The Wind on the Moon (34 page)

‘What are we wasting time for?' asked Mr. Stevens. ‘I hate sitting still and doing nothing. Come along, everybody!'

In addition to his lantern he carried a pick with a spare helve and a heavy sack, while Notchy had a spade, a crowbar, and a coil of rope. But in spite of their burdens they moved with great speed, and although they now had a light to guide them, the others found it difficult to keep up with the old men, and soon they were all hot and breathless.

They walked for a long time, bumping their shoulders and elbows against the rock, and Dorinda was feeling that she must, within the next minute, ask them to stop for a rest, when Mr. Stevens suddenly halted and held his lantern to the wall.

‘Look at that, Notchy,' he said.

There was a deep diagonal crack in the rock, and when Notchy laid his cheek to it, he felt a little draught of air.

‘There's something on the other side,' he said. ‘A passage, a chamber, a fault in the rock, or another sap. Interesting, isn't it?'

‘Very interesting,' said Mr. Stevens. ‘How strange that we didn't observe it when we were working our way upwards. But we must examine this more closely.'

He opened the sack he was carrying, which contained a few personal belongings, some slabs of gun-cotton, fuse and detonators, and the head of a sledge-hammer. Quickly fitting this on to the spare helve, he began to hammer at the rock as though in a perfect fury.

Shouting through the din that he made, Major Palfrey demanded, ‘Is it absolutely necessary that you should do this now? Can't we go on and get out of this dreadful tomb? I want fresh air!'

Mr. Stevens stopped hammering and said in a tone of great severity, ‘This promises to be
most
interesting. To pass on without investigating all the possibilities of driving a lateral sap from this most hopeful beginning, into the very heart of the hill, would be a piece of criminal neglect. Please do not interrupt us in our work.'

It soon became obvious that the rock at this point was very thin, little more than a partition, and after half an hour's vigorous work with sledgehammer and crow-bar, Mr. Stevens and Notchy Knight had made a hole in it big enough to crawl through. Mr. Stevens was the first to go.

The others followed, and found him holding up his lantern to admire the arched roof of a narrow but well-constructed corridor.

‘Beautiful!' he exclaimed. ‘Isn't it beautiful?'

‘As noble a work of man as I have ever seen,' said Notchy reverently.

‘What is the explanation of this?' asked Major Palfrey.

Mr. Corvo yawned. ‘It is another secret passage,' he said. ‘All the old castles in Bombardy have secret passages. But I am tired of travelling underground. I am weary of tunnels and saps and rock and clay. I want to get out!'

‘So do I,' said Dinah.

‘I don't like the smell,' said Dorinda.

‘But we must certainly see where this goes,' said Mr. Stevens.

‘Of course we must,' said Notchy. ‘I should never forgive myself for omitting to explore every yard of so perfect a piece of engineering.'

‘Shouldn't we take the nearest way out?' asked Major Palfrey.

But already the old men, after a rapid debate as to whether they should go left or right, were hurrying along the corridor, and the others had to use all speed to keep them and their lantern in sight.

The way seemed endless, and though they should have been elated by the thought of escape, they were oppressed by the gloom of the narrow walls and the stale damp smell of the air.

At last, however, the two old men, now fifty yards ahead of them, came to a halt. They had no choice in the matter, for they could go no farther. The corridor had come to an end. In front of them was a little door, stoutly built and barred with iron.

‘Notchy,' said Mr. Stevens, ‘the sledge-hammer, if you please.'

‘Do you mean to break it open?' asked Major Palfrey.

‘I see no other means of getting to the other side of it,' said Mr. Stevens.

‘But you may be forcing your way into private property.'

‘Until we break through we cannot tell whether it is private property or public property,' said Mr. Stevens, and, swinging the heavy hammer, struck the door a tremendous blow. It opened immediately.

‘It wasn't locked!' he exclaimed. ‘How careless people are!'

They now found themselves in what was evidently the cellar of a house. It contained two stone bins full of bottles of wine, three beer barrels, and an old bicycle.

‘And now,' said Major Palfrey nervously, ‘we must use the very greatest caution. I insist on caution, and I shall take the lead. Follow me and make no noise whatever.'

Stone steps led upward from the cellar to a door that opened easily, Major Palfrey having first made certain, by looking through the keyhole, that the room beyond it was empty. It was difficult to say what sort of a room it was. There were so many books in it that it might have been a small library, but there was also a narrow bed with a mattress but no blankets or pillow, so equally it might have been a spare bedroom. There were also various articles such as a sewing-machine without a handle, a pair of skates, a very old gramophone with a broken horn, some tall china vases all cracked, and a pair of antlers mounted on a wooden shield, which made it look like a lumber-room. But though Dinah and Dorinda were deeply interested in all these things, Major Palfrey paid no attention to them. With one hand held up for silence, he was listening intently at a door on the far side of the room. Listening too, the others could hear a faint murmur of voices.

The Puma, as though to guard Major Palfrey against sudden attack, stood with head alert close behind him. Mr. Corvo, Mr. Stevens, and Notchy Knight shuffled a little nearer. Mr. Stevens still carried his lighted lantern.

For nearly a minute they all stood quite motionless like a group at Madame Tussaud's. But then there was a most unfortunate accident.

The top of the lantern was by this time almost red-hot, and Mr. Stevens, leaning forward very eagerly and paying no attention to it, let it touch the root of the Puma's tail.

With a howl of fear and pain the Puma leapt forward. Head down and shoulders bunched, she leapt against the door, burst it open, and tumbled into the room beyond. Major Palfrey, trying to catch and hold her, followed her and fell as the rug he trod on slid on a polished floor. Mr. Corvo, Mr. Stevens, and Notchy Knight, unwilling to desert him, followed too, and Dinah and Dorinda rushed after them, eager to see what had happened.

What they did see was so unexpected, and so frightening, that it took their breath away. Sitting opposite each other at a small table were Professor Bultek and Count Hulagu Bloot.

Count Hulagu had come, by the secret passage which led from his suite in the Castle, to Professor Bultek's house to have his fortune told. At the moment when the Puma burst open the door his hands had been lying palms upward on the table, and Professor Bultek was telling him that he would soon be going on a long journey.

But Count Hulagu's adventurous life had taught him how to move quickly, and in a moment he was on his feet, and the hands that Professor Bultek had been reading each held a revolver.

‘Heneg onti hath oinc!' he whispered fiercely.

‘Into that corner,' muttered Mr. Corvo in a low frightened voice.

Slowly and reluctantly they huddled together. Professor Bultek, with all his fingers in his mouth, gazed at them in utter consternation, but Count Hulagu, taking a slow pace towards them, looked from one to another with a grim and gloating smile. He began to speak slowly in Bombast, licking his mulberry-coloured lips, and Mr. Corvo, still in a frightened whisper, translated what he said.

‘First there was one'—he pointed a revolver at Major Palfrey—‘and then came three others, a man and the two girls. You are much thinner than when I first saw you. I like to see my prisoners grow thin and suffer, but I do not like my prisoners to escape. No, no! I am too fond of them to let them escape. But how did you find you way here? Was it these little ancient men, like dwarfs, who came to your rescue? Who are they? Where did they come from? And where did you find that animal?'

The Puma lay in front of the others. Her great eyes were shining with a fierce and steady light, her hair bristled stiffly on her neck, and her teeth were bared. She was softly snarling. Suddenly, as the revolver came down and seemed to threaten her, she leapt, with a savage grinding roar, straight at Count Hulagu's throat.

Two shots rang out, immensely loud in that small room, and then Count Hulagu, stumbling backwards, fell to the floor with the Puma on top of him. For a few seconds they seemed to be wrestling together, and then Count Hulagu lay still and the Puma, with a tired and awkward movement, crawled a little way from him and fell upon her side.

Pulling the table-cloth from the table where Count Hulagu had sat to have his fortune told, Major Palfrey hurriedly covered the dead Tyrant, and Dinah, on her knees beside the dying Puma, took its head on her lap, while Dorinda, crying bitterly, hid her face on its neck.

‘And that is all,' said the Puma softly. ‘Now I know why Mrs. Grimble let you rescue me from the hounds. I think I have known in my heart, ever since we came here, that something like this would happen, and that, I suppose, is why for a little time past I have been sadder than I used to be. But do not cry! The people of my breed nearly always die in fight, and what does it matter whether the fight be here or in my own country?'

Dinah and Dorinda were both crying so bitterly that neither could properly answer. But the one sobbed, ‘I love you so much!' and the other, ‘I love you more than anyone in the world, except Dorinda.'

‘You gave me what I love above all things,' said the Puma. ‘You gave me a little while of freedom. Have I repaid you?'

Dinah felt the noble head grow heavy on her knees, and the bright eyes went dim. With a little trembling of her golden skin, the Puma died.

‘Come,' said their father gently. ‘Come, my dears, you must leave her. We are not yet out of danger. There is more trouble in the house, and we must compose ourselves. Say good-bye to her, poor creature, and come quickly.'

The other door in Professor Bultek's room opened into a little hall, and on the other side of that was the drawing-room. The hall was now full of excited people, most of them women, and Mr. Corvo was trying to pacify them. Mr. Corvo had completely recovered his nerve, and was talking in a very loud and confident voice, which, however, could scarcely be heard because nine or ten of the women were screaming far more loudly than he. They had been frightened at first by the sound of the shots, then frightened by the discovery that strangers were in the house, and frightened for the third time by the appearance of Mr. Stevens and Notchy Knight.

Mrs. Bultek was screaming louder than anyone because she thought, for some reason, that Professor Bultek had been shot. Then she saw him in the doorway, and, throwing her arms round his neck, immediately fainted. She was much bigger than her husband, and her weight was more than he could bear. They fell heavily to the floor with Professor Bultek underneath.

Seeing this, her friends stopped screaming and hurried to help her. Then, from the deserted drawing-room, came the sound of another voice. A voice that was high-pitched and thin and very piercing. It was a baby's voice, and as soon as they heard it all the women in the party forgot about Mrs. Bultek, and pushed each other out of the way to get back to the drawing-room.

It so happened that Mrs. Bultek had been having a christening-party for her first grandchild, and the baby, very naturally, did not want to be left alone on so important an occasion. So she began to scream. She was only six weeks old, but her voice was so remarkably strong that no one could doubt that when she grew up she would be able to scream louder than any other woman in Bombardy. In three seconds the hall was empty except for the prostrate figures of Professor and Mrs. Bultek.

Major Palfrey at once took advantage of this to go to the front door and open it. There, before the house, he saw a large motor-car decorated with rosettes and white ribbons, which had been hired for the christening-party.

‘Dinah and Dorinda!' he called. ‘Corvo, Stevens, Knight! Quickly, here's our chance. Into the car with you!'

Mr. Stevens and Notchy Knight, who had never before ridden in a motor-car, were more inclined to open the bonnet and look at the engine than to get inside, but Mr. Corvo, now full of nervous energy, pushed them into the back with Dinah and Dorinda, shut the door with a bang, and got into the front seat beside Major Palfrey.

‘I think I know the way,' said Major Palfrey.

‘Right here,' said Mr. Corvo, and they turned a corner at full speed. ‘Now you are on the main road to Gliedermannheim.'

Professor Bultek's house was one of those built on the side of the hill below the Castle, and Major Palfrey drove down the steep and winding road at such a pace that everyone they passed stood and stared in astonishment, and all the white ribbons strained in the breeze like the ropes of a racing yacht.

‘There is no need to go through the town,' said Mr. Corvo presently. ‘Turn right here, then left by those trees. We shall come to a small road that goes very near the siding where the furniture vans are. If they have not already been taken away, that is.'

Twenty minutes later they left the car in a lane, and walked over a field to a little wood. Beyond it, on a siding, there was a short goods train with the five furniture vans together at one end. There was a signal-box not far away, and a man leaning from a window was shouting something to another man on the other side of the line.

‘We must hide in the wood till darkness comes,' said Mr. Corvo.

‘How do we get into the van?' asked Major Palfrey. ‘They will certainly all be locked.'

‘There is a trap-door in the roof.'