She gave a gasp. She had not expected to look down such a precipice! Smuggler’s Top was built at the summit of the hill, and, on the side where Sooty’s bedroom was, the hill fell away steeply, down and down to the marsh below!
‘Oh look!’ she said. ‘Look how steep it is! It really gives me a very queer feeling to look down there!’
The others crowded round and looked in silence, for it certainly was strange to gaze down such a long way. The sun was shining up on the hill-summit, but all around, as far as they could see, mists hid the marsh and the far-off sea. The only bit of the marsh that could be seen was far down below, at the bottom of the steep hill.
‘When the mists are away, you can see over the flat marshes to where the sea begins,’ said Sooty. ‘That’s quite a fine sight. You can hardly tell where the marsh ends and sea begins except when the sea is very blue. Fancy, once upon a time, the sea came right up and around this hill, and it was an island.’
‘Yes. The innkeeper told us that,’ said George. ‘Why did the sea go back and leave it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Sooty. ‘People say it’s going back farther and farther. There’s a big scheme on foot to drain the marsh, and turn it into fields, but I don’t know if that will ever happen.’
‘I don’t like that marsh,’ said Anne, with a shiver. ‘It looks wicked, somehow.’
Timmy whined. George remembered that they must hide him, and make plans for him. She turned to Sooty.
‘Did you mean what you said about hiding Tim?’ she asked. ‘Where shall we put him? And can he be fed? And how can we exercise him? He’s a big dog, you know.’
‘We’ll plan it all,’ said Sooty. ‘Don’t you worry. I love dogs, and I shall be thrilled to have Timmy here. But I do warn you that if toy stepfather ever finds out we “shall probably all get a jolly good thrashing, and you’ll be sent home in disgrace.’
‘But why doesn’t your father like dogs?’ said Anne puzzled. ‘Is he afraid of them?’
‘No, I don’t think so. It’s just that he won’t have them here in the house,’ said Sooty. ‘I think he must have a reason for it, but I don’t know what it is. He’s a queer sort of man, my stepfather!’
‘How is he queer?’ asked Dick.
‘Well – he seems full of secrets,’ said Sooty. ‘Queer people come here, and they come secretly without anyone knowing. I’ve seen lights shining in our tower on certain nights, but I don’t know who puts them there or why. I’ve tried to find out, but I can’t.’
‘Do you think – do you think your father is a smuggler?’ said Anne, suddenly.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Sooty. ‘We’ve got one smuggler here, and everyone knows him! See that house over there to the right, lower down the hill? Well, that’s where he lives. He’s as rich as can be. His name is Barling. Even the police know his goings-on, but they can’t stop him! He is very rich and very powerful, so he does what he likes – and he won’t let anyone play the same game as he
plays! No one else would dare to do any smuggling in Castaway, while he does it!’
‘This seems rather an exciting place,’ said Julian. ‘I have a kind of feeling there might be an adventure somewhere about!’
‘Oh no,’ said Sooty. ‘Nothing ever happens, really. It’s only just a feeling you get here, because the place is so old, so full of secret ways and pits and passages. Why, the whole hill is mined with passages in the rock, used by the smugglers of olden times!’
‘Well,’ began Julian, and stopped very suddenly. Everyone stared at Sooty. His secret buzzer had suddenly barked from its hidden corner! Someone had opened the door at the end of the passage!
Chapter Six
BOOTY’S STEPFATHER AND MOTHER
‘SOMEONE’S coming!’ said George, in a panic. ‘What shall we do with Tim? Quick!’
Sooty took Timmy by the collar and shoved him into the old cupboard, and shut the door on him. ‘Keep quiet!’ he commanded, and Timmy stood still in the darkness, the hairs at the back of his neck standing up, his ears cocked.
‘Well,’ began Sooty, in a bright voice, ‘perhaps I’d better show you where your bedrooms are now!’
The door opened and a man came in. He was dressed in black trousers and a white linen coat. He had a queer face. ‘It’s a shut face,’ thought Anne to herself. ‘You can’t tell a bit what he’s like inside, because his face is all shut and secret.’
‘Oh hallo, Block,’ said Sooty, airily. He turned to the others. ‘This is Block, my stepfather’s man,’ he said. ‘He’s deaf, so you can say what you like, but it’s better not to, because though he doesn’t hear he seems to sense what we say.’
‘Anyway, I think it would be beastly to say things we wouldn’t say in front of him if he wasn’t deaf,’ said George, who had very strict ideas about things of that sort.
Block spoke in a curiously monotonous voice. ‘Your stepfather and your mother want to know why you have not brought your friends to see them,’ he said. ‘Why did you rush up here like this?’
Block looked all round as he spoke – almost as if he knew there was a dog, and wondered where he had gone
to, George thought, in alarm. She did hope the car-driver had not mentioned Timmy.
‘Oh -I was so pleased to see them I took them straight up here!’ said Sooty. ‘All right, Block. We’ll be down in a minute.’
The man went, his face quite impassive. Not a smile, not a frown! ‘I don’t like him,’ said Anne. ‘Has he been with you long?’
‘No – only about a year,’ said Sooty. ‘He suddenly appeared one day. Even Mother didn’t know he was coming! He just came, and, without a word, changed into that white linen coat, and went to do some work in my stepfather’s room. I suppose my stepfather was expecting him – but he didn’t say anything to my mother, I’m sure of that. She seemed so surprised.
‘Is she your real mother, or a stepmother, too?’ asked Anne.
‘You don’t have a stepmother and a stepfather!’ said Sooty, scornfully. ‘You only have one or the other. My mother is my real mother, and she’s Marybelle’s mother, too. But Marybelle and I are only half-brother and sister, because my stepfather is her real father.’
‘It’s rather muddled,’ said Anne, trying to sort it out.
‘Come on – we’d better go down,’ said Sooty, remembering. ‘By the Way, my stepfather is always being very affable, always smiling and joking – but it isn’t real, somehow. He’s quite likely to fly into a furious temper at any moment.’
‘I hope we shan’t see very much of him,’ said Anne5 uncomfortably. ‘What’s your mother like, Sooty?’
‘Like a frightened mouse!’ said Sooty. ‘You’ll like her, all right. She’s a darling. But she doesn’t like living here; she doesn’t like this house, and she’s terrified of my stepfather. She wouldn’t say so herself, of course, but I know she is.’
Marybelle, who was too shy to have joined in any talking until then, nodded her head.
‘I don’t like living here, either/ she said. ‘I shall be glad when I go to boarding-school, like Sooty. Except that I shall leave Mother all alone then.’
‘Come on,’ said Sooty, and led the way. ‘We’d better ‘ leave Timmy in the cupboard till we come back, just in case Block does a bit of snooping. I’ll lock the cupboard door and take the key.’
Feeling rather unhappy at leaving Timmy locked up in the cupboard, the children followed Sooty and Marybelle down the stone passage to the oak door. They went through, and found themselves at the top of a great flight of stairs, wide and shallow. They went down into a big hall.
At the right was a door, and Sooty opened it. He went in and spoke to someone.
‘Here they all are,’ he said. ‘Sorry I rushed them off to my bedroom like that, Father, but I was so excited to see them all!’
‘Your manners still need a little polishing, Pierre,’ said Mr. Lenoir, in a deep voice. The children looked at him. He sat in a big oak chair, a neat, clever-looking man, with fair hair brushed upwards, and eyes as blue as Marybelle’s. He smiled all the time, but with his mouth, not his eyes.
‘What cold eyes!’ thought Anne, when she went forward to shake hands with him. His hand was cold, too. He smiled at her, and patted her on the shoulder.