The Aeroplane of Adventure

©2009 David Marlor

This novel is based on the characters created by Enid Bylton in the Adventure Series. In this regard, it is the ninth adventure and follows The River of Adventure.

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Chapter 14: On the Hill at Night

After leaving the girls, the boys had climbed up beside the stream and followed their markers to the top of the hill. The route was familiar to them and they found that they knew the route by heart. Kiki sat on Jack's shoulder, happy to be with him. After a while the boys reached the top of the hill and once again looked at the sea surrounding them. Jack swept the sea with his field glasses and looked again at the island they had seen the other day. He couldn't see any more smoke or huts from this angle. Philip looked at his watch – just after eight.

"We've got a lot of time to waste, Jack," said Philip. "Shall we find a place to hide and then do a bit of exploring?"

Jack nodded. This seemed to be a good plan. The boys looked around the top of the rocky hill. There didn't seem to be very many hiding places. Jack looked carefully at the rocks, trying to find out where the light shone from. Philip explored around the sides of the open space, looking at bushes and rocky outcrops. There really didn't seem to be a good hiding place.

"I think the best thing," said Philip, climbing back up to the top to join Jack, "is to see if we can crawl into the centre of one of these large bushes. I can't think of a better plan. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all."

"I know." said Jack. "I was just thinking the same thing. All the same, I think we should try to find out what's going on. And besides, it's too late to go back down now. We shall get lost in the dark."

After some more searching, they found a large bush with a good view of the open area. Jack pushed his way into the centre of it. There would be just enough room for the two of them. Jack crawled out. "Ugh, we'll get awfully scratched on the prickles," he said brushing himself off. "Still, we'll be safe, I should think."

The boys decided to wait until as late as possible before going into the centre of the bush.

"We have a good view down both sides of the hill and we'll hear anybody coming up long before they see us," said Philip, who did not want to spend more time than he could help cooped up inside the bush.

The boys sat around on the rocks and watched the moon come out. They spent an enjoyable couple of hours watching the birds and animal night life. The moon was so bright that neither boy needed a torch to see. Every so often, Jack would scan the surrounding area with his field glasses, but he couldn't see very much.

Once Jack thought he heard something and both boys quickly pushed their way into the bush. Kiki sat outside on the ground and watched the boys do this with interest. She decided that it was a game and she had to find her way in to them. After waiting for a half hour in the bush, the boys decided it was a false alarm and crawled back out.

"It wasn't wasted," said Jack with a grin. "It was good practice for us – now we know how to get in quickly without tripping each other." He looked at his watch, surprised to see that it was after midnight already. Maybe the light wouldn't shine tonight. Jack was disappointed. He hated to think they left the girls and trekked up here all for nothing.

Just as he turned to voice his thoughts to Philip, a strange rumbling sound came to his ears. Then Jack felt the ground moving. He clutched Philip.

"What's happening? asked Jack surprised. "What's that noise?"

Philip had gone white with shock when he felt the ground move. He recovered at the sound of Jack's voice and started to get up. "Come on," he whispered to Jack. "We should get into the safety of our hiding place."

Jack followed. Suddenly, Philip give a sharp cry and fell, and then Jack felt himself fall. What had happened?

Jack could see by the moonlight that Philip was on the ground rubbing his ankle. Jack fished out his torch and quickly flashed it on the ground to see what had happened. He stared in disbelief. "Tufty," he said to Philip forgetting to keep his voice down, "look, the rocks we were sitting on are rising out of the ground." It was true. The rocks on which the boys had been sitting seemed to be slowly rising. "Come on, let's hide. This is too weird for words."

Jack helped Philip to limp over to the bush and push his way in. Then Jack followed. The boys had a great view of the rocks from the hiding place. As they watched, the rocks rose higher and higher. In a flash, Jack realised what was happening. He whispered into Philip's ear. "I think those rocks are actually the roof of a large and powerful light. See. Somebody must be controlling the light from somewhere, or maybe it's automatic."

Philip saw that Jack was right. The boys heard a click as the rocks stopped rising. Underneath them, and well above the level of ground, was a huge powerful looking lamp mounted on some sort of apparatus. Suddenly the apparatus started to turn so that the light faced towards them. Then it stopped. Jack remembered his compass and pulled it out. He aimed the compass in the general direction the light was facing. "East," he said to himself. "It's facing east."

"Philip," said Jack urgently, "shield your eyes, it might be very bright." Both boys used their hands to shield the their eyes. And then without warning the light shone out. It was extremely bright and the boys had to close their eyes. The light began flashing in a series of long and short bursts. Morse code, thought Jack, wishing he had learned it at school. He knew some of the letters, but not enough.

The light flashed out a signal and then stopped. Almost immediately it started again and repeated the same set of flashes. The light repeated the message a third time, then suddenly it went out. With relief the boys moved their hands away from their eyes.

Everything looked pitch black to them know, even though the moon was still out.

"Darn," said Jack in disgust. "I forgot to look with my field glasses to see if we can see who they were signalling."

The boys looked at the huge lamp, sitting silently on top of the hill.

"Let's go and have a closer look at it," said Jack grabbing Philip's arm. "Come on. There's nobody around."

Jack and Philip crawled out of the bush and ran over to the huge lamp. It was as high as a two storey house. Steel supports that ran deep in to the ground below them held the huge lamp in place. On top, the boys could see the rocks on which they had sat earlier acting like a roof for the whole contraption. Jack peered down the hole the lamp had come out of. He daringly shone his torch into the pit but could not see the bottom.

"What's that?" asked Philip pointing to the opposite side of the lamp. The boys went over to investigate.

"Oh, it's a spiral stairway," said Philip. "I wonder where it goes."

"There's one way to find out," said Jack starting down the steel spiral stairway. Philip followed him. The stairway wound round and round one of the steel supports for the lamp above. After four turns in the stairway, the boys came to a small landing. Presumably to give the stair climber a rest, thought Jack.

"Goodness, what was that?" said Jack, jumping at a loud metal clang sound. Kiki gave frightened squawk and flew off Jack's shoulder.

"Sorry," said Philip. "I dropped my torch. Blow, where is it?"

"Where's Kiki?" asked Jack, missing her suddenly. "Oh, there she is. Kiki, come back. Kiki?" Kiki had flown up the stairway at the sound of the torch being dropped.

"I'll have to go after her," said Jack, exasperated.

"You go and get Kiki," said Philip, still fumbling for his torch. "I'll get my torch and then follow you up. I suppose we should get out of here soon."

Jack walked back up the metal spiral stairway, calling softly for Kiki. He came to the top and found her sitting on a branch on a small bush not far from the lamp. Jack thankfully went over to her. "Come here, Kiki," he said softly. "It was only Philip dropping his torch."

Kiki flew onto Jack's shoulder and mumbled lovingly to him. Jack heard a rumbling sound. He looked back in surprise to see the lamp sliding back down into the ground.

"Philip!," he yelled suddenly, forgetting to be quiet. "Philip, get out of there. Hurry!"

Jack ran over to the lamp that was disappearing quickly into the ground. In a panic he ran around the lamp looking for a lever or switch to stop it.

"Philip!" yelled Jack again. He looked around in desperation. Surely there must be a way to stop the lamp. He saw a stout branch, grabbed it and thrust it between the rocky roof off the lamp and the ground in a futile attempt to stop the lamp. The branch simply snapped under the pressure of the dropping lamp. Jack stood and watched in despair as the rocks settled back into the ground. Soon all was quiet and Jack and Kiki were alone on the hillside.

Continues tomorrow...

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