21 another day goes by
jack felt lonely when the girls had gone down the steps to the hidden room for the night. he wasleft up in the courtyard with kiki, and he felt bored.
‘i hope the girls will be all right,’ he thought. ‘oh, hallo, button, are you still here? why don’tyou go back to tassie? you won’t be able to get to philip, you know.’
the fox cub whined and rubbed his head against jack, asking him as plainly as a fox cub couldto take him to his beloved philip.
‘listen. you go back to tassie with that note,’ said jack, still forgetting that tassie couldn’tread a word. ‘go on, button. once you get to tassie, things will be easier for us, because whenshe reads that note, she will get help.’
button stayed in the courtyard with jack almost all night long. he didn’t give up hope of findingphilip, and kept going off to hunt for him. kiki was very scornful of him but button took no noticeof her.
the moon came up and lighted the courtyard strangely. an owl hooted, and kiki at oncemimicked it perfectly. the owl came into the yard on silent wings, to look for the one who hadanswered. kiki was delighted. she kept hooting softly from one place and another, and the owlwas astonished to find what seemed to him to be a perfect host of owls all over the place, callingfirst from one spot and then another.
jack enjoyed the fun. then suddenly he saw the three men standing in the moonlight, and feltglad that he had not been wandering about, for he would certainly have been seen.
he slipped away into the shadows of the great wall, and came near to the enormous door thatstood facing what had once been the road to the castle. he sat down by a big bush, knowing itwould hide him completely.
suddenly he jumped violently, and stared as if he could not believe his eyes. the big door wasopening! it swung slowly back without a sound, and where it had been was now a moonlit space,gateway to the outer world!
jack half rose – but sank back again. two men entered the castle yard, and then the great soliddoor closed silently behind them. there was a loud click, and then the two men passed quite closeto jack. they did not see him, for he was in black shadow. he crouched down like a toad againstthe earth.
the men passed and soon joined the other two. then they all disappeared into the castle. jackimagined they were going down to the hidden room – as indeed they were.
he waited till they had gone, and then made his way as quickly as he could to the big door inthe high wall. if only he could open it! if only he could get out, and go down the hillside, even ifhe had to walk over the treacherous landslide! after all, those men must have come up that way.
he felt about for the handle of the door. it was a large iron ring. jack twisted it this way andthat, but the door did not open.
‘that click i heard must have been the men locking it!’ he thought angrily. ‘it’s impossible toget out. blow it! maybe if i’d been near enough i could have slipped out as they slipped in! itwouldn’t have mattered if they had seen me because i could have run down the hillside beforethey could stop me!’
he sat and brooded near the door. ‘i’ll wait here in the shadows till they come back. then i’lldash out with them. they’ll be so taken by surprise that maybe they won’t even put out a hand tome!’
so jack sat there hour after hour, almost falling asleep. but the men did not return. dinah couldhave told him why! they had gone through the secret door under the tapestry in the hidden room.
the other three were somewhere in the castle.
when the eastern sky began to turn silver jack knew it was time to return to his gorse bush. kikiwas fast asleep on his shoulder, having tired of the owl hours since. button too had vanished.
jack had not seen him go. he had forgotten about the little fox cub in the excitement of seeingthe castle door open. he wondered where he had gone.
‘i hope he’s gone back to tassie,’ he thought. ‘we can expect help sometime today if he has.
about time too! i’m fed up with being here. not an eagle left now, and the two girls in danger, tosay nothing of poor old philip. i wonder how he has got on. perhaps the girls will tell me today.’
the girls came out of the hidden room about eight o’clock. the three men had gone down thereand turned them out. dinah had begged philip to get back into the suit of armour before the menreturned, but he wouldn’t.
‘no, i’d rather be under the bed,’ he said firmly. ‘one day in that horrible stiff suit is enough forme. i’d rather be caught than stand there all day again. you put me some food and drink under thebed, and i’ll stay here. i can always wander about and stretch my legs when the men are not here.’
‘well – fortune favours the bold!’ said dinah, who thought that she would have felt the same ifshe had been philip. ‘it’s a bold thing to do, to lie in hiding under the very bed the men may sleepon today – but maybe you’ll be all right there. don’t sneeze, though!’
apparently it was the men’s intention to sleep the day away on the big four-poster. they camedown into the room and ordered the girls out. the bearded man flung himself on the bed. all themen looked tired, and the unshaven faces of the other two were not nice to see.
‘we’ll call you down tonight,’ said the bearded man, from the bed, and he yawned. ‘take whatfood you want from that pile of tins. there’s a tin opener on the table. now clear out and leave us.
couple of little nuisances!’
the girls grabbed a tin of sardines, a tin of salmon, one of peaches and one of apricots, and fledup the stairs. no sooner had they reached the top than the hole was closed by the stone.
‘sleep well!’ said dinah mockingly, and then the two girls went in search of jack. he was underhis gorse bush, wishing they would come.
‘jack! are you all right? you can come out for a bit because the men are safe down in theunderground room!’ said lucy-ann. ‘do you want some sardines – or peaches? we’ve got both.’
‘hallo!’ said jack, delighted to see them. ‘is it really safe for a bit? all right, i’ll come out andwe’ll squat behind this rock here. i’m longing for something to eat. didn’t you bring biscuits withyou when you came yesterday?’
dinah found the tin of biscuits, and they had a comic breakfast of sardines, biscuits andpeaches, washed down by ginger beer. still they all enjoyed it thoroughly, and exchanged theirnews eagerly.
jack was intensely interested to hear all that philip had told them. ‘a secret way behind thattapestry!’ he exclaimed, his eyes gleaming. ‘but where does it lead to?’
‘goodness knows – into the hillside somewhere, i suppose,’ said dinah, dipping a biscuit intopeach-juice and sucking it.
‘wait now – what side of the hidden room is the secret door in the wall?’ asked jack. ‘oh –opposite where philip stood at the back – well, let me see – that means that the door would leadinto the hill at the back of the castle. at the back of the castle! how funny! i wonder if there aredungeons there or something?’
‘oh dear – do you think the men are keeping people prisoners and perhaps starving them todeath?’ said lucy-ann, at once. ‘like that wicked old man did. oh, jack, you don’t suppose thatold man is still alive, do you, living like an old spider in his castle, still doing wicked things?’
‘of course not,’ said jack. ‘haven’t i told you he’s dead and gone years and years ago? don’tget such wild ideas into your head, lucy-ann. now let me think a bit. don’t interrupt.’
he nibbled his biscuit and pondered again. ‘yes, i think i’m right,’ he said. ‘that door under thetapestry must lead underground through the hill at the back of the castle. i’d like to go down thatpassage and see what is there! i bet philip will sooner or later!’
‘i hope he’ll be sensible and keep under the bed,’ said lucy-ann. ‘with men wandering in andout of secret doors and things, he might easily bump into one of them and be caught.’
‘did button leave you last night?’ said dinah suddenly. ‘where is he?’
‘yes, he went at last,’ said jack. ‘but where i don’t know. i only hope he’s found tassie bynow, and she has seen the note.’
‘philip says it won’t be any good, that note,’ said lucy-ann mournfully. ‘we forgot that tassiecan’t read.’
‘blow!’ said jack. ‘of course she can’t. what silly-billies we are!’
‘silly-billy, silly-billy, silly-billy,’ at once chanted kiki, pleased. ‘pop goes the silly-billy!’
‘you’ll go pop in a minute if you eat any more peaches,’ said jack. ‘is the tin empty, dinah?
put it away from kiki, for goodness’ sake. she’s been tucking in like anything while we’ve beentalking.’
‘poor old silly-billy,’ said kiki gloomily, as dinah removed the tin and tapped her smartly onthe beak.
‘what are we going to do today?’ said lucy-ann.
‘well, what can we do except wait?’ said jack.
‘and hope that tassie has the sense to show our note to someone,’ said dinah. ‘surely shewould do that? she knows she can’t get to us herself – or she would know, if she came, and sawthe plank was gone!’
the day passed slowly. there was nothing to do, not even an eagle to watch. ‘wish i could do aspot of developing,’ sighed jack, feeling in his shorts pocket for his precious rolls of film. ‘but ican’t. i’m just longing to see how the eagles have come out.’
there was nothing to read. the girls wandered round a bit and wondered whether they dared togo up into the tower, and try to signal from there. but who would see? no one but tassie, and shewould not know what to make of the signals.
‘anyway, if you did go up into the tower, you might be badly punished by any of those men,’
said jack. ‘it’s not worth risking it. we must just wait in patience for tassie to send help.’
the day passed at last and night came. the men yelled for the two girls to go down into thesecret room again. they said a hurried goodnight to jack and went. there was no question ofdisobeying the men. all the children were afraid of them.
jack did not hide in his gorse bush. when it was dark enough he went down to the spring nearthe bottom of the wall, to get a drink. he dared not go into the kitchen for one, in case he bumpedinto one of the men, or they heard the pump clanking.
he bent down to the spring – and then listened in amazement. a most curious noise was comingfrom the little tunnel into which it disappeared.
‘oooph! ow! ooooph!’ a scraping, dragging noise could be heard too. something was comingup the tunnel. jack stepped back in great alarm. whatever could it be?
