But they never heard what he saw, for at that moment he heard a series of loud thuds, a scream from Chryseis who had been the first to get out of the entrance, and a muttered exclamation from Iason as he sprang forward and pushed both his sisters so violently backward into the cave, that they fell over the two smaller boys, dragging them down. At the same moment Pavlo, lifting himself up, saw two large stones fall from above, right in front of the opening of the cave. "What is it?" "What was that?" "What fell?" He and Nikias and Andromache all cried together. "Stones! A great many," Chryseis answered, lifting a pale face to theirs as they pulled her up. "They nearly fell on our heads, but Iason pushed us back. Iason! What is it? Iason!" For Iason, flattened against the opening, was cautiously trying to find out what had happened. "I do not know," he said, without turning round. "I cannot think. Something must have loosened the stones from the top of the rock above, and they fell. But what? The first rains have not begun yet. Well," he continued after a moment's pause, "let us get out! That was all." But that was not all! At the step forward which he took, a shower of earth and stones came rattling down on the ledge outside. He sprang back only just in time. "But what is it then? What can it be?" They soon found out. No sooner had the last stone rebounded and rolled over the ledge to the rocks below them, than a loud discordant laugh sounded from above the opening of the cave. "Come out of your hole, my little cockerels! Come out! You would not have my stones before. Get them on your heads now! Come out! Come out!" The children looked at each other in horror. "The shepherd! The red-bearded man!" There was a fresh shower of stones and the laugh again, which sounded closer. Chryseis caught hold of her brother's arm. "Iason! He will get in! He will get in! Oh, what shall we do?" "We will not let him!" cried little Nikias, running forward, "let us push this big stone right in front of the opening! Here! This one; if you push hard we can roll it down. Iason! Pavlo! Girls! Help me!" "He is right, the little one," said Iason, and they all pulled, and pushed and tugged as they could never have done if they had not been terribly frightened, and little by little the big rounded piece of rock was rolled in front of the entrance to the cave, and the green darkness grew darker and darker. The opening was not entirely blocked. Any of the children could have squeezed in or out, but they felt almost certain no grown man could. "Besides, if he only puts his hand in, we will chop it off so! Like the Persians and the man with the ship," declared Andromache, becoming vaguely historical. "Where is your hatchet?" asked Iason. "No, I am sure he cannot get in. Now we must sit and think what to do. It does no good to cry like that!" "I am not crying!" sobbed Nikias. "It comes by itself," and he sniffed very hard for a few minutes.