chapter 12 a trip to the tower

'blow this zip!' said julian, desperately. 'it's got absolutely stuck! it's so dificult for us to undo it fromthe inside of the beastly horse. oh, this head. i must get it off.'

he pushed at the head but somehow or other it had got wedged on him, and julian felt that short ofpulling his own head off he would certainly never get clopper's off!

the horse sat down, exhausted, looking a very peculiar shape. julian leaned the head against the wallof the stable and panted. 'i'm so hot,' he complained. 'dick, for goodness sake think of something.

we'll have to get help. but i daren't go back to the barn because of the guv'nor, and we really can'tappear in the kitchen like this. everyone would have a fit, and sid and mr. binks would be furiouswith us.

'i think we were asses to try this,' said dick, pulling viciously at the zip again. 'ugh! what use arezips, i'd like to know. i feel most uncomfortable. can't you get in some other position, ju? i seem tobe standing on my head or something.'

'let's go and scout round the kitchen,' said julian trying to get up. dick tried to get up too, but theyboth fell down on top of one another. they tried again and this time stood up rather shakily.

'it's not as easy as it looks, is it, to be a two-man horse,' said julian. 'i wish i could get these eye holesin the right place. i'm absolutely blind!'

however, he managed to adjust them at last, and the two boys made their way cautiously andclumsily out of the stable. they went carefully over the farm-yard, julian counting one-two, one-two,under his breath so that they walked in time with one another.

they came to the kitchen door and debated whether to try and catch someone's attention withoutgoing in. there was a fairly large window near by, open because of the warmth of the kitchen.

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julian decided to take a look through to see if george or anne were anywhere near. if so, he couldcall them outside.

but he reckoned without the clumsiness of the big head! it knocked against the window-frame, andeveryone looked up. there were shrieks at once.

'a horse! farmer penruthlan, one of your horses is loose!' cried a villager who was helping with thesupper. 'he looked in at the window!'

the farmer went out at once. julian and dick backed hurriedly away and trotted in very good styleover the farm-yard. where now? the farmer saw their moving figure in the darkness and went afterthem.

trot-trot-trot went the horse desperately then gallop-gallop-gallop! but that finished them, becausethe back and front legs didn't gallop together, got entangled and down went the horse!

the farmer ran up in alarm, thinking that his horse had fallen.

'take your knee out of my mouth,' mumbled an angry voice, and the farmer stopped suddenly,astounded to hear a human voice coming from the horse. then he realized what was happening -it was the stage horse with two people in it! who? it sounded like julian and dick. he gave the horsea gentle kick.

'don't,' said dick's voice. 'for goodness' sake whoever it is, un-zip us! we're suffocating!'

the farmer let out a terrific guffaw, bent down and felt for the zip. one good pull and the horse'scanvas skin came in half as the zip was undone.

the boys clambered out thankfully. 'oh - er - thanks awfully, mr. penruthlan,' said julian, ratherembarrassed. 'we - er - we were just having a canter round.'

mr. penruthlan gave another hearty roar and went off towards the kitchen to finish his meal.

dick and julian felt very thankful. they carried the legs and head of the horse cautiously towards thebarn. they peeped in at a window. the guv'nor was there, striding up and down, looking extremelyangry.

julian waited till he was at the far end of the barn, and then hurriedly pushed the legs and head in atthe door, as quietly as he could. when the guv'nor turned round to stride angrily back the first thinghe saw was the bundle that was clopper! he raced over to it at once, and looked out of the door.

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but julian and dick had gone. they could own up the next day when things were not quite soexciting! they slid quietly into the kitchen, feeling hot and untidy, hoping that nobody would noticethem.

george and anne saw them at once. george came over. 'what have you been doing? you've beenages and ages. do you want any more to eat before everything is finished up?'

'tell you everything afterwards,' said julian. 'yes, we do want something to eat. i've hardly had athing yet. i'm starving!'

mr. penruthlan was back in his place eating again. he pointed with his knife at the boys sliding intotheir seats. 'ock-ock-oo,' he said, beginning to laugh, and added a few more equally puzzling words.

'oh, they've been to help you catch the horse that peeped in at the window, have they?' said mrs.

penruthlan, nodding. 'which horse was it?'

'clopper!' said the farmer, quite clearly, and gave a loud guffaw again. nobody understood what hemeant, so nothing more was said. george and anne guessed, though, and grinned at the two boys.

it was a wonderful evening altogether, and everyone was sorry that it had to come to an end. thevillage women and the two girls stacked the dirty dishes and plates and the boys carried them to thesink to be washed. the barnies gave a hand where they could, and the big kitchen was full of chatterand laughter. it was very pleasant indeed.

but at last the kitchen was empty again, and the big lamp turned out. the village women went home,the barnies departed. old grandad took yan's hand and went back to his sheep, saying dolefully thathe'd 'et a mort too much and wouldn't be able to sleep a wink, so he wouldn't.'

'never mind. it was worth it, grandad,' said mrs. penruthlan, and shut and locked the kitchen door.

she looked round, tired but happy. there was nothing she liked better than to spend hours upon hourspreparing delicious dishes for people and then see them eaten in no time at all! the children thoughtshe was truly wonderful.

they were soon all in bed and asleep. the penruthlans were asleep, too. only the kitchen cat wasawake, watching for mice in the kitchen. she didn't like a crowd. she liked the kitchen to herself!

next day was fair and warm, though a stiff breeze still blew. mrs. penruthlan spoke to the fourchildren at breakfast-time.

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'i'll be busy today cleaning up the mess. how would you like to take a picnic lunch of some of theremains of the supper and stay out all day? it's a nice day, and you'll enjoy it.'

nothing could be better! julian had already planned to make his way to the old tower once used bythe wreckers, and explore it. now they would have all day to do it in!

'oh, yes, mrs. penruthlan, we'd love to do that,' he said. 'let the girls get the picnic stuff ready for us.

you've plenty to do!'

but no, mrs. penruthlan wouldn't let anyone deal with food but herself. she proceeded to pack upenough food for twelve people, or so julian thought when he saw her preparations!

they set off together happily, with timmy at their heels. the four farm dogs accompanied them forsome way, tearing on in front and then tearing back trying to make timmy as mad as they were. buttimmy was sedate, walking along as if to say, 'i'm taking these children for a walk, i've no time toplay with you. you're only farm dogs!'

'do we want yan with us if he turns up?' asked george. 'do we particularly want him to know whatwe are doing today?'

julian considered. 'no, i don't think we do want him with us. we may find out something we don'twant him to know, or to spread around.'

'right,' said george. 'well, just you send him off, then, if he comes. i'm fed up with him. thankgoodness he's a bit cleaner than he was!'

yan did appear, of course. he came up silently on his bare feet. nobody would have known he wastrotting behind if it hadn't been for timmy. timmy quite happily left george's heels and went to sayhow-do-you-do to yan, jumping up at him in delight.

george turned round to see where timmy was, and saw yan. 'julian, there's yan!' she said.

'hallo, yan,' said julian. 'buzz off today. we're going somewhere alone.'

'i come too,' said yan, strutting along behind. he still looked fairly clean.

'no, you don't come too,' said julian. 'you buzz off. see? off you go. we don't want you today.'

yan's face took on a sullen look. he turned to anne. 'i come too?' he said, pleadingly.

anne shook her head. 'no, not today,' she said. 'another time. take this sweet, yan, and go away.'

yan took the sweet and turned away, his face sulky. he disappeared over the field and was soon lostto sight.

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the four children and timmy went on together, glad of their warm jerseys when the wind blewstrongly. julian gave a sudden groan.

'i shall be jolly glad when we've had our lunch,' he said. 'this bag of food is so heavy it's cutting intomy shoulders.'

'well, let's wait till we get to the tower and we can put the bags down,' said dick. 'we'll do a littleexploring before we have our lunch. i should think mrs. penruthlan meant us to stay out to dinner, teaand supper, the amount she's packed for us!'

they hoped they were going in the right direction. they had looked at a map, and found variouslanes which they thought would eventually lead to the tower, and had worked out which was the bestdirection to take.

julian had his compass and was going by that, leading them down lanes, across fields, along littlepaths, and sometimes along no paths at all! he felt sure, however, that they were going right.

they were making for the coast, anyway.

'look, there are two hills side by side, or cliffs, are they?' said anne, pointing. 'i believe they are thehills between which we saw that tower.'

'yes, you're right,' said dick. 'we're nearly there. i wonder how people got there when the tower andthe house were lived in. there appears to be no proper road at all.'

they walked on, over a rough field. they soon found themselves in a very narrow, overgrown lane,deep-set between hedges that almost met overhead.

'a green tunnel,' said anne, pleased. 'look out for those enormous nettles, ju.'

at the end of the lane an overgrown path swung sharply right, and there, not far from them, was thetower! they stood and stared at it. this was where the light had flashed a hundred years ago to bringships to their doom, and where the light had flashed only the other night.

'the tower's falling into ruin,' said dick. 'large pieces have dropped out of it. and i should think thehouse is in ruin, too, though we can't see enough of it at the moment, just a bit of the roof.

come on. this is going to be fun!'

the tower didn't look the frightening thing it had seemed on the stormy night when the boys saw theflashing light. it just looked a poor old ruin. they made their way to it through high thistles, nettlesand willow-herb.

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'doesn't look as if anyone has been here for years,' said julian, rather puzzled. 'i rather wish we'dbrought a scythe to cut down these enormous weeds! we can hardly get through them. i'm stung allover with nettles, too.'

they came to the house at last, and a poor, tumbledown ruin it was! the doors had fallen in, thewindows were out of shape, and had no glass, the roof was full of holes. an enormous climbing roserambled everywhere, throwing masses of old-fashioned white roses over walls and roof to hide theugliness of the ruin.

only the tower seemed still strong, except at the top, where parts of the wall had crumbled away andfallen. julian forced his way through the broken doorway into the house. weeds grew in the floor.

'there's a stone stairway going up the tower!' he called. 'and i say, look here! what's this on eachstair?'

'oil,' said george. 'someone's been carrying oil up in a can, or a lamp, and has spilt it. julian, we'dbetter be careful. that somebody may be here still!'