17 things go on happening

the three children watched the great stone slide into place like magic. it was an extraordinarysight. but philip suddenly felt worried.

‘dinah! let me have that spike. move away. i hope to goodness it will move the stone backagain!’

the boy pulled at it, but it remained fixed. he tried to move it the other way. he jerked it. itwould not move at all.

‘it closes the hole in the floor, but it doesn’t open it,’ he said. he looked round for another spikeor lever or handle – anything that he thought might open the hole to allow them to get out – but hecould see nothing.

‘there must be something!’ he said, ‘or the man that hides here wouldn’t be able to come out atnight. there must be something!’

the two girls were scared. they didn’t like being shut up like this in an underground room.

lucy-ann felt as if all the suits of armour were watching her and enjoying her fright. she didn’tlike them.

‘well, philip, jack will be along soon,’ said dinah, ‘and he’ll see the hole is shut and will workthe spike upstairs in the hall to open it again. we needn’t worry.’

‘i suppose he will,’ said philip, looking relieved. ‘you are an idiot, dinah, messing about withthings before you know what they do.’

‘well, you’d have done the same thing yourself,’ retorted dinah.

‘all right, all right,’ said philip. he began to look all round the peculiar room. the suits ofarmour interested him. he wished he could put one on, just for fun!

an idea came to him. ‘i say, i’ll play a trick on jack!’ he said. ‘i’ll get inside one of these suitsof armour, and hide. then when jack opens the hole and comes down don’t you tell him where iam – and i’ll suddenly step off one of these pedestals the armour is on, with a frightful clangingnoise, and scare him stiff!’

the girls laughed. all right,’ said lucy-ann. ‘hurry up. do you know how to get into one?’

‘yes. i’ve tried one before, when we had one at school to examine,’ said philip. ‘it’s quite easywhen you know how. you can help me.’

before long philip was in the suit of armour. he had the helmet on his head, and the visor overhis face. he could see quite well through the visor, but nobody would know there was anyoneinside the armoured suit! he got back on the pedestal with a lot of clanking. the girls giggled.

‘won’t jack get an awful shock! i wish he’d come,’ said lucy-ann.

‘are you comfortable, philip?’ asked dinah, looking at her armoured brother standing quite stillon his wooden pedestal, looking for all the world exactly like the others around.

‘fairly,’ said philip. ‘but golly, i wouldn’t much like to go to war in this – i’d never be able towalk more than a few yards! how they fought in them, those old-time soldiers, i really don’tknow!’

the girls wandered round the room. they looked at the tapestry scenes. they sat in theenormous old chairs. they fingered the ancient weapons that were arranged here and there. itcertainly was a curious room.

‘what is jack doing?’ said lucy-ann, at last, beginning to feel anxious. ‘he’s been simply ages.

oh, dinah – you don’t think those men have come back, do you – and captured him?’

‘i shouldn’t think so,’ said dinah, also beginning to feel worried. ‘i can’t imagine what he’sdoing. after all, he’d only got to call kiki, wait for her to come to him and then follow us!’

‘you know,’ said a hollow voice from inside the suit of armour, ‘you know, i don’t believethose men we saw were the men from the castle. i’ve suddenly thought – they couldn’t be!’

‘what do you mean?’ cried both girls, staring in dismay at the place where philip’s face wasbehind the visor.

‘well, think where we saw them,’ said philip. ‘we saw them a good way down the hill, justabove the farm, didn’t we? we know there’s no path up to the castle there. and now i think thematter over carefully, i’m pretty certain they were men belonging to the farm. one was thatenormously tall fellow we sometimes see when we fetch eggs.’

the girls thought hard. yes, that was where the men had been seen – just above the old farm.

‘i believe you’re right, philip,’ said lucy-ann, scared. ‘and anyway, if they didn’t want to beseen, it would be silly to take the farm path, wouldn’t it? all the farm dogs would bark at them,and the farmer would look out.’

‘yes – and the dogs were not barking, or we would have heard them,’ said philip. ‘so thatrather proves our point. dash! i don’t believe those were jack’s men, after all. it’s quite likely theynever left the castle, and are still somewhere about.’

‘i do wonder what jack is doing,’ said dinah. ‘i do wish he’d come.’

jack was certainly a long time coming – but he couldn’t help it! he had gone after kiki, whohad flown into the furnished room in which they had both hidden the night before – and suddenly,from the window, he had seen the three men in a corner of the yard!

‘golly!’ thought the boy, ‘philip was wrong – the men he saw weren’t the ones from the castle!

they must have been farm workers seeing to the sheep or something. my word, i hope they’re notgoing to that hidden room!’

the boy darted back into the hall, and went to the place where the hole should be. but it wasgone, and a stone now covered the entrance to the room. he was surprised. he had no idea, ofcourse, that dinah had found the lever below and used it, closing the entrance.

he debated what to do. should he open the hole and see if the others were down there? wouldthe men come into the hall just as he was doing it? he could hear their voices quite clearly now.

jack darted back into the furnished room and, accidentally touching a chair as he went, raised acloud of dust at once. he ran to the wide window and hid behind a long tapestry curtain there. hedid not dare to touch it, because he felt sure it would fall to pieces in his hands.

the men were evidently still worried about the bag of apple cores. it was obvious that theyknew someone was there besides themselves – and then, to jack’s dismay, he saw that they hadfound the pile of things the others had brought up with them that morning!

they had brought them from the courtyard and had spread them out at the entrance to the castle,looking through them carefully. jack caught one or two words, but he couldn’t understand them.

‘we shall have to get out of here the very first moment possible,’ thought the boy. ‘we may getinto serious trouble. if only i could get everyone up into the room with the plank!’

two of the men now separated and went off into the castle, evidently to make another goodsearch. the third man stood at the great doorway, puffing at a cigarette and apparently keeping awatch over the courtyard.

it was impossible for jack to open the way to the hidden room, for the man at the doorwaywould see and hear him. there was nothing to do but wait, and hope for a chance to do it beforeany of the men did it themselves.

so the boy stood behind the curtain, watching and waiting. he wished bill smugs was there!

bill always knew what to do when things were awkward – but then bill was a grown-up andgrown-ups knew how to handle things in the right way, somehow.

the man at the doorway finished his cigarette. he did not throw the end away but carefullystubbed it out against a coin he took from his pocket, and put it into a little tin box. evidently hewas not going to leave any signs about that would tell anyone he was living there.

he turned and came into the hall. jack heard his feet echoing, and held his breath. was he goingback to the hidden room?

he was! he walked to the back of the hall, and felt about in the wall there for the spike. jack,fearing that he was doing this, crept to the door of the room he was hiding in, and peered throughthe crack. from there he could see what happened.

the man pulled at the spike, and the stone moved with a grating sound, first downwards andthen to the side. it was a marvellous piece of mechanism, very old, but still in perfect workingorder.

jack’s heart almost stood still. now what was going to happen? what would the man say whenhe saw the other three?

dinah and lucy-ann heard the grating noise of the stone as it moved, and looked up. philippeered through his visor, hoping jack was coming at last. but to their horror a man stood on thesteps, looking at them in the greatest astonishment and anger!

he could only see dinah and lucy-ann, of course. the two girls stared at him and trembled.

his face was not a pleasant one. he had an enormous nose, narrow eyes, and the thinnest lipsimaginable. shaggy eyebrows hung over his eyes, almost like a sheepdog’s hair.

‘so!’ said the man, and narrowed his eyes still more. ‘so! you come here, and you go to myroom. what is the meaning of this?’

the girls were terrified, and lucy-ann began to sob. jack, listening, longed to push the mandown the steps and break his neck! ‘hateful fellow, frightening poor lucy-ann like that!’ thoughtthe boy angrily, wishing he dared to show himself and comfort her.

then he heard the footsteps of the other two men returning from their hunt. the first man heardthem too and went back up the stairs to the top. he called to the others in a language jack did notunderstand, evidently telling them to come and see what he had found.

philip, still hidden in the suit of armour, took the opportunity of whispering instructions to thegirls. ‘don’t be frightened. they’ll probably only think you’re two girls visiting the old castle.

you tell them that. don’t say a word about me or jack, or we shan’t be able to help you. jack’s upthere somewhere, we know, and he’ll look out for you and get you away. i’ll stay down here till ican escape myself. they won’t know i’m in the armour.’

he couldn’t say any more, because all three men now came down the steps and into the hiddenroom. one man had a dense black beard, the other was clean-shaven, but the man the girls hadalready seen was the ugliest of a really ugly trio.

lucy-ann began to cry again. dinah was very scared, but she would not cry.

‘what are you here for?’ asked the shaggy-browed man. ‘now – you tell us everything – or youmay be very very sorry!’