THEO unbolted the door at the top and bottom and flung it open. He rushed in and thumped Stephen and Justin happily on the back.
"Hallo!" he said. "How does it feel to be rescued?"
"Fine!" cried Justin, and Tim barked madly round them. Stephen grinned at Theo.
"Good work!" she said. "What happened?"
Theo told them in a few words all that had happened. When he related how he had climbed down the old well, Stephen and Justin could hardly believe their ears. Justin 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 Stephen. "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. Justin 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 Mary hugs, and hearing her exclaim gladly, with tears in her eyes, how pleased she was to see them all again.
"Now come on!" said Stephen 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 Stephen, in dismay. "The beasts! They know we can't row the boat away without oars. They were afraid you and Mary might row off, Theo— 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 Theo's marvellous rescue of Stephen and Justin, it had seemed as if everything was going right— and now suddenly things were going wrong again.
"We must think this out," said Justin, 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 Stephen.
"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 Justin, slowly. "Wait a bit— don't interrupt me. I'm thinking."
The others waited in silence while Justin 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."
Mary thought it was a marvellous idea. But Theo and Stephen did not look so certain. "We'd have to go down and fasten that door again to make it seem as if we are still prisoners there," said Stephen. "And suppose the one who hides down there doesn't manage to bolt the men in? It might be very difficult to do that quickly enough. They will simply catch whoever we plan to leave down there, and come up to look for the rest of us."
"That's true," said Justin, thoughtfully. "Well— we'll suppose that Theo, or whoever goes down, doesn't manage to bolt them in and make them prisoners— and the men come up here again. All right— while they are down below we'll pile big stones over the entrance, just as they did. Then they won't be able to get out."
"What about Theo down below?" said Mary, at once.
"I could climb up the well again!" said Theo, eagerly. "I'll be the one to go down and hide. I'll do my best to bolt the men into the room. And if I have to escape I'll climb up the well-shaft again. The men don't know about that. So even if they are not prisoners in the dungeon room, they'll be prisoners underground!"
The children talked over this plan, and decided that it was the best they could think of. Then Stephen said she thought it would be a good thing to have a meal. They were all half-starved and, now that the worry and excitement of being rescued was over, they were feeling very hungry!
They fetched some food from the little room and ate it in the cove, keeping a sharp look-out for the return of the men. After about two hours they saw a big fishing-smack appear in the distance, and heard the chug-chug-chug of a motor-boat too.
"There they are!" said Justin, in excitement, and he jumped to his feet. "That's the ship they mean to load with the ingots, and sail away in safety— and there's the motor-boat bringing the men back! Quick, Theo, down the well you go, and hide until you hear them in the dungeons!”
Theo shot off. Justin turned to the others. "We'll have to hide," he said.
"Now that the tide is out we'll hide over yonder, behind those uncovered rocks. I don't somehow think the men will do any hunting for Theo and Mary -but they might. Come on! Quick!"
They all hid themselves behind the rocks, and heard the motor-boat come chugging into the tiny harbour. They could hear men calling to one another. There sounded to be more than two men this time. Then the men left the inlet and went up the low cliff towards the ruined castle.
Justin crept behind the rocks and peeped to see what the men were doing. He felt certain they were pulling away the slabs of stone that had been piled on top of the entrance to prevent Theo and Mary going down to rescue the others.
"Stephen! Come on!" called Justin in a low tone. "I think the men have gone down the steps into the dungeons now. We must go and try to put those big stones back. Quick!"
Stephen, Justin and Mary ran softly and swiftly to the old courtyard of the castle. They saw that the stones had been pulled away from the entrance to the dungeons. The men had disappeared. They had plainly gone down the steps.
The three children did their best to tug at the heavy stones to drag them back. But their strength was not the same as that of the men, and they could not manage to get any very big stones across. They put three smaller ones, and Justin hoped the men would find them too difficult to move from below. "If only Theo has managed to bolt them into that room!" he said to the others. "Come on, back to the well now. Theo will have to come up there, because he won't be able to get out of the entrance."
They all went to the well. Theo had removed the old wooden cover, and it was lying on the ground. The children leaned over the hole of the well and waited anxiously. What was Theo doing? They could hear nothing from the well and they longed to know what was happening.
There was plenty happening down below! The two men, and another, had gone down into the dungeons, expecting, of course, to find Justin, Stephen and the dog still locked up in the store-room with the ingots. They passed the well-shaft not guessing that an excited small boy was hidden there, ready to slip out of the opening as soon as they had passed.
Theo heard them pass. He slipped out of the well-opening and followed behind quietly, his feet making no sound. He could see the beams made by the men's powerful torches, and with his heart thumping loudly he crept along the smelly old passages, between great caves, until the men turned into the wide passage where the storecave lay.
"Here it is," Theo heard one of the men say, as he flashed his torch on to the great door. "The gold's in there— so are the kids!"
The man unbolted the door at top and bottom. Theo was glad that he had slipped along to bolt the door, for if he hadn't done that before the men had come they would have known that Justin and Stephen had escaped, and would have been on their guard.
The man opened the door and stepped inside. The second man followed him. Theo crept as close as he dared, waiting for the third man to go in too. Then he meant to slam the door and bolt it!
The first man swung his torch round and gave a loud exclamation. "The children are gone! How strange! Where are they?"
Two of the men were now in the cave— and the third stepped in at that moment. Theo darted forward and slammed the door. It made a crash that went echoing round and round the caves and passages. Theo fumbled with the bolts, his hand trembling. They were stiff and rusty. The boy found it hard to shoot them home in their sockets. And meanwhile the men were not idle!
As soon as they heard the door slam they spun round. The third man put his shoulder to the door at once and heaved hard. Theo had just got one of the bolts almost into its socket. Then all three men forced their strength against the door, and the bolt gave way!
Theo stared in horror. The door was opening! He turned and fled down the dark passage. The men flashed their torches on and saw him. They went after the boy at top speed.
Theo fled to the well-shaft. Fortunately the opening was on the opposite side, and he could clamber into it without being seen in the light of the torches. The boy only just had time to squeeze through into the shaft before the three men came running by. Not one of them guessed that the runaway was squeezed into the well-shaft they passed! Indeed, the men did not even know that there was a well there.
Trembling from head to foot, Theo began to climb the rope he had left dangling from the rungs of the iron ladder. He undid it when he reached the ladder itself, for he thought that perhaps the men might discover the old well and try to climb up later.
They would not be able to do that if there was no rope dangling down.
The boy climbed up the ladder quickly, and squeezed round the stone slab near the top. The other children were there, waiting for him.
They knew at once by the look on Theo's face that he had failed in what he had tried to do. They pulled him out quickly. "It was no good," said Theo, panting with his climb. "I couldn't do it. They burst the door open just as I was bolting it, and chased me. I got into the shaft just in time."
"They're trying to get out of the entrance now!" cried Mary, suddenly.
"Quick! What shall we do? They'll catch us all!"
"To the boat!" shouted Justin, and he took Mary's hand to help her along. "Come along! It's our only chance. The men will perhaps be able to move those stones."
The four children fled down the courtyard. Stephen darted into the little stone room as they passed it, and caught up an axe. Theo wondered why she bothered to do that.
Tim dashed along with them, barking madly.
They came to the cove. Their own boat lay there without oars. The motor-boat was there too. Stephen jumped into it and gave a yell of delight.
"Here are our oars!" she shouted. "Take them, Justin, I've got a job to do here! Get the boat down to the water, quick!"
Justin and Theo took the oars. Then they dragged their boat down to the water, wondering what Stephen was doing. All kinds of crashing sounds came from the motor-boat!
"Stephen! Stephen! Buck up. The men are out!" suddenly yelled Justin. He had seen the three men running to the cliff that led down to the cove. Stephen leapt out of the motor-boat and joined the others. They pushed their boat out on to the water, and Stephen took the oars at once, pulling for all she was worth.
The three men ran to their motor-boat. Then they paused in the greatest dismay— for Stephen had completely ruined it! She had chopped wildly with her axe at all the machinery she could see, and now the boat could not possibly be started! It was damaged beyond any repair the men could make with the few tools they had.
"You wicked girl!" yelled Jake, shaking his fist at Stephen. "Wait till I get you!"
"I'll wait!" shouted back Stephen, her blue eyes shining dangerously. "And you can wait too! You won't be able to leave my island now!"