The Castle of Adventure Page 8

  ‘You’ll soon get used to it,’ Jack thought. ‘I hope the old birds will too. Oh, Kiki, did you have to get into the middle of the bush too? There’s really only just room enough for me!’

  ‘Fusty, musty, dusty!’ whispered Kiki, evidently thinking that Jack was playing a game of hide-and-seek with somebody and mustn’t be given away. ‘Fusty, musty, dusty.’

  ‘Silly old bird,’ said Jack. ‘Now get out, please. I’m coming out too. It’s certainly fusty and musty in this gorse bush, even if it isn’t dusty!’

  Kiki crawled out and then Jack forced his way out, trying to protect himself from the prickly stems. He stood up, stretched himself, took the rug and went down the crag lightly, leaving his camera in position. It was clear that there would be no rain that night!

  The boy read a book until daylight faded. Then he remembered about waving his shirt from the tower. So up he went, hoping he hadn’t left it too late for Lucy-Ann to see.

  He stood on the top of the tower, and stripped off his white shirt. Then he waved it gaily in the strong breeze there, looking down on the cottage far below as he waved. And from the topmost window there came a flash of white.

  Lucy-Ann was waving back.

  ‘He’s just waved,’ she called to Dinah, who was undressing. ‘I saw the white shirt. Good. Now I know he’s all right and will soon be curling himself up to go to sleep.’

  ‘Why you must fuss so about Jack I don’t know,’ said Dinah, jumping into bed. ‘I never fuss about Philip. You’re silly, Lucy-Ann.’

  ‘I don’t care,’ thought Lucy-Ann, as she settled down in bed. ‘I’m glad to know Jack is safe. Somehow I don’t like him being all alone in that horrid old castle!’

  13

  Noises in the night

  Jack went down the stone stairways of the tower, whistling softly. Kiki whistled with him. If it was a tune she knew, she would whistle it all through with Jack.

  They came into the old courtyard. There was no sign of the eagles. They were probably roosting now. But, at Jack’s coming, there was a general scurrying all around the yard.

  ‘Rabbits!’ said Jack, in delight. ‘Golly, what hundreds of them! I suppose they all come out this time of the evening. I’ll curl myself up in that sandy corner and watch them for a bit. Now, don’t you frighten them, Kiki.’

  He went over to the soft sand, taking with him the thick rugs and a packet of chocolate biscuits. He curled himself up, and lay there, watching the rabbits creeping out of their holes again.

  It was a lovely sight to see. There were big ones and little ones, dark ones and light ones and playful ones. Some nibbled patches of wiry grass here and there. Others leapt about madly.

  Jack lay there contentedly and nibbled his biscuits, enjoying the chocolate on them. He watched the rabbits in delight. Kiki watched them too, murmuring a few remarks into Jack’s ear now and again.

  ‘I bet the eagles catch a good few of those rabbits,’ thought Jack, suddenly feeling sleepy. He finished his last biscuit, and pulled the rugs more closely around him. He felt a little chilly now. The sand didn’t feel quite so soft as it had done before, either. Jack hoped he wasn’t going to be uncomfortable. Perhaps it would have been better to have chosen a patch of heather.

  ‘Well, I’m too sleepy to change my bed now,’ he thought. ‘Much too sleepy. Kiki, move up a bit. Your claws are digging into my neck. You’d better get off me and perch somewhere else.’

  But before Kiki could move, Jack was asleep. Kiki stayed where she was. The rabbits grew bolder and played nearer to the sleeping boy. A half-moon came out of the evening clouds and lighted up the dreaming courtyard.

  What woke Jack he never knew. But something woke him with a jump. He opened his eyes and lay there, looking up into the night sky, full of surprise. For a moment or two he had no idea where he was.

  Usually when he woke he saw the ceiling of his room – now there were stars and clouds. Then he suddenly remembered. Of course – he was in the courtyard of the old castle. He sat up and Kiki awoke too, giving an annoyed little squawk.

  ‘I wonder what woke me?’ thought Jack, looking round the shadowy yard. The moon came out again and he saw a few rabbits here and there. Behind rose the great dark bulk of the castle.

  Jack felt absolutely certain that something had awakened him. Some noise perhaps? Or had a rabbit run over him? He listened intently, but he could hear nothing save the hoot of an owl on the hillside: ‘Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!’ Then he heard the high squeak of a bat, catching beetles in the night air.

  He glanced up at the tower from which he had waved his white shirt – and he suddenly stiffened in surprise. Surely that was a light he saw flash there?

  He stared intently, waiting for it to come again. It had seemed rather like the sudden flash of a torch. But it didn’t come again.

  Jack sat and thought hard. Was it a flash? Had someone walked along the battlemented wall to the tower, and was it their footsteps that awakened him? Was there someone in the castle after all?

  It seemed rather weird. Jack wondered what to do. He didn’t really feel inclined to get up and find out what the flash was – if it had been a flash. He was beginning to doubt that it was now. If only it would come again, he would know.

  He decided that it was cowardly to stay in his bed just because he felt a bit scared. He had better get up and make his way to the tower to see if anyone was there. That would be the brave thing to do.

  ‘I don’t feel at all brave,’ thought Jack, ‘but I suppose a person is really bravest when he does something although he is frightened. So here goes!’

  Warning Kiki to be quite quiet, he made his way very carefully across the yard to the entrance of the castle, keeping in the blackest shadows. The feel of Kiki’s feet on his shoulder was somehow very comforting.

  He went into the vast hall and listened. There was not a sound to be heard. He switched on his torch, cautiously covering it with his handkerchief. The hall was empty. Jack went up the wide stone stairway, and found his way to the wall that led to the tower. He walked quietly along it, keeping close to one edge, and soon came to the tower.

  ‘Shall I go up or not?’ wondered the boy. ‘I don’t want to in the least. If there’s anyone there they can’t be up to any good. Did I imagine that flash?’

  He screwed up his courage and stole up the tower stairway. There was no one in the tower room. He crept up the stairway that led to the very top, and put his head carefully out. The moon’s light was enough to show him that there was nobody there either.

  ‘Well – I just must have imagined it,’ thought the boy. ‘How silly of me! I’ll go back to bed again.’

  Down he went once more, Kiki still on his shoulder. As he came into the wide hall, he suddenly stopped still. He had heard a sound. What could it be?

  It sounded like a muffled clanking – and then surely that was the splash of water?

  ‘Is it somebody in the kitchen – somebody getting a drink of water again?’ wondered Jack, feeling a prickle of panic go down his back. ‘Golly, I don’t like this. I wish the others were here.’

  He stood quite still, wondering what to do. Then, overcome by fear, he fled out of the hall and into the moonlight yard, keeping in the shadows. He was trembling. Kiki bent to his ear, murmuring something supposed to be comforting. She knew he was frightened.

  In a minute or two he was ashamed of himself. ‘Why am I running away?’ he thought. ‘This won’t do. Just to show myself that I’m no coward I’ll walk into that kitchen and see who’s there! It’s a tramp, I expect, who knows the way in. He’ll be far more frightened to see me than I shall be to see him!’

  Boldly, but very quickly, the boy went back into the dark, brooding castle. Through the hall he went, and made his way softly to the kitchen entrance. He slipped inside the doorway, and then went behind the door, where he waited, listening and watching to see if any light was shown.

  But there was dead silence. There was no clank of the pump. The
re was no splash of water. Jack waited for two or three minutes, with Kiki, perfectly silent.

  He could not even hear anyone breathing. The kitchen must be empty.

  ‘I’ll switch on my torch very quickly, flash it round the kitchen, and see if there’s anyone standing quietly there,’ he thought. ‘I can easily run out of the door if there is.’

  So he took his torch from his pocket, and suddenly pressed down the switch. He flashed it to the sink, where the pump stood. There was no one there. He flashed it all round the kitchen. It was quite empty. There was no sign of anyone at all.

  Jack heaved a sigh of relief. He went across to the sink and examined the floor beside it. There was again a puddle there – but was it a freshly made one from the sink splashes – or was it the same one they themselves had made when they used the pump?

  Jack couldn’t tell. He looked closely at the pump, but that told him nothing, of course.

  ‘It’s a puzzle,’ Jack said to Kiki, in a whisper. ‘I suppose the clank and the splashing were all my silly imagination. I was frightened, and people always imagine things then. I imagined that flash in the tower, and I imagined the clanking noise and the splashing. Kiki, I’m as timid as Lucy-Ann – I really am.’

  Still feeling a bit puzzled, but rather ashamed of all his fears and alarms, Jack went back to his bed in the courtyard.

  It seemed uncomfortably hard now. Also he was a bit cold. He pulled the rugs round him and tried to get comfortable. He shut his eyes and told himself to go to sleep. The moon seemed to have gone now, and everything was pitch-black. Whatever he heard or saw, Jack was determined he was not going to leave his bed again that night. Let people flash lights all they liked, and pump water all night long if they wanted to! He wouldn’t bother about it!

  He was wide awake. He simply couldn’t go to sleep. He didn’t feel frightened any more. He only felt annoyed because sleep wouldn’t come to him. He began to think about his eagles, and planned some fine camera work for the next day.

  He could feel Kiki perched on his shoulderbone. He knew she had her head under her wing, and was sleeping. He wished she was awake and would talk to him. He wished the other children were with him. Then he could tell them what he had imagined he saw and heard.

  At last he fell asleep, just as the dawn was making the eastern sky silvery. He didn’t see it turn gold and pink, nor did he see the first soaring flight of the two eagles. He slept soundly, and so did Kiki. But she awoke at the first yelping scream of one of the eagles, and answered it with one of her marvellous imitations.

  That woke Jack with a jump, and he sat up. Kiki flew off his shoulder, waited till he called her, and flew back again. Jack rubbed his eyes and yawned.

  ‘I’m hungry,’ he said to Kiki. ‘Are you?’

  ‘Fusty, musty, dusty,’ said Kiki, remembering the three words she had so much liked the day before. ‘Fusty, mus . . .’

  ‘Yes, I heard you the first time,’ said Jack. ‘I say, Kiki, do you remember how we got up in the middle of the night and went to the tower and to the kitchen?’

  Kiki apparently did. She scratched her beak with one of her feet and looked at Jack. ‘What a pity, what a pity!’ she remarked.

  ‘Yes – I think it was a pity we disturbed ourselves so much,’ said Jack. ‘I was an idiot, Kiki. Now that it’s broad daylight, and I’m wide awake, I begin to think I must have dreamt or imagined all that happened in the night – not that anything much did happen, anyway.’

  Kiki listened with her head on one side. Jack unwrapped himself from the rug. ‘I tell you what, Kiki – we won’t either of us mention that flash in the tower, or the mysterious clanking or splashing we thought we heard, see? The others would only laugh at us – and Lucy-Ann and Tassie might be frightened. I’m sure it was all my imagination.’

  Kiki appeared to agree with every word. She helped Jack to get biscuits out of a packet, and fruit out of a bag, and watched him take the top off a bottle of ginger beer.

  ‘I wonder what time the others will be up,’ said Jack, beginning his breakfast. ‘We’ll try and take a few pictures before they come, shall we, Kiki?’

  14

  Jack gets a shock

  After he had had his breakfast Jack went to his hide. It was a lovely day. He could take some fine pictures if only the eagles were there.

  He wrapped the thickest rug round him and crawled in through the prickly stems of the gorse. Kiki remained outside this time.

  When he was in the hollow centre of the bush Jack examined his camera to make sure that it was all right. It was. He looked through the shutter to see if he had it trained exactly on the nest.

  ‘Perfect!’ he thought. ‘That young eagle appears to be asleep. I might get a good picture when it wakes up. I suppose the other birds are soaring miles high into the sky.’

  It was boring, waiting for the eagle to wake up. But Jack didn’t mind. Both he and Philip knew that the ability to keep absolutely still and silent for a long time on end was essential to the study of birds and animals in their natural surroundings. So Jack settled back in the gorse bush, and waited.

  Kiki went off on errands of her own. She flew to the top of the nearest tower and looked down on the countryside. She flew down to the courtyard and looked inside a paper bag there, hoping to find a forgotten biscuit. She sat on the branch of a birch tree, practising quietly to herself the barking noise that Button the fox cub made. So long as Jack was somewhere near she was happy. He was safe in that gorse bush. Kiki didn’t know why he had chosen such a peculiar resting place, but Jack was always wise in her eyes.

  The young eagle suddenly awoke and stretched out first one wing and then another. It climbed to the edge of the nest and looked out over the ledge, waiting for its parents to come back.

  ‘Fine!’ whispered Jack, and pressed the trigger of the camera to take the eagle’s picture. The young bird heard the click and cowered down at once – but the snap had been taken!

  Soon the bird recovered from its fright and climbed up again. Then, with yelps, the two grown eagles came gliding down on outspread wings, and the young one greeted them gladly, spreading out its wings and quivering them.

  One of the eagles had a young hare clutched in its claws. It dropped it into the nest. At once the youngster covered the food with its big wings, cowered over it, and began to pull at it hungrily with its powerful beak.

  Jack snapped it. All three birds heard the click and looked towards the gorse bush suspiciously. The male eagle glared and Jack felt uncomfortable. He hoped the bird wouldn’t pounce at the gleaming camera lens and ambush it.

  But Kiki saved the situation by flying down in a most comradely manner to the eagles, and saluting them in their own yelping language.

  They appeared to be quite pleased to see her again although the young eagle covered the dead hare threateningly with its wings as if to keep Kiki off.

  ‘Open your books at page six,’ said Kiki pleasantly. The eagles looked startled. They had not yet got used to the parrot talking in human language. She barked like Button, and they looked rather alarmed.

  The female eagle bent herself forward, opened her cruel beak, and made a curious snarling noise, warning Kiki to be careful. She at once spoke in eagle language again, and gave such a fine scream that both eagles were satisfied. The young one fell upon its meal and ate till it could eat no more. Then it sank back into the big nest.

  The female eagle finished the dead hare in a very short while. Jack got another wonderful snap whilst it was tearing up its food.

  This time, except for an enquiring look in the direction of the click, the eagles took no notice.

  ‘Good,’ thought Jack. ‘They won’t mind the click soon or the gleaming eye of the camera!’

  He spent a pleasant morning, using up the rest of his film, delighted to think of the wonderful pictures he could develop. He imagined them in nature magazines, with his name under them as photographer. How proud he would feel!

  Kiki suddenly gave a
most excited squawk, making the two grown eagles rise in the air in alarm. She flew into the air, and made for the wall that ran round the courtyard. Jack, peering through the back of his hiding-place, saw her fly right over the wall, and disappear.

  ‘Now where’s she gone?’ he thought. ‘I was just going to take a picture of her and the two eagles together.’

  Kiki was gone for about half an hour before Jack saw her again. Then she came into the courtyard on Tassie’s shoulder! She had heard the other children coming up the hillside and had flown to meet them. They had got into the castle in the usual way, and were now looking for Jack.

  The eagles soared into the air when they heard the children coming towards their crag. Jack gave a hail from the inside of his hide.

  ‘I’m here! Hallo, it’s good to see you. Wait a sec and I’ll be out.’

  He crawled out with the rug round him and went down to the others. Lucy-Ann eyed him anxiously, and was relieved to see him looking cheerful and well. So he hadn’t minded his lonely night at the castle after all.

  ‘We’ve brought a fine dinner,’ said Philip. ‘Mother managed to get some cooked ham and a big fruit cake in the village.’

  ‘Good!’ said Jack, realising that he was terribly hungry. ‘I’ve only had biscuits and fruit for my breakfast, washed down with ginger beer.’

  ‘We’ve got some more ginger beer too,’ said Dinah. ‘Where shall we have our dinner? On the top of the tower again or where?’

  ‘Here, I think,’ said Jack, ‘because the light is perfect for taking pictures this morning, and if those eagles come back I want a few more snaps of them. I’ve an idea they are going to make that young one fly soon. The female eagle tried to tip it off the edge of the nest this morning.’

  ‘Kiki came to meet us,’ said Tassie. ‘Did you see how Button came in this morning, Jack? We left him outside, but he’s here again.’

  ‘No, I didn’t,’ said Jack. ‘I can’t see much from the inside of that gorse bush, you know. We shall never find out how Button gets in – bet it’s down an old rabbit-hole. He won’t be able to do that when he gets a bit bigger. Has he been good?’