Although they were heavy, they were well oiled and ran fairly easily when both boys pulled at them. One by one they slid the back. There was a kind of latch on the door, and Jack slid it up. The door opened.
Not a sound came from the room inside. The boys hardly dared to peep round the door. What would they see? Surely if their friends were in their they would have made some sound, said something or shouted something!
Jack pushed the door wide open and went boldly inside, far more boldly than he felt! And what a surprise he got!
The rest of their party were not there — but Captain and Mrs. Arnold were! They lay on piles of rugs in the corner of the dimly lit cave, looking pale and ill. They watched the opening of the door, thinking that someone was bringing them food.
When they saw Jack they sprang to their feet in the greatest amazement! They stared as if they could not believe their eyes. They felt they must be dreaming.
“Jack! Jack! Is it really you?” asked Mrs. Arnold at last. “Where are the others — Mike, Peggy and Nora?”
Mike, Peggy and Nora were Mrs. Arnold’s own children, though she counted Jack as hers too, because he had once helped the others when they were in great trouble. Jack stared at Captain and Mrs. Arnold in joy. He flung his arms round Mrs. Arnold, for he was very fond of her.
“There isn’t time to talk,” said Captain Arnold quickly. “Jack has opened our prison door. We’d better get out whilst we have the chance! Follow me. I know where we can go and talk in safety.”
He led the way out of the room, taking with him some flat cakes and a pitcher of water. He stopped to fasten the bolts behind him, so that anyone coming that way would not notice anything unusual. Then, instead of going down the rope ladder, Captain Arnold took a little dark passage to the right that led steeply upwards. Before very long, much to the two boy’s amazement, they came into a vivid patch of sunlight!
“There are sun-windows cut into the steep sides of this mountain here and there,” said Captain Arnold. “The Folk of the Mountain use them for sun-bathing. It is impossible to escape through them because the mountain falls away below them, and anyone squeezing out of a sun-window would roll to the bottom at once! We are safe here. Sometimes my wife and I have been taken here to get a bit of sun, and no one ever comes by.”