chapter eleven on the old wreck
it was quite a shock to have their plans spoilt. they knew there was no other room in the ruinedcastle that was sufficiently whole to shelter them. and they must find some sort of shelter, foralthough the weather was fine at the moment, it might rain hard any day - or a storm might blow up.
"and storms round about kirrin are so very violent," said julian, remembering one or two. "do youremember the storm that tossed your wreck up from the bottom of the sea, george?""oh yes," said george and anne, together, and anne added eagerly: "let's go and see the wrecktoday if we can. i'd love to see if it's still balanced on those rocks, as it was last year, when weexplored it."
"well, first we must make up our minds where we are going to sleep," said julian, firmly. "i don'tknow if you realise it, but it's about three o'clock in the afternoon! we slept for hours on the sand -tired out with our exciting night, i suppose. we really must find some safe place and put our thingsthere at once, and make our beds."
"well, but where shall we go?" said dick. "there's no other place in the old castle.""there's the dungeon below," said anne, shivering. "but i don't want to go there. it's so dark andmysterious."
nobody wanted to sleep down in the dungeons! dick frowned and thought hard. "what about thewreck?" he said. "any chance of living there?""we might go and see," said julian. "i don't somehow fancy living on a damp old rotting wreck -but if it's still high on the rocks, maybe the sun will have dried it, and it might be possible to have ourbed and stores there."
"let's go and see now," said george. so they made their way from the ruined castle to the old wallthat ran round it. from there they would be able to see the wreck. it had been cast up the year before,and had settled firmly on some rocks.
they stood on the wall and looked for the wreck, but it was not where they had expected it. "it'smoved," said julian, in surprise. "there it is, look, on those rocks - nearer to the shore than it wasbefore. poor old wreck! it's been battered about a good bit this last winter, hasn't it? it looks muchmore of a real wreck than it did last summer."51
"i don't believe we shall be able to sleep there," said dick. "it's dreadfully battered. we might be ableto store food there, though. do you know, i believe we could get to it from those rocks that run outfrom the island!"
"yes, i believe we could," said george. "we could only reach it safely by boat last summer - butwhen the tide is down, i think we could climb out over the line of rocks, right to the wreck itself.""we'll try in about an hour," said julian, feeling excited. "the tide will be off the rocks by then.""let's go and have a look at the old well," said dick, and they made their way back to the courtyardof the castle. here, the summer before, they had found the entrance to the well-shaft that ran deepdown through the rock, past the dungeons below, lower than the level of the sea, to fresh water.
the children looked about for the well, and came to the old wooden cover. they drew it back.
"there are the rungs of the old iron ladder i went down last year," said dick, peering in. "now let'sfind the entrance to the dungeon. the steps down into it are somewhere near here."they found the entrance, but to their surprise some enormous stones had been pulled across it.
"who did that?" said george, frowning. "we didn't! someone has been here!""trippers, i suppose," said julian. "do you remember that we thought we saw a spire of smoke herethe other day? i bet it was trippers. you know, the story of kirrin island, and its old castle anddungeons, and the treasure we found in it last year, was all in the newspapers. i expect one of thefishermen has been making money by taking trippers and landing them on our island.""how dare they?" said george, looking very fierce. "i shall put up a board that says "trespassers willbe sent to prison." i won't have strangers on our island.""well, don't worry about the stones pulled across the dungeon entrance," said julian. "i don't thinkany of us want to go down there. look at poor old timmy! he's gazing at those rabbits mostunhappily. isn't he funny?"
timothy was sitting down behind the children, looking most mournfully at the ring of rabbits allround the weed grown courtyard. he looked at the rabbits and then he looked at george, then helooked back at the rabbits.
"no good, timmy," said george, firmly. "i'm not going to change my mind about rabbits. you're notto chase them on our island."
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"i expect he thinks you're most unfair to him," said anne. "after all, you said he might share yourquarter of the island with you - and so he thinks he ought to have his share of your rabbits too!"everyone laughed. timmy wagged his tail and looked hopefully at george. they all walked acrossthe courtyard and then julian suddenly came to a stop.
"look!" he said in surprise, pointing to something on the ground. "look! someone has been here!
this is where they built a fire!"
everyone gazed at the ground. there was a heap of wood-ash there, quite evidently left from a fire.
stamped into the ground was a cigarette end, too. there was absolutely no doubt about it -someone had been on the island!
"if trippers come here i'll set timmy on to them!" cried george, in a fury. "this is our own place, itdoesn't belong to anybody else at all. timothy, you mustn't chase rabbits here, but you can chaseanybody on two legs, except us! see?"
timmy wagged his tail at once. "woof!" he said, quite agreeing. he looked all round as if he hopedto see somebody appearing that he could chase. but there was no one.
"i should think the tide is about off those rocks by now," said julian. "let's go and see. if it is we'llclimb along them and see if we can get to the wreck. anne had better not come. she might slip andfall, and the sea is raging all round the rocks.""of course i'm coming!" cried anne, indignantly "you're just as likely to fall as i am.""well, i'll see if it looks too dangerous," said julian. they made their way over the castle wall, downto the line of rocks that ran out seawards, towards the wreck. big waves did wash over the rocksoccasionally, but it seemed fairly safe.
"if you keep between me and dick, you can come, anne," said julian. "but you must let us help youover difficult parts, and not make a fuss. we don't want you to fall in and get washed away."they began to make their way along the line of rugged slippery rocks. the tide went down evenfarther as they got nearer to the wreck, and soon there was very little danger of being washed off therocks. it was possible now to get right to the wreck across the rocks - a thing they had not been ableto do the summer before.
"here we are!" said julian at last, and he put his hand on the side of the old wreck. she was a big shipnow that they were near to her. she towered above them, thick with shellfish and seaweed, 53smelling musty and old. the water washed round the bottom part of her, but the top part was right outof the water, even when the tide was at its highest.
"she's been thrown about a bit last winter," said george, looking at her. "there are a lot more newhole in her side, aren't there? and part of her old mast is gone and some of the deck. how can we getup to her?"
"i've got a rope," said julian, and he undid a rope that he had wound round his waist. "half a minute -i'll make a loop and see if i can throw it round that post sticking out up there."he threw the rope two or three times, but could not get the loop round the post. george took it fromhim impatiently. at the first throw she got it round the post. she was very good indeed at things likethat - better than a boy in some things, anne thought admiringly.
she was up the rope like a monkey, and soon stood on the sloping slippery deck. she almost slipped,but caught at a broken piece of deck just in time. julian helped anne to go up, and then the two boysfollowed.
"it's a horrid smell, isn't it?" said anne, wrinkling up her nose. "do all wrecks smell like this? i don'tthink i'll go and look down in the cabins like we did last time. the smell would be worse there."so the others left anne up on the half-rotten deck while they went to explore a bit. they went downto the smelly, seaweed-hung cabins, and into the captain's old cabin, the biggest of the lot.
but it was quite plain that not only could they not sleep there, but they could certainly not hope tostore anything there, either. the whole place was damp and rotten. julian was half afraid his footwould go through the planking at any moment.
"let's go up to the deck," he said. "it's nasty down here - awfully dark too."they were just going up, when they heard a shout from anne, "i say! come here, quick! i've foundsomething!"
they hurried up as fast as they could, slipping and sliding on the sloping deck. anne was standingwhere they had left her, her eyes shining brightly. she was pointing to something on the opposite sideof the ship.
"what is it?" said george. "what's the matter?""look - that wasn't here when we came here before surely!" said anne, still pointing. the otherslooked where she pointed. they saw an open locker at the other side of the deck, and stuffed into itwas a small black trunk! how extraordinary!
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"a little black trunk!" said julian, in surprise. "no - that wasn't there before. it's not been there longeither - it's quite dry and new! whoever does it belong to? and why should it be here?"
