Last time Meier and Erlick attempted to capture the escapees, but the escapees captured them instead.

Chapter 25

“Wipe your feet! Pooh! Gah!” came the sudden cackle from Kiki, to fill the sudden silence. She started one of her dreadful cackling laughs and say happily on Jack’s shoulder. “What do we do now?” Jack asked Bill. “It’s a long way from home, Bill – and we’ve got no food to keep us going if we have to walk back.”

“Effans and Trefor and David are not far off,” Bill said. “I told them to stand by somewhere near this mountain with plenty of donkeys, in case we needed them. I wasn’t sure if the helicopter would fly very far with such a lot of you on board!”

He was as relieved as Lucy-Ann about that, and commended himself silently on his foresight. Of course he hadn’t foreseen having to abandon the helicopter atop the mountain, but still.

“Can we take the dogs back with us?” Philip was asking. “I could look after them till we get them away some place. I daresay you’d like them for the police force, Bill. They’re jolly well trained.”

“Thanks for the offer,” Bill said, grinning. “I’ll accept it.” Johns’ eyebrows had risen at the mention of ‘police’ from Philip but he said nothing. Bill shot him a ‘not now’ look. “And now, quick march!” he encouraged everyone off, away from the mountain with Mieir and Erlick walking grudgingly with them.

Johns covered Meier and Erlick as they marched. He had searched them and decreed them weapon-less, which was a relief to all. Not long after they set off the children admitted to being hungry, something Johns was beginning to realise was a very common thing when it came to children. After Dinah had expressed a hope that Effans had brought food, Bill reassured her. “Well, Mrs Evans was so upset to hear that you were lost, that she immediately did an enormous baking and I believe two of the donkeys are laden with the results. So let’s hurry!”

“Where are they?” Jack asked, obviously thinking with his stomach now that the danger was over.

“In the Vale of Butterflies, waiting for us patiently.” Bill couldn’t help grinning now. Nothing had gone quite to plan, but it had worked out in the end. The children had missed the Vale on their trip thanks to David’s detour, but as he said to them it really was easy to find if you followed the map properly.

They all chattered happily for a while, talking about the Vale of Butterflies and how everything had come right in the end. It was actually very pleasant, almost as if they were simply on holiday. Only Mieir and Erlick’s glowering faces spoiled the effect, so Bill tried not to look directly at them for too long if he could avoid it.

He knew he could trust Johns to keep the two of them inline, especially with the dogs milling around too, but still, he kept at least half his attention on the children and the other half being aware of the two men.

As they walked through a narrow pass, he knew that the Vale of Butterflies would be just on the other side below them and so when they emerged, he turned to take in the children’s faces. He was not disappointed, they all looked absolutely delighted with what they were seeing. In fact they looked almost as delighted as they had when he had landed on the mountain to rescue them!

He had already seen the valley of butterflies briefly, and knew it was simply alive with every colour of butterfly one could imagine. He looked forward to a closer look, however.

“Why are there so many butterflies?” Dinah asked in wonder.

“I suppose because there are so many varieties of food-plants,” Bill said, sounding knowledgeable even to himself. “This valley is apparently as famous for flowers as for butterflies,” he went on.

Philip then spotted Effans, Trefor, David and the donkeys and their was a happy reunion – though David, Bill noted, looked suitable ashamed.

“He got it hot and strong from Mrs Evans when he arrived back alone with the donkeys chasing after him,” he explained to the children. “I also had a few words to say to him, as you can imagine! So now he feels he can’t look anyone in the cave. It won’t go him any harm to feel like that for a while. He behaved like a coward!” he said, starting to feel rather cross all over again as he thought about it.

Lucy-Ann, the kind-hearted girl that she was, however spared David some sympathy and a smile which he accepted gratefully.

Bill had Philip tell the dogs to guard the prisoners so that the rest of them could make a start on Mrs Evans’ picnic. “A pretty couple,” Bill said as Meier and Erlick began to bicker. He smiled in satisfaction. It would be too easy for them now. All he had to do was get them back to civilisation, locked up in separate rooms and then when interrogated they would be nicely played off against each other until the SIS had found out what they wanted. Then they might be handed over to the Welsh police, depending on what they had revealed. Either way, their futures did not look rosy.

“I think we’ll turn our backs on them. They spoil the view.” They did just that, and found that Mrs Evans had truly out-done herself. There were several kinds of meat, eggs, cheese, fresh salad, home-made lemonade, fresh bread, pies, tarts, cakes and more. Bill doubted that he could take a bite of everything even with the emptiness of his stomach.

It was a glorious picnic through and through – and not just for the food. The children were full of chatter and delight as the butterflies flitted around them, and Kiki showing off to Johns and Effans. Effans of course laughed uproariously, so much so that he almost choked. “Death by parrot…” Bill muttered to Johns who was watching Kiki’s antics in a mostly straight-faced way, only the odd smile at her most outrageous phrases showing how amused he was.

After everyone had eaten enough to sate their immediate hunger Bill (feeling particularly magnanimous due to the scenery and company) took some food over to the prisoners. The dogs were well-trained enough not to attempt to steal anything, though they did look at the chunks of bread-and-meat in interest. There would no doubt be enough left-over for them to have something each, even with Snowy taking titbits from everyone.

Once the children could eat no more, they wandered off to explore a little, and Bill went through the nights’ exploits with Effans who hung on to every word in amazement. Trefor and David listened too, but it was unlikely they followed too much of it. Effans could translate for them later, Bill thought as he kept half an eye on the children’s movements. It wouldn’t do to lose them so soon after rescuing them. They had a while before they would need to think about setting up their camp, for it was too late to set off for home now, so he would let them explore in the meantime.

To be continued…

Last time the escapees met up with Johns and Philip and attempted to evade the Alsatian pack.

Chapter 24

The first dog, panting heavily, was leaping through the water towards them. “Go on! Get them! Find them!” Meier was shouting, egging the creature on.

The dog stopped, just outside the cave, and howled before he was joined by his pack.

“Not a nice sight,” Bill murmured to Johns, wondering how, or if, they could handle this. They were both armed but a pistol each wasn’t going to do much against a whole pack of dogs. Johns continued to stare down the dogs as if he wasn’t in the least impressed by their existence.

“Keep still,” Bill said clearly. “As long as we don’t attempt to move or get away the dogs won’t do anything more than stand and stare.” He hoped, anyway. He seemed to spend a lot of time hoping these days.

Meier and Erlick, even more out of breath than the dogs appeared next, and quickly thought better than to stand in the open where Bill or Johns might shoot them. It was very tempting, thought Bill, only he didn’t think the dogs would react well to someone shooting their masters.

“Come on out!” The dogs have found you. If you don’t want them to set on you, come on out – and throw any gun you’ve got down on the ground, and put your hands up. We’ve got you covered,” Meier commanded.

And so began a hushed conversation between he, Bill, and Johns. Johns asked if they ought to go out and Bill immediately rejected the suggestion. “I doubt if he’ll dare to set the dogs on us. He knows the children are here.”

Jack interjected with an unfortunately convincing argument. “Meier wouldn’t stick at anything.” Meier’s explosion of temper after a minute or two of no response rather proved Jack right.

“You heard what I said. You have one more chance. The dogs are ready to pounce. They’ll round you up all right, and I warn you, their teeth are sharp so don’t resist!” he threatened.

Taking their cue from Bill, nobody moved. Bill wasn’t sure what would be more frightening for them; sitting waiting for the dogs to attack or going out to face Meier. Whichever it was, they would all be in it together.

And then Philip moved. Bill was astounded. What on earth was he doing – surrendering? He couldn’t believe that Philip would turn himself in, return to the mountain and the prospect of being thrown from a helicopter – or worse.

“Put your hands up!” Meier shouted to the boy, and Philip complied.

Bill and the others watched tensely at first, and then with growing admiration as Philip talked to the dogs, causing them to relax from their threatening postures.

“Where are the others?” demanded Meier impatiently. “Tell them to come too, or I’ll give the order for them to be dragged out!”

Bill winced as the lead dog jumped up at Philip, wondering if somehow the magic had failed him, but no, the dog merely delivered a wet lick to the boy’s face, and soon all the dogs were milling around him. When Meier tried to command the dogs again, although they looked at him for a moment they chose to ignore his orders and listen to Philip who led them – or at least as many as would fit – into the cave to join the others.

Philip extended his magic to the others in the cave, laying his hand on John’s and Bill, so that the dogs accepted them. “Philip!” Bill breathed in admiration. “You’re a marvel! It’s magic you use – can’t be anything else!”

“What a boy!” Johns agreed, his face showing his admiration for the boy. The dogs were happily sniffing, licking and laying down in the cave in-between people, wherever there was space.

“Meier’s shortly going to have a fit, I think. He just can’t understand all this!” said Jack.

Outside, Meier’s shouting began again, showing he was indeed getting more and more irate. “Fetch them out, I say! I’ll shoot the lot of you dogs, if you don’t obey orders! What’s come over you? Fetch them out!” he bellowed in vain.

Bill watched to see if the dogs would respond, but they didn’t. Clearly their allegiance had switched to Philip now. He was just wondering how they were going to break this stalemate when Meier fired his gun. At first he thought the man might have carried out his threat and shot at the dogs, but none seemed to be harmed. Still, he judged it was high time to be proactive and not sit around waiting for more shots.

“Philip! Will the dogs obey you? Will they go for Meier and Erlick? If they will – order them to! We’ll give them a taste of their own medicine!”

“Right!” Philip nodded, a determined look in his eye. He pointed to the tree where the two men were hidden and spoke to the dogs, encouraging them to fetch their former masters. The Alsatians gleefully did Philips bidding and rushed across to Meier and Erlick, flung themselves on the men and managed to rid Meier of his gun. “Don’t hurt them! Bring them here!” Philip then ordered the dogs, proud of his control over them.

Bill and Johns exited the cave a moment or two after the dogs, having waiting just long enough to be sure that the animals were doing as they were asked, and were amused to see Erlick screaming and howling for all he was worth. He had seemed brave when he was in charge but was now being revealed as the coward he really was. Bill ignored his pleas of “Call them off,” and kept his eye on Meier who was fighting wildly with little regard for his own safety.

One of the dogs grabbed Meiers’s trousers and hustled the man over to where Bill and Johns were standing. Erlick was brought too, and as the dogs herded the men over, Johns pulled out his weapon, aware that one or other of the men might still be armed.

“Hands up,” said Johns, lest either man have another weapon. “Any funny business on your part, Erlick, and the dogs can have you for all I care. Stand up, Meier, and put your hands up, too.”

Bill made a mental note to see if he could pinch Johns for his team in future as Meier glared at them both.

“Shut up!” he said to Meier as the man began to ask questions then spew forth what only Bill and Johns recognised as offensive statements. He had his gun out himself now, something he didn’t really like to do in front of the children but the situation necessitated it.

Last time Bill and the children finally made it to the bottom of the ladder. Now, for freedom?

Chapter 23

As they moved Bill said “If only those wretched dogs don’t find us! Philip’s told me about them and how you thought they were wolves. I don’t fancy a pack of Alsatians on my trail, somehow, with Meier and Erlick urging them on!” He hurried the children onwards, though the girls were beginning to stumble through the tunnel in tiredness. Bill didn’t blame them, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel – the dawn was coming.

“Come on,” he said as the children stopped to gaze around in the light of the new day. “I left Philip and Johns by the stream – where you left Dapple.” He kept up a light chatter as they moved down towards the lush green valley below, telling them how they had taken Dapple home on their first expedition. “He thinks we’re coming through the air of course,” he added, going on to tell them about landing the helicopter in the dark.

“Philip will be looking out for us by that light, then?” Lucy-Ann asked him. “Not by the stream?”

Bill was grateful that he could answer her with a “No. I told him not to, in case anyone was roaming about there, saw the light and spotted him and Johns,” he explained. A wise move, as it had turned out.

They easily made it to the meeting place, and were overjoyed that on the way there, Kiki appeared. Jack was ecstatic and so glad to have his beloved bird back that he couldn’t speak and just scratched her head lovingly as Kiki rubbed herself against him and repeated back his little loving noises. “Oh, good! Oh Jack! Dear old Kiki, isn’t it lovely to have her again. It’s been awful without you Kiki,” Lucy-Ann spoke for them all, glad that Kiki was back in one piece where she belonged.

“You saved us, Kiki, old bird! You led those fellows such a song and dance that they let us escape,” Bill added, feeling the need to acknowledge the bird’s performance however accidental.

“God save the King,” Kiki responded before producing some of her sillier noises.

It was then that Dinah noticed that Snowy was gone. “He hasn’t been with us for some time,” Bill said. “He’ll turn up, I expect – just like Kiki,” he assured her. They were NOT going back for the young goat.

“Dithery, slithery,” Kiki trilled suddenly, her eyes locking on to Jack’s sleeve where Sally the slow-worm was poking her head out into the fresh air. To her credit, Dinah didn’t make a sound. They started moving again, Kiki firmly planted on Jack’s shoulder, muttering to herself and nibbling his ear affectionately. It didn’t take them long before they heard a hailing yell from nearby.

“Hie! Here we are! Jack! Dinah! Lucy-Ann! Bill! And oh, I say, there’s Kiki too. Hurrah! You’ve escaped! But where’s the helicopter? We’ve been waiting and waiting for it!” Philip shouted madly, barely stopping for breath as he jumped around in excitement. Bill couldn’t suppress a smile especially when he noticed Johns standing stolidly behind Philip, ignoring not only the shouting and jumping but also the goat-kid frisking around them both.

Before the happy reunion could get underway, however, they heard a terrible howling in the distance.

“The dogs!” said Jack. “They’re after us!”

Lucy-Ann immediately shank back behind Bill and Johns as she heard the angry howls from the dogs. The two grown-ups exchanged glances and Bill swore in Russian under his breath (a good way to prevent the children knowing exactly what he’d said). He’d been so delighted to have all the children back under his care and pleased with their escape that he hadn’t been keeping enough of an eye out for a retaliation from Meier and Erlick, not to mention keeping an eye (or ear) out for the dogs. They all stood a good chance of being caught again, and Meier would not be kind, Bill was sure.

“Bill! Get into the stream and wade up through the water!” Jack said, taking charge. He explained how that was what Sam had done, claiming that water would break up their scent.

“Well, it’s a poor chance,” Bill said, aware of how many times that hadn’t worked out for various colleagues. “But we’ll try it,” he added, knowing their other options were limited and it couldn’t hurt.

“Blow that helicopter – behaving like that when I wanted to take off to safety. We’d have been quite all right by now if it hadn’t been for the damage to the steering,” he ranted to himself as he waded into the icy water.

The group made their way up the stream as quickly as they could, hoping that the dogs wouldn’t catch up to them. They were looking for a good hiding pace, somewhere where the dogs and men couldn’t find them. Soon they found the very thing, a nice big cave where the water rushed out of it. Bill suggested that they all try and hide in it, hoping that they would all be able to fit!

It turned out that the cave narrowed quite quickly and so the six people and two animals were rather squashed in, but at least they were in, and not visible to anyone who wasn’t within about six feet of the cave.

Bill reached into his pocket and produced some chocolate. “I forgot about this,” he said, and handed it around. Johns grinned and produced his own bar, too. Another mark in his favour, thought Bill.

“Do you think the dogs have lost the trail now?” Jack asked.

“Yes, sounds like it,” Bill said, though more out of hope than true belief. “They’re at a loss, I should think. They must have come to the stream, jumped over it and found the trail at an end. They probably won’t have the sense to realise we’ve gone upstream,” he reasoned, and it sounded convincing. Whether it was right was another matter.

“But I should think the men with them would guess,” said Johns, calmly echoing Bill’s unspoken thoughts. “I know I would! If I went hunting a man with dogs, and we came to a stop by a stream, I’d order the dogs up or downstream at once.”

Johns, who was taking all this in his stride in a particularly impressive manner, was absolutely right but Bill wished that he hadn’t just dashed the children’s hopes in such a no-nonsense way.

Lucy-Ann was already sounding upset at the thought of Meier finding them. “He’s got the most piercing eyes, Bill – honestly, they go right through you.”

“Well, he’d better try looking right through me. He’d be sorry!” Bill said in a threatening voice. At this point he’d like nothing more than to face off against Meier on an even playing field.

Kiki lightened the mood briefly by hiccuping and making even Johns laugh, but the levity was short-lived. “The dogs are coming nearer,” Jack said, and soon the others could hear the howls getting louder.

Dinah and Philip were matter-of-fact as they analysed the situation, and Jack was uncharacteristically sharp with Kiki as she shouted. Lucy-Ann clutched Bill’s hand tighter and tighter as the tension in the cave grew unbearable and then, the sound of a dog splashing through the stream reached their ears.

To be continued…