FIVE FALL INTO ADVENTURE by Enid Blyton

23 MARKHOFF GOES HUNTING

George took the big key and looked at it with awe. "Jo! Is this really the key - and you've locked them all in? Honestly, I think you're a marvel."

"She is," said Dick, and to Jo's enormous delight he gave her a sudden quick hug. "I never knew such a girl in my life. Never. She's got the pluck of twenty!"

"It was easy, really," said Jo, her eyes shining joyfully in the light of the torch. "You trust me now, Dick, don't you? You won't be mean to me any more, any of you, will you?"

"Of course not," said Julian. "You're our friend for ever!"

"Not George's," said Jo at once.

"Oh yes you are," said George. "I take back every single mean thing I said about you. You're as good as a boy."

This was the very highest compliment that George could ever pay any girl. Jo beamed and gave George a light punch.

"I did it all for Dick, really," she said. "But next time I'll do it for you!"

"Goodness, I hope there won't be a next time," said George, with a shiver. "I can't say I enjoyed one single minute of the last few days."

Timmy suddenly put his head on Jo's knee. She stroked him. "Look at that!" she said. "He remembers me. He's better, isn't he, George?"

George carefully removed Timmy's head from Jo's knee to her own. She felt decidedly friendly towards Jo now, but not to the extent of having Timmy put his head on Jo's knee. She patted him.

"Yes, he's better," she said. "He ate half the sausage roll I gave him, though he sniffed at it like anything first. I think he knows something has been put into his food and now he's suspicious of it. Good old Timmy."

They all felt much more lively and cheerful now that they were no longer so dreadfully empty. Julian looked at his watch. "It's getting on towards evening now," he said. "I wonder what all those fellows are doing."

Three of them were still locked up! No matter how Markhoff had tried to batter in the door, it held. It was old and immensely strong, and the lock held without showing any sign of giving way even an eighth of an inch. Two other men had been called in from the garage to help, but except that the door looked decidedly worse for wear, it stood there just the same, sturdy and unbreakable.

Simmy and Jake watched Red as he walked up and down the tower room like a caged lion. They were glad they were two against one. He seemed like a madman to them as he raged and paced up and down.

Markhoff, outside with the other two men he had brought up to help, was getting very worried. No police had arrived as yet (and wouldn't either, because Joan hadn't been able to tell them anything except that she knew Julian and Dick had gone to see a man called Red - but where he lived she had no idea!).

But Red and Markhoff didn't know this - they felt sure that a police ambush was somewhere nearby. If only they could get away in the helicopter before anything else happened!

"Markhoff! Take Carl and Tom and go down into those underground caves," ordered Red at last. "Those children are sure to be there - it's the only place for them to hide. They can't get out of here because the front gate is locked and bolted, and the wall's too high to climb. Get hold of the kids and search them for the key."

So Markhoff and two burly fellows went downstairs and out of the door. They crossed the yard to the door that led to the caves.

They got down the steep steps and were soon stumbling along the narrow, slanting passage, their nailed boots making a great noise as they went. They hung on to the hand-rail when they came to the difficult stretch of tunnel, and finally came out into the cave that had the hole in the floor.