8
in the cellars
‘let’s push at it together,’ said philip, in excitement. ‘i’ll put the candledown on this ledge.’
he stuck the candle firmly into a crack on the ledge. then he and jackpushed hard at the trap-door just above their heads. a shower of dust felldown, and philip blinked his eyes, half blinded. jack had closed his.
‘blow!’ said philip, rubbing his eyes. ‘come on, let’s try again. i felt itmove.’
they tried again, and this time the trap-door suddenly gave way. it lifteda few inches, and then fell back again, setting free another cloud of dust.
‘get a rock or big stone and we’ll stand on it,’ said jack, red withexcitement. a bit more of a push and we’ll get the thing right open.’
they found three or four flattish stones, put them in a stout pile, andstood on them. they pushed against the trap-door, and to their delight itlifted right up, and fell backwards with a thud on the floor above, leaving asquare opening above the heads of the boys.
‘give me a heave up, jack,’ said philip. he got such a shove that he shotout through the trap-door opening and landed on a rocky floor above. it wasdark there and he could see nothing.
‘hand up the candle, freckles, and then i’ll haul you up,’ said philip. thecandle was handed up, but went out suddenly.
‘blow!’ said philip. ‘oh glory, what’s that?’
‘kiki, i expect,’ said jack. ‘she’s flown up.’
kiki had not made a sound or said a word all through the secret passage.
she had been alarmed at the dark strange place, and had clung hard to jackall the way.
philip hauled jack up, and then groped in his pocket for the matches tolight the candle again. ‘where do you suppose we are?’ he said. ‘i simplycan’t imagine.’
‘feels like the other end of the world,’ said jack. ‘ah – that’s better, nowwe can see.’
he held up the lighted candle and the two boys looked round.
‘i know where we are,’ said philip suddenly. ‘in one of the cellars atcraggy-tops. look – there are boxes of stores over there. tins of food andstuff.’
‘so there are,’ said jack. ‘my word, what a fine store your aunt keepsdown here! golly, this is quite an adventure. do you suppose your aunt anduncle know about the secret passage?’
‘i shouldn’t think so,’ said philip. ‘aunt polly would be sure to havementioned it to us, i should think. i don’t seem to know this part of thecellars very well. let me see – where is the cellar door now?’
the boys wandered down the cellar, trying to find the way out. theycame to a stout wooden door, but, to their surprise, it was locked.
‘blow!’ said philip, annoyed. ‘now we shall have to creep all the wayback down that passage again. i don’t feel like doing that, somehow.
anyway, this isn’t the door that leads out of the cellars into the kitchen. youhave to go up steps to that one. this must be a door that shuts off one partof the cellars from the other. i don’t remember seeing it before.’
‘listen – isn’t that somebody coming?’ said jack suddenly, his sharp earshearing footsteps.
‘yes – it’s joe,’ said philip, hearing the familiar cough he knew so well.
‘let’s hide. i’m not going to tell joe about that passage. we’ll keep it toourselves. shut the trap-door down quickly, jack, and then we’ll hidebehind this archway here. we could slip out quietly when joe opens thedoor. blow out the candle.’
they shut the trap-door quietly and then, in the pitch darkness, hidbehind the stone archway near the door. they heard joe putting a key intothe lock. the door swung open, and the man appeared, looking huge in theflickering light of his lantern. he left the door open, and went towards theback of the cellar, where the stores lay.
the boys had on rubber shoes, and could have slipped out without joeknowing anything at all – but kiki chose that moment to imitate joe’shollow cough. it filled the cellar with mournful echoes, and joe dropped hislantern with a crash. the glass splintered and the light went out. joe gave ahowl of terror and fled out of the door at once, not even pausing to lock it.
he brushed against the two boys as he went, and gave another screech offright, feeling their warm bodies as he passed.
kiki, thrilled at the result of her coughing imitation, gave an unearthlyscreech that sent joe headlong through the other part of the cellar, up thesteps and through the cellar door. he almost fell as he appeared in thekitchen, and aunt polly jumped in astonishment.
‘what’s the matter? what has happened?’
‘there’s things down there!’ panted joe, his face looking as scared as itever could look.
‘things! what do you mean?’ said aunt polly severely.
‘things that screech and yell and clutch at me,’ said joe, sinking into achair, and closing his eyes till nothing but the thinnest slits could be seen.
‘nonsense!’ said aunt polly, stirring a saucepan vigorously. ‘i don’tknow why you wanted to go down there anyway. we don’t need anythingfrom the cellars this morning. i’ve plenty of potatoes up here. pull yourselftogether, joe. you’ll frighten the children if you behave like this.’
the two boys had collapsed into helpless laughter when they had seenpoor joe running in alarm from the cellar, yelling for all he was worth. theyclutched each other and laughed till they ached. ‘well, joe is always tryingto frighten us by tales of peculiar “things” that wander about at night,’ saidjack, ‘and now he’s been caught by his own silly stories – and been almostfrightened out of his wits.’
‘i say – he’s left the key in the door,’ said philip, who had now lightedhis candle again. ‘let’s take it. then, if ever we want to use that passageagain, we can always get out this way if we want to, by unlocking the door.’
he put the big key into his pocket, grinning. maybe the jumpy manwould think one of the ‘things’ he was always talking about had gone offwith his key.
the boys went into the part of the cellar they knew. philip looked withinterest at the door through which they had come.
‘i never knew there was another cellar beyond this first one,’ he said,looking round the vast underground room. ‘how did i never notice thatdoor before, i wonder?’
‘those boxes must have been piled in front of it to hide it,’ said jack.
there were empty boxes by the door, and now that he thought of it, philiphad remembered seeing them in a big pile every time he had gone into thecellar. they had been neatly piled in front of that door. a trick of joe’s, nodoubt, to stop the children going into the second cellar, where all thosestores were kept. how silly and childish! well, he couldn’t stop them goingthere now.
‘we can go there through the secret passage, or we could go therethrough the door, because i’ve got the key now,’ thought philip, pleased atthe idea of being able to outwit the man if he wanted to.
‘i suppose those steps lead up to the kitchen, don’t they?’ said jack,pointing to them. ‘is it safe to go up, do you think? we don’t want anyoneto see us, or they’d ask awkward questions.’
‘i’ll slip up to the top, open the door a crack, and listen to see if anyone isabout,’ said philip. so up he went. but joe had gone out and his aunt wasno longer there, so the big kitchen was empty and silent. the boys wereable to slip out, go to the outer door, and run down the cliff path withoutanyone seeing them at all.
‘the girls will wonder whatever had become of us,’ said jack, suddenlyremembering dinah and lucy-ann, waiting patiently for them in the cavewhere the hole was that led into the passage. ‘come on – let’s give them asurprise, shall we? they’ll be expecting us to come back through the secretpassage – they’ll never expect us to come back this way.’
they made their way down to the rocky shore. they went to the cavesthey had explored that morning and found the one that had the hole. thetwo girls were sitting by the hole, anxiously discussing what they ought todo.
‘we really must go and get help now,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i’m suresomething has happened to the boys. really i am.’
philip suddenly spotted the giant starfish again, the one that had causedall the trouble. very silently he picked it up. without making a sound, hecrept over the seaweedy cave floor to poor dinah. he placed the starfish onher bare arm, where it slithered down in a horrible manner.
dinah leapt up with a shriek that was even worse than kiki’s loudest one.
‘oh— oh philip’s back again, the beast! wait till i get hold of you, philip!
i’ll pull all your hair out of your head! you hateful boy!’
in one of her furious rages dinah leapt at philip, who ran out of the cavesand on to the sandy shore in glee. lucy-ann threw her arms round jack.
she had been very anxious about him.
‘jack! oh, jack, what happened to you? i waited so long. how did youcome back this way? where did the passage lead to?’
shrieks and yells and shouts from dinah and philip made it impossiblefor jack to answer, especially as kiki now joined in the row, screeching likean express train in a tunnel.
there was a fine fight going on between philip and dinah. the angry girlhad caught her brother, and was hitting out at him for all she was worth.
‘i’ll teach you to throw starfish at me. you mean pig! you know i hatethose things. i’ll pull all your hair out.’
philip got free and ran off, leaving a few of his hairs in dinah’s fingers.
dinah turned a furious face to the others.
‘he’s a beast. i shan’t talk to him for days. i wish he wasn’t my brother.’
‘it was only a bit of fun,’ began jack, but this made matters worse. dinahflew into a temper with him too, and looked so fierce that lucy-ann wasquite alarmed, and thought she would have to defend jack if dinah rushedto slap him.
‘i won’t have anything to do with any of you,’ stormed dinah, andwalked off angrily.
‘now she won’t hear all we’ve found this morning,’ said jack. ‘what aspitfire she is! well, we’ll have to tell you, lucy-ann. we’ve had a realadventure.’
dinah, walking off in a fury, suddenly remembered that she had not heardthe story of the secret passage and where it came out. forgetting her rage,she turned back at once.
she saw lucy-ann and the two boys together. philip turned his back onher as she came up. but dinah could be as sudden in her good tempers asshe was in her bad ones. she put her arm on philip’s.
‘sorry, philip,’ she said. ‘what happened to you and jack in that secretpassage? i’m longing to know.’
so peace was restored again, and soon the two girls were listening in thegreatest excitement to all that the boys had to tell.
‘it was an adventure, i can tell you,’ said jack. so it was – and there weremore to come!
