‘Oooh – here’s a most enormous starfish!’ said Philip, holding his candle down to the floor of the damp cave. ‘Do look – it’s a giant one, I’m sure.’
Dinah gave a shriek. She hated creepy-crawly things as much as Philip liked them. ‘Don’t touch it, and don’t bring it near me.’
But Philip was a tease, and he picked up the great starfish, with its long five fingers, and walked over to Dinah with it. She flew into a furious rage.
‘You beast! I told you not to bring it near me. I’ll kill it if you do.’
‘You can’t kill starfish,’ said Philip. ‘If you cut one in half it grows new fingers, and, hey presto, it is two starfishes instead of one. So there! Have a look at it, Dinah – smell it – feel it.’
Philip pushed the great clammy thing near to his sister’s face. Really alarmed, Dinah hit out, and gave Philip such a push that he reeled, overbalanced and fell headlong to the floor of the cave. His candle went out. There was a shout from Philip, then a curious slithering noise – and silence.
‘Hi, Tufty! Are you all right?’ called Jack, and held his candle high. To his enormous astonishment, Philip had completely disappeared. There was the starfish on the seaweedy ground – but no Philip was beside it.
The three children stared in the greatest amazement at clumps of seaweed hanging from the walls of the cave, spreading over the ground. Wherever had Philip gone?
Dinah was scared. She had certainly meant to give Philip a hard blow – but she hadn’t meant him to disappear off the face of the earth. She gave a yell.
‘Philip! Are you hiding? Come out, idiot!’
A muffled voice came from somewhere. ‘Hi! – where am I?’
‘That’s Tufty’s voice,’ said Jack. ‘But where is he? He’s nowhere in this cave.’
The children put their three candles together and looked round the small, low-roofed, seaweedy cave. It smelt very dank and musty. Philip’s voice came again from somewhere, sounding rather frightened.
‘I say! Where am I?’
Jack advanced cautiously over the slippery seaweed to where Philip had fallen when Dinah had struck him. Then suddenly he seemed to lose his footing, and, to the surprise of the watching girls, he too disappeared, seeming to sink down into the floor of the seaweedy cave.
By the wavering light of their two candles the girls tried to see what had happened to Jack. Then they saw the explanation of the mystery. The fronds of seaweed hid an opening in the floor of the cave, and when the boys had put their weight on to the seaweed covering the hole, they had slipped between the fronds down into some cave below. How strange!
‘That’s where they went,’ said Dinah, pointing to a dark space between the seaweed covering that part of the floor. ‘I hope they haven’t broken their legs. However shall we get them out?’
Jack had fallen on top of poor Philip, almost squashing him. Kiki, left behind in the cave above, let out an ear-piercing screech. She hated these dark caves, but always came with Jack. Now he had suddenly gone, and the parrot was alarmed.
‘Shut up, Kiki,’ said Dinah, jumping in fright at the screech. ‘Look, Lucy-Ann, there’s a hole in the cave floor there, just between that thick seaweed. Walk carefully, or you’ll disappear too. Hold up my candle as well as your own and I’ll see if I can make out exactly what has happened.’
What had happened was really quite simple. First Philip had gone down the hole into a cave below, and then Jack had fallen on top of him. Philip was feeling frightened and bruised. He clutched Jack and wouldn’t let go.
‘What’s happened?’ he said.
‘Hole in the cave floor,’ said Jack, putting out his hands and feeling round to see how big the cave was they had fallen into. He touched rocky walls on each side of him at once. ‘I say – this is a mighty small cave. Hi, girls, put the candles over the hole so that we can see something.’
A lighted candle now appeared above the boys and they were able to see a little.
‘We’re not in a cave. We’re in a passage,’ said Jack, astonished. ‘At least, we’re at the beginning of a passage. I wonder where it goes to . . . right into the cliff, I suppose.’
‘Hand us down a candle,’ called Philip, feeling better now. ‘Oh, goodness – here’s Kiki.’
‘Can’t you shut the door?’ said Kiki, in a sharp voice, sitting hard on Jack’s shoulder, glad to be with her master again. She began to whistle, and then told herself not to.
‘Shut up, Kiki,’ said Jack. ‘Look, Philip – there really is a passage leading up there – awfully dark and narrow. And what a smell there is! Dinah, pass that candle down quickly, do!’
Dinah at last managed to hand down a lighted candle. She lay flat on the seaweedy cave floor, and just managed to pass the candle down through the hole. Jack held it up. The dark passage looked mysterious and strange.
‘What about exploring it?’ said Philip, feeling excited. ‘It looks as if it ought to go below Craggy-Tops itself. It’s a secret passage.’
‘More likely a short crack in the cliff rocks that leads nowhere at all,’ said Jack. ‘Kiki, don’t peck my ear so hard. We’ll go into the open air soon. Hi, you girls! We think we’ll go up this funny passage. Are you coming?’
‘No, thanks,’ said Lucy-Ann at once, who didn’t at all like the sound of a seaweedy passage that ran, dark and narrow, through the cliffs. ‘We’ll stay here till you come back. Don’t be long. We’ve only got one candle now. Have you some matches in case your candle goes out?’
‘Yes,’ said Jack, feeling in his pocket. ‘Well, goodbye for the present. Don’t fall down the hole.’
The boys left the dark hole under which they stood and began to make their way up the damp passage. The girls could no longer hear their voices or footsteps. They waited patiently in the cave above, lighted by one flickering candle. It was cold and they shivered, glad of their warm jerseys.
The boys were a very long time. The two girls became impatient and then alarmed. What could have happened to them? They peered down the hole between the great fronds of seaweed and listened. Not a sound could be heard.
‘Oh dear – do you think we ought to go after them?’ said Lucy-Ann desperately. She would be frightened to death going up that dark secret passage, she was sure, and yet if Jack was in need of help she would have no hesitation in jumping down and following him.
‘Better go and tell Joe and get him to come and help,’ said Dinah. ‘He’d better bring a rope, I should think. The boys would never be able to climb up through the hole back into this cave without help.’
‘No, don’t let’s tell Joe,’ said Lucy-Ann, who disliked the man thoroughly, and was afraid of him. ‘We’ll wait a bit longer. Maybe the passage was a very long one.’
It was – far longer than the boys expected. It twisted and turned as it went through the cliff, going upwards all the time. It was pitch-dark, and the candle did not seem to light it very much. The boys bumped their heads against the roof every now and again, for it was sometimes only shoulder-high.
It grew drier as it went up. Soon there was no seaweedy smell at all, but the air felt stale and musty. It was rather difficult to breathe.
‘I believe the air is bad here,’ panted Philip, as they went on. ‘I can hardly breathe. Once or twice I thought our candle was going out, Freckles. That would mean the air was very bad. Surely we shall come to the end of this passage soon.’
As he spoke, the passage went steeply upwards and was cut into rough steps. It ended abruptly in a rocky wall. The boys were puzzled.
‘It’s not a real passage, then,’ said Philip, disappointed. ‘Just a crack in the cliff rocks, as you said. But these do look like rough steps, don’t they?’
The light of the candle shone down on to the steps. Yes – someone had hewn out those steps at one time – but why?
Jack held the candle above his head – and gave a shout.
‘Look! Isn’t that a trap-door above our heads? That’s where the passage led to – that trap-
door! I say – let’s get it open if we can.’
Sure enough, there was an old wooden trap-door, closing the exit of the passage, above their heads. If only they could lift it! Wherever would they find themselves?
8
In the cellars
‘Let’s push at it together,’ said Philip, in excitement. ‘I’ll put the candle down on this ledge.’
He stuck the candle firmly into a crack on the ledge. Then he and Jack pushed hard at the trap-door just above their heads. A shower of dust fell down, and Philip blinked his eyes, half blinded. Jack had closed his.
‘Blow!’ said Philip, rubbing his eyes. ‘Come on, let’s try again. I felt it move.’
They tried again, and this time the trap-door suddenly gave way. It lifted a few inches, and then fell back again, setting free another cloud of dust.
‘Get a rock or big stone and we’ll stand on it,’ said Jack, red with excitement. A bit more of a push and we’ll get the thing right open.’
They found three or four flattish stones, put them in a stout pile, and stood on them. They pushed against the trap-door, and to their delight it lifted right up, and fell backwards with a thud on the floor above, leaving a square opening above the heads of the boys.
‘Give me a heave up, Jack,’ said Philip. He got such a shove that he shot out through the trap-door opening and landed on a rocky floor above. It was dark there and he could see nothing.
‘Hand up the candle, Freckles, and then I’ll haul you up,’ said Philip. The candle was handed up, but went out suddenly.
‘Blow!’ said Philip. ‘Oh glory, what’s that?’
‘Kiki, I expect,’ said Jack. ‘She’s flown up.’
Kiki had not made a sound or said a word all through the secret passage. She had been alarmed at the dark strange place, and had clung hard to Jack all the way.
Philip hauled Jack up, and then groped in his pocket for the matches to light the candle again. ‘Where do you suppose we are?’ he said. ‘I simply can’t imagine.’
‘Feels like the other end of the world,’ said Jack. ‘Ah – that’s better, now we can see.’
He held up the lighted candle and the two boys looked round.
‘I know where we are,’ said Philip suddenly. ‘In one of the cellars at Craggy-Tops. Look – there are boxes of stores over there. Tins of food and stuff.’
‘So there are,’ said Jack. ‘My word, what a fine store your aunt keeps down here! Golly, this is quite an adventure. Do you suppose your aunt and uncle know about the secret passage?’
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ said Philip. ‘Aunt Polly would be sure to have mentioned it to us, I should think. I don’t seem to know this part of the cellars very well. Let me see – where is the cellar door now?’
The boys wandered down the cellar, trying to find the way out. They came to a stout wooden door, but, to their surprise, it was locked.
‘Blow!’ said Philip, annoyed. ‘Now we shall have to creep all the way back down that passage again. I don’t feel like doing that, somehow. Anyway, this isn’t the door that leads out of the cellars into the kitchen. You have to go up steps to that one. This must be a door that shuts off one part of the cellars from the other. I don’t remember seeing it before.’
‘Listen – isn’t that somebody coming?’ said Jack suddenly, his sharp ears hearing footsteps.
‘Yes – it’s Joe,’ said Philip, hearing the familiar cough he knew so well. ‘Let’s hide. I’m not going to tell Joe about that passage. We’ll keep it to ourselves. Shut the trap-door down quickly, Jack, and then we’ll hide behind this archway here. We could slip out quietly when Joe opens the door. Blow out the candle.’
They shut the trap-door quietly and then, in the pitch darkness, hid behind the stone archway near the door. They heard Joe putting a key into the lock. The door swung open, and the man appeared, looking huge in the flickering light of his lantern. He left the door open, and went towards the back of the cellar, where the stores lay.
The boys had on rubber shoes, and could have slipped out without Joe knowing anything at all – but Kiki chose that moment to imitate Joe’s hollow cough. It filled the cellar with mournful echoes, and Joe dropped his lantern with a crash. The glass splintered and the light went out. Joe gave a howl of terror and fled out of the door at once, not even pausing to lock it. He brushed against the two boys as he went, and gave another screech of fright, feeling their warm bodies as he passed.
Kiki, thrilled at the result of her coughing imitation, gave an unearthly screech that sent Joe headlong through the other part of the cellar, up the steps and through the cellar door. He almost fell as he appeared in the kitchen, and Aunt Polly jumped in astonishment.
‘What’s the matter? What has happened?’
‘There’s things down there!’ panted Joe, his face looking as scared as it ever could look.
‘Things! What do you mean?’ said Aunt Polly severely.
‘Things that screech and yell and clutch at me,’ said Joe, sinking into a chair, and closing his eyes till nothing but the thinnest slits could be seen.
‘Nonsense!’ said Aunt Polly, stirring a saucepan vigorously. ‘I don’t know why you wanted to go down there anyway. We don’t need anything from the cellars this morning. I’ve plenty of potatoes up here. Pull yourself together, Joe. You’ll frighten the children if you behave like this.’
The two boys had collapsed into helpless laughter when they had seen poor Joe running in alarm from the cellar, yelling for all he was worth. They clutched each other and laughed till they ached. ‘Well, Joe is always trying to frighten us by tales of peculiar “things” that wander about at night,’ said Jack, ‘and now he’s been caught by his own silly stories – and been almost frightened out of his wits.’
‘I say – he’s left the key in the door,’ said Philip, who had now lighted his candle again. ‘Let’s take it. Then, if ever we want to use that passage again, we can always get out this way if we want to, by unlocking the door.’
He put the big key into his pocket, grinning. Maybe the jumpy man would think one of the ‘things’ he was always talking about had gone off with his key.
The boys went into the part of the cellar they knew. Philip looked with interest at the door through which they had come.
‘I never knew there was another cellar beyond this first one,’ he said, looking round the vast underground room. ‘How did I never notice that door before, I wonder?’
‘Those boxes must have been piled in front of it to hide it,’ said Jack. There were empty boxes by the door, and now that he thought of it, Philip had remembered seeing them in a big pile every time he had gone into the cellar. They had been neatly piled in front of that door. A trick of Joe’s, no doubt, to stop the children going into the second cellar, where all those stores were kept. How silly and childish! Well, he couldn’t stop them going there now.
‘We can go there through the secret passage, or we could go there through the door, because I’ve got the key now,’ thought Philip, pleased at the idea of being able to outwit the man if he wanted to.
‘I suppose those steps lead up to the kitchen, don’t they?’ said Jack, pointing to them. ‘Is it safe to go up, do you think? We don’t want anyone to see us, or they’d ask awkward questions.’
‘I’ll slip up to the top, open the door a crack, and listen to see if anyone is about,’ said Philip. So up he went. But Joe had gone out and his aunt was no longer there, so the big kitchen was empty and silent. The boys were able to slip out, go to the outer door, and run down the cliff path without anyone seeing them at all.
‘The girls will wonder whatever had become of us,’ said Jack, suddenly remembering Dinah and Lucy-Ann, waiting patiently for them in the cave where the hole was that led into the passage. ‘Come on – let’s give them a surprise, shall we? They’ll be expecting us to come back through the secret passage – they’ll never expect us to come back this way.’
They made their way down to the rocky shore
. They went to the caves they had explored that morning and found the one that had the hole. The two girls were sitting by the hole, anxiously discussing what they ought to do.
‘We really must go and get help now,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘I’m sure something has happened to the boys. Really I am.’
Philip suddenly spotted the giant starfish again, the one that had caused all the trouble. Very silently he picked it up. Without making a sound, he crept over the seaweedy cave floor to poor Dinah. He placed the starfish on her bare arm, where it slithered down in a horrible manner.
Dinah leapt up with a shriek that was even worse than Kiki’s loudest one. ‘Oh— oh Philip’s back again, the beast! Wait till I get hold of you, Philip! I’ll pull all your hair out of your head! You hateful boy!’
In one of her furious rages Dinah leapt at Philip, who ran out of the caves and on to the sandy shore in glee. Lucy-Ann threw her arms round Jack. She had been very anxious about him.
‘Jack! Oh, Jack, what happened to you? I waited so long. How did you come back this way? Where did the passage lead to?’
Shrieks and yells and shouts from Dinah and Philip made it impossible for Jack to answer, especially as Kiki now joined in the row, screeching like an express train in a tunnel.
There was a fine fight going on between Philip and Dinah. The angry girl had caught her brother, and was hitting out at him for all she was worth.
‘I’ll teach you to throw starfish at me. You mean pig! You know I hate those things. I’ll pull all your hair out.’
Philip got free and ran off, leaving a few of his hairs in Dinah’s fingers. Dinah turned a furious face to the others.
‘He’s a beast. I shan’t talk to him for days. I wish he wasn’t my brother.’
‘It was only a bit of fun,’ began Jack, but this made matters worse. Dinah flew into a temper with him too, and looked so fierce that Lucy-Ann was quite alarmed, and thought she would have to defend Jack if Dinah rushed to slap him.
‘I won’t have anything to do with any of you,’ stormed Dinah, and walked off angrily.