ver ran down my spine. For, from within the mountain,
back came three answering knocks: BOOM!... BOOM!. .. BOOM!

Wide-eyed we looked at one another as though the earth itself had
spoken. And the solemn little silence that followed was broken by the
Doctor.

"Thank Heaven," he said in a hushed reverent voice, "some of them at
least are alive!"

PART FIVE

THE FIRST CHAPTER. A GREAT MOMENT

THE next part of our problem was the hardest of all: how to roll aside,
pull down or break open, that gigantic slab. As we gazed up at it
towering above our heads, it looked indeed a hopeless task for our tiny
strength.

But the sounds of life from inside the mountain had put new heart in us.
And in a moment we were all scrambling around trying to find any opening
or crevice which would give us something to work on. Chee-Chee scaled
up the sheer wall of the slab and examined the top of it where it leaned
against the mountain's side; I uprooted bushes and stripped off hanging
creepers that might conceal a weak place; the Doctor got more leaves
and composed new picture-letters for the Jabizri to take in if he should
turn up again; whilst Polynesia carried up a handful of nuts and pushed
them into the beetle's hole, one by one, for the prisoners inside to
eat.

"Nuts are so nourishing," she said.

But Jip it was who, scratching at the foot of the slab like a good
ratter, made the discovery which led to our final success.

"Doctor," he cried, running up to John Dolittle with his nose all
covered with black mud, "this slab is resting on nothing but a bed of
soft earth. You never saw such easy digging. I guess the cave behind
must be just too high up for the Indians to reach the earth with their
hands, or they could have scraped a way out long ago. If we can only
scratch the earth-bed away from under, the slab might drop a little.
Then maybe the Indians can climb out over the top."

The Doctor hurried to examine the place where Jip had dug.

"Why, yes," he said, "if we can get the earth away from under this front
edge, the slab is standing up so straight, we might even make it fall
right down in this direction. It's well worth trying. Let's get at it,
quick."

We had no tools but the sticks and slivers of stone which we could
find around. A strange sight we must have looked, the whole crew of us
squatting down on our heels, scratching and burrowing at the foot of the
mountain, like six badgers in a row.

After