Everyone thought it was. They felt happy and excited. There was something to discover-something they could and must discover within the next day or two.
They looked at one another. “Well,” said Dick, “what are we going to start on? Shall we try to find the entrance to the dungeons-the one that seems to start round about this little room? For all we know there may be a big stone we can lift that opens above the dungeon steps!”
This was a thrilling thought, and the children jumped up at once. Julian folded up the precious map and put it into his pocket. He looked round. The stone floor of the little room was overgrown with creeping weeds. They must be cleared away before it was possible to see if there were any stones that looked as if they might be moved.
“We’d better set to work,” said Julian, and he picked up a spade. “Let’s clear away these weeds with our spades-scrape them off, look, like this-and then examine every single stone!”
They all picked up spades and soon the little stone room was full of a scraping sound as the four of them chiselled away at the close-growing weeds with their spades. It wasn’t very difficult to get the stones clear of them, and the children worked with a will.
Tim got most excited about everything. He hadn’t any idea at all what they were doing, but he joined in valiantly. He scraped away at the floor with his four paws, sending earth and plants flying high into the air!
“Hi, Tim!” said Julian, shaking a clod of earth out of his hair. “You’re being a bit too vigorous. My word, you’ll send the stones flying into the air too, in a minute. George, isn’t Tim marvellous the way he joins in everything?”
How they all worked! How they all longed to find the entrance to the underground dungeons! What a thrill that would be.
Chapter Twelve
EXCITING DISCOVERIES
SOON the stones of the little room were clear of earth, sand and weeds. The children saw that they were all the same size-big and square, fitted well together. They went over them carefully with their torches, trying to find one that might move or lift.
“We should probably find one with an iron ring handle sunk into it,” said Julian. But they didn’t. All the stones looked exactly the same. It was most disappointing.
Julian tried inserting his spade into the cracks between the various stones, to see if by any chance he could move one. But they couldn’t be moved. It seemed as if they were all set in the solid ground. After about three hours hard work the children sat down to eat a meal.
They were very hungry indeed, and felt glad to think there were so many things to eat. As they ate they discussed the problem they were trying to solve.
“It looks as if the entrance to the dungeons was not under this little room after all,” said Julian. “It’s disappointing-but somehow I don’t think now that the steps down to the dungeon started from here. Let’s measure the map and see if we can make out exactly where the steps do start. It may be, of course, that the measurements aren’t correct and won’t be any help to us at all. But we can try.”
So they measured as best they could, to try and find out in exactly what place the dungeon steps seemed to begin. It was impossible to tell, for the plans of the three floors seemed to be done to different scales. Julian stared at the map, puzzled. It seemed rather hopeless. Surely they wouldn’t have to hunt all over the ground floor of the castle! It would take ages.
“Look,” said George, suddenly, putting her finger on the hole that they all thought must be meant to represent the well. “The entrance to the dungeons seems to be not very far off the well. If only we could find the well, we could hunt around a bit for the beginning of the dungeon steps. The well is shown in both maps. It seems to be somewhere about the middle of the castle.”
“That’s a good idea of yours,” said Julian, pleased. “Let’s go out into the middle of the castle-we can more or less guess where the old well ought to be, because it definitely seems to be about the middle of the old yard out there.”
Out they all went into the sunshine. They felt very important and serious. It was marvellous to be looking for lost ingots of gold. They all felt perfectly certain that they really were somewhere beneath their feet. It didn’t occur to any of the children that the treasure might not be there.
They stood in the ruined courtyard that had once been the centre of the castle. They paced out the middle of the yard and then stood there, looking around in vain for anything that might perhaps have been the opening of an old well. It was all so overgrown. Sand had blown in from the shore, and weeds and bushes of all kinds grew there. The stones that had once formed the floor of the big courtyard were now cracked and were no longer lying flat. Most of them were covered with sand or weeds.
“Look! There’s a rabbit!” cried Dick, as a big sandy rabbit lollopped slowly across the yard. It disappeared into a hole on the other side. Then another rabbit appeared, sat up and looked at the children, and then vanished too. The children were thrilled. They had never seen such tame rabbits before.
A third rabbit appeared. It was a small one with absurdly big ears, and the tiniest white bob of a tail. It didn’t even look at the children. It bounded about in a playful way, and then, to the children’s enormous delight, it sat up on its hind legs, and began to wash its big ears, pulling down first one and then another.
But this was too much for Timothy. He had watched the other two bound across the yard and then disappear without so much as barking at them. But to see this youngster actually sitting there washing its ears under his very nose was really too much for any dog. He gave an excited yelp and rushed full-tilt at the surprised rabbit.
For a moment the little thing didn’t move. It had never been frightened or chased before, and it stared with big eyes at the rushing dog. Then it turned itself about and tore off at top speed, its white bobtail going up and down as it bounded away. It disappeared under a gorse bush near the children. Timothy went after it, vanishing under the big bush too.
Then a shower of sand and earth was thrown up as Tim tried to go down the hole after the rabbit and scraped and scrabbled with his strong front paws as fast as he could. He yelped and whined in excitement, not seeming to hear George’s voice calling to him. He meant to get that rabbit! He went almost mad as he scraped at the hole, making it bigger and bigger.
“Tim! Do you hear me! Come out of there!” shouted George. “You’re not to chase the rabbits here. You know you mustn’t. You’re very naughty. Come out!”
But Tim didn’t come out. He just went on and on scraping away madly. George went to fetch him. Just as she got up to the gorse bush the scraping suddenly stopped. There came a scared yelp-and no more noise was heard. George peered under the prickly bush in astonishment.
Tim had disappeared! He just simply wasn’t there any more. There was the big rabbit-hole, made enormous by Tim-but there was no Tim.
“I say, Julian-Tim’s gone,” said George in a scared voice. “He surely can’t have gone down that rabbit’s hole can he? I mean-he’s such a big dog!”
The children crowded round the big gorse bush. There came the sound of a muffled whine from somewhere below it. Julian looked astonished.
“He is down the hole!” he said. “How queer! I never heard of a dog really going down a rabbit-hole before. However are we going to get him out?”
“We’ll have to dig up the gorse bush, to begin with,” said George, in a determined voice. She would have dug up the whole of Kirrin Castle to get Tim back, that was certain! “I can’t have poor old Tim whining for help down there and not do what we can to help him.”
The bush was far too big and prickly to creep underneath. Julian was glad they had brought tools of all kinds. He went to fetch an axe. They had brought a small one with them and it would do to chop away the prickly branches and trunk of the gorse bush. The children slashed at it and soon the poor bush began to look a sorry sight.