“We’re arriving somewhere,” said Captain Arnold. “Well, we can’t go back, so we must go forward! I wonder what that bright light is!”
They soon found out! The boat went slowly forward, passed through the archway — and the four found, to their enormous amazement, that the river flowed through what looked like a big and most magnificent room!
The floor was of great smooth stones, polished till they shone. The walls were covered with brilliant hangings, all the colours of the rainbow, and the ceiling which was domed in glittering stones, rose up high and beautiful. From it hung the great gleaming lamp that gave the bright light the four had seen through the archway.
Stone tables stood here and there, and there were piles of soft rugs on the floor. Great vases and pitchers stood about filled with the brilliant flowers of the countryside. Three parrots screeched in a golden cage and five little monkeys huddled together in a corner.
Through the middle of this strange apartment, hidden right in the heart of the mountain, flowed one of the many underground rivers that gurgled their way towards the openings in the mountain rock through which they could fall down the hillside.
“This reminds me of a fairy-tale!” said Mrs. Arnold in the greatest amazement. “What are we going to do? Get out and explore this extraordinary place? It’s like a palace or something, built underground!”
No one was in the enormous, beautiful room except the parrots and the monkeys. Captain Arnold wondered whether or not to let his little party get out of the boat, which was still flowing gently along. And then he caught sight of something just ahead of him on the river.
It was a great golden gate stretched across the water! How strange! The boat would certainly be able to get no further, unless they could open the gate. Captain Arnold had a queer feeling that it would be better not to land in the strange room, but to go on, and see if by chance he could open the gate and go on his way.
So the boat went on towards the shining gate — and that was the end of their queer journey! For sitting along the banks of the river beside the gate were about a dozen of the red-haired Folk of the Mountain! As soon as they saw the boat coming they leapt to their feet in amazement and shouted and pointed!
The boat came to a stop by the gate. “It’s all up now,” said Captain Arnold in disgust. “We can’t escape any further! They’ve got us!”
Sure enough, they were prisoners in about half a minute! The boat was pulled to the bank, and the Mountain Folk dragged the little company from their boat. They seemed astonished to see Jack and Mafumu.
“They don’t know that Jack and Mafumu are here, of course,” said Captain Arnold. “They know we’ve escaped because our cave is empty, but they didn’t know anything about these two boys! Look — they are taking us back to that strange and beautiful room.”
They passed through a great doorway into the big apartment they had just floated through. But now it was no longer empty! On a kind of throne at one end sat a tall, red-bearded, yellow-skinned man, whose eyes glinted strangely as he gazed down at the four people before him.
“He must be their chief or king,” said Captain Arnold. “I don’t like the look of him much.”
Behind the chief stood a company of the Mountain Folk, all with flaming red beards. They held curious spears that glittered from end to end, and from their heads rose shining sun-rays that gleamed as they turned to one another. Mafumu was so frightened that he could hardly stand and Jack had to hold him up.
The big chief spoke in a harsh and stony voice. Only Mafumu understood a little of what he said, and what he heard made him tremble, for he knew that these sun-worshippers meant to throw one or more of them down the mountain-side as a kind of sacrifice to the sun. The red-bearded chief gave a sharp order, and at once the men with spears closed round the four and completely surrounded them.
They were marched off through the great room, with the screeching of the three parrots sounding in their ears. And they were taken to the top of the mountain, where the rest of the party were! But the way they went was quite different from the way that the others had taken!
They were marched to a small room in which stood what looked like a cage of gold, beautifully carved and worked. “Look!” said Jack, pointing upwards. “There’s a hole going through the roof of this room, up and up and up!”
There was — and it was there for a curious purpose, too. It was to take the cage upwards, just as a lift-shaft holds a rising lift. The golden cage was a kind of simple lift — but the ropes that hauled it up were pulled by men and not by machinery.
The little party were crammed into the cage, with four of the Mountain Folk. The door was shut. One of the men shouted a sharp order — and immediately twenty men began to haul strongly on some massive ropes that hung down from another hole in the roof.
The cage shot upwards like a lift! Mafumu was terrified, he had never even been in a lift before! The others were amazed, but they showed no fear, and Mrs. Arnold bent down to comfort the poor little boy.
Up and up they went, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, right to the very top of the mountain. They came to a stop underneath a round and gleaming trap-door, which was bolted underneath. One of the men slid back the bolts, pressed a spring and the door opened upwards, falling back silently on its hinges. The cage rose slowly once again, and when it was level with the ground it stopped.
The door of the golden cage was opened, and everyone stepped out. Captain and Mrs. Arnold looked round. They had no idea where they were at first — and then they realized that they were on the very summit of the Secret Mountain! They held their breath as they looked at the magnificent view!
The cage-lift had come up through a hole right in the very middle of the vast courtyard that spread over the top of the mountain. Jack took a quick look round and wondered if any of the others were there, but he could see no one.
They were there, of course! They were in the temple, eating some of the fruit that had been brought to them, having wrapped themselves up well in the rugs, for the wind that blew across the mountain at that time of year was strong and cold, despite the hot sun.
It was Prince Paul who saw the strange and surprising sight of the cage-lift coming up in the middle of the courtyard! He was looking out through the open doorway of the temple, and to his very great amazement he saw what seemed to be a big trap-door slowly open and bend itself back. He swallowed his mouthful in surprise, and choked. Mike banged him on the back.
“Don’t! Don’t! Look! Look!” choked poor Paul, trying to point through the doorway. But everyone thought he was upset because he was choking, and Peggy took a turn at banging him between the shoulders.
Paul saw the golden cage rise up through the trap-door opening. He saw Captain and Mrs. Arnold, Jack and Mafumu get out, with their four guards, and his eyes nearly fell out of his head with amazement and delight. He went quite purple in the face, and leapt to his feet.
“Look!” he yelled to the others. And at last they looked. When they saw the unexpected appearance of eight people in the middle of the smooth courtyard, and when Mike, Peggy and Nora saw that two of them were their own father and mother, what an excitement there was!
With shouts and shrieks the children rushed down the temple steps and ran towards the little company in the courtyard. In half a minute they were hugging their father and mother, exclaiming over them, thumping Jack on the back, shouting a hundred questions, and hugging little Mafumu, who was quite overjoyed at seeing all his lost friends so suddenly again.
“This is a surprise! This is a surprise!” everyone kept saying. And, indeed, it was!
The Escape Of Ranni And Pilescu
When everyone had calmed down a little, they looked round to see what had become of the four guards who had come up in the cage-lift with Jack and the others. But they were gone! They had silently stepped into the golden cage once more, and had disappeared from sight into the heart of the mountain!
Captain Arnold ran to where the trap-door lay smoothly in the floor of the courtyard. He tried to get his fingers between the edges of the door and the stone of the courtyard — but they fitted so exactly that it was impossible.
“In any case it will be locked and bolted the other side,” he said. “There’s no way of escape there. How did you get here, Mike? Through this trap-door?”
Mike told him about the enormous flights of shining steps that led up to the golden door. He showed the newcomers the door itself, but no matter how they tried they could not slide it back.
The children were all so excited at seeing their father and mother again, and at having Jack and Mafumu once more, that they forgot their worries and chatted happily, telling one another their adventures. Only the grown-ups looked grave, and talked solemnly together, apart from the children.
“Somehow we must think of a way to escape,” said Pilescu. “These Folk of the Secret Mountain are savage and ignorant. They think that the sun is angry with them, and they want to give him a servant to make their peace with him. Which of us will be chosen for that? I don’t like to think.”
“None of us is safe,” said Captain Arnold. “Is it possible to lie in wait for the guards who come to give you food, Pilescu, overpower them, and escape down the golden stair?”
“We could try,” said Ranni doubtfully. “But I fear it would be no use. Still, it seems the only thing to do.”
At that moment Jack came up. He had been showing the other children the queer pot of yellow paint that he had taken from the storeroom among the caves in the mountain. He looked very peculiar because he had tried out some of the paint on his own face, and his skin was now as bright yellow as the Folk of the Mountain!
Ranni and Pilescu, who did not know about the pigment, stared at him in horror.
“Jack! What is the matter with you?” cried Pilescu. “Are you ill?”
“Very!” grinned Jack. “I think I must have got yellow fever, Pilescu! Have you got any medicine to make me better?”
The other children crowded round, giggling and laughing, and Pilescu knew it was a joke. He looked closely at Jack.
“You have got yellow paint on your face,” he said. “You look like one of the Folk of the Mountain!”
“And you, Pilescu, would look exactly like one if you painted your face,” said Jack, “because you have a flaming red beard as they have. But yours is a real red beard, not a dyed one!”
No sooner had Jack said these words than the same thought flashed into Pilescu’s head and Captain Arnold’s at the same moment. Pilescu snatched the pot of pigment from Jack and looked at it. He dipped his finger into it and rubbed it over the back of his hand. At once his skin gleamed the same yellow as the skin of the Mountain Folk.
“I’ve thought the same thing as you, Pilescu,” said Captain Arnold, in excitement. “If you used this paint you would pass for one of the Secret Mountain people! You and Ranni both have the bright red hair and beards of Baronian men — if you paint your skin yellow, you will look very like the Folk of the Mountain — and maybe our way of escape lies through you!”
Immediately all was excitement. Everyone talked at once. Everyone thought it was a simply marvellous idea. In the end Captain Arnold silenced the party and spoke seriously to them all.
“We must lose no further time in talk,” he said. “I propose that both Ranni and Pilescu paint their faces with this yellow pigment and try to escape with the guards when they come. If only they can find their way back to where our planes are, they may be able to find some way of rescuing us all. It’s the only chance that I can see.”
“There are some robes in the temple with the rugs!” cried Mike. “I tried them on this morning. They would fit Ranni and Pilescu. Come and try them!”
In the greatest excitement the little company went to the temple. Ranni and Pilescu tried on the coloured robes and they fitted well enough. The flowing garments looked strange on the two big men, and everyone laughed.
Captain Arnold carefully rubbed the curious yellow pigment into the skin of the Baronians’ faces, necks and hands. With the flowing robes, yellow skin and flaming beards they looked exactly like the Folk of the Secret Mountain! Poor Mafumu, unused to extraordinary happenings of this sort, could hardly believe that it was still Ranni and Pilescu, and he shrank away from them in fear.
“It is getting near the time when sun-worshippers come to pray to the sun at sunset,” said Captain Arnold looking over the mountains to where the sun was swinging down towards the edge of the world. “Maybe many of the Mountain Folk will come, and then you can mix with them easily enough when they go!”
It was decided that Ranni and Pilescu should hide behind two great pillars near the sliding door. If they were not discovered they could mix with the Mountain Folk as they went down the stairs again, and might escape unseen in that way.
The sun swung lower — and suddenly, from behind the great golden door came the sound of chanting. It was the Mountain Folk coming to sing their prayers to the sun! The door slid to one side, and up the shining stairway came scores of the curious Folk, their beards gleaming red in the setting sun.
The leader went to the tower of the temple. All the rest spread themselves out on the flat courtyard, and flung themselves down on their faces when the man in the temple sounded a loud and echoing bell. They chanted a sad and doleful dirge for about ten minutes, whilst Captain Arnold and the rest looked on.
Behind the big pillars Ranni and Pilescu waited their chance. As soon as the sun disappeared over the edge of the world and darkness fell on the mountain the people stood up and ranged themselves in lines. Then still singing, led by their tall leader, they made their way back to the stairway that led down into the dark mountain.
And, slipping to the end of the lines, went two red-bearded folk that did not belong to the mountain! Ranni and Pilescu joined the company, and tried to do exactly as the men in front did. They passed through the shining doorway and down the golden stairs. The door slid back silently into place — and Ranni and Pilescu were gone from sight!
“They’ve gone!” said Jack, slipping his hand through Mike’s arm. “They’ve gone! Oh, I do wonder how they’ll get on. I do hope they won’t be caught!”
No one came to disturb them again that evening. The little party went into the temple and tried to find the most sheltered corner. The mountain wind blew without stopping, day and night, and it was difficult to find anywhere that was not full of draughts. The girls cuddled up to Mrs. Arnold, and the boys and Captain Arnold found a bigger corner and piled rugs over themselves.
They all slept soundly that night, in spite of the cold. Captain and Mrs. Arnold were glad to be with their children again, and hoped against hope that somehow Ranni and Pilescu would find a way to escape from the mountain and bring help to the prisoners.
For two days nothing happened. The Folk of the Mountain came up once at sunrise and once at sunset to chant their strange songs and prayers. Guards came to bring food and water. Curiously enough they did not miss Ranni and Pilescu at all — partly because Captain Arnold had told the party to split up, and be in various places on the summit of the mountain, instead of all together.
“Then when our guards come, they will not be able to count us up, because we shall be all over the place!” said Captain Arnold. “And unless they actually go to look for everyone they will not guess that two of our party are missing!”