The Castle of Adventure Page 5

  ‘Look out – I’m coming up too to help,’ called Jack from below, and up he came, pulling on Tassie’s rope. Then, between them, they managed to haul up the plank, and lift it so that it almost reached the windowsill.

  ‘A bit more over – that’s right – now a bit more to the right!’ panted Jack – and then, with a thud, the plank at last rested on the sill of the narrow slit window. The other end rested firmly on a mass of tangled creeper roots, and on some stout ivy stems.

  Jack tested the plank. It seemed quite firm. Philip tested it too. Yes, it seemed safe enough.

  ‘Have you really fixed it?’ shouted Dinah, in excitement. ‘Jolly good! Look out, there goes Kiki!’

  Sure enough, Kiki, who had been watching everything in the greatest surprise, had sailed up in the air and was now sitting on the plank, raising her crest and making a chortling noise. Then she walked clumsily across to the window and hopped on the sill. She poked her beak inside the opening. There was no glass there, of course.

  ‘Kiki always likes to poke her nose into everything!’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Can we come up now, Philip?’

  ‘We’re just making a flat place among all these roots and things, so that you can stand here safely till we can help you across,’ said Philip, stamping on the creepers around. ‘The cliff wall goes in a bit just here – you can almost sit down, if I mess the creepers about a bit.’

  ‘I’ll go across the plank,’ said Jack. But a shout from Lucy-Ann stopped him.

  ‘No, Jack. Wait till I’m up there. I want to see you properly! I can only see your legs from down here.’

  Soon all three girls were up by the boys. It was easy to go up by the rope. They watched Jack sit astride the plank, and gradually edge himself across in that position. The plank was as firm as could be. Jack felt quite safe.

  He got to the windowsill. He stood up on the plank and clutched the stone sides of the narrow window. He stood in the opening.

  ‘Golly, it’s narrow!’ he shouted across the plank, to where the others were watching him breathlessly. ‘I don’t believe I can squeeze through!’

  ‘Well, if you can’t I certainly shan’t be able to,’ said Philip. ‘Go on – try. You’re not as fat as all that, surely!’

  Jack began to squeeze through the narrow stone window. It certainly was a squash. He had to hold his tummy in hard, and not breathe at all. He wriggled through gradually, and then suddenly jumped to the floor the other side. He yelled back.

  ‘Hurrah, I’m through! Come on, everyone. I’m in a pitch-black room. We’ll have to bring torches next time.’

  Dinah went next, helped by Philip. Jack helped her down the other side. She hadn’t much difficulty in getting through the window. Then came Tassie, then Lucy-Ann, then Philip, who had as much difficulty as Jack in squeezing through.

  ‘Well, here we are!’ he said, ‘inside the Castle of Adventure!’

  8

  Up in the tower

  ‘The Castle of Adventure!’ echoed Lucy-Ann in surprise. ‘What makes you say that? Do you think we shall have an adventure here?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know!’ said Philip. ‘I just said it – but it’s got an odd feeling, this castle, hasn’t it? My word, isn’t it dark?’

  A mournful barking came from below. It was Button, left behind. Philip stuck his head out of the window. ‘It’s all right, Button. We’re coming back!’

  Kiki stuck her head out too, and gave a railway-engine screech. ‘That’s just to tell poor Button she’s up here, and he’s not!’ said Dinah. ‘Kiki, you do like to crow over poor Button, don’t you?’

  It was very dark in the room they had jumped into. But gradually they could see better as their eyes got used to the darkness. The children blinked and tried to see their surroundings.

  ‘It’s just a big bare room,’ said Jack, rather disappointed. He didn’t quite know what he had expected to see. ‘I suppose the whole castle’s like this – full of big, bare, cold rooms. Come on – let’s do a bit of exploring.’

  They made their way to the door, which opened into a long corridor. They went down this and came to a lighter room, lit by one slit window and one wide one evidently added much later. This room had a big fireplace and there were still old grey ashes there. The children looked at them.

  ‘Funny to think that people once sat round that fire!’ said Dinah. They went into the next room, which again was very dark, because it had only a slit window to light it. Dinah wandered to the window, and suddenly gave such a yell that everyone jumped violently.

  ‘Dinah! What is it?’ cried Philip.

  Dinah ran back to him so quickly that she bumped into him. ‘There’s something in this room!’ she cried. ‘It touched my hair. I felt it. Come out quickly.’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ began Philip, and then he stopped suddenly. Something had touched his hair too! He swung round but there was nothing there. His heart beat fast. Was there really something in the room, touching them, but invisible?

  Then a ray of sunlight unexpectedly came slanting in through the slit window, and Philip gave a sudden laugh. ‘How silly we are!’ he said. ‘It’s cobwebs – look, hanging down from the ceiling! They must be years old!’

  Everyone was very much relieved, but Dinah wouldn’t stay in the room one moment more. She was scared – and the very idea of cobwebs touching her made her more scared still. She shuddered when she thought of the spiders that might drop on her from the cobwebby ceiling!

  ‘Come out where it’s sunshiny,’ she begged, and they all went into a wide corridor, where the sun poured in at many windows. Tassie walked close to Philip, with scared eyes. She knew the old village tales, and half expected the wicked old man to appear from somewhere and take them all prisoner! But where Philip went she meant to go too.

  ‘Look – this way leads across one of the battlemented walls to the eastern tower!’ cried Jack. ‘Let’s go along to the tower – we’ll get a magnificent view from there.’

  ‘I feel like an old-time soldier marching round the castle wall,’ said Philip, as they made their way along to the tower. ‘Here we are. Goodness, it’s quite big, isn’t it? Look, there’s a room at the bottom of the tower, flush with this wall – and there’s a winding stone stair that leads to the top of the tower. Come on, up we go!’

  And up they went, determined not to look at the view till they got to the highest point. The stone stair twisted awkwardly round and round, and led them straight into another room, out of which a narrow stair led them to the very roof of the tower itself.

  They went up the tiny stair and found themselves on the top of the tower, its battlemented edge rising a few feet all round.

  They all gasped, and gazed down in silence. Not one of them had ever been so high up before, nor had they seen such a wide and magnificent view. It seemed as if the whole world lay spread out before them, sparkling in the sunshine. Below, far, far below, lay the valley, through which curved the silver river, like a gleaming snake. What houses they could see looked like toy ones.

  ‘Look at those hills opposite,’ said Jack. ‘There are hills behind those – and hills behind those too – and hills behind those!’

  Tassie was amazed. She never thought the world was so big. From the vantage point of the high tower the whole country was spread like a living map before her. It was so beautiful that for some extraordinary reason Lucy-Ann felt like crying.

  ‘What a wonderful place this must have been for a lookout!’ said Philip. ‘Any sentry here could see enemies coming miles and miles away. Look – is that Spring Cottage right down there, among those trees?’

  It was, looking like a doll’s house, halfway down the hill. ‘I wish we could bring Mother up here,’ said Dinah. ‘How she would love this view!’

  ‘Look! Look! There are the eagles again!’ said Jack, and he pointed up in the air, where two great eagles soared to the clouds. ‘I say – shall we have our lunch here, on the top of this tower, and see this marvellous view all the time, and watch my
eagles?’

  ‘Oh yes!’ said everyone, including Kiki. She always joined in any chorus.

  ‘Poor little Button,’ said Philip. ‘I wish we could have brought him too. But it was too risky across that plank. I expect he’s feeling very lonely now. I hope he won’t run off.’

  ‘You know he won’t,’ said Dinah. ‘No animal ever runs away from you, worse luck. Oh, Philip – you haven’t brought that awful toad with you, have you? Yes, you have! It’s peeping out of your neck! I just won’t sit up here with a toad crawling round.’

  ‘Now for goodness’ sake don’t start a quarrel up on the top of the tower,’ said Jack, in real alarm. ‘That stone edging won’t stop anyone from falling if they start fooling about. Dinah, do sit down.’

  ‘Don’t order me about,’ said Dinah, beginning to flare up.

  ‘Where’s the food?’ said Lucy-Ann, hoping to change the subject. ‘Dinah, you’ve got it. Get it out, because I’m dying of hunger!’

  Keeping as far away from her brother as she could, Dinah undid the knapsack. There were two big packets inside, one marked ‘Dinner’ and one marked ‘Tea’.

  ‘Put the tea packet back,’ said Jack, ‘or we might gobble that up too! I feel hungry enough to eat all you’ve got there.’

  Dinah divided out sandwiches, cake, biscuits, fruit and chocolate. Then she presented everyone with a cardboard cup of lemonade from a bottle.

  ‘We’ve had plenty of picnics in our time,’ said Philip, biting hugely into a thick sandwich of egg and ham, ‘but never one in such an extraordinary place as this. It almost makes me giddy, looking out at that enormous view.’

  ‘It’s lovely to sit here and eat, looking at those hills, and that winding river down in the valley,’ said Lucy-Ann contentedly. ‘I believe that old man Tassie told us about must have bought this castle for the view! I would, I know, if I had enough money.’

  They ate and drank happily. Kiki shared the sandwiches, which she liked immensely. Then she went exploring along the stone coping at the edge of the tower, climbing upside-down now and again.

  The children watched her, eating their cake. Suddenly Kiki gave an alarming screech, lost her balance and fell right off the tower! She disappeared below, and the children leapt up in horror. Then they sat down again, smiling and feeling rather foolish – for, of course, as soon as she fell, Kiki spread out her wings and soared into the air!

  ‘Idiot, Kiki!’ said Dinah. ‘You gave me quite a scare! Well, has everyone nearly finished? If so, I’ll clear up the paper and the cardboard cups and put them back into the knapsack.’

  Jack had been watching the eagles, which, all the time they were at lunch, had been soaring high in the air, looking like black specks. Now they were coming down again, gliding in large circles, their great wings spread out to catch the smallest current of air.

  There was plenty of wind on the top of the hill. It blew steadily on the tower, and the children’s hair was blown back all the time, as they sat facing the breeze. They watched the eagles go lower and lower.

  Below them and behind them lay the inner courtyard of the castle. It was overgrown with grass and patches of heather. Gorse bushes grew there, and a few small birch-trees. The hillside had come into its own again there, and pushed up strong-growing bushes, which had forced their way through.

  ‘I believe the eagles have their nest in that clump of trees over there, in the corner of the overgrown courtyard!’ said Jack excitedly. ‘It’s the sort of craggy place they might choose! Shall we go and see?’

  ‘Are you sure they’re not dangerous?’ said Philip doubtfully. ‘They’re awfully big birds – and I have heard stories of them attacking men.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Jack. ‘Well – as soon as they fly off again, I’ll go and look. Anyway, we might as well go down now and have a look round. Kiki, come here!’

  Kiki flew to his shoulder, and nibbled his ear gently, talking her usual nonsense. The children got up and went down the two stone stairways. Both the top and bottom rooms of the tower were completely empty. Cobwebs hung in the corners, and dust lay thickly on the floor and ledges, except where the wind blew in strongly.

  ‘How do we get down to the courtyard?’ wondered Philip. ‘We’ll have to go back along the wall and into the castle itself, I suppose. There must be a stairway down to the rooms below.’

  So back they went, and came to the main building of the castle again. They looked into room after room, all empty. Then at last they came to a very wide stone stairway that led down and down. They clattered down it and came into a big hall. It was dark.

  Something suddenly hurled itself against Philip’s legs and he leapt in fright, giving a loud exclamation. Everyone stood still.

  ‘What is it?’ said Lucy-Ann, in a whisper.

  It was Button, the fox cub!

  ‘Now how in the world did he get to us!’ cried Philip, picking the little creature up. ‘He must have found some hole, I suppose, and scrambled through it to find us. Button, you’re a marvel! But my word, you did give me a fright!’

  Button gave some of his little barks as he cuddled against Philip’s chest. Kiki addressed a few scornful remarks to him about shutting the door. She was the only one sorry to see his arrival!

  ‘Now let’s get into the courtyard and explore round a bit,’ said Jack. ‘Look out for the eagles, all of you!’

  9

  The eagles’ nest

  The children picked their way over the big, overgrown courtyard. It was an absolute wilderness now, though with a little imagination they could picture what it must have been like in the old days – a vast stone-paved place, hewn out of the hillside itself, with craggy pieces towering up at the far ends.

  ‘It’s in one of those craggy places that I think the eagles have got their nest,’ said Jack, as they picked their way across the hot courtyard. ‘Tassie, take Kiki for me, will you, and hang on to her. I don’t want her interfering just now.’

  Tassie proudly took Kiki, and stood still whilst the others went towards a towering piece of rock, clothed here and there with heather, that rose up at one end of the courtyard. Lucy-Ann didn’t particularly want to go too near to the eagles, but she wanted to be with Jack.

  ‘You girls stay down at the bottom of this crag,’ said Jack. ‘I’m going to climb up with Philip. I don’t think the eagles will attack us, Philip, in fact I’m pretty sure they won’t; but look out, in case.’

  The boys were just beginning to climb when a loud, yelping scream made them stop and clutch at one another in fright. The girls jumped violently. Button ran into the nearest rabbit-hole and stayed there. Only Kiki did not seem to be frightened.

  Into Tassie’s mind jumped the thought that the scream must be from one of the wicked man’s poor prisoners! Perhaps he wasn’t dead, perhaps he was still there somewhere. The other children were not so foolish as to think things like this, but the scream certainly made their blood run cold!

  ‘What was it, Jack?’ whispered Lucy-Ann. ‘Come back. Don’t go up there. The scream came from there.’

  It came again, more loudly – a curious, almost yelping noise. Kiki cleared her throat to imitate it. What a fine noise to copy!

  She gave a remarkably good imitation of the scream and made everyone jump again. Tassie almost fell over, for Kiki was on her shoulder.

  ‘Bad bird! Naughty bird!’ said Jack fiercely, in a low voice. Kiki looked at him. From her throat came the scream again – and almost at the same moment a great eagle, which must have been somewhere on the rocky crag, rose up in the air on enormous wings, and soared over the little company, looking down in amazement to see who had made such a noise.

  And then, from the eagle’s own throat, there came again the yelping scream the children had heard!

  ‘Gosh – it was the eagle screaming, that’s all!’ said Jack, in relief. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? I’ve never heard one before. That shows their nest must be somewhere up here. Come on, Philip.’

  The eagle did not sw
oop down to the children, but glided above them, looking down. Its interest was centred on Kiki, who feeling rather thrilled at having found such a good new noise, yelped again.

  The eagle answered and flew lower. Kiki went up to meet it, looking very small compared with the big eagle. The children could plainly see the long yellowish feathers on the nape of its neck, shining in the sunlight.

  ‘It is a golden eagle,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Jack was right. Look at those golden feathers! Oh dear – I hope it doesn’t come any lower.’

  All the five children watched Kiki and the eagle. Usually birds were either puzzled and afraid of Kiki, or angry. But the eagle was neither. It seemed intensely interested, as if wondering how it was that this queer-looking little bird, so unlike an eagle, could make eagle noises!

  Kiki was enjoying herself. She flew about the eagle, yelping to it, and then suddenly changed her mind and told it to blow its nose.

  At the sound of an apparently human voice the eagle sheered off a little, still gazing in interest at Kiki. Finally, taking no notice at all of the children, it flew upwards to a high rock on the crag, and perched there, looking down in a very royal fashion.

  ‘Isn’t it a magnificent bird?’ said Jack in the utmost delight. ‘Fancy us seeing an eagle at close quarters like this! Look at its frowning brows, and its piercing eyes! I don’t wonder it’s called the king of the birds!’

  The eagle was a truly splendid sight, as it sat there like a king. It was feathered in dark brown, except for the golden streaks on the nape of its neck. Its legs were covered in feathers almost to the claws. It watched Kiki unblinkingly.

  ‘There’s the second eagle, look!’ said Lucy-Ann suddenly, in a low voice. The children saw the other eagle rising up into the air from the crag, evidently curious to see what was happening. It soared upwards, spreading out its strong pinions like fingers, the wing-tips curving up as it went. Then, quite suddenly, the first eagle tired of Kiki, flapped its enormous wings, and joined its mate.

  ‘The first eagle is the male, the second one is the female,’ said Jack excitedly.