10 a curious thing
they went into a great doorway, and walked across the dark hall, which echoed strangely withtheir footsteps. from outside came the yelping scream of the eagles again.
‘i expect it was the screams of the eagles that the villagers heard year after year up here,’ saidjack, as he made his way to a stout door that led off the hall. he opened it – and then stood still insurprise.
this room was furnished! it had once been a kind of sitting room or drawing room, and themouldy old furniture was still there, though the children could not imagine why it had been left!
they stood and stared into the old, forgotten room in silence. it was such a odd feeling to gazeon this musty-smelling, quiet room, lighted by four slit windows and one wide one, through whichsunlight came. it lit up the layers of dust on the sofas and vast table, and touched the enormouswebs and hanging cobwebs that were made by scores of busy spiders through the years.
dinah shivered. when the others went further into the room, walking on tiptoe and talking inwhispers, she did not follow. lucy-ann patted a chair and at once a cloud of dust arose, makingher choke. philip pulled at a cover on one of the sofas, and it fell to pieces in his hands. it wasquite rotten.
‘what a weird old room!’ he said. ‘i feel as if i was back a hundred years or so. time has stoodstill here. i do wonder why this room was left like this.’
they went out and into the next one. that was quite empty. but the third one, smaller, andevidently used as a dining-room, was again furnished. and again the spiders’ webs stretchedeverywhere and hung down in long grey threads from the high ceilings. there was a greatsideboard in the room, and when the children curiously opened one of the doors, they saw oldchina and pieces of silver there – or what must have been silver, for now the cruets and sauce-boats were so terribly tarnished that they might have been made of anything.
‘curiouser and curiouser!’ said lucy- ann, quoting alice in wonderland. ‘why have theserooms been left like this?’
‘i expect the wicked old man tassie told us about just lived in a few rooms, and these were theones,’ said jack. ‘mabye he went away, meaning to come back, and never did. and nobody daredto come here – or perhaps nobody even knew the rooms had been left furnished. it’s a mystery!’
the little fox cub went sniffing round all the rooms raising clouds of dust, and choking now andagain. kiki did not seem to like the rooms. she stayed on jack’s shoulder, quite silent.
they came to the kitchen. this was a simply enormous place, with a great cooking range at theback. iron saucepans and an iron kettle were still there. philip tried to lift one, but it wasimmensely heavy.
‘cooks must have had very strong arms in the old days!’ he said. ‘look – is that a pump by theold sink? i suppose they had to pump their water up.’
they crossed over to the sink. the old-fashioned pump had a handle, which had to be workedup and down in order to bring water from some deep-down well.
philip stared at it in a puzzled manner, his eyes going to a puddle on the floor, just below thepump.
‘what’s the matter, philip?’ said jack.
‘nothing much – but where did that water come from?’ said philip. ‘see, it’s in a puddle – itcan only have been there a day or two, or it would have dried up.’
jack looked up to the dark old ceiling, as if he expected to see a leak in the roof there. but therewas none, of course! he looked down at the puddle again, and he too felt puzzled. ‘let’s pump abit and see if water comes up,’ he said, and stretched out his hand. ‘maybe the thing is out of ordernow.’
before he could reach the handle philip knocked his hand aside, with an exclamation. jacklooked at him in surprise.
‘see here, freckles,’ said philip, frowning in bewilderment, ‘the handle of the pump isn’tcovered with dust like everything else is. it’s rubbed clean just where you’d take hold of it topump.’
dinah felt a little prickle of fright go down her back. whatever did philip mean? who couldpump up water in an old empty castle?
they all stared at the pump handle, and saw that philip was right. button began to lap up thepuddle of water on the stone floor. he was thirsty.
‘wait, button, i’ll pump you some fresh water,’ said philip, and he took hold of the pumphandle. he worked it up and down vigorously, and fresh, clear water poured in gushes into thehuge old sink. some of it splashed out into the puddle already on the floor.
‘that’s how that puddle was made,’ said jack, watching carefully. ‘by the splashes of the waterfrom the sink. but that means someone must have pumped up water here in the last few days!’
tassie’s eyes grew big with fright. ‘the wicked old man’s still here!’ she said, and lookedfearfully over her shoulder as if she expected him to walk into the kitchen.
‘don’t be so silly, tassie,’ said philip impatiently. ‘the old man’s dead and gone years andyears ago. do you know if any of the villagers ever come up here?’
‘no, oh no!’ said tassie. ‘they are afraid of the castle. they say it is a bad place.’
the five children certainly felt that it had a strange, brooding air about it. they felt that theywanted to go out into the sunshine. kiki suddenly gave a mournful groan that made them all jump.
‘don’t, kiki!’ said jack crossly. ‘philip, what do you make of this? who’s been pumping up thewater? can there be anyone in the castle now?’
‘well, we haven’t seen signs of anyone at all,’ said philip. ‘and why should anyone be here,anyway? there’s nothing for them to live on – no food or anything. i think myself that probablysome rambler came up here in curiosity, wandered about, and got himself a drink of water fromthe pump before he went.’
this seemed the most likely explanation.
‘but how did he get in?’ said dinah, after a moment or two.
that was a puzzler. ‘there must be some way,’ said jack.
‘there isn’t,’ said tassie. ‘i’ve been all round the castle, and i know. there isn’t any way ofgetting in.’
‘well, there must be,’ said philip, and dismissed the subject, feeling that they would all bebetter to be out in the open air, having their tea. ‘come on – let’s find a comfortable place in thecourtyard and have our tea. i’m jolly hungry again.’
they went into the hot and sunny courtyard. there was little breeze there, for it was enclosed bythe high walls. they sat down and dinah undid the tea packet. there was plenty there foreveryone – but all the lemonade had been drunk at dinnertime.
‘i’m so thirsty i simply must have something to drink with my sandwiches,’ said lucy-ann.
‘my tongue will hang out like a dog’s in a minute.’
everyone felt the same – but nobody particularly wanted to go into that big lonely kitchen andbring back water in the cardboard cups.
‘i know – we’ll see if the spring that runs down to our cottage is anywhere about,’ said philip.
‘it’s supposed to begin in this courtyard, i know. it should be somewhere down at the bottom ofit.’
he got up and button went with him. it was button who found the spring. it gushed out near thewall that ran round the castle, almost at the foot of the tower at the top of which the children hadhad their dinner. it was not a big spring but the water was cold and clear. button lapped it eagerly.
philip filled two cups and called to jack to bring more. jack and tassie came up with the othercups. jack looked with interest at the bubbling spring. it gushed out from a hole in the rock, andthen disappeared again under a tangle of brambles, into a kind of little tunnel that ran below thetower.
‘i suppose it goes right underneath the tower, and comes out again further on down the hillside,’
thought the boy. ‘it collects more and more water on the way, from the inside of the hill, and bythe time it reaches spring cottage it is quite a big spring, ready to become a proper little stream.’
the children enjoyed the icy-cold water. they finished all the tea, and lay back in the sun,watching the golden eagles, who were once more soaring upwards on wide wings.
‘this has been an exciting sort of day,’ said philip lazily. ‘what do you feel now aboutspending a few days here, jack – won’t you be too lonely?’
‘i’ll have kiki and the eagles,’ said jack. ‘and all the rabbits round about too!’
‘i wouldn’t like to be here all alone now,’ said dinah. ‘not until i knew who pumped thatwater! i should feel creepy all the time.’
‘that’s nothing new,’ said philip. ‘you feel creepy if you even see the tip of a worm comingout of a hole. life must be nothing but creepiness to you. now if only you’d get used to havingtoads crawling over you, or a hedgehog in your pocket, or a beetle or two, you’d soon stop feelingcreepy.’
‘oh don’t!’ said dinah, shivering at the thought of beetles crawling over her. ‘you’re an awfulboy. jack, you won’t really stay here by yourself, will you?’
‘i don’t see why not,’ said jack, with a laugh. ‘i’m not scared. i think philip’s right when hesays it was probably only some rambler who pumped himself a spot of water. after all, if we’recurious enough to make our way in here other people may be too.’
‘yes, but how did they come?’ persisted dinah.
‘same way as old button came in, i expect,’ said philip.
dinah stared at him. ‘well – how did button get in?’ she said. ‘find out that, and we don’t needto use the plank every time!’
‘oh – down a rabbit-hole, i should think, and up another,’ said philip, refusing to take herseriously. dinah gave an angry exclamation.
‘do talk sense! button could go up a rabbit-hole all right, but a man couldn’t. you know thatquite well.’
‘of course – why didn’t i think of that before?’ said philip aggravatingly, and dodged as dinahthrew a clod of earth at him.
‘here! some of that went in my eye,’ said jack, sitting up. ‘stop it, you two. i know what we’lldo. we’ll leave old button behind here when we go across the plank, and we’ll watch and seewhere he comes out. then we can use his entrance, if it’s possible, the next time we come!’
‘yes – that’s a good idea,’ said lucy-ann, and tassie nodded too. the little girl was puzzled toknow how button had got into the castle. she felt so certain that there was no way in besides thetwo doors, and the window through which they themselves had come.
‘come on – time to go home,’ said jack, and they all got up. ‘i’ll be back here tomorrow, ihope!’
