Five on Finniston Farm (12 page)

They all smiled in relief, though Anne"s hands were stil shaking a little, as she held up her torch to shine through the black darkness. „There"s not an awful lot of air here," she said. „I hope we soon get into the cellars!"

„They can"t be far," said Julian. „This tunnel goes in a pretty straight line, just as we thought it would. Where it curves it"s probable that the long-ago men who made it were forced to burrow round tree-roots that blocked their way. Anyway, as we can hear the dril s so loudly now, we can"t be far from the castle-site."

They were nearer than they thought! Julian"s torch suddenly shone on the remains of a great door, lying on the ground before him - the door that once shut off the cellars from the passage! The tunnel ceased just there, and the torches shone on a vast underground place, silent, full of shadows.

„We"re there!" said Julian, in a whisper that went scurrying round in the darkness and came back as a strange echo that said „there-there-there-there-there."

„That fallen door must have been the one made al those years gone by!" said Anne, in awe. She touched a corner of it with her foot, and the wood crumpled into dust with a queer little sigh.

Snippet pushed in front of them and ran into the cel ars. He gave a short bark as if to say,

„Come on - don"t be afraid. I"ve been here before."

„Oh Snippet, be careful!" said Anne, half afraid that everything would crumble away at the sound of Snippet"s pattering feet!

„Let"s go on - but carefully," said Julian. „Everything wil be ready to crumble into dust -

unless it"s made of metal! It"s a marvel that door was preserved like that - it looks good enough - but I"m sure if any of us sneezed it would be gone."

„Don"t make me laugh, please, Ju," said Dick, stepping careful y round the fallen door.

„Even a laugh might do damage down here!"

Soon they were al in the blackness of the underground cel ars. They flashed their torches around. „What a vast place!" said Julian. „Can"t see any dungeons, though!"

„Thank goodness!" said Harriet and Anne together. They had both dreaded coming across old bones of long-forgotten prisoners!

„Look - there"s an archway," said George, shining her torch to the right. „A fine, semi-circular arch it is, too, made of stone - and there"s another, look. They must lead into a main underground chamber, I should think. There"s nothing much to see just here, except heaps of dirt. It all smells so musty, too!"

„Well, follow me careful y," said Julian, and led the way towards the stone archways, his torch shining brightly. They came to one of the beautiful rounded arches and stood there, all four torches shining brightly into a large underground room.

„No cellars here - but just one great underground store-room," said Julian. „The roof was shored up with great beams - see, some of them have fal en. And those stone arches must have borne much of the weight, too. Not one of those has fal en! They must have stood there for centuries - what wonderful workmanship!"

Dick and the twins were more interested in the great mass of jumble scattered about round the walls. It was covered with dust that rose lightly into the air when Timmy brushed against anything. Snippet ran round happily, sniffing everywhere, and sneezing every now and again as the fine dust went up his nose.

„Any treasures, do you think?" whispered Anne, and the echo came back weirdly, whispering too.

„Whispers seem to echo back more than our ordinary voices!" said Julian. „Hal o - what"s this?"

They shone their torches on to the floor where lay what looked like a heap of blackened metal. Julian bent down and then gave a loud exclamation. „Do you see what this is? A suit of armor! Almost perfect stil . Look, though, it must be ages old - and here"s another - and another! Were they old ones, thrown out - or spare ones? Look at this helmet - grand!"

He kicked it gently with his foot, and it gave out a metallic sound and rolled away a little.

„Would that be valuable now?" asked Harry, anxiously.

„Valuable! Worth its weight in gold, I should think!" said Julian, such excitement in his voice that everyone felt even more thrilled. Harriet cal ed to him urgently.

„Julian - here"s a chest of some sort. Quick!"

They went slowly over to where she stood, for they had already learnt that any quick movement raised clouds of fine, choking dust. She pointed to a great dark chest, its corners bound with iron, and with iron strapping all round it.

It was made of wood, as black with age as the iron itself. „What"s inside, do you think?"

whispered Harriet, and at once her whisper echoed from every corner. „You think, you think, you think..."

Timmy went to sniff at the chest - and to his amazement it disintegrated at once! Slowly, softly, the sides and the great lid fel into dust that settled gently on the ground around.

Only the iron corners and strapping were left. It was strange to watch something crumble away before their eyes. Like magic! thought Anne.

As the wooden sides of the chest crumbled, something shone out brightly in the light of the torches - something that moved and slid out of the chest, as the sides fel away - fell with a jingling, clinking, sound, curious to hear in that silent darkness.

The children stared in astonishment, hardly believing their eyes. Anne clutched Julian and made him jump. „Ju! What is it? Is it gold?"

Julian bent to pick up one of the rolling pieces. „Yes! It"s gold. No doubt about it. Gold never tarnishes, it keeps bright for ever. These are gold coins of some sort, treasured and hidden away. There couldn"t have been time to take them, when the Lady fled with her children - and no one else would be able to get them, for the castle was burnt down and buried by the falling walls! This hoard of gold must have lain here untouched all these long years."

„Waiting for us to come!" said George. „Twins - your mother and father needn"t worry about their farm any more! There"s enough gold there to buy them all the tractors they want! And that may be only the beginning of the treasures down here! Julian, there"s another chest, look - like this one, but smaller, and beginning to fal to pieces. Let"s see what"s inside that! More gold, I hope."

But the second chest did not hold gold pieces - it held a different kind of treasure! One side had burst open, and its contents had dribbled out.

„Rings!" said Anne, picking up two from the dust in which they lay.

„A golden belt!" said George. „And look - these tarnished chains must be necklaces, because they"re set with blue stones. This must be where the jackdaw found that ring!"

„We"ve found something else, too!" called Harry, his excited voice making everyone jump.

„Look - racks of swords and daggers! Some are beautifully carved, too!"

Clamped to the wall were iron racks, held in place by great iron rods driven deep into the hard earth of the wall. Some had loosened and the racks hung crooked, their knives and swords askew, or lay on the floor. Snippet ran to pick one up - just as he had done before when he and Nosey first went into the cel ars by themselves!

„What wonderful swords!" said Julian, picking one up. „My word, this one"s heavy! I can hardly hold it! Good gracious - what"s that?"

Something had fal en from the roof of the cel ar in which they were standing - a great piece of old wood, that had originally been placed there as part of the roofing. At the same time the continual hum of the dril ing above rose to a roar that made the children jump.

Julian gave a shout. „Out of here, quickly!" he yelled. „Those men wil soon be through the roof, and it may suddenly fall and bury us! We"ll have to go at once!"

He snatched a dagger from the rack, and, stil with the sword in his hand, ran back to the entrance of the secret passage, pul ing Anne with him, The twins were last of al , for they had run to get a handful of the gold, and two of the necklaces and rings. They must show their mother a few of the treasures, they must!

Just as they reached the entrance, more of the roof fel . „We"ll have to stop this excavating," panted Julian, looking back. „If the roof fal s in, it may destroy many of the old treasures there!"

They hurried into the dark, low tunnel, feeling more excited than they had ever felt in their lives! Timmy led the way, glad to think they were going out into the open air once more!

„What wil Mother say?" the twins kept saying to one another. „WhatEVER wil she say!"

TRAPPED!

The six children stumbled down the tunnel, stil hearing the far-off sound of the dril s, and fearing that at any moment the cel ars would be discovered by Mr Henning, who, no doubt, would be anxiously watching from above!

They came to where they thought the burrow must be, that Dick had dug through - but instead, there was nothing but a great mass of earth, some of it seeping into the tunnel!

Julian gazed at it by the light of his torch, dismayed.

„The burrow"s fallen in!" he said, his voice shaking, „What are we to do? We"ve no spades to dig ourselves out!"

„We can use our hands," said Dick, and began to scrabble at the fal en earth, sweeping it into the tunnel. But as he scrabbled, more and more earth fel into the widened burrow, and Julian stopped Dick at once. „No more of that, Dick - you might start an earth-fall, and we"d all be buried alive. Oh gosh - this is awful! We"ll have to go back up the passage and try to make the men hear us shouting. BLOW! That means Mr Henning wil know what we"re up to."

„I don"t believe the men wil be there much longer," said Dick, looking at his watch. „They pack up at five, and it"s almost that now. My word, we"ve been ages - Mrs Philpot wil wonder where we all are."

„The dril ing has just stopped," said Anne. „I haven"t got that awful noise inside my ears any longer."

„In that case, it"s certainly no good going back up the tunnel," said Julian. „They"d be gone before we got there. I say, you know - this is serious. I ought to have thought of this -

any idiot knows that ground entrances to passages should be strengthened, if they"re newly-dug!"

„Well, we can always go back to the cel ars and wait for the men to come tomorrow,"

said George, sounding more cheerful than she felt.

„How do we know they"l be there tomorrow?" said Dick. „Henning may have paid them off today, if he"s disappointed in his hopes!"

„Don"t be such a dismal Jimmy!" said George, sensing that the twins were getting panicky.

They certainly were worried - but more because they were certain that their mother would be scared to death if they didn"t come home, than for their own safety.

Timmy had been standing patiently beside George, waiting to get out of the hole. At last, tired of waiting, he trotted away - but down the tunnel - not up!

„Timmy! Where are you going?" cried George, and shone her torch on him. He turned his head and looked at her, showing quite clearly by his manner that he was tired of standing about, and intended to find out where the tunnel led!

„Ju, Look at Timmy! He wants us to go down the tunnel!" cried George. „Why didn"t we think of that?"

„I don"t know! I"m afraid I thought it would be a sort of blind alley!" said Julian. „I fear it wil , too. Nobody knows where the chapel entrance to the tunnel is, do they, twins?"

„No," they said, both together. „It"s never been discovered, as far as we know."

„Anyway, it"s worth trying," said George, her voice sounding muffled as she went down the passage after the impatient Timmy. „I"m getting suffocated in here!"

The others fol owed, Snippet dancing along behind, thinking the whole thing was a huge joke. The tunnel, as the children had imagined, went downwards in more or less a straight line. It had fallen in slightly here and there, but by bending their heads and crouching low, they managed to get through. Final y they came to a bad fall of earth from the roof, and had to crawl through on hands and knees. Anne didn"t like that part at all!

They came at last into a strange little place, where the tunnel ended abruptly. It was like a stone vault - a little chamber about five feet high and seven feet square. Julian looked up fearful y at its low roof. Was it of stone? If so, they were trapped. They would never be able to lift a heavy stone slab!

No - not all the roof was made of stone. A piece in the middle about three feet square was made of strong stout wood, which rested on ledges cut in the stone.

„It looks like a trap-door," said Julian, examining it by the light of his torch. „I wonder if we are just below the floor of the old chapel? Dick, if you and I and Harry all heave at the same time, we might be able to move this trap-door."

So they all heaved, George, too - but although the door did lift a little at one corner, it simply could not be moved upwards.

„I know why we can"t move it," said Harry, red in the face with heaving. „There are sacks of grain and fertilizer and all kinds of stuff spread over the floor of the old chapel! They"re heavy as lead! We"d never be able to move that trap-door if two or three sacks are on it!"

„Gosh - I didn"t think of that," said Julian, his heart sinking. „Didn"t you know of this entrance into the tunnel, twins?"

„Of course not!" said Harry. „Nobody did. I can"t think why it wasn"t known, though.

Except, of course, that a store-house like this has its floor always covered with sacks of something, and with the spil ings out of those sacks! It may not have been cleaned out or swept for hundreds of years!"

„Well, what are we to do now?" demanded Dick. „We can"t stay here in this stuffy little place!"

„Listen - I can hear something!" said George suddenly. „Noises overhead."

They listened intently, and, through the tightly-fitting oak trap-door above them, they heard a loud voice shouting. „GIVE US A HAND, BILL, WILL YOU?"

„It"s Jamie - the men are working overtime this week!" said Harry. „He"s come to get something out of the chapel. Quick, let"s al yell and hammer on the trap-door with whatever we"ve got that"l make a noise!"

At once there was a perfect babel of sound from the little vault - yells, shouts, barks, and the hammering of sword-handles and fists on the wooden slab overhead. Then the children ceased their hammering, and fel silent, listening. They heard Jamie"s voice, lifted in wonder.