Читать книгу The Castle of Adventure - Enid blyton - Страница 8

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They were near to the castle by now. The great, thick walls rose up, far above their heads. There was no break in them, except about sixteen feet up, where slit windows could be seen.

“It’s built of the big boulders we see all over the hillside,” said Philip. “It must have been very hard work to take so many up here to build the castle. Look—over there are some bigger windows. I suppose that wicked old fellow Tassie was telling us about liked to have a little more light in his castle than slit windows give. It’s a funny place. You can quite well see where it has been patched up, can’t you?”

“There are the eagles again!” cried Jack. “They’re gliding down—and down. Watch them, everyone!”

The little company stood and watched the two big birds, whose span of wings was really, enormous.

“They’ve gone down inside the castle courtyard,” said Jack. “That’s where they’ve got their nest, I bet! In the courtyard somewhere. I simply must find it.”

“But you can’t possibly get into the courtyard,” said Philip.

“Where’s the gateway of the castle?” demanded Jack, turning to Tassie.

“At the front, where that land-slide is,” said Tassie. “You couldn’t get over the land-slide without being in danger, and anyway if you did, you’d find the great gate shut. There’s another door, further along here, but that’s locked. You can’t get into the castle.”

“Where’s the door along here?” said Jack. They went further along, turned a corner of the castle wall, and came to a sturdy oak door, flush with the wall. The wall arched above it, and the door fitted exactly. Jack put his eye to the keyhole but could see nothing.

“Do you mean to tell me there’s no other way into this castle?” he said to Tassie. “What a peculiar place! It’s like a prison.”

“That’s what it was,” said Lucy-Ann, shivering as she remembered the story Tassie had told. “A prison for poor wretched people who came here and couldn’t get away—and were never heard of again!”

Jack was in despair. To think that two rare eagles might be nesting in the courtyard on the other side of the wall—and he couldn’t get at them. It was too bad.

“We must get in, we simply must,” he said, and gazed up at the high windows. But there was no way of getting up there. The walls were far too smooth to climb. There was no ivy. The castle was impregnable.

“People would have got in before now if there had been a way,” said Philip. “It just shows there’s no way in if no-one ever comes here.”

“Tassie—don’t you know of a way?” said Jack, turning to the little gypsy girl. She considered solemnly. Then she nodded her head.

“I might know,” she said. “I have never been. But it might be a way.”

“Show us, quickly!” said Jack eagerly.

Tassie led them further round the castle, towards the back of it. Here it was built almost into the cliff. A narrow, dark pathway led between the steep hillside and the back wall of the castle. It was almost a tunnel, for both wall and cliff practically met at one place.

Tassie came to a stop, and pointed up. The other four looked, and saw that there was one of the slit windows high up above them. They stared at Tassie, not seeing in the least how that helped them.

“Don’t you see?” said Tassie. “You could climb up the cliff-side here, because it is all overgrown with creepers—and then, when you get opposite that window, you might put a branch of a tree across or something, and get in.”

“I see what she means!” said Philip. “If we could lug a plank or a bough up the side of the steep cliff here, that the castle backs on to—and put one end of it on to the window-sill, and the other firmly into the cliff—we could slide across and get in! It’s an idea!”

The rest of the company received this news with mixed feelings. Dinah was already afraid of bats in the dark and narrow passage-way, and would willingly have gone back into the sunshine of the open hillside. Lucy-Ann didn’t like the idea of climbing the cliff and sliding across a dangerous branch that might slip, into the silent and deserted castle. Jack, on the other hand, thought it was well worth trying, and was eager to do so at once.

“Put on the light,” said Kiki earnestly from somewhere in the dark passage. “Put on the light.”

The children laughed. It was funny the way Kiki sometimes said what sounded like a very sensible sentence.

“Let’s find a branch or something,” said Jack. So they went out of the musty-smelling passage, and hunted for something to use as a bridge across to the window of the castle.

But there was nothing to be found at all. True, Philip found a dead branch, but it was so dead that it would have cracked at once under anyone’s weight. It was impossible to break off from a tree a branch big enough to be any use.

“Blow!” said Jack. “Anyway, let’s go back and see if we can climb up opposite the window. If we think we could get in the way Tassie suggests, we might come up tomorrow with a plank.”

“Yes, it would be better to leave it till tomorrow, really,” said Dinah, trying to see the time by her watch. “It’s getting rather late now. Let’s come up tomorrow with your camera, Jack.”

“All right. But we’ll just see if it’s possible to climb in at that window first,” said Jack. He tried to climb up the cliff-side, but it was very steep, and he kept slipping down. Then Philip tried, and, by means of holding on tightly to some of the strongest of the creepers, he pulled himself up a little way.

But the creeper broke, and down he came, missing his footing at the bottom, and rolling over and over. Fortunately, except for a few bruises, he wasn’t hurt.

“I’ll go,” said Tassie. And up she went like a monkey. It was extraordinary the way she could climb. She was far better than either of the boys. She seemed to know just where to put her feet, and just which creepers to hold on to.

Soon she was opposite the slit window. The creepers grew very thickly on the cliff-side there, and she held on to them whilst she peered across at the window.

“I believe I could almost jump across to the sill,” she called to the others.

“Don’t you do anything of the sort,” shouted back Philip at once. “Little donkey! You’d break both your legs if you fell! What can you see?”

“Nothing much!” called back Tassie, who still seemed to be considering whether or not to jump across and chance it. “There’s the window—very narrow, of course. I don’t know if we could squeeze through. And past the window I can see a room, but it’s so dark I can’t see if it’s big or small or anything. It looks very queer.”

“I bet it does!” said Jack. “Come on down, Tassie.”

“I’ll just leap across and have a try at squeezing in,” said Tassie, and poised herself for a jump. But a roar from Philip stopped her.

“If you do that we’ll never let you go with us again. Do you hear? You’ll break your legs!”

Tassie thought better of her idea. The threat of never being allowed to go about with the children she so much liked and admired filled her with horror. She contented herself with one more look across at the window, and then she climbed down like a goat, landing deftly beside the waiting children.

“It’s just as well that you did as you were told,” said Philip grimly. “Suppose you had got across—and squeezed inside—and then couldn’t get out again! You’d have been a prisoner in that castle for ever and ever!”

Tassie said nothing. She had great faith in her powers of climbing and jumping, and she thought Philip was making a fuss about nothing. Kiki, hearing Philip’s stern voice, joined in the scolding.

“How many times have I told you to shut the door?” she said, flying on to Tassie’s shoulder. Tassie laughed and scratched Kiki’s poll.

“Only about a hundred times,” she said, and the others laughed too. They made their way out of the dark tunnel-like passage, and were glad to be in the sun again.

“Well, we know what to do, anyway,” said Jack. “We’ll find a plank or something to bring up here tomorrow, and we’ll send Tassie up with it, and she can put it across from the cliff-side to the window. We’ll give her a strong rope too, so that she can knot it to some of that creeper up there, and we can pull on it to help ourselves up. We’re not all as goat-footed as Tassie.”

“No, she’s marvellous,” said Lucy-Ann, and Tassie glowed with pleasure. They made their way down the hillside again, finding it a little easier to climb down than up, especially as Tassie took them a good way she knew.

“It’s really getting very late,” said Jack. “I hope your mother won’t be anxious, Philip.”

“Oh no,” said Philip. “She’d know one of us would run down for help if anything happened.”

All the same, Mrs. Mannering had been wondering what had become of the children and she was very glad to see them. She had supper ready for them, and Tassie was asked to stay too. She was thrilled, and tried to watch how the others ate and drank at table, for she had no manners at all. Kiki sat on Jack’s shoulder, and fed on titbits that Jack and the others handed her, making odd remarks from time to time about putting the kettle on, and using handkerchiefs. Button curled up on Philip’s knee and went sound asleep. He was tired after his long walk, though Philip had carried him a good way.

“You know, I half thought Button might run off when we took him out on the hillside he knows so well,” said Philip. “But he didn’t. He didn’t even seem to think of it.”

“He’s a darling,” said Lucy-Ann, looking at the sleeping fox-cub, who had curled his sharp little nose into his big tail. “It’s a pity he’s a bit smelly.”

“Well, he’ll get worse,” said Philip. “So you might as well get used to it. Foxes do smell. I expect we smell just as strong to them.”

“Tassie might, but I’m sure we don’t,” thought Lucy-Ann. “Oh dear, how sleepy I am!”

They were all sleepy that night. The long climb in the sunshine had tired them out. “Let’s go to bed,” said Philip with such a loud yawn that Button woke up with a jump. “We’ve got an exciting day tomorrow, with a lot of climbing again. Don’t forget to look out your camera, Jack.”

“Oh yes—I simply must take a snap of the eagles!” said Jack. “Golly, we’ll have some fun tomorrow!”

Then up they went to bed, yawning. Kiki yawned the loudest—not that she was tired, but it was such a lovely noise to copy!