 
Marvelous Four: In and Out of Danger Zone!

By James Prakash J.C.

(A thriller/adventure novel)

Cover art by: James Prakash J.C.

Author's email:

jamesprakashjc@gmail.com (personal)

jamesprakashjcbooks@gmail.com (for his books)

marvelousfourjpjc@gmail.com (for the Marvelous Four series)

Copyright 2017 James Prakash J.C.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form by any means, including digital electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written consent of the author, except for brief quotes for use in reviews and such.

This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously; and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, books, stories or locales is entirely coincidental.

Marvelous Four

In and Out of Danger Zone!
Chapter 1

Harshit plans to run away

CLING! CLONG!

Did you hear that? That's Harshit toiling away in the kitchen. It does make life miserable for Harshit. People should help their family, yes, but it isn't right to let one person do the entire work and the others laze around and enjoy themselves.

That was the case with Harshit. He did all the work in the Kumar family. Years ago, he had been adopted by the Kumars from an orphanage as a baby, when the Kumar couple was childless. He was only one month old at the time of adoption. It was a very happy family then, and Mrs. Kumar used to love Harshit as her own son. But then, Harshit was only an infant then, and could hardly remember those times though he had a vague memory of them.

And then, six months later, a baby was born to Mr. and Mrs. Kumar. This incident didn't shatter Mrs. Kumar's love for Harshit. But one day, when a relative came to pay a visit, the relative remarked upon Harshit, saying that she was shocked when she heard that Mr. and Mrs. Kumar, "a family of high social rank" had adopted "a lowly, poorly orphan". However, even this couldn't have stopped Mrs. Kumar's love for Harshit had not some three or more relatives commented on Harshit in the same way. Besides a relative said that Harshit was "stealing" Mrs. Kumar's love "which should rightfully go to Mayank" (Mayank was the new-born baby). This made such an impression upon Mrs. Kumar that in a minute, she turned her adopted son into her "slave". I said "slave" not servant, because a slave doesn't get paid for his/her services while a servant does get paid; and Harshit wasn't paid for his hard work.

When Mayank grew up, he became selfish and overbearing, but Mrs. Kumar thought Mayank charming. He looked down on Harshit as a "lowly boy" and was ashamed of Harshit who he thought was probably born in a poor family even though Harshit might well have been born in a rich family for all he (or anyone else, for that matter) knew. Besides Harshit was handsome and had good charming manners, which made Harshit very popular with everyone outside the Kumar homestead. This only increased Mayank's dislike for Harshit. So, on the whole, Mayank hated Harshit heartily and considered him as his rival in all matters.

So, on this particular night, of which I was telling you about, at the commencement of this chapter; Harshit was washing the dishes, after which he had to clean the kitchen followed by the washing of the clothes. Only after doing all these jobs would Mrs. Kumar let him have his supper.

Whilst he was washing the dishes, he could hear the Kumar family talking gaily and sometimes shouts of laughter, as they ate their supper together. Harshit remembered, bitterly, the good old times when he too was having his supper with Mr. and Mrs. Kumar, talking nineteen to the dozen.

"I wish I could run away," thought Harshit, "But there's no place where I could hide myself from the police, if they get up a search for me. Besides I wouldn't have anyone to talk to, if I run away. I would feel very lonely. I wish I had a dog as a companion." He finished washing the last dish, and put the plate on the rack. "Phew!" said Harshit, wiping his forehead with his dirty hands. "At least, the dish washing is over; now I've got to clean this confounded kitchen."

Harshit took up a dirty cloth that was hanging on the wall, and started cleaning the stove.

"I don't know what came over those Kumars, to make me work like this. They were good enough with me till eleven years ago. And then, they suddenly made me work like a slave. I suppose, when they were childless, they were glad enough to have me as their adopted son; but when Mayank was born, I guess they changed their minds; so the neighbours say. I don't know it for sure. I was too small then, for me to remember those good times. There!" said Harshit, giving a finishing touch to the stove. "Now the stove looks as new as it ever looked." Then Harshit turned his attention to the microwave oven. Soon the kitchen looked "like a new pin".

Then Mrs. Kumar came in, half hoping that Harshit would break something, so that she could scold him. But everything was as clean as it could be, and everything was done right. She frowned. She was never able to find fault with Harshit. Oh, if only she could get a chance to scold him. She would then, scold terribly, till Harshit became deaf. However, she could find nothing wrong, so she said to Harshit, or rather she snarled at Harshit:

"Now, what are you waiting for, you rascal! Go and wash the clothes!"

"All right!" said Harshit, as he hurried out of the kitchen.

It was not until ten o' clock in the night that Harshit sat down to supper, if it could called be a supper, for it was only some dry bread.

Harshit knew the Kumars had chicken seekhs with bread for supper, and some soup. He also knew that the Kumars had not finished the soup and the chicken seekhs, for there were too many for a family to finish in a night. Why were they like this? What had he done to be ignored so much?

He ate his supper in silence. There was no one to talk to anyway.

After supper, Harshit went upstairs and lay down on his bed to sleep. But he didn't sleep. He lay thoughtfully in bed, thinking about his future. All he could see in the future was work-work-work under the Kumars but no pay. They didn't even send him to a school. So, how would he get a job later when he became a grown-up?

"What is the use of living with those Kumars?" he thought, "I think I had better run away and make my own way in the world. There's absolutely nothing that I would gain by working for these Kumars."

He started planning for his escape: Where would he run away to? He could think of no place where he would be safe from pursuit. Suddenly a thought struck him! He would go to Andhar-ana-mana Mountains!

Andhar-ana-mana Mountains were a ring of mountains, not more than one kilometer away. These mountains formed a circle, and quite merged with each other. They formed a sort of a huge wall around the area of the circle inside.

The side of the mountains that was inside the ring was as steep as a wall. The villagers in the vicinity had declared it impossible to enter the ring of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains except by jumping in, which of course was sure death or by letting themselves down with a rope, but as no one in their knowledge had ever manufactured a rope as long as the height of those mountains, no one took the trouble manufacture one themselves or to tie lots of ropes together to get the required length of rope. And, 'course one could parachute down into the place, but then there would be the problem as to how to get out. No one knew if there was any place in the 'ring' (of the mountains) where they could land on an aerial vehicle safely; and as no one was interested in what may be inside the 'ring' no one to took the trouble to fly over the 'ring' on an aircraft to see if they could land anywhere.

No one had ever climbed those mountains to the top, for it was very dangerous. And so, no one had seen what was inside the ring of Andhar-ana-mana Mountains, at least, no one knew if anyone had seen it.

The side of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains that was outside the ring was covered with ever-green trees, mostly firs.

Such was the place where Harshit chose to run away to. He was sure no one would dream to search the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains. And even if they suspected that he was in Andhar-ana-mana Mountains, it would need more ten thousand men to search the those mountains thoroughly. So he would be perfectly safe there.

But now another question presented itself before Harshit: How was he to obtain food? True there were some wild goats on the mountains. But he couldn't live on goat-meat always. Yes! There were some fruit trees and grape vines on the mountains.

Now there was yet another question for Harshit to settle: When was he to run away? He had no great preparation to do to run away. What few things should he take? He would need a magnifying glass to make fire. Match sticks wouldn't last long. And yes, he would also take his binoculars with him. Ok. That is all the preparation he would need. Then if that is so, he could leave that very night!

Harshit sat up in bed in his excitement. He thought first; would anything go wrong if he ran away now? No. He could leave on this night as well as any other night. Harshit then, made up his mind; he would leave that very night!

(Don't dream of running away like Harshit. I can assure you, it won't be easy to live on your as you think!)
Chapter 2

First day at Andhar-ana-mana Mountains

Harshit didn't wait for a moment, but straight away, he made the necessary preparations for his departure.

He grabbed his old satchel, into which he put his binoculars and the magnifying glass. He also put a sharp carpenter's knife with a steel blade which he had found lying on the road a few days before with the owner nowhere to be found. Before putting the knife into the satchel he twisted an old clothe around its blade so as to avoid the risk of the knife cutting through the satchel.

He also raided the larder, so as to be able to eat "civilized food" though the "civilized food" wasn't going to last long.

And so and so and so, he took all the things he considered necessary, and soon the old satchel contained a really queer sort of collection. There were a lot more things necessary than he had thought.

Now as the all the preparations were made, Harshit was ready to go. He went out through the back door and looked back at the house in which his tormentors were snoring loudly, and then set out for Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.

Harshit came to the main road, where the street lights gave a little too much light for Harshit. Harshit was afraid somebody might spot him when he walked under those street lights. A boy with an old satchel, which was bursting with odd things, walking alone on the main road at midnight! Surely that would be unusual!

So Harshit walked along or rather crawled along, hiding in the shadows as well as he could. He hoped nobody would see him, when he came directly under the street lights, as then it was difficult to stay hidden. 'Course, there wasn't much chance of anybody being on the road at midnight. But he wanted to be on the safe side.

No mishap happened on the main road, and he soon turned down a lane that led to the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains. The lane was full of holes and stones, and all he could do was stumble along till he fell over a stone or a hole; then he would get up, half dizzy, and stumble along or rather he would try to stumble along till another stone or hole would lay him flat on the ground again.

At last that difficult "stumbling" piece of road was over and Harshit found himself at the foot of one of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.

Harshit decided to rest before tackling the steep slope of the mountains. He was tired. Why, with working all day long and then a one kilometer walk, not to say of the heavy satchel swinging on his back, how could he help being tired?

So he lay down to rest, and then promptly went off to sleep for as mentioned before, he was really tired. Fortunately, for Harshit, no one came by, or I guess Harshit's story would've (probably) got quite a different ending. Whatever, nothing disturbed Harshit's sleep, and Harshit slept like a log. The hours slipped by. Some owls came out of their homes for a night hunt, and maybe caught a few mice. A nightingale produced its sweet melody, which seemed to be a lullaby intended for Harshit to make him sleep more soundly than ever. A sudden owl hoot interrupted the sweet lullaby, but the nightingale resumed its singing soon after.

Two hours went by and the third hour found the sun rising but Harshit was still sleeping. And it was nearly nine o' clock in the morning when Harshit awoke.

As soon as he awoke, Harshit sat up hurriedly, expecting to hear Mrs. Kumar's angry voice calling him to do his usual morning chores. He tried to see what time it was, but, of course, instead of seeing the clock on the white wall, he saw the clear blue sky with some white clouds hanging onto the sky, here and there. He was confused.

"Where am I?" he said half aloud.

He rubbed his eyes in bewilderment and looked around. He looked behind him and was startled when he saw the mountain towering over him. Then, he recalled the night's proceedings. He smiled, because of the happiness he felt. "Hurrah!!! I've gained freedom!!!" he shouted.

But to continue in this freedom, Harshit had to work, first, as he found to his cost. He had to find a comfortable place to sleep that night.

However, Harshit felt very hungry, so before getting to work, he ate his breakfast, which consisted of a raw vegetable salad, some bread with dried grapes, and some lemon juice to wash it down.

"What a queer breakfast," thought Harshit, as he got up after breakfast. "I wonder if anyone had any breakfast like this; but still, though it was a queer combination of food, it was really delicious." (If you have any doubt, try it, and you'll see that Harshit was right.)

Having finished breakfast, Harshit pondered over what should be his next job.

"Finding lodgings, I guess," Harshit concluded. "I suppose, I wouldn't find first-class accommodations, but I'll have to be contend with many things when I live this sort of life; so I may as well begin now as any other time."

He set out to find his "lodgings", with his "luggage" on his back.

The weather was fine and the day was sunny. And the healthy mountain air was sweet and fresh. With all these features in his surroundings, Harshit couldn't help being excited and happy. He skipped along with a light heart. He jumped over stones and brooks, with his "luggage" swinging on his back all the while. The sparrows chirped cheerfully. The squirrels bounded here and there joyfully. Two beautiful peacocks looked around at the happy boy who skipped by at sixty miles per hour.

Harshit went on, enjoying everything, but suddenly stopped. What was that rumbling sound? He looked around half expecting a roaring lion preparing to fly at his throat. But of course there was no lion. But what is that rumbling-roaring sound? The sound could be heard very clearly.

Harshit started investigating. He looked into every nook and corner, but found nothing. He looked over again and again. And suddenly came upon a cave. It was quite an ordinary cave, but somehow, the strange rumbling-roaring sound was louder and clearer in the cave than outside. Harshit searched the cave thoroughly, but in vain.

It was noon by now, and Harshit gave up the search, and took out the lunch and ate it quietly, sitting in the cave.

All this time, the strange noise never stopped, and would go on, I'm sure, till the end of the world. It still goes on to this day.

After lunch he continued his search for the source of the rumbling noise. It somehow had fascinated him and he wanted to learn its secret above everything else. He searched all afternoon and evening couldn't unlock the secret of the strange noise (the noise somehow felt familiar to Harshit not exactly strange).

Harshit gave up the search and began to feel hungry. Night was coming. And it was already rather dark.

Harshit ate his supper in total darkness, I'm sorry to say, for Harshit hadn't thought of bringing candles or a torch. He went out of the cave (he had left his satchel behind in the cave), and gathered some moss and heather. With this, he went inside the cave and spread them on the floor, to make a soft bed. And then Harshit lay down to sleep.

And so ended the first day at Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.
Chapter 3

The Young Goatherd

Next morning, Harshit awoke cool and fresh and cheerful. The strange noise was still going on. But Harshit had washed his hands off it last night and had concluded that he would never find the strange noise's secret or source.

He went out and had a wash in a nearby stream. Then he came back clean and fresh. He opened his satchel, and took a loaf of bread, his sharp knife, some cucumbers and carrots to be eaten raw, cashews, peanuts and some dried fruits. He also took out a plate on which he had his breakfast. He also spotted a mango tree and relieved it of the burden of two mangoes. And thus, having satisfied his hunger he went out of the cave and decided to practice some tree-climbing to kill time.

He soon got exhausted and sat down under the tree to rest. It was then ten or eleven o' clock or thereabouts. He resumed his practicing till noon, when he got hungry and had dinner under the same tree.

Harshit kept up this practice every day. Though swinging from branch to branch like a monkey was no easy thing, he kept it up as he knew it would make him strong and active.

Once he fell from a tree so heavily that he half thought he had broken his leg. After that he had to limp about and had to give up his practice.

But in three days he was normal again and he resumed his practice.

Harshit had read about Mowgli in The Jungle book and The Second Jungle Book. He mentally set Mowgli as his model, in his body fitness matters.

So, the practice went on, and Harshit soon found to his delight, that he could swing from branch to branch, tree to tree as easily as he could walk. The palms of his hands got scratched no longer, for the palms of his hands had hardened into something like iron.

Now, as he had learnt to climb trees and to swing from them, Harshit no longer felt that he needed the practice. He remembered the fall he had had from one of these trees, which had made him limp about for tree whole days. So, Harshit thought of practicing to jump from the trees, and so, to learn "the art of landing safely" so as to land safely when he fell from a height like he had before.

So Harshit started his practice of "the art of landing safely". He began jumping from the lower branches first. Then, when he had perfected his jumping from these, he began on the higher branches. And so and so, the week passed by. At the end of the week, he had perfected his jumping from the tops of some of the highest trees on the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.

Due to his hard practicing, the palms of his feet as well as his hands became hard as iron. His muscles strengthened, and he looked like (and was) a really strong boy.

Harshit, now, began to feel bored. He had nothing to do all day. He perfected his climbing trees and swinging to and fro from the trees. He had perfected his "art of landing safely". Now what must he do to pass the time? Then he thought of practicing to jumping from one branch to the other instead of swinging. But Harshit perfected this in less than two days. And again he had to rack his brains to kill time. Then Harshit thought of practicing to somersault in the air. He gathered some heather and moss and built a really thick bed. Then he flung himself into the air, performed a double somersault, and landed on the soft "bed", on his back. Harshit wanted to land on his feet. So he tried again and again till he had got so perfect that when he flung himself into the air he got so high as to enable him to perform five somersaults in the air before landing safely on the hard ground (mind you, not on the soft heather and moss) on his feet. Harshit was not content with this. He started jumping from a branch, perform a complete somersault and then land on another branch!

But though Harshit was delighted when he thought that he could do all this, he was again left to think how he must kill time again. This time he thought of taking his binoculars and siting on the top of one of the tree do a spot of "sight-seeing". This plan he carried out next day.

That night he found that he had flattened out the bed that he had made of some heather and moss. So he collected some more heather and moss and spread them on the flattened bed, and then, lay down to sleep.

He slept soundly that night.

Soon the sun showed its head over the horizon, sending its powerful rays into the cave where Harshit was sleeping, right into Harshit's eyes which woke him up at once.

The morning was bright and pleasant. Harshit came out of the cave, and felt a cool morning breeze, finding its way around his head, ruffling his hair sideways. It brought with itself the sweet mountain air, in abundance. Harshit filled his lungs with the sweet, fresh air and at once, the sleepy state, in which Harshit was, left him; and Harshit felt cool and fresh in his head, as well as in the rest of his body.

Harshit remembered that today he going to do some "sight-seeing" with the binoculars. But of course he should have his breakfast, first. "And...Oh!" thought Harshit, "I should have a bath before breakfast."

So Harshit walked to the stream, and plunged in. The stream was deep enough to let anyone swim, but it was icy cool this morning. So as soon as Harshit jumped in, he yelled, and hurriedly got out, gasping.

"Phew!!" said Harshit. "That... wa...s col...ddd.." he stuttered.

Harshit reasoned that if this stream was as cold as this, any other stream on the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains must be as cold. So he might as well bath in this as in any other stream.

Thus, Harshit at last decided to tackle this stream, and tackle he did. He didn't plunge in like before but went in little by little, till the water was up to his knees (that was the deepest point in the stream). Then he lay down, keeping his head well above the water. After a few moments he didn't feel "the ice age sensation" in the water, and could afford to splash around.

So Harshit had his bath and then went look for some fruits for breakfast. As usual, he had some fruit juice for a drink and besides, some fruits and bread. He also took an apple-pie for a change.

It was wonderful to see, how Harshit ate his food so rapidly. It was almost like magic, Harshit just tucked it all in in five minutes.

After breakfast, Harshit tidied up the cave and then took the binoculars went out, chose the highest tree around and climbed to the top. Harshit looked around feeling interested in all he could see. He could see for kilometres ahead, but when he turned around he saw the mountain, looming gloomily and silently; towering over him like anything. He felt slightly gloomy, but turned his head and looked at things that looked a bit more cheerful.

"Ooooh! What was that?" asked Harshit to himself, taking up his binoculars and applying them to his eyes, "Well! Of all the curious things!" he exclaimed, "that is my cave! Who would believe it? It just looks like a rock from here. And now, if that isn't the village where I used to live I'll eat my head! And... Oh! Boy!! That is Mayank!" Here Harshit turned binoculars around, away from the village.

"And look at that!!! There's a deer climbing this mountain! No, it's a goat. There's another goat coming up! And there's another! Another! And... another! Why! This is a herd. But where is the goatherd?"

Harshit scanned the whole place around him with the binoculars, looking for the goatherd. Suddenly, a boyish voice called out:

"Are you looking for me?"

Harshit started. He looked down and saw a boy climbing up the tree on which Harshit sat. The boy had a flute in his left hand which hindered his progress up the tree, very much. When Harshit looked down, the young goatherd looked up and gave a broad boyish grin.

"So you're here? Heh?" mused the boy, "They're looking everywhere for you!"

"Oh bother!" thought Harshit, "now this ragamuffin will tell everyone about me, and they'll be on my track."

Harshit hadn't recognized the goatherd, or he wouldn't have thought the goatherd as a "ragamuffin".

Soon the young goatherd came to his side and sat down on a branch near Harshit and grinned, a friendly grin.

"Phew!" said the goatherd, wiping his forehead, where he had got some scratches. "What put it into your head to choose this tree to climb?"

Harshit looked at the boy with an astonished expression.

"Now, there, what's the matter?" asked the boy looking behind him, where, he thought, Harshit had seen something unusual.

"Sumit!" exclaimed Harshit, "You here!"

"Yes I'm here," said Sumit, the goatherd, grinning. "So you hadn't recognized me, Harshit?" Sumit laughed. His sides shook merrily, almost knocking him off the branch.
Chapter 4

Harshit is not alone

Sumit was Harshit's playmate when Harshit was living with the Kumars. Harshit and Sumit started talking; about old times mostly. Then Sumit asked Harshit why he had run away. Harshit explained.

"I knew the Kumars weren't nice," said Sumit, indignantly, after Harshit had finished his narrative, "but I never thought they would do such things as they've done to you."

"Let's go down to my cave, we'll talk there," suggested Harshit and Sumit agreed.

Sumit put down his foot on one of the lower branches, but Harshit straight away jumped down to the ground. He had been practicing jumping, so he was all right. But poor Sumit couldn't believe his eyes. He half jumped down after Harshit "to rescue Harshit"; for Sumit thought that it was an accident. But then, he changed his mind, reasoning that if he went after Harshit, it wouldn't improve affairs at all, except that two lives would be lost instead of one, and that wouldn't be an improvement, 'course.

He parted the leaves and peered down, anxiously, expecting to see a lifeless Harshit soaked in blood with his arms and legs stretched out.

But instead, Sumit got quite a different sight! There was Harshit standing on the ground as cool as a cucumber! Harshit was looking upwards, shading his eyes from the sun with his hands, and shouting for all he was worth!

"Now, Sumit, when are you going to come down here?" shouted Harshit, enjoying Sumit's surprise. "You look as though you had seen a ghost!"

Sumit got a shock! What! Harshit had fallen from this height and was not even unconscious! Sumit nearly fell off the tree himself in his surprise.

"Well, of all the puzzling rascals, you top them all Harshit!" said Sumit, astonished. "How in the whole wide world...no; how in the whole universe did you do it?"

Harshit just grinned and beckoned to Sumit, to come down.

Sumit came down the tree as fast as he could. When he reached the lower part of the tree, Sumit, unfortunately, slid down the rest of the way though he tried hard to stop himself by digging his fingers into the trunk. The result was that a few more scratches were added to his collection on the forehead, as Sumit found to his cost.

Sumit listened eagerly as Harshit told him about his practices.

"Gosh!! Can you really somersault in the air?" asked Sumit.

"Oh, yes! I'll show you!" said Harshit and he jumped up into the air, turned cartwheels three times and landed skillfully on a branch over the admiring Sumit.

"Wow!" exclaimed Sumit, admiringly, "Wish I could do that!" Harshit jumped back to the ground, turning cartwheels again.

"Look, Sumit! Your goats are wandering away!" said Harshit, suddenly.

"Oh, that's all right!" said the young goatherd, looking around at his goats and he applied his flute to his lips and played the flute so melodiously that the birds stopped their chirping:

"FFFOOOOOoooooo......FOOoooooo...eee...ooo!"

The birds seemed surprised at the boy who made such a sweet melody and had beat them at their own game! The wandering goats heard it too. They stopped their wanderings and listened intently.

"FFFOOOOOoooooo......FOOoooooo...eee...ooo!" Sumit went on, "FFOoooooooooo...eee...oo...eee...oo!" The goats recognized that melody! That's their master! All goats around clattered down to Sumit, who went on producing the sweet melody. Harshit started. Why were the goats rushing at himself and Sumit like that?!! He was getting ready to use his fists when Sumit, laying down his flute, touched him on the shoulder. "Don't worry," assured Sumit, "they aren't attacking us. They just recognized my melody, that's all."

The goats came rushing towards them, making a lot of noise. The first to reach Sumit started rubbing their heads lovingly on his shoulder. The rest of the herd followed its example.

Sumit hadn't expected this, but looked pleased. But 'course, Sumit couldn't accommodate the whole herd to rub their heads at once. So there was scramble for Sumit, Which Sumit didn't like much. And unfortunately, Harshit got mixed up in the scrimmage too. There was a lot of yelling, shouting, screaming; and the goats gave both boys a thorough rubbing before Sumit could silence them.

The tormented boys sat down on the ground and both gave a sigh of relief, as the goats got bored and went off to graze again.

"Phew!" said Harshit, "You had better try some other way to gather up the herd next time." Sumit agreed, all right; but didn't say so.

Harshit took Sumit to show his cave. When they neared the cave, they could still hear the strange-roaring noise coming from somewhere. Sumit listened intently, and concluded that it was the sound of an underground river.

"An underground river!" ejaculated Harshit, after Sumit had stated his opinion.

"Yes, an underground river," confirmed Sumit, "Oh yes! By the way, I forgot to tell you something."

"What is it?" asked Harshit, carelessly, "anything of importance?"

"Yes," replied Sumit, unexpectedly.

"Go on," responded Harshit, sitting straight suddenly.

"Well, Harshit, you're not the only one who has run away to this mountain."

"Really?!"

"It is true."

"And who is my neighbour here, Sumit?"

"My sister, Katrina."

"Katrina!"

"Yes, Katrina."

"Do you know why she ran away?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Oh! You know, Harshit, our parents had made a new type of submarine for the navy?"

"Yes, I know something about it Sumit, and didn't your parents go for a trial trip to Australia in the submarine, leaving you with your uncle or someone like that?"

"Just so, Harshit, and they were never seen or heard of again."

"Yes, I read it in the newspaper."

"Well, so, I and my sister, Katrina, went to live with our uncle."

"Yes, Sumit, go on."

"The first two years were okay enough, but when our parents remained missing, even after two years, uncle and aunt began to think that our parents would never come back."

"And so, they changed their minds about being kind and polite to you, I suppose, Sumit."

"Exactly, Harshit, and they made us work hard. They made me look after their goats, and Katrina had to do the entire household work, along with some scolding and hard slaps, now and then, for a change."

"And I suppose Katrina couldn't stand it."

"Just so, Harshit, and she thought she could run away to this ring of mountains, while I could come to see her every day when I come to graze the goats, and could bring some food supplies also."

"So, that's it."

Both boys became silent for a minute, their brains working.

"Well," said Sumit, breaking the silence. "I thought you and Katrina could keep each other company."

"Just what I was thinking about."

"Any objection? Katrina must be feeling so lonely," implored Sumit.

"All right, Sumit. I'll go and keep her company. Katrina isn't used to such a rough life."

"Yes," said Sumit, happily, "you see, she needs a real friend, and I can't be always at her side."

"Right," said Harshit, "where is she 'lodging'?"

"Inside this ring of mountains." said Sumit.

Harshit's face looked like he hadn't heard anything so ridiculous.

"You're joking!"

"No, I'm not. Just before sunset, Katrina comes out of the 'ring' to meet me. You could come with me, and then you'll see that it's not impossible."

Harshit peeped out of the cave and looked at the sun, which was already disappearing down the horizon, and the sky had turned bright red.

Harshit turned back to Sumit and said: "The sun's sinking already."

"Then, follow me," said Sumit, getting out of the cave, "and you'll see Katrina."
Chapter 5

Katrina and the underground river

The landscape turned red with the setting sun. Everything seemed to have been painted red. Sumit, who was leading the way, ran as fast as he could so as to reach Katrina before the sun sets completely. Harshit found that keeping up with Sumit, when Sumit was running at this pace was no easy task. But somehow, he managed to do so.

Sumit shot along at the speed of an arrow, frightening away all the squirrels, rats, rabbits and every other animal that happened to be on or near Sumit's path.

Sun was sinking slowly but steadily. And you know the old saying, "Slow and steady wins the race." It was certainly a race now. Sumit wanted to reach Katrina before the sun set, and sun seemed to let Sumit do anything but that.

At last, the sun set, leaving Sumit and Harshit in the dark. But there wasn't even a five minutes' walk to cover now. So the two boys went on and reached their destination pretty quick.

The "destination" was none other than a cave. The cave had a narrower opening than usual. Inside, the floor was carpeted by sand. This made the cave look "nice" and feel "nice".

The walls were perfectly smooth, but the "side-walls" were a little rounded and merged with the "roof" perfectly, forming an arch above the boys' heads.

Another peculiar feature of the cave was that, the same strange-roaring sound, which could be heard in the Harshit's cave, was also heard here, only it was much louder.

"We must now wait for Katrina," said Sumit, sitting down on the floor of the cave. Harshit did the same.

Not long afterwards, a scrambling noise came from the ceiling. Suddenly a girl leaped down from the ceiling, landing on her arms and legs.

"Katrina!" exclaimed Sumit.

The brother and sister hugged each other.

"Oh, brother!" said Katrina, "It was so lonely without you!"

"I missed you too!" said Sumit, hugging his sister more tightly than ever.

Sumit had quite forgotten Harshit in his brotherly embrace. As for Katrina, she hadn't noticed Harshit at all; her whole attention was on her brother.

Harshit looked on; with arms crossed. He didn't care to interfere. At last, Sumit noticed Harshit, waiting patiently.

"Katrina, look who's here," said Sumit, as a way of introduction. Katrina turned to look, seemed a little suspicious.

"Can we trust him, brother?" said Katrina, suspiciously.

"Oh, he's all right," Sumit replied, grinning at Harshit, "He won't betray you!"

Harshit, grinned back, and said to Katrina, "Don't you remember me, your brother's best friend?"

For the first time, Katrina noticed that it was Harshit, Sumit's old playmate; for it was so dark that she could hardly see Harshit.

"Oh, hello Harshit!" greeted Katrina, smiling. "It seems ages since I saw you last."

Katrina held out her hand – a dirty hand – to Harshit. And Harshit took it (with an equally dirty hand, by the way) and gave her a great, big, friendly grin.

"Glad to see you, Katrina," responded Harshit.

Katrina gave one of her best smiles, and asked, with a tone of formality, "And how's your old home, Harshit?"

"Well, I left it," said Harshit, innocently, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

"What do you mean?" asked Katrina, puzzled.

"He means he had to run away," said Sumit, grinning.

Katrina laughed, "You too!" And then changing her expression, she asked, "But why did you run away?"

Harshit explained, with Sumit putting in a word or two.

Katrina was very indignant.

And then they all fell into talking, about old times. Presently, Sumit broached the subject of Harshit being Katrina's companion. Katrina welcomed the idea.

"You don't know how lonely I feel here," said Katrina, "It would do me a world of good if I could've someone to talk to."

"Then it's all settled!" said Harshit grinning.

By now it was pitch dark. And Harshit's "baggage" was at the old cave. It was decided that Harshit and Katrina would sleep in the present cave for tonight (Sumit would go back with the goats), and then, Sumit would come back early in the morning and Harshit and Sumit would go and fetch Harshit's "luggage".

Sumit went away with his goats and the other two lay down to sleep. In a little while, Katrina was sound asleep. But Harshit lay awake; what a queer life he was going to live? What was in store for him in the future? Who knows? He'll have to wait and see.

The next morning, Katrina was up and about early. Sumit kept his word and was at the cave just after dawn. But Harshit slept on till, at last, Sumit awoke him: "Wake up sleepy head! I suppose you're in the wonderland; wake up!"

Harshit woke up, regretfully. "Just five minutes." He pleaded. But Sumit tipped a wink to Katrina and they both fell on Harshit, who yelled and howled. Harshit woke up at once and the other two laughed.

Harshit went to "his cave" accompanied by Sumit. Sumit took Harshit's satchel while Harshit collected some of the fruits of the trees around. Then they set off or the cave where Katrina was waiting patiently.

"You two have been simply ages!" complained Katrina, coming out of the cave to greet them. "What have you been doing all this time?"

"Oh we stopped on the way to play about," explained Harshit, tipping a wink to Sumit, who at once started grinning all over that the two ends of his mouth almost touched his hair at the back. Sumit then, put on a solemn face, and said innocently, "You know, it was a most perfect place to play about. Just behind us there was a precipice, and the ground fell away a hundred feet an inch before us and..."

"Oh you're pulling my leg!" declared Katrina. "I'm not such a fool as to be taken in by that story; and now buck up; let's breakfast, I'm starving!"

So they 'bucked up'. Harshit deftly took out some of the fruits and the knife, and then out came the bread and some other eatable things. They all stuffed their tummies "to the brim" as Harshit chose to put it. They cleared everything, sent the waste (seeds and things like that) tumbling down the hillside.

"We're ready. Lead on Katrina! And we'll follow you to the center of the 'ring'!"

So Katrina took the lead, and the boys followed her. Katrina, first, pointed to the roof in which was a hole, big enough for a man to go through; head first. The roof was a little low. So Katrina jumped and got hold of the edges of the hole.

"Tumble in after me!" she shouted, and then she pulled herself into the hole and disappeared.

Harshit followed easily but Sumit was not so fortunate. He jumped one or two times and tried to get hold of the edges (of the hole of course), but failed. Katrina and Harshit laughed. Sumit went at it again, slashed out his hands wildly at the edges but was unsuccessful, and in a moment, he was flat on his back. The "tragedy" was greeted with shouts of laughter, from the successful ones sitting above, and Sumit sprang up hurriedly and jumped desperately. Unfortunately, Sumit banged his head against the roof in the attempt and was down again. There was silence. The "bang" was too loud to be considered funny. Sumit felt his head to see if his poor head wasn't as flat as a paper as he fancied. His head was all right! Sumit made another attempt and was this time successful.

Sumit joined the others with a sigh of relief.

Sumit turned his attention to his surrounding and found himself in a tunnel, with a hole in the floor (which was, of course, the hole in the roof of the cave below). The trio proceeded down the dark tunnel, with Katrina leading the way.

After a while, the tunnel turned sharply to the right. All this while, the strange roaring noise could be heard very clearly. But the boys noticed, that it was, now, much louder. The floor started slopping upwards. The strange noise became louder at every single step till they had to close their ears with their hands to stop the deafening noise. Then came a sharp turn and the trio found themselves at the banks of an underground river; the real source of the strange-roaring noise!
Chapter 6

Inside the "ring"

The underground river was in quite another tunnel and the tunnel through which the trio came joined this tunnel of the river at this point. Katrina pointed to a rough raft on the banks of the river and shouted something which was quite lost in the deafening roar of the river. But the boys understood

The trio scrambled onto the raft and Katrina took long bamboo sticks, which were lying on the banks, and gave two of them to the boys. And they set off.

They didn't need to pole along for the current took the raft and made it shoot along at an alarming speed. The bamboo sticks were only for guiding the raft.

The river wasn't straight always. It took several sharp turns now and then and thanks to Katrina's skillful guiding (which was due to experience), there were no mishaps.

Presently, they spotted a small speck of daylight a long way ahead. It grew bigger and bigger, as the trio came nearer and nearer. After a few minutes, rather suddenly, they came out of the dark tunnel into bright sunshine!

The noise decreased at once as they came out into the open river. And then, the boys noticed something; in the tunnel, the river seemed to be very narrow, though it filled the tunnel from one side-wall to the other. But now, it was ten times wide! The boys looked around curiously; in the tunnel it was narrow and then suddenly it widened! It seemed all queer just then.

As they came out of the tunnel, the current suddenly increased and then slowed down and they were now going at the speed of a normal bicycle. Katrina kept the raft right in the middle of the river.

Harshit sat thinking for a moment and then opened his satchel. He took out the knife and the long rope (which was fifteen feet!) He tied one end of the rope to the handle of the knife and dipped it into the water.

"Whatever is that for?" asked Sumit, surprised.

"Is it for an anchor or something?" added Katrina, stopping her rowing for a moment.

"Checking the depth of the river," said Harshit.

The rope went on disappearing into the blue water, till more than half of it was underwater. And then the knife touched the bottom and Harshit tightened his grip on the rope. He began to haul the rope back into the boat.

At last the knife came out of the water and Harshit estimated the depth by seeing how much of the rope was wet.

"Golly! It must be around ten feet!" said Harshit at last.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Sumit peeping out of the raft to look at the water. "What if someone fell into this river? Wouldn't he go quite a long way down?!"

SPLASH! Sumit had fallen into the water; but fortunately he got hold of the raft's edge before it was too late.

"Are you off your head, Sumit!" said Harshit.

"Maybe to see if it was really a long way down," said Katrina, grinning.

Sumit was holding on to the raft for dear life, but judging by the expression on his face, he might just as well have been in a water park having a water ride!

"Yahoo!" yelled Sumit, "Yippee! You guys don't know what you're missing! This is awesome!"

"Hold on tight, Sumit," said Harshit, laughing, "if you really enjoy riding like that; I'll tie you to the raft, then there won't be any danger."

As soon as Sumit was securely tied to the raft, he let go of the raft and began to splash around with his hands, yelling with delight!

"THIS IS FUN!"

It did look like fun; and Sumit's face was so full of enjoyment, that Harshit and Katrina decided to try it themselves.

Soon all three were laughing and yelling, tied securely to the raft. The current was taking them with quite a speed.

Sometimes they swam pushing the raft before them.

At last, they were tired and just floated behind the raft contentedly.

They floated along looking at the trees on the land and the birds flying around them, high above in the sky.

Presently, Katrina climbed on to the raft and turned it to the land, and now, they could see the land clearly.

Harshit and Sumit were so contented, that they didn't notice Katrina climbing back onto the raft and then guiding it to the land.

'Course, as they approached the land, it became shallower; till Harshit and Sumit (who were floating behind the raft on theirs backs) quite unaware of their surroundings, were startled when they ran aground and found themselves lying on the muddy river-bed on their backs.

Katrina giggled. And Sumit was quite angry with her for not warning him. Harshit and Sumit had to wash their muddy backs in a stream that was joining the river near here.

After the washing, the boys scrambled out of the stream and looked around them.

The river bed was consisted of brown, muddy clay; beyond which the "clay" became drier and crisper, and was dotted here and there with pebbles. Further on, there were stones as well as pebbles and still further, the pebbles and stones were joined by huge rocks and trees.

And these trees were only a small part of a great forest or rather a jungle, to be precise. The trees were close together and as you looked through between the trunks of the trees, you could see nothing except total darkness, though here and there a stream of sunlight managed to "squeeze" through the dense foliage, to light up the dark jungle.

Katrina took the lead, quite naturally, and the boys followed (naturally, 'course).

She went straight toward the edge of the dark jungle and Harshit at once suggested holding hands in case anyone got lost. The other two agreed; so Katrina held Sumit's left hand and Harshit held Sumit's right one and in this way they entered into the dark jungle.

The jungle was very dark but the surroundings were lit up by a yellowish-greenish light, quite enough for their needs, besides, Katrina knew the way very well and led the other two very confidently, so the boys couldn't help following without a word.

It was silence mostly, but now and then, a bird let out a "squeal" or a dog-like bark came ringing through the woods.

The journey was long and tiring but was exiting and lively from the beginning to the end. And that end came when they came to a clearing. The trio blinked, as they came into broad sunshine so suddenly. Katrina led them to a hut in the center of the clearing. It was surrounded by an old wood fence. And the gate looked as though it would fall if anyone blew at it.

The boys saw that the gate was locked, but that was no great problem for half of the fence was already on the ground in a pile and the other half looked as if it would tumble down any moment. So they just went through one of the gaps in the fence and walked to the hut. The hut was an old shanty made in ancient times. Its walls were made of stones cemented with mud which then hardened as it got baked by the sun. The roof was just a thatched roof.

The hut was apparently deserted ages ago. When the trio entered, they saw a heap of tools like hammer, a saw, an axe, a tool that looked like a pick-axe and so on, in a corner. Another corner held a sort of a fire-place. Some wooden boxes were lying around (and they seemed to be newer than the other things), evidently used for stools and some cooking utensils (pottery) were stacked in a cupboard. A sort of a bed was lying in a corner, which had broken into a hundred pieces when Sumit sat on it, who found himself flat on the ground at once.

"This is my lodgings," said Katrina. She went towards the fire-place and soon she had a good blazing fire with a kettle of water on it. They had black tea with some bread from Harshit's satchel. It was refreshing.

"I wish we had milk to make the tea instead of water," said Sumit longingly, as they came out of the hut into the open. "And there is," said Katrina. She whistled loudly with her mouth and two goats came clattering out of the jungle to Katrina. At first, Sumit's and Harshit's face looked alarmed, but as there were only two goats, there was no "tragedy" this time. Katrina milked the goats and gave the milk in two tumblers to Sumit and Harshit. Sumit, who had drunk the milk of his own goats a hundred times before, gulped the warm milk down at once, enjoying it immensely. But poor Harshit couldn't help making a wry face, for goat's milk is always a shock at first for those who had been accustomed to cow's milk. Katrina saw it and grinned – a sort of boyish grin.

"You haven't drunk goat's milk before, I guess," she said. "Well, you'll get accustomed to it if you drink it every day." At this, Harshit's face looked so alarmed that Katrina laughed. "Oh, you needn't look so alarmed; I'm not going to make you drink it!"

That day, they went exploring the vicinity, and collected some fruits. Katrina entrusted them to Sumit to carry, but somehow half of the fruits disappeared on the way. "Most likely, it's in Sumit's tummy," said Harshit, and it was, even though the expression on Sumit's face looked as if he was innocent boy, quite incapable of such a thing.

It was soon time for Sumit to go, and the trio went back to the raft. The boys helped Katrina pole up the river, and soon they were inside the tunnel, in the heart of the mountain. Presently, they came to the place where they had to land, and then, not long afterwards, it was time to part and Sumit went on his way with his goats and Harshit and Katrina retreated into the "ring" of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.

They didn't pole along downstream for the current was carrying them along well enough, but Katrina had to use the pole for steering. They were soon trudging through the jungle, rather blindly, for it was very dark now. They walked along like this for hours till a doubt crept into Harshit's mind.

"Katrina, we should have been at the hut by this time, surely," he said to Katrina. Katrina said nothing. She hadn't the heart to say that they were lost.
Chapter 7

Where Priya comes into the story

Even though Katrina had said nothing, Harshit knew in his heart of hearts that they were lost. Katrina led Harshit to nowhere in particular, for both of them had lost the sense of direction.

At last, in despair, Harshit asked Katrina desperately, "Are we lost or not? Do say yes if we are; I can't bear this confounded silence any longer!"

"We're lost," admitted Katrina, slowly and regretfully. Harshit said nothing, for the very good reason that he had nothing to say. They went on in silence, turning right and left, only to be disappointed. Once they got sight of a big thing, grey against the black sky; and walked towards it. They felt a glimmer of hope warming up in their hearts. But their hope was dashed to pieces when they found that it was only a big rock. They sat down at the foot of the rock, tired and unhappy. And soon they were sleeping soundly though they didn't mean to sleep at all.

They woke up, to find that they had slept throughout the night. It was morning and Harshit estimated the time looking at the sun, and thought it must be around seven o' clock. He glanced around and was startled when he saw what he saw. Katrina hadn't awaked yet. It was high time she awoke. But thing which was startling was that there was a big dog (evidently wild) sniffing at Katrina's face. Was she eatable?

Harshit threw a stone at the dog which ran away yelping madly.

Harshit went over to Katrina and gave her a push and shook her. But Katrina just turned over, absent-mindedly. Harshit looked around and noticed that a small spring ran by, not far off. He went to the spring, sat on one knee, and scooped up some water in his hands. He ran towards Katrina as fast as he could, so as to reach there before the water ran through his fingers and then he dashed the water onto Katrina face who awoke at once; but very annoyed.

"Hey! Stop it!" She shouted, angrily. "Didn't you find any other way to wake me up!?" Harshit laughed, irritatingly, but retreated to a safe distance, hastily, as Katrina shook her fists and got up. Katrina ran after Harshit, and Harshit ran into the jungle, laughing.

Katrina chased him, in a most annoyed mood.

"And I was having such a nice dream too!" said Katrina. And then she added, "About a dog!"

The two ran towards the river, with Katrina intent on catching Harshit. Katrina could see Harshit running ahead, dodging a tree or two now and then. Katrina followed with determination till suddenly Harshit stopped short in his tracks and Katrina almost bumped into him.

"Hurrah! I've caught you!" shouted Katrina in glee.

"Shhhhh......" whispered Harshit, turning around with his finger on his mouth.

"What's the matter?" whispered Katrina.

"See for yourself," was the reply.

Katrina peeped over Harshit's sturdy shoulders, cautiously; resting her hands on his shoulders as she did so. Katrina could hardly contain herself with astonishment at what she saw.

What Katrina saw was this: Harshit and Katrina were on the edge of a clearing or on the edge of the forest, whichever you would like to call it. Whatever, there was a clearing ahead, which was not astonishing, but the real astonishing thing was a helicopter, yes, a helicopter was landing onto the clearing!

('Course, the helicopter made a lot of noise, and Harshit and Katrina had heard long before they reached this clearing, but as aircrafts frequently passed over the Andhar-ana-mana mountains thousands of kilometers above, the two had it was just another aero plane flying overhead.)

The clearing was in a perfect circle, and on the other side of the clearing was a hut or a shack or something like that. The helicopter landed, its propellers continued whirring round and round. It made a lot of noise as it landed slowly and vertically. It was a blue helicopter and was a real beauty! Its windows merged into one another as if a strip of glass had been wound around its body which seemed to be made of some strong kind of metal.

A door opened on its side, not sideways as doors usually do, but downwards. Its hinges were located at the bottom. It lay down like a bridge from the cabin of the helicopter to the ground. The children could see that the surface of the curious door was shaped like small "neat" steps, so that whoever was inside wouldn't have to run the risk of slipped and tumbling down the "stairs" (or door). Harshit, as soon as he saw the door open rushed up a tree and beckoned to Katrina to follow. Katrina came up behind Harshit and the two settled themselves on the branches, parting the leaves to peer at the helicopter.

The children held their breaths as they saw two men coming out of the helicopter with a girl who seemed to be about Sumit's age. Her hands were tied tightly, and her feet were tied a little loosely so that the girl could just walk and not run. She was brown like most Indians; but still her frank, open face made her look very pretty. Unfortunately, she had put on a very sulky expression, just now, so that the children couldn't see her face in her full beauty.

The two men (who seemed to be too white to be Indians) took the sulky Indian girl, rather roughly, to the hut. One of the men produced a key and opened the door and the whole trio, sulky girl and all, disappeared into the hut (which by the way, seemed to have been built quite recently).

"There's something queer about this," said Katrina, in a low voice, "Who are those foreigners, and that sulky girl, who seems to be an Indian? Why come here, to this lonely spot? I don't like it."

"Neither do I," responded Harshit, and then after a good deal of thinking, he said: "I think that that girl's been kidnapped ("So I thought," said Katrina), and those men have brought her here to hide her."

"What a good hiding place, though," remarked Katrina, "who would've thought of it?"

"I feel sorry for that girl," said Harshit, "I think we should think of something to rescue her."

"Let's go down and do a bit of spying," suggested Katrina.

"Not now," declared Harshit, "those men are coming out."

"And they've left that girl in that hut," added Katrina, as they peered through the leaves.

"Let's go down after those foreigners have gone," said Harshit.

The children waited, and the men disappeared into the jungle. The children waited another five minutes; they didn't want to run any risk.

Soon Harshit and Katrina were on the ground once again, and they advanced to the hut keeping to the shadows in the edge of the jungle. They were soon at the hut and Harshit looked in through a window.

The hut contained only one room and its walls were shelved from top to bottom. The shelves were stacked with tins and tins of food and Harshit's mouth watered when he saw them. Presently his eyes rested on the girl, who was sitting on the floor with a miserable expression and eating out of a tin of pineapple. She suddenly looked up and fixed her mournful eyes on Harshit.

Harshit grinned and whispered, "Cheer up! We're friends, you'll be rescued soon."

Then Katrina, who was growing impatient, and who was craving to look inside the hut; pushed Harshit aside (who got quite annoyed), and glued her face onto the window. She also gave some cheering words to the pretty girl and joined Harshit who had gone to the door. To their delight, they found the key in the lock! The two young rescuers soon had the door wide open. And then, the girl did a surprising thing! She flung herself on them both and hugged them tightly, till they almost choked.

From that moment that girl was one of their best friends.

After the two children had rescued the girl, they took a look around the room and found a map of Andhar- ana-mana Mountains, with the secret entrance through which Harshit and Katrina had come into the "ring" marked on it.

"The men had a duplicate of this map," informed the girl (who by the way was called Priya Subhi).

"Where's that duplicate map?" asked Katrina.

"The men took it with them," replied Priya, "they said they were going to find out that secret entrance and block it up."

"No!!!" shouted Harshit and Katrina in dismay. "They mustn't do it!" said Katrina, and the three filed out of the room. Harshit locked the door behind him and left the key in the lock.

He grinned and said, "What a surprise for them! They'll probably think that you obviously walked through a locked door."

The three children went into the jungle, Harshit taking the lead. He led them to the river, thinking they could walk by the river and reach the secret entrance in time to do something to stop the men from blocking it.

They soon came to the river and walked along it. Half an hour later they suddenly spotted the two men walking ahead of them, evidently keeping to the river to reach the secret entrance. Harshit stopped as well as the others. They stood around in a circle and consulted as to the best course to pursue.

"I think we might hide in the bushes," suggested Priya in a whisper, "and make them rustle and then dart away before the men could look around."

"Yes, that's a good idea!" said Harshit. "And we might lead them a fine dance all around the jungle!"

"And what about leading them to their own hut?" suggested Katrina, "We might make them go right in and then we'll lock them in!"

"Right!" agreed Harshit, "But we must do some planning first. You Katrina must hide in that bush and give off the first rustle, then climb that tree over there before the men spot you, then when they have passed you climb down again."

"Right, sir!"

"I'll give off the second rustle, further in the jungle, and you Priya must give off the third even more further, ok?"

"All right!"

"Then Katrina'll go behind you, even further into the jungle and rustle again, got it?"

"Oh I see!" said Priya, "We'll do this again and again right down to the hut I suppose?"

"That's it," said Harshit. "So, one, two, three, here we go!"

By now the men were a little further than they were before but they were not quite out of hearing. Harshit gave the signal and the children disappeared into the forest, hiding behind bushes.
Chapter 8

Off to meet Sumit

Leading a fine dance isn't as easy as it seems when you read it here. Though the three children talked and laughed about it a minute ago, they couldn't help feeling a little nervous about it as they took their places behind the bushes. They felt it would be serious if the two men caught them.

Katrina was the one to "give off the first rustle", and she had some difficulty in doing so. Though she was a plucky girl, just now she was so nervous just then that she just couldn't rustle the bushes. Katrina "rustled" the bush when the men were almost out of hearing, and then darted up a tree at once before the foreigners could turn around.

"What was that, Pip?" asked one of the men, stopping. "Don't know," answered Pip (that was the other man), indifferently.

"Maybe it's a rabbit or two. Let them rustle the bushes as much as they like, Bill. We've more important business to attend to, than that."

"I just wondered if that girl called...called...what was her name?" said Bill.

"Prairie, no... Priya," responded Pip, obligingly.

"Yes, Prairie..." said Bill.

"Priya," corrected Pip.

"Oh yes, Prairie...I mean Priya," said Bill, seeing Pip's mouth open again to correct him. "So, I just wondered if Priya has somehow escaped, I just feel it in my bones."

"You and your bones," said Pip, scornfully. "How can Prairie..."

"Priya," said Bill, delighted to have the chance to correct Pip.

"Of course, I mean Priya," said Pip, annoyed at finding himself corrected. "So, how can Priya walk through a locked door?"

"Somehow," said Bill, racking his brains to think of a way to walk through a locked door.

Just then Harshit rustled his bush and darted away. Both of the men looked around just in time to see Harshit's feet disappear around a rock. "Gosh!" exclaimed Pip, "If that wasn't Priya! Your bones were right this time, Bill!"

The two men darted towards the rock, and Harshit found himself in hot water! Priya racked her brains as to how to save her friend and to Katrina astonishment, Priya stood up from her bush, boldly, thus diverting the men's attention.

"There's Priya!" shouted Bill, and Priya took to her heels, giggling. For it all seemed like a silly game of "catch 'em catch".

Katrina jumped down from her tree and Harshit appeared round the rock. But the men were so interested in catching Priya that they didn't notice Harshit and Katrina.

Priya was heading for the hut by the helicopter. So Harshit and Katrina made for the hut too, making a wide semi-circle so as not to bump into the men on the way. Somehow, Harshit and Katrina reached the hut before Priya. Harshit turned the key and left the door wide open. Then they hurried to hide as Priya appeared followed by the two men.

Till now, Priya had run in a straight line, and the men expected her to continue doing so. But as Priya reached the edge of the clearing, she suddenly turned off to the left. To the men, it seemed as if Priya had suddenly vanished. They didn't know that Priya was crouching behind a bush not far from them.

The two foreigners came into the clearing and saw the door of the hut wide open. They thought Priya had gone into the hut to hide.

"Good!" said Pip, grinning. "Now we can lock her right in!"

They went to the empty hut, in a very good spirits. Priya followed them just behind, making no sound, and the men didn't notice her. They went into the hut, meaning to crow over Priya that they had got her nicely, but a surprised look came into their faces as they saw the empty room.

"Where's she?" asked Bill, and before the men knew what was up there was a click. Priya, who was standing outside, had locked them in (nicely).

"Hurrah!" shouted Harshit and Katrina, coming out of their hiding places. Priya grinned as the other two shook hands with her.

"You did it superbly," remarked Harshit.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The men were trying to break down the door.

"Let us out!" shouted the men angrily. Bang! Thud! Thud! BANG!

The children laughed.

"It's time we went to meet Sumit," said Katrina looking at the sun.

"Right!" agreed Harshit. "Who's Sumit?" asked Priya and the others explained. Soon they were at the river and were walking along, talking and laughing. They soon came to where Harshit and Katrina had put the raft. They launched it into the water and everyone got in. Everyone rowed by turns, talking all the time.

On the way, Priya told the others about her own past life. "I was a tribal girl in south India," she said.

"Which state?" asked Harshit.

"In Idukki area, Kerala," answered Priya.

"I and Sumit are from Karnataka," said Katrina.

"Go on, Priya," said Harshit.

"Well," continued Priya, "so, I was a tribal girl. My parents died a year ago; not together. Father died first, by falling off a cliff, and then mother died of despair and grief ("Poor Priya," said Katrina). So I just lived alone, eating fruits from trees, and sometimes people gave me something to eat. My parents were poor you see, so they hadn't leave any money for me."

"If that's so, why did the men kidnap you?" asked Harshit.

"It was because, one day," said Priya, "I stumbled on their secret."

"What was their secret?"

"They were gun-running."

"In Idukki?" asked Katrina opening her eyes wide.

"Well, Idukki was a sort of storeroom for them," explained Priya, "they were gun-running for some foreign country, Nisch-Hun (Nisch-Hun isn't a country it was a terrorist group, but Priya didn't know that) or something like that. (Here Harshit and Katrina exchanged glances) So when they found out that I knew their secret, they captured me."

"Oh I see!" chorused Harshit and Katrina.

"They had an another secret," said Priya, "they knew there was some old-old treasure somewhere here, so they came here and brought me along, meaning to leave me here after they had found the treasure, and after they had blocked up the secret entrance. They wanted to block it up so that I would be trapped inside."

"Beasts!" exclaimed Katrina. "I'm glad we locked them up in that hut."

"They also wanted to store some of their weapons here," added Priya.

Little did the children knew that the men had broken the door down, and were at that very moment looking for Priya.
Chapter 9

The Marvelous Four and a Shock

The children were soon in the underground part of the river. Priya looked around with interest, for of course, she had never been in this tunnel before. Katrina glanced at Priya for a moment and observed how fascinating she looked.

As Priya's home was in a wild enough area, Katrina wasn't surprised at Priya's wild hair which seemed to be un-brushed for years; and the hair stuck out in all directions, making it look even wilder. Priya had a wild and stubborn look in her face; but Katrina knew how loving and kind she could be, if she wanted to. Although Priya looked very wild, she was very fascinating to look at.

Katrina looked at Harshit, and compared Harshit with Priya. Katrina could see that no one would ever think Harshit a wild boy. He looked neat and proper, "And," thought Katrina, "honest and trust-worthy."

Although, Harshit didn't look as wild as Priya, the two had something thing in common and that was their strong and self-possessed look; and strong and self-possessed they were.

Soon the time came to get off, and the three of them pulled the raft high up the dry tunnel. Then the three went up the tunnel. Harshit was leading the way, and when the three came to the hole on the floor, he didn't see the hole and fell right through it, landing on the floor of the cave with a bump.

Old Sumit was in the cave grinning, though he knew if he had been any nearer, Harshit would've landed right on his head. The girls jumped in, one by one. Sumit was a little startled when he saw Priya but Harshit hastily explained.

"You've been having a regular adventure down there I see," said Sumit, grinning all over his face. "Well, you brought me some surprises," he said, nodding at Priya, "and I've brought you some surprising news."

"What do you mean, old boy?" asked Harshit, surprised.

"I'm coming to live with you in the 'ring'," was the surprising reply (which was a surprising news, all right).

Katrina gave a squeal of joy and flung herself on Sumit, who nearly shouted: "Help!"

"Why Katrina!" said Sumit, in a grown-up voice, "Be a little more behaved, my dear girl."

Nevertheless, Katrina showed her joy quite plainly at Sumit coming to live with them.

"But why this sudden decision?" asked Harshit, "Are you tired of your guardians?"

"No," said Sumit, "it's because they are moving away to a different village. If they shifted their home then I'll have to go with them too, leaving you behind; so I bolted."

"Good!" said Katrina, pleased, "Now we'll all be together. We'll be a happy group, living together like this."

"Let's give a name to our group," suggested Priya.

"Marvelous!" exclaimed Sumit, evidently pleased with Priya's idea.

"Ok!" agreed Priya, grinning, "'Marvelous' shall be its name."

"Oh!" said Sumit, laughing, "I didn't say it as a suggestion."

"Let's call ourselves 'the Marvelous Four'!" said Harshit.

"Or 'the Marvels' in short!" said Katrina.

"Or just 'the Four'!" added Harshit.

Everyone agreed; so Marvelous Four or the Marvels (or just the Four) they were, and always will be.

The Marvelous Four [or the Marvels (or just the Four)] spent their night in that cave, and had a good sound sleep.

Next morning, everyone awoke up, and had a good splash in a stream nearby. They lied down in a sunny spot to dry their wet cloths, and then, they all collected some fruits and had breakfast.

Then, the Marvels went into the cave, and jumped up into the tunnel and walked to the underground river.

When Harshit came into the cave after breakfast, he had dropped his sharp knife, which he had tied to a string which in turn was tied around his waist. So when the Marvels were in the "ring" again, they were without that useful knife.

The four children decided to go to the hut in which the men where, or in which they thought the men where, for as I had said before, the men had broken the door and so had escaped.

When the four Marvels entered the clearing where the hut was, they stared in surprised. The door was in pieces! They were just going to run to the hut when out of the helicopter (its door was still open downwards) came the two foreigners talking. They went to the hut and disappeared inside it. Thank goodness, they hadn't noticed the children.

The four Marvels exchanged glances, and Priya went to the hut noiselessly; the others followed. They all stood on both sides of the window, huddled together, listening.

The men were evidently having a discussion as to where Priya had "vanished".

"I think we ought to block that secret entrance as soon as possible, Bill," the man called Pip was saying, "maybe old Priya is in this valley, though we have searched this valley well enough."

"That's what I think too," agreed Bill, "or maybe Prairie..."

"Priya."

"Whatever. Well, she must've found out the secret entrance already, and so maybe she's out of this valley."

"I don't think so," said Pip, "besides, we have to find that treasure, and we've got to fix this place up to be our gang's storeroom for guns, you know, so we can't waste much time on her."

"Right! Let's go and block that secret entrance, then."

The Four stared at each other. They heard the men coming out of the hut; so they hurried to the back side of it. The men disappeared into the jungle, and the Four held a quick meeting at the back of the hut, a sort of council of war.
Chapter 10

At Mr. Sonu's Farm

The Marvels racked their brains as to what their course should be, but they didn't have the least idea. They knew that the men were up to no good, and they wanted to go straight to the police and inform them about the men from the gun-running gang. But they couldn't; because, if they did, the police would recognize the run-away children and would turn them over to their cruel guardians (except Priya, who wasn't a run-away).

So what were they to do? They pored over the question in silence till Sumit warned them that if they didn't buck up, they wouldn't be able to do anything before the men blocked the entrance.

But they just couldn't buck up. If they tried any bush rustling again, the men would see through their trick. The Four were beginning to go half mad when Priya said thoughtfully: "I've heard the men speaking that they were going to block up the entrance with some type of strong cement that would dry up pretty quick. I wonder if we..." she said no more, and seemed to be thinking hard. The others looked at her and waited hopefully.

After a time, Priya looked at the others, and her jelly-like eyes shone. "Why couldn't we hide somewhere near the entrance," said Priya, "and let the men block the entrance..."

"This is no time for joking Priya," said Harshit.

"But please let me finish," pleaded Priya, and continued, "after the entrance is blocked, and after the men go away, we might pull down the cement. Surely it will not harden before that?"

"Hurrah!" said Sumit, "Good for you!"

"Good old Priya!"

"Right!" said Harshit, "That's what we'll do then."

So the children ran to the river and got into the raft, and set off.

They were in high glee, and quite forgot that the men might be walking along the banks again, and that if they didn't take care, the men would see them gliding along the river.

And the men did! The children were almost rowing beside the men on the river bank before the children realized it. When the men saw them, they stood rooted to the spot and then started running to the secret entrance.

"Oh dear!" mourned Priya, "Now we'll have to race for it."

Katrina began rowing frantically, but Harshit told her to be steady.

"Slow and steady wins the race, you know," he said to her.

As Katrina became steady, the others could see that the raft now didn't seem to be so "reckless" anymore, as it had been. And it began to leave the men behind, slowly but steadily. Soon the men were out of sight.

They didn't get out of the raft when they reached the secret entrance; instead they went right into the tunnel saying, that there wouldn't any better hiding place than inside it. They landed at the dry tunnel, and waited. Suddenly, Harshit began to feel the loss of his knife, and asked the others about it.

"Oh! I saw your knife fall from your body," recalled Sumit, "When you came to see me in the 'outside' cave. I forgot to remind you of it."

"Then, I had better go and bring it now," declared Harshit, and he disappeared down the tunnel.

The other three waited for the men, and soon heard their voices at the cave entrance.

"There!" Pip was saying, "There's no sign of those idiots here. I tell you, Bill, their raft has upset on the way here. Silly babies!"

"I suppose so," said Bill, doubtfully. "Come on, let's get to work."

The children heard them rolling some stones and mixing some cement in water. "Phew!" said Pip, "Now let's cement it."

The children waited breathlessly, and then they stared at the water in horror. The water was rising! Why hadn't they thought of it? Of course if the entrance, or in reality, the outlet of the stream is blocked up, the water wouldn't be able to flow out and it would get collected in the tunnel, and soon this dry tunnel we be filled with water!

The children sprang to their feet, and ran down the tunnel to where, Harshit had gone. They met him half the way down the tunnel, with his knife dangling by his side on the string again.

"Run! Run! Run!" yelled the three to Harshit in chorus. "The water level has risen!"

Harshit didn't understand it at first, and then he suddenly understood. There was the water rushing behind the other three in hot pursuit! At once Harshit turned back on his tracks.

The Four ran as fast as they could, but the water was faster. Katrina was the last in the line and to her horror the water was lapping her feet! She screamed but it was no use. Soon the water took the Four off their feet and took them along. And all the Four could do was wait helplessly! The Four came to the hole in the floor of the tunnel. There the water had formed a whirlpool. Harshit was the first to be sucked down and the other three followed. The water spread out here so that the depth lessened and the Four hurriedly waded out of the cave. And just as the last of them came out the roof of the cave collapsed and the water came tumbling out of the hole and rushed down the mountain-side!

The Marvelous Four gazed at the stream of water, as it rushed down the mountain-side. The four Marvels didn't speak to each other, after that for some minutes, and then they all lied down and fell asleep. By now the stream had grown. There was a big crash as more of the cave broke and more water came flowing out. But the Four were so fast asleep that the crash never woke them.

After a few hours, they woke up one by one, and started discussing about what to do next.

"I think we ought to eat something," said Sumit, "I'm simply starving."

"But all our 'civilized' food is in the 'ring'," said Katrina.

('Course, they could live on fruits but they wanted some cooked food now and then).

"Has anyone any money to buy food?" asked Harshit.

"I have," informed Sumit, "But we'll be recognized as run-aways, if we go."

"I can go," volunteered Priya, "I'm not from these parts."

"Good idea!" said Harshit, "Why didn't we think of it before?"

"But Priya doesn't know the way to the village," reminded Katrina.

"I've got an idea!" said Sumit, suddenly.

"Everyone's getting an idea, one after the other," said Priya, laughing.

"But this one's a very good one," said Sumit.

"Well, go on," said Harshit, "let's hear it."

"It's like this," began Sumit, "before coming to join you three, inside the 'ring', I confided in an animal farmer, near here, who's a jolly old man.

"I told him about Katrina and Harshit running away, and told him I was going to join you,"

"And what did he say?"

"Oh he just grinned and said he didn't blame us, seeing how we were misused by our guardians. I told him, I might come to see him; maybe to get some food, or to get some other thing. He agreed all right, and said that we were welcome to come, anytime."

"Oh I see," said Priya, "You mean we might go to his animal farm and buy some food."

"That's the idea," confirmed Sumit, nodding his head.

"All right Sumit," said Harshit getting up, "lead the way."

So the others got up, and followed Sumit, who led them through the mountain-side. He went upwards sometimes, but sometimes he descended; and at the foot of the mountains, they came to the animal farm.

The farm was very noisy; there were the clucking of hens, grunts from the pigs, moos of cows, whiney from horses, and barking of dogs. There were also goats and sheep. The farm building, where the farmer and his wife lived (they had no children), was a beautiful structure; shaped like an L (if viewed from above). The whole farm was surrounded by a huge wall.

There was a gate, 'course, but it was locked. They found a door bell button; and Sumit pressed it.

A few minutes later, a door opened in the farm building, and a middle-aged man came up. He was short, and had big grey beard. His grey moustache curled downward; its two ends merging with the beard. He had big grey eyebrows, and two twinkling eyes, that were rather small. His gray hair was neatly combed into two sections; the borders of these sections being nearer to his left ear than the right. His body looked strong and sturdy. And his face had a jolly expression, which the children liked at once. If his beard and hair had been white and his cloths red and white; then he would've surely looked like Santa Claus.

"Welcome to Sonu's Farm," said Mr. Sonu, opening the gate, "and is that Sumit and Katrina? And by Jove! If that isn't old Harshit! And by golly! Who's this pretty little girl?"

Priya didn't like being called a little girl, but didn't say anything.

"Emm...this is Priya, Mr. Sonu," said Sumit, "She's our friend."

"Glad to meet you, Priya," said Mr. Sonu, holding out a rather dirty hand. Priya took it though, unhesitatingly.

"Come on, walk in, my friends; by golly! Harshit, you've grown strong!" invited Mr. Sonu.

Two big Alsatian dogs came barking and bounding. They seemed to be rather friendly with the children, and licked them all over, which seemed to be their way of saying: "Delighted to meet you friends!"

Following them came two little puppies, which as friendly as their parents. "That's enough, Kushi; calm down Raj, let the children pass through," said the jolly farmer to the dogs.

Mr. Sonu led them into the farm building, and they all entered into a medium sized sitting room, with a low glass table and two sofas. But Mr. Sonu didn't tell them to wait there; he led out of the pleasant room through a door, into a big dining room, with a big rectangular table that had a glass top. There were eight chairs around the table. The room had two windows on either side, lighting up the room. It had two flower vases fixed to the wall on either side of each window. The windows were large and had glass-panes. The walls were painted a light-violet, and the ceiling fan was violet coloured too.

"Sit down, please;" said the farmer, "Wife and I were going to have lunch, you are not in a hurry I hope."

"We are not in a hurry," said Harshit, "in fact, we were going to ask if we could buy some food. We'll pay for it."

But farmer wouldn't receive any money, even though Harshit insisted.

The wife of the farmer was a chubby jolly woman, with small twinkling eyes, and small round lips. She had tied her dark black hair in a bun, and looked the picture of neatness, though she had been working in the kitchen, just now.

She brought in some fried rice and chicken curry as well as some salad; and there was a bottle of mango pickle if anyone wanted it.

They chatted and joked all through the meal, and the children said that Mrs. Sonu was a very good cook indeed. The farmer knew that the children were run-aways, and asked them to spend a week or two on the farm. The Marvelous Four of course, accepted gladly.
Chapter 11

Mr. Sonu and Sumit and the Python

Mr. Sonu gave the boys a neat room on the top floor. Its ceiling sloped down a little. Under the wall from which the ceiling started its descent was the door. And on the opposite wall, where the ceiling's descent was checked by the wall, were a couple of huge windows, which flooded the room with the natural light rays of the sun. The windows were glass paned.

The walls were painted a light cream, and the ceiling was white. Two white electric fans were hanging on to the ceiling and with golden streaks across its propellers, making both of them look really beautiful.

At the end of the room was a double-poster bed with a white and green bed-sheets and pillows. Two bureaus were on both sides of the bed.

Between the door and the big double-poster bed was a white table. The table was fixed to the wall by one of its long sides, and there were a couple of white chairs by its sides.

So now, if you would imagine yourself looking in such a room, you would know why the boys were stunned by it. They thanked the grinning farmer, and looked around the room admiringly.

The girls got a similar room except that it was square shaped and that the ceiling didn't slope (for the room was not on the top floor.

The four Marvels gradually settled down. They got used to the racket of the animals, and the animals started knowing the Four when they came near. It was all very pleasant, and Mrs. Sonu proved to be the best cook they had ever known.

Now one day, Sumit and Mr. Sonu went walking in the early morning (the other three Marvels were too sleepy and lazy to join Sumit and Mr. Sonu). The two walked along the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains' huge sides; enjoying the fresh morning air.

The birds were chirping, and squirrels and other small animals got out of the way as the two walked on. They were discussing as to what they were to do to catch the two foreigners without harming the four run-aways, when suddenly Mr. Sonu tripped over something on the path. It was a big snake. In fact it was a rock python!

The farmer had left his hunting knife in the farm and Sumit never had thought of bringing one. The terrible snake got poor Mr. Sonu by his legs, and made the farmer fall down, while the farmer yelled and shouted like mad, not as if he was scared but as if he was angry:

"You reptile! Let me go, you hard hearted beast! You dumb scaly worm! Can't you have any other dish for your breakfast, you cannibal! Let me go now or I'll sue you for damage! I'll tell the police!"

The python wound around the farmer's body, almost crushing his legs into jelly.

"He acts as if he didn't hear me at all," shouted the farmer, enraged, "You're a thundering hypocrite!"

Meanwhile Sumit was taking a good strong leg-bone of an animal that was lying in the bushes.

By now the python had wound its huge coils around the farmer's fat belly, and its head was right on top of it. Sumit swung his bone around and brought it right on the python head, almost crushing Mr. Sonu's fat tummy flat, underneath it.

Mr. Sonu looked at the python triumphantly, "You deserved it you rotten idiot!"

The python's eyes seemed to blaze with furry when Sumit hit it. It uncoiled itself, and the delighted farmer sprang out to safety. The python now turned to attack Sumit.

"Pass it to me! Sumit, pass it to me!" yelled Mr. Sonu, "I'll finish it off in a minute!"

Sumit hastily gave the leg-bone to Mr. Sonu, who swung it around and began dashing it onto the python's body, here and there, mainly aiming at the head, yelling all the time.

"Take that you reptile! You filthy vermin! You forked tongued rascal! Take that! And that! And that! And that!"

Soon it was dead, but Mr. Sonu kept hitting it in his anger.

"Err...Mr. Sonu, its dead. Let's go," said Sumit, as the farmer kept on hitting the dead snake again and again.

"No, just one more," replied Mr. Sonu, but kept on hitting it all the same.

"But, Mr. Sonu..."

"The last one!" said the farmer, giving the dead python a last knock on the head.

Sumit and Mr. Sonu dragged the dead python into the bushes and walked back to the farm.

"Thank you, Sumit," said the farmer on the way, "I'll never forget what you did for me today. If you ever need my help just ask, 'cause I'm ready help you, anytime, anywhere."
Chapter 12

Sumit's present

Now Mrs. Sonu had great affection for her husband; so when she heard about the "python affair", as she called it, she gasped, as she thought about the great danger her husband had been. She ran to her husband and hugged him, and then she turned and hugged Sumit, who was most surprised. The others laughed as they saw his face, betraying embarrassment.

Mrs. Sonu wasn't content with hugging; she went to the kitchen and was bustling there, all through the morning.

When dinner time came, the children gasped as they saw the dishes. There were all sorts of tasty dishes. And Mrs. Sonu kept serving more food into Sumit's plate as soon as Sumit finished. Sumit didn't object for one thing, he thought Mrs. Sonu would be hurt if he did, and for another, that he liked food. But, after all, he had to object at last, for he felt his tummy was on the bursting point. To his surprise, Mrs. Sonu didn't look hurt, for Mrs. Sonu was wondering if Sumit's tummy was elastic or something to be able to accommodate so much food.

Although dinner was over, there was some more food stuff to follow. To everyone's delight (except Sumit, who felt that he couldn't eat anything anymore), Mrs. Sonu brought dozens of dohklas! Sumit groaned inwardly as he saw the tasty yellow cubes. He really felt he would burst already. But not being able to resist, he managed to squeeze down a couple of dohklas.

Priya grinned as she saw poor Sumit. His stomach was bulging, and he had a tired, groaning expression on his face. Priya nudged Harshit, who nudged Katrina; and soon the three were giving Sumit a few sly glances, now and then. Sumit saw it, but that only made him grin too.

Dinner being over, the four Marvels went to play with the animals. The dogs flocked around them and barked joyously. I will tell you a little about them:

There were seven dogs in all; six of them were watch dogs, and one small dog was the special pet of Mr. Sonu. The six watch dogs were: Raj, Shakti, Sandy, Budhi, Taej, and Sundhri. Raj was the leader of all of them, and the others followed him wherever he went. Shakti was the strongest and healthiest of them, but was a little dull in hearing and smelling. Sandy was always active and alert. Budhi was the cleverest of them, and often was a strong rival of Raj for leadership (the other dogs trusted Raj more, so Raj was usually the leader.) Taej was the fleetest of the group, and was often helpful in running down a fox or something. Sundhri was the most beautiful, and was especially liked by Mrs. Sonu. And so, these were the watch dogs.

The remaining dog, the seventh one, the one that was a special pet rather than a watch dog was called Snippet. He was uncommonly small, and had white long hairs all over his small body, which made his eyes, ears and mouth disappear among them. His tail was short like a rabbit, and his short legs, (which were only three inch long) were hidden in his long shiny white hair. It was only five inch high and six and a half inch long from the tip of his nose to his tail. Because of his long white hair hiding his eyes, ears, mouth and tail he looked like a moving cushion or cotton except for his small triangular black nose. Everyone liked him. It was lovely to run your hands along his fluffy back. There was another thing in Snippet that was quite uncommon among dogs; Snippet could climb!

He could climb up a tree like a squirrel. He often climbed up Mr. Sonu's legs, disappeared inside the shirt and then come out near Mr. Sonu's neck and then he would sit on his shoulder like a pet cushion. It was funny to see a cushion (Snippet wasn't exactly a cushion, but he was very like one) climb up Mr. Sonu legs, or to see it shoot from one side of the room to the other, just exactly like a cushion sliding on the floor.

If you see Snippet's small body, apparently without any ears or eyes or mouth, you would think that Snippet must be, probably, a very silent dog indeed. But it wasn't so. He could bark and yelp, louder than any other dog that the Four had seen. It was very queer to hear him bark, for you couldn't see his lower jaw going up and down because of his long hairs. So you would half wonder if it was really Snippet barking or some other dog.

The children often parted Snippets long hairs, to see his small black twinkling eyes. They often rummaged around his ears to feel his flaps of fluffy ears which always disappeared into the mass of fluffy hairs, as soon as they let the flaps of ears go. Snippet grew to like the children and the children in turn liked him. Snippet would often run up their legs and sit on their shoulders, contently. But of all the children, Snippet liked Sumit best.

The days went on, and soon the week would be over. The Four would've liked to stay at the farm forever, but they couldn't of course be a burden to the jolly Sonu couple.

So when the week was up, they went around sadly, saying good bye to the animals and especially to Snippet. Whenever they said good bye to Snippet, Mr. Sonu would grin, and if Mrs. Sonu was near, she would grin also. Harshit saw these grins and concluded that the Sonu couple had a pleasant surprise to give them, when they would leave the Sonu farm. Maybe, they would give Snippet as a gift.

Mrs. Sonu had urged them to stay for dinner before they went. The morning passed by, a little too soon for the Four; but when they saw the dinner they changed their minds and thought how slow the morning had been. It was an unusually mouthwatering meal, and the Four did full justice to it.

After dinner, Mrs. Sonu served some ice-cream. The ice creams disappeared like anything and now, it was time to leave!

The Four said goodbye to the Sonu couple and Harshit tried to see if they had any surprise for them, but if the farmer and his wife had something up their sleeve, they betrayed nothing. The couple led them to the gate and said good bye again.

And just when the Four were going to turn around and leave the farm behind, the farmer stopped them and said he had forgotten to give them something. He went back into the farm building and brought back a big white sack. Harshit was disappointed; he thought it would be Snippet. Mr. Sonu gave the sack to the two boys.

"They are some food supplies," he said, "the fruit of her work," nodding towards Mrs. Sonu. The Four said thank-yous and goodbyes once again and turned to trek through the mountains again.

Sumit had taken hold of one end of the sack and Harshit had taken hold of the other.

They decided that they would go and see the secret entrance and camp there. They talked along as they walked.

"It was lovely at the farm," said Katrina, avoiding a "stumbling stone" which would've laid her flat on her back; a very good position to study the sky.

"Yes," responded Priya, "I wish we could stay there forever!"

"I wouldn't mind it either," informed Harshit, nearly falling down a hole.

"Goodness!" said Harshit, as he again narrowly escaped falling down another hole, "This place is drilled with holes. Be careful, Sumit!"

But it was too late; Sumit had fallen down an unusually big hole. The others crowded around the hole, and Katrina nearly fell into it herself as peered into it, but was saved as the other two got hold of her legs.

"Gracious!" said Harshit, reprovingly, "Everyone intent on falling down a hole. I wish I knew what was so interesting in falling down one."

There came a muffled laugh from the hole, evidently Sumit had given himself to a fit of "explosions".

Harshit got a rope and threw it down. Sumit was soon rescued.

"How did you like it in there, old boy?" asked Priya, jokingly.

"Very much," was the unexpected reply, "there's a secret house in there!" Sumit almost whispered.

"A secret house in a hole?" said Harshit puzzled, "How can that be?"

"It can be all right," replied Sumit, quietly, "jump in and see." Sumit jumped in himself, to show Harshit, that he needn't be afraid. Harshit jumped in too, and the girls followed. No one thought about how they were to go out if there was no one to haul them out again.

As the girls jumped in together, they accidently dislodged the sack, which had been put on the ground; and the whole sack and its contents fell into the hole. To the astonishment of the four, there came yelping and barking from the sack.

"By Jove," exclaimed Harshit turning around "is there a dog in the sack?"

They hurriedly pulled the strings with which the mouth of the sack was tied. The strings came open, and the four pulled the mouth of the sack to make it open wide.

And lo and behold! Snippet, Mr. Sonu's special dog, was on the very top eating some biscuits out of a packet which he had evidently tore open.

Snippet jumped out at once and barked joyfully. He licked them all till they were dripping. The Four eyed the "piece of white cushion", as Snippet tore around the floor of the hole as if he was mad!

Snippet came to Sumit like a hurricane! He had suddenly remembered his favourite! He ran up his legs, and sat on Sumit's shoulder contently. The others looked on wistfully. They wished Snippet would love them like that.

Sumit stroked the "little piece of white cushion", and suddenly gave an exclamation.

"There's a note tied on to Snippet's neck!" he said. He untied the string that held the note and opened the folded note. The others crowded around to see it. This was what was written on the note:

Dear four,

Snippet didn't get into the sack accidently as you may probably suppose. I put him in. He is a present to Sumit for saving my life in the python affair. Look after Snippet well. Keep him healthy always. May he be a source of amusement on many a rainy day. May God grant that you live to a hundred years! Mrs. Sonu joins in this wish.

Your friend to the grave,

Rohit Sonu

The Marvelous Four read this note, and gave a series of exclamations:

"Good old Mr. Sonu!"

"Did you see that? Friend to the grave!"

"Hurrah for the Sonu couple!"

"We shall never have friends like them!"
Chapter 13

The Foreigners again!

The Four were very joyful to have Snippet, the "little piece of a white cushion". The evening was spent in the "hole", playing with Snippet.

The "hole", as the Four called it, was in fact, a natural dry well. It had rocky walls, and the roof, except the little hole through which Sumit had fallen in, was also a slab of rock.

But the thing that surprised the Marvelous Four was that someone had put a wooden round table in the middle of this dry well, and that there were four stools around it. It was just as if it was specially put there for the Marvelous Four.

There was also a cupboard fixed to one of the walls, and opening it they found in it, a couple of steel blade daggers, a curious map, and an empty wooden box, which was about the size of a shoebox.

Though these things were not the possessions of the Four; the four took possession of it, as they noticed that all of the things mentioned above (the cupboard and its contents as well as the table and chairs) were covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that these things were decades old and that no one would claim these things most probably.

Priya and Katrina cleaned up the "hole", using some broken branches as brooms; and the Four decided this "hole" shall be their home hereafter. They collected some moss and bracken and with this they made a rough bed. Snippet slept with them; and in the morning, they took some of the food from the sack for breakfast.

The Four had christened the "hole" as "the Secret Lairs", but soon they unintentionally modified this to simply "the Lairs", and that name stayed.

Having nothing to do, the Four went out for a walk, and Snippet followed behind them; when got tired, he ran up Sumit's legs and disappeared into his shirt.

At this time, Harshit, Sumit and Katrina discovered a gift of Priya which was very uncommon. The gift was that all animals loved Priya, and she loved them in turn. Snippet loved Priya too, but for him, Sumit seemed best.

The Four (excluding Priya, who already knew it before) found this gift of Priya when they were taking this morning walk. They had not walked long, when Priya suddenly dropped on her one knee, and picked something out of a bush. It was a snake!

Priya took it lovingly, caressing its coils and speaking in a soft, calm, passive voice. Katrina gave a shriek and hid behind Sumit. The boys were a little afraid though they didn't show it.

The snake was very fascinating to look at. It's "coat" was a shiny blue one with green streaks across it here and there, making it look very beautiful. Its eyes were bright red, and when it looked at you with those red piercing eyes, you could almost feel them going through your own eyes and it seem as if it was reading your thoughts. Its, mouth curved, so it seemed it was grinning at you. It forked red tongue flicked out now and then. It was almost four feet and was one and a half inch thick at its thickest part. It looked very striking, with its, blue shiny coat and equally shiny green streaks. A wide green streak almost covered its head, making the head look green, but for the nose which was blue, and a portion on its head, which included one of its red eyes, which was also blue.

This beautiful snake coiled itself around Priya neck, and looked at her eyes for some minutes. The boys were afraid it would bite, but it didn't because of Priya's curious talent, which attracts all animals. Priya saw the boys' fears and got hold of the snake's neck, and the snake let her do it like a lamb. But Priya closed her hand around the snake's neck a little hard, which made the snake open its mouth, displaying a horrible set of sharp fangs. Priya with her other hand's thumb, touched the sharp end-point of one of the terrible teeth, and judge it sharpness. She looked at the others and smiled. "Don't worry," she said, "this snake's harmless; it's not poisonous. This snake lives on frogs and lizards and such like. It doesn't carry poison in its fangs." Priya stood up and started walking with the snake around her neck. The boys exchanged glances. Was Priya going to keep that snake?

Priya kept well behind the others, thinking that the others would feel uncomfortable if they saw the snake. Katrina at once shot ahead, to be as far from the snake as possible. They had walked about half-an-hour more, when Priya stooped on one knee to pick out a thorn which had gone through her bare legs. She told the others to move on saying that she would catch up with them soon. The other three disappeared around a corner as Priya got up after taking out the thorn. Suddenly she stopped and stood still. She was listening. What was that? A couple of voices discussing something! Evidently the voices belonged to men. Suddenly Priya recognized the voices! It was Bill and Pip! The foreigners!

Priya looked back and saw that the men were coming the same way that the Four had come from. From the men's talk she gathered that the men hadn't spotted the Four yet, but were looking for them fearing that the Four would tell the police. Priya suddenly jumped to her feet and started running. The snake looked at Priya surprised at this sudden sprint. But it was too late! The men had seen Priya!

Priya ran ahead and the men followed yelling and shouting. She came up to the other three Marvels, and explained the situation hurriedly. The Four hid behind bushes and trees, and the men came.

They looked around perplexed, but decided to search around a bit. They suddenly spotted Priya and jumped on her! Now what could the Four do?
Chapter 14

Death Sentence!

When Priya had hid, she couldn't unfortunately, hide her feet. And that betrayed her. The men were very delighted to find her and got hold of her feet. They dragged her out roughly and were going to make her stand on her feet when they saw the snake around her neck.

Both men sprang away, and the snake who hadn't liked all this rough handling, uncoiled itself, off Priya neck and glided towards the men. They ran away in a most ridiculous fashion, and the snake came back to Priya.

"Phew!" said Sumit, in relief, coming out and dusting off some dust from his shoulder.

"That was a narrow escape," said Katrina.

Priya looked at the snake and turned to the other three, "Can't you put up with my snake now?"

The others looked at the snake doubtfully. They didn't like to say no, when the snake had saved one of them. It wouldn't be right.

"All right," said Harshit, hesitatingly, "we'll try," he added.

Sumit and Katrina also said "we'll try". And Priya felt sure the three would get used to the snake.

"We'll give a name to this snake," said Priya.

"Snaky!" suggested Sumit.

"Hmm...that wouldn't suit me," said Priya.

"Slimy!" said Katrina.

"Mm...no," said Priya.

"I say, it's Priya's pet, isn't it?" ejaculated Harshit, "She ought to name the snake then."

"All right!" said Sumit and Katrina together.

"So, what'll you name him, Priya?" asked Harshit.

"What about 'Striky'?" hesitated Priya.

"Oh!" said Katrina, alarmed, "Will he often strike?"

"Oh no," said Priya grinning, "But his coat looks striking you know."

So the snake became Striky.

Now let's go back in time, and see what had happened to the two men.

After the two foreigners had run for some time, Pip stopped with an ashamed expression on his fierce face.

"Stop Bill!" he said, "we're acting like cowards!"

Bill stopped and looked ashamed too.

"Good Gracious!" said Bill, "you're right! Who would think we're members of a gun-running gang?"

"And to think we've pistols, and still ran away when we saw a small snake! Ugh!"

"Come on, let's go back and capture those four babies over there. Four idiots are not going to defeat our plans." And Bill gave a determined shake of his head; pulling a pistol out of his pocket as he did so.

Pip also took out a pistol and turned back on his tracks and Bill followed. Soon they could hear the four talking, and Pip slid into the bushes to take the four unawares. Bill at once followed his example, and both crawled along till they could see the children themselves. The Four however, had never expected the two men to come back, and hadn't noticed the men behind the bushes.

Pip and Bill scowled as Harshit laughed, remarking that the men were regular cowards. "I'll pay you for that," muttered Pip, under his breath. The two could stand it no longer, and the two came out of bushes and pointed their pistols at the four.

"Hands up!" growled Pip.

The Four were so astonished that they sat still like statues and forgot to raise their hands.

Bill thought the Four were disobeying his friend, Pip, purposely; so he fired his pistol as a warning, making sure not to hit the Four. The Four raised their hands promptly.

Pip gave a wicked grin, "I see, you're a bit cheeky lot. You need some rough handling."

The snake, or rather Striky, shot out from Priya's neck, and made for the men. "And there's the siree, which made us run away."

But the men didn't run away as before, instead, Pip and Bill aimed at Striky and fired away. Both bullets went wide, by half a centimeter.

Striky stopped for a moment, and then made for the men again. Pip and Bill pointed the pistol at the snake again, but before they could fire, Priya lowered her arms and took Striky, afraid that he might be harmed. She spoke in soothingly, and Striky settled around her neck again.

Bill grinned. "Oh, yes!" he said, "You had better protect that confounded reptile, or there would be a smashed brain of a snake, somewhere around here!"

The two men soon bound the four children, hand and foot. And deposited Striky in a safe sack, which they were going to press between two rocks, with Striky in-between when Priya pleaded, and the men spared the snake's life. As for Snippet, he was nowhere to be found

The men made the Four march along in front of them and made the Four climb the mountain side with their feet tied. The children's hands were loosened when the men saw that otherwise they would never reach their destination.

The destination was the top of one of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains. There, the men and the Four got a good view over the entire valley, inside the "ring". They saw sadly that due to the blocked entrance, the river had become very thin. The "thin river" had its source from many other streams other than the one which used to flow out of the secret entrance. That's why the river still existed; only it wasn't as wide as before.

The children saw the clearing; where the hut stood, without the door. It was the hut into which Priya had locked the men before. The helicopter had disappeared. For the men must've come out of the ring on the helicopter, of course; seeing that, the men couldn't go through the secret entrance now.

The mountain, on the summit of which the children and the men were standing, was queerly shaped. The way they had climbed up, the side outside the "ring", was very steep, and that "outside side" was filled with pine trees.

The side that was "inside" the "ring" was as steep as a wall. No one could climb down that, no, not even a goat or a monkey. It was as vertical as a wall.

But here and there on the "vertical side" were some trees projecting outward. They would be the only hope if anyone fell over the mountain into the "ring". Sumit had peered down the "vertical wall" but had suddenly felt dizzy. The two men looked at the children with a wicked gleam in their eyes and said:

"You had better make the most of the few minutes that you've before your death."

The Four gasped. Their hearts stood still as they gazed at the view over the "ring". Were they really going to be killed? They wished they hadn't run away. Pip, grinned wickedly and said in a grim voice, "There's ten minutes before your end."

Priya's eyes flashed with anger. Harshit was white in his face but looked "as cool as a superhero" as Sumit afterwards expressed it. Sumit himself was feeling reckless and wanted to bolt with the others. But their feet where tied and their hands had been tightened again after they had reached this summit. Besides his knees were shaking like an electric drill; and he didn't know if he would be shot down by the men before he escaped. As for Katrina, she was on the verge of bursting into tears.

Priya couldn't keep still, so she burst out, "You are brutes; and nothing else! If you had a spot of manliness or humanness in you, you would never do this! Beasts!"

Pip said angrily, "Mind your tongue, you wild cat! Or you'll feel very sorry soon!" and he slapped Priya heavily on her face.

"I'll say what I please!" retorted Priya, her cheek turning amazingly red, "You're nasty cowards to slap a helpless girl!" Pip slapped her again on the same cheek, and poor Priya right cheek became as red as a ripe tomato. "Oh!" she screamed, "if only my hands and feet were free! I'd give you some examples of a good fighter's talents!"

Pip laughed scornfully, and Bill joined in; they pulled out their pistols and showed the two weapons to Priya, as if to say "You can't fight against those who have pistols". And Priya knew it was true.

Ten minutes passed by, and all the children had prayed to God hard, to forgive their sins, and to rescue them from these two men if that wasn't against His will.

Pip said looking at his watch, "Time's up! Now get ready for your doom. We're going to hurl you down into the ring! Ha! Ha!"

Sumit and Katrina became pale in their faces, Harshit looked cool, and Priya looked a little angry and indignant.

The first to be hurled down was Priya. Priya struggled furiously, but the men threw her into the air, laughing wickedly. Priya unintentionally performed a somersault in the air before disappearing down the vertical side off the mountain. Next was Harshit. He also disappeared into the "ring". Sumit came forward and fell on his knees before the men and pleaded:

"Oh please, don't kill Katrina! You may kill me if you like, but don't kill Katrina! Please!"

Katrina came forward and put a trembling hand on her brother's shoulders, "Thank you, brother; but I shall die for you."

The two men exchanged glances. They were almost touched with the love that the brother and sister, standing before them, displayed. But their hard wicked hearts wouldn't allow it; actually they gave a little laugh!

"All right, boy," said Pip, after a little whisper in Bill's ear, "We'll grant your request."

Katrina burst into tears. And Sumit put a hand around her shoulders, "Don't weep, Katrina, I shall be in heaven most likely, so don't weep. After I'm dead you must go and find Mr. Sonu, he'll adopt you I'm sure." Sumit gave his sister a hug and turned to the men, who were grinning wickedly. Somehow Sumit now felt as cool as Harshit had been. The men took Sumit, who didn't resist and soon only Katrina, Bill and Pip were on the summit on that mountain.

But to Katrina's astonishment, the men took hold of her and threw her too, saying with a wicked laugh:

"You thought you'll escape, didn't you? Ha! Ha!"

And down went Katrina, and the men shouted and yelled in gee. But the Four hadn't died; God, who sees everything, had rescued the Four. He even turned the misfortune of the Four, as the men considered it, into the Four's advantage!
Chapter 15

Saved! And the Book on Martial Arts!

You must be dying to know, how God saved the Four, when they were hurled off the mountain to be killed. Maybe you think they clung onto some tree projecting out from the "vertical wall" of the mountain? Wrong! Fell on a thick carpet of soft moss? Wrong again!

Now listen carefully, I'll tell how God rescued the Four! So now, here we go:

Down the vertical side of the mountain, not over ten feet from the summit was a projecting..."TREE!!!" You would say. Sorry to disappoint you, but it wasn't a tree; it was a slab of rock.

This slab of rock was very flat and smooth on the top, but the bottom was rough and sloped down to the wall. But of course the Four couldn't see the bottom of the slab. Anyway, the slab at its thickest point was two feet thick, and at its thinnest point it was eight to ten inch thick. So it could hold the weight of four preteens very well.

You must remember, that in the previous chapter, the Four were hurled down the vertical side of the mountain.

The first to go down was Priya (as you may perhaps remember). She went down and then after a while, she noticed this particular slab of rock. She wasn't falling on top of it; in fact she was two feet out of the way. She stretched out her tanned brown hands and got a good grip on the edge of the slab (oh, I forgot to tell you, the slab was a semicircle in shape and its top side had a fair surface area of two square meter).

Having got hold of something to stop her falling down, Priya hung on for dear life! She tried pulling herself onto the slab, but it was very difficult. However, she did it at last; and sat down on the slab; tired from her exertions.

Soon looking up, she saw Harshit coming down, and she sprang up to her feet. Harshit was too much out of the way to be able to catch hold of the slab. But Priya lied down on the slab, her face outwards, and stretched out her hands to Harshit.

Harshit saw it and realized its meaning. He took Priya hard strong hands as he fell, and made a wide semi-circle down into the bottom of the slab (he couldn't help it). Priya was nearly flung off the slab, but managed to stay on, and soon Harshit climbed up, and joined her. Looking up, they wondered why Sumit was hurled after such a long time (Sumit was pleading for Katrina at that time). But soon they spied him coming down right on the slab of rock, so he didn't need any help, and jumped onto the slab by himself. He looked around and narrated to Priya and Harshit what the men had promised to him. But not long after they saw Katrina hurled down! She too like Sumit fell right onto the slab, and so the Four were miraculously saved. Maybe that slab of rock was waiting thousands of years to rescue four children from a terrible death. God knows everything and He controls everything!

Sumit had at first been surprised when he saw Katrina, but soon he said, "Ugh!" in a disgusted tone, "What rhinos they are! And they promised too!" he hugged Katrina saying, "Anyway, I'm glad they threw you down. Now we can be together. If they had let you go, you would've gone to Mr. Sonu and you would've never known I was alive!"

"Thank God!" said Harshit.

They now looked around and saw that there was a hole in the cliff and that the slab on which they were standing now formed the floor of the hole or tunnel to be more precise.

"Hurrah!" yelled Sumit, "that tunnel might lead us out of the mountains or into the 'ring'! Come on!"

The Four walked into the tunnel. It was dark inside, and they stopped for a moment to get used to it. Their eyes soon got used to the darkness and they make out dimly, the rounded sides and roof of the tunnel. They went for some time when Sumit suddenly gave an exclamation.

"I've got a torch here," he cried, putting his hand into his pocket. Sumit displayed the torch and soon the tunnel was lighted up with the torch's light rays.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Katrina, in a horrified tone, "Look at that! Thank goodness Sumit switched on the torch at the correct time!"

The others stared at the scene before them, in a horrified silence. Sumit was right at the edge of a precipice! Another step and he would have fallen over it. Sumit looked over the precipice; he couldn't see the bottom. With the light of the torch they now realized that they were now in a giant cave. The ceiling wasn't to be soon. It was too far. So was the other side of cave. It wasn't to be seen. Too far. The precipice stretched from one side of cave to the right of the Four. As far as they could see by the torch the precipice went on to the right. If Sumit hadn't switched on his torch just in time, most likely this story would've got a different ending.

After the precipice, at the same level, the tunnel started again and went on into the heart of the mountain. And in between the other side and this side where the Four were standing, was the big chasm that cut them off from exploring the other side of the tunnel.

But there a big trunk of a tree had been laid across the hole, indicating man's presence or that once there was man's presence here. Anyway, it was very dangerous, so the Four never thought of going over on that trunk.

The Four felt very hungry, but there was nothing to eat. They sat down, with their backs to one of the walls of the tunnel and fell asleep. They slept all night and woke up in the morning. But they didn't know that for the sunlight didn't come into the tunnel.

By now, the Four were feeling so hungry that they felt they could eat anything. Priya, Sumit and Katrina looked up to Harshit, feeling that he was their leader. But he didn't know what to do himself. Hours passed by and night came. The Four were feeling as if there tummies were hollow and full of air and nothing else. They fell asleep to forget their hunger; except Harshit.

Harshit felt he was the leader here and he must do something. He looked around and saw the other three sleeping. He cautiously went to Sumit, who startled him by giving an unusually loud snore. Harshit bent down and put his hand into Sumit's pocket and took out the torch. He went down the tunnel, were the floor projected out of the tunnel into the open air. He examined the place, but couldn't find any way of escape from there.

Harshit went back and walked to the big chasm and walked along at the edge of it. Soon he reached the other side of the cave. The precipice stretched from one side of the cave to the other! He walked back to where the other three were sleeping. His eyes rested on the tree trunk across the chasm. But it was too dangerous. He looked at it dolefully. Wish it wasn't so round. Then maybe there would be less danger of falling off. Harshit gazed at the trunk thoughtfully, then took his sharp knife and approached the trunk. He knelt down and examined this end of the trunk.

The trunk was certainly put there long ago. Most probably in the time of the beginning of the British Raj; judging by the thick layer of dust on it. Harshit blew away the dust and looked at the trunk. It was certainly not rotten. Harshit pounded the top of the trunk with his fists. Yes, the trunk was not a rotten trunk. The trunk was very cylindrical, so it may roll round while someone was crossing the chasm on it. Harshit thought if he could lift the trunk a little and cut away some wood from the bottom, so that the bottom would be a little flat at this end, the trunk might not roll around as easily as it could now. Harshit lifted the trunk a little. It was very light weighted. He scraped off some wood from the bottom with his knife, while with his other hand he kept the trunk aloft. After scraping the bottom flat, he laid it down on its new flat bottom. Good. He gave the trunk a little shaking to see if it would roll. Good. It was all right.

Harshit looked at the top, which was circular. If he tried to crawl along on that, he might slip off. So he scraped off the top also a little way. For he couldn't scrap off the top, right to the other end. Having scraped the top a little way, he climbed onto the trunk and sat on it, with his legs on either side of it. He could now scrap off some more of the top, which was out of reach before. He scraped off as much of the top ahead as he could, and then moved a step ahead and scraped off some more. Again he moved one step ahead. Now he was feeling a little nervous. Under him was the trunk and under that there was no bottom of the chasm, as far as he could see!

Anyway he scraped off some more of the top and moved a step ahead again.

In this way Harshit progressed, slowly but surely. The torch was on and Harshit was holding it in his mouth so he could see ahead. And so he went on till he came to the middle of the trunk. Here to his surprise, there was a note pinned on to the trunk with a nail. Harshit broke it off and unfolded it. The paper was as big as an A3 size paper. Something was written on it. Harshit had expected it to be some old language that he didn't know. But it was written in English! This was what the note contained:

13/09/1908

Dear stranger,

I don't know you at all, but when you have crossed this chasm, you'll see a book which is more valuable to me at least, than the biggest treasure.

I'm only an English soldier who came to India because I was ordered to do so. But I never expected to oppress those poor brave Indians. I hope you're an Indian, for the book that I've left on the other side of this chasm is for an Indian who really needs it. I'm going to become a citizen of India if it ever becomes independent.

I have no relatives or any family. So I leave the book here. You might think what's so special about a book. But this book is a special book because its contents will teach you a very good martial art. There is also a great secret written in that book, which will bring you more money than you have probably ever seen. I have also placed some gold I earned with the book. I hope you will find it useful.

Yours truthfully,

Charlie Lynton

Harshit read this note and felt sorry for that soldier who had to fight against Indians with whom he sympathized. Harshit pocketed the note and resumed his work. There was some difficulty in taking out the nail by which the note had been pinned onto the trunk.

But he did it at last, by digging into the wood around the nail. Soon he was at the other end of the trunk. He jumped off joyfully.

Now he had leveled the whole length of the top of the trunk. He now scraped off the bottom at this end, a little way, like he had done at the other end. And then the work was finished. Tomorrow the Four could cross over the chasm! Hurrah!
Chapter 16

Out on the mountainside again!

Harshit tried not to look at the book that might be lying somewhere near; but after scraping of the bottom of the trunk a little way at this end, he at once crossed the chasm back again; for he didn't want to enjoy examining the gold and the book and its secret, without the other three sharing the enjoyment.

When he came back, the other three were up and were worried about him. Sumit gave a sigh of relief when he saw Harshit.

"Why did you go off without us?" he asked, "now you've crossed the chasm and seen all that there is to be seen."

"No, I haven't," said Harshit, "Look at this!" Harshit took out the note that the English soldier had left for the "stranger", and gave all the particulars of his exploits in the night.

There were a lot of oohs and aahs when Harshit displayed the note. The Four were especially interested in the portion of the note were martial art was mentioned.

"I always wanted to learn a martial art," said Sumit.

Priya didn't know the meaning of martial art, but when explained, she too said she would like learn it. Katrina was also interested. And all four were eager to cross the chasm.

So they all came to the edge of the chasm and sat on the trunk with their legs on either side. Harshit was first in the line. Behind him was Priya, followed by Katrina. And Sumit came last of all. Harshit had the torch in his mouth, as he was the first in the line. And in this way, line of four children moved.

Soon they were on the other side. And the Four found themselves in a tunnel. They looked around eagerly, but found nothing.

"Maybe we'll have to go up the tunnel," said Harshit. So they walked on. Soon they came to a place where the tunnel branched into two. The Four stood for a moment, perplexed. But Sumit found an arrow cut on the rocky floor, pointing towards one of the tunnels.

"Good!" said Harshit. And they continued their search.

After some time, the tunnel widened into a round cave and to their delight, there stood a big book about two and a half inch thick as well as a box which had rotten away but was still intact. The box was four feet high, wide and deep. When Sumit kicked it open, gold bars poured out! The Four examined the book. They found to their surprise that the cover page and the back page and the small strip that connected these two pages were made of a metal but not iron. It hadn't rusted anyway.

Each page inside was protected by a covering of very thin glass on both sides, probably so that the paper might not rot away. All the pages were stiff as wood because of the glass.

The Four hurried to the book and Harshit picked it up.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Harshit, "this book is real fragile. We must be careful not to drop it or the glass pages might break."

Sumit couldn't control himself with joy!

"Hurrah! Hurrah! Three cheers for Charlie Lynton!"

He jumped and yelled as if he was mad. Katrina and Priya laughed.

Harshit remained calm. He opened the book.

On the first page was written in a man's handwriting: "To the stranger, from Charlie Lynton".

The second page contained the following handwritten words:

"I, Charlie Lynton, have traveled all around the world. I studied as many martial arts as I could. And I became an expert in all of them. Especially, in Boxing, Ju Jitsu, Thai, Samurai, Kalarippayattu, Kuttu Varisai and Kung Fu, I became unbeatable. But in all these mentioned martial arts, there were some weakness in some points, where other martial arts excelled at. So I joined all the martial arts that I knew and corrected the mistakes in the martial arts and formed a brand new martial art of my own, which I would like to call, "the Lynton Style of Self-Defense".

I hope this book will do you a lot of good..."

And so and so and so. Harshit looked up, and said, "Here's a good chance of learning a great martial art, Sumit. It's the Lynton Style of Self-Defense!"

The other three came over and looked over Harshit's sturdy shoulders.

"WOW! Look at those pictures Charlie has drawn!"

"Hurrah! Now I can learn a martial art!"

"Ooh! Ya! EEEEYAAA!!!"

Harshit smiled when he heard those exclamations.

Suddenly Sumit said, "Ohhh! I'm starving!!"

At this Harshit's face became grave. He still hadn't solved the food problem. He was "hungry as a wolf" himself. He suddenly brightened up. When coming into this treasure cave, they had been puzzled when the tunnel branched into two. The other tunnel might lead to the outer world. Harshit communicated his idea to the others, and they all marched down the tunnel to the fork.

Soon they came to fork, and the Four went into the "other tunnel". But to their disappointment, the tunnel came to a dead end. That "other tunnel" didn't "lead to anywhere at all".

They came back to the place where the tunnel branched with gloomy faces and looked around dolefully. Katrina suddenly had an impulse to go down the tunnel leading to the chasm. No one stopped her. So she went.

When she came to the chasm, she looked over the edge, but she could see no bottom. She looked at the trunk and thought she might pass away the time crossing the chasm on it. So she climbed onto the trunk and started moving. She went on till reached the place where the note had been pinned onto the trunk. She examined the hole where the nail had been, just to pass away the time (she had the torch in her mouth). She ran her fingers around the place where the nail had been hammered through. Her fingers ran down the sides of the trunk and to the bottom. Then she gave a cry of surprise and nearly fell off. Her torch which was in her mouth fell out too, but she caught it just in time.

Under the trunk was a rope ladder attached to the bottom of the trunk. No wonder Katrina had let out a cry of surprise.

"Hurrah! This maybe the way out into the outer world! I must call the others," Katrina thought. She made her way back to the other three and communicated the latest news.

"Hurrah!" yelled Sumit, jumping up and down.

The Four ran down the tunnel and nearly jumped over the edge. They hurried made their way up the trunk and came to the place where the rope ladder was. Katrina was in the front, so she went down the ladder first. Then Sumit came down, followed by Harshit and Priya in hot pursuit.

As they hadn't been able to see the bottom of the chasm when they were on the trunk, they had thought they would've to climb down a good way, but the bottom was only ten feet away. Soon the Four were on the ground and by Sumit's torch they could see the walls on both sides, which were also the walls of the tunnel as well the other wall that went up and terminated at the edge of the floor. The Four could see no hole or tunnel. And were puzzled why then the rope ladder had been put there. Examining the walls, Priya discovered a crack in the wall, about three feet wide.

The Four went into this crack and soon found themselves in a tunnel which sloped downwards and went round and round. It was like a spiral staircase. Only there were no steps.

After a long time, the tunnel suddenly straightened out and before, the Four could see the sunlight. Getting out, the Four found themselves at the foot of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains, at the outer side of the "ring".

The Four gave a sigh of relief when they saw the sun shine. Katrina switched off the torch and said in a wise tone, "Now Sumit, you had better go back and bring that book down. We'll all read it to its last word!"

Sumit obeyed, and presently appeared with the big notebook. "Phew!" he panted, "this notebook's mighty heavy, and it's no easy thing to climb down the ladder with a heavy book, especially when you know that it'll break if your drop it!"

The Four found a good flat place, and lay down, crowding close together to see the big notebook.

Harshit was the lucky one. He was right in front of the book and the others were on both sides of him. He opened the book. Everything was handwritten and not printed, and the Four concluded that the whole book was written by hand by Charlie Lynton, the old English soldier and then covered with glass. I'm not going to copy the contents of the book, but I'll give a fair idea of what it contained.

The first page, I think, I described when Harshit opened it in the cave. The next pages were instructions to control your emotions, when fighting an opponent and tutorials to master the Lynton science of self-defense.

Charlie Lynton, the author of this notebook, had written very simply and clearly so that, after reading his instructions as to how to master the Lynton Science of self-defense, the Four were considerably improved in their knowledge of their art of self-defense, just by reading this notebook.

About 99% of the notebook was all about the Lynton Science of Self-defense, exercises and fighting techniques and stuff. After reading this portion of the notebook, Harshit turned the page, and the Four were very interested when they read the words:

"The following is a great secret. Reveal it to no one except those who can be trusted."

Of course, the Four got excited. What great secret was to be exposed? And why did Charlie Lynton say, to reveal the secret only to people you can trust? After all, Charlie had intended the treasure and the notebook for some stranger, whom he didn't know at all, whether trustable or not.

However the next page was blank, so Harshit turned another page, and the Four gasped with astonishment! The first thing that met their eyes was the following words in bold thick handwriting:

"The following picture is original and is taken from my camera. It's not a fake photo, and it's not edited. There's also a ring attached to this book, take it with you if you ever go after this 'great secret', shown in the photo."

The photo was black and white, and described a cave. There was a rock, shaped almost like a perfect cube. It was about three feet high. And on it was...

Wow! A big diamond, shaped like a cube! But it wasn't the diamond that was exciting, it was its size! Goodness, it was huge! If measured from top to bottom, it would probably measure three feet! And its thickness was about two and a half feet. The photo and the bold thick words mentioned before, occupied the whole page. The next page contained a map of central Africa. The diamond was in an island, which was in a lake. This map was in English and filled the whole page. The next page gave the details. Here they are:

"This diamond is situated in the heart of Africa. You'll have to wear the ring attached to this notebook if you ever want to have that treasure. For I have left a whole African tribe to guard the diamond. I had once helped them defeat an enemy tribe, so they had promised to guard the diamond for me. They've promised not to let anyone take the diamond without this particular ring. So, never lose the ring, it's important. It's a sort of a token."

The Four searched for the ring, and found it in a small transparent packet, which was pinned onto the last page.

The ring was made of gold, with gorilla's face made with silver on it. The gorilla seemed to be frowning, but all the same, the ring was beautiful.

"Let's go to Africa at once!" declared Sumit.

"But we need money," reminded Priya.

"We've got the gold bars up there, in the cave in that rotten old box."

"But I don't think it would be enough."

"Oh! We'll have to earn it somehow," said Katrina, who had set her heart on the "great secret".

"Well, we'll try," said Harshit, "But it's going to be hard work, so there must be no grumbling."

"ALL RIGHT, HARSHIT!" yelled the other three in chorus. And so it was decided.

But the Four weren't going to leave the two foreigners so easily.

"We must do something about them," declared Priya.

"But what?"

"Oh, I don't know, but they must not get off so easily."

The Four put their thinking caps on and thought and thought and thought.

"I got it!!!" yelled Sumit, springing to his feet.

"What did you get?" asked Katrina.

"An idea!"

"What is it?"

"Well," began Sumit, with great dignity, "there's a policeman in the village I know. I had confided in him..."

"There! He can't just keep a secret!"

"But," explained Sumit, "he was a great friend of mine and Katrina's, for three years!"

"So, you mean to say..." began Harshit.

"I mean to say, that we can tell him about the two foreigners."

"But we're run-aways!" protested Priya.

"That's nothing," replied Sumit, indifferently, "We can trust him."

"I don't know..." said Harshit, hesitatingly, "If he informed the other policemen, we'll be in a nice scrape."

"But he'll not," insisted Sumit, and Harshit frowned. Harshit couldn't decide if it was safe or not.

But Priya solved the problem.

"Well, I'm not a run-away," she said, "So maybe I can go to the police station and inform the police.

"Great!" exclaimed Sumit, delighted.

"It's a brainwave," commented Harshit, quietly.

"Good for you, Priya!" yelled Katrina, and so the problem was solved.
Chapter 17

Game Over!

Now the Four hadn't eaten anything for a long time, so they were ravenous. The Four went on a fruit hunt, and devoured the fruit as soon as they had got it in their hands.

For some days, the Four practiced the Lynton science of self-defense, and had some practice fights among themselves. The Four had become experts in this, and Charlie Lynton would've been proud of his martial art if he could see those Four, who could now fight like young tigers. It turned out that the Four were outside the 'ring' right now.

Priya's proposal to go to the police station was discussed again. And the Four decided that there was no reason for not informing the police immediately.

The Four were to go down to the foot of the mountain, were Priya left them and resumed the walk to the village.

The walk was pleasant, and the Four joked and chatted along.

"I'm glad the two men are going to be caught at last," said Sumit, "I was afraid they would succeed in their dirty work."

"After Priya informs the police, we'll pay Mr. Sonu and his wife a visit and say goodbye."

"Then off we'll go earn some money, and then to Africa after 'the great secret'."

"And then we would've enough money to last our whole lives!"

The Four were in high spirits and were turning a corner in the path when, lo and behold! The two foreigners were coming towards them! Evidently the two men hadn't noticed the children.

The first impulse was to rush back, but it was too late, Pip had looked up and was looking at the Four as if he had seen a ghost.

"Good gracious!" Pip was saying, "Look at those idiots! They are as alive as you, Bill!"

"Catch them!" Bill shouted.

Pip produced a pistol, and Bill followed suit.

"This time I'm going to make sure you're dead!" Pip threatened.

The Four stood rooted to the ground. The men were just three or four feet away!

But before anyone could say Jack Robinson, Harshit had kicked off Pip's pistol! Lynton science of self-defense was certainly getting useful now!

Bill fired, but his shot went wide. Sumit sprang forward and performed a good Lynton feat of a kick! Bill's pistol was down.

Katrina moved in with blazing eyes! Her small figure seemed even smaller when she got close to the big brawny men. Pip in a fit of anger, tried to get hold of Katrina's neck. But Katrina ducked deftly.

Now before Pip knew what was happening, Katrina had land a blow on his face that stunned him for a moment. Here Sumit came to Katrina's aid.

Meanwhile, Priya was having a fierce fight with Bill. Bill was no baby! But seeing that it was useless to fight with his hands and legs against these experts of the Lynton Martial art, he tried biting Priya's wrist. Bill suddenly got a good tight grip on her wrist and Priya screamed, which brought Harshit to her side.

Unfortunately for Bill, Bill had a rather large ear, which afforded a good hold. As Priya struggled with Bill, her hand accidently came in contact with his ear. Priya pulled at Bill's large hearing organ hard! Bill yelled and shouted and wriggled for all he was worth! But Harshit gave a blow onto his head and Bill fell down senseless. Then Harshit went to Pip, Sumit and Katrina. Those three were still having a grand struggle, but Harshit terminated it by giving a blow on Pip's head, just like he had done to Bill. And the two men were powerless.

Now, do you remember the "secret lair" that the Four had found accidently? Well, the "secret lair" was quite near, and the children dragged the men to it and dumped them in, taking care that none of the two will be killed.

"Game over," said Harshit, looking down into the Secret Lairs.

The Four sat down right where they were standing and gave long gasps as they were tired. Priya lay down flat on the ground and watched the sky.

Suddenly Sumit sprang up with yell and totally went mad. He put his hand inside his t-shirt and felt all over his stomach and chest, all the time he yelled and shouted. The other three were startled and looked at Sumit alarmed.

"Hey stop it!" yelled Sumit, "Don't tickle me! Ho! Ho! Ho! Please don't! Ha! Ha! He! He!"

The others laughed. They now noticed a bulge under his t-shirt which was moving up his back to his neck.

"It must be a squirrel or a rat," laughed Priya.

At the word rat, Sumit yelled even louder and began to feel about his back with his hands frantically.

The bulge now came to his neck and the creature whatever it was came out and sat on Sumit's left shoulder.

The others looked to see what creature it was and... Whoops! It was Snippet!

After resting a while Priya resumed her mission of informing the police, and the other three left at the foot of the mountain, and then returned to guard the two men. Priya continued her walk and presently, the police hurried to "the secret lair" and caught the two men, who were just coming to their senses.

As the police came, Harshit, Sumit and Katrina, who were on guard, drew out of sight. Priya hadn't said a word about the other three, and had managed to get through without telling any lies.

Priya was asked to stand as a witness against the two men in court, which she agreed. By the advice of the other three, she asked pardon for the two foreigners, and the two hard-hearted men were touched with Priya's forgiveness. However, the police wouldn't let the two dangerous men go so easily. But Priya managed to reduce the capital punishment to just forty years imprisonment. You may be glad to know that the two foreigners have repented their bad doings, and after serving their term of imprisonment (they were really old men by then), are now leading an honest life in India.

After the trials the Four went to visit Mr. Sonu and his wife again. And you remember how the Four had decided to earn some money to make that trip to Africa for that huge diamond? Well their very first employer was Mr. Sonu. Mr. Sonu wanted to give them fifty thousand rupees as a gift (and that wouldn't have been enough for an African treasure hunt anyway), but Harshit wouldn't hear of taking it. He said on the behalf of the other three that the Four are willing to work for three months on Mr. Sonu's farm for fifty-thousand rupees. Mr. Sonu insisted but Harshit wouldn't take the money for free. So Mr. Sonu gave in and accepted Harshit's offer on the condition that the Four would stay at the farm for those three months and won't insist on paying for the board and lodgings. Harshit accepted and so that was settled.

Three months later the Four said goodbye to Mr. Sonu and his wife and set out for Delhi, India's capital by train. They had bought four strong backpacks for each of them and carried all their belongings in them.

The Four kept good care of the "gorilla-ring", the one that was to be used as a token to get that diamond in Africa. They also took great care of the book on martial arts. They wrapped it up with lots of cloths and sheets of leather with a layer of sponge between the cloths and the leather, and then wrapped the whole thing with a thick sheet of rubber. 'Course, they can't open the book now but they knew the book by heart by now; so it wasn't any great inconvenience.

Harshit was in charge of the book and the ring and so he had put those two things in his backpack and carried them with him wherever he went.

And so the Marvelous Four set out to try their luck at making some money for an African treasure hunt. The next book to be called: "Marvelous Four 2 – Hunting the Predator!" will tell you how they did it!

Don't worry, it won't be just working under an employer and making money. There's gonna be a pile of hair-raising adventures!

How can any money-making work turn out to be an adventure?

Well, here's a hint: The sort of work that they're going to do is

CAPTURE A (SOMETHING DANGEROUS, HUGE AND HUNGRY) AND WIN THE REWARD OFFERED FOR IT!

I guess you got the idea. All right then, good bye! See you later!

THE END

Author's Request

I have a small favour to ask of you. If you really like my book please take some of your time and write a good review for this book (please, don't write a negative review and slander my name, please!). I will be very grateful to you if you write a good review for this book. Good reviews are the life and blood of an author. So please write a good review for this book right now! Thanks a lot!

If you've any feedback or suggetions email them to: marvelousfourjpjc@gmail.com

About the Author

I am an Indian, and I actually come from south India (by birth), Kerala state to be precise. I was born in Delhi, in 2002; and was in Delhi till 2016. In 2016 my family moved to Thrissur, Kerala, to my ancestral home. I write books more to satisfy my passion than for money. I am a freelance writer. I love writing and would probably keep on writing until I die or until I just can't.

  * James Prakash J. C. (author of this book)

Thank You

I thank you for buying my book. I sure, appreciate that. I'm glad you found my book interesting and thrilling. You'll find the other Marvelous Four Adventures as thrilling as this one, if not more so. So don't forget to get them too. I thank you once again for purchasing this book.

Other Books in this Series

### This book is:

### Marvelous Four – In and Out of Danger Zone!

### Coming Soon:

### Marvelous Four 2 – Hunting the Predator!

