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Five
Inside the walls

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Tessa went to the door in the thick wall and pushed at it. She turned the looped iron handle, but the door would not open.

‘Locked on the other side, Tessa,’ said Pat, in a low voice. ‘Whoever has come here has come secretly, and you may be sure every door will be well and truly locked. But isn’t it queer?’

‘Yes,’ said Tessa puzzled. ‘Pat—you don’t think the twins could possibly be here, do you?’

‘I shouldn’t think so,’ said Pat. ‘I can’t see why anyone should come for a holiday in this peculiar place. Anyway—I dare say there’s some explanation of the trampled path. Maybe someone comes in each day and dusts the house or something.’

‘Where from?’ demanded Tessa at once. ‘If it was anyone from the village it would be known—and there doesn’t seem to be a single cottage nearby.’

‘I suppose we can’t possibly get into the grounds, can we?’ said Pat, after a pause. ‘I mean—if there’s any chance of the twins being here—which, of course, I don’t really believe—we ought to try and see them and find out what’s happening. Their last letter sounded a bit worried.’

‘That’s all very well—but how do you think we’re going to climb over a 10-feet-high wall with those awful spikes at the top?’ said Tessa, scornfully. ‘I don’t want to be jabbed to pieces, if you do!’

An overgrown path cut with steps led down to the secret lake. The children didn’t think they would go down. Somehow they felt safer up by the wall.

‘Let’s go on round the wall,’ said Tessa, at last. ‘It’s about the only thing left to do.’

So they went on again, pushing their way through the undergrowth—and then suddenly Pat clutched at Tessa and stopped her. He pointed silently upwards.

She looked up to the top of the wall. A tree had fallen against it just there and had broken off the top layer of bricks with its ugly spikes. There was a gap—without spikes!

‘We could shin up the tree and see over the wall from the top there, where it’s broken,’ whispered Pat.

Tessa nodded. An excited feeling welled up in her, and she felt suddenly out of breath. She watched Pat climb carefully up the tree that leaned against the wall, and then he sat on the top, where it was broken. Tessa followed him, tearing her jeans against a sharp twig, but not even noticing it.

There was not room for both children at the top of the wall, for the broken gap was not very large. Tessa peeped over Pat’s shoulder.

They saw a great house with towers at each end. They could see little of the lower part of the building because high trees surrounded it. They gazed at the big dark windows. Most of them had thick curtains pulled right across.

But one window, up on the second floor, had no curtains pulled across—and, as Pat and Tessa watched, they saw a movement behind the window. Then a face looked out—but what kind of face they were too far away to see.

Tessa clutched Pat and made him jump so much that he nearly fell off the wall.

‘Don’t,’ he whispered, fiercely. ‘What’s up? Did you see someone at the window, too?’

‘Yes. Who is it?’ whispered Tessa. ‘Oh, Pat—suppose it’s the twins—and they’re locked up here! Nobody would ever know. They’ve got no parents or relations.’

‘It probably isn’t the twins,’ said Pat, gruffly. ‘But all the same—we’ll try and find out. There’s certainly something peculiar about all this. People coming secretly to this deserted old house; coming to that door in the wall instead of through the village, up the lane and in at the front gate. Who are they, anyway?’

‘Shall we swing ourselves on to the branch of that tree nearby that grows on the inner side of the wall?’ said Tessa. ‘It looks easy to climb down.’

‘Right. But don’t miss getting hold of the branch,’ said Pat. ‘I’ll go first. And mind—if anyone meets us, we’re just exploring, see? Don’t say a word about the twins.’

Soon they were both over the wall and down on the ground. The undergrowth was as thick here as on the other side of the wall—even thicker, it seemed to Tessa, whose legs were getting very scratched indeed. So were Pat’s, but he didn’t seem to mind.

They made their way cautiously towards the house, hiding behind trees whenever they trod on a twig that cracked, in case anyone had heard it. But there seemed to be nobody about at all.

They stood at last behind a bush from which they could see the second-floor window that had no curtains drawn across it. They both peered up. No face was at the window now.

‘What shall we do next?’ whispered Pat. ‘I daren’t go to find a door—we’d have to pass windows on the ground floor, and if they had their curtains drawn back, we might be seen.’

‘Couldn’t we throw a stone up to that second-floor window?’ whispered Tessa. ‘If there’s someone there, they would hear the noise of the stone and come to the window. Then we might be able to see if it was the twins or not.’

‘Right—I’ll throw one,’ said Pat. He found two or three small stones and threw one up. It hit the wall just under the window. He tried again—and his aim was not only good, but much too hard!

CRASH! The window broke. What a tremendous noise it seemed to make in those still grounds! Pat and Tessa squeezed under the thick bush immediately. Now what would happen?

Adventure of the Strange Ruby

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