"Well, here goes!" he said, in a cheerful voice. "Don't worry about me. I'll be all right."
Anne was rather white. She was terribly afraid that Dick might fall right down to the bottom of the well. She watched him climb down the iron ladder to the slab of stone. He tried his best to squeeze by it, but it was very difficult. At last he managed it and after that Anne could see him no more. But she could hear him, for he kept calling up to her.
"Ladder's still going strong, Anne! I'm all right. Can you hear me?"
"Yes," shouted Anne down the well, hearing her voice echo in a funny hollow manner. "Take care, Dick. I do hope the ladder goes all the way down."
"I think it does!" yelled back Dick. Then he gave a loud exclamation. "Blow! It's broken just here. Broken right off. Or else it ends. I'll have to use my rope."
There was a silence as Dick unwound the rope from his waist. He tied it firmly to the last but one rung of the ladder, which seemed quite strong.
"I'm going down the rope now!" he shouted to Anne. "Don't worry. I'm all right. Here I go!"
Anne couldn't hear what Dick said after that, for the well-shaft made his words go crooked and she couldn't make out what they were. But she was glad to hear him shouting even though she didn't know what he said. She yelled down to him too, hoping he could hear her.
Dick slid down the rope, holding on to it with hands, knees and feet, glad that he was so good at gym at school. He wondered if he was anywhere near the dungeons. He seemed to have gone down a long way. He managed to get out his torch. He put it between his teeth after he had switched it on, so that he might have both hands free for the rope. The light from the torch showed him the walls of the well around him. He couldn't make out if he was above or below the dungeons. He didn't want to go right down to the bottom of the well!
He decided that he must have just passed the opening into the dungeon-caves. He climbed back up the rope a little way and to his delight saw that he was right. The opening on to the dungeons was just by his head. He climbed up till he was level with it and then swung himself to the side of the well where the small opening was. He managed to get hold of the bricked edge, and then tried to scramble through the opening into the dungeon.
It was difficult, but luckily Dick was not very big. He managed it at last and stood up straight with a sigh of relief. He was in the dungeons! He could now follow the chalk-marks to the room or cave where the ingots were- and where he felt sure that George and Julian were imprisoned!
He shone his torch on the wall. Yes- there were the chalk-marks. Good! He put his head into the well-opening and yelled at the top of his voice.
"Anne! I'm in the dungeons! Watch out that the men don't come back!"
Then he began to follow the white chalk-marks, his heart beating fast. After a while he came to the door of the store-room. As he had expected, it was fastened so that George and Julian couldn't get out. Big bolts had been driven home at the top and bottom, and the children inside could not possibly get out. They had tried their hardest to batter down the door, but it was no good at all.
They were sitting inside the store-cave, feeling angry and exhausted. The man had brought them food and drink, but they had not touched it. Tim was with them, lying down with his head on his paws, half-angry with George because she hadn't let him fly at the men as he had so badly wanted to. But George felt certain that Tim would be shot if he tried biting or snapping.
"Anyway, the other two had sense enough not to come down and be made prisoners too," said George. "They must have known there was something funny about that note when they saw I had signed myself Georgina instead of George. I wonder what they are doing. They must be hiding."
Tim suddenly gave a growl. He leapt to his feet and went to the closed door, his head on one side. He had heard something, that was certain.
"I hope it's not those men back again already," said George. Then she looked at Tim in surprise, flashing her torch on to him. He was wagging his tail!
A great bang at the door made them all jump out of their skins! Then came Dick's cheerful voice. "Hi, Julian! Hi, George! Are you here?"
"Wuffffff!" barked Tim, joyfully and scratched at the door.
"Dick! Open the door!" yelled Julian in delight. "Quick, open the door!"
Chapter Sixteen. A PLAN- AND A NARROW ESCAPE
DICK unbolted the door at the top and bottom and flung it open. He rushed in and thumped George and Julian happily on the back.
"Hallo!" he said. "How does it feel to be rescued?"
"Fine!" cried Julian, and Tim barked madly round them.
George grinned at Dick.
"Good work!" she said. "What happened?"
Dick told them in a few words all that had happened. When he related how he had climbed down the old well, George and Julian could hardly believe their ears. Julian slipped his arm through his younger brother's.
"You're a brick!" he said. "A real brick! Now quick-what are we going to do?"
"Well, if they've left us our boat I'm going to take us all back to the mainland as quickly as possible," said George. "I'm not playing about with men who brandish revolvers all the time. Come on! Up the well we go and find the boat."
They ran to the well-shaft and squeezed through the small opening one by one. Up the rope they went, and soon found the iron ladder. Julian made them go up one by one in case the ladder wouldn't bear the weight of all three at once.
It really wasn't very long before they were all up in the open air once more, giving Anne hugs, and hearing her exclaim gladly, with tears in her eyes, how pleased she was to see them all again.
"Now come on!" said George after a minute. "Off to the boat. Quick! Those men may be back at any time."
They rushed to the cove. There was their boat, lying where they had pulled it, out of reach of the waves. But what a shock for them!
"They've taken the oars!" said George, in dismay. "The beasts! They know we can't row the boat away without oars. They were afraid you and Anne might row off, Dick- so instead of bothering to tow the boat behind them, they just grabbed the oars. Now we're stuck. We can't possibly get away."
It was a great disappointment. The children were almost ready to cry. After Dick's marvellous rescue of George and Julian, it had seemed as if everything was going right- and now suddenly things were going wrong again.
"We must think this out," said Julian, sitting down where he could see at once if any boat came in sight. "The men have gone off- probably to get a ship from somewhere in which they can put the ingots and sail away. They won't be back for some time, I should think, because you can't charter a ship all in a hurry- unless, of course, they've got one of their own."
"And in the meantime we can't get off the island to get help, because they've got our oars," said George. "We can't even signal to any passing fishing-boat because they won't be out just now. The tide's wrong. It seems as if all we've got to do is wait here patiently till the men come back and take my gold! And we can't stop them."
"You know- I've got a sort of plan coming into my head," said Julian, slowly. "Wait a bit- don't interrupt me. I'm thinking."
The others waited in silence while Julian sat and frowned, thinking of his plan. Then he looked at the others with a smile.
"I believe it will work," he said. "Listen! We'll wait here in patience till the men come back. What will they do? They'll drag away those stones at the top of the dungeon entrance, and go down the steps. They'll go to the store-room, where they left us- thinking we are still there, and they will go into the room. Well, what about one of us being hidden down there ready to bolt them into the room? Then we can either go off in their motor-boat or our own boat if they bring back our oars- and get help."