18 prisoners in the castle

‘we only came to have a look at the castle,’ said dinah, trying to keep her voice from trembling.

‘does it belong to you? we didn’t know.’

‘how did you find this room?’ demanded the bearded man, scowling.

‘by accident,’ said dinah. ‘we were so surprised. please let us go. we’re only two girls, and wedidn’t mean any harm.’

‘does anyone outside this castle know we are here, or anything about this room?’ asked theshaggy man.

‘no, nobody,’ said dinah truthfully. ‘we have never seen you before this moment, and we onlyfound the room today. please, do let us go!’

‘i suppose you’ve been messing about here for some days,’ said the man. ‘we found yourthings. interfering little trespassers!’

‘we didn’t know the castle belonged to anyone,’ said dinah, again. ‘how could we know? noone ever comes here. the villagers keep away from the place.’

‘is anyone with you?’ asked the bearded man, suspiciously.

‘well, you can see that for yourselves,’ said dinah, hoping fervently that none of the menwould think of looking into the suits of armour standing round the room.

‘we’ve looked all over the place,’ said the third man to the shaggy one. ‘there’s no one elsehere, that we do know!’

‘please let us go,’ begged dinah. ‘we won’t come here again, we promise.’

‘ah – but you will go home and you will tell about things you have found here and seen here,isn’t that so?’ said the bearded man, in a horrid, smooth kind of voice. ‘no, little missies – youmust stay here till our work is done. then, when it no longer matters, maybe we shall let you go. isaid maybe! it depends on how you behave.’

philip trembled with anger inside the suit of armour. how dared these men speak like that to thetwo girls? but the boy did not dare to show himself. that might only make things worse.

‘well,’ said the bearded man, ‘we have business to discuss. you may leave this room, but donot go beyond our call.’

to the girls’ intense relief the men allowed them to go up the stone steps into the hall. then thehole closed once more, and they were left alone.

‘we must escape,’ whispered dinah, taking lucy-ann’s hand. ‘we must get away immediatelyand bring help to philip. i daren’t think what would happen to him if those men found him.’

‘where’s jack?’ sobbed lucy-ann. ‘i want him.’

jack was not far away. as soon as he heard the stone close the hole up, and recognised the girls’

voices, he darted out of the old drawing-room. lucy-ann saw him and ran to him gladly.

he put his arms round her, and patted her. ‘it’s all right, lucy-ann, it’s all right. we’ll soon beout of here, and we’ll get help to rescue philip. don’t worry. don’t cry any more.’

but lucy-ann couldn’t stop crying, though now she cried more from relief at having jack againthan from fright. the boy guided her to the wide stone stairs that led to the upper rooms of thecastle.

‘we’ll get across the plank in no time,’ he said. ‘then we’ll be safe. we’ll soon rescue philiptoo. don’t be afraid.’

up they went and up, then along the long corridor, lit dimly by its slit windows. they came tothe room they used for the plank.

dinah ran gladly to the window, eager to slip across to safety. but she paused in dismay. therewas no plank.

‘we’re in the wrong room!’ she said. ‘oh, quick, jack, find the right one!’

they ran out and into the next room – but there was no plank on the sill there either. then intothe next room further on they went – but again there was no plank.

‘this is like a bad dream,’ said dinah, trembling. ‘we shall go into room after room, and theplank will never be there! oh, jack – is this a nightmare?’

‘it seems like one,’ said the boy. ‘come now – we’re upset and excited – we’ll begin at thebottom of the corridor and work our way along each room – then we shall find the right one.’

but they didn’t. room after room had no welcome plank on its sill. at the last room the childrenpaused.

‘i’m afraid,’ said jack, ‘i’m very much afraid that the men discovered how we got in – andremoved the plank!’

‘oh dear!’ said dinah, and sat down suddenly on the dusty floor. ‘my legs won’t hold me upany more. i suppose the men would never have let lucy-ann and me out of the hidden roomunless they had discovered our way in, and made it impossible for us to escape that way.’

‘yes – if we’d stopped to think for a moment we’d have guessed that ourselves,’ said jack,gloomily. he also sat down on the floor to consider things. ‘i wonder where they put the plank. itmight be a good idea to look for it.’

‘they’ve probably just tipped it off the sill and left it lying on the ground,’ said dinah, just asgloomily.

‘no, they wouldn’t do that, in case anyone else did happen to know that way in,’ said jack.

‘we’d better look for it.’

so they hunted all over the place, but there was no sign of the plank at all. wherever it was, itwas too well hidden for the children to find. they gave it up after a bit.

‘well, what are we going to do, now that we can’t escape?’ said dinah. ‘do stop sniffing, lucy-ann. it doesn’t do any good.’

‘don’t bother her,’ said jack, who felt sorry for his small sister. ‘this is pretty serious. here weare, stuck in this old castle with no way of escape – and philip down below in the hidden room ingreat danger of being discovered. he’s only got to sneeze or cough, you know!’

lucy-ann pondered this statement of alarm. she at once imagined poor philip trying to stiflesneeze after sneeze.

‘we’ve apparently fallen headlong into some strange mystery,’ said jack. ‘i can’t make head ortail of it. why these men want to hide up here, i don’t know. but they are ugly customers – nastyfellows, each one of them. they must belong to a gang of some sort, up to some mischief. i’d liketo put a stop to it, but it’s impossible as things are. the only good things about the whole affair arethat the men don’t know i’m here, and they don’t know that philip is hidden in their secret meetingplace!’

‘if only we could get out!’ sighed lucy-ann. ‘i know aunt allie is away, but we could get holdof the farmer or someone.’

‘i don’t see how we can possibly get out, now that our one and only way of getting in is gone,’

said jack. ‘i don’t think even tassie will come up, now that her mother has threatened her with ahiding if she does.’

‘we mustn’t let the men know you’re here too, jack,’ said dinah. ‘where will you hide forsafety?’

‘in the middle of my gorse bush,’ said jack. ‘that’s as safe as anywhere. you girls go down tothe hall and see if that room is still shut – if it is i’ll slip down and go up the crag to my gorsebush. you can sit about on the rocks there and whisper to me what goes on.’

‘i wish we knew where button got in and out,’ said lucy-ann. ‘if we did we might try his way.

only i suppose if it’s a rabbit-hole it would be far too narrow for us.’

they made their way to the hall. the stone was still in place over the hidden room. theybeckoned jack down, and he sped across the hall, out of the great doorway, across the courtyardand up the craggy, gorse-grown rock in the corner to the safety of his hiding-place. he crawled in,and the bush closed round him.

the girls climbed up the rocks to be near him. from there they had a good view of everything todo with the castle. they undid a packet of food and began to have a meal, though lucy-annchoked over almost every mouthful. they handed jack some food through the prickly branches ofthe bush.

‘good thing we brought up such stacks of food,’ said dinah. ‘if we are going to be prisoners forages it’s just as well!’

‘of course, if your mother hadn’t gone away she would have got worried when we didn’t gohome, and have sent a search party up to the castle,’ said lucy-ann. ‘it’s bad luck she should havegone away just now! no one will miss us at all.’

‘sh! here are two of the men!’ said dinah. ‘don’t say a word more, jack.’

the men gave a loud shout for the two girls. dinah answered sulkily. they beckoned to them tocome down from the crag.

‘and did you find your little plank?’ enquired the bearded man politely, and the other mansniggered.

‘no. you took it away,’ said dinah sullenly.

‘of course. it was such a good idea of yours – but we didn’t like it,’ said the man. ‘now, youcannot get away, you know that. so you may stay here unharmed in the courtyard, and at nightyou may sleep peacefully in the big bed downstairs, for we have work to do that will take uselsewhere. but we forbid you to go up to the towers, or upstairs at all. we are not going to haveyou signalling for help. you understand that if you disobey us, you will be very sorry – and youwill probably be put down into a dungeon we know of, where rats and mice and beetles live.’

dinah shuddered. the very idea filled her with horror.

‘so you be good girls and obedient, and no harm will come to you,’ said the bearded man.

‘always be where we can see you, somewhere in this courtyard, and come when we call. youhave plenty of food, we know. and there is water in the kitchen, if you pump it.’

the girls did not answer. the men walked off and disappeared once more into the castle.

‘what’s happening to philip?’ said lucy-ann, after a pause. ‘will he starve down there? i wishwe could rescue him.’

‘he won’t starve. there’s plenty of food on the table, if only he can step off his pedestal and getit,’ said dinah. ‘if only we could send word to tassie! she might get help. but there is no way ofsending word.’

‘i suppose kiki wouldn’t go, with a note tied to her leg, like pigeons have in wartime?’ saidlucy-ann. ‘no, i’m sure she wouldn’t leave jack. she’s an awfully clever and sensible bird, but itwould be too much to expect her to become a messenger for us.’

however, a messenger did turn up – a most unexpected one, but a very welcome one indeed!