'I only came to rescue my dog, and to find my father,' said George, in a meek voice.
'Well, you can't move that heavy stone!' said the man. 'A kid like you wouldn't have the strength. And you can't rescue your father either! We've got him prisoner, as you no doubt saw.' 'Yes,' said George, delighted to think that the man was sure she had not been strong enough to move the big stone. She wasn't going to say a word about Timmy! If the man thought he was still shut up in that tiny cave, well and good! Then she heard her father's voice, anxiously calling from somewhere beyond the man. 'George! Is that you? Are you all right?' 'Yes, Father!' shouted back George, hoping that he would not ask anything about Timmy. The man beckoned her to come to him. Then he pushed her in front of him and they walked to her father's cave.
'I've brought your boy back,' said the man. 'Silly little idiot -- thinking he could set that savage dog free! We've got him penned up in a cave with a big boulder in front!' Another man came in from the opposite end of the cave. He was amazed to see George. The other man explained.
'When I got down here, I heard a noise out beyond this cave, the dog barking and someone talking to him and found this kid there, trying to set the dog free. I'd have shot the dog, of course, if he had been freed.' 'But - how did this boy get here?' asked the other man, still amazed.