the five on a treasure island

12 exciting discoveries

SOON the stones of the little room were clear of earth, sand and weeds. The childrensaw that they were all the same size- big and square, fitted well together. They wentover them carefully with their torches, trying to find one that might move or lift."We should probably find one with an iron ring handle sunk into it," said Julian. But theydidn't. All the stones looked exactly the same. It was most disappointing.Julian tried inserting his spade into the cracks between the various stones, to see if byany chance he could move one. But they couldn't be moved. It seemed as if they wereall set in the solid ground. After about three hours hard work the children sat down to eata meal.They were very hungry indeed, and felt glad to think there were so many things to eat.As they ate they discussed the problem they were trying to solve."It looks as if the entrance to the dungeons was not under this little room after all," saidJulian. "It's disappointing- but somehow I don't think now that the steps down to thedungeon started from here. Let's measure the map and see if we can make out exactlywhere the steps do start. It may be, of course, that the measurements aren't correct andwon't be any help to us at all. But we can try."So they measured as best they could, to try and find out in exactly what place thedungeon steps seemed to begin. It was impossible to tell, for the plans of the threefloors seemed to be done to different scales. Julian stared at the map, puzzled. Itseemed rather hopeless. Surely they wouldn't have to hunt all over the ground floor ofthe castle! It would take ages."Look," said George, suddenly, putting her finger on the hole that they all thought mustbe meant to represent the well. "The entrance to the dungeons seems to be not very faroff the well. If only we could find the well, we could hunt around a bit for the beginning ofthe dungeon steps. The well is shown in both maps. It seems to be somewhere aboutthe middle of the castle.""That's a good idea of yours," said Julian, pleased. "Let's go out into the middle of thecastle- we can more or less guess where the old well ought to be, because it definitelyseems to be about the middle of the old yard out there."Out they all went into the sunshine. They felt very important and serious. It wasmarvellous to be looking for lost ingots of gold. They all felt perfectly certain that theyreally were somewhere beneath their feet. It didn't occur to any of the children that thetreasure might not be there.They stood in the ruined courtyard that had once been the centre of the castle. Theypaced out the middle of the yard and then stood there, looking around in vain foranything that might perhaps have been the opening of an old well. It was all soovergrown. Sand had blown in from the shore, and weeds and bushes of all kinds grewthere. The stones that had once formed the floor of the big courtyard were now crackedand were no longer lying flat. Most of them were covered with sand or weeds."Look! There's a rabbit!" cried Dick, as a big sandy rabbit lollopped slowly across theyard. It disappeared into a hole on the other side. Then another rabbit appeared, sat upand looked at the children, and then vanished too. The children were thrilled. They hadnever seen such tame rabbits before.A third rabbit appeared. It was a small one with absurdly big ears, and the tiniest whitebob of a tail. It didn't even look at the children. It bounded about in a playful way, and then, to the children's enormous delight, it sat up on its hind legs, and began to wash itsbig ears, pulling down first one and then another.But this was too much for Timothy. He had watched the other two bound across the yardand then disappear without so much as barking at them. But to see this youngsteractually sitting there washing its ears under his very nose was really too much for anydog. He gave an excited yelp and rushed full-tilt at the surprised rabbit.For a moment the little thing didn't move. It had never been frightened or chased before,and it stared with big eyes at the rushing dog. Then it turned itself about and tore off attop speed, its white bobtail going up and down as it bounded away. It disappearedunder a gorse bush near the children. Timothy went after it, vanishing under the bigbush too.Then a shower of sand and earth was thrown up as Tim tried to go down the hole afterthe rabbit and scraped and scrabbled with his strong front paws as fast as he could. Heyelped and whined in excitement, not seeming to hear George's voice calling to him. Hemeant to get that rabbit! He went almost mad as he scraped at the hole, making it biggerand bigger."Tim! Do you hear me! Come out of there!" shouted George. "You're not to chase therabbits here. You know you mustn't. You're very naughty. Come out!"But Tim didn't come out. He just went on and on scraping away madly. George went tofetch him. Just as she got up to the gorse bush the scraping suddenly stopped. Therecame a scared yelp- and no more noise was heard. George peered under the pricklybush in astonishment.Tim had disappeared! He just simply wasn't there any more. There was the big rabbithole, made enormous by Tim- but there was no Tim."I say, Julian- Tim's gone," said George in a scared voice. "He surely can't have gonedown that rabbit's hole can he? I mean- he's such a big dog!"The children crowded round the big gorse bush. There came the sound of a muffledwhine from somewhere below it. Julian looked astonished."He is down the hole!" he said. "How queer! I never heard of a dog really going down arabbit-hole before. However are we going to get him out?""We'll have to dig up the gorse bush, to begin with," said George, in a determined voice.She would have dug up the whole of Kirrin Castle to get Tim back, that was certain! "Ican't have poor old Tim whining for help down there and not do what we can to helphim."The bush was far too big and prickly to creep underneath. Julian was glad they hadbrought tools of all kinds. He went to fetch an axe. They had brought a small one withthem and it would do to chop away the prickly branches and trunk of the gorse bush.The children slashed at it and soon the poor bush began to look a sorry sight.It took a long time to destroy it, for it was prickly, sturdy and stout. Every child's handswere scratched by the time the bush had been reduced to a mere stump. Then theycould see the hole quite well. Julian shone his torch down it.He gave a shout of surprise. "I know what's happened! The old well is here! The rabbitshad a hole at the side of it- and Tim scraped away to make it bigger and uncovered a bitof the well-hole- and he's fallen down the well!""Oh no, oh no," cried George, in panic. "Oh Tim, Tim, are you all right?"A distant whine came to their ears. Evidently Tim was there somewhere. The childrenlooked at one another. "Well, there's only one thing to do," said Julian, "We must get our spades now and digout the hole of the well. Then maybe we can let a rope down or something and get Tim."They set to work with their spades. It was not really difficult to uncover the hole, whichhad been blocked only by the spreading roots of the big gorse bush, some fallenmasonry, earth, sand and small stones. Apparently a big slab had fallen from part of thetower across the well-hole, and partly closed it. The weather and the growing gorsebush had done the rest.It took all the children together to move the slab. Underneath was a very rotten woodencover, which had plainly been used in the old days to protect the well. It had rotted somuch that when Tim's weight had been pressed on it, it had given just there and made ahole for Tim to fall through.Julian removed the old wooden cover and then the children could see down the wellhole. It was very deep and very dark. They could not possibly see the bottom. Juliantook a stone and dropped it down. They all listened for the splash. But there was nosplash. Either there was no longer any water there, or the well was too deep even tohear the splash!"I think it's too deep for us to hear anything," said Julian. "Now- where's Tim?"He shone his torch down- and there was Tim! Many years before a big slab had fallendown the well itself and had stuck a little way down, across the well-hole- and on this oldcracked slab sat Tim, his big eyes staring up in fright. He simply could not imagine whathad happened to him.There was an old iron ladder fastened to the side of the well. George was on it beforeanyone else could get there! Down she went, not caring if the ladder held or not, andreached Tim. Somehow she got him on to her shoulder and, holding him there with onehand, she climbed slowly up again. The other three hauled her out and Tim jumpedround her, barking and licking for all he was worth!"Well, Tim!" said Dick, "you shouldn't chase rabbits-but you've certainly done us a goodturn, because you've found the well for us! Now we've only got to look around a little tofind the dungeon entrance!"They set to work again to hunt for the dungeon entrance. They dug about with theirspades under all the bushes. They pulled up crooked stones and dug their spades intothe earth below, hoping that they might suddenly find them going through into space! Itwas really very thrilling.And then Anne found the entrance! It was quite by accident. She was tired and sat downto rest. She lay on her front and scrabbled about in the sand. Suddenly her fingerstouched something hard and cold in the sand. She uncovered it- and lo and behold, itwas an iron ring! She gave a shout and the others looked up."There's a stone with an iron ring in it here!" yelled Anne, excitedly. They all rushed overto her. Julian dug about with his spade and uncovered the whole stone. Sure enough, itdid have a ring in it- and rings are only let into stones that need to be moved! Surely thisstone must be the one that covered the dungeon entrance!All the children took turns at pulling on the iron ring, but the stone did not move. ThenJulian tied two or three turns of rope through it and the four children put out their fullstrength and pulled for all they were worth.The stone moved. The children distinctly felt it stir. "All together again!" cried Julian. Andall together they pulled. The stone stirred again and then suddenly gave way. It movedupwards- and the children fell over on top of one another like a row of dominoessuddenly pushed down! Tim darted to the hole and barked madly down it as if all therabbits of the world lived there! Julian and George shot to their feet and rushed to the opening that the moved stone haddisclosed. They stood there, looking downwards, their faces shining with delight. Theyhad found the entrance to the dungeons! A steep flight of steps, cut out of the rock itself,led downwards into deep darkness."Come on!" cried Julian, snapping on his torch. "We've found what we wanted! Now forthe dungeons!"The steps down were slippery. Tim darted down first, lost his foot-hold and rolled downfive or six steps, yelping with fright. Julian went after him, then George, then Dick andthen Anne. They were all tremendously thrilled. Indeed, they quite expected to see pilesof gold and all kinds of treasure everywhere around them!It was dark down the steep flight of steps, and smelt very musty. Anne choked a little."I hope the air down here is all right," said Julian. "Sometimes it isn't good in theseunderground places. If anyone feels a bit funny they'd better say so and we'll go up intothe open air again."But however funny they might feel nobody would have said so. It was all far too excitingto worry about feeling queer.The steps went down a long way. Then they came to an end. Julian stepped down fromthe last rock-stair and flashed his torch around. It was a weird sight that met his eyes.The dungeons of Kirrin Castle were made out of the rock itself. Whether there werenatural caves there, or whether they had been hollowed out by man the children couldnot tell. But certainly they were very mysterious, dark and full of echoing sounds. WhenJulian gave a sigh of excitement it fled into the rocky hollows and swelled out andechoed around as if it were a live thing. It gave all the children a very queer feeling."Isn't it strange?" said George, in a low voice. At once the echoes took up her words,and multiplied them and made them louder- and all the dungeon caves gave back thegirl's words over and over again. "Isn't it strange, ISN'T IT STRANGE, ISN'T ITSTRANGE."Anne slipped her hand into Dick's. She felt scared. She didn't like the echoes at all. Sheknew they were only echoes- but they did sound exactly like the voices of scores ofpeople hidden in the caves!"Where do you suppose the ingots are?" said Dick. And at once the caves threw himback his words. "INGOTS! Ingots are! INGOTS ARE! ARE! ARE!"Julian laughed- and his laugh was split up into dozens of different laughs that came outof the dungeons and spun round the listening children. It really was the queerest thing."Come on," said Julian. "Maybe the echoes won't be so bad a little farther in.""FARTHER IN," said the echoes at once. "FARTHER IN!"They moved away from the end of the rocky steps and explored the nearby dungeons.They were really only rocky cellars stretching under the castle. Maybe wretchedprisoners had been kept there many, many years before, but mostly they had been usedfor storing things."I wonder which dungeon was used for storing the ingots," said Julian. He stopped andtook the map out of his pocket. He flashed his torch on to it. But although it showed himquite plainly the dungeon where INGOTS were marked, he had no idea at all of the rightdirection."I say- look- there's a door here, shutting off the next dungeon!" suddenly cried Dick. "Ibet this is the dungeon we're looking for! I bet there are ingots in here!"