EVERYONE began to feel distinctly excited. 'I think I'll catch the bus into the next town,' said Julian.
'The telephone-box here is too easily overheard. I'd rather go to a kiosk somewhere in a 63street, where nobody can hear what I'm saying.'
'All right. You go,' said Dick. 'We'll do some shopping and go back to the caravans2. I wonder whatUncle Quentin will say!'
Julian went off to the bus-stop. The others wandered in and out of the few village shops, doing theirmarketing. Tomatoes, lettuces3, mustard and cress, sausage rolls, fruit cake, tins of fruit, and plenty ofcreamy milk in big quart bottles.
They met some of the fair-folk in the street, and everyone was very friendly indeed. Mrs. Alfredo wasthere with an enormous basket, nearly as big as herself. She beamed and called across to them.
'You see I have to do my shopping myself! That big bad man is too lazy to do it for me. And he hasno brains. I tell him to bring back meat and he brings fish. I tell him to buy cabbage and he bringslettuce. He has no brains!'
The children laughed. It was strange to find great big Alfredo, a real fire-eater, ordered about andgrumbled at by his tiny little wife.
'It's a change to find them all so friendly,' said George, pleased. 'Long may it last. There's the snake-man, Mr. Slither - he hasn't got his snakes with him, though.'
'He'd have the whole village to himself if he did!' said Anne. 'I wonder what he buys to feed hissnakes on.'
'They're only fed once a fortnight,' said Jo. 'They swallow...'
'No, don't tell me,' said Anne, hastily. 'I don't really want to know. Look, there's Skippy.'
Skippy waved cheerily. She carried bags filled to bursting too. The fair-folk certainly did themselveswell.
'They must make a lot of money,' said Anne.
'Well, they spend it when they have it,' said Jo. 'They never save. It's either a good time for them or avery bad time. They must have had a good run at the last show-place - they all seem very rich!'
They went back to the camp and spent a very interesting day, because the fair-folk, eager to make upfor their unfriendly behaviour, made them all very welcome. Alfredo explained his fire-eating a littlemore, and showed how he put wads of cotton wool at the hook-end of his torches, and then soakedthem in petrol to flare5 easily.
The rubber-man obligingly wriggled6 in and out of the wheel-spokes of his caravan1, a most 64amazing feat7. He also doubled himself up, and twisted his arms and legs together in such a peculiarmanner that he seemed to be more like a four-tentacled octopus8 than a human being.
He offered to teach Dick how to do this, but Dick couldn't even bend himself properly double.
He was disappointed because he couldn't help thinking what a marvellous trick it would be toperform in the playing-field at school.
Mr. Slither gave them a most entertaining talk about snakes, and ended up with some informationabout poisonous snakes that he said they might find very useful indeed.
'Take rattlers now,' he said, 'or mambas, or any poisonous snake. If you want to catch one to tame,don't go after it with a stick, or pin it to the ground. That frightens it and you can't do anything withit.'
'What do you have to do then?' asked George.
'Well, you want to watch their forked tongues,' said Mr. Slither, earnestly. 'You know how they putthem out, and make them quiver and shake?'
'Yes,' said everyone.
'Well, now, if a poisonous snake makes its tongue go all stiff without a quiver in it, just be careful,'
said Mr. Slither, solemnly. 'Don't you touch it then. But if its tongue is nice and quivery, just slideyour arms along its body, and it will let you pick it up.' He went through the motions he described,picking up a pretend snake and letting its body slither through his arms. It was fascinating to watch,but very weird9.
'Thanks most awfully,' said Dick. 'Whenever I pick up poisonous snakes, I'll do exactly as you say.'
The others laughed. Dick sounded as if he went about picking up poisonous snakes every day!
Mr. Slither was pleased to have such an appreciative10 audience. George and Anne, however, hadfirmly made up their minds that they were not going even to look at a snake's tongue if it put it out -they were going to run for miles!
There were a few more fair-folk there that the children didn't know much about - Dacca, the tap-dancer, who put on high boots and tap-danced for the children on the top step of her caravan -Pearl, who was an acrobat11 and could walk on a wire-rope, dance on it, and turn somersaults over it,landing back safely each time - and others who belonged to the show but only helped with the crowdsand the various turns.
Jo didn't know them all, but she was soon so much one of them that the children began to wonder 65if she would ever go back to her foster-mother again!
'She's exactly like them all now,' said George. 'Cheerful and dirty, slap-dash and generous, lazy andyet hardworking too! Bufflo practises for hours at his rope-spinning, but he lies about for hours too.
They're queer folk, but I really do like them very much.'
The others agreed with her heartily12. They had their lunch without Julian, because he hadn't comeback. Why was he so long? He only had to telephone his uncle!
He came back at last. 'Sorry I'm so late,' he said, 'but first of all I couldn't get any answer at all, so Iwaited a bit in case Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin were out - and I had lunch while I waited. Then Itelephoned again, and Aunt Fanny was in, but Uncle Quentin had gone to London and wouldn't beback till night.'
'To London!' said George, astonished. 'He hardly ever goes to London.'
'Apparently he went up about these two missing scientists,' said Julian. 'He's so certain that his friendTerry-Kane isn't a traitor13, and he went up to tell the authorities so. Well, I couldn't wait till night, ofcourse.'
'Didn't you report our news then?' said Dick, disappointed.
'Yes. But I had to tell Aunt Fanny,' said Julian. 'She said she would repeat it all to Uncle Quentinwhen he came back tonight. It's a pity I couldn't get hold of him and find out what he thinks. I askedAunt Fanny to tell him to write to me at once.'
After tea they sat on the hillside again, basking14 in the sun. It really was wonderful weather for them.
Julian looked over to the ruined castle opposite. He fixed15 his eyes on the tower where they had seenthe face. It was so far away that he could only just make out the window-slit4.
'Get your glasses, George' he said. 'We may as well have another squint16 at that window. It was aboutthis time that we saw the face.'
George fetched them. She would not give them to Julian first though - she put them to her own eyesand gazed at the window. At first she saw nothing - and then, quite suddenly, a face appeared at thewindow! George was so astonished that she cried out.
Julian snatched the glasses from her. He focused them on the window and saw the face at once.
Yes - the same as yesterday - eyebrows17 and all!
Dick took the glasses, and then each of them in turn gazed at the strange face. It did not move at all,as far as they could see, but simply stared. Then, when Anne was looking at it, it suddenlydisappeared and did not come back again.
66
'Well - we didn't imagine it yesterday then,' said Julian. 'It's there all right. And where there's a face,there should be a body. Er - did any of you think that the face had a - a sort of - despairingexpression.'
'Yes,' said Dick and the others agreed. 'I thought so yesterday, too,' said Dick. 'Do you suppose thefellow, whoever he is, is being kept prisoner up there?'
'It looks like it,' said Julian. 'But how in the world did he get there? It's a marvellous place to put him,of course. Nobody would ever dream of a hiding-place like that - and if it hadn't been for us lookingat the jackdaws through very fine field-glasses, we'd never have seen him looking out. It was a chancein a thousand that we saw him.'
'In a million,' said Dick. 'Look here, Ju - I think we ought to go up to the castle and yell up to thefellow - he might be able to yell back, or throw a message out.'
'He would have thrown out a message before now if he'd been able to,' said Julian. 'As for yelling,he'd have to lean right out of that thick-walled window to make himself heard. He's right at the backof it, remember, and the slit is very deep.'
'Can't we go and find out something?' said George, who was longing18 to take some action. 'After all,Timmy got in somewhere, and we might be able to as well.'
'That's quite an idea,' said Julian. 'Timmy did find a way in - and it may be the way that leads up tothe top of the tower.'
'Let's go then,' said George at once.
'Not now,' said Julian. 'We'd be seen if we scrambled19 about on the hill outside the castle walls.
We'd have to go at night. We could go when the moon comes up.'
A shiver of excitement ran through the whole five. Timmy thumped20 his tail on the ground. He hadbeen listening all the time, just as if he understood.
'We'll take you too, Timmy,' said George, 'just in case we run into any trouble.'
'We shan't get into trouble,' said Julian. 'We're only going to explore - and I don't think for a minutewe'll find much, because I'm sure we shan't be able to get up into the tower. But I expect you all feellike I do - you can't leave this mystery of the face at the window alone - you want to do somethingabout it, even if it's only scrambling21 round the old walls at night.'
'Yes. That's exactly how I feel,' said George. 'I wouldn't be able to go to sleep tonight, I know.
Oh Julian - isn't this exciting?'
'Very,' said Julian. 'I'm glad we didn't leave today, after all! We should have, if we hadn't seen 67that face at the window.'
The sun went down and the air grew rather cold. They went into the boys' caravan and played cards,not feeling at all sleepy. Jo was very bad at cards, and soon stopped playing. She sat watching, herarm round Timmy's neck.
They had a supper of sausage rolls and tinned strawberries. 'It's a pity they don't have meals like thisat school,' said Dick. 'No trouble to prepare, and most delicious to eat. Julian - is it time to go?'
'Yes,' said Julian. 'Put on warm things - and we'll set off! Here's to a really adventurous22 night!'
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1
caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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lettuces
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| n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶 | |
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slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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wriggled
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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acrobat
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| n.特技演员，杂技演员 | |
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heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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basking
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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squint
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| v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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scrambled
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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thumped
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| v.重击， （指心脏）急速跳动( thump的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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