Читать книгу The Castle of Adventure - Enid blyton - Страница 9

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The next day Button woke Philip by licking the bare sole of his foot, which was sticking out from the bed-clothes. Philip woke with a yell, for he was very ticklish there.

“Stop it, Jack!” he shouted, and then looked in surprise across the room, where Jack was just opening startled eyes. “Oh—it’s all right—it’s only Button. Button, you are never to lick the soles of my feet!”

Jack sat up, grinning. He rubbed his eyes and stretched. Then his glance fell on his fine camera, which he had put ready to take up the hill with him that day, and he remembered what they had planned.

“Come on—let’s get up,” he said to Philip, and jumped out of bed. “It’s a gorgeous day, and I’m longing to go up to the castle again. I might get some wonderful pictures of those eagles.”

Philip was almost as interested in birds as Jack was. The boys began to talk about eagles as they dressed. They banged at the girls’ door as they went down. Mrs. Mannering was already up, for she was an early riser. A smell of frying bacon arose on the air.

“Lovely!” said Jack, sniffing. “Kiki, don’t stick your claws so hard into my shoulder. I got sunburnt yesterday and it hurts.”

“What a pity, what a pity!” said Kiki, in sorrowful tones. The boys laughed.

“You’d almost think she really did understand what you say,” said Philip.

“She does!” said Jack. “I say, what about getting a plank or something now, whilst we’re waiting for breakfast—you know, to put across to the window-sill of the castle?”

“Right,” said Philip, and they wandered out into the sunshine, still sniffing the delicious smell of frying bacon, to which was now added the fragrance of coffee. Button trotted at Philip’s heels, nibbling them gently every time the boy stopped. He did not dare to go near Jack, for if he did Kiki swooped down on him in a fury, and snapped her curved beak at him.

The boys went into the shed where the car was kept. They soon found just what they wanted—a stout plank long enough to reach from the cliff wall to the sill. “Golly! It will be pretty heavy to carry!” said Jack. “We’ll all have to take turns at it. It wouldn’t do to have a smaller one—it just might not reach.”

The girls came out and the boys showed them what they had found. In the night Lucy-Ann had made up her mind she wouldn’t do any plank-climbing or castle-exploring, but now, in the warm golden sunshine, she altered her mind, and felt that she couldn’t possibly be left out of even a small adventure.

“Mother, could we go off for the whole day this time?” said Philip. “Jack’s got his camera ready. We’re pretty certain we know where those eagles are now, and we shall perhaps be able to take some good pictures of them.”

“Well, it’s a lovely day, so it would do you good to go off picnicking,” said his mother. “Oh, do stop Kiki taking the marmalade, Jack! Really, I shan’t have that bird at the table any more, if you can’t make it behave. It ate half the raspberry jam at tea yesterday.”

“Take your nose out of the marmalade, Kiki,” said Jack sternly, and Kiki sat back on his shoulder, offended. She began to imitate Mrs. Mannering crunching up toast, eyeing her balefully the whole time, annoyed at being robbed of the marmalade. Mrs. Mannering had to laugh.

“You’re not going on that land-slide, are you?” she said, and the children shook their heads.

“No, Mother. Tassie showed us another way. Hallo, here she is. Tassie, have you had your breakfast?”

Tassie was peeping in at the kitchen window, her eyes bright under their tangle of hair. Mrs. Mannering sighed. “I might as well not have bothered myself to give her a bath,” she said. “She’s just as dirty as ever. I did think that she would like feeling clean.”

“She doesn’t,” said Dinah. “All she liked was that dreadful smell of carbolic, Mother. If you want to make Tassie wash herself, you’ll have to present her with a bar of strong carbolic soap!”

Tassie, it appeared, had had her breakfast some time before. She climbed in at the window and accepted a piece of toast and marmalade from Philip. Kiki at once edged over to her hopefully. She liked toast and marmalade. Tassie shared it with the parrot.

The five children set off soon after breakfast. Dinah carried the knapsack of food. Lucy-Ann carried Jack’s precious camera. Tassie carried Kiki on her shoulder, very proudly indeed. The two boys carried the plank between them.

“Take us the shortest way you know, Tassie,” begged Jack. “This plank is so awkward to carry. I say, Philip, did you think to bring a rope too? I forgot.”

“I’ve tied one round my waist,” said Philip. “It’s long enough, I think. Button, don’t get under my feet like that, and don’t ask to be carried when I’ve got to take this tiresome plank up the hill!”

With many rests, the little party went up the steep hill towards the castle. Jack kept a look-out for the eagles, but he didn’t see either of them. Kiki flew off to have a few words with some rooks they met, and then flew back again to Tassie’s shoulder. She couldn’t understand why Tassie carried shoes round her neck, and pecked curiously at the laces, trying to get them out of the shoes.

At last they all arrived at the castle, and made their way round the great wall to the back, where the wall of the castle ran level with the side of the hill.

“Here we are at last,” said Jack, panting, and put the plank down thankfully. “You girls coming into the passage-way to watch us putting the plank in place, or not?”

“Yes, rather,” said Dinah. They all went into the tunnel-like passage, which smelt mustier than ever, after the clean heathery smell outside.

They came to where they had climbed up the day before. “Tassie, you go up first, and tie this rope firmly to a stout creeper stem,” said Philip, giving her the rope, which he had untied from his waist. “Then we can all pull ourselves up by it without slipping.”

Tassie climbed up the creeper-clad wall easily. She stopped opposite the slit window of the castle. She tied the rope firmly round a strong creeper stem, and then tested it by leaning forward with all her weight on it.

“Look out, silly!” shouted Philip. “If that rope gives you’ll fall on top of us.”

But it didn’t give. It was quite safe. Tassie grinned down at them and then slid down, holding the rope, and landed beside them on her toes.

“You ought to be in a circus,” said Jack. But Tassie looked blank. She had no idea what a circus was.

Philip had another, shorter piece of rope. “That’s to haul up the plank with,” he said. “Now, let’s tie the plank firmly with this rope, and I’ll drag it up after me as I climb up. Here goes!”

Holding with one hand on to the rope that now hung down from the creeper, and with the other to the rope that dragged the plank, Philip started up the steep cliff wall. But he needed both hands to help himself up, and had to slide down again.

“Tie the plank to my waist,” he said to Jack. “Then I can have both hands to help myself up with, and the plank will come up behind me by itself.”

So the plank was tied to his waist, and then the boy went up again, this time pulling himself with both hands on the rope. His feet slipped, but he went on upwards, feeling the drag of the heavy plank on his waist.

At last he was opposite the castle window. He could see nothing inside the window at all, except black darkness. He began to try and clear a place to fix in one edge of the plank.

“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 window-sill.

“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 window-sill. 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!”