Crash! He drove it into the wood and round about the keyhole. But the wood was still strong, and the axe only went in an inch or two. Julian drove it in once more. The axe hit one of the big nails and slipped a little to one side. A big splinter of wood flew out-and struck poor Dick on the cheek!
He gave a yell of pain. Julian jumped in alarm, and turned to look at him. Dick’s cheek was pouring with blood!
“Something flew out of the door and hit me,” said poor Dick. “It’s a splinter, or something.”
“Golly!” said Julian, and he shone his torch on to Dick. “Can you bear it a moment if I pull the splinter out? It’s a big one, and it’s still sticking into your poor cheek.”
But Dick pulled it out himself. He made a face with the pain, and then turned very white.
“You’d better get up into the open air for a bit,” said Julian. “And we’ll have to bathe your cheek and stop it bleeding somehow. Anne’s got a clean hanky. We’ll bathe it and dab it with that. We brought some water with us, luckily.”
“I’ll go with Dick,” said Anne. “You stay here with George. There’s no need for us all to go.”
But Julian thought he would like to see Dick safely up into the open air first, and then he could leave him with Anne while he went back to George and went on with the smashing down of the door. He handed the axe to George.
“You can do a bit of chopping while I’m gone,” he said. “It will take some time to smash that big door in. You get on with it-and I’ll be down in a few minutes again. We can easily find the way to the entrance because we’ve only got to follow my chalk-marks.”
“Right!” said George, and she took the axe. “Poor old Dick-you do look a sight.”
Leaving George behind with Tim, valiantly attacking the big door, Julian took Dick and Anne up to the open air. Anne dipped her hanky into the kettle of water and dabbed Dick’s cheek gently. It was bleeding very much, as cheeks do, but the wound was not really very bad. Dick’s colour soon came back, and he wanted to go down into the dungeons again.
“No, you’d better lie down on your back for a little,” said Julian. “I know that’s good for nose-bleeding- and maybe it’s good for cheek-bleeding too. What about Anne and you going out on the rocks over there, where you can see the wreck, and staying there for half an hour or so? Come on-I’ll take you both there, and leave you for a bit. You’d better not get up till your cheek’s stopped bleeding, old boy.”
Julian took the two out of the castle yard and out on to the rocks on the side of the island that faced the open sea. The dark hulk of the old wreck was still there on the rocks. Dick lay down on his back and stared up into the sky, hoping that his cheek would soon stop bleeding. He didn’t want to miss any of the fun!
Anne took his hand. She was very upset at the little accident, and although she didn’t want to miss the fun either, she meant to stay with Dick till he felt better. Julian sat down beside them for a minute or two. Then he went back to the rocky steps and disappeared down them. He followed his chalk-marks, and soon came to where George was attacking the door.
She had smashed it well round the lock-but it simply would not give way. Julian took the axe from her and drove it hard into the wood.
After a blow or two something seemed to happen to the lock. It became loose, and hung a little sideways. Julian put down his axe.
“I think somehow that we can open the door now,” he said, in an exited voice. “Get out of the way, Tim, old fellow. Now then, push, George!”
They both pushed-and the lock gave way with a grating noise. The big door opened creakingly, and the two children went inside, flashing their torches in excitement.
The room was not much more than a cave, hollowed out of the rock-but in it was something quite different from the old barrels and boxes the children had found before. At the back, in untidy piles, were curious, brick-shaped things of dull yellow-brown metal. Julian picked one up.
“George!” he cried. “The ingots! These are real gold! Oh, I know they don’t look like it-but they are, all the same. George, oh George, there’s a small fortune here in this cellar-and it’s yours! We’ve found it at last!”
Chapter Fourteen
PRISONERS!
GEORGE couldn’t say a word. She just stood there, staring at the pile of ingots, holding one in her hand. She could hardly believe that these strange brick-shaped things were really gold. Her heart thumped fast. What a wonderful, marvellous find!
Suddenly Tim began to bark loudly. He stood with his back to the children, his nose towards the door-and how he barked!
“Shut up, Tim!” said Julian. “What can you hear? Is it the others coming back?”
He went to the door and yelled down the passage outside. “Dick! Anne! Is it you? Come quickly, because we’ve found the ingots! WE’VE FOUND THEM! HURRY! HURRY!”
Tim stopped barking and began to growl. George looked puzzled. “Whatever can be the matter with Tim?” she said. “He surely can’t be growling at Dick and Anne.”
Then both children got a most tremendous shock-for a man’s voice came booming down the dark passage, making queer echoes all around.
“Who is here? Who is down here?”
George clutched Julian in fright. Tim went on growling, all the hairs on his neck standing up straight. “Do be quiet, Tim!” whispered George, snapping off her torch.
But Tim simply would not be quiet. He went on growling as if he were a small thunderstorm.
The children saw the beam of a powerful torchlight coming round the corner of the dungeon passage. Then the light picked them out, and the holder of the torch came to a surprised stop.
“Well, well, well!” said a voice. “Look who’s here! Two children in the dungeons of my castle.”
“What do you mean, your castle!” cried George.
“Well, my dear little girl, it is my castle, because I’m in the process of buying it,” said the voice. Then another voice spoke, more gruffly.
“What are you doing down here? What did you mean when you shouted out ‘Dick’ and ‘Anne,’ and said you had found the ingots? What ingots?”
“Don’t answer,” whispered Julian to George. But the echoes took his words and made them very loud in the passage.“DON’T ANSWER! DON’T ANSWER!”
“Oh, so you won’t answer,” said the second man, and he stepped towards the children. Tim bared his teeth, but the man didn’t seem at all frightened of him. The man went to the door and flashed his torch inside the dungeon. He gave a long whistle of surprise.
“Jake! Look here!” he said. “You were right. The gold’s here all right. And how easy to take away! All in ingots -my word, this is the most amazing thing we’ve ever struck.”
“This gold is mine,” said George, in a fury. “The island and the castle belong to my mother-and so does anything found here. This gold was brought here and stored by my great-great-greatgrandfather before his ship got wrecked. It’s not yours, and never will be. As soon as I get back home I shall tell my father and mother what we’ve found-and then you may be sure you won’t be able to buy the castle or the island! You were very clever, finding out from the map in the old box about the gold -but just not clever enough for us. We found it first!”
The men listened in silence to George’s clear and angry voice. One of them laughed. “You’re only a child,” he said. “You surely don’t think you can keep us from getting our way? We’re going to buy this island-and everything in it-and we shall take the gold when the deeds are signed. And if by any chance we couldn’t buy the island, we’d take the gold just the same. It would be easy enough to bring a ship here and transfer the ingots from here by boat to the ship. Don’t worry-we shall get what we want all right.”
“You will not!” said George, and she stepped out of the door. “I’m going straight home now-and I’ll tell my father all you’ve said.”
“My dear little girl, you are not going home,” said the first man, putting his hands on George and forcing her back into the dungeon. “And, by the way, unless you want me to shoot this unpleasant dog of yours, call him off, will you?”