They were near to the castle by now. The great, thick walls rose up, far above their heads. Therewas no break in them, except about sixteen feet up, where slit1 windows could be seen.
‘It’s built of the big boulders2 we see all over the hillside,’ said Philip. ‘It must have been veryhard work to take so many up here to build the castle. Look – over there are some bigger windows.
I suppose that wicked old fellow Tassie was telling us about liked to have a little more light in hiscastle than slit windows give. It’s a funny place. You can quite well see where it has been patchedup, can’t you?’
‘There are the eagles again!’ cried Jack3. ‘They’re gliding4 down – and down. Watch them,everyone!’
The little company stood and watched the two big birds, whose span of wings was reallyenormous.
‘They’ve gone down inside the castle courtyard,’ said Jack. ‘That’s where they’ve got their nest,I bet! In the courtyard somewhere. I simply must find it.’
‘But you can’t possibly get into the courtyard,’ said Philip.
‘Where’s the gateway5 of the castle?’ demanded Jack, turning to Tassie.
‘At the front, where that landslide6 is,’ said Tassie. ‘You couldn’t get over the landslide withoutbeing in danger, and anyway if you did, you’d find the great gate shut. There’s another door,further along here, but that’s locked. You can’t get into the castle.’
‘Where’s the door along here?’ said Jack. They went further along, turned a corner of the castlewall, and came to a sturdy oak door, flush with the wall. The wall arched over it, and the doorfitted exactly. Jack put his eye to the keyhole but could see nothing.
‘Do you mean to tell me there’s no other way into this castle?’ he said to Tassie. ‘What apeculiar place! It’s like a prison.’
‘That’s what it was,’ said Lucy-Ann, shivering as she remembered the story Tassie had told. Aprison for poor wretched people who came here and couldn’t get away – and were never heard ofagain!’
Jack was in despair. To think that two rare eagles might be nesting in the courtyard on the otherside of the wall – and he couldn’t get at them. It was too bad.
‘We must get in, we simply must,’ he said, and gazed up at the high windows. But there was noway of getting up there. The walls were far too smooth to climb. There was no ivy7. The castle wasimpregnable.
‘People would have got in before now if there had been a way,’ said Philip. ‘It just showsthere’s no way in if no one ever comes here.’
‘Tassie – don’t you know of a way?’ said Jack, turning to the little girl. She consideredsolemnly. Then she nodded her head.
‘I might know,’ she said. ‘I have never been. But it might be a way.’
‘Show us, quickly!’ said Jack eagerly.
Tassie led them further round the castle, towards the back of it. Here it was built almost into thecliff. A narrow, dark pathway led between the steep hillside and the back wall of the castle. It wasalmost a tunnel, for both wall and cliff practically met at one place.
Tassie came to a stop, and pointed8 up. The other four looked, and saw that there was one of theslit windows high up above them. They stared at Tassie, not seeing in the least how that helpedthem.
‘Don’t you see?’ said Tassie. ‘You could climb up the cliffside here, because it is all overgrownwith creepers – and then, when you get opposite that window, you might put a branch of a treeacross or something, and get in.’
‘I see what she means!’ said Philip. ‘If we could lug9 a plank10 or a bough11 up the side of the steepcliff here, that the castle backs on to – and put one end of it on to the windowsill, and the otherfirmly into the cliff- we could slide across and get in! It’s an idea!’
The rest of the company received this news with mixed feelings. Dinah was already afraid ofbats in the dark and narrow passageway, and would willingly have gone back into the sunshine ofthe open hillside. Lucy- Ann didn’t like the idea of climbing the cliff and sliding across adangerous branch that might slip, into the silent and deserted12 castle. Jack, on the other hand,thought it was well worth trying, and was eager to do so at once.
‘Put on the light,’ said Kiki earnestly from somewhere in the dark passage. ‘Put on the light.’
The children laughed. It was funny the way Kiki sometimes said what sounded like a verysensible sentence.
‘Let’s find a branch or something,’ said Jack. So they went out of the musty-smelling passage,and hunted for something to use as a bridge across to the window of the castle.
But there was nothing to be found at all. True, Philip found a dead branch, but it was so deadthat it would have cracked at once under anyone’s weight. It was impossible to break off from atree a branch big enough to be any use.
‘Blow!’ said Jack. ‘Anyway, let’s go back and see if we can climb up opposite the window. Ifwe think we could get in the way Tassie suggests, we might come up tomorrow with a plank.’
‘Yes, it would be better to leave it till tomorrow, really,’ said Dinah, trying to see the time byher watch. ‘It’s getting rather late now. Let’s come up tomorrow with your camera, Jack.’
‘All right. But we’ll just see if it’s possible to climb in at that window first,’ said Jack. He triedto climb up the cliffside, but it was very steep, and he kept slipping down. Then Philip tried, and,by means of holding on tightly to some of the strongest of the creepers, he pulled himself up alittle way.
But the creeper broke, and down he came, missing his footing at the bottom, and rolling overand over. Fortunately, except for a few bruises13, he wasn’t hurt.
‘I’ll go,’ said Tassie. And up she went like a monkey. It was extraordinary the way she couldclimb. She was far better than any of them. She seemed to know just where to put her feet, and justwhich creeper to hold on to.
Soon she was opposite the slit window. The creepers grew very thickly on the cliffside there,and she held on to them whilst she peered across at the window.
‘I believe I could almost jump across to the sill,’ she called to the others.
‘Don’t you do anything of the sort,’ shouted back Philip at once. ‘Little donkey! You’d breakboth your legs if you fell! What can you see?’
‘Nothing much!’ called back Tassie, who still seemed to be considering whether or not to jumpacross and chance it. ‘There’s the window – very narrow, of course. I don’t know if we couldsqueeze through. And past the window I can see a room, but it’s so dark I can’t see if it’s big orsmall or anything. It looks very strange.’
‘I bet it does!’ said Jack. ‘Come on down, Tassie.’
‘I’ll just leap across and have a try at squeezing in,’ said Tassie, and poised14 herself for a jump.
But a roar from Philip stopped her.
‘If you do that we’ll never let you go with us again. Do you hear? You’ll break your legs!’
Tassie thought better of her idea. The threat of never being allowed to go about with thechildren she so much liked and admired filled her with horror. She contented15 herself with onemore look across at the window, and then she climbed down like a goat, landing directly besidethe waiting children.
‘It’s just as well that you did as you were told,’ said Philip grimly. ‘Suppose you had got across– and squeezed inside – and then couldn’t get out again! You’d have been a prisoner in that castlefor ever and ever!’
Tassie said nothing. She had great faith in her powers of climbing and jumping, and she thoughtPhilip was making a fuss about nothing. Kiki, hearing Philip’s stern voice, joined in the scolding.
‘How many times have I told you to shut the door?’ she said, flying on to Tassie’s shoulder.
Tassie laughed and scratched Kiki’s poll.
‘Only about a hundred times,’ she said, and the others laughed too. They made their way out ofthe dark tunnel-like passage, and were glad to be in the sun again.
‘Well, we know what to do, anyway,’ said Jack. ‘We’ll find a plank or something to bring uphere tomorrow, and we’ll send Tassie up with it, and she can put it across from the cliffside to thewindow. We’ll give her a strong rope too, so that she can knot it to some of that creeper up there,and we can pull on it to help ourselves up. We’re not as goat-footed as Tassie.’
‘No, she’s marvellous,’ said Lucy-Ann, and Tassie glowed with pleasure. They made their waydown the hillside again, finding it a little easier to climb down than up, especially as Tassie tookthem a good way she knew.
‘It’s really getting very late,’ said Jack. ‘I hope your mother won’t be anxious, Philip.’
‘Oh no,’ said Philip. ‘She’d know one of us would run down for help if anything happened.’
All the same, Mrs Mannering had been wondering what had become of the children and shewas very glad to see them. She had supper ready for them, and Tassie was asked to stay too. Shewas thrilled, and tried to watch how the others ate and drank, as she had never been invited outbefore. Kiki sat on Jack’s shoulder, and fed on titbits that Jack and the others handed her, makingodd remarks from time to time about putting the kettle on, and using handkerchiefs. Button curledup on Philip’s knee and went sound asleep. He was tired after his long walk, though Philip hadcarried him a good way.
‘You know, I half thought Button might run off when we took him out on the hillside he knowsso well,’ said Philip. ‘But he didn’t. He didn’t even seem to think of it.’
‘He’s a darling,’ said Lucy-Ann, looking at the sleeping fox club, who had curled his sharp littlenose into his big tail. ‘It’s a pity he’s a bit smelly.’
‘Well, he’ll get worse,’ said Philip. ‘So you might as well get used to it. Foxes do smell. Iexpect we smell just as strong to them.’
‘Oh! I’m sure we don’t,’ thought Lucy-Ann. ‘Oh dear, how sleepy I am!’
They were all sleepy that night. The long climb in the sunshine had tired them out. ‘Let’s go tobed,’ said Philip with such a loud yawn that Button woke up with a jump. ‘We’ve got an excitingday tomorrow, with a lot of climbing again. Don’t forget to look out your camera, Jack.’
‘Oh yes – I simply must take a snap of the eagles!’ said Jack. ‘Golly, we’ll have some funtomorrow!’
Then up they went to bed, yawning. Kiki yawned the loudest – not that she was tired, but it wasa lovely noise to copy!
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1
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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2
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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3
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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4
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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5
gateway
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| n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法 | |
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6
landslide
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| n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利 | |
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7
ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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8
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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lug
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| n.柄，突出部，螺帽；(英）耳朵；（俚）笨蛋；vt.拖，拉，用力拖动 | |
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10
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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12
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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13
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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14
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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