“There’s one in the boat. I’ll get it,” said Jo, and slithered down the cliff to the cove below at a most alarming rate. She climbed up again with the rope. She went on a good bit higher, and tied the rope to something. It hung down to where Dick and Julian stood clinging for dear life.

It was much easier to climb up with the help of a rope. Both boys were soon standing on a ledge, looking into a curious shaped cave. It was oval-shaped, and very dark.

“In here,” said Jo, and led the way. Dick and Julian followed stumblingly. Where in the world were they going to now?

Chapter Eighteen

Things begin to happen

Jo led them into a narrow rocky tunnel, and then out into a wider cave, whose walls dripped with damp. Julian was thankful for his torch. It was eerie and chilly and musty. He shivered. Something brushed his face and he leapt back.

“What was that?” he said.

“Bats,” said Jo, “there’s hundreds of them here. That’s why the place smells so sour. Come on. We go round this rocky bit here into a better cave.”

They squeezed round a rocky corner and came into a drier cave that did not smell so strongly of bats. “I haven’t been any farther than this,” said Jo. “This is where me and Dad came and waited for Red. He suddenly appeared, but I don’t know where from.”

“Well, he must have come from somewhere,” said Dick, switching on his torch, too. “There’s a passage probably. We’ll soon find it.”

He and Julian began to hunt round the cave, looking for a passage or little tunnel, or even a hole that led into the cliff, upwards towards the house. Obviously Red must have come down some such passage to reach the cave. Jo stayed in a corner, waiting. She had no torch.

Suddenly the boys had a tremendous shock. A voice boomed into their cave, a loud and angry voice that made their hearts beat painfully.

“SO! YOU DARE TO COME HERE!”

Jo slipped behind a rock immediately, like an animal going to cover. The boys stood where they were, rooted to the spot. Where did the voice come from?

“Who are you?” boomed the voice.

“Who are you?” shouted Julian. “Come out and show yourself! We’ve come to see a man called Red. Take us to him.”

There was a moment’s silence, as if the owner of the voice was rather taken aback. Then it boomed out again.

“Why do you want to see Red? Who sent you?”

“Nobody. We came because we want our cousin back, and her dog, too,” boomed Julian, making a funnel of his hands and trying to outdo the other voice.

There was another astonished silence. Then two legs appeared out of a hole in the low ceiling, and someone leapt lightly down beside them. The boys started back in surprise. They hadn’t expected that the voice came from the roof of the cave!