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Chapter 8

   KIKI TALKS TOO MUCH

   THEY all crowded into the dimly lighted shed. They gazed joyfully at the piles of things on the shelves.

   "Biscuits! Tongue! Pineapple! Sardines! Milk! Gosh, there's everything here!" cried Jack. "What shall we start on?"

   "Wait a bit. Don't let's disarrange the shelf so much that the men will know someone has been here," said Philip. "Better take tins from the back, not the front. And we won't eat the fruit and other stuff here — we'll take it away with us."

   "I think," said Jack slowly — "I really do think it would be a good idea to take away as much of this as we can carry, in case we are stuck in this valley for some time. We may as well face the fact that we are completely lost, and cut off from the world we know, and may not be rescued for ages."

   The others looked solemn, and Lucy-Ann looked scared as well.

   "You're right, Freckles," said Philip. "We'll help ourselves to as much as we can carry. Look, here's a pile of old sacks. What about filling a couple of them with the tins and carrying them off between us? We could take dozens of the tins then."

   "Good idea," said Jack. "Here's a sack for you and Dinah to fill, and here's one for me and Lucy-Ann."

   Philip stood on one of the chairs and reached his hand behind the front row of tins on the shelf. He threw down tin after tin, and the others put them into the two sacks. What a store there was in that hut!

   Soon the sacks were full and almost too heavy to carry. It was nice to think of all that food waiting to be eaten. Jack found a tin-opener, too, and put it in his pocket.

   "Before we go, let's have a look and see if we can find any papers or documents that will tell us something about these mysterious airmen," said Philip. But although they hunted in every corner, and even under the pile of sacks, they could find nothing.

   "I wonder what they did with that crate they had in the plane," said Jack. "We haven't found that anywhere. I'd like to have a squint at that too."

   The crate was not in the shed. So the children wandered out and had another good look round. And, in a copse of young trees and bushes, with a tarpaulin over them, they found about six of the wooden crates.

   "Funny," said Jack, pulling away the tarpaulin. "Look — lots of them — all empty! What are they going to put into them?"

   "Goodness knows!" said Philip. "Who would bring empty crates to this deserted valley, hoping to find something to fill them? Only madmen!"

   "Oh — you don't really think those men are mad, do you?" said Lucy-Ann in alarm. "What shall we do if they are?"

   "Keep out of their way, that's all," said Philip. "Come on. Did we shut that door? Yes, we did. Now, heave-ho, Dinah, catch hold of your end of the sack and we'll go back to our shed."

   Stumbling under the weight of the clanking sacks, the four children made their way slowly back to the shed they had hidden their things in. Jack dumped his sack, and then ran to climb the tree he had climbed before, meaning to sweep the countryside with his field-glasses, and see if the men were by any chance returning yet. But there was no sign of them.

   "All clear at the moment," said Jack, going back to the others. "Now for a meal — the finest we've ever had because we've never been so hungry before."

   They chose a tin of biscuits and opened it. They took out about forty biscuits, feeling perfectly certain that they could manage at least ten each. They opened a tin of tongue, which Jack carved very neatly with his penknife. Then they opened a tin of pineapple chunks and a tin of milk.

   "What a meal!" said Jack, sitting down contentedly on the sun-warmed ground. "Well — here goes!"

   Never did food taste so completely delicious. "Mmm-mm-mmm," murmured Lucy-Ann, meaning "This is simply gorgeous." Kiki imitated her at once.

   "Mmm-mm-mm! Mm-mm-mm!"

   No word was spoken except when Dinah saw Kiki delving too deeply into the tin of pineapple.

   "Jack! Do stop Kiki! She'll eat it all!"

   Kiki retired to a branch of the tree above, a large chunk of pineapple in her claw. "Mmm-mm-mm!" she kept saying. "Mm-mm-mm!"

   Dinah went to the spring and rinsed out the empty tin of milk. Then she filled it with clear cold water and came back. She emptied the water into the pineapple juice left at the bottom of the tin and shook it up. Then she offered everyone a pineapple drink to end the meal.

   "Gosh! I do feel better now," said Jack, and he undid his belt and let it out two or three holes. "Thank goodness you lost your temper and kicked that door, Philip. We were so sure that it was locked, and the key taken."

   "Silly of us," said Philip, lying down and shutting his eyes. "What are we going to do with the empty tins?"

   "You're obviously going to do nothing," said Dinah. "I'll push them down a rabbit-hole. The rabbits can lick them out."

   She picked up a tin and gave a scream. She dropped it, and Lizzie the lizard ran out in a hurry. She had been sniffing in delight at the crumbs of tongue left there. The tiny creature ran to Philip, and disappeared down his neck.

   "Don't tickle, Lizzie," murmured Philip sleepily.

   "I'd better keep a watch-out in case the men come back," said Jack, and he climbed his tree again. Lucy-Ann and Dinah stuffed the empty tins down a large rabbit-hole. Kiki looked down the hole at the tins in surprise, then walked solemnly down and began to tug at one of the tins.

   "No, Kiki, don't!" said Lucy-Ann. "Jack, take Kiki with you up the tree."

   Jack whistled. Kiki flew to him at once and perched contentedly on his shoulder as he climbed his tree, moving from side to side when a bough threatened to knock her off.

   "We'd better bring out all our cases and things, ready to hide them somewhere better than in the cowshed," said Dinah. "If those men do look round here when they come back, they'll see them in the cow-stall, as sure as anything!"

   So the two girls lugged everything out, Dinah grumbling because Philip lay apparently asleep and would not stir himself to help them. Jack came down the tree.

   "No sign of them yet," he said. "Now the thing is — where can we hide these things really well?"

   "Down the well," suggested Kiki, hearing the word "well."

   "Shut up, Kiki," said Jack. He looked all round but could think of nowhere. Then an idea struck him.

   "I tell you where would be a jolly good place," he said.

   "Where?" asked the girls.

   "Well — see that big tree there? — the one with thick spreading branches — we could get up there and pull up our things quite easily, and hide them in the leafy branches. No one would think of looking up there, either for us or our belongings."

   The girls gazed at the thickly-leafed tree. It was an eating-chestnut tree, dark and full of glossy leaves. Just the place.

   "But how can we get the suitcases up?" asked Dinah. "They're not terribly big — but they're quite heavy."

   Jack undid a rope from round his waist. He nearly always had one there. "Here you are!" he said. "I can climb up the tree and let down this rope. You can slip it through the handle of one of the suitcases and knot it. Then I'll give a jolly good heave — and up it'll come!"

   "Let's wake Philip, then," said Dinah, who didn't see why her brother shouldn't join in the labour of heaving things up a tree. She went over and shook him. He awoke with a jump.

   "Come and help us, you lazy thing," said Dinah. "Jack's found a marvellous hiding-place for us all."

   Philip joined the others and agreed that it was indeed a fine place. He said he would go up with Jack and pull up the cases.

   Kiki was most interested in all the proceedings. When Jack hung the rope down the tree, she flew to it and gave it such a tug with her beak that it was pulled from Jack's hand and fell to the ground.

   "Kiki! What did you do that for, you bad bird?" called Jack. "Now I've got to climb all the way down and up again! Idiot!"

   Kiki went off into one of her never-ending cackles of laughter. She waited her chance and once again pulled the rope from poor Jack's hand.

   Jack called her sternly. She came, cracking her beak, not quite liking Jack's stern voice. He tapped her very sharply on the beak.

   "Bad Kiki! Naughty Kiki! Go away! I don't want you. No, GO AWAY!"

   Kiki flew off, squawking dismally. Jack was not very often cross with her, but she knew he was this time. She retired inside the dark cowshed, and sat high up on a blackened beam, swaying herself to and fro.

   "Poor Kiki! Poor, poor Kiki!" she groaned. "Pop goes Kiki!"

   Jack and Philip soon hauled everything up and stowed it away safely in the forks of the big spreading branches. Then Jack shinned up a bit higher and put his glasses to his eyes. What he saw made him call urgently to the girls.

   "The men are coming! Quick, get up! Have you left anything behind? Have a look and see!"

   The girls took a quick look round. They could see nothing. Lucy-Ann climbed the tree quickly, with Dinah just behind her. They settled themselves on broad branches and peered down. They could see nothing at all, for the leaves were far too thick. Well, if they couldn't see down, certainly nobody could see up. So that was all right.

   Soon they could hear voices. The men were coming near. The children sat as quiet as mice in the tree. Lucy-Ann felt a terrible longing to cough and she put her hand over her mouth.

   Down below, the men were making a good search of the old cowshed. They found nothing, of course, for everything had been removed by the children. Then they wandered out again and looked at the flattened grass. It puzzled them very much.

   "I'll just have one more look in that shed," said the man called Juan. He disappeared into the shed once more. Kiki, who was still up on the blackened beam, sulking, was annoyed to see him again.

   "Wipe your feet," she said severely. "And how many times have I told you to shut the door?"

   The man jumped violently and peered all round. Kiki was huddled in a corner up in the roof and he could not see her. He looked in all the other corners of the room, hardly believing his ears. He called to his companion.

   "Look here," he said, "somebody just now told me to wipe my feet and shut the door."

   "You're mad," said the other man. "You can't be feeling well."

   "Pussy down the well," announced Kiki. "Well, well, well! Use your handkerchief."

   The men clutched one another. Kiki's voice was so unexpected in that dark shed.

   "Let's be quiet and listen," said Juan. Kiki heard the words "be quiet."

   "Shhhhhhhhshhhhhh!" she said at the top of her voice. That was too much for the men. They fled out into the open air.

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