GOOD OLD SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

06 A FACE AT THE WINDOW!

Itwasn't until Janet thought she would turn the telescope on to the big hillwhere the ruined old castle of Torling stood, that anything really excitingturned up. The castle wasn't much more than a few standing walls, and one greatruined tower in which jackdaws nested.

Janet liked the jackdaws. They sometimes flew downto the farm, and pecked about with the hens, talking all the time in theirchattery voices.

'Chack-chack-chack!' they called to one another.Jack and Pam were with Janet the last time she had gone to watch the jackdawsin the fields, and Jack had made them laugh by saying that he kept wanting tosay 'Yes, sir!' every time a jackdaw called 'Chack!'

'It sounds exactly as if they're yelling at me,'said Jack, 'just like our games master does at football!'

'Chack! Chack!' called a big jackdaw at once,cocking his head on one side and looking up at Jack. 'Chack! Chack!'

'There! He heard what I said,' said Jack, and theyall laughed.

The jackdaws nested in the ruins of the old tower,but now that it was November their young ones were grown, and were flying withthem. The little colony must have numbered at least a hundred. Janet could seethem from her bedroom window, and had often wished the old tower was nearer thefarm, so that she could watch the antics of the birds more closely.

'And now I can!' she thought. 'We've got thatlovely telescope that brings everything so near! Why didn't I think of watchingthe jackdaws before!'

She went to fetch it, first telling Peter in casehe wanted it himself. 'It's really too cold to sit out in the open air with ittoday,' he said, as he took the key out from under the stone. 'Better take thetelescope indoors, Janet. I'll carry it in for you. We could put it up in theboxroom at the top of the house... you'd be out of the way then... andthe big window there looks right up the hill to the castle.'

Soon Janet was sitting in the boxroom, surroundedby all kinds of junk, her eye glued to the bottom end of the telescope tube.She had trained it carefully on to the top of the faraway hill, where thejackdaws circled round the tower, a hundred small black dots in the fardistance.

But now, seen through the telescope they becamebirds, not dots; birds with outspread wings, circling and risingand falling in the misty November day. They played tricks on one another,chased each other, pretended to tumble and then swept away crying'chack-chack-chack' as if they were laughing. Janet laughed too.

And then she suddenly stiffened on her chair. Shewas looking at one of the old windows at the top of the tower, through whichsome of the jackdaws had been flying... butnow there were no jackdaws there; they had flown away as if suddenly scared,when something appeared in the window-opening, peeping cautiously over thestone window-ledge.

'What is it?' thought Janet. 'It's not a bird.Surely it can't be a cat? No... itisn't... my goodness me, it's a head... a man's head with a hat on... no,a cap. What in the world is he doing?'

The head remained at the window for a few minutes, and then disappeared.Janet knew that there were dangerous, broken steps at one side of the tower,leading almost to the top and she guessed that whoever it was who was therewould now be climbing down. She trained the telescope downwards ... and caught sight of something moving past one of the lower windows. Theman was half-way down!

'Look at that!' she said out loud, astonished.'Someone's hiding in that old tower! Whatever for? It's ruined and tumble-downand deserted ... and dangerous too, because it's graduallysubsiding! I must tell Peter!'

She yelled for him and he came up to the boxroom.Janet told him what she had seen, and he too looked through the telescope atthe old castle. But he could sec nothing moving there, except the jackdaws, whowere now once more settling here and there on the castle walls.

'Whoever it was has gone into hiding down below,'said Janet, beginning to feel excited. 'So the jackdaws aren't frightened anylonger. Who can it be, Peter?'

'Can't imagine!' said her brother, puzzled. 'Nobodyever goes there in the winter... andanyway, it's supposed to be dangerous now. Some stones fell down this spring,you know ... right off the top of the tower! Are you quite sureyou saw a face at the window? Which window was it?'

Janet told him, and Peter gazed at it through thetelescope, moving it downwards to other openings. He gave a sudden exclamation.

'Yes! There is someone there! I saw somethingmoving down below ... on the ground floor. I'm sure someone passedquickly across the doorway, just inside! No wonder the jackdaws keep flying upin fright!'

'We must tell the Secret Seven,' said Janet,excited. 'You never know, Peter ... thismight be something mysterious, something that...'

Peter laughed. 'It's probably just some tramp looking for shelter!Still, we'll tell the others and see what they think!'