chapter 14 snippet and nosey are very helpful!

'listen!' said julian, lowering his voice, and looking all about to make sure that no one was near.

'do you remember what you told us, george, about a secret passage from the castle to the oldchapel?'

'yes! yes! i do!' said george, and anne nodded, her eyes bright. 'you mean the story that old mr.

finniston told us, down at the little antique shop, about the lady of the castle taking her children insafety from the burning castle, by way of an underground passage to the old chapel?

gosh, i'd forgotten that!'

'oh, julian! yes, george is right!' said anne. 'are you thinking that the passage might still be there,hidden underground?'

'what i think is this,' said julian. 'if the lady and her children escaped underground, they must firsthave fled down into the cellars of the castle - and so the passage or tunnel must have started fromthere. they couldn't have escaped in any other way because the castle was itself surrounded byenemies. so she must have gone with her children to hide in the cellars - and then, when the castlefell, she took them safely down the secret passage that led to the old chapel. so that means...'

'that means that if we can find the secret passage, we can get into the cellars ourselves - perhapsbefore the workmen do!' cried george, almost shouting with excitement.

'exactly,' said julian, his eyes shining. 'now don't let's lose our heads and get too excited. let's talkabout it quietly - and for goodness' sake keep a watch for junior.'

'timmy - on guard!' said george, and timmy at once went some paces away, and stood up straight,looking now in this direction, and now in that. nobody could come within sight now, without timmygiving a warning bark!

the children settled down beside a hedge. 'what's the plan?' asked dick.

'i vote we go to the old chapel, take a line from there to the castle-site, and walk slowly up that line,'

said julian. 'we might possibly see something that would guide us as to where the secret passage is. idon't know what - maybe the grass might be slightly different in colour - a bit darker than thesurrounding grass, just as it was on the castle-site. anyway, it's worth trying. if we do see a line ofdarker grass, or something like that, we'll dig down underground ourselves, hoping the secret passageis underneath!'

'oh ju! what a wonderful idea!' said anne. 'come on, let's go down to the chapel straight away!'

so off they all went, timmy, snippet and nosey the jackdaw too. he loved being with snippet,though he teased him unmercifully. they arrived quickly at the chapel door and went in. 'i alwaysfeel as if there ought to be an organ playing when i'm inside,' said anne, looking round the stackedsacks of grain.

'never mind about organs,' said julian, standing at the open door, and pointing up the hill. 'now see -there's the place where the old castle stood - where the men are already at work - and if we take afairly straight line to it, we should be more or less walking over the old passage. i should think themen who made it would drive as straight a tunnel as they could, to save themselves work. a grindingone would take a long time.'

'i can't see that the grass is any different in colour, along the line i'm looking,' said dick, squinting,and everyone agreed, very disappointed.

'so there's nothing to help us!' said george, mournfully. 'all we can do is to walk in a straight line upthe hill, and hope to find something that will tell us if we're over a tunnel. hollow-sounding footsteps,perhaps!'

'that's very doubtful, i'm afraid,' said julian. 'still, i can't see that we can do anything else. come on,then. all right, tim, you can come back to us. look at nosey, on snippet's back again! that's right,snippet, roll over and get him off!'

'chack!' said nosey, crossly, as he flew up in the air. 'chack!'

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the six children walked up the slope in as straight a line as they could. they came right up to wherethe men were digging, without having seen or heard anything of any help at all. it was mostdisappointing. junior saw them, and yelled loudly.

'children not allowed here! keep off! my dad's bought this place!'

'fibber!' shouted back the two harries at once. 'you've got the right to dig and that's all!'

'yah!' yelled junior. 'you wait! now don't you set that great dog on me again! i'll tell my pop, see?'

timmy barked loudly, and junior disappeared in a hurry. george laughed. 'silly little fathead!

why doesn't somebody box his ears? i bet one of the men will before he's many hours older.

look at him trying to use that drill!'

junior was certainly not at all popular. he made himself a great nuisance, and in the end his fatherput him roughly into a lorry and told him to stay there. he howled dismally, but as no one paid anyattention, he soon stopped!

the six children went slowly back down the gentle slope of the hill, taking a slightly different line,still hopeful. the jackdaw flew down to harry's shoulder, chacking loudly, bored with all thiswalking! he suddenly saw snippet sitting down to scratch his neck, and at once launched himself athim. he knew that the poodle always shut his eyes when he scratched himself, and that that was avery good time to give him a well-placed peck!

but unfortunately for nosey the poodle opened his eyes too soon, and saw the jackdaw just about toperch on him! he snapped at him - and got him by the wing! 'chack-chack-chack!' cried thejackdaw, urgently calling for help. 'chack!'

harry ran to snippet, shouting, 'drop him, snippet, drop him! you'll break his wing!' before he couldreach the pair, the jackdaw managed to free himself by giving snippet a sudden peck on his nose,which made him bark in pain. as soon as he opened his mouth to bark, the jackdaw dropped on theground, and scuttled away, his wing drooping, unable to fly.

the poodle was after him in a second! the twins yelled in vain. he meant to catch that exasperatingjackdaw if it was the last thing he did! the squawking bird looked anxiously for a hiding-place - andsaw one! a rabbit-hole - just the thing to hop down in a trice! in he went with another loud squawk,and disappeared from sight.

'he's gone down that rabbit- hole!' said dick, with a shout of laughter. 'clever old bird. you'reoutwitted, snippet!'

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but no - snippet wasn't! he disappeared down the hole too! he was as small as a rabbit, and couldeasily run down a burrow. he had never done more than sniff at one before, being rather scared ofdark tunnels - but if nosey had gone down, well, he would too!

the children stared in surprise. first the jackdaw - now snippet! the twins bent down by the holeand yelled. 'come back, snippet, you idiot! the hill's honeycombed with old warrens -you'll get lost for ever. come back! snippet. snip-snip-snippet, can you hear us? comehere!'

there was silence down the rabbit-hole. no chack, no bark. 'they must have gone deep down,'

said harry, anxiously. 'there's a perfect maze of burrows in this hill. dad said there used to bethousands of rabbits here at one time. hey, snippet - come here!'

'well, we'd better sit down till they come back,' said anne, feeling suddenly tired with excitementand with climbing up hill and down.

'right,' said julian. 'anyone got any sweets?'

'i have,' said george, as usual, and took out a rather grimy packet of peppermints. 'here you are; haveone, twins?'

'thanks,' they said. 'we really ought to be getting back - we've plenty of work to do!'

they sat sucking their peppermints, wondering what in the world the jackdaw and snippet were upto. at last timmy pricked up his ears and gave a small bark, looking at the entrance of the burrow ashe did so. 'they're coming,' said george. 'timmy knows!'

sure enough, timmy was right. out came first snippet, and then nosey, apparently quite goodfriends again. snippet rushed to the twins and flung himself on them as if he hadn't seen them fordays. he put something down at their feet. 'what's this you've found?' said harry, picking it up.

'some dirty old bone?'

julian suddenly took it from him, almost snatching it. 'bone? no - that's not a bone. it's a smallcarved dagger with a broken handle - old as the hills! snippet! where did you find it?'

'the jackdaw's got something too!' cried anne, pointing to him. 'look - in his beak!'

harriet caught the jackdaw easily, for he still could not fly. 'it's a ring!' she said. 'with a red stone in it- look!'

all six children gazed at the two strange articles. an old carved knife, black with age - and an oldring, with a stone still set in it! they could have come from only one place! george said whateveryone was thinking.

'snippet and the jackdaw have been to the cellars of the castle! they must have! that burrow musthave led straight into the tunnel that goes to the dungeons and the cellars - and they've been there!

oh, snippet - you clever, clever dog - you've told us just what we want to know!'

'george is right!' said dick, jubilantly. 'we know quite a lot of things now, because of snippet andnosey. we know there must be plenty of things still in those castle cellars - and we know thatsomewhere near the end of this burrow is the secret passage - because that's the only way they couldhave got into the cellars - by using the passage! the burrow led into the passage!

don't you agree, julian?'

'rather!' said julian, flushed with excitement. 'my word, this is a bit of good luck! hurrah for snippetand nosey. look, the jackdaw's trying to fly - his wing isn't badly hurt - just bruised, i expect. goodold nosey - little did he know what his bit of mischief would lead to!'

'what happens now?' said george, her eyes shining. 'do we dig, too - now that we know where thepassage is? it can't be very far - and once we've got down to it, we can easily get into the cellarsbefore that american does!'

what an excitement! timmy really thought everyone had gone completely mad!