DICK caught hold of Anne's hand and pulled her quickly away from the cove1. He was afraid thatwhoever had come to the island might be somewhere about and see them. The boy took Anne to thelittle stone room where their things were and they sat down in a corner.
"Whoever has come has discovered Julian and George smashing in that door, I should think,"said Dick, in a whisper. "I simply can't think what to do. We mustn't go down into the dungeons3 orwe'll most certainly be caught. Hallo— where's Tim off to?"The dog had kept with them for a while but now he ran off to the entrance of the dungeons. Hedisappeared down the steps. He meant to get back to George, for he knew she was in danger.
Dick and Anne stared after him. They had felt comforted while he was there, and now they weresorry he had gone.
They really didn't know what to do. Then Anne had an idea. "I know!" she said, "we'll row back tothe land in our boat and get help."
"I'd thought of that," said Dick, gloomily. "But you know perfectly4 well we'd never know the way inand out of those awful rocks. We'd wreck5 the boat. I'm sure we're not strong enough either to row allthe way back. Oh, dear— I do wish we could think what to do."They didn't need to puzzle their brains long. The men came up out of the dungeons and began to huntfor the two children! They had seen Tim when he came back and had found the note gone.
So they knew the two children had taken it— and they couldn't imagine why they had not obeyedwhat George had said in the note, and come down to the dungeons!
Dick heard their voices. He clutched hold of Anne to make her keep quiet. He saw through thebroken archway that the men were going in the opposite direction.
"Anne! I know where we can hide!" said the boy, excitedly. "Down the old well! We can climb downthe ladder a little way and hide there. I'm sure no one would ever look there!"Anne didn't at all want to climb down the well even a little way. But Dick pulled her to her feet andhurried her off to the middle of the old courtyard. The men were hunting around the other side of thecastle. There was just time to climb in. Dick slipped aside the old wooden cover of the well andhelped Anne down the ladder. She was very scared. Then the boy climbed down himself and slippedthe wooden cover back again over his head, as best he could.
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The old stone slab6 that Tim had sat on when he fell down the well was still there. Dick climbed downto it and tested it. It was immovable.
"It's safe for you to sit on, Anne, if you don't want to keep clinging to the ladder," he whispered.
So Anne sat shivering on the stone slab across the well-shaft, waiting to see if they were discoveredor not. They kept hearing the voices of the men, now near at hand and now far-off.
Then the men began to shout for them.
"Dick! Anne! The others want you! Where are you? We've exciting news for you.""Well, why don't they let Julian and George come up and tell us then?" whispered Dick. "There'ssomething wrong, I know there is. I do wish we could get to Julian and George and find out what hashappened."
The two men came into the courtyard. They were angry. "Where have those kids got to?" said Jake.
"Their boat is still in the cove, so they haven't got away. They must be hiding somewhere.
We can't wait all day for them."
"Well, let's take some food and drink down to the two we've locked up," said the other man.
"There's plenty in that little stone room. I suppose it's a store the children brought over. We'll leavehalf in the room so that the other two kids can have it. And we'll take their boat with us so that theycan't escape."
"Right," said Jake. "The thing to do is to get the gold away as quickly as possible, and make sure thechildren are prisoners here until we've made a safe getaway. We won't bother any more about tryingto buy the island. After all, it was only the idea of getting the ingots that put us up to the idea ofgetting Kirrin Castle and the island."
"Well—come on," said his companion. "We will take the food down now, and not bother about theother kids. You stay here and see if you can spot them while I go down."Dick and Anne hardly dared to breathe when they heard all this. How they hoped that the menwouldn't think of looking down the well! They heard one man walk to the little stone room. It wasplain that he was getting food and drink to take down to the two prisoners in the dungeons below.
The other man stayed in the courtyard, whistling softly.
After what seemed a very long time to the hidden children, the first man came back. Then the twotalked together, and at last went off to the cove. Dick heard the motor-boat being started up.
"It's safe to get out now, Anne," he said. "Isn't it cold down here? I'll be glad to get out into thesunshine."
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They climbed out and stood warming themselves in the hot summer sunshine. They could see themotor-boat streaking7 towards the mainland.
"Well, they're gone for the moment," said Dick. "And they've not taken our boat, as they said. If onlywe could rescue Julian and George, we could get help, because George could row us back.""Why can't we rescue them?" cried Anne, her eyes shining. "We can go down the steps and unboltthe door, can't we?"
"No— we can't," said Dick. "Look!"
Anne looked to where he pointed8. She saw that the two men had piled big, heavy slabs9 of brokenstone over the dungeon2 entrance. It had taken all their strength to put the big stones there.
Neither Dick nor Anne could hope to move them.
"It's quite impossible to get down the steps," said Dick. "They've made sure we shan't do that!
And you know we haven't any idea where the second entrance is. We only know it was somewherenear the tower."
"Let's see if we can find it," said Anne eagerly. They set off to the tower on the right of the castle—but it was quite clear that whatever entrance there might have been once, it was gone now! The castlehad fallen in very much just there, and there were piles of old broken stones everywhere, quiteimpossible to move. The children soon gave up the search.
"Blow!" said Dick. "How I do hate to think of poor old Julian and George prisoners down below, andwe can't even help them! Oh, Anne— can't you think of something to do?"Anne sat down on a stone and thought hard. She was very worried. Then she brightened up a littleand turned to Dick.
"Dick! I suppose— I suppose we couldn't possibly climb down the well, could we?" she asked.
"You know it goes past the dungeons— and there's an opening on the dungeon floor from the well-shaft, because don't you remember we were able to put in our heads and shoulders and look right upthe well to the top? Could we get past that slab, do you think— the one that I sat on just now, that hasfallen across the well?"
Dick thought it all over. He went to the well and peered down it. "You know, I believe you are right,Anne," he said at last. "We might be able to squeeze past that slab. There's just about room.
I don't know how far the iron ladder goes down though.""Oh, Dick— do let's try," said Anne. "It's our only chance of rescuing the others!"77
"Well," said Dick, 'I'll try it— but not you, Anne. I'm not going to have you falling down that well.
The ladder might be broken half-way down— anything might happen. You must stay up here and I'llsee what I can do."
"You will be careful, won't you?" said Anne, anxiously. "Take a rope with you, Dick, so that if youneed one you won't have to climb all the way up again.""Good idea," said Dick. He went to the little stone room and got one of the ropes they had put there.
He wound it round and round his waist. Then he went back to Anne.
"Well, here goes!" he said, in a cheerful voice. "Don't worry about me. I'll be all right."Anne was rather white. She was terribly afraid that Dick might fall right down to the bottom of thewell. She watched him climb down the iron ladder to the slab of stone. He tried his best to squeeze byit, but it was very difficult. At last he managed it and after that Anne could see him no more. But shecould hear him, for he kept calling up to her.
"Ladder's still going strong, Anne! I'm all right. Can you hear me?""Yes," shouted Anne down the well, hearing her voice echo in a funny hollow manner. "Take care,Dick. I do hope the ladder goes all the way down.""I think it does!" yelled back Dick. Then he gave a loud exclamation10. "Blow! It's broken just here.
Broken right off. Or else it ends. I'll have to use my rope."There was a silence as Dick unwound the rope from his waist. He tied it firmly to the last but onerung of the ladder, which seemed quite strong.
"I'm going down the rope now!" he shouted to Anne. "Don't worry. I'm all right. Here I go!"Anne couldn't hear what Dick said after that, for the well-shaft made his words go crooked11 and shecouldn't make out what they were. But she was glad to hear him shouting even though she didn'tknow what he said. She yelled down to him too, hoping he could hear her.
Dick slid down the rope, holding on to it with hands, knees and feet, glad that he was so good at gymat school. He wondered if he was anywhere near the dungeons. He seemed to have gone down a longway. He managed to get out his torch. He put it between his teeth after he had switched it on, so thathe might have both hands free for the rope. The light from the torch showed him the walls of the wellaround him. He couldn't make out if he was above or below the dungeons. He didn't want to go rightdown to the bottom of the well!
He decided12 that he must have just passed the opening into the dungeon-caves. He climbed back upthe rope a little way and to his delight saw that he was right. The opening on to the dungeons 78was just by his head. He climbed up till he was level with it and then swung himself to the side of thewell where the small opening was. He managed to get hold of the bricked edge, and then tried toscramble through the opening into the dungeon.
It was difficult, but luckily Dick was not very big. He managed it at last and stood up straight with asigh of relief. He was in the dungeons! He could now follow the chalk-marks to the room or cavewhere the ingots were— and where he felt sure that George and Julian were imprisoned13!
He shone his torch on the wall. Yes— there were the chalk-marks. Good! He put his head into thewell-opening and yelled at the top of his voice.
"Anne! I'm in the dungeons! Watch out that the men don't come back!"Then he began to follow the white chalk-marks, his heart beating fast. After a while he came to thedoor of the store-room. As he had expected, it was fastened so that George and Julian couldn't getout. Big bolts had been driven home at the top and bottom, and the children inside could not possiblyget out. They had tried their hardest to batter14 down the door, but it was no good at all.
They were sitting inside the store-cave, feeling angry and exhausted15. The man had brought them foodand drink, but they had not touched it. Tim was with them, lying down with his head on his paws,half-angry with George because she hadn't let him fly at the men as he had so badly wanted to. ButGeorge felt certain that Tim would be shot if he tried biting or snapping.
"Anyway, the other two had sense enough not to come down and be made prisoners too," saidGeorge. "They must have known there was something funny about that note when they saw I hadsigned myself Georgina instead of George. I wonder what they are doing. They must be hiding."Tim suddenly gave a growl16. He leapt to his feet and went to the closed door, his head on one side. Hehad heard something, that was certain.
"I hope it's not those men back again already," said George. Then she looked at Tim in surprise,flashing her torch on to him. He was wagging his tail!
A great bang at the door made them all jump out of their skins! Then came Dick's cheerful voice.
"Hi, Julian! Hi, George! Are you here?"
"Wuffffff!" barked Tim, joyfully17 and scratched at the door.
"Dick! Open the door!" yelled Julian in delight. "Quick, open the door!"
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收听单词发音
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1
cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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streaking
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| n.裸奔（指在公共场所裸体飞跑）v.快速移动( streak的现在分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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slabs
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| n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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11
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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batter
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| v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员 | |
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15
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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16
growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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