28

to borken castle again!

jack clambered through the round hole at the other end of the little cellar. he was now in the verynarrow, low-roofed passage he remembered so well, because he had had to walk through it withhis head well bent. he led bill and ronnie up the steeply sloping way, lit by bill’s powerful torch.

jack stopped when they came to the top of the long, sloping passage. ‘we’re very near the roomwhere the spyhole is,’ he whispered. ‘if there is a conference being held – or some sort of meeting– we’ll be able to look through the hole at it – or you will, bill, because as far as i know there’sonly one hole.’

‘let me know when we come to it,’ whispered bill, and they went on again. in a short whilejack saw a little beam of light coming from the side of the right-hand wall – that must be thespyhole!

he whispered to bill. bill saw the beam of light and nodded. there was not room for him to getin front of jack, so the boy went on past the little spyhole, and let bill stand by it behind him.

ronnie was by bill, quite silent. kiki had been tapped on the beak, so she knew she was to bequiet too.

bill glued his eye to the spyhole. he saw the same room that jack had seen – a room with around table, chairs pulled up to it, and writing materials on the table.

but now there were lights blazing in the room – and every chair at the table was filled. at thetop sat count paritolen. beside him sat his sister, madame tatiosa. on his other side sat someoneelse, whom bill knew from photographs – the prime minister, husband of madame tatiosa. helooked ill at ease and grave. men in military uniform were also round the table.

at the bottom of the table stood a tall man, with a great likeness to gussy – his uncle, the king!

bill heaved a sigh of relief. so he hadn’t been killed. well, that was one good thing at any rate. ifonly he could be got away, things could be put right very quickly, and civil war would be avoided.

bill strained his ears to hear what was going on. he could not hear very well, behind thewooden panelling, but he heard enough to know what was happening.

the king was being urged to abdicate – to leave his throne, go into retirement, and let gussy –the prince aloysius – rule in his stead.

‘if you will not sign this document of abdication, then it will be the worse for you,’ finishedcount paritolen. ‘you will, i fear, not be heard of again.’

bill followed this with difficulty, for he did not speak tauri-hessian well. he had, in fact, onlytried to learn it when he knew he might have to go to the country. but he had no doubt that thatwas what the count was saying.

the prime minister said something in protest, but the count would not listen. madame tatiosamade a short, angry speech and sat down. the king bowed, and then spoke in such a low voicethat bill couldn’t hear a word.

‘very well,’ said the count. ‘you may have tonight to make up your mind – tonight only. wewill adjourn this meeting.’

he stood up and so did everyone else. the count went out with his sister and the primeminister. the king followed, closely hemmed in by four men. he looked sad and worried.

the lights in the conference room dimmed, and there was silence. bill turned to ronnie andrepeated rapidly what he had seen and what he thought had happened.

‘as far as i can make out the king’s got tonight to think things over. if he says no, he won’tgive up the throne, that’s the end of him. i think he will say no.’

there was a silence behind the wooden panelling for a moment or two. bill debated withhimself. could he get back to the capital of tauri-hessia, tell what he had seen, and bring men torescue the king?

no – there wouldn’t be time – the capital town was too far off. there was only one sure thing todo – and that was to see if he himself could get the king away.

he whispered this to jack. the boy nodded. ‘yes. if only we knew where he was going to betonight! he won’t be put into the tower room, i’m sure. they’d be afraid he’d escape too, likegussy let’s go to the ballroom, where that moving picture hangs – we might be able to shove itaside and get into the room.’

he led the way again – up some very steep steps, up and up. then round a sharp corner and intoa narrow, dark passage running just inside the walls of the rooms, but a little below the level of thefloor. then came a small flight of steps, and jack paused.

‘these are the steps that lead up to that picture,’ he whispered. ‘you must see if you can findout how to move it away from the hole, bill – it slides right away from it, keeping level with thewall.’

bill and ronnie began to feel about all over the place. bill suddenly found a knob. ah – thismust be it! a pull at this might set the mechanism working that moved the picture away, and left ahole in its place.

he listened carefully. no noise came from the room within. well – he’d have to risk it, anyhow.

bill pulled the knob.

nothing happened. he twisted it. still nothing happened. then he pushed it – and it gavebeneath his hand.

then came a slight scraping noise, and it seemed to bill as if part of the wall was disappearing!

but it was only the picture moving to one side, leaving a hole almost as large as itself – the secretentrance to the ballroom!

there was very little light in the big room – merely a dim glow from a lamp whose wick hadbeen turned down. bill peered out.

‘no one here,’ he whispered to the others. ‘we’ll get into the room while we can.’

he climbed out of the hole and jumped lightly to the floor. the others followed. their rubbershoes made no sound.

‘we’d better just go and see if the king has been put into the tower room,’ whispered jack. ‘i’llgo. i know the way. you stay here – behind these curtains.’

he sped into the anteroom, and saw the spiral stairway. he stopped and listened. no soundanywhere. he ran up the steps quietly and came to the little landing. he flashed his torch on thedoor that led into the room where philip and the others had been imprisoned.

it was wide open! the room beyond was dark, too, so it was plain that the king was notimprisoned there. jack went down again.

he tiptoed to the curtains behind which bill and ronnie were hiding. ‘no good,’ he whispered.

‘the door’s wide open. he’s not there.’

‘listen!’ said bill, suddenly. ‘i can hear something!’

they listened. it was the clump- clump of marching feet. they came nearer and nearer. itsounded like two or three people. bill peeped round the side of the curtain when the sound hadpassed by.

‘two soldiers,’ he whispered. ‘they must have gone to relieve two others on guard somewhere– and who should they be guarding but the king? we’ll wait and see if two others come back thisway then we shall know the first two have gone on guard somewhere – and we’ll explore downthat passage, where the first two went.’

‘when i was here before, the sentry on guard kept disappearing down there,’ said jack,remembering. ‘it’s a kind of sentry beat, i think. perhaps the king has been taken down there andlocked into a cell.’

‘listen!’ said ronnie. back came marching feet again and two different sentries went bysmartly in the opposite direction from the others, and disappeared. the three could hear the soundof their feet for some time, and then no more.

‘now!’ said bill. ‘and keep your ears open and your eyes peeled too.’

they all went down the dark passage where the two first sentries had gone. right down to theend – round a sharp-angled turn, and down a few steps – along a narrower passage, and roundanother turn. but here they stopped. they could hear marching feet again – coming nearer!

there was a room opening off near where the three stood. bill pushed open the door and thethree went into it hurriedly. it was quite dark. bill switched his torch on for a moment and theysaw that it was a kind of box-room. the sentries passed right by it, went a good way up thepassage and then, stamp-stamp, they turned and came back again.

bill listened to their feet marching. they seemed to go a long way down the passage, a long,long way, before they turned to come back. ‘i should think the king must be locked up somewhereabout the middle of their sentry-go,’ said bill. ‘we’ll let them come up here once more, and whenthey have gone right past us, up to the other end of their beat, we’ll slip down here and explore abit. we can always go and hide beyond the other end of their walk, if we hear them coming back.’

the sentries came marching back, passed the three hidden in the little box room again, and wenton to the end of their beat. bill, ronnie and jack slipped quickly out of the box room and ranlightly down the passage. they turned a corner and came to a dead end. a stout door faced them,well and truly bolted – and locked too, as bill found when he tried to open it!

‘sssst!’ said ronnie, suddenly, and pulled them back into a dark corner. bill and jack wonderedwhat had scared him – then they saw!

a door was opening silently opposite to them – a door they hadn’t seen because it was part ofthe panelling itself. someone came through carrying a lamp. it was the count paritolen. had hecome to kill the king? or to try once more to persuade him to give up his throne?

bill saw something else. he saw what the count was holding – a big key! the key to the king’sroom, no doubt!

the count heard the sentries coming back and went back through the hidden door, closing itsoftly. he evidently meant to wait till the sentries had come up and then had gone back again.

‘ronnie,’ said bill, his mouth close to his friend’s ear, ‘we get that key, do you understand?

and we get the count too. will you tackle him while i open the door and find out if the king’sthere? he mustn’t make any noise.’

‘he won’t,’ said ronnie, grimly. the sentries came right up, and then turned, stamp-stamp, andwent back again. as soon as they had turned the first corner, the hidden door opened again, andthe count stepped through swiftly, lamp in one hand, key in the other.

everything happened so quickly then that jack was bewildered. he heard an exclamation fromthe count, and then he saw bill running to the door with the key, and ronnie dragging the counthurriedly back through the hidden door. the lamp went out. there was complete silence.

ronnie came back and switched on his torch. he saw bill unlocking the door and pulling backbolts. ‘i found a nice little cell back there,’ he said, jerking his head towards the door. ‘just rightfor the count. he’s tied up and he can shout the place down if he likes – nobody can hear him inthat room!’

‘good work,’ said bill. ‘blow these bolts – there are half a dozen of them! we’ll have thesentries back here before we know where we are!’

ronnie blew out the passage lamp that shone near the door. ‘don’t want the sentries to see thebolts are drawn!’ he said. ‘buck up, bill. they’re coming back. jack and i will wait here – just incase there’s trouble with the sentries. do buck up!’