But that was stuffed up with something, so he could not see through that either. He pressed his ear to it and listened.
He heard a series of little clicks. Click – click – click -click – click. Nothing else at all.
‘That’s the click of the light they’re using,’ thought Sooty. ‘Still signalling like mad! What for? Who to? And who is in our tower-room, using it as a signalling-station? How I wish I knew!’
Suddenly: the clicking stopped. There was the sound of someone walking across the stone floor of the tower. And almost at once the door opened!
Sooty had no time to hurry down the stairs. All he could do was to squeeze into a niche, and hope that the person would not see him or touch him as he went by. The moon went behind a cloud at that moment, and Sooty was thankful to know he was hidden in black shadow. Someone came down the stairs and actually brushed against Sooty’s arm.
Sooty jumped almost out of his skin, expecting to be hauled out of his niche. But the person did not seem to notice, and went on down the spiral stairway, walking softly.
Sooty did not dare to go down after him, for he was afraid the man would come out, and cast his shadow down for the signaller to see.
So he stayed squeezed in his niche, hoping that Julian and Dick were well-hidden, and would not think it was he, Sooty, who was walking down the stairs!
Julian and Dick heard the soft footsteps coming, and-thought at first it was Sooty. Then, not hearing his whisper, they stiffened behind the curtains, guessing that it was the signaller himself who was walking by!
‘We’d better follow him!’ whispered Julian to Dick. ‘Come on. Quiet, now!’
But Julian got muddled up with the great curtains, and could not seem to find his way out. Dick, however, slipped out easily enough, and padded after the disappearing person. The moon was now out again, and Dick could catch glimpses of the signaller as he went past the moonlight streaks. Keeping well in the shadows himself, he darted quietly after him. Where was he going?
He followed him across the landing to a passage. Then across another landing and up the back-stairs! But those led to the staff bedrooms. Surely the man was not going there?
Dick, to his enormous surprise, saw the person disappear silently into Block’s bedroom. He crept to the door,
which had been left a little ajar. There was no light in the room except that of the moon. There was no sound of talking. Nothing at all except a creak which might have come from the bed.
Dick peeped in, full of the most intense curiosity. Would he see the man waking up Block? Would he see him climbing out of the window?
He stared round the room. There was no one there at all, except Block lying in bed. The moonlight lit up the corners, and Dick could quite plainly see that the room was empty. Only Block lay there, and, as Dick watched, he heard him give a sigh and roll over in bed.
‘Well! That’s the queerest thing I ever saw,’ thought Dick, puzzled. ‘A man goes into a room and completely disappears, without a single sound! Where can he have gone?’
He went back to find the others. Sooty by this time had crept down the spiral staircase and had found Julian, who had explained that Dick had gone to follow the queer signaller.
They went to find Dick, and suddenly bumped into him, creeping along quietly in the darkness. They all jumped violently, and Julian almost cried out, but stifled his voice just in time.
‘Golly! You gave me a scare, Dick!’ he whispered. ‘Well, did you see who it was and where he went?’
Dick told them of his queer experience. ‘He simply went into Block’s room and vanished,’ he said. ‘Is there any secret passage leading out of Block’s room, Sooty?’
‘No, none,’ said Sooty. ‘That wing is much newer than the rest of the house, and hasn’t any secrets in at all. I simply can’t imagine what happened to the man. How very queer! Who is he, and why does he come, and where on earth does he go?’
‘We really must find out,’ said Julian. ‘It’s such a mystery! Sooty, how did you know there was signalling going on from the tower?’
‘Well, some time ago I found it out, quite by accident,’ said Sooty. ‘I couldn’t sleep, and I went along to that funny little box-room place, and ferreted about for an old book I thought I’d seen there. And suddenly I looked up at the tower, and saw a light flashing there.’
‘Funny,’ said Dick.
‘Well, I went along there at night a good many times after that, to see if I could see the signals again,’ said Sooty, ‘and at last I did. The first time I had seen them there was a good moon, and the second time there was, too. So, I thought, next time there’s a moon, I’ll creep along to that old box-room and see if the signaller is at work again. And sure enough he was!’
‘Where does that window look out on, that we saw the light flashing from?’ asked Julian, thoughtfully. ‘The seaward side – or the landward?’
‘Seaward,’ said Sooty at once. ‘There’s something or someone out at sea that receives those signals. Goodness knows who.’
‘Some kind of smugglers, I suppose,’ said Dick. ‘But it can’t be anything to do with your father, Sooty. I say -let’s go up into the tower, shall we? We might find something there-or see something.’
They went back to the spiral staircase and climbed up to the tower-room. It was dark, for the moon was behind a cloud. But it came out after a while, and the boys looked out of the seaward window.
There was no mist at all that night. They could see the flat marshes stretching away to the sea. They gazed down in silence. Then the moon went in and darkness covered the marsh.
Suddenly Julian clutched the others, making them jump. ‘I can see something!’ he whispered. ‘Look beyond there. What is it?’
They all looked. It seemed like a tiny line of very small dots of light. They were so far away that it was difficult to see if they stayed still or moved. Then the moon came out again, flooding everywhere with silvery light, and the boys could not see anything except the moonshine.
But when the moon went in again, there was the line of tiny, pricking lights again! ‘A bit nearer, surely!’ whispered Sooty. ‘Smugglers – coming over a secret path from the sea to Castaway Hill! Smugglers!’
Chapter Ten
TIMMY MAKES A NOISE
THE three girls were very excited the next day when the boys told them their adventure of the night before.
‘Gracious!’ said Anne, her eyes wide with surprise. ‘Who can it be signalling like that? And wherever did he go to? Fancy him going into Block’s room, with Block there in bed!’
‘It’s very peculiar,’ said George. ‘I wish you had come and told me and Anne.’
‘There wasn’t time – and anyway, we couldn’t have Timmy about at night. He might have flown at the signaller,’ said Dick.
‘The man must have been signalling to the smugglers,’ said Julian, thoughtfully. ‘Let me see – probably they came over from France in a ship – came as near to the marsh as they could – waited for a signal to tell them that the coast was clear – probably the signal from the tower -and then waded across a path they knew through the marsh. Each man must have carried a torch to prevent himself from leaving the path and falling into the marsh. No doubt there was someone waiting to receive the goods they brought – someone at the edge of the marsh below the hill.’
‘But who?’ said Dick. ‘It can’t have been Mr. Barling, who, Sooty says, is known to be a smuggler. Because the signal lights came from our house, not his. It’s all very puzzling.’
‘Well, we’ll do our best to solve the mystery,’ said George. ‘There’s some queer game going on in this very
house, with or without your father’s knowledge, Sooty. We’ll keep a jolly good lookout and see if we can find out what it is.’
They were at breakfast alone, when they discussed the night’s adventure. Block came in to see if they had finished at that moment. Anne did not notice him.
‘What does Mr. Barling smuggle?’ she asked Sooty. Immediately she got a hard kick on her ankle, and stared in pain and surprise. ‘Why did you …?’ she began, and got another kick, harder still. Then she saw Block.
‘But he’s deaf,’ she said. ‘He can’t hear anything we say.’