On the far side was a great picture-and as Jack looked at it, it moved! It moved sideways across the wall, and behind it appeared a black hole.
Good gracious! Whatever was happening now?
Chapter 20
THE WAY OUT
A MAN’S face suddenly appeared in the hole. Jack would not have been able to recognize it but for one thing-the man wore an eyeglass in one eye!
‘The Count!’ thought Jack. ‘My word-what’s he doing, popping up in secret places in the middle of the night?’
The man jumped down to the floor. A door at once opened near him and a woman came out. Jack recognized her, too. Madame Tatiosa, the pretty woman who had pretended to be ill at Quarry Cottage-the wife of the Prime Minister!
This was evidently a secret meeting between her and her brother. Where had he come from? Why was he so excited? The two of them spoke rapidly together and Madame Tatiosa seemed very pleased. She kissed her brother on both cheeks and patted him on the back.
‘Her plans seem to be going well, whatever they are!’ thought Jack. ‘I bet it’s something to do with the King. They’ve probably arranged to capture him soon. That means that Gussy will be hauled out of that room and made to sit on the throne. I don’t like the look of Count Paritolen. He’s a nasty bit of work-and it’s quite plain he’s been up to something tonight!’
The brother and sister, still talking excitedly, went into the room from which Madame Tatiosa had appeared. The door shut. Jack heard the clink of glasses. They were going to celebrate something, perhaps? Things were obviously moving.
Jack wished fervently that Bill was there with him. But Bill probably didn’t even guess that the five of them were in Tauri-Hessia. He had no means of knowing that they had come over by plane. He was probably hunting for them all over the place in England!
Jack looked at the hole in the wall. Where did it lead to? He felt impelled to go and look at it. He could still hear clinking and talking in the room nearby. He ran across to the hole, clambered on a chair and looked inside. He could see nothing, so he felt for his torch.
Then he saw the door of the room opening! There was only one thing to do-he must tumble inside that hole and hope for the best!
So in went Jack, almost falling over himself in his hurry. He found that there were steps there, and he slid down them, landing with a bump at the bottom. He sat there and listened, full of alarm.
But it seemed as if the Count and his sister hadn’t heard anything. He heard their voices in the distance. And then he heard something else! He heard a slight scraping noise, and the light that came into the hole where he was hiding was abruptly cut off.
‘Gosh-the picture’s gone back into place. I’m trapped!’ said Jack, in alarm. He went up the steps and felt about at the back of the picture. The back was of stout wood, and fitted tightly over the hole. It wouldn’t move even when he pushed it. He didn’t like to do anything violent in case the Count heard him.
He put on his torch. He looked down the steps and saw a passage at the bottom. Well-it must lead to somewhere! It might even lead out of the castle! The only thing to do was to try it and see.
So Jack went down the steps again, and into a narrow little passage. He came to the conclusion that the passage must run just inside the walls of the room, at a little below the level of the floor. It went round at right angles quite suddenly-then there were more steps, very steep indeed.
Down them climbed Jack, thankful for his torch. It was very musty in the passage. He came to a place where there seemed to be a little light shining behind the left-hand wall. What was it?
Jack soon discovered! It was a small hole made in the wooden panelling there, and through it he could see into a dimly-lit room-a room where people apparently met to discuss things, for there was a round table with chairs pulled up to it, and blotting-pads and papers were set out neatly.
‘Hm-a nice little spy-hole,’ thought Jack. ‘Well-on we go. Wherever does this lead to, Kiki?’
Kiki didn’t know-she only knew she was getting rather tired of this trip. She clung to Jack’s shoulder and grumbled in his ear.
The passage went downwards again, not by steps this time, but in a steep slope. Jack found himself in a much narrower, lower passage now-he had to bend his head down. Two people would have found it difficult to pass one another. Kiki protested, because the ceiling kept brushing the top of her head.
‘I wish I knew where this is all leading to, Kiki,’ said Jack. ‘I don’t like it any more than you do! Hallo-here’s a cellar, or something!’
The passage suddenly ended in a round cellar-like place, full of old junk. The entrance to this was only a round hole, through which Jack climbed, glad he wasn’t as fat as the old ‘Boss’ of the circus.
‘Now where do we go from here?’ he thought. He flashed his torch all round. Nothing much to see but junk. Then he flashed his torch on the ceiling above his head-it was only about two inches higher than he was.
‘A trapdoor! Surely that’s a trapdoor! If only I can open it!’ thought Jack.
He pushed hard-and it opened! It swung right back and landed flat with a tremendous crash. It startled Jack horribly and made Kiki screech like a barn-owl!
Nobody came rushing up. Nobody shouted ‘Who’s there?’ Jack waited a minute and then clambered out. Where was he now? He began to feel he must be in a kind of nightmare, where nothing really led anywhere-only just on and on, steps, passages, holes, cellars, trapdoors-what next?
Again he shone his torch round. He was in a very tall, very narrow building of stone. Great ropes hung round him. He turned his torch upwards, and then he knew where he was!
‘The bell-tower! The tower that is just opposite Philip’s room! That passage I’ve come down must be a secret way into the castle. Well-what a discovery!’
He went to the doorway of the bell-tower. There was no door there, merely an archway. The place was apparently built just to hold the great bell and nothing else.
And then Jack discovered something that filled him with relief and joy. The bell-tower was built outside the castle wall and not inside! He could run down the slope of the hill to the circus with nothing to prevent him-no walls to climb-no windows to jump from-there he was, outside the castle, walls and all.
‘That’s a bit of luck!’ thought the boy. ‘Come on, Kiki. We’re out. Now we’ll go back and get a bit of sleep!’
It wasn’t long before Jack was creeping into Pedro’s caravan. The floor creaked loudly, but Pedro did not awake. Jack stripped off his things, thinking hard.
He felt pleased. Lucy-Ann and the others were safe. They had come to no harm. They were safe as long as Gussy wasn’t King-then they might be held as hostages if the British Government sided with the present King, and demanded that he be put back on the throne. Jack could quite well imagine that Count Paritolen and Madame Tatiosa would delight in threatening all kinds of dreadful things where the children were concerned, if the British Government made things too uncomfortable for them.
‘The thing to do is to rescue them quickly before Gussy’s uncle is captured and Gussy’s put on the throne,’ thought Jack. ‘I really must try and get in touch with Bill. But it will be difficult, because probably the people in this part of the country are on the side of the Count-and if I try to get news through to Bill, I’ll be captured myself!’
He fell asleep thinking of it all. He had had a night of real adventure and he was tired out. He didn’t even wake when Mr. Fank’s bears created a great disturbance in the early morning, and tried to break their cage down!
Pedro told him about it at breakfast-time. ‘Nobody dares to go near them,’ he said. ‘They haven’t come to fighting each other yet, but they will. And then they won’t be any use in the circus.’
‘Isn’t Mr. Fank better then?’ asked Jack.
‘No. Worse,’ said Pedro. ‘The Boss is really worried. Pity that friend of yours you told me about isn’t anywhere near here. If he’s as clever as you say, he might be able to quieten the bears and manage them!’
Pedro was joking, of course-but Jack sat up straight, and began considering the matter at once. He was sure that Philip could manage the bears, of course. Could he possibly tell Pedro where Philip was-and say that if Pedro would help him to rescue the children, Philip would try to do his best for the bears?