The Castle of Adventure

by Enid Blyton

  ‘Got old plans of the castle, I expect,’ said Bill. ‘The old fellow who had this castle last was quite mad, as you no doubt gathered from the curious things he did. He made all kinds of hidden rooms with curious contrivances, and lived in a romantic world of his own. Scar-Neck found the hidden room we know extremely useful, and the secret passage a perfect godsend! It actually came out above the very secret he had been sent to find out!’

  ‘He’s a brave man,’ said Philip.

  ‘Yes – most spies are brave,’ said Bill. ‘But this particular one is a most unpleasant fellow, heartily disliked even in his own country. He will double-cross anyone, not excepting his dearest friend. Well – I’m afraid he’s got away this time. But thank goodness he’s left the plans of our secret behind him in that hidden room!’

  ‘So he can’t do any damage, I suppose?’ asked Philip.

  ‘Not unless he remembers everything in his head,’ said Bill. ‘He has a marvellous memory, of course, so maybe he will do us some damage even now.’

  ‘I hope he won’t,’ said Philip. ‘I do so wish we had caught him, Bill – and old Shaggy too. I didn’t like either of them at all.’

  ‘These three we have got are only ordinary toughs, ready to do anything beastly for money,’ said Bill. ‘I have let the real culprits slip – and I shall get a rap over the knuckles for that! Serves me right – I had a wonderful chance of catching them. I should have guessed that Scar-Neck might smash that lamp.’

  Everyone had been glad of the rest and fresh air. Now Bill got up and looked downhill. How could they get down without being torn to bits by the barbed wire? No one felt inclined to wriggle down the tunnel Scar-Neck had made below it.

  Bill saw someone about below. He gave a hail, and the man looked up, evidently overcome with surprise to see so many people standing high up on the hillside.

  ‘Who are you?’ he yelled.

  ‘Friends!’ shouted back Bill. ‘Is Colonel Yarmouth there? I know him, and would like to talk to him. But I can’t get through this wire.’

  ‘Look!’ said Jack suddenly, and pointed to a beautiful camera standing under a thick bramble. ‘That’s how they got their pictures! With that! It’s one of the finest cameras I’ve ever seen. It hasn’t been hurt by the deluge either – it’s got a waterproof protection. I expect that camera you gave me is ruined now, Bill. It was in the gorse bush and had no protection at all. I left it there, unfortunately.’

  ‘What a pity!’ said Bill. ‘Well – maybe I can arrange for you to have this one instead – as a little return for letting me in on your adventure, Jack!’

  Jack’s eyes gleamed. What pictures he could take if he had a camera like that! It must be one of the finest in the world.

  Another man now came out in the grounds at the back of the farmhouse below. Jack had expected a colonel to be in uniform, but he wasn’t.

  ‘Hi, Yarmouth!’ yelled Bill. ‘Don’t you know me?’

  ‘Well, I’m blessed!’ floated up the Colonel’s astonished voice. ‘I’ll send a couple of men up to make a way down for you.’

  So, in a fairly short time, a way was made for them through the rows of barbed wire, which was promptly repaired again behind them. They went down to the farmhouse, slithering and almost falling down the steep descent.

  The Colonel and Bill disappeared into the house, to talk. The others waited patiently outside. Jack and Philip lay down on the heather and yawned. They both fell asleep at once!

  After a while the Colonel and Bill came out and snapped out a few orders. Three of his men took away the captives and they were put into a whitewashed room near by, which looked as if it had once been a dairy. The door was shut and padlocked.

  ‘That’s got rid of them!’ said Bill, pleased. ‘Now we’ll get back to Spring Cottage. I’m afraid we’ll have to go down to the bottom of the hill, take the road there, and then make our way up the other side to the cottage. There is apparently no other way to get there.’

  The boys, awake now, groaned. They really didn’t feel like any more walking. Still, it had to be done.

  ‘What about the maps, or whatever they were, we left behind in the hidden room?’ asked Jack.

  ‘Oh, we can easily get those. One of the Colonel’s men will go up through that passage and get them as soon as the water has stopped,’ said Bill. ‘And the three prisoners will be sent down sometime today under guard, to be dealt with later.’

  ‘I suppose the adventure is over?’ said Philip. ‘Quite finished?’

  ‘Well – there are a few loose ends to tie up,’ said Bill. ‘We must just see if we can find any trace of Scar-Neck and his friend in any of the districts near at hand. Scar-Neck will probably cut off his fine beard – but if he does that he shows his scar, unless he can paint it out. We may get on his track again and catch him. That would really be a most satisfactory finish, wouldn’t it!’

  ‘We’ll have to go and get your car too, won’t we?’ said Jack, remembering. ‘We left it at the beginning of the landslide.’

  ‘So we did,’ said Bill. ‘My word, I hope it hasn’t been swept away by that deluge of rain – or buried in another landslide!’

  ‘I want to know what happened to the girls too,’ said Philip. ‘I’m hoping they all got back safely before the storm really started. It seems ages since I’ve seen them!’

  They went on down the hillside, guided by a man from the farmhouse. He was extremely interested in their adventures, but wasn’t told much beyond that they had got caught in the castle in the storm, and had had to find their way through an old passage.

  Button was now running at Philip’s heels, happy to be in the open air. Even he had played his part in the adventure, for he had shown Tassie how to get in and out of the castle without using doors, gates or windows!

  They came to the bottom of the hill and took the road there. Then they came to the lane that led up to Spring Cottage.

  ‘There it is at last!’ cried Jack, and sprinted up to it. ‘Hi, girls, here we are! Where are you?’

  31

  The end of the Castle of Adventure

  There was a shriek from the cottage. It was Lucy-Ann of course. She came flying out of the door, her eyes shining, and flew straight at Jack. She almost bowled him over in her joy at seeing him again.

  ‘Jack! You’re back! And Philip! Wherever did you get to? We were awfully worried about you!’

  Dinah and Tassie came running out too, exclaiming in pleasure. ‘Were you all right in the storm? We got so worried about you! Tassie’s been up the hill and she says half the castle has fallen down the hill!’

  ‘Were you all right in that storm?’ asked Jack, as they all went into the little house. ‘We were very worried about you three girls having to go down the hill in that awful deluge! Did you get home before the storm really broke?’

  ‘Well, the rain had begun, and there was thunder rolling round nearly all the time, but no lightning,’ said Dinah. ‘We were soaked by the time we got here. Tassie wouldn’t let us rest for even a minute on the hill – she kept saying that there would be another landslide – and she was right!’

  ‘Good old Tassie,’ said Jack. ‘She just got you back in time. I simply can’t begin to tell you what it was like up in the castle!’

  But he did tell them, of course, and they listened with their eyes wide open in horror. What a night!

  ‘Where’s Kiki?’ asked Jack, looking all round. ‘I thought she would be here to greet me.’

  ‘She keeps flying off to look for you,’ said Tassie. ‘But she comes back. She won’t be long, I’m sure.’

  She wasn’t. In about ten minutes’ time she was back, sailing through the air, shouting loudly to Jack.

  ‘How many times, how many times, how many times, fusty, musty, dusty, Jack, Jack, Jack!’

  She flew to his shoulder and pecked his ear lovingly. Philip put up his hand to his left ear, which was still swollen.

  ‘Don’t you fly on to my shoulder and peck my ear,’ he s
aid to Kiki. ‘It’s not ready for pecking or nibbling yet!’

  The girls got breakfast for everyone, and talked nineteen to the dozen, happy at having the boys and Bill. Bill sent his three men up the road to find his car.

  ‘And now,’ said Bill, when they had finished eating, ‘what about a sleep, boys? I’m tired out!’

  Jack was almost asleep as it was, and Philip kept yawning. So the boys went up to sleep on their beds and Bill put himself on the couch in the kitchen. The girls went out into the garden to talk.

  They had to put waterproofs down on the grass because it was so wet. The day was lovely now, with not a cloud to be seen. It was fresh and cool. The stormy heat had completely gone.

  They lazed there, chattering, with Kiki joining in now and again. Button was asleep on Philip’s middle upstairs. Kiki was not sleepy, so she did not go with Jack, but contented herself with taking a look at him now and again through the window, to make sure he was there.

  ‘There’s someone coming,’ said Dinah suddenly. She sat up and looked.

  ‘It’s Bill’s three men,’ said Lucy-Ann, lazily.

  The men came into the garden. They looked serious.

  ‘Where’s the Boss? We want him,’ said one.

  ‘He’s asleep, so don’t disturb him yet,’ said Dinah.

  ‘Sorry, missie, but I’m afraid we must disturb him,’ said the man. ‘We’ve got news.’

  ‘What news?’ asked Lucy-Ann. ‘Have you found the car?’

  ‘Yes,’ said the man. ‘But we’ll tell our news to the Boss, missie.’

  ‘Well, he’s in the kitchen,’ said Dinah.

  The men moved off to the kitchen. They woke Bill, and the three girls heard them telling him something in urgent, serious voices. Bill came out, and the girls looked enquiringly at him.

  ‘What’s up, Bill?’ asked Dinah. ‘Have they found your car – and is it smashed up, or something?’

  ‘They’ve found my car all right,’ said Bill, slowly. ‘And they’ve found something else too.’

  ‘What!’ asked the three girls together.

  ‘Well, apparently Scar-Neck and his friend went off over the landslide quite safely, and then found my car standing where we left it,’ said Bill. ‘They must have got into it and turned it round – and then the deluge struck them, and another landslide began!’

  ‘Are they – killed?’ asked Dinah.

  ‘Well, I imagine so,’ said Bill. ‘We don’t know. The landslide caught the car and took it along. It dumped it upside-down in a gully, where these men found it – with Scar-Neck and the other fellow inside.’

  ‘Can’t they get them out then?’ asked Dinah, rather pale.

  ‘The doors are jammed,’ said Bill. ‘Have you got a wire tow-rope, or any good strong rope that won’t break? If you have, we’ll take it and try to get the car the right way up. Then we may be able to open the roof and get the men out.’

  Dinah fetched some wire rope from the shed. She gave it to Bill in silence. None of the girls asked to go with the men. This seemed a terrible ending, even to two bad men.

  They waited impatiently for the boys to awake, and when at last they came down, yawning and complaining of feeling hungry again, the girls ran to tell them the news.

  ‘Golly!’ said Jack, startled. ‘Fancy them finding the car like that! They must have thought it was a bit of luck. And then another landslide catches them – what a frightful shock they must have had!’

  Bill came back some hours later. The children ran to meet him.

  Bill was smiling. ‘Neither of the men is dead,’ he said. ‘Scar-Neck has concussion and is quite unconscious and rather badly hurt. The other fellow has a broken leg, and was stunned too. But he’s come round.’

  ‘So you’ve captured them both after all!’ said Philip. ‘Well done, Bill!’

  ‘What about the car?’ asked Dinah.

  ‘Looks wrecked to me,’ said Bill. ‘But I don’t mind that. I reckon I shall be handed out a new car when my chief knows I’ve got Scar-Neck and his friend to pass over to him. It’s quite a scoop for me – though I’d never have stumbled on to their secret if it hadn’t been for you children!’

  ‘Well, we’d have been in a pretty pickle if you hadn’t turned up,’ said Jack. ‘Whatever will Aunt Allie say when she comes back and hears all that has happened since she has been gone?’

  ‘She’ll say she can’t turn her back for a day or two without us all getting into mischief!’ said Philip, with a grin. ‘Where are the men, Bill?’

  ‘I sent Tom down to the village for help, instead of taking him back to the car with me,’ said Bill. ‘And they sent up a couple of stretchers and a doctor who happened to be down there – so they will be on their way to hospital by now, I imagine – and when they wake up, they’ll each find a nice burly policeman sitting by the side of their bed!’

  ‘Oh, Bill – what an adventure!’ said Dinah. ‘I never dreamt we’d plunge into all this when we first came here – and it’s all happened so quickly. I hope we shall have nice peaceful holidays for the rest of the time. I’ve had enough adventures to last me for a year!’

  ‘I want to stretch my legs,’ said Jack. ‘What about walking up the hillside, Bill, and having a look to see what has happened to the castle?’

  ‘Right,’ said Bill, so they set off up the road to the castle. But they could not go nearly so far as usual, because the landslide had come a good deal farther down, and the hillside was a terrible, jumbled mass of wet rocks, heaps of soil, uprooted trees and running streams – a desolate-looking region, indeed.

  ‘It’s horrid,’ said Lucy-Ann. Then she turned to gaze at the frowning castle, higher up. ‘The castle looks different. Something’s happened to it. Let’s climb up and see.’

  So they climbed up higher, taking the little rabbit path they always used. What a difference they found as they came near the castle!

  ‘Two of the towers have gone, and most of the walls,’ said Lucy-Ann, awed. ‘We can walk right into the courtyard now, over the rubble of stones. What a noise they must have made when they fell!’

  ‘And look at the castle! The middle part of it has fallen in! It’s not much more than a shell now!’ said Jack, staring.

  It looked almost a ruin. Philip stared hard at it. ‘The middle part must have crashed down into the big hall,’ he said. ‘No wonder you couldn’t move that entrance stone, Bill. There must be tons of fallen boulders on top of it!’

  Bill looked rather solemn. He could see what a narrow escape from death they had all had. If they had been anywhere else in the castle or courtyard they would have been crushed and buried. Being down in the hidden room had saved their lives!

  ‘Goodbye to my camera and all our rugs and things,’ said Jack.’

  ‘I’ll replace everything you have lost,’ promised Bill, who, now that he had actually captured Scar-Neck, was ready to promise the whole world to anyone! And I’ll give you all a fine present each for letting me share such a grand adventure!’

  ‘Me too?’ said Tassie, at once. She liked Bill.

  ‘You too,’ said Bill. ‘What would you like, Tassie?’

  Three pairs of shoes all for myself,’ said Tassie solemnly, and the others laughed. They knew Tassie wouldn’t wear them. She would just keep them and love and admire them – but she would never wear them. Tassie didn’t need to!

  ‘Let’s go back,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I don’t want to look at that ruin any more.’

  ‘Nor do I,’ said Dinah, ‘but somehow I feel as if it’s better as a ruin, open to anyone who cares to explore it, than as a castle owned by wicked old men, or spies like Scar-Neck. I like it better now! I’m glad to think of those musty old rooms all buried away – they were horrid!’

  ‘Fusty, musty, dusty!’ sang Kiki, in delight. ‘Pop goes the fusty, musty, dusty!’

  ‘Idiot!’ said Jack. ‘You will always have the last word, won’t you, Kiki?’

  Then down the hill they went in the sunshine, leaving behi
nd them the sad, broken old castle, its roof open to the wind and the rain, its proud towers fallen.

  ‘The Castle of Adventure!’ said Jack. ‘You were right, Philip – it was the Castle of Adventure!’