7 inside the castle of adventure
the next day button woke philip by licking the bare sole of his foot, which was sticking out fromthe bedclothes. 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 justopening startled eyes. ‘oh – it’s all right – it’s only button. button, you are never to lick the solesof 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 hadplanned.
‘come on – let’s get up,’ he said to philip, and jumped out of bed. ‘it’s a gorgeous day, and i’mlonging 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 theydressed. they banged at the girls’ door as they went down. mrs mannering was already up, for shewas 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 gotsunburnt 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 waitingfor breakfast – you know, to put across to the windowsill of the castle?’
‘right,’ said philip, and they wandered out into the sunshine, still sniffing the delicious smell offrying 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 didkiki 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 – astout plank long enough to reach from the cliff wall to the sill. ‘golly! it will be pretty heavy tocarry!’ said jack. ‘we’ll all have to take turns at it. it wouldn’t do to have a smaller one – it justmight not reach.’
the girls came out and the boys showed them what they had found. in the night lucy-ann hadmade up her mind she wouldn’t do any plank-climbing or castle-exploring, but now, in the warmgolden sunshine, she altered her mind, and felt that she couldn’t possibly be left out of even asmall 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 takesome good pictures of them.’
‘well, it’s a lovely day, so it would do you good to go off picnicking,’ said his mother. ‘oh, dostop kiki taking the marmalade, jack! really, i shan’t have that bird at the table any more, if youcan’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 hisshoulder, offended. she began to imitate mrs mannering crunching up toast, eyeing her balefullythe whole time, annoyed at being robbed of the marmalade. mrs mannering had to laugh.
‘you’re not going on that landslide, 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 yourbreakfast?’
tassie was peeping in at the kitchen window, her eyes bright under their tangle of hair. mrsmannering sighed. ‘i might as well not have bothered myself to give her a bath,’ she said. ‘she’sjust as dirty as ever. i did think that she would like feeling clean.’
‘she doesn’t,’ said dinah. ‘all she liked was that smell of carbolic, mother. if you want tomake 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 andaccepted 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-anncarried jack’s precious camera. tassie carried kiki on her shoulder, very proudly indeed. the twoboys carried the plank between them.
‘take us the shortest way you know, tassie,’ begged jack. ‘this plank is so awkward to carry. isay, 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 undermy 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 lookout forthe eagles, but he didn’t see either of them. kiki flew off to have a few words with some rooksthey met, and then flew back again to tassie’s shoulder. she couldn’t understand why tassiecarried shoes round her neck, and pecked curiously at the laces, trying to get them out of theshoes.
at last they arrived at the castle, and made their way round the great wall to the back, where thewall 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 cominginto the passageway to watch us putting the plank in place, or not?’
‘yes, rather,’ said dinah. they all went into the tunnellike passage, which smelt mustier thanever, after the clean heathery smell outside.
they came to where they had climbed up the day before. ‘tassie, you go up first, and tie thisrope firmly to a stout creeper stem,’ said philip, giving her the rope, which he had untied from hiswaist. ‘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 thecastle. she tied the rope firmly round a strong creeper stem, and then tested it by leaning forwardwith 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, holdingthe 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 circuswas.
philip had another, shorter piece of rope. ‘that’s to haul up the plank with,’ he said. ‘now, let’stie 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 otherto the rope that dragged the plank, philip started up the steep cliff wall. but he needed both handsto 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 himselfwith both hands on the rope. his feet slipped, but he went on upwards, feeling the drag of theheavy 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 ontassie’s rope. then, between them, they managed to haul up the plank, and lift it so that it almostreached the windowsill.
‘a bit more over – that’s right – now a bit more to the right!’ panted jack – and then, with athud, the plank at last rested on the sill of the narrow slit window. the other end rested firmly on amass 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 goeskiki!’
sure enough, kiki, who had been watching everything in the greatest surprise, had sailed up inthe air and was now sitting on the plank, raising her crest and making a chortling noise. then shewalked clumsily across to the window and hopped on the sill. she poked her beak inside theopening. 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 heresafely till we can help you across,’ said philip, stamping on the creepers around. ‘the cliff wallgoes 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 downhere.’
soon all three girls were up by the boys. it was easy to go up by the rope. they watched jack sitastride the plank, and gradually edge himself across in that position. the plank was as firm ascould be. jack felt quite safe.
he got to the windowsill. he stood up on the plank and clutched the stone sides of the narrowwindow. he stood in the opening.
‘golly, it’s narrow!’ he shouted across the plank, to where the others were watching himbreathlessly. ‘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 asall that, surely!’
jack began to squeeze through the narrow stone window. it certainly was a squash. he had tohold his tummy in hard, and not breathe at all. he wriggled through gradually, and then suddenlyjumped 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 bringtorches next time.’
dinah went next, helped by philip. jack helped her down the other side. she hadn’t muchdifficulty in getting through the window. then came tassie, then lucy-ann, then philip, who hadas much difficulty as jack in squeezing through.
‘well, here we are!’ he said, ‘inside the castle of adventure!’
