8 up in the tower

‘the castle of adventure!’ echoed lucy-ann in surprise. ‘what makes you say that? do youthink we shall have an adventure here?’

‘oh, i don’t know!’ said philip. ‘i just said it – but it’s got an odd feeling, this castle, hasn’t it?

my word, isn’t it dark?’

a mournful barking came from below. it was button, left behind. philip stuck his head out ofthe window. ‘it’s all right, button. we’re coming back!’

kiki stuck her head out too, and gave a railway-engine screech. ‘that’s just to tell poor buttonshe’s up here, and he’s not!’ said dinah. ‘kiki, you do like to crow over poor button, don’t you?’

it was very dark in the room they had jumped into. but gradually they could see better as theireyes got used to the darkness. the children blinked and tried to see their surroundings.

‘it’s just a big bare room,’ said jack, rather disappointed. he didn’t quite know what he hadexpected to see. ‘i suppose the whole castle’s like this – full of big, bare, cold rooms. come on –let’s do a bit of exploring.’

they made their way to the door, which opened into a long corridor. they went down this andcame to a lighter room, lit by one slit window and one wide one evidently added much later. thisroom had a big fireplace and there were still old grey ashes there. the children looked at them.

‘funny to think that people once sat round that fire!’ said dinah. they went into the next room,which again was very dark, because it had only a slit window to light it. dinah wandered to thewindow, and suddenly gave such a yell that everyone jumped violently.

‘dinah! what is it?’ cried philip.

dinah ran back to him so quickly that she bumped into him. ‘there’s something in this room!’

she cried. ‘it touched my hair. i felt it. come out quickly.’

‘don’t be silly,’ began philip, and then he stopped suddenly. something had touched his hairtoo! he swung round but there was nothing there. his heart beat fast. was there really somethingin the room, touching them, but invisible?

then a ray of sunlight unexpectedly came slanting in through the slit window, and philip gave asudden laugh. ‘how silly we are!’ he said. ‘it’s cobwebs – look, hanging down from the ceiling!

they must be years old!’

everyone was very much relieved, but dinah wouldn’t stay in the room one moment more. shewas scared – and the very idea of cobwebs touching her made her more scared still. she shudderedwhen she thought of the spiders that might drop on her from the cobwebby ceiling!

‘come out where it’s sunshiny,’ she begged, and they all went into a wide corridor, where thesun poured in at many windows. tassie walked close to philip, with scared eyes. she knew the oldvillage tales, and half expected the wicked old man to appear from somewhere and take them allprisoner! but where philip went she meant to go too.

‘look – this way leads across one of the battlemented walls to the eastern tower!’ cried jack.

‘let’s go along to the tower – we’ll get a magnificent view from there.’

‘i feel like an old-time soldier marching round the castle wall,’ said philip, as they made theirway along to the tower. ‘here we are. goodness, it’s quite big, isn’t it? look, there’s a room at thebottom of the tower, flush with this wall – and there’s a winding stone stair that leads to the top ofthe tower. come on, up we go!’

and up they went, determined not to look at the view till they got to the highest point. the stonestair twisted awkwardly round and round, and led them straight into another room, out of which anarrow stair led them to the very roof of the tower itself.

they went up the tiny stair and found themselves on the top of the tower, its battlemented edgerising a few feet all round.

they all gasped, and gazed down in silence. not one of them had ever been so high up before,nor had they seen such a wide and magnificent view. it seemed as if the whole world lay spreadout before them, sparkling in the sunshine. below, far, far below, lay the valley, through whichcurved the silver river, like a gleaming snake. what houses they could see looked like toy ones.

‘look at those hills opposite,’ said jack. ‘there are hills behind those – and hills behind thosetoo – and hills behind those!’

tassie was amazed. she never thought the world was so big. from the vantage point of the hightower the whole country was spread like a living map before her. it was so beautiful that for someextraordinary reason lucy-ann felt like crying.

‘what a wonderful place this must have been for a lookout!’ said philip. ‘any sentry here couldsee enemies coming miles and miles away. look – is that spring cottage right down there, amongthose trees?’

it was, looking like a doll’s house, halfway down the hill. ‘i wish we could bring mother uphere,’ said dinah. ‘how she would love this view!’

‘look! look! there are the eagles again!’ said jack, and he pointed up in the air, where twogreat eagles soared to the clouds. ‘i say – shall we have our lunch here, on the top of this tower,and see this marvellous view all the time, and watch my eagles?’

‘oh yes!’ said everyone, including kiki. she always joined in any chorus.

‘poor little button,’ said philip. ‘i wish we could have brought him too. but it was too riskyacross that plank. i expect he’s feeling very lonely now. i hope he won’t run off.’

‘you know he won’t,’ said dinah. ‘no animal ever runs away from you, worse luck. oh, philip– you haven’t brought that awful toad with you, have you? yes, you have! it’s peeping out of yourneck! i just won’t sit up here with a toad crawling round.’

‘now for goodness’ sake don’t start a quarrel up on the top of the tower,’ said jack, in realalarm. ‘that stone edging won’t stop anyone from falling if they start fooling about. dinah, do sitdown.’

‘don’t order me about,’ said dinah, beginning to flare up.

‘where’s the food?’ said lucy-ann, hoping to change the subject. ‘dinah, you’ve got it. get itout, because i’m dying of hunger!’

keeping as far away from her brother as she could, dinah undid the knapsack. there were twobig packets inside, one marked ‘dinner’ and one marked ‘tea’.

‘put the tea packet back,’ said jack, ‘or we might gobble that up too! i feel hungry enough to eatall you’ve got there.’

dinah divided out sandwiches, cake, biscuits, fruit and chocolate. then she presented everyonewith a cardboard cup of lemonade from a bottle.

‘we’ve had plenty of picnics in our time,’ said philip, biting hugely into a thick sandwich ofegg and ham, ‘but never one in such an extraordinary place as this. it almost makes me giddy,looking out at that enormous view.’

‘it’s lovely to sit here and eat, looking at those hills, and that winding river down in the valley,’

said lucy-ann contentedly. ‘i believe that old man tassie told us about must have bought thiscastle for the view! i would, i know, if i had enough money.’

they ate and drank happily. kiki shared the sandwiches, which she liked immensely. then shewent exploring along the stone coping at the edge of the tower, climbing upside-down now andagain.

the children watched her, eating their cake. suddenly kiki gave an alarming screech, lost herbalance and fell right off the tower! she disappeared below, and the children leapt up in horror.

then they sat down again, smiling and feeling rather foolish – for, of course, as soon as she fell,kiki spread out her wings and soared into the air!

‘idiot, kiki!’ said dinah. ‘you gave me quite a scare! well, has everyone nearly finished? if so,i’ll clear up the paper and the cardboard cups and put them back into the knapsack.’

jack had been watching the eagles, which, all the time they were at lunch, had been soaringhigh in the air, looking like black specks. now they were coming down again, gliding in largecircles, their great wings spread out to catch the smallest current of air.

there was plenty of wind on the top of the hill. it blew steadily on the tower, and the children’shair was blown back all the time, as they sat facing the breeze. they watched the eagles go lowerand lower.

below them and behind them lay the inner courtyard of the castle. it was overgrown with grassand patches of heather. gorse bushes grew there, and a few small birch-trees. the hillside hadcome into its own again there, and pushed up strong-growing bushes, which had forced their waythrough.

‘i believe the eagles have their nest in that clump of trees over there, in the corner of theovergrown courtyard!’ said jack excitedly. ‘it’s the sort of craggy place they might choose! shallwe go and see?’

‘are you sure they’re not dangerous?’ said philip doubtfully. ‘they’re awfully big birds – and ihave heard stories of them attacking men.’

‘yes,’ said jack. ‘well – as soon as they fly off again, i’ll go and look. anyway, we might aswell go down now and have a look round. kiki, come here!’

kiki flew to his shoulder, and nibbled his ear gently, talking her usual nonsense. the childrengot up and went down the two stone stairways. both the top and bottom rooms of the tower werecompletely empty. cobwebs hung in the corners, and dust lay thickly on the floor and ledges,except where the wind blew in strongly.

‘how do we get down to the courtyard?’ wondered philip. ‘we’ll have to go back along thewall and into the castle itself, i suppose. there must be a stairway down to the rooms below.’

so back they went, and came to the main building of the castle again. they looked into roomafter room, all empty. then at last they came to a very wide stone stairway that led down anddown. they clattered down it and came into a big hall. it was dark.

something suddenly hurled itself against philip’s legs and he leapt in fright, giving a loudexclamation. everyone stood still.

‘what is it?’ said lucy-ann, in a whisper.

it was button, the fox cub!

‘now how in the world did he get to us!’ cried philip, picking the little creature up. ‘he musthave found some hole, i suppose, and scrambled through it to find us. button, you’re a marvel!

but my word, you did give me a fright!’

button gave some of his little barks as he cuddled against philip’s chest. kiki addressed a fewscornful remarks to him about shutting the door. she was the only one sorry to see his arrival!

‘now let’s get into the courtyard and explore round a bit,’ said jack. ‘look out for the eagles,all of you!’