فصل هفتم

CHAPTER seven

The next day Harry, Stan and Terry went up the mountain. They left equipment here and there, near the peak. ‘Now we’ll know when the ground moves,’ Stan said. ‘We can see it on our equipment in the office at the hotel.’

‘Yeah,’ said Terry, ‘when a bird jumps on to the ground, we’ll know it. How was dinner last night, Harry?’

Harry didn’t say anything.

‘For a mayor, she’s very beautiful,’ said Terry.

Harry didn’t say anything. Terry smiled.

Terry Furlong built robots. ‘We can’t get inside volcanoes,’ he said, ‘but my little robots can. They can see for us, find gases and smoke for us.

How hot is it? How dangerous is it? My robots can tell us. We can sit in the office, turn on our equipment, and see with the robot’s eyes.’

Two days later, they put Terry’s robot in the car park and turned it on. It walked for a few metres. ‘Yeah, come on, robot’ called Terry. The robot stopped.

‘Is there a problem?’ asked Paul.

‘No,’ said Terry. He went over to the robot and kicked it. The robot started again. ‘It will be OK on the peak,’ said Terry.

They went to Rachel’s cafe for coffee. She knew them all well now. ‘One black coffee,’ she said, ‘two with only milk, and two with sugar too.’

She gave them their coffees. Then she asked, ‘What’s happening? What are you finding?’

‘Our equipment shows that every day there are between twenty-five and seventy-five earthquakes,’ Nancy said.

‘What?’ cried Rachel.

Harry laughed. ‘It’s OK,’ he said. ‘Nothing dangerous is happening. There are always small earthquakes. We can see them with our equipment, but they’re not dangerous.’

The next day Terry and Harry took the robot to the peak and sent it inside the old volcano. The robot’s ‘eyes’ sent pictures back to their equipment, and back to the equipment in the hotel too.

The robot walked on. Suddenly it stopped. ‘Oh, no’ said Terry. He started to go after it.

‘Be careful’ Harry said.

Terry climbed down into the old volcano. He put his feet down carefully on the ground. Good! It was hard. He walked on.

Back at the hotel, everybody watched the robot’s pictures. They didn’t look at their other equipment.

Terry found the robot and kicked it. The robot started moving again. ‘OK, Terry, come back now,’ Harry said on his radio.

Terry didn’t listen. He followed the robot down inside the mountain.

Back in the hotel, Nancy stood up. She turned round. ‘Oh, no’ she said. ‘Look at this equipment!’

The others turned round. ‘A strong earthquake is happening,’ she said.

Paul called Harry on the radio. ‘Come back now,’ he said.

‘What did you say?’ asked Harry. ‘I couldn’t hear you.’

‘I said, “Come back now,”’ Paul said. ‘Earthquake!’

But it was too late. Ten metres above Terry, a large rock broke away and fell on Terry and the robot.

Harry screamed into his radio: ‘Terry! Terry!’ But no answer came.

The rocks broke two of the robots ‘eyes’. Back in the hotel they couldn’t see very well. Paul said, ‘Harry, what’s happening?’

‘Get that helicopter up here now’ Harry said.

He started to climb down into the volcano. Some more rocks fell near him. There were rocks all round, but where was Terry? Then he saw the colours of Terry’s shirt. He pulled some rocks away. Terry looked up at him and smiled.

‘There’s something wrong with my leg,’ he said.

Harry looked. ‘The rocks broke Terry’s leg,’ he said into the radio. ‘Tell the helicopter man, Hutcherson, to bring some help.’

Before long, Harry could hear the helicopter. He spoke to Hutcherson on the radio.

‘Nearer, Nearer,’ he called.

But now there was smoke coming out of the old volcano. Hutcherson was afraid. ‘I’m not coming any nearer than that’ he said.

‘You must’ Harry said. ‘Only fifteen more metres! Down! Down!’

Slowly the helicopter came nearer. It pulled Terry and Harry inside and flew off down the mountain.