by Энид Блайтон
“There goes the ladder!” whispered Jack in excitement. “Paul’s got it! He’s only got to fix it firmly to something and escape down it!”
Mike pulled on it gently. It felt tight to his hand. “Paul’s fixed it!” he whispered. “It feels quite firm. I hope he gets a move on and comes down at once!”
But Paul didn’t come! The boys waited and waited, but nobody came down the rope-ladder. Whatever could have happened?
Mike is Caught
“Why doesn’t Paul come?” wondered Jack impatiently. “What a time he is! Surely the ladder is safe now.”
Mike peered up. The moon shone brightly on the tower of the Old House, and the rope-ladder hung against the wall, quite straight and firm.
“It’s funny,” said Mike. “Do you suppose he doesn’t dare to risk himself down our ladder?”
“Can’t imagine what he’s doing,” said Jack. “We can’t stand here all night. I do wish he’d hurry.”
The two dogs came running up. They had finished their bone. They nosed round the two boys, licking their hands. Jack patted them. “Don’t you bark at Paul when he comes down the ladder,” he warned them. “He’s a friend of ours - so don’t you dare to make a sound. Do you hear, Tinker? Do you hear, Don?”
The dogs wagged their tails. They did not understand what Jack was saying, but they liked to hear him talking to them. Jack looked impatiently up the ladder once more. He shook it - but still nothing happened.
“I’ll climb up softly and see what’s up,” said Mike at last. “He may be waiting for one of us to tell him how to climb down.”
“All right,” said Jack. “I’ll hold the ladder as firmly as I can. Good luck!”
Mike began to climb the rope-ladder. He went up the side of the tower in the bright moonlight like a little black shadow. The girls at Peep-Hole could see him quite well through the field-glasses. They were puzzled to think why Mike should go up the ladder instead of Prince Paul coming down.
Mike went up and up. At last he came to the window where Prince Paul had taken in the top of the ladder. He put his head cautiously above the window-sill - caught sight of a little boy sitting on a couch at the far side of the room, looking very scared - and then a voice said, “Got him!” and Mr. Diaz leaned out of the window and took firm hold of poor Mike!
Mike did not dare to struggle, for he was afraid of falling down the ladder. He had to let himself be hauled into the tower room. Mr. Diaz stood him on the floor and then quickly pulled up the rope-ladder, jerking it roughly from Jack’s hands below.
“And now we have two prisoners,” said the soft sleepy voice of Luiz, and Mike saw that he was there too, standing behind Mr. Diaz.
Mike said nothing. He just stood there, looking angry. He glanced at Prince Paul. The little boy called out to Mike.
“I would have warned you, but I dared not. They came into the room and saw me fixing the ladder - and they made me sit over here whilst they waited to see if you would come up.”
“And he came up,” said Mr. Diaz. “And here he can stay. And to-morrow, Luiz, we will board up this window so that neither Paul nor this inquisitive boy can signal to the other tiresome children. They must do without his company until Friday, when we take Paul somewhere that is not crowded out with curious children, who get themselves into trouble through poking their noses into somebody else’s business.”
“You will have to miss a little of your holiday,” said sleepy-eyed Luiz to Mike. “But Paul here will welcome your company, I am sure! Maybe this will teach you not to interfere another time in what is no business of yours!”
The two men went out of the tower-room, locked the door and bolted it. Mike shot to the window and leaned out.
“Jack! Jack!” he called in a low voice. “Are you there?”
“Yes,” said Jack from behind a bush. “What’s happened?”
“They’ve pulled up the ladder and made me a prisoner too,” said Mike. “But they don’t know you’re outside, Jack. Go back to the others and tell them and see if you can think of some idea to get us out. You won’t be able to signal to-morrow because this window is going to be boarded up. You’ll have to be jolly clever to rescue us. They are taking Paul away somewhere else on Friday and I expect they’ll set me free then; but we must be rescued before or we’ll never know where Paul has gone.”
Jack listened to this long whisper in silence. He was angry with himself for having let Mike go up the ladder. He might have thought that maybe someone was waiting up there to catch one of them. “All right, Mike, old chap,” he said. “I’ll get you both out somehow. Cheer up. I’m going back now.”
He slipped through the bushes to the wall. He climbed up a tree, whilst the dogs whined below, sad to see him go, and then dropped on to the top of the high wall. He jumped from there to the ground, took a quick look round to see if anyone was about and then tore off in the moonlight to Peep-Hole.
The girls were waiting for him, both in tears, for they had seen all that had happened through their field-glasses.
“Oh, Jack, oh, Jack!” wept Nora. “How can we get poor Mike back? Oh, why did you let him go up? We could see somebody waiting at the side of the window and we couldn’t warn you.”
“It was bad luck,” said Jack gloomily. “I was an idiot to let him go up. Somehow I never thought of anyone lying in wait for one of us up there.”
“What are we going to do now?” asked Peggy, wiping her eyes. “We’ll have to get Mike back somehow. What will Dimmy say to-morrow morning when he doesn’t go down to breakfast?”
“Cheer up,” he said. “After all, we do know where Mike is - and we’ve only got to go to the police and they’ll get him back for us.”
“There’s only one fat old policeman here and he doesn’t belong to Spiggy Holes,” said Peggy. “And anyway we can’t get him in the middle of the night.”
“I want to tell Dimmy,” said Nora suddenly. “We will have to tell here to-morrow morning anyhow - and I want to tell her to-night. I can’t go to sleep unless we tell somebody grown-up about Mike being caught.”
“But we can’t wake Dimmy in the middle of the night!” said Jack. “We’d better wait till the morning. Mike will be all right to-night; there’s a bed in that tower-room, I saw it through the key-hole last night.”
“I want to tell Dimmy,” wept poor Nora. “I do want to tell Dimmy.”
The little girl felt that if only she could tell somebody grown-up something could be done. Grown-up people were powerful - she even had an idea that Dimmy might march up to the Old House straightaway and demand that Mike should be set free!
“Well, we’ll go and wake Dimmy and tell her now, if you feel you must let her know to-night,” said Jack, who secretly felt as if he would like to tell her as soon as possible too. “She may have a good idea.”
So down the winding staircase of their little tower went the three children, through the tower door into the kitchen and then up the carpeted staircase to Dimmy’s bedroom. They knocked on the door.
“Who’s that?” said Dimmy’s voice.
“It’s us,” said Nora. “Can we come in?”
“Of course,” said Dimmy. “Is one of you ill?”
The children opened the door. Dimmy lighted two candles and sat up in bed and looked at them. Her hair was in two long plaits over her shoulder, and she somehow looked different, but very kind and anxious.
“Where’s Mike?” she said. “Is he ill?”
They sat on her bed, and first one and then another of the children told her the strange story of the Old House, the secret passage from the shore to the cellars of the Old House, the prince who was a prisoner in the tower - and then how Mike had been caught at the top of the rope-ladder.
Dimmy listened in the greatest surprise and astonishment. She asked them questions, she exclaimed in amazement, she groaned with horror when she heard about Mike.
“Well!” she said, when the long story was finished, “so that was your great secret! And a most e
xtraordinary one too. I have wondered what those people up at the Old House were up to - I knew it was something queer and not right. Poor little Prince! What a shame to keep him prisoner like that! I read in the paper how he had disappeared, and no one knew where he was - but little did I think he was so near!”
“How are we to get Mike back?” asked Nora, much happier now that Dimmy knew everything. “And Paul too - he must be rescued before Friday.”
Dimmy thought for a long time. Then she said something that set the children’s hearts beating with excitement.
“My grandfather once told me that there was a secret way between Peep-Hole tower and the tower of the Old House,” she said. “It was often used by the old-time smugglers when they wanted to get unseen from one house to the other. If we could find it, we could reach the tower of the Old House easily, and fetch back the two boys without anyone knowing.”
“Oh, Dimmy!” cried the three children, their eyes shining brightly. “We must find it! We must, we must!”
“Well, we will hunt for it to-morrow,” said Dimmy. “And I think we must get George to help us, because it will mean using a good deal of strength to find a passage that has been unused and hidden for years. As far as I remember, my grandfather said that a great stone had to be swivelled round in the wall of our tower - and certainly none of us could do that. George is very strong, and he can keep a secret too.”
After talking for a little while longer the children were sent off to bed. Before they got into bed they were very much cheered by seeing Mike at the lighted window of the Old House tower, waving to them in the moonlight. He seemed quite cheerful, and Nora and Peggy were very glad to see him.
“Good old Mike.” said Jack, getting into bed. “I hope he won’t be too miserable.”
“So do I,” said Nora. “And, oh, I do hope we find the hidden way between our tower and the other tower. Won’t George be surprised when he hears all we’ve got to tell him! Oh, to-morrow, do come quickly!”
Where is the Secret Door?
The next morning when Jack rushed to the window to look at the tower of the Old House he found that Mr. Diaz had kept his word - the window was now boarded up! No messages could be given to the prisoners, and they could send no messages back.
Jack didn’t like it. He had hoped that perhaps Mr. Diaz might have forgotten to block up the window. It made everything seem very serious, when he looked at that blind window with the boards across it.
The children went down to breakfast looking solemn. Nora gave a little sob when she looked at Mike’s empty chair at the table. But Dimmy seemed very cheerful and patted her on the back.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “Now that you’ve told me, I’ll do my best to help - and we’ll rescue both boys, never fear!”
Nobody seemed to want much breakfast, although it was poached eggs, which they all loved. Nora was anxious to do something for Mike and Paul as soon as possible, and she wouldn’t even let Dimmy wash up after breakfast.
“Please do let us see if we can discover the secret door out of our tower,” she begged. “Leave the cups and things, Dimmy dear - we can do those afterwards.”
So Dimmy left them, and the three children trooped up the winding stone staircase with her. They went to Jack’s room and looked round the grey stone walls.
It seemed impossible to find any secret door in those great walls. They knocked on them, they pressed on them, they stood on chairs and pushed against the higher part of the walls, but nothing moved, nothing swung round to show a hidden passage in the thick stone walls.
At eleven o’clock they stopped their hunting, quite tired out. Dimmy looked at Nora’s pale face, and was sorry for her.
“I’m going to make some cocoa for us all, and get some ginger cake,” she said. “We need a rest.”
She ran downstairs. Peggy went with her to help. Nora sat on Jack’s bed and looked gloomy.
“Cheer up, Nora,” said Jack.
“I’m quite, quite sure there’s no hidden door in this room,” said Nora, with a deep sigh.
“I feel as if there isn’t too,” said Jack anxiously. “Wouldn’t it be dreadful if it was only a tale, and not true at all!”
“Don’t, Jack,” said Nora. “You make me feel worse.”
Jack sat and thought for a few minutes. “I wonder if by any chance Dimmy has any old maps of Spiggy Holes in that big bookcase of hers downstairs,” he said. “If she had, one of them might show where the hidden door is.”
Dimmy came into the room at that minute, carrying a big jug of milky cocoa. Peggy followed with a dish of brown gingerbread. Everyone felt quite cheered by the look of it.
“Dimmy, I suppose you’ve no old books about Spiggy Holes, or old maps, have you?” asked Jack, munching his gingerbread.
Dimmy looked surprised. “Why didn’t I think of that before?” she said. “Of course! There are two or three old books about this place, belonging to my great-grand-father. I believe they are very valuable. They are locked up in the big bookcase downstairs.”
Jack almost choked over his cake in his delight. “Let’s get them!” he said, jumping up.
“Finish your cake and cocoa.” said Dimmy. “Then we’ll go downstairs and look for them.”
How the three children swallowed down their cocoa and gingerbread, in their eagerness to rush downstairs to find the old books! It wasn’t more than a minute or two before they were all in Dimmy’s rather dark little drawing-room, watching her whilst she unlocked the big old-fashioned bookcase there.
She moved aside some of the books on the top row, and behind them were some very old books, carefully covered in thick brown paper.
“There they are,” said Dimmy. “This one is called Spiggy Holes - a record of smuggling days. And this one is called Tales of Smugglers, and Spiggy Holes is mentioned several times. This one is only an old cookery book - and this is a diary kept by my grandfather.”
The children pounced eagerly on the first two books. The girls turned over the pages of Spiggy Holes, and Jack looked hurriedly through Tales of Smugglers.
“Look! Look! Here’s a map of the secret passage we know!” cried Peggy suddenly. All the others crowded round her and peeped at the book she was holding. She laid it flat on the table. She pointed to a page on which was drawn a small map, showing Peep-Hole and the Old House and the shore. From the shore-cave to the Old House the secret passage was shown winding its way through the cliff underground to the cellars of the Old House.
“But there’s no way shown from Peep-Hole to the Old House,” said Jack in disappointment.
He was right. There was no hidden path between the two houses on the map. Eagerly Nora turned the pages to see if another map was shown, but there was none.
The two books were a great disappointment. Peggy, who was a good reader, hurriedly read through both of them to see if she could perhaps find anything written about the way between the two towers - but not a word was said.
“It must have been just a tale,” said Nora in disappointment, closing the books.
“I feel sure it wasn’t,” said Dimmy, puzzled. “I remember so well how my grandfather told me about the secret. I wonder if he says anything about it in his old diary. He kept it when he was a boy, and it wasn’t found until a year or two ago. The ink has faded, and it was so difficult to read that I didn’t try more than a few pages. It was all about his days as a boy.”
“Dimmy, let me have it,” said Jack. “I will go away by myself and try to make it all out. It will take me a little time, but I’ll use my magnifying-glass to help me to read your grandfather’s tiny writing.”
Dimmy gave the little paper-covered diary to Jack. He slipped off upstairs with it. The two girls looked at Dimmy.
“What shall we do?” asked Nora. “I don’t feel like bathing or digging without Mike here.”
“Then you can just come and help me to wash up those breakfast things and make the beds and dust and get dinner ready!” said Dimmy briskly. “It will do
you good to think of something else for a while.”
“It won’t,” said Peggy dismally. But Dimmy was right. Both girls felt much better about things when they set to work to wash up and to dust.
Dinner-time came. Peggy went up to fetch Jack. He was huddled in a corner with his magnifying-glass, trying to read every word of the old, old diary.
“Dinner-time,” said Peggy. “Have you found anything interesting, Jack?”
“No,” said Jack. “It’s all about how he goes birds’-nesting and fishing and boating. He must have been a nice sort of boy. He was a great one for playing tricks on people too. It says here how he put a toad into his aunt’s bed, and she woke the whole house up to get it out!”
“Naughty boy!” said Peggy. “And poor old toad! It must have hated being squashed under the bedclothes. What else does it say?”
“Oh, lots of things,” said Jack, flicking over the pages. “Tell Dimmy I’ll be down in half a minute. I just want to finish the next few pages.”
So Peggy went downstairs again, and Dimmy and the two girls began their meal without Jack. They were in the middle of it when they heard a tremendous shouting, and Jack’s feet came tearing down the stone staircase. The door into the kitchen was flung open, and then the dining-room door flew back with a crash. The girls almost jumped out of their skin. Dimmy leapt to her feet.
“Whatever’s the matter?” she cried.
“I’ve found it, I’ve found it!” yelled Jack, dancing round the room like a clown in a circus. “It’s all here - there’s a map of it and everything!”
The girls squealed. Dimmy sank down into her chair again. She wasn’t used to these adventures!
“Show! Show us the map!” yelled Nora. She swept aside her plate and glass with a crash, and Jack set the old diary down on the tablecloth.
“Listen,” he said. “This is Dimmy’s grandfather’s entry for the third of June, exactly one hundred years ago! He says, ‘To-day has been the most exciting day of my life. I found at last the old hidden passage between Peep-Hole and the Old House tower. A gull fell into the chimney of my room and I climbed up it to free the bird. Whilst I was there I pressed by accident on the great stone that swings round to open the passage in the wall of the tower.’ ”