It took a long time to destroy it, for it was prickly, sturdy and stout. Every child’s hands were scratched by the time the bush had been reduced to a mere stump. Then they could see the hole quite well. Julian shone his torch down it.
He gave a shout of surprise. “I know what’s happened! The old well is here! The rabbits had a hole at the side of it-and Tim scraped away to make it bigger and uncovered a bit of the well-hole- and he’s fallen down the well!”
“Oh no, oh no,” cried George, in panic. “Oh Tim, Tim, are you all right?”
A distant whine came to their ears. Evidently Tim was there somewhere. The children looked at one another.
“Well, there’s only one thing to do,” said Julian, “We must get our spades now and dig out the hole of the well. Then maybe we can let a rope down or something and get Tim.”
They set to work with their spades. It was not really difficult to uncover the hole, which had been blocked only by the spreading roots of the big gorse bush, some fallen masonry, earth, sand and small stones. Apparently a big slab had fallen from part of the tower across the well-hole, and partly closed it. The weather and the growing gorse bush had done the rest.
It took all the children together to move the slab. Underneath was a very rotten wooden cover, which had plainly been used in the old days to protect the well. It had rotted so much that when Tim’s weight had been pressed on it, it had given just there and made a hole for Tim to fall through.
Julian removed the old wooden cover and then the children could see down the well-hole. It was very deep and very dark. They could not possibly see the bottom. Julian took a stone and dropped it down. They all listened for the splash. But there was no splash. Either there was no longer any water there, or the well was too deep even to hear the splash!
“I think it’s too deep for us to hear anything,” said Julian. “Now-where’s Tim?”
He shone his torch down-and there was Tim! Many years before a big slab had fallen down the well itself and had stuck a little way down, across the well-hole- and on this old cracked slab sat Tim, his big eyes staring up in fright. He simply could not imagine what had happened to him.
There was an old iron ladder fastened to the side of the well. George was on it before anyone else could get there! Down she went, not caring if the ladder held or not, and reached Tim. Somehow she got him on to her shoulder and, holding him there with one hand, she climbed slowly up again. The other three hauled her out and Tim jumped round her, barking and licking for all he was worth!
“Well, Tim!” said Dick, “you shouldn’t chase rabbits-but you’ve certainly done us a good turn, because you’ve found the well for us! Now we’ve only got to look around a little to find the dungeon entrance!”
They set to work again to hunt for the dungeon entrance. They dug about with their spades under all the bushes. They pulled up crooked stones and dug their spades into the earth below, hoping that they might suddenly find them going through into space! It was really very thrilling.
And then Anne found the entrance! It was quite by accident. She was tired and sat down to rest. She lay on her front and scrabbled about in the sand. Suddenly her fingers touched something hard and cold in the sand. She uncovered it-and lo and behold, it was an iron ring! She gave a shout and the others looked up.
“There’s a stone with an iron ring in it here!” yelled Anne, excitedly. They all rushed over to her. Julian dug about with his spade and uncovered the whole stone. Sure enough, it did have a ring in it-and rings are only let into stones that need to be moved! Surely this stone must be the one that covered the dungeon entrance!
All the children took turns at pulling on the iron ring, but the stone did not move. Then Julian tied two or three turns of rope through it and the four children put out their full strength and pulled for all they were worth.
The stone moved. The children distinctly felt it stir. “All together again!” cried Julian. And all together they pulled. The stone stirred again and then suddenly gave way. It moved upwards-and the children fell over on top of one another like a row of dominoes suddenly pushed down! Tim darted to the hole and barked madly down it as if all the rabbits of the world lived there!
Julian and George shot to their feet and rushed to the opening that the moved stone had disclosed. They stood there, looking downwards, their faces shining with delight. They had found the entrance to the dungeons! A steep flight of steps, cut out of the rock itself, led downwards into deep darkness.
“Come on!” cried Julian, snapping on his torch. “We’ve found what we wanted! Now for the dungeons!”
The steps down were slippery. Tim darted down first, lost his foot-hold and rolled down five or six steps, yelping with fright. Julian went after him, then George, then Dick and then Anne. They were all tremendously thrilled. Indeed, they quite expected to see piles of gold and all kinds of treasure everywhere around them!
It was dark down the steep flight of steps, and smelt very musty. Anne choked a little.
“I hope the air down here is all right,” said Julian. “Sometimes it isn’t good in these underground places. If anyone feels a bit funny they’d better say so and we’ll go up into the open air again.”
But however funny they might feel nobody would have said so. It was all far too exciting to worry about feeling queer.
The steps went down a long way. Then they came to an end. Julian stepped down from the last rock-stair and flashed his torch around. It was a weird sight that met his eyes.
The dungeons of Kirrin Castle were made out of the rock itself. Whether there were natural caves there, or whether they had been hollowed out by man the children could not tell. But certainly they were very mysterious, dark and full of echoing sounds. When Julian gave a sigh of excitement it fled into the rocky hollows and swelled out and echoed around as if it were a live thing. It gave all the children a very queer feeling.
“Isn’t it strange?” said George, in a low voice. At once the echoes took up her words, and multiplied them and made them louder-and all the dungeon caves gave back the girl’s words over and over again. “Isn’t it strange, ISN’T IT STRANGE, ISN’T IT STRANGE.”
Anne slipped her hand into Dick’s. She felt scared. She didn’t like the echoes at all. She knew they were only echoes-but they did sound exactly like the voices of scores of people hidden in the caves!
“Where do you suppose the ingots are?” said Dick. And at once the caves threw him back his words. “INGOTS! Ingots are! INGOTS ARE! ARE! ARE!”
Julian laughed-and his laugh was split up into dozens of different laughs that came out of the dungeons and spun round the listening children. It really was the queerest thing.
“Come on,” said Julian. “Maybe the echoes won’t be so bad a little farther in.”
“FARTHER IN,” said the echoes at once. “FARTHER IN!”
They moved away from the end of the rocky steps and explored the nearby dungeons. They were really only rocky cellars stretching under the castle. Maybe wretched prisoners had been kept there many, many years before, but mostly they had been used for storing things.
“I wonder which dungeon was used for storing the ingots,” said Julian. He stopped and took the map out of his pocket. He flashed his torch on to it. But although it showed him quite plainly the dungeon where INGOTS were marked, he had no idea at all of the right direction.
“I say-look- there’s a door here, shutting off the next dungeon!” suddenly cried Dick. “I bet this is the dungeon we’re looking for! I bet there are ingots in here!”
Chapter Thirteen
DOWN IN THE DUNGEONS
FOUR torches were flashed on to the wooden door. It was big and stout, studded with great iron nails. Julian gave a whoop of delight and rushed to it. He felt certain that behind it was the dungeon used for storing things.
But the door was fast shut. No amount of pushing or pulling would open it. It had a great keyhole- but no key there! The four children stared in exasperation at the door. Bother it! Just as they really thought they were near the ingots, this door wouldn’t open!