19 lucy-ann has an idea
all that day the girls hung about the courtyard, never keeping very far from the crag, so that theycould talk to poor bored jack in his hiding-place. they wondered how philip was getting on downin the hidden room. had he been discovered?
‘it’s a great pity those men talk together in some language we don’t understand,’ said dinah. ‘ifthey talked in english philip might learn quite a lot of secrets, standing there so close beside them,without them knowing!’
‘yes, he might,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i wish he wasn’t down there though. i should feel so scared ifit was me, hidden in armour that might creak or clank if i moved just a little bit.’
‘well, philip won’t feel scared,’ said dinah, ‘he is hardly ever scared of anything. i expect he isquite enjoying himself.’
but lucy-ann didn’t believe that for one moment. she thought dinah was silly to say such athing. but then, dinah wasn’t as fond of her brother as she, lucy-ann, was. it was bad enough tohave jack being compelled to hide in that horrid gorse bush – but it would have been far worse tohave him down in the hidden room with the men, likely to be discovered at any moment!
‘cheer up!’ whispered jack, from the gorse bush, seeing her gloomy face. ‘this is an adventure,you know.’
‘i only like adventures afterwards,’ said lucy-ann. ‘i don’t like them when they’re happening. ididn’t want this adventure at all. we didn’t look for it, we just seemed to fall into the middle of it!’
‘well, never mind. it’ll turn out all right, i expect,’ said jack comfortingly.
but poor lucy-ann couldn’t see how. it was quite clear that they couldn’t escape from thecastle, and equally clear that no one could rescue them.
they had tea on the crag, the girls passing food to jack, who was now feeling very crampedindeed, and longed to get out and stretch his legs. but he didn’t dare to. when night came hewould, but not till then.
the sun went down. kiki, bored with her long imprisonment, became very talkative. the girlslet her talk, keeping a sharp lookout in case the men came and heard her.
‘poor old kiki, what a pity, what a pity! put the kettle on, god save the queen! now, now, now,now, attention please! sit up straight and don’t loll. how many times have i told you to pop theweasel?’
the girls giggled. kiki was very funny when she talked, for she brought into her chattering allthe words and sentences she knew, running them one into another in a most bewildering way.
‘good old kiki!’ said jack, scratching her neck. ‘you’re bored, aren’t you? never mind, youshall have a fine fly round when it’s dark. now don’t start your express-engine screech, or you’llbring our enemies up here at a run!’
the sun sank lower. long shadows lay across the courtyard and then the whole of it went intotwilight. the stars came out one by one, pricking the sky here and there.
the men came up the yard, two of them together. they called the girls.
‘hey, you two girls! you’d better come down and go to bed.’
‘we don’t mind the dark. we’ll stay a bit longer,’ shouted back dinah, who wanted to walkround the yard with jack, before she and lucy-ann retired to the hidden room.
‘well, come down in half an hour,’ shouted the bearded man. ‘it will be quite dark then, andyou’d be better inside.’
they disappeared. dinah slipped down from her perch and went silently after them. she sawthem going down the steps of the hidden room. then she heard the now familiar grating noise asthe entrance hole was closed by the sliding stone.
she ran back to jack. ‘come on, jack,’ she whispered. ‘the men are down in the hidden room,and it’s almost dark now. you’ll be safe if you come out.’
very glad to come from his uncomfortable hiding-place, jack squeezed out of the bush. hestood up thankfully and stretched his arms high above his head.
‘golly, i’m stiff!’ he said. ‘come on, let’s go for a nice sharp walk round the courtyard. it’s toodark for me to be seen now.’
they set off, linking their arms together. they hadn’t gone more than halfway before somethinghurled itself against them out of the shadows, and almost knocked jack over. he stopped, startled.
‘what’s that? where’s my torch?’
he flicked it on quickly, and then off again, in case the men were about. he gave a low cry.
‘it’s button! dear little old button – how did you get here? i am glad to see you!’
button made happy noises in his throat, rolled over like a puppy, licked the girls and jack, andgenerally behaved as if he was mad with delight. but he kept going off to the side and back again,and it was soon clear to the others that he had come to find philip, his master.
‘you can’t get to philip, old boy,’ said jack, fondling the little fox cub. ‘you’ll have to make dowith us. philip isn’t here.’
the fox cub made a barking noise, and kiki, who was sitting on jack’s shoulder, evidentlyrather disgusted to see button appear again, immediately imitated the barking. button jumped up,trying to reach her, but he couldn’t. kiki made a jeering noise, which would have been mostinfuriating to button if he had understood it, but he didn’t.
‘jack! i’ve got an idea!’ said lucy-ann, suddenly clutching her brother’s arm.
‘what!’ said jack, who never thought very much of lucy-ann’s good ideas.
‘can’t we use button as a messenger? can’t we send him back to tassie with a note, telling herto get help for us, jack? button is sure to go back to her when he can’t find philip, because, next tophilip, he loves tassie. can’t we do that?’
‘jack! that’s really a good idea of lucy-ann’s!’ said dinah, in excitement. ‘button is the onlyone of us who knows how to get out of here. he could be our messenger, as lucy-ann says.’
jack considered it. ‘well,’ he said, ‘i must say it seems a sound idea, and worth trying. it can’tdo any harm, anyway. all right, we’ll make button our messenger.’
the next thing was to write a note to tassie. jack had a notebook, and he tore out a page. hewrote a few words in pencil and read them out to the others.
‘tassie, we are imprisoned here. get help as soon as you can. we may be in serious danger.’
they all signed it. then jack folded it up and wondered how to get button to take it.
he thought of a way at last. he had some string in his pocket, and first of all he tied the notetightly round and round with it. then he twisted the string fairly tightly round button’s sturdy littleneck. he knew that if he made it too loose the fox cub would work it off over his head, for, like allwild things, he resented anything tied to him.
‘there,’ said jack, pleased. ‘i don’t think button can get that off, and the note is tied very tightlyto the string. i’ve made him a kind of string collar, with the note at the front, under his chin.’
‘go back to tassie, button,’ said lucy-ann. but button didn’t understand. he still hoped philipwould appear, and he didn’t want to go back until he had seen him – or, better still, he would staywith him if he could. so the little fox cub hunted all around for philip again and again,occasionally stopping and trying to get off this new thing round his neck. but he couldn’t.
suddenly one of the men called loudly, making everyone jump violently. ‘come in, you twogirls!’
‘good night, jack. we must go,’ whispered lucy-ann, giving her brother a hug. ‘i hope youwon’t be too uncomfortable tonight. take some of our extra rugs into the bush with you, when yougo to sleep.’
‘i shan’t go back to that beastly bush for ages,’ said jack, who was thoroughly tired of hishiding-place and would have been glad never to see it again. ‘good night. don’t worry aboutanything. once button gets to tassie, she’ll soon bring help.’
the girls left him in the dark courtyard. they went into the hall, and saw the dim light of thelamp shining up from the hidden room. they went down the stone steps, and looked hurriedlyround. was philip still in the suit of armour? they couldn’t tell. all the suits of armour werestanding around as usual, but whether one had philip inside or not they didn’t know.
‘we’re going to shut you in here,’ said the shaggy man, his ugly face looking even uglier in thelamplight. ‘you can use that bed to sleep in. we shall see you in the morning.’
he went up the steps, and then the stone swung sideways and upwards, closing the holecompletely. the girls were prisoners once again. they stood in silence for a moment or twolistening. there was nothing to be heard.
‘philip!’ whispered lucy-ann, looking at the suit of armour in which she had last seen him. areyou there? speak to us!’
‘i’m still here,’ came philip’s voice, sounding queerly hollow. ‘but i hope i never have to spendanother day like this. i’m going to get out of this armour. i can’t stay in it another minute!’
‘oh, philip – do you think you’d better?’ said dinah anxiously. ‘suppose the men come back?’
‘i don’t think they will – but if they do i jolly well can’t help it. i’m desperate,’ said philip.
‘i’ve got cramp in all my limbs, i’m tired out with standing so still and i’ve had to stop myselfsneezing at least three times. it’s been a most awful strain, i can tell you.’
a clanking noise came from the suit of armour as philip began to get out of it, clumsily andawkwardly, for he felt very stiff.
‘the worst of it was my toad couldn’t bear being in here with me and he got out through acrack, and hopped and crawled about for all he was worth,’ said philip. ‘the men saw him andwere awfully surprised.’
dinah looked about at once for the toad. she hoped it wasn’t anywhere near her.
‘poor old philip,’ said lucy-ann, going to help. ‘you must have had an awful day.’
‘i have – but i wouldn’t really have missed it for worlds!’ said philip. ‘my word, i’ve learnt afew things, i can tell you! for instance, there’s a secret way out of this room – behind the tapestrysomewhere!’
‘oooh,’ said lucy-ann, looking at the tapestry, as if she expected to see a secret way openingbefore her eyes. ‘is there really? how do you know?’
‘i’ll tell you all about it, once i get out of this awful armour,’ said philip. ‘my word, i hope inever wear it again! you wouldn’t believe how hot i got inside it. there – i’m out, thankgoodness! now to stretch myself a bit!’
‘and then tell us what happened in here today,’ said dinah, eager to hear. ‘i bet you’ve gotsome exciting things to tell us!’
she was right. philip certainly had!
