The children worked hard, and before half an hour had gone by the passage was completely blocked up. No one could possibly guess there was a way through. It would be quite easy to unblock when the time came to go out.
“I’m going to crawl through to the cave with the small entrance and peep out to see if I can hear anything,” said Jack. So he crawled through and sat just inside the tiny, low-down entrance, trying to hear.
The men were certainly searching the island! Jack could hear their shouts easily.
“Someone’s been here!” shouted one man. “Look where they’ve made a fire.”
“Trippers, probably!” called back another man. “There’s an empty tin here, too - and a carton - just the sort of thing trippers leave about.”
“Hi! Look at this spring here!” called another voice. “Looks to me as if people have been tramping about here.”
Jack groaned. Surely there were not many foot-marks there!
“Well, if those children are here we’ll find them all right!” said a fourth voice. “It beats me how they could manage to live here, though, all alone, with no food, except what that boy could buy in the village!”
“I’m going over to the other side to look there,” yelled the first man. “Come with me, Tom. You go one side of the hill and I’ll go the other - and then, if the little beggars are dodging about to keep away from us, one of us will find them!”
Jack felt glad he was safely inside the cave. He stayed where he was till a whisper reached him from behind.