“No!” said Dick. “Of course not. Let me see — they steal it — pile it on to lorries at night, take it somewhere temporarily. . . .”

“Yes — to my mother’s farm!” said Jock, in a scared voice. “All those lorries there in the barn — that’s what they’re used for! And they come down to Olly’s Yard at night and the stuff is loaded in secret on the old train that comes purring out to meet them — and then it’s taken back here and hidden!”

“Wheeeee-ew!” Julian whistled. “You’re right, Jock! That’s just what happens. What a cunning plot — to use a perfectly honest little farm as a hiding-place — to stock the farm with black-market men for labourers — no wonder they are such bad workers — and to wait for dark nights to run the stuff down to the yard and load it on the train!”

“Your stepfather must make a lot of money at this game,” said Dick to Jock.

“Yes. That’s why he can afford to pour money into the farm,” said Jock, miserably. “Poor Mum. This will break her heart. All the same, I don’t think my stepfather’s the chief one in this. There’s somebody behind him.”

“Yes,” said Julian, thinking of the mean little Mr. Andrews, with his big nose and weak chin. “There probably is. Now — I’ve thought of something else. If this stuff is got rid of in any other way except down the tunnel it came up, there must somewhere be a way out of these caves!”

“I believe you’re right,” said George. “And if there is — we’ll find it! And what’s more, we’ll escape that way!”

“Come on!” said Julian, and he switched off the glaring light. “Your torch will give enough light now. We’ll try this cave first. Keep your eyes open, all of you!”

Chapter Eighteen

A way of escape

The four children and Timmy went into the big cave. They made their way round piles of boxes, chests and crates, marvelling at the amount the men must have stolen from time to time.

“These aren’t man-made caves,” said Julian. “They’re natural. I expect the roof did perhaps fall in where the two tunnels met, and the entrance between them was actually blocked up.”

“But were two walls built then?” said Dick.

“Oh, no. We can’t guess how it was that this black market hiding-place came into existence,” said Julian, “but it might perhaps have been known there were caves here — and when someone came prospecting along the tunnel one day, maybe they even found an old train buried under a roof-fall or something like that.”

“And resurrected it, and built another wall secretly for a hiding-place — and used the train for their own purposes!” said Dick. “Made that secret entrance, too. How ingenious!”

“Or it’s possible the place was built during the last war,” said Julian. “Maybe secret experiments were carried on here — and given up afterwards. The place might have been discovered by the black marketeers then, and used in this clever way. We can’t tell!”