chapter 11 a most exciting talk

the boys were busy hammering and sawing and the girls sat and waited till the noise died down.

snippet was there, leaping about ridiculously with little bits of wood in his mouth, and nosey thejackdaw had suddenly taken a fancy to the shavings that now covered the floor, and ran aboutchacking, and picking them up.

outside the hens clucked and squawked, and not far off the ducks quacked loudly. 'those are the kindof noises i like to hear,' said anne, settling herself on a sack in a corner. she raised her voice andshouted above the hammering to dick. 'want any help, dick?'

'no thanks,' said dick. 'we'll just finish this job, then sit down and have a rest, and listen to what youhave to say. you sit and watch our wonderful carpentering! honestly, i'd make pounds a week if itook it up!'

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'look out - nosey has got your nails again!' shouted george. timmy leapt up as if he was going tochase nosey, and the jackdaw promptly flew up to a crossbeam, and sat there chacking with laughter.

timmy thought him a very exasperating bird indeed. he lay down again with a thump.

at last the boys had finished the job they were on, and sat down, rubbing their hands over their wetforeheads. 'well, now you can tell us your news,' said dick. 'good thing we got rid of that little pestof a junior - i might have hammered a few nails into him by mistake if he'd come worrying us thisafternoon.' he imitated junior's whining drawl. 'aw, shucks, pop, lemme come with yew!'

outside, his ear to the hole, junior clenched his fists. he would willingly have stuck a few nails intodick at that moment!

george and anne began to tell the four listening children what old mr. finniston had told them thatmorning. 'it's about finniston castle,' said anne. 'the old castle that gave the village its name - andthe farm as well. the old fellow who told us about it is called finniston, too - and will you believe it,he's a descendant of the finnistons who lived in the castle centuries ago!'

'he seems to have spent most of his life trying to discover everything possible about the old castle,'

said george. 'he said he'd delved into old libraries - and into the church records here -anywhere that might help him to piece together the castle's history!'

outside the hen-house, junior held his breath so as not to miss a single word. why - his pop had toldhim that he couldn't get anything out of that old mr. finniston at the antique shop - not a word aboutthe castle, and its history, or even where the site was. then why had he told anne, and that horribleboy george? junior felt angry, and listened even more keenly.

'the story goes that in the twelfth century enemies came to attack the castle one night - and therewere traitors already inside it, who set it on fire, so that the castle-folk would be busy trying to put outthe fire, and wouldn't be prepared for a fight,' said george. 'the inside of it was burnt right down tothe ground - and then the great stone walls outside collapsed inwards, and lay in enormous heapsthere, covering the place where the castle had stood.'

'whew!' said dick, visualizing it all. 'what a night that must have been! everybody killed or burnt, isuppose?'

'no, the lady of the castle wasn't killed and it is said that she took her children to the little chapelnear the farm-house - we really must go and see that, twins - and they stayed there in safety.

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anyway, some of the family must have escaped, because it is one of their descendants who keeps thatlittle antique shop - old mr. finniston!'

'this is tremendously interesting,' said julian. 'where's the site of the castle? it should easily beknown, because of the great mass of stones that fell there when the walls collapsed.'

'no, they're not there now,' said george. 'mr. finniston said he thought that when the wind andweather had broken them up small enough to be lugged away by the farmers and peasants living nearby, they were taken to build field walls, or to line wells. he said there were some on this farm. hedidn't know himself where the castle once stood, because the site would be all grown over, and withno stones left to mark it, it wouldn't be easy to find.'

'but oh, julian, i wish we could find it!' cried anne, her voice rising in excitement. 'because, so mr.

finniston says, the cellars and dungeons are probably still there, quite untouched. you see, no onecould uncover them for years, because of the heavy stones there - and when the stones were takenaway, people had forgotten about the castle and the dungeons!'

'gosh! so they may still be there - with whatever was stored in them hundreds of years ago,' saiddick, thrilled. 'my word - there might be priceless things there, as old as the hills! i mean, even anold broken sword would be worth its weight in gold, because it would be so very very old. i say -don't say a word of all this in front of that american, or he'd dig up the whole farm!'

'we shouldn't dream of it,' said george. 'he shan't get to hear a word of this.'

alas! george little knew that every single word had been overheard by junior, whose left ear was stillpinned to the knot-hole in the wood! his face was red with surprise and delight. whata secret! whatever would his pop say? dungeons! perhaps full of gold and jewels and all kinds ofthings! he rubbed his hands together in delight, thinking that he would soon get even with theseannoying children now - as soon as his pop came home, he'd spill everything to him.

gee!

timmy heard the small sound of junior rubbing his hands together, and sat up, growling, his earspricked. snippet growled too, a miniature little sound that nobody took seriously. timmy then heardjunior creeping away, afraid because he had heard the big dog growling. timmy growled again, andthen barked sharply, running to the shut door of the hen-house, scraping at it with his foot.

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'somebody's outside - quick! if it's junior, i'll throw him on to the muck-heap!' yelled dick, and flungopen the door. they all trooped out and looked round - but there was nobody there! junior had shotoff at top speed, and was now safely behind the nearest hedge.

'what was it, tim?' said george. she turned to the others. 'he may have heard those hens scratchingnear the door,' she said. 'there's no one about. gosh, i was so afraid that it was that little sneak of ajunior! he'd tell his pop every single thing!'

'twins, listen - mr. finniston told us that one of the things that was saved from the castle - or foundafterwards, perhaps - was a great old oak door, iron-studded,' said anne, suddenly remembering. 'isthat one of your kitchen doors?'

'yes - that must be the door leading into the dark little passage,' said harry. 'you wouldn't havenoticed it particularly, because it's usually kept open, and it's very dark just there. gosh, i suppose itcould have come from the castle. it's enormously thick and strong. i wonder if dad knows.'

'we'll tell him,' said harriet. 'i say - shall we go and look for the site of the castle sometime? if onlywe could find it! do you suppose that if we found the cellars and dungeons, full of chests and things,they'd belong to us? the farm belongs to our family, of course, and all the land round.'

'does it? well then, of course anything found on this land would be yours!' said julian.

'we might be able to buy a new tractor!' said the twins, both together, in the same excited voice.

'let's go and look for the castle-site now,' said george, her voice sounding so excited that timmy satup and barked.

'no. we must finish this job,' said julian. 'we promised we would. there's plenty of time to huntaround, because nobody knows about this except us.'

julian was wrong, of course. junior knew - and junior meant to tell the whole secret to his father assoon as ever he could! he could hardly wait for him to come home.

'well, we'd better be getting back to the house,' said george. 'we told mrs. philpot we'd pick someraspberries for supper tonight, so we'd better fetch baskets, and begin. oh, i do hope we find thatcastle-site. i shall dream about it tonight, i know i shall.'

'well, try and dream where it is,' said julian, with a laugh. 'then you can lead us straight to ittomorrow morning. i suppose you haven't any idea where it might be, have you, twins?'

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'no,' they said together, frowning. 'no idea at all!' and harriet added, 'you see, the farm's so big- and i suppose it might have been built anywhere on our land.'

'yes - but probably near the top of a hill,' said julian. 'castles used to overlook surrounding land, youknow, so that approaching enemies could easily be seen. and then again, george said mr.

finniston told them that the lady of the castle escaped with her children and took them in safety tothe chapel, which wouldn't be very far away. i should guess that the castle-site must be not furtherthan a quarter of a mile from the chapel, so that narrows the search down a bit. by the way, we reallymust look at that chapel - it sounds interesting, even though it has been used as a store-house foryears!'

the girls picked raspberries for the rest of the afternoon, and the boys finished their jobs. they wentback to the farm-house for tea, feeling pleasantly tired. the girls were already there, laying the table.

they pounced on the twins, and george spoke excitedly.

'twins! we've been looking at the old studded door. it's magnificent! come and see it, julianand dick. if it isn't from the old castle, i'll eat my hat - and my shoes as well!'

she took them to the great door that opened from the kitchen into the passage that led to the yard.

with much difficulty she swung it shut. they all gazed at it. it had been almost too heavy for georgeto move! it was very stout and strong, made of old, old oak. great iron studs had been driven into itso deeply and firmly that only by destroying the door itself could they ever be removed. there was acurious iron handle in the middle of the outer side, and george raised it and brought it down smartly.

a loud bang resounded through the kitchen, and made the others jump.

'the knocker that visitors used when they came to the castle, i suppose!' said george, laughing attheir surprised faces. 'noise enough to rouse everyone, and alert any guard at once. do you suppose itwas the front door of the castle - it's big enough! it must be worth hundreds of pounds!'

'look out - there's junior!' said anne, in a low voice. 'he's grinning all over his face. what do yousuppose he's been up to? i wish i knew!'