by Энид Блайтон
They were all ready in five minutes. Jack took his torch and gave one to Peggy for the girls. They all crept down the staircase, out of the little tower door, and down the garden path, where the smell of honeysuckle came to them.
“Nora’s got on her bedroom slippers,” said Peggy, with a giggle. “She couldn’t find her others.”
“Sh!” said Jack sharply. “Other people may be about, remember. We mustn’t be seen or heard.”
They went as quietly as they could down the rocky path to the beach. The tide was half in and half out. The moon swam out from behind a cloud and lighted up the shore for the children. Jack stopped and looked out over the sea.
“No sign of any boat yet.” he whispered. “Let’s get into one of the nearest caves and get settled before anyone arrives. I expect the people from the Old House will come down to the beach soon.”
The children went into a small cave not far from the steep cliff path. They thought that if they hid there they could easily see who came or went up the cliff. They sat on the dry sand on the floor of the cave and waited, speaking in whispers. Nora was shaking with excitement. She said her knees wouldn’t keep still.
Suddenly the children heard voices, and they stiffened in surprise. The voices were to the right of them. Jack cautiously peeped out of the cave when the moon went behind a cloud.
“I believe it’s the man called Felipe Diaz and that sleepy-looking chap called Luiz,” whispered Jack.
“But, Jack, how in the world did they get on to the beach?” whispered back Mike. “We didn’t see them come down the cliff-path - and that’s the only way down on to the beach for a couple of miles! The cliffs are much too steep anywhere else to get down to the shore.”
“That’s funny,” said Jack. “They couldn’t have been here already, surely, or we’d have seen them. Perhaps they were waiting in a cave. Good gracious, I hope they didn’t spot us!”
Nora went hot and cold when she heard Jack say that. Mike shook his head.
“If they’d seen us they’d have rushed us off the beach at once,” he said. “They wouldn’t want us to see what was happening to-night. Listen! What’s that!”
The children listened - and over the black and silver water they heard the sound of a low humming.
“It’s a motor-boat!” said Jack, in an excited whisper. “It’s been waiting out yonder, round the crag, for the signal. Now it’s coming in! Watch out, everyone. See all you can.”
The children stood up and craned their necks round the rocky edges of the cave. The moon came out for a moment, and coming nearer and nearer to the shore a large motor-boat could be seen, glinting in the moonlight. Its hum was loud in the stillness of the night.
It shut off its engine and ran gently into the little cove where George kept his boat. The children could no longer see it.
“It must be by George’s small wooden jetty,” whispered Jack. “Well, we shall see what kind of goods the smugglers are bringing in, when they pass us on their way to the cliff-path.”
They all waited impatiently. The sound of hushed voices came to them, and the thud of the boat against the wooden pier. The children waited and waited. Then there came the sound of humming once again, and the motor-boat slid out of the cove and made its way swiftly out to sea and round the rocky headlands.
“They’ll be coming by in a second,” said Jack. “Now be quiet as mice, everyone - don’t sneeze or cough for goodness’ sake!”
Nora at once felt as if she was going to sneeze. She took out her hanky and buried her face in it. How dreadful if she gave their hiding-place away just at this most important moment!
But the sneeze didn’t come - and nobody came. Not a shadow passed in front of the children’s cave. Not even a voice could be heard now.
After half an hour, the children became impatient.
“Jack, what’s happened, do you suppose?” whispered Nora.
“Can’t imagine,” said Jack. Then a thought struck him. “I say! I wonder if the boat came to fetch anyone! We shouldn’t see them come by if they’d gone in the boat!”
“Well, then, we might as well go out and look round a bit,” said Mike. “Can we, Jack?”
“All right,” said Jack. “But for goodness’ sake be quiet!”
They made their way softly to the little cove where the wooden pier stood. George’s boat was beside it. Jack shone his torch on the ground and pointed out the footsteps in the sand.
“Let’s follow them backwards and see where they come from,” said Mike. “I simply can’t understand how those men came down to the beach to-night without us seeing them pass.”
So, with the help of the torches the children followed two pairs of footsteps from the cove, round the beach - and into a big cave!
“So they must have been hiding here all the time!” said Jack.
“Look,” said Mike, in a puzzled voice, swinging his torch all over the sandy beach. “There are no more footsteps beyond this cave - they didn’t come to the cave by the cliff-path, that’s certain. Then how did they come?”
“Jack! Mike! There must be a secret passage from the Old House to the beach!” suddenly said Nora, in such a loud whisper that the others jumped.
“Sh!” said Jack. Then he too began to whisper loudly. “I believe Nora’s right! Of course! There’s a secret passage from the shore to the Old House! Why didn’t I think of it before! My goodness, Nora, that was smart of you to think of that.”
“The passage must begin in this cave, where the men’s footsteps go,” said Nora, pleased and excited to think that Jack thought she was smart. “Let’s go in and explore.”
“And walk straight into dear Mr. Diaz and his friend Luiz!” said Jack. “No, thank you. Besides, I’d prefer to do it in daytime. It’s a bit too creepy now. Come on, let’s go back to bed and talk.”
They all went back up the steep cliff-path, through the scented garden and into their tower. The girls curled up in one bed in the top room and the boys in the other.
And they talked. How they talked! They were so thrilled with the night’s adventure that it was dawn before they thought of really going to bed.
“You see, what happened was they signalled to the boat to come in with the smuggled goods, whatever they were,” said Jack, for the twentieth time, “and Mr. Diaz and his friend slipped down from the Old House to the shore by the secret passage that leads to that cave - and then they took the goods up that way back to the Old House. So we never saw them.”
“When can we explore the cave for that secret passage, Jack?” said Peggy longingly.
“To-morrow!” said Jack, hugging his knees, as he sat in Mike’s bed.
“To-day you mean!” said Mike, with a laugh, and he pointed to where the eastern sky was beginning to shine with a silvery light. “It’s to-day now. Come on, we really must go to sleep for a bit!”
The girls went down to their room. The boys settled into their beds and were asleep in a few seconds. It seemed as if they had only been in bed for a few minutes when Dimmy awakened them at half-past seven.
“Are you never going to wake to-day?” she said in amazement. “Did you keep awake half the night, you naughty children?”
“Perhaps we did, Dimmy, perhaps we did!” said Jack, with a laugh - and not another word would he say to explain why they were all such sleepyheads that morning!
The Secret Passage!
The children were half sleepy, half excited at breakfast-time. Dimmy couldn’t make them out at all.
“I don’t understand what’s the matter with you all to-day.” she said, as she passed them their cocoa. “First you yawn, then you giggle, then you rub your hands together in glee, then you yawn again. Are you planning any mischief?”
“Oh no, Dimmy,” said everyone together.
“Well, see you don’t,” said Dimmy.
“Dimmy, would you give us a picnic lunch, please?” said Jack. “We’d like to be out till tea.”
“Very well,” said Dimmy. “You sha
ll have some little veal and ham pies that I made yesterday, some ginger cake, and some ripe plums and lemonade. Will that do? Oh, and you can have some hard-boiled eggs, too, if you like.”
“Lovely!” said everybody. Nora got up and hugged Dimmy. “You’re a dear!” she said. “It’s lovely staying with you!”
Dimmy prepared their lunch whilst the children collected electric torches, and also candles and matches in case their torches failed. They talked excitedly. It was lovely to be going to find a secret passage.
Dimmy gave them the lunch done up in two kit-bags. Jack put one on his back and Mike put the other on his. They called good-bye and ran off down the garden path to the cliff. Down the steep rocky steps they went, on to the beach.
The sea had been right up to the cliff and had washed away the footsteps of the night before. But the children knew which cave the men had come from and they made their way there, first looking to see that nobody else was on the beach too.
They came to the cave. The entrance was large and open. The cave ran back a good way, and was very dark and damp. Seaweed grew from the walls, and at the foot the red and green sea anemones grew, like lumps of jelly, waiting for the tide to sweep into the cave again so that they might open like flowers.
The children switched on their torches. They swung them here and there, all around the cave, looking for the passage that led from the cave.
At first they could find nothing at all. “It’s nothing but walls, walls, walls,” said Mike, flashing his torch round the damp rock that made the sides of the cave. “And at the back it just ends in rock too. Oh dear - I wonder if after all there isn’t a passage!”
“Look here!” shouted Jack suddenly. “What’s this?” He held his torch fairly high up one wall. The children crowded round eagerly. They saw rough steps hewn in the rock - and they could see that the seaweed that grew around had been bruised and torn.
“See that seaweed?” said Jack excitedly. “Well, somebody has trodden on that! That’s the way - up there! Come on, everybody!”
With their torches flashing the children tried to climb up the steep rocky steps in the cave-wall. They were slippery, and it was very difficult.
Suddenly Peggy caught sight of something that looked like a black worm hanging down the wall, and she shone her torch on it.
“Here’s a rope!” she said. “Look! Look! It must be to pull ourselves up by!”
The others stared at the rope. Mike caught hold of it.
It hung down from a black hole at the top of the rocky wall, and as he pulled it, it held firm.
“Yes, that’s what it is!” said Mike. “It’s fastened to something overhead, and is meant to help anyone using this cave. I’ll go up first with the rope’s help, and you others can follow.”
It was easy to get up the slippery, rocky steps with the rope to help them. Mike swung himself through the dark opening at the top of the sloping wall. He shone his torch around.
He was in another cave, but much smaller. A few boxes and barrels lay around empty and half broken.
Mike called down excitedly. “This has been used by smugglers in the olden days! There are still the old boxes here that must have brought the brandy and silks and things that the smugglers hid. Come along, you others!”
One by one they scrambled up. Jack kicked the boxes. They were all empty. “Unpacked by smugglers years and years ago!” said Jack. He shone his torch round the cave. “Where do we go from here?” he wondered. “Ah, look - is that a door or something over there?”
“Yes,” said Mike, who was nearest. “A good solid oak door too, fitted with bolts! I say, what a shame if it’s locked.”
He tried it - but it was not locked. It swung heavily into the cave, showing beyond it a narrow passage cut out of the rock itself.
“Here’s the passage!” cried Mike, in the greatest excitement. “I say! Isn’t this thrilling?”
“Mike, don’t make such a row,” said Jack. “We don’t know if anyone is coming down the passage or not, and if they should be, they’ll hear us easily! Let me go first. My torch is the brightest.”
He went up the dark, damp passage. It was so low in places that the children had to put down their heads in case they were bumped. The passage wound round and round and in and out, always going uphill, sometimes quite steeply. After a while it was not cut out of the rock, but out of sand and soil. It was quite dry by the time they had gone a few hundred yards.
Except for the noise that their feet made now and again the children were perfectly quiet. Presently they came to a wider piece of the passage and this widened out so much in a few moments that it became a kind of underground room. Here were more boxes, larger ones and much stronger looking. All were empty.
“Think of the old-time smugglers sitting here and having a feast, opening the boxes and barrels, selling the goods, going off again in the middle of the night!” said Peggy, looking round. The children could imagine it all very well.
“Aren’t we nearly up to the Old House now, Jack?” asked Nora. “We seem to have come a long way, always going uphill!”
“I think we must be very near,” said Jack in a low voice, “That oak door over there in the corner must lead into the cellars, I should think.”
“Let’s open it and see,” whispered Mike. He took hold of the iron handle of the door and pushed gently. It opened outwards, and Mike looked through it. There was a flight of stone steps beyond, leading steeply upwards.
The children went softly up them. There were eighteen of them.
At the top Jack swung his torch around. They were in a dark, underground cellar, set round with shelves. Empty bottles stood in rows. Barrels stood in corners.
“This is the cellar of the Old House, I’m sure,” said Jack. “And look - there are the steps leading into the house itself!”
His torch showed a short flight of steps in the far corner, leading up to a door that stood ajar, for a faint crack of daylight came through.
“You stay here, and I’ll slip up and see if I can hear anything,” said Jack. The others stayed as still as mice. Jack went quietly up the steps. He swung the door a little farther open and listened.
He could hear nothing. He peeped through the door. A large stone-floored scullery lay beyond the door. Nobody seemed about at all. Jack tried to remember where the tower would be. Of course! It would be quite near the scullery - maybe a door would lead from the scullery into the tower, so that servants could take the meals there when necessary.
Jack slipped through the door and took a quick look round. Yes - there was a little stout door at the end of the big scullery, just like the door through which the children had gone into the tower! It must lead there.
Now that he had gone so far Jack felt as if he must go farther! He tiptoed through the scullery, and tried the little tower door. It opened! He slipped through and ran up the winding stairs of the tower. He went right to the top - and when he got there he stopped in amazement.
He could hear somebody crying inside the top room of the tower. It sounded like a child. Jack tried the door - but alas, that was locked! He knocked softly.
The person inside stopped crying at once. “Who is it?” said a voice.
But just as Jack was going to answer, he heard the sound of voices. Someone was coming up the tower stairs! What was Jack to do? He couldn’t hide in the room at the top! But perhaps there was time to hide in the room below - if only they didn’t come there!
He slipped quickly down the stairs and into the room below, which was roughly furnished with a rug and a chair and table, Jack hid behind the door.
The voices came nearer as the people came up the winding staircase. Jack trembled with excitement behind the door.
The footsteps stopped outside the room where Jack was hiding. “I’ll just see if I left my papers in here,” said the voice of sleepy-eyed Luiz. The door was pushed open a little farther, and Luiz looked in!
A Narrow Escape!
Jack was quite sure that
Luiz would see him when he popped his head in by the door. His heart beat so loudly that he thought Luiz would hear it. But to his great astonishment and joy Luiz glanced over to the table by the window, and then shut the door and went on up the tower stairs.
“My papers are not there,” Jack heard him say to his companion. The boy could hardly believe that he had not been seen. He waited until he heard the door of the room above unlocked, and then he quietly opened his own door, shot down the stairs at top speed, ran through the little door into the scullery and down the cellar steps, falling in a heap at the bottom.
“Jack!” whispered Mike in surprise. “What’s the matter? What a long time you’ve been!”
“I was nearly caught!” said Jack, panting. “Tell you all about it in a minute. Let’s get out of this cellar down into that underground room. Hurry!”
They all climbed down the eighteen steps to the underground room. They were longing to know what had happened to Jack.
“Let’s sit down here for a minute,” said Jack. They sat down on the old boxes and barrels. “I’ll tell you what happened,” said Jack. “I tiptoed through the scullery to the door that leads into the tower from there - and slipped up the winding staircase to the top - but the top door was locked. And there was somebody crying behind it!”
“Crying!” said Nora, in surprise. “Is there a prisoner in the tower, then?”
“Must be,” said Jack. “And it sounds like a boy or a girl, too! Isn’t it mysterious?”
“Perhaps they’re not smuggling silks and things, then, but have got a prisoner,” said Peggy seriously. “Perhaps it was the prisoner they brought in last night by that motor-boat and took through the secret passage to the tower.”
“I think you’re right, Peggy,” said Jack. “Now we’ll have to find out somehow who it is!”
“Well, I should think the prisoner will look out of the tower window sometime!” said Nora. “We could borrow Dimmy’s field-glasses and keep a watch, couldn’t we? Then we should see what sort of a prisoner it is.”