look at that pile over there!"
"Very wasteful of them!" said Dick.
"I wish they would come and drop some near our caravan to save me going to
get firewood each day for the fire!"
They were standing at the great archway that
made the entrance to the castle. Anne grew impatient. "Do let's look at
the towers now," she said.
They went to the nearest one, but it was
almost impossible to realize that it had been a tower. It was just a great heap
of fallen stones, piled one on top of another.
They went to the only good tower. They had
hoped to find some remains of a stone stairway, but to their great
disappointment they could not even look up into the tower! One of the inner
walls had fallen in, and the floor was piled up, completely blocked. There was
no sign of a stairway. Either it too had fallen in, or it was covered by the
stones of the ruined wall.
Julian was astonished. It was obvious that
nobody could possibly climb up the tower from the inside! Then how in the world
could there have been a face at the tower window? He began to feel rather
uncomfortable. Was it a real face? If not what could it have been?
"This is queer," said Dick, thinking
the same as Julian, and pointing to the heaped-up stones on the ground floor of
the tower. "It does look absolutely impossible for anyone to get up into
the top of the tower. Well - what about that face then?"
"Let's go and ask that old woman if there
is any way at all of getting up into the tower," said Julian. "She
might know."
So they left the castle, walked across the
courtyard, back to the little tower in the outer wall that guarded the big
gateway. The old woman was sitting by the turnstile, knitting.
"Could you tell us, please, if there is
any way of getting up into the tower over there?" asked Julian.
The old woman answered something, but it was
difficult to understand a word she said. However, as she shook her head
vigorously, it was plain that there was no way up to the tower. It was very
puzzling.
"Is there a better plan of the castle
than this?" asked Julian, showing his guide-book. "A plan of the
dungeons, for instance - and a plan of the towers as they once were, before
they were ruined?"
The old lady said something that sounded like
"Society of Reservation of something-or-other."
"What did you say?" asked Julian,
patiently.
The witch-like woman was evidently getting
tired of these questions. She opened a big book that showed the amount of
people and fees paid, and looked down it. She put her finger on something
written there, and showed it to Julian.
"Society for Preservation of Old
Buildings," he read. "Oh - did somebody come from them lately? Would
they know more than it says in the guide-book?"
"Yes," said the old woman. "Two
men came. They spent all day here - last Thursday. You ask that Society what
you want to know - not me. I only take the money."
She sounded quite intelligible all of a
sudden. Then she relapsed into mumbles again, and no one could understand a
word.
"Anyway, she's told us what we want to
know," said Julian. "We'll telephone the Society and ask them if they
can tell us any more about the castle. There may be secret passages and things
not shown in the guide-book at all."
"How exciting!" said George,
thrilled. "I say, let's go back to that tower and look at the outside of
it. It might be climbable there."
They went back to see - but it wasn't
climbable. Although the stones it was built of were uneven enough to form
slight foot-holds and hand-holds it would be much too dangerous for anyone to
try to climb up - even the cat-footed Jo. For one thing it would not be
possible to tell which stones were loose and crumbling until the climber caught
hold - and then down he would go!
All the same, Jo was willing to try. "I
might be able to do it," she said, slipping off one of her shoes.
"Put your shoe on," said Dick at
once. "You are NOT going to try any tricks of that sort. There isn't even
ivy for you to cling to."
Jo put back her shoe sulkily, looking
astonishingly like George as she scowled. And then, to everyone's enormous
astonishment, who should come bounding up to them but Timmy!
"Timmy! Wherever have you come
from?" said George, in surprise. "There's no way in except through
the turnstile - and the door behind it is shut.  How did
you get in?"
"Woof," said Timmy, trying to
explain. He ran to the good tower, made his way over the blocks of stone lying
about and stopped by a small space between three or four of the fallen stones.
"Woof," he said again, and pawed at one of the stones.
"He came out there," said George.
She tugged at a big stone, but she couldn't move it an inch, of course. "I
don't know how in the world Timmy squeezed himself out of this space - it
doesn't look big enough for a rabbit. Certainly none of us could get
inside!"
"What puzzles me," said Julian,
"is how Timmy got in from the outside. We left him right outside the
castle - so he must have run round the outer wall somewhere and found a small
hole. He must have squeezed into that."
"Yes. That's right," said Dick.
"We know the walls are eight feet thick, so he must have found a place
where a bit of it had broken at the bottom, and forced his way in. But - would
there be a hole right through the whole thickness of eight feet?"
This was really puzzling. They all looked at
Timmy, and he wagged his tail expectantly. Then he barked loudly and capered
round as if he wanted a game.
The door behind the turnstile opened at once
and the old lady appeared. "How did that dog get here?" she called.
"He's to go out at once!"
"We don't know how he got in," said
Dick.
"No," said the old woman. "Not
one. You must have let that dog in when I wasn't looking. He's to go out. And
you too. You've been here long enough."
"We may as well go," said Julian.
"We've seen all there is to see - or all that we are allowed to see. I'm
quite sure there is some way of getting up into that tower although the
stairway is in ruins. I'm going to ring up the Society for the Preservation of
Old Buildings and ask them to put me in touch with the fellows who examined the
castle last week. They must have been experts."
"Yes. They would probably have a complete
plan," said Dick. "Secret passages, dungeons, hidden rooms and all -
if there are any!"
They took Timmy by the collar, and went out
through the turnstiles, click-click-click. "I feel like having a couple of
doughnuts at the dairy," said George. "And some lemonade. Anyone else
feel the same?"
Everyone did, including Timmy, who barked at
once.
"Timmy's silly over those
doughnuts," said George. "He just wolfs them down."
"It's a great waste," said Anne.
"He ate four last time - more than anyone else had."
They walked down to the village. "You go
and order what we want," said Julian, "and I'll just go and look up
this Society. It may have an office somewhere in this district."
He went to the post office to use the
telephone there, and the rest of them trooped in at the door of the bright
little dairy. The plump shopwoman welcomed them beamingly. She considered them
her best customers, and they certainly were.
They were each on their second doughnut when
Julian came back. "Any news?" asked Dick.
"Yes," said Julian. "Peculiar
news, though. I found the address of the Society - they've got a branch about
fifty miles from here, that deals with all the old buildings for a radius of a
hundred miles. I asked if they had any recent booklet about the castle."
He stopped to take a doughnut, and bit into
it. The others waited patiently while he chewed.
"They said they hadn't. The last time
they had checked over Faynights Castle was two years ago."
"But - but what about those two men who
came from the Society last week, then?" said George.
"Yes. That's what I said," answered
Julian, taking another bite. "And here's the peculiar bit. They said they
didn't know what I was talking about, nobody had been sent there from the
Society, and who was I, anyhow?"
"Hmm!" said Dick, thinking hard.
"Then - those men were examining and exploring the castle for their own
reasons!"
"I agree," said Julian. "And I
can't help thinking that the face at the window and those two men have
something to do with one another. It's quite clear that the men had nothing
whatever to do with any official society - they merely gave it as an excuse
because they wanted to find out what kind of hiding-place the castle had."
The others stared at him, feeling a familiar
excitement rising in them - what George called the "adventure
feeling".
"Then there was a real face at that tower
window, and there is a way of getting up there," said Anne.
"Yes," said Julian. "I know it
sounds very far-fetched, but I do think there is just a possibility that those
two scientists have gone there. I don't know if you read it in the paper, but
one of them, Jeffrey Pottersham, has written a book on famous ruins. He would
know all about Faynights Castle, because it's a very well-known one. If they
wanted to hide somewhere till the hue and cry had died down, and then escape to
another country, well..."
"They could hide in the tower, and then
quietly slip out from the castle one night, go down to the sea, and hire a
fishing-boat!" cried Dick, taking the words out of Julian's mouth.
"They'd be across the Channel in no time."
"Yes. That's what I'd worked out
too," said Julian. "I rather think I'll telephone Uncle Quentin about
this. I'll describe the face as well as I can to him. I feel this is all rather
too important to manage quite on our own. Those men may have extremely
important secrets."
 "Oh - I'm glad I'm in it
too!"
Chapter Fifteen
AN INTERESTING DAY
Contents - Prev/Next
EVERYONE began to feel distinctly excited.
"I think I'll catch the bus into the next town," said Julian.
"The telephone-box here is too easily overheard. I'd rather go to a kiosk
somewhere in a street, where nobody can hear what I'm saying."
"All right. You go," said Dick.
"We'll do some shopping and go back to the caravans. I wonder what Uncle
Quentin will say!"
Julian went off to the bus-stop. The others
wandered in and out of the few village shops, doing their marketing. Tomatoes,
lettuces, mustard and cress, sausage rolls, fruit cake, tins of fruit, and
plenty of creamy milk in big quart bottles.
They met some of the fair-folk in the street,
and everyone was very friendly indeed. Mrs. Alfredo was there with an enormous
basket, nearly as big as herself. She beamed and called across to them.
"You see I have to do my shopping myself!
 And he has no brains. I tell him
to bring back meat and he brings fish, I tell him to buy cabbage and he brings
lettuce. He has no brains!"
The children laughed. It was strange to find
great big Alfredo, a real fire-eater, ordered about and grumbled at by his tiny
little wife.
"It's a change to find them all so
friendly," said George, pleased. "Long may it last. There's the
snake-man, Mr. Slither - he hasn't got his snakes with him, though."
"He'd have the whole village to himself
if he did!" said Anne. "I wonder what he buys to feed his snakes
on."
"They're only fed once a fortnight,"
said Jo. "They swallow..."
"No, don't tell me," said Anne,
hastily. "I don't really want to know. Look, there's Skippy."
Skippy waved cheerily. She carried bags filled
to bursting too. The fair-folk certainly did themselves well.
"They must make a lot of money,"
said Anne.
"Well, they spend it when they have
it," said Jo. "They never save. It's either a good time for them or a
very bad time. They must have had a good run at the last show-place-they all
seem very rich!"
They went back to the camp and spent a very
interesting day, because the fair-folk, eager to make up for their unfriendly
behaviour, made them all very welcome. Alfredo explained his fire-eating a
little more, and showed how he put wads of cotton wool at the hook-end of his
torches, and then soaked them in petrol to flare easily.
The rubber-man obligingly wriggled in and out
of the wheel-spokes of his caravan, a most amazing feat. He also doubled
himself up, and twisted his arms and legs together in such a peculiar manner
that he seemed to be more like a four-tentacled octdpus than a human being.
He offered to teach Dick how to do this, but
Dick couldn't even bend himself properly double. He was disappointed because he
couldn't help thinking what a marvellous trick it would be to perform in the
playing-field at school.
Mr. Slither gave them a most entertaining talk
about snakes, and ended up with some information about poisonous snakes that he
said they might find very useful indeed.
"Take rattlers now," he said,
"or mambas, or any poisonous snake. If you want to catch one to tame,
don't go after it with a stick, or pin it to the ground. That frightens it and
you can't do anything with it."
"What do you have to do then?" asked
George.
"Well, you want to watch their forked
tongues," said Mr. Slither, earnestly. "You know how they put them
out, and make them quiver and shake?"
"Yes," said everyone.
"Well, now, if a poisonous snake makes
its tongue go all stiff without a quiver in it, just be careful," said Mr.
Slither, solemnly. "Don't you touch it then. But if its tongue is nice and
quivery, just slide your arms along its body, and it will let you pick it
up." He went through the motions he described, picking up a pretend snake
and letting its body slither through his arms. It was fascinating to watch, but
very weird.
"Thanks most awfully," said Dick.
"Whenever I pick up poisonous snakes, I'll do exactly as you say."
The others laughed.  Mr. Slither was pleased to have
such an appreciative audience. George and Anne, however, had firmly made up
their minds that they were not going even to look at a snake's tongue if it put
it out - they were going to run for miles!
There were a few more fair-folk there that the
children didn't know much about - Dacca, the tap-dancer, who put on high boots
and tap-danced for the children on the top step of her caravan - Pearl, who was
an acrobat and could walk on a wire-rope, dance on it, and turn somersaults
over it, landing back safely each time - and others who belonged to the show
but only helped with the crowds and the various turns.
Jo didn't know them all, but she was soon so
much one of them that the children began to wonder if she would ever go back to
her foster-mother again!
"She's exactly like them all now,"
said George. "Cheerful and dirty, slap-dash and generous, lazy and yet
hardworking too! Bufflo practises for hours at his rope-spinning, but he lies
about for hours too. They're queer folk, but I really do like them very
much."
The others agreed with her heartily. They had
their lunch without Julian, because he hadn't come back. Why was he so long? He
only had to telephone his uncle!
He came back at last. "Sorry I'm so
late," he said, "but first of all I couldn't get any answer at all,
so I waited a bit in case Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin were out - and I had
lunch while I waited. Then I telephoned again, and Aunt Fanny was in, but Uncle
Quentin had gone to London and wouldn't be back till night."
"To London!" said George,
astonished. "He hardly ever goes to London."
"Apparently he went up about these two
missing scientists," said Julian. "He's so certain that his friend
Terry-Kane isn't a traitor, and he went up to tell the authorities so. Well, I
couldn't wait till night, of course."
"Didn't you report our news then?"
said Dick, disappointed.
"Yes. But I had to tell Aunt Fanny,"
said Julian. "She said she would repeat it all to Uncle Quentin when he
came back tonight. It's a pity I couldn't get hold of him and find out what he
thinks. I asked Aunt Fanny to tell him to write to me at once."
After tea they sat on the hillside again,
basking in the sun. It really was wonderful weather for them. Julian looked
over to the ruined castle opposite. He fixed his eyes on the tower where they
had seen the face. It was so far away that he could only just make out the
window-slit.
"Get your glasses, George" he said.
"We may as well have another squint at that window. It was about this time
that we saw the face."
George fetched them. She would not give them
to Julian first though - she put them to her own eyes and gazed at the window.
At first she saw nothing - and then, quite suddenly, a face appeared at the
window! George was so astonished that she cried out.
Julian snatched the glasses from her. He
focused them on the window and saw the face at once. Yes - the same as
yesterday - eyebrows and all!
Dick took the glasses, and then each of them
in turn gazed at the strange face. It did not move at all, as far as they could
see, but simply stared. Then, when Anne was looking at it, it suddenly
disappeared and did not come back again.
"Well - we didn't imagine it yesterday
then," said Julian. "It's there all right.  Er - did any of you think that the face had a - a sort
of - despairing expression."
"Yes," said Dick and the others
agreed. "I thought so yesterday, too," said Dick. "Do you suppose
the fellow, whoever he is, is being kept prisoner up there?"
"It looks like it," said Julian.
"But how in the world did he get there? It's a marvellous place to put
him, of course. Nobody would ever dream of a hiding-place like that - and if it
hadn't been for us looking at the jackdaws through very fine field-glasses,
we'd never have seen him looking out. It was a chance in a thousand that we saw
him."
"In a million," said Dick.
"Look here, Ju - I think we ought to go up to the castle and yell up to
the fellow - he might be able to yell back, or throw a message out."
"He would have thrown out a message
before now if he'd been able to," said Julian. "As for yelling, he'd
have to lean right out of that thick-walled window to make himself heard. He's
right at the back of it, remember, and the slit is very deep."
"Can't we go and find out
something?" said George, who was longing to take some action. "After
all, Timmy got in somewhere, and we might be able to as well."
"That's quite an idea," said Julian.
"Timmy did find a way in - and it may be the way that leads up to the top
of the tower."
"Let's go then," said George at
once.
"Not now," said Julian. "We'd
be seen if we scrambled about on the hill outside the castle walls. We'd have
to go at night. We could go when the moon comes up."
A shiver of excitement ran through the whole
five. Timmy thumped his tail on the ground. He had been listening all the time,
just as if he understood.
"We'll take you too, Timmy," said
George, "just in case we run into any trouble."
"We shan't get into trouble," said
Julian. "We're only going to explore - and I don't think for a minute
we'll find much, because I'm sure we shan't be able to get up into the tower.
But I expect you all feel like I do - you can't leave this mystery of the face
at the window alone - you want to do something about it, even if it's only
scrambling round the old walls at night."
"Yes. That's exactly how I feel,"
said George. "I wouldn't be able to go to sleep tonight, I know. Oh Julian
- isn't this exciting?"
"Very," said Julian. "I'm glad
we didn't leave today, after all! We should have, if we hadn't seen that face
at the window."
The sun went down and the air grew rather
cold. They went into the boys' caravan and played cards, not feeling at all
sleepy. Jo was very bad at cards, and soon stopped playing. She sat watching,
her arm round Timmy's neck.
They had a supper of sausage rolls and tinned
strawberries.  "No trouble to prepare, and most delicious to
eat. Julian - is it time to go?"
"Yes," said Julian. "Put on
warm things - and we'll set off! Here's to a really adventurous night!"
Chapter Sixteen
SECRET WAYS
Contents - Prev/Next
THEY waited till the moon went behind a cloud,
and then, like moving shadows, made their way down the hillside as fast as they
could. They did not want any of the fair-folk to see them. They clambered over
the stile and went up the lane. They made their way up the steep path to the
castle, but when they came to the little tower where the turnstile was they
went off to the right, and walked round the foot of the great, thick walls.
It was difficult to walk there, because the
slope of the hill was so steep. Timmy went with them, excited at this
unexpected walk.
"Now, Timmy listen - we want you to show
us how you got in," said George. "Are you listening, Timmy? Go in,
Timmy, go in where you went this morning."
Timmy waved his long tail, panted, and let his
tongue hang out in the way he did when he wanted to show he was being as
helpful as he could. He ran in front, sniffing.
Then he suddenly stopped and looked back. He
gave a little whine. The others hurried to him.
The moon most annoyingly went behind a cloud.
Julian took out his torch and shone it where Timmy stood. The dog stood there,
looking very pleased.
"Well, what is there to be pleased about,
Timmy?" said Julian, puzzled. "There's no hole there - nowhere you
could possibly have got in. What are you trying to show us?"
Timmy gave a little bark. Then suddenly leapt
about four feet up the uneven stones of the wall, and disappeared!
"Hie - where's he gone?" said
Julian, startled, and flashed his torch up. "I say, look! There's a stone
missing up there, quite a big block - and Timmy's gone in at the hole."
"There's the block - fallen down the
hillside," said Dick, pointing to a big white stone, roughly square in
shape. "But how has Timmy gone in, Ju? This wall is frightfully thick, and
even if one stone falls out, there must be plenty more behind!"
Julian climbed up. He came to the space where
the great fallen stone had been and flashed his torch there. "I say - this
is interesting!" he called. "The wall is hollow just here. Timmy's
gone into the hollow!"
At once a surge of excitement went through the
whole lot. "Can we get in and follow Timmy?" called George.
"Shout to him, Julian, and see where he is."
Julian called into the hollow. "Timmy!
Timmy, where are you?"
A distant, rather muffled bark answered him,
and then Timmy's eyes suddenly gleamed up at Julian. The dog was standing down
in the small hollow behind the fallen stone. "He's here," called back
Julian. "I tell you what I think we've hit on. When this enormous wall was
built, a space was left inside - either to save stones, or to make a hidden
passage, I don't know which. And that fallen stone has exposed a bit of the
hollow. Shall we explore?"
"Oh, yes," came the answer at once.
Julian climbed down into the middle of the wall. He flashed his torch into the
space he was standing in. "Yes," he called, "it's a kind of
passage. It's small, though. We'll have to bend almost double to get along it.
Anne, you come next, then I can help you."
"Will the air be all right?" called
Dick into the passage.
"It smells a bit musty," said
Julian. "But if it really is a passage, there must be secret air-holes
somewhere to keep the air fresh in here. That's right, Anne - you hang on to
me. Jo, you come next, then George, then Dick."
Soon they were all in the curious passage,
which ran along in the centre of the wall. It certainly was very small. They
all got tired of going along bent double. It was pitch dark too, and although
they all had torches, except Jo, it was very difficult to see.
Anne hung on to Julian's coat for dear life.
She wasn't enjoying this very much, but she wouldn't have been left out of it
for anything.
Julian suddenly stopped, and everyone bumped
into the one in front. "What's up?" called Dick, from the back.
"Steps here!" shouted back Julian.
"Steps going down, very very steeply - almost like a stone ladder. Be
careful, everybody!"
The steps were certainly steep. "Better
go down backwards," decided Julian. "Then we can have hand-holds as
well as foot-holds. Anne, wait till I'm down and I'll help you."
The steps went down for about ten feet. Julian
got down safely, then Anne turned herself round and went down backwards too, as
if she were on a ladder instead of on stairs. It was much easier that way.
At the bottom was another passage, wider and
higher, for which everyone was devoutly thankful. "Where does this lead
to?" said Julian, stopping to think. "This passage is at right angles
to the wall - we've left the wall now - we're going underneath part of the
courtyard, I should think."
"I bet we're not far from that
tower," called Dick. "I say -1 do hope this leads to the tower."
Nobody could possibly tell where it was going
to lead to! Anyway, it seemed to run quite straight, and after about eighty
feet of it, Julian stopped again.
"Steps up again!" he called.
"Just as steep as the others. I think we may be going up into the inside
of the castle walls. This is possibly a secret way into one of the old rooms of
the castle."
They went carefully up the steep stone steps
and found themselves, not in a passage, but in a very small room that appeared
to be hollowed out of the wall of the castle itself. Julian stopped in
surprise, and everyone crowded into the tiny room. It really wasn't much larger
than a big cupboard. A narrow bench stood at one side, with a shelf above it.
An old pitcher stood on the shelf, with a broken lip, and on the bench was a
small dagger, rusty and broken.
"I say! Look here! This is a secret room
- like they used to have in old places, so that someone might hide if
necessary," said Julian. "We're inside one of the walls of the castle
itself - perhaps the wall of an old bedroom!"
"And there's the old pitcher that had
water in," said George. "And a dagger. Who hid here - and how long
ago?"
Dick flashed his torch round to see if he
could spot anything else. He gave a sudden exclamation, and kept his torch
fixed on a corner of the room.
"What is it?" said Julian.
"Paper - red and blue silver paper,"
said Dick. "Chocolate wrapping! How many times have we bought this kind of
chocolate, wrapped in silver paper patterned with red and blue!"
He picked it up and straightened it out. Yes -
there was the name of the chocolate firm on it!
Everyone was silent. This could only mean one
thing. Someone had been in this room lately - someone who ate chocolate -
someone who had thrown down the wrapping never expecting it to be found!
"Well," said Julian, breaking the
silence. "This is surprising. Someone else knows this way in. Where does
it lead to? Up to that tower, I imagine!"
"Hadn't we better be careful?" said
Dick, lowering his voice. "I mean - whoever was here might quite well be
wandering about somewhere near."
"Yes. Perhaps we'd better go back,"
said Julian, thinking of the girls.
"No," said George, in a fierce
whisper. "Let's go on. We can be very cautious."
A passage led from the strange hidden room. It
went along on the level for a little way, and then they arrived at a spiral
stairway that ran straight upwards like a corkscrew.
At the top they came to a small, very narrow
door. It had a great, old-fashioned iron ring for a handle.
Julian stood hesitating. Should he open it or
not? He stood for half a minute, trying to make up his mind. He whispered back
to the others. "I've come to a little door. Shall I open it?"
"Yes," came back the answering
whispers. Julian cautiously took hold of the iron ring. He turned it, and it
made no noise. He wondered if the door was locked on the other side. But it
wasn't. It opened silently.
Julian looked through it, expecting to see a
room, but there wasn't one. Instead he found himself on a small gallery that
seemed to run all the way round the inside of the tower. The moon shone in
through a slit-window, and Julian could just make out that he must be looking
down from a gallery into the darkness of a tower-room on the second or third
floor of the tower - the third, probably.
He pulled Anne out and the other three
followed. There was no sound to be heard. Julian whispered to the others.
"We've come out on to a gallery, which overlooks one of the rooms inside
the tower. It may be a second-floor room, because we know that the ceiling of
the first floor has fallen in. Or perhaps it's even the third floor."
"Must be the third," said Dick.
"We're pretty high." His whisper went all round the gallery and came
back to them. He had spoken more loudly than Julian. It made them jump.
"How do we get higher still?"
whispered George.
"Is there any way up from this
gallery?"
"We'll walk round it and see," said
Julian. "Be as quiet as you can. I don't think there's anyone here, but
you never know. And watch your step, in case the stone isn't sound - it's very
crumbly here and there."
Julian led the way round the curious little
gallery. Had this tower-room been used for old plays or mimes? Was the gallery
for spectators? He wished he could turn back the years and lean over the
gallery to see what had been going on in the room below, when the castle was
full of people.
About three-quarters of the way round the
gallery a little flight of steps led downwards into the room below. But just
beyond where the steps began there was another door set in the wall, very like
the one they had just come through.
It too had an iron ring for a handle. Julian
turned it slowly. It didn't open. Was it locked? There was a great key standing
in the iron lock, and Julian turned it. But still the door didn't open. Then he
saw that it was bolted.
The bolt was securely pushed home. So somebody
was a prisoner the other side! Was it the man who owned the Face? Julian turned
and whispered very softly in Anne's ear.
"There's a door here bolted my side.
Looks as if we're coming to the Face. Tell George to send Timmy right up to
me."
Anne whispered to George, and George pushed
Timmy forward. He squeezed past Anne's legs and stood by Julian, sensing the
sudden excitement.
"We're probably coming to stairs that
lead up to the top tower-room, where that window is with the Face,"
thought Julian, as he slid back the bolt very cautiously. He pushed the door,
and it opened. He stood listening, his torch switched off. Then he switched it
on.
Just as he had thought, another stone stairway
led up steeply. At the top must be the prisoner, whoever he was.
"We'll go up," said Julian softly.
"Quiet, everybody!"
Chapter Seventeen
EXCITEMENT AND SHOCKS
Contents - Prev/Next
TIMMY strained forward, but Julian had his
hand on the dog's collar. He went up the stone stairway, very steep and narrow.
The others followed with hardly a sound. All of them but Jo had on their rubber
shoes; she had bare feet. Timmy made the most noise, because his claws clicked
on the stone.
At the top was another door. From behind it
came a curious noise-guttural and growling. Timmy growled in his throat. At first
Julian couldn't think what the noise was. Then he suddenly knew.
"Somebody snoring! Well, that's lucky. I
can take a peep in and see who it is. We must be at the top of the tower
now."
The door in front of him was not locked. He
pushed it open and looked inside, his hand still on Timmy's collar.
The moonlight struck through a narrow window
and fell on the face of a sleeping man. Julian stared at it in rising
excitement. Those eyebrows! Yes - this was the man whose face had appeared at
the window!
"And I know who he is too - it is
Terry-Kane!" thought Julian, moving like a shadow into the room.
"He's exactly like the picture we saw in the papers. Perhaps the other man
is here too."
He looked cautiously round the room but could
see no one else, although it was possible there might be someone in the darkest
shadows. He listened.
There was only the snoring of the man lying in
the moonlight. He could not hear the breathing of anyone else. With his hand
still on Timmy's collar he switched on his torch and swept it round the
tower-room, its beam piercing the black corners.
No one was there except the one man - and,
with a sudden shock, Julian saw that he was tied with ropes! His arms were
bound behind him and his legs were tied together too. If this was Terry-Kane
then his uncle must be right. The man was no traitor - he had been kidnapped
and was a prisoner.
Everyone was now in the room, staring at the
sleeping man.
"What are you going to do, Julian?"
whispered George. "Wake him up?"
Julian nodded. He went over to the sleeping
man and shook him by the shoulder. He woke up at once and stared in amazement
at Julian, who was full in the moonlight. He struggled up to a sitting
position.
"Who are you?" he said. "How
did you get here - and who are those over in the shadows there?"
"Listen - are you Mr. Terry-Kane?"
asked Julian.
"Yes. I am. But who are you?"
"We are staying on the hill opposite the
castle," said Julian. "And we saw your face at the window, through
our field-glasses. So we came to find you."
"But - but how do you know who I
am?" said the man, still amazed.
"We read about you in the papers,"
said Julian. "And we saw your picture. We couldn't help noticing your
eyebrows, sir - we even saw them through the glasses."
"Look here - can you undo me?" said
the man, eagerly. "I must escape. Tomorrow night my enemies are smuggling
me out of here, into a car and down to the sea and a boat is being hired to
take me across to the Continent. They want me to tell them what I know about my
latest experiments. I shan't of course - but life wouldn't be at all pleasant
for me!"
"I'll cut the ropes," said Julian,
and he took out his pocket-knife. He cut the knots that tied Terry-Kane's wrists
together and then freed his legs. Timmy stood and watched, ready to pounce if
the man did anything fierce!
"That's better," said the man,
stretching his arms out.
"How did you manage to get to the
window?" asked Julian, watching the man rub his arms and knees.
"Each evening one of the men who brought
me here comes to bring me food and drink," said Terry-Kane. "He
undoes my hands so that I can feed myself. He sits and smokes while I eat,
taking no notice of me. I drag myself over to the window to have a breath of
fresh air. I can't stay there long because I am soon tied up again, of course.
I can't imagine how anyone could see my face at this deep-set
slit-window!"
"It was our field-glasses," said
Julian. "They are such fine ones. It's a good thing you did get to the
window for a breath of air or we'd never have found you!"
"Julian - I can hear a noise," said
Jo, suddenly.
"Where?" said Julian, turning
sharply.
"Downstairs," whispered Jo.
"Wait - I'll go and see."
She slipped out of the door and down the steep
little stairs. She came to the door at the bottom, the one that led into the
gallery.
Yes - someone was coming! Coming along the
gallery too. Jo thought quickly. If she darted back up the stairs to warn the
others this newcomer might go up there too, and they would all be caught. He
could bolt the door at the top and would have six prisoners instead of one! She
decided to crouch down on the floor of the gallery a little beyond the door
that led upwards.
Footsteps came loudly along the gallery and up
to the door. Then the stranger obviously found the door unbolted, and stopped
in consternation. He stood perfectly still, listening. Jo thought he really
must be able to hear her heart beating, it was thumping so loudly. She didn't
dare to call out to try and warn the others - if she did they would walk
straight into his arms!
And then Jo heard Julian's voice calling
quietly down the stone stairs. "Jo! Jo! Where are you?" And then, oh
dear, she thought she could hear Julian coming down the stairs to find her.
"Don't come, Julian," she said under her breath. "Don't
come."
But Julian came right down - and behind him
came Terry-Kane and Dick, with the girls following with Timmy, on their way to
escaping.
The stranger down at the door was even more
amazed to hear voices and footsteps. He slammed the door suddenly and rammed
the stout bolt home. The footsteps on the stairs stopped in alarm.
"Hey, Jo! Is that you?" called Julian's
voice. "Open the door!"
The stranger spoke angrily. "The door's
bolted. Who are you?"
There was a silence - then Terry-Kane
answered. "So you're back again, Pottersham! Open that door at once."
Oho! thought Julian, so the other scientist is
here too - Jeffrey Pottersham. He must have got Terry-Kane here by kidnapping
him. What can have happened to Jo?
The man at the door stood there as if he
didn't quite know what to do. Jo crouched down in the gallery and listened
intently. The man spoke again.
"Who set you free? Who's that with
you?"
"Now, listen, Pottersham," said
Terry-Kane's voice, "I've had enough of this nonsense.  Doping me, and kidnapping me, telling me we're
going to go off by fishing-boat to the Continent, and the rest of it! There are
four children here, who saw my face at the window and came to investigate,
and..."
"Children!" said Pottersham, taken
aback. "What in the middle of the night! How did they get up to this
tower? I'm the only one that knows the way in."
"Pottersham, open the door!" shouted
Terry-Kane, furiously. He gave it a kick, but the old door was sturdy and
strong.
"You can go back to the tower, all of
you," said Pottersham. I'm going off to get fresh orders. It looks as if
we'll have to take those kids with us, Terry-Kane - they'll be sorry they saw
your face at the window. They won't like life, where we're going!"
Pottersham turned and went back the way he had
come. Jo guessed that he knew the same way in as they had happened on. She
waited until she felt that it was perfectly safe, and then she ran to the door
again. She hammered on it.
"Dick! Dick! Come down. Where are
you?" She heard an answering shout from up the stairs behind the door, and
then Dick came running down.
"Jo! Unbolt the door, quick!"
Jo unbolted it - but it wouldn't open. Julian
had now come down too, and he called to Jo. "Turn the key, Jo. It may be
locked too."
"Julian, the key's gone!" cried Jo,
and she tugged in vain at the door. "He must have locked it as well as
bolted it - and he's taken the key. Oh, how can I get you out?"
"You can't," said Dick. "Still,
you're free, Jo. You can go and tell the police. Buck up, now. You know the
way, don't you?"
"I haven't got a torch, said Jo.
"Oh dear - well, we can't possibly get
one of ours out to you," said Dick. "You'd better wait till morning,
then, Jo. You may lose yourself down in those dark passages. Yes-wait till
morning."
"The passages will still be dark!"
said poor Jo. "I'd better go now."
"No - you're to wait till morning,"
said Julian, fearing that Jo might wander off in the strange passages, and be
lost for ever! She might even find herself down in the dungeons. Horrible
thought.
"All right," said Jo. "I'll
wait till morning. I'll curl up on the gallery here. It's quite warm."
"It will be very hard!" said Dick.
"We'll go back to the room upstairs, Jo. Call us if you want us.
Jo curled up on the gallery, but she couldn't
sleep. For one thing the floor was very hard, and the stone was very very cold.
She suddenly thought of the little room where they had seen the pitcher, the
dagger and the chocolate wrapping-paper. That would be a far better place to
sleep! She could lie on the bench!
She stood up and thought out the way. All she
had to do was to go round the gallery till she came to the little door that
opened on to the corkscrew staircase leading from the gallery to the little
hidden room.
She made her way cautiously to the door. She felt
for the iron ring, turned it and opened the door. It was very, very dark, and
she could see nothing at all in front of her. She put out her foot carefully.
Was she at the top of the spiral staircase?
She found that she was. She held out her hands
on either side, touching the stone walls of the curious little stairway, and
went slowly down, step by step.
"Oh dear - am I going the right way? The
stairs seem to be going on so long!" thought Jo. "I don't like it -
but I MUST go on!"
Chapter Eighteen
JO HAS AN ADVENTURE ON HER OWN
Contents - Prev/Next
JO came to the end of the spiral stairway at
last. She found herself on the level once more, and remembered the little
straight passage that led to the secret room from the stairway. Good, good, good!
Now she would soon be in the room and could lie down on the bench.
She went through the doorway of the secret
room without knowing it, because it was so dark. She groped her way along, and
suddenly felt the edge of the bench.
"Here at last," she said thankfully,
out loud.
And then poor Jo got a dreadful shock! A pair
of strong arms went round her and held her fast! She screamed and struggled,
her heart beating in wild alarm. Who was it? Oh, if only she had a light!
And then a torch was switched on, and held to
her face. "Oho! You must be Jo, I suppose," said Pottersham's voice.
"I wondered who you were when one of those kids yelled out for you! I
thought you must be wandering somewhere about. I guessed you'd come this way,
and I sat on the bench and waited for you."
"Let me go," said Jo fiercely and
struggled like a wild cat. The man only held her all the more tightly. He was
very strong.
Jo suddenly put down her face and bit his
hand. He gave a shout and loosened his hold. Jo was almost free when he caught
her again, and shook her like a rat. "You little wild cat! Don't you do
that again!"
Jo did it again, even more fiercely, and the
man dropped her on to the ground, nursing his hand. Jo made for the entrance of
the room, but again the man was too quick and she found herself held again.
"I'll tie you up," said the man,
furiously. "I'll rope you so that you won't be able to move! And I'll
leave you here in the dark till I come back again."
He took a rope from round his waist and proceeded
to tie Jo up so thoroughly that she could hardly move. Her hands were behind
her back, her legs were tied at knees and ankles. She rolled about the floor,
calling the man all the names she knew.
 I
wish you joy of the hard cold floor and the darkness, you savage little wild
cat!"
Jo heard his footsteps going in the distance.
She could have kicked herself for not having guessed he might have been lying in
wait for her. Now she couldn't get help for the others. In fact, she was much
worse off than they were because she was tied up, and they weren't.
Poor Jo! She dozed off, exhausted by the
night's excitement and her fierce struggle. She lay against the wall, so
uncomfortable that she kept waking from her doze every few minutes.
And then a thought came into her head. She
remembered the rope-man, all tied up in length after length of knotted rope.
She had watched him set himself free so many times. Could any of his tricks
help her now?
"The rope-man would be able to get
himself free of this rope in two minutes!" she thought, and began to
wriggle and struggle again. But she was not the rope-man, and after about an
hour she was so exhausted again that she went into a doze once more.
When she awoke, she felt better. She forced
herself into a sitting position, and made herself think clearly and slowly.
"Work one knot free first," she said
to herself, remembering what the rope-man had told her. "At first you
won't know which knot is best. When you know that you will always be able to
free yourself in two minutes. But find that one knot first!"
She said all this to herself as she tried to
find a knot that might be worked loose. At last one seemed a little looser than
the others. It was one that bound her left wrist to her right. She twisted her
wrist round and got her thumb to the knot. She picked and pulled and at last it
loosened a little. She had more control over that hand now. If only she had a
knife somewhere! She could manage to get it between her finger and thumb now
and perhaps use it to cut another knot.
She suddenly lost her patience and flung her
head back on the bench, straining and pulling at the rope. She knocked against
something and it fell to the stone floor with a clatter. Jo wondered what it
was - and then she knew.
"That dagger! That old, rusty dagger! Oh,
if I could find it I might do something with it!"
She swung herself round on the floor till she
felt the dagger under her. She rolled over on her back and tried to pick it up
with her free finger and thumb, and at last she managed to hold it.
She sat up, bent forward and did her best to
force the rusty dagger up and down a little on the rope that tied her hands
behind her. She could hardly move it at all because her hands were still so
tightly tied. But she persevered.
She grew so tired that she had to give it up
for a long while. Then she tried again, then had another long rest. The third
time she was lucky! The rope suddenly frayed and broke! She pulled her hands
hard, found them looser and picked at a knot.
It took Jo a long long time to free her hands,
but she did it at last. She couldn't manage to undo her legs at first, because
her hands were trembling so much. But after another long rest she undid the
tight knots, and shook her legs free. "Well, thank goodness I learnt a few
hints from the rope-man," she said, out loud. "I'd never have got
free if I hadn't!"
She wondered what the time was. It was pitch
dark in the little room, of course. She stood up and was surprised to find that
her legs were shaky. She staggered a few steps and then sat down again. But her
legs soon felt better and she stood up once more. "Now to find my way
out," she said. "How I wish I had a torch!"
She went carefully down the flight of stone
steps that led down from the room, and then came to the wide passage that ran
under the courtyard. She went along it, glad it was level, and then came once
again to stone steps that led upwards. Up she climbed, knowing that she was
going the right way, although she was in the dark.
Now she came to the small passage where she
had to bend almost double, the one that ran through the centre of the thick
outerwalls. Jo heaved a sigh of relief. Surely she would soon come to where the
stone had fallen out and would be able to see daylight!
She saw daylight before she came to the place
where the stone was missing.  Then she knew.
"Daylight! Oh, thank goodness!" She
stumbled along to it and climbed up to the hole from which the stone had
fallen. She sat there, drinking in the sunlight. It was bright and warm and
very comforting.
After the darkness of the passages Jo felt
quite dazed. Then she suddenly realized how very high the sun was in the sky!
Goodness, it must be afternoon!
She looked cautiously out of the hole in the
wall. Now that she was so near freedom she didn't want to be caught by anyone
watching out for her! There was nobody. Jo leapt down from the hole and ran
down the steep hillside. She went as sure-footed as a goat, leaping along till
she came to the lane. She crossed it and made her way to the caravan-field.
She was just about to go over the stile when
she stopped. Julian had said she was to go to the police. But Jo, like the
other gypsy folk, was afraid of the police. No gypsy ever asked the police for
help. Jo felt herself shrivelling up inside when she thought of talking to big
policemen.
"No. I'll go to Uncle Fredo," she
thought. "He will know what to do. I will tell him all about it."
She was going up the field when she saw
someone strange there! Who was it? Could it be that horrid man who had tied her
up? She had not seen him at all clearly, and she was afraid it might be. She
saw that he was talking urgently to some of the fair-folk. They were listening
politely, but Jo could see that they thought he was rather mad.
She went a bit nearer, and found that he was
asking where Julian and the rest were. He was becoming very angry with the
fair-people because they assured him that they did not know where the children
had gone.
"It's the man they call Pottersham,"
said Jo to herself, and dived under a caravan. "He's come to find out how
much we've told anyone about that Face."
She hid till he had gone away down the
hillside to the lane, very red in the face, and shouting out that he would get
the police.
Jo crawled out, and the fair-folk crowded
round her at once. "Where have you been? Where are the others? That man
wanted to know all about you. He sounds quite mad!"
"He's a bad man," said Jo.
"I'll tell you all about him - and where the others are. We've got to
rescue them!"
Whereupon Jo launched into her story with the
greatest zest, beginning in the middle, then going back to the beginning,
putting in things she had forgotten, and thoroughly muddling everyone. When she
ended they all stared at her in excitement, They didn't really know what it was
all about but they had certainly gathered a few things,
"You mean to say that those kids are
locked up in that tower over there?" said Alfredo, amazed. "And a spy
is with them!"
"No - he's not a spy - he's a good
man," explained Jo. "What they call a scientist, very, very
clever."
"That man who left just now, he said he
was a - a scientitist," said Skippy, stumbling over the unfamiliar word.
"Well, he's a bad man," said Jo,
firmly. "He is probably a spy. He kidnapped the good man, up in the tower
there, to take him away to another country. And he tied me up too, like I told
you. See my wrists and ankles?"
She displayed them, cut and bruised. The
fair-folk looked at them in silence. Then Bufflo cracked his whip and made
everyone jump.
"We will rescue them!" he said.
"This is no police job. It is our job."
"I say, look - that scientitist comes
back," said Skippy suddenly. And sure enough, there he was, coming
hurriedly up the field to ask some more questions!
"We will get him," muttered Bufflo.
All the fair-folk waited in silence for the man to come up.  The man was taken with them.
He couldn't help himself! He was walked behind a caravan, and before the crowd
had come apart again he was on the ground, neatly roped by the rope-man!
"Well, we've got you' said the rope-man.
"And now we'll get on to the next bit of business!"
Chapter Nineteen
JO JOINS IN
Contents - Prev/Next
THE 'scientist', as Skippy persisted in
calling him, was put into an empty caravan with windows and doors shut, because
he shouted so loudly. When the snake-man opened the door and slid in one of his
pythons the scientist stopped shouting at once and lay extremely still.
The snake-man opened the door and his python
glided out again. But the man in the caravan had learnt his lesson. Not another
sound came from him!
Then everyone in the camp held a conference.
There was no hurry about it at all, because it had been decided that nothing
should be done before night-time.
"If we make a rescue in the daylight,
then the police will come," said Alfredo. "They will interfere. They
will not believe a word we say. They never do."
"How shall we rescue them?" said
Skippy. "Do we go through these strange passages and up steep stone
stairs? It does not sound nice to me."
"It isn't at all nice," Jo assured
her. "And anyway it wouldn't be sensible. The door leading to the
tower-room is locked, I told you. And that man has got the key."
"Ah!" said Bufflo, springing up at
once. "You didn't tell us that before! He has the key? Then I will get it
from him!"
"I didn't think of that," said Jo,
watching Bufflo leap up the caravan steps.
He came out in a minute or two and joined them
again. "He has no key on him," he said. "He says he never had.
He says we are all mad, and he will get the police."
"He will find it hard to get the police
just yet," said Mrs. Alfredo, and gave a high little laugh. "He has
thrown away the key - or given it to a friend, perhaps?"
"Well, it's settled we can't get in through
the door that leads to the tower-room, then," said the snake-man, who
seemed to have a better grasp of things than the others. "Right. Is there
any other way into the room?"
"Only by the window," said Jo.
"That slit-window there, see? Too high for any ladder, of course. Anyway,
we've got to get into the courtyard first. We'll have to climb over the high
castle wall."
"That is easy," said the rubber-man.
"I can climb any wall. But not, perhaps, one so high as the tower
wall."
"Can anyone get into or out of the slit
of a window?" asked Bufflo screwing up his eyes to look at the tower.
"Oh, yes - it's bigger than you
think," said Jo. "It's very deep - the walls are so thick, you see -
though I don't think they are so thick up there as they are down below. But
Bufflo, how can anyone get up to that window?"
"It can be done," said Bufflo.
"That is not so difficult! You can lend us a peg-rope, Jekky?" he
said to the rope-man.
"Yes," said Jekky. Jo knew what that
was - a thick rope with pegs thrust through the strands to act as footholds.
"But how will you get the peg-rope
up?" said Jo, puzzled.
"It can be done," said Bufflo again,
and the talking went on. Jo suddenly began to feel terribly hungry and got up
to get herself a meal. When she got back to the conference everything was
apparently settled.
"We set off tonight as soon as darkness
comes," Bufflo told her "You will not come, Jo. This is man's
business."
"Of course I'm coming!" said Jo,
amazed that anyone should think she wasn't. "They're my friends, aren't
they? I'm coming all right!"
"You are not," said Bufflo, and Jo
immediately made up her mind to disappear before the men set off and hide
somewhere so that she might follow them.
By this time it was about six o'clock. Bufflo
and the rope-man disappeared in Jekky's caravan and became very busy there. Jo
went peeping in at the door to see what they were doing but they ordered her
out.
"This is not your business any
more," they said, and turned her out when she refused to go.
When darkness came, a little company set out
from the camp. They had searched for Jo to make sure she was not coming, but
she had disappeared. Bufflo led the way down the hill, looking extremely fat
because he was wound about with a great deal of peg-rope. Then came Mr. Slither
with one of his pythons draped round him. Then the rubber-man with Mr. Alfredo.
Bufflo also carried his whip though nobody
quite knew why. Anyway, Bufflo always did carry a whip, it was part of him; so
nobody questioned him about it.
Behind them, like a little shadow, slipped Jo.
What were they going to do? She had watched the tower-window for the last two
hours, and when darkness came she saw a light there - a light that shone on and
off, on and off.
That's Dick or Julian signalling, she thought.
They will have wondered why I haven't brought help sometime today. They don't
know that I was captured and tied up! I'll have something to tell them when
we're all together again!
The little company went over the stile, into
the lane and up the path to the castle. They came to the wall. The rubber-man
took a jump at it, and literally seemed to run up it, fling himself on to the
top, roll over and disappear!
"He's over," said Bufflo.
"Wha't it is to be made of rubber! I don't believe that fellow ever feels
hurt!"
There was a low whistle from the other side of
the wall. Bufflo unwound a thin rope from his waist, tied a stone to it and
flung it over. The rope slithered after the stone and over the wall like a long
thin worm.
Thud! They heard the stone fall on the ground
the other side. Another low whistle told them that the rubber-man had it.
Bufflo then undid the peg-rope from his waist, and he and the others held out
its length between them, standing one behind the other. One end was fastened to
the thin rope whose other end held the stone.
The rubber-man, on the other side of the wall,
began to pull on the thin rope. When all the slack was taken in, the peg-rope
began to go up the wall too, because it was tied to the thin rope and had to
follow it! Up went the peg-rope and up, looking like a great thick caterpillar
with tufts sticking out of its sides.
Jo watched. Yes, that was clever. A good and
easy way of getting over the thick high wall. But to get the peg-rope up to the
slit-windew would not be so easy.
A whistle came again. Bufflo let go the
peg-rope, and it swung flat against his side of the wall. He tugged it. It was
firm. Evidently the rubber-man had tied it fast to something. It was safe to go
up. It would bear anyone's weight without slipping down the wall.
Bufflo went up first, using the pegs as
foot-holds and pulling himself up by the rope between the pegs. Each of the men
was quick and deft in the way he climbed. Jo waited till the last one had
started up, and then leapt for the rope too!
Up she went like a cat and landed beside
Bufflo on the other side of the wall. He was astounded and gave her a cuff. She
dodged away, and stood aside, watching. She wondered how the men intended to
reach the topmost window of the high tower. Perhaps she would be of some help.
If only she could be!
The four men stood in the moonlight, looking
up at the tower. They talked in low tones, while the rubber-man undid the thin
rope from the peg-rope, and neatly coiled it into loops. The peg-rope was left
on the wall.
Jo heard a car going up the lane at the bottom
of the castle hill. She heard it stop and back somewhere. Part of her attention
was on the four men and the other part on the car.
The car stopped its engine. There was no further
sound. Jo forgot it for a few minutes, and then was on the alert again-was that
voices she heard somewhere? She listened intently. The sound came again on the
night air - a low murmur that came nearer.
Jo held her breath - could that horrid man -
what was his name - Pottersham-could he have arranged for his equally horrid
friends to fetch Mr. Terry-Kane, and all the children out of the tower that
night, and take them off to the coast? Perhaps they had already hired a
fishing-boat from Joseph the old fisherman, and they would all be away and
never heard of again!
So the thoughts ran in Jo's alert mind. Mr.
Potter-sham would have had plenty of time to get fresh orders, and arrange
everything before he had gone to the camp and got himself locked up in a caravan!

He'll cuff me as soon as I go near, thought
Jo, rubbing her left ear, which still stung from Bafflo's cuff. They won't
listen to me, I know. Still I'll try.
She went up to the group of men cautiously.
She saw Bufflo take out a dagger-knife from his belt, and tie it to the end of
the thin rope that the rubber-man held. She guessed in a moment what he was
about to do, and ran to him.
"No, Bufflo, no!  No, Bufflo, no!"
"Clear out," said Bufflo, angrily
and raised his hand to slap her. She dodged away.
She went round the group to her uncle.
"Uncle Fredo," she said beseechingly, "Listen. I can hear voices
- I think those..."
Alfredo pushed her away roughly. "Will
you stop this, Jo? Do you want a good whipping?
Mr. Slither called her. "See here, Jo -
if you want to be useful, hold Beauty for me. He will be in the way in a
minute."
He draped the great snake over her shoulders,
and Beauty hissed loudly. He began to coil himself round Jo, and she caught
hold of his tail. She liked Beauty, but just at that moment she didn't want him
at all!
She stood back and watched what Bufflo was
going to do. She knew, of course, and her heart beat fearfully. He was going to
throw his knife through that high slit-window, a thing that surely only Bufflo,
with his unerring aim, could possibly do!
But if he gets it through the window, it may
stick into one of the four up there - or into Mr. Terry-Kane, she thought, in a
panic. It might wound Dick - or Timmy! Oh, I wish Bufflo wouldn't do it!"
She heard low voices again - this time they
came from just the other side of the wall! Men were going to follow those
secret passages, and go right up to the tower-room! Jo knew they were! They
would be there before Bufflo and the others had followed out their rescue plan.
She pictured the four children being dragged down the stairs, and Terry-Kane,
too. Would Timmy defend them? He would - but the men would certainly deal with
him. They knew there was a dog there, because Timmy had barked the night
before.
Oh, dear, thought Jo, in despair. I must do
something! But what can I DO?
Chapter Twenty
A LOT OF EXCITEMENT
Contents - Prev/Next
JO suddenly made up her mind. She would follow
the men through those passages, and see if she could warn the others by
shouting when she came near enough to the tower-room. She would help them
somehow. Bufflo and the others would be too late to save them now.
Jo ran to the wall. She was up the peg-rope
left there and down the other side in a trice. She made her way to where the
missing stone left the gap in the old wall.
Beauty, the python, was surprised to find
himself pulled off and thrown on the ground, just before Jo ran for the wall.
He wasn't used to that sort of treatment. He lay there, coiling and uncoiling
himself. Where had that nice girl gone? Beauty liked Jo - she knew how to treat
him!
He glided after her. He too went up the wall
and over, quite easily, though he did not need to use the peg-rope like Jo. He
glided after Jo quickly. It was amazing to see his speed when he really wanted
to be quick!
He came to the hole in the wall. Ah, he liked
holes. He glided in after Jo. He caught up with her just as she had reached the
end of the small passage, through which she had had to walk bent double. He
pushed against her legs and then twined himself round her.
She gave a small scream, and then realized
what it was. "Beauty! You'll get into trouble with Mr. Slither, coming
after me like this. Go back! Stop twining yourself round me-I've got important
things to do."
But Beauty was not like Timmy. He obeyed only
when he thought he would, and he was not going to obey this time!
"All right - come with me if you want
to," said Jo, at last, having in vain tried to push the great snake back.
"You'll be company, I suppose. Stop hissing like that, Beauty! You sound
like an engine letting off steam in this narrow passage."
Soon Jo had gone down the steep steps that led
to the level passage under the courtyard. Beauty slithered down them too,
rather surprised at the sudden drop. Along the wider passage they went, Beauty
now in front, and Jo sometimes tripping over his powerful tail.
Up steps again, and into the thick wall of the
castle itself. Something shining ahead made Jo suddenly stop. She listened but
heard nothing. She went forward cautiously and found that in the little secret
room was a small lantern, left there probably by one of the men in front.
She saw the rusty dagger lying on the floor
where she had left it the night before and grinned. The rope was there too,
that she had untied from her arms and legs.
Jo went on, along the passage that led to the
spiral stairway. Now she thought she could hear something. She climbed the
steep stairs, cross with Beauty because he pushed by her and almost sent her
headlong down them. She came to the door that opened on to the little gallery.
Dare she open it? Suppose the men were just outside?
She opened it slowly. It was pitch dark on the
other side, of course, but Jo knew she was about to step out on the little
gallery. Beauty suddenly slithered up her and coiled himself lovingly round
her. Jo could not make the snake uncoil, and she stepped out on the small
gallery with Beauty firmly wrapped about her.
And then, what a noise she heard! She stood
quite aghast. Whatever could be going on? She heard excited voices - surely one
was Bufflo's? And was that crack a pistol-shot?
What had happened down below in the courtyard
when Jo had disappeared over the wall with Beauty? None of the men noticed her
go.
Bufflo was to use his gift for knife-throwing
- but in quite a different way from usual! He was to throw the knife high into
the air, and make it curve in through the slit-window at the top of the tower!
Bufflo was an expert at knife-throwing, or, indeed,
at any kind of throwing. He stood there in the courtyard, looking up at the
high window. He half-closed his eyes, getting the distance and the direction
fixed hi his mind. The moon suddenly went in, and he lowered his hand. He could
not throw accurately in the dark!
The moon sailed out again, quite brilliant.
Bufflo lost no time. Once more he took aim, his eyes narrowed - and then the
knife flew high into the air, gleaming as it went - taking behind it a long
tail of very thin rope.
It struck the sill of the slit-window and fell
back. Bufflo caught it deftly. The moonlight showed plainly that the knife was
not sharp-pointed-Bufflo had filed off the point, and it was now quite blunt.
Jo need not have worried about someone in the tower being hurt by a sharp
dagger!
Once more Bufflo took aim, and once more the
knife sailed up, swift as a swallow, shining silver as it went. This time it
fell cleanly in at the window-opening, slithered all the way across the stone
ledge inside, and fell to the floor of the tower-room with a thud.
It caused the greatest astonishment there. Mr.
Terry-Kane, the four children and Timmy were all huddled together for warmth in
one corner. They were hungry and cold. No one had brought them food, and they
had nothing to keep them warm except a rug belonging to Terry-Kane. All that
day they had been in the tower-room, sometimes looking from the window,
sometimes shouting all together at the tops of their voices. But nobody heard
them, and nobody saw them.
"Why doesn't Jo bring help?" they
had said a hundred times that long, long day. They didn't know that poor Jo was
spending hours trying to free herself from the knots round her legs and wrists.
They had looked out of the window at the camp
on the opposite hill, where the fair-folk went about their business, looking
like ants on the far-off green slope. Was Jo there? It was too far-off to make
out anyone for certain.
When darkness came Julian had flashed his
torch from the window on and off - on and off. Then, cold and miserable, they
had all huddled together, with Timmy licking first one and then another, not at
all understanding why they should stay in this one room.
"Timmy will be so thirsty," said
George.
"Well, I feel like licking round my mouth
too," said Dick.
They were half-asleep when the knife came
thudding into the room. Timmy leapt up at once and barked madly. He stood and
stared at the knife that lay gleaming in the moonlight, and barked without
stopping.
"A knife!" said George, in
amazement. "A knife with a string tied on the end!"
"It's blunt," said Julian, picking
it up. "The tip has been filed off. What's the meaning of it? And why the
string tied to it?"
"Be careful that another knife doesn't
come through" warned Terry-Kane.
"It won't," said Julian. "I
think this is something to do with Jo. She hasn't gone to the police. She has
got the fair-folk to help us. This is Bufflo's knife, I'm sure!"
They were all round him, examining it now.
"I'm going to the window," said Julian. "I'll look right out
into the courtyard. Hold my legs, Dick."
He climbed up on the stone sill and crawled a
little forward through the deep-set slit. He came to the outer edge of the
window and looked down. Dick hung on to his legs, afraid that the sill might
crumble away and Julian would fall.
"I can see four people down in the
courtyard," said Julian. "Oh, good - one is Alfredo, one is Bufflo -
and I can't make out the other two. AHOY down there!"
The four men below were standing looking up
intently. They saw Julian's head appear outside the window, and waved to him.
"Pull in the rope!" shouted Bufflo.
He had now tied the end of a second peg-rope to the thin rope, and he and the
others lifted it so that it might run easily up the wall.
Julian slid back into the tower room. He was
excited. "This string on the knife runs down the wall and is tied to a
thicker rope," he said. "I'll pull it up - and up will come a rope
that we can climb down!"
He pulled on the string, and more and more of
it appeared through the window. Then Julian felt a heavier weight and he
guessed the thicker rope was coming up. Now he had to pull more slowly. Dick
helped him.
Over the window-sill, in at the window,
appeared the first length of the peg-rope. The children had never seen one like
it before, they were used to the more ordinary rope-ladder. But Terry-Kane knew
what it was.
"A peg-rope," he said. "Circus
people and fair-people make them-they are lighter and easier to manage than
rope-ladders. We'll have to fix the end to something really strong, so that it
will hold our weight."
Anne looked at the peg-rope in dismay. She
didn't at all like the idea of climbing down that, swinging on it all the way
down the high stone wall of the tower! But the others looked at it with
pleasure and excitement - a way of escape - a good, strong rope to climb down
out of this hateful cold room!
Terry-Kane looked about for something to
fasten the rope to. In the wall at one side was a great iron ring, embedded in
the stone. What it had been used for once upon a time nobody could imagine-but
certainly it would be of great use now!
There were no pegs in the first yard or so of
the rope. Terry-Kane and Julian cut off the string that had pulled it up, and
then dragged the thick rope through the iron ring. They dragged it right
through until the first peg stopped it. Then they twisted the rope-end round
upon itself and made great strong knots that could not slip.
Julian took hold of the rope, and leaned back
hard on it, pulling it with all his strength. "It would hold a dozen of us
at once!" he said, pleased. "Shall I go first, sir? I can help
everyone else down then, if I'm at the bottom. Dick and you can see to the
girls when they climb out."
"What about Timmy?" asked George, at
once.
"We'll wrap him up in the rug, tie him
firmly and lower him down on the string," said Dick. "It's very
strong string - thin rope, really."
"I'll go down now," said Julian, and
went to the window. Then he stopped. Someone was clattering up the stone steps
that led to the tower. Someone was at the door! Who could it be?
Chapter Twenty-One
IN THE TOWER ROOM
Contents - Prev/Next
THE door was flung open, and a man stood
there, panting. Behind him came three others.
"Pottersham!" said Terry-Kane.
"So you're back!"
"Yes. I'm back," said the panting
man.
Timmy began to bark and try to escape from
George's hand. He showed his teeth and all his hackles rose up on his neck. He
looked a very savage dog indeed.
Pottersham backed away. He didn't like the
look of Timmy at all!
George tried her hardest to restrain the
furious Timmy, and called to Julian to help her. "Julian, hold him as
well. He'll fling himself on that man, he's so angry."
Julian went to help. Between them they forced
the furious dog back into a corner, where George tried in vain to pacify him.
She was terrified that he might be shot.
"You can't behave like this,
Pottersham," began Terry-Kane, but he was cut short.
"We've no time to lose. We're taking you,
Terry-Kane, and one of the kids. We can use him for a hostage if too much fuss
is made about your disappearance. We'll take this boy," and he grabbed at
Dick.  But he at once found himself on the floor! These
men were not standing for any nonsense. They were in a hurry!
"Get him," said Pottersham, to one
of the men behind him, and Dick was pounced on. Then Terry-Kane was taken too,
and his arms held behind him.
"What about these other kids?" he
said, angrily. "You're surely not going to lock them up in this room and
leave them."
"Yes, we are," said Pottersham.
"We're leaving a note for the old turnstile woman to tell her they're up
here. Let the police rescue them if they can!"
"You always were a..." began
Terry-Kane, and then ducked to avoid a blow.
Timmy barked madly all the time, and almost
choked himself trying to get away from George and Julian. He was mad with rage,
and when he saw Dick being roughly treated he very nearly did manage to get
loose. "Take them," ordered Pottersham. "And hurry. Go on - down
the steps with them."
The three men forced Terry-Kane and Dick to
the stone stairs - and then everyone shot round in astonishment! A loud voice
suddenly came from the window!
Anne gasped. Bufflo was there! He hadn't been
able to understand why nobody came down the peg-rope, so he had come up to find
out. And to his enormous surprise there appeared to be quite an upset going on!
"Hey there! WHAT'S UP?" he yelled,
and slid into the room, looking most out of place with his mop of yellow hair,
gay checked shirt and whip!
"BUFFLO!" shouted all four of the
children, and Timmy changed his angry bark to a welcoming one. Terry-Kane
looked on in astonishment, his arms still pinioned behind him.
"Who in the world is this?" shouted
Pottersham, alarmed at Bufflo's sudden appearance through the window. "How
did he get through there?"
Bufflo eyed the gun in Pottersham's hand and
lazily cracked his small whip once or twice. "Put that thing away,"
he said, in his drawling voice. "You ought to know better than to wave a
thing like that about when there's kids around. Go on - put it away!"
He cracked his whip again. Pottersham pointed
the gun at him angrily. And then a most amazing thing happened.
The gun disappeared from Pottersham's hand,
flew right up into the air, and was neatly caught by Bufflo! And all by the
crack of a whip!
Crack! Just that - and the gun had been
flicked from his hand by the powerful lash-end - and had stung Pottersham's
fingers so much he was now howling in pain and bending double to nurse his
injured hand.
Terry-Kane gasped. What a neat trick - but how
dangerous! The gun might have gone off. Now the tables were indeed turned, for
it was Bufflo who held the gun, not Pottersham. And Pottersham looked very pale
indeed!
He stared as if he hardly knew what to do.
"Let go of them," ordered Bufflo, nodding his head towards Terry-Kane
and Dick. The three men released them and stood back.
"Seems as if we got to get the police
after all," remarked Bufflo, in a perfectly ordinary voice, as if these
happenings were not at all unusual.
"No! NO!" cried Pottersham in terror
- and at that moment the moon went behind a cloud, and the tower-room was
plunged in darkness - except for the lantern that Pottersham had set down on
the floor when he had first arrived.
He saw one slight chance for himself and the
others. He suddenly kicked at the lantern, which flew into the air and hit
Bufflo, then went out, and left the entire place in pitch darkness. Bufflo did
not dare to fire. He might hit the wrong person!
"Set the dog loose!" he roared - but
it was too late.  There was the sound of hurried steps
slipping and stumbling down the stone stairway in the dark.
"Hrrr!" said Bufflo, when the moon
came out again, and showed him the astonished and dismayed faces of the five in
the room. "We slipped up somewhere, didn't we? They've gone!"
"Yes. But without us," said
Terry-Kane, letting Dick untie his arms. "They've probably gone down
through those passages. They'll be out before we've escaped ourselves, more's
the pity. And now we've got to try this rope-trick down the tower wall, seeing that
the door is locked!"
"Come on, then," said Julian.
"Let's go before anything else happens." He went to the window, slid
to the outer edge, and took hold of the rope. It was perfectly easy to climb
down, though it wasn't very pleasant to look below him into the courtyard. It
seemed so very far away.
Ann went next, very much afraid, but not
showing it. She was quite a good climber so she didn't find the rope difficult.
She was very, very glad when she at last stood safely beside Julian.
Then came George, with a bit of news. "I
can't think what's happening to the four men," she said. "They still
seem to be about - and they're yelling like anything. It sounds as if they are
rushing round that gallery that runs along the walls of the tower-room
below."
"Well, let them," said Julian.
"If they stay there long enough, we'll have time to go to the hole in the
outer wall, and wait for them to come out one by one! That would be very, very
nice."
"Timmy's coming now," said George.
"I've wrapped him up well in that rug and tied it all round him, and put a
kind of rope-harness on him. Dick's going to lower him down. We doubled the
rope to make sure it would hold. Look - here he comes! Poor darling Timmy! He
can't think what in the world is happening!"
Timmy came down slowly, swinging a little, and
bumping into the stone wall now and again. He gave a little yelp each time, and
George was sure he would be covered with bruises! She watched in great suspense
as he came lower and lower.
"Timmy ought to be used to this sort of
thing by now," said Julian. "He's had plenty of it in the adventures
he's shared with us. Hey there, Tim! Slowly does it! Good dog, then! I guess
you're glad to be standing on firm ground again!"
Timmy certainly was. He allowed himself to be
untied from his rug by George, and then tried a few steps to see if the ground
was really firm beneath his feet. He leapt up at George joyfully, very glad to
be out in the open air again.
"Here comes Dick," said Julian. The
peg-rope swayed a little, and Alfredo went to hold it steady. He and the
rubber-man and Mr. Slither were now extremely concerned about something, so
concerned that they had hardly a word to say to Julian and George and Anne.
They had suddenly missed Jo and the snake! The
snakeman didn't care tuppence about Jo - but he did care about his precious,
beloved, magnificent python! He had already hunted all round the courtyard for
it.
"If Jo's taken it back to camp with her,
I'll pull her hair off!" muttered the snake-man, unhappily, and Julian
looked at him in astonishment. What was he muttering about?
Terry-Kane came next, and last of all Bufflo,
who seemed to slide down in a most remarkable way, not using the pegs at all.
He leapt down beside them, grinning.
"There's a tremendous upset up
aloft!" he said. "Yelling and shouting and scampering about. What do
you suppose is the matter with those fellows? We'll be able to get them nicely,
if we go to the hole in the wall. They'll be out there soon, I reckon. Come
on!"
Chapter Twenty-Two
BEAUTY AND JO ENJOY THEMSELVES
Contents - Prev/Next
SOMETHING certainly had happened to upset
Pottersham and his three friends. After the door of the tower-room had been
slammed and bolted, the men had gone clattering down the stone steps. They had come
to the door that led into the gallery, and had opened it and gone out on to the
gallery itself.
But before they could find the spiral
staircase a little way along, Pottersham had tripped over something - something
that hissed like an engine letting off steam, and had wound itself round his
legs.
He yelled, and struck out at whatever it was.
At first he had thought it was a man lying in wait for him, who had pounced at
his legs - but he knew it wasn't a man now. No man could hiss like that!
One of the men shone a torch down to see what
was the matter with Pottersham. What he saw made him yell and almost drop the
torch.
"A snake! A snake bigger than any I've
ever seen! It's got you, Pottersham!"
"Help me, man, help me! shouted
Pottersham, hitting down at the snake as hard as he could. "It's squeezing
my legs together in its coils."
The other men ran to help him. As soon as they
began to tug, Beauty uncoiled and glided off into the shadows.
"Where's the horrible thing gone?"
panted Pottersham. "It nearly crushed my legs to powder! Quick, let's go
before it comes back. Where in the world did it come from?"
They took a few steps - but the snake was
lying in wait for them! It tripped them all up by gliding in and out of their
legs, and then began to coil itself round one of the men's waists.
 If ever there were frightened men, those four were! No matter where they
went, that snake seemed to be there, coiling and uncoiling, gliding, writhing,
squeezing!
It was Jo who had set the python on to them,
of course. Jo had stayed in the gallery while all the disturbance upstairs had
been going on, Beauty draped round her neck. The girl tried in vain to make out
what was happening.
And then she had heard a door slam, a bolt
shot home, and men's feet pouring down the stone stairs! She guessed it must be
the four whose voices she had heard earlier in the evening, the men who had
gone through the passages.
"Beauty!  He poured
himself down her and flowed on to the ground in one beautiful movement. He
glided towards the men, who were now coming out of the gallery. After that, the
python had the time of his life. The more the men howled the more excited the
big snake became.
Jo was huddled in a corner, laughing till the
tears ran down her cheeks. She knew the snake was quite harmless unless he gave
one of the men too tight a squeeze. She couldn't see what was going on, but she
could hear.
"Oh dear - there's another one
down!" she thought, as she heard one of the men tripped up by Beauty.
"And there goes another! I shall die of laughing. Good old Beauty! He's
never allowed to behave like this in the usual way. He must be enjoying
himself!"
At last the men could bear it no more.
"Come up to that tower-room!" yelled Pottersham. I'm not going back
through those dark passages with snakes after me. There must be dozens of them
here. We'll be bitten soon!"
Jo laughed out loud. Dozens of them! Well,
probably Beauty did seem like a dozen snakes to the bewildered men falling over
one another in the dark. But Beauty would not bite - he was not poisonous.
Somehow the men got up into the tower-room,
and left the snake behind. Beauty was tired of the game now, and went to Jo
when the girl called to him. She draped him round her neck, and listened.
The door up in the tower-room had slammed. Jo
slipped up the steps, felt for the door-bolt in the darkness and neatly and
quietly pulled it across. Now, unless the men liked to risk going down the
peg-rope, which she guessed Bufflo had put up against the wall to rescue the
others, they were nicely trapped. And if they did go down the rope they would
be sure to find a few people waiting for them at the bottom!
"Come on Beauty, let's go," said Jo,
and went down the steps, wishing she had a torch. She remembered the little
lantern that had been left in the hidden room, and felt more cheerful. She
would be able to take that with her down all those dark passages. Good!
Beauty slithered in front of her. He knew the
way all right! They came to the little room, and Jo thankfully picked up the
lantern. She looked down at the big python and he stared up at her with
gleaming, unwinking eyes. His long body coiled and uncoiled, shining brown and
polished in the light.
"I wouldn't mind you for a pet, if you
were a bit smaller," Jo told him. "I don't know why people don't like
snakes. Oh, Beauty - it makes me laugh to think of the way you treated those
men!"
She chuckled as she went along the secret
ways, holding the lantern high, except when she came to the last passage of
all, and had to walk bent double. Beauty waited for her when she came to the
hole in the wall. He had heard noises outside.
Jo climbed out first, and was immensely
surprised to find herself pounced on and held. She wriggled and shouted and
struggled, and finally bit the hand that was holding her.
 "It's Jo! Jo, where have you been? And look here, if you bite like
that I'll scrag you!"
"Bufflo! I'm sorry-but what did you want
to go and pounce on me for?" cried Jo. The moon suddenly came out and
lighted up the scene. She saw Julian and the rest there, coming up eagerly.
"Jo! Are you all right?" said her
uncle. "We were worried about you. Where have you been?"
Jo took no notice. She ran up to Dick and the
others.
"You escaped!" she cried. "Did
you all get safely down the peg-rope?"
"There's no time to tell about that
now," said Bufflo, watching the hole in the wall. "What about those
fellows? We're waiting for them here. Did you hear anything of them, Jo?"
"Oh, yes. I followed them. Oh, Bufflo, it
was so funny..." said Jo, and began to laugh. Bufflo, shook her, but she
couldn't stop. And then who should come gliding out through the hole but
Beauty!
Mr. Slither saw him at once and gave a yell.
"Beauty! Jo, did you take him with you. You wicked girl! Come here, my
Beauty!"
The snake glided to him and wound himself
lovingly round him.
"I'm not wicked," said Jo,
indignantly.
She went off into peals of laughter again.
Dick grinned in sympathy. Jo was very funny when she couldn't stop laughing.
Alfredo shook her roughly and made her stop.
"Tell us what you know about those men," he commanded. "Are they
coming out this way? Where are they?"
"Oh - the men," said Jo, wiping her
eyes and trying to stop laughing, "They're all right. Beauty chased them
back to the tower-room, and I bolted them in. They're still there, I expect -
unless they dare to get down the peg-rope, which I bet they won't!"
Bufflo gave a short laugh. "You did well,
Jo," he said. "You and Beauty!"
He gave a sharp order to Alfredo and the
rubber-man, who went back over the wall and into the courtyard to watch if the
men slid down the peg-rope.
"I think it would be a good idea to get
the police now," said Terry-Kane, beginning to feel that he must be in
some kind of extraordinary dream, with peg-ropes and whips and knives and
snakes turning up in such a peculiar manner. "That fellow Pottersham is
dangerous. He's a traitor, and must be caught before he gives away all that he
knows about the work he and I have been doing."
"Right," said Bufflo. "We've
got another fellow locked up too - in an empty caravan."
"But - didn't he escape then?" said
Jo, surprised. "I thought that man Pottersham, who's up in the tower-room
now, was the one we locked up."
"The one we locked up is still locked
up," said Bufflo grimly.
"But who is he, then?" said
Terry-Kane, bewildered.
"We'll soon find out," said Bufflo.
"Come on, let's get going now. It's very late, you kids must be dying of
hunger, somebody ought to go to the police, and I want to get back to
camp."
"Alfredo and the rubber-man will keep
guard on the peg-rope," said Mr. Slither, still fondling Beauty.
"There is no need to stay here any longer."
So down the hill they went, talking nineteen
to the dozen. Terry-Kane went off to the police-station and to telephone what
he vaguely called 'the high-up authorities'. The five children began to think
hungrily of something to eat and drink! Timmy ran to the stream as soon as they
reached the field and began to lap thirstily.
"Let's just find out if you know the
fellow we've got locked up in this caravan," said Bufflo, when they got to
the camp. "He seems the only unexplained bit so far."
He unlocked the caravan, and called loudly.
"Come on out. We want to know who you are!" He held up a lamp, and
the man inside came slowly to the door.
There was a shout of amazement from all the
children. "Uncle Quentin!" cried Julian, Dick and Anne.
"Father!" shouted George.
Chapter Twenty-Three
HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME!
Contents - Prev
THERE was a minute or two of silence. Everyone
was most astonished. To think that George's father had been locked up like
that! It had been Jo's mistake, of course - she had been so sure he was Mr.
Pottersham.
"Julian," said Uncle Quentin, very
much on his dignity, and also very angry, "I must ask you to go and get
the police here. I was set on and locked up in this caravan for no reason at
all."
Bufflo began to look most disturbed. He turned
on Jo.
"Why didn't you tell us he was George's
father?" he said.
"I didn't know it was," said Jo.
"I've never seen him, and anyway I thought..."

"I insist on the police being fetched."
"Uncle Quentin, I'm sure it's all been a
mistake," said Julian, "and anyway Mr. Terry-Kane has gone to the
police himself."
His uncle stared at him as if he couldn't
believe his ears. "Terry-Kane? Where is he? What has happened? Is he
found?"
"Yes. It's rather a long story,"
said Julian. "It all began when we saw that face at the window. I told
Aunt Fanny all about that, Uncle, and she said she would tell you when you got
back from London. Well - it was Mr. Terry-Kane at the window!"
"I thought so! I told your Aunt Fanny I
had a feeling it was!" said his uncle. "That's why I came as soon as
ever I could - but you were none of you here. What happened to you?"
"Well, that's part of the story,
Uncle," said Julian, patiently. "But I say, do you mind if we have
something to eat. We're practically dead from starvation - haven't had anything
since yesterday!"
That ended the interview for the time being!
Mrs.  They sat round a camp-fire and ate and
ate and ate.
Mrs. Alfredo practically emptied her big pot
for them. Timmy was surrounded by plates of scraps and big bones brought by
every member of the camp! Almost every minute someone loomed up out of the
darkness with a plate of something or other either for the hungry children, or
for Timmy.
At last they really could eat no more, and
Julian began to tell their extraordinary story. Dick took it up, and George
added quite a few bits. Jo interrupted continually and even Timmy put in a few
barks. Only Anne said nothing. She was leaning against her uncle, fast asleep.
"I never heard such a tale in my
life," said Uncle Quentin, continually. "Never! Fancy that fellow Pottersham
going off with Terry-Kane like that. I knew Terry-Kane was all right-he
wouldn't let his country down. Now, Pottersham I never did like. Well, go
on."
The fair-folk were as enthralled as Uncle
Quentin with the tale. They came closer and closer as the story of the secret
passages, the hidden room, the stone stairways and the rest was unfolded.
They got very excited when they learnt how
Bufflo had appeared in the tower-room and had flicked the gun out of
Pottersham's hand. Uncle Quentin threw back his head and roared when he heard
that bit.
"What a shock for that fellow!" he
said. "I'd like to have seen his face. Well, well - I never heard such a
tale in my life!"
And then it was Jo's turn to tell how she had
followed the four men into the secret passages, and had set Beauty, the python,
on to the men. She began to laugh again as she told her tale, and soon all the
fair-folk were laughing in sympathy, rocking to and fro, with tears streaming
down their faces.
Only Uncle Quentin looked rather solemn at
this point. He remembered how he had felt when, because of his shouting, the
fair-folk had sent the python into his caravan, and almost frightened him out
of his life.
"Mr. Slither, please do get Beauty,"
begged Jo. "He ought to listen to his part of the story. He was wonderful.
He enjoyed it all too. I'm sure he would have laughed if only snakes could
laugh."
Poor Uncle Quentin didn't like to object when
the snake-man fetched his beloved python - in fact, he fetched both of them,
and they had never had such a fuss made of them before. They were patted and
rubbed and pulled about in a way they both seemed to enjoy hugely.
"Let me hold Beauty, Mr. Slither,"
said Jo, at last, and she draped him round her neck like a long, shiny fur.
Uncle Quentin looked as if he was going to be sick. He would certainly have got
up and gone away if it hadn't been that his favourite niece Anne was fast
asleep against his shoulder.
"What extraordinary people George seems
to be friends with," he thought. "I suppose they are all right - but
really! What with whips and knives and snakes I must say I find all this very
peculiar."
"Somebody's coming up the field,"
said Jo, suddenly. "It's - yes, it's Mr. Terry-Kane, and he's got three
policemen with him."
Immediately almost all the fair-folk melted
away into the darkness. They knew quite well why the police had come - not for
them, but because of Mr. Pottersham and his unpleasant friends. But all the
same they wanted nothing to do with the three burly policemen walking up the
hill with Terry-Kane.
Uncle Quentin leapt to his feet as soon as he
saw Terry-Kane. He ran to meet him joyfully, and pumped his arm up and down, up
and down, shaking hands so vigorously that Terry-Kane felt quite exhausted.
"My dear fellow," said Uncle
Quentin, "I'm so glad you're safe. I told everyone you weren't a traitor,
and never could be - everyone! I went up to London and told them. I'm glad
you're all right."
"Well - it's thanks to these
children," said Terry-Kane, who looked very tired. "I expect you've
heard the peculiar and most extraordinary tale of the Face at the Window."
"Yes - it's all so extraordinary that I
shouldn't believe it if I read it in a book," said Uncle Quentin.
"And yet it all happened! My dear fellow, you must be very tired!"
"I am," said Terry-Kane. "But
I'm not going to lie down and sleep until those other fellows are safely under
lock and key - Pottersham and his fine friends!  We simply must catch those fellows. I
came to ask if one of the children could go with us, because I hear we have to
creep through all kinds of passages and galleries and up spiral stairways and
goodness knows what."
"But - didn't you go that way when
Pottersham first took you there and hid you in that room?" asked Dick,
surprised.
"Yes. I must have gone that way,"
said Mr. Terry-Kane. "But I was blindfolded and half-doped with something
they had made me drink. I've no idea of the way. Of course, Pottersham knew every
inch - he's written books about all these old castles, you know-nobody knows
more about them and their secrets than he does. He certainly put his knowledge
to good use this week!"
"I'll go with you," said Jo.
"I've been up and down those passages four times now." I know them by
heart! The others have only been once."
"Yes, you go," said Bufflo.
"Take Timmy," said George most
generously, for usually she would never let Timmy go with Jo.
"Or take a snake," suggested Dick,
with a grin.
"I won't take anything," said Jo.
"I'll be all right with three big policemen! So long as they're not after
me, I like them!"
She didn't really, but she couldn't help
boasting a little. She set off with Terry-Kane and the three policemen,
strutting a little, and feeling quite a heroine.
The others all went to their caravans, tired
out. Uncle Quentin sat by the camp-fire, waiting for the arrival of Pottersham
and his three friends.
"Good night," said Julian to the
girls. "I'd like to wait till the crowd come back - complete with the
rubber-man and Alfredo - but I shall fall asleep standing on my feet in a
minute. I say, wasn't that a smashing supper?"
"Super!" said the others. "Well
- see you tomorrow."
They all slept very late the next day. Jo was
back long before they awoke, very anxious to tell them how they had captured
Pottersham and the others, and how they had been marched off to the
police-station, with her following all the way. But Mrs. Alfredo would not let
her wake the four children up.
However, they did awake at last, and got up
eagerly, remembering all the exciting moments of the day before. Soon they were
jumping down the steps of the two caravans, eager to hear the latest news.
"Hallo, Father!" shouted George,
seeing him not far off.
"Hallo, Uncle Quentin! Hallo, Jo!"
called the others, and soon heard the latest bits of information from Jo who
was very proud of being in at the finish.
"But they didn't put up any fight at
all," she said, rather disappointed. "I think Beauty scared all the
fight out of them last night - they just gave in without a word."
"Now you children!" called Mrs.
Alfredo, "I have kept a little breakfast for you. You like to come?"
They did like to come! Jo went too, though she
had already had one breakfast. Uncle Quentin went to sit down with them. He
gazed around amazed at all the goings-on of the camp.
Bufflo was doing some remarkable rope-spinning
and whip-cracking. The rubber-man was wriggling in and out of the wheel-spokes
of his caravan without stopping. Mr. Slither was polishing his snakes. Dacca
was stepdancing on a board, click-click-clickity-click.
Alfredo came up with his buttonhook-like
torches, and his metal bowl. "I give you a treat," he announced to
Uncle Quentin. "You would like to see me fire-eat?"

"He's a fire-eater, Uncle,"
explained Dick.
"Oh. No thank you, my good man. I would
rather not see you eat fire," said Uncle Quentin, politely but very
firmly. Alfredo was most disappointed. He had meant to give this man a real
treat to make up for locking him into the caravan! He went away sadly, and Mrs.
Alfredo screamed after him.
"You foolish man. Who wants to see you
fire-eat? You have no brains.  You keep away with
your fire-eating!" She disappeared into her caravan, and Uncle Quentin
looked after her, astonished at her sudden outburst.
"This is really a very extraordinary
place," he said. "And most extraordinary people. I'm going back home
today, George. Wouldn't you all like to come with me? I don't really feel it's
the right thing for you to get mixed up in so many queer doings."
"Oh no, Father," said George, in
horror. "Go home when we've only just settled in! Of course not. None of
us want to leave - do we Julian?" she said, looking round beseechingly at
him.
Julian answered at once. "George is
right, Uncle. We're just beginning to enjoy ourselves here. I think we're all
agreed on that?"
"We are," said everyone, and Timmy
thumped his tail hard and gave a very loud "WOOF."
"Very well," said Uncle Quentin,
getting up. "I must go, I suppose. I'll catch the bus down to the station.
Come down with me."
They went to see him off on the bus. It came
up well on time and he got in.
"Good-bye," he said. "What
message shall I give your mother, George? She'll expect to hear something from
the five of you."

Good-bye, Uncle Quentin, good-bye!"


Karan Johar bonds with Sidharth Malhotra and his family
by Kajol MathurJust when Sidharth Malhotra’s latest release – Marjaavaan has opened to decent numbers at the box-office, the actor decided to celebrate it with his family, film’s director Milap Zaveri and good friend Karan Johar. For those who don’t know, the film stars Tara Sutaria opposite Sidharth and minted Rs. 7.03 crores on Friday and Rs. 7.21 crores on Saturday. Enjoying its impressive start, the actor was snapped at a posh Mumbai restaurant where he bonded with KJo and his parents.
They were all later seen happily posing for the shutterbugs. Looking all things hot, Sidharth opted for a white t-shirt which he layered with a denim shirt and paired it with black tracks and eye-catching red sneakers. Karan meanwhile was seen dropping some serious swag in a black tee, ripped denim which he paired with a bright yellow bomber jacket. He completed his look with rimmed glasses and white sneakers.
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