26
　　A bad time – and a surprising meeting
　　But Jack¹ didn’t wake up – and for a very good reason too. He wasn’t asleep.
　　He was wide awake and staring at this colossal² fortune in paper money. Itdidn’t make sense. Why was it all stored here, in this cave underground?
　　Who did it belong to? Why didn’t they put it into a bank in the usual way?
　　‘Perhaps the men working this mine are finding a lot of copper³ andselling it secretly, and keeping the money here that they get for it,’ thoughtJack. He was so lost in amazement⁴ at the sight of such a fortune piled upthere in front of him that he did not hear someone coming to the door of thecave he was in.
　　The man who opened the door and saw Jack in the cave was even moresurprised than Jack himself. He stood staring at the boy with his mouthwide open, and his eyes almost falling out of his head. Then he dragged theboy roughly out of the cell, and pulled him to the room where the machinewas working.
　　‘Look here!’ yelled the man. ‘Look here! I found him in the store room.’
　　The machine was stopped at once. The men gathered round Jack and hiscaptor. One of them stepped forward. It was Jake.
　　He looked very evil and the black patch he wore over one eye made himlook most peculiar⁵. He shook Jack so roughly that the boy lost his breathcompletely and sank down on the ground when Jake let go of his arm.
　　‘Where are the rest of you?’ said Jake. ‘You tell me, see! Who are youwith? What are you doing down here? What do you know?’
　　Jack picked up his nugget, looked round for Kiki, who had flown infright to the roof of the cave, and tried to think what to answer for the best.
　　The men took no notice of his big copper nugget, which surprised Jack verymuch. He had been afraid they would take it away from him at once.
　　‘I don’t know where the others are,’ he said at last. ‘We came to theisland together, two boys and two girls, and I got separated from the others.’
　　‘Who else was with you?’ demanded Jake. ‘You kids didn’t come here byyourselves.’

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