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Chapter 12

   BEHIND THE WATERFALL

   THE passage was a very winding one. It led a little downwards, and the floor was very uneven to the feet. The girls tripped and stumbled very often. Once the roof came down so low that they had to crawl under it. But it grew high again almost at once.

   After a while they heard a noise. They couldn't imagine what it was. It was a deep and continuous roar that never stopped even for a second.

   "What's that?" said Dinah. "Are we getting into the heart of the mountain, do you think, Lucy-Ann? That's not the roar of a mighty fire, is it? What can it be? What is there that could make that noise in the middle of a mountain?"

   "I don't know," said Lucy-Ann, and immediately wanted to go back. A fire in the heart of a mountain, a fire that roared like that? She didn't in the least want to see it. She felt hot and breathless at the thought.

   But Dinah wasn't going back now that they had come so far.

   "What, go back before we've found out where this passage goes to?" she said. "Of course not! The boys would laugh like anything when we told them. We don't often get the chance of discovering something before they do. Why, we might even happen on the treasure, whatever it is, Lucy-Ann."

   Lucy-Ann felt that she didn't care in the least about treasure. All she wanted was to get back to the safety of the cave she knew, the cave with the green fern-curtains.

   "Well, you go back, then," said Dinah unkindly. "I'm going on. Baby!"

   It was more frightening to think of going back to the cave of echoes by herself than to go on with Dinah. So poor Lucy-Ann chose unwillingly to go on. With that queer, muffled roar in her ears she pressed on down the winding passage, keeping close to Dinah. The roar became louder.

   And then the girls knew what it was. It was the waterfall, of course! How stupid of them not to think of that! But it sounded so different there in the mountain.

   "We're not going into the heart of the mountain after all," said Dinah. "We're coming out somewhere near the waterfall. I wonder where."

   They got a tremendous surprise when they did see daylight. The passage suddenly took one last turn and took them into subdued daylight, that flickered and shone round them in a curious way. A draught of cold air met them, and something wetted their hair.

   "Lucy-Ann! We've come out on to a flat ledge just behind the waterfall!" cried Dinah in astonishment. "Look, there's the great mass of falling water just in front of us! — oh, the colours in it! Can you hear me? The water is making such a noise."

   Overwhelmed by surprise and by the noise, Lucy-Ann stood and stared. The water made a great rushing curtain between them and the open air. It poured down, shining and exultant, never stopping. The power behind it awed the two girls. They felt very small and feeble when they watched that great volume of water pouring down a few feet in front of them.

   It was amazing to be able to stand on a ledge just behind the waterfall and yet not to be affected by it in any way except to feel the fine spray misting the air. The ledge was very wide, and ran the whole width of the fall. There was a rock about a foot high at one end of the ledge, and the girls sat down on it to watch the amazing sight in front of them.

   "What will the boys say?" wondered Dinah. "Let's stay here till we see them coming back. If we sit on this rock, just at the edge of the waterfall, we can wave to them. They will be so astonished to see us here. There's no way of getting to this ledge from above or below, only from behind, from the passage we found."

   "Yes. We'll surprise the boys," said Lucy-Ann, no longer frightened. "Look, we can see our cave up there! — at least, we can see the giant fern whose fronds are hiding it. We shall easily be able to see the boys when they come back."

   Kiki was very quiet indeed. She had been surprised to come out behind the great wall of water. She sat on a ledge and watched it, blinking every now and again.

   "I hope she won't be silly enough to try and fly through the waterfall," said Lucy-Ann anxiously. "She would be taken down with it and dashed to pieces. I know she would."

   "She won't do anything so silly," said Dinah. "She's wise enough to know what would happen if she tried something like that. She may fly out round the edge of the waterfall, though. Still, there shouldn't be much danger for her in that."

   The girls sat there for a long time, feeling that they would never get tired of watching the turbulence of the waterfall. After a long time Lucy-Ann gave a cry and caught Dinah's arm.

   "Look — is that the boys coming? Yes, it is. They've got a sack between them. Good! Now we shall have plenty of food."

   They watched the two boys labouring up the rocks that led to the cave. It was no good waving to them yet. Then suddenly Dinah stiffened with horror.

   "What's the matter?" said Lucy-Ann in alarm, seeing Dinah's face.

   "Look — someone is following the boys!" said Dinah. "See — it's one of the men! And there's the other one too! Oh, my goodness, I don't believe either Philip or Jack knows it! They'll watch where they go and our hiding place will be found! JACK! PHILIP! OH, JACK, LOOK OUT!"

   She went to the very edge of the waterfall, and, holding on to a fern growing there, she leaned out beyond it, yelling and waving, quite forgetting that the men could see and hear her as well as the boys.

   But alas, Jack and Philip, engrossed in the task of getting the heavy sack up the rocks, neither saw nor heard Dinah — but the men suddenly caught sight of her and stared in the utmost astonishment. They could not make out if she was girl, boy, man or woman, for the edges of the waterfall continually moved and shifted. All they could make out was that there was definitely someone dancing about and waving behind the great fall.

   "Look!" said one man to the other. "Just look at that! See — behind the water! That's where they're hiding. My word, what a place! How do they get there?"

   The men stared open-mouthed at the waterfall, their eyes searching for a way up to it that would lead to the ledge where the excited figure stood waving.

   Meantime, Jack and Philip, quite unaware of the following men, or of Dinah either, had reached the curtain of fern. Philip pushed the ferns aside, and Jack hauled the sack up through them, panting painfully, for it was heavy.

   At last the sack lay on the floor of moss. The boys flung themselves down, their hearts thumping with the labour of climbing up steeply to the cave, dragging such a heavy sack. At first they did not even notice that the girls were not there.

   Not far off, some way below, stood the two men, completely bewildered. In watching Dinah behind the waterfall, they had just missed seeing Jack and Philip creep through the ferns into their cave. So when they turned from gazing at the waterfall, they found that the boys they had so warily followed had utterly disappeared.

   "Where have they gone?" demanded Juan. "They were on that rock there when we saw them last."

   "Yes. Then I caught sight of that person waving down there, and took my eyes off them for a minute — and now they've gone," growled Pepi. "Well, there's no doubt where they've gone. They've taken some path that leads to that waterfall. They hide behind it — and a clever place it is, too. Who would think of anyone hiding just behind a great curtain of water like that? Well, we know where to find them. We'll make our way to the water and climb up to that ledge. We'll soon hunt the rats out."

   They began to climb down, hoping to find a way that would lead them to the ledge behind the waterfall. It was difficult and dangerous going, on the slippery rocks.

   In the cave the boys soon recovered. They sat up, and looked round for the girls.

   "Hallo — where are Lucy-Ann and Dinah?" said Jack in astonishment. "They promised to stay here till we got back. Surely to goodness they haven't gone wandering about anywhere? They'll get lost, sure as anything!"

   They were not in the cave. That was absolutely certain. The boys did not see the hole in the fold of rock at the back. They were extremely puzzled. Jack parted the ferns and looked out.

   To his enormous astonishment he at once saw the two men clambering about on rocks near the waterfall. His eyes nearly dropped out of his head.

   "Look there!" he said to Philip, closing the fronds a little, fearful of being seen. "Those two men! Golly, they might have seen us getting in here! How did they get here? We saw them safely by the plane, on our way to the bush!"

   Dinah had now disappeared from behind the waterfall. She could not make up her mind whether or not the men had seen the boys climbing in through the fern to their cave. In any case, she thought she ought to warn them of the men's appearance. She felt sure that neither Jack nor Philip knew they were there.

   "Come on, Lucy-Ann," she said urgently. "We must get back to the boys. Oh, goodness, look at those men! I believe they are going to try and get over here now. They must have spotted me waving. Do come quickly, Lucy-Ann."

   Shivering with excitement, Lucy-Ann followed Dinah along the dark, winding passage that led back to the cave of echoes. Dinah went as quickly as she could, flashing her torch in front of her. Both girls forgot all about Kiki. The parrot was left sitting alone behind the waterfall, spray misting her feathers, watching the clambering men with interested eyes. She had not heard the girls going off.

   Dinah and Lucy-Ann came out into the cave of echoes at last. Dinah stopped and considered. "Now, where exactly was that hole we came through?" she said.

   "Came through, through, through," called the echoes mockingly.

   "Oh, be quiet!" cried Dinah to the echoes.

   "QUIET, QUIET, QUIET!" yelled back the irritating voices. Dinah flashed her torch here and there, and by a very lucky chance she found the hole. In a trice she was in it, crawling along, with Lucy-Ann close behind her. Lucy-Ann had an awful feeling that somebody was going to clutch her feet from behind and she almost bumped into Dinah's shoes in her efforts to scramble down the hole as quickly as possible.

   Jack and Philip were peeping through the fern watching the men, when the girls dropped out of the hole at the back of the cave, came round the fold of rock and flung themselves on the boys. They almost jumped out of their skin.

   Philip hit out, thinking that enemies were upon them. Dinah got a stinging box on the ear, and yelled. She immediately hit out at Philip and the two rolled on the floor.

   "Don't, oh, don't!" wailed Lucy-Ann, almost in tears. "Philip, Jack, it's us! It's us!"

   Philip shook off Dinah and sat up. Jack stared in amazement. "But where did you come from?" he demanded. "Golly, you gave us an awful scare, I can tell you, jumping out like that! Where have you been?"

   "There's a hole back there we went into," explained Dinah, giving Philip an angry look. "I say, do you two boys know that those men were following you? They were not very far behind you. We were scared stiff they would see you climbing in here."

   "Were they following us?" said Jack. "Golly, I didn't know that. Peep out between these fronds, you girls, and see them hunting for us down there."

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