The Wind on the Moon (31 page)

‘That should be plenty,' said Dorinda, ‘and we can finish up with some peppermint creams. The beefsteak is for the Puma, I suppose?'

‘Of course,' said Mr. Corvo. ‘It is too early for us to eat beefsteaks.'

Picking up a revolver he fired four shots at the sitting-room ceiling, and hurrying into the bathroom, turned on the taps. Dinah and Dorinda, kneeling at the bedroom door, took it in turns to look through the keyhole, and saw the Count's butler come in and read the message. In a surprisingly short time he and a parlourmaid brought in an enormous breakfast on an enormous tray, and as soon as they had gone again, Mr. Corvo locked the door, and they all sat down and ate a hearty meal.

‘And now,' said Mr. Corvo, when they had eaten everything there was to eat, ‘look what I found last night in Count Hulagu's private desk! It was in that drawer there. The drawer was locked, but what of that? I took a poker and broke it open. And this is the result! A list of all the prisoners in the dungeons, nine hundred and forty-two men and women, and your father, alone by himself, in Dungeon Number 200!'

‘How do we get there?' asked Dinah.

‘It is not quite easy,' said Mr. Corvo. ‘In the plan of the Castle that Bultek drew for me—here it is—there is shown a secret passage from the Tyrant's suite, but it does not make it clear where the passage begins. We shall have to look for it.'

He fired four shots at the ceiling

‘I know where it is,' said Dorinda. ‘It's behind the big silver towel-rail in the bathroom. The towel-rail is fastened to the wall, and if you pull it in a certain way the wall opens like a door, and there are stone steps behind it.'

‘But how did you find it?' cried Mr. Corvo.

‘I was doing exercises on it after my bath last night. You know: leaning on it and pressing up and down to strengthen your arms. And while I was pressing, the door in the wall slowly opened. So I closed it again, and went to bed.'

Hurrying into the bathroom, Mr. Corvo gripped the silver towel-rail and pressed as hard as he could. But nothing happened.

‘How did you push it?' he asked.

‘Like this,' said Dorinda, and showed him. And still nothing happened.

‘You are sure that a door opened?'

‘Of course I am!' said Dorinda indignantly.

‘Then why won't it open now?' asked Dinah.

‘How should I know? Unless—well, I don't suppose it makes any difference, but I'd unscrewed that knob first. I wanted to see if it was solid silver or just hollow. It's just hollow. And then I couldn't put the knob back the first time I tried, and it was just after that I did my exercises.'

Mr. Corvo was already unscrewing an acorn-shaped knob at the end of the rail, and as soon as it was off, he pushed again. And now, like a door, the marble wall opened, and steeply descending they could see a flight of dark stone steps.

‘The secret passage to the dungeons!' cried Mr. Corvo. ‘Are we all ready? Shall we go now?'

‘We ought to make the bed first,' said Dinah. ‘Even if it is a tyrant's bed, we ought to be tidy.'

‘Then quickly,' said Mr. Corvo, ‘make it quickly, and I shall get an electric torch. There was a big one in the drawer that I broke open.'

When they had made the bed, Dinah and Dorinda found the Puma in the bathroom. She was looking at the narrow steps with sad and disconsolate eyes.

‘I do not like these dark passages,' she said. ‘We go from one prison to another. I do not like these walls that enclose us. To you, who live in houses, they may not be oppressive, but to me they are misery. I dreamt last night of my native forest, and the sunlight hot upon open plains, and the brown river swirling in its flow. And I woke this morning with the knowledge that I shall never see that land again.'

‘Oh, you will, you will!' said Dinah. ‘When we have rescued Father, he will arrange it. He can arrange anything. You'll go in a ship to any port you like, and then you'll have freedom again. Real freedom in your own country.'

‘No,' said the Puma sadly. ‘I shall never see the forest again.'

‘When Father hears how much you have helped us,' said Dorinda, ‘he'll do anything for you. Oh, don't look so sad!'

‘It makes any creature sad to know a thing for certain,' said the Puma. ‘But pay no heed to me. Think of your father, who is waiting for you.'

‘You didn't eat your breakfast,' said Dinah. ‘I knew there was something wrong with you.'

Mr. Corvo reappeared with an electric torch in one hand and his swordstick in the other. ‘Forward,' he cried. ‘En avant!'

‘Wait a minute,' said Dorinda. ‘I want to get something first.'

She returned in a moment carrying the Puma's beefsteak wrapped in a napkin, which she gave to Dinah to carry, and the large paper bag of peppermint creams.

‘It would be silly to leave these,' she said. ‘There must be nearly three pounds here still.'

Mr. Corvo, having closed behind them the door in the wall, took the lead. The stone steps, narrow and difficult, were worn hollow in the middle. Dinah counted them: there were thirty-six. Then they came to a narrow passage between stone walls. It was unlighted, and the air smelt cold and sour. It led to a spiral staircase, stone steps descending like a corkscrew, seventy-two of them. A rope, fastened to iron rings in the wall, made the descent a little easier, and here and there a narrow slit in the masonry let in some light. There was a door at the bottom with a great iron key in the lock. The lock had been oiled, and turned easily enough.

They found themselves in a broader passage, sloping steeply downhill, and this was fairly well lighted by loopholes in the wall. The stone floor was damp and slippery. A few yards from the door there was a notice that read:

XUA TOCCASH

‘That means “To the dungeons,“' said Mr. Corvo. ‘We are getting near.'

Fifty yards farther on they came to a corner where two more notices read like this:

They went straight on, and now they trod softly and went warily. The passage was hewn through the rock and the walls were rough and damp to the touch. There was no light here, but the torch showed little iron-bolted doors on the outer side, each with a number. At the very end of the passage was Number 200.

Dinah and Dorinda were by now trembling with excitement, and Mr. Corvo was so agitated that it took him a long time to find the proper key on the Lord Chamberlain's bunch. Dinah had to hold the torch, and Dorinda his swordstick, while he looked for it. At last he found it—there was a master-key for the odd-numbered dungeons and another for the even numbers—and with trembling fingers opened the door.

A figure, sitting on a heap of sacking in a corner of the dungeon, said wearily, ‘What do you want now?'

‘Father!' cried Dinah and Dorinda in one voice. ‘Father!'

Before he could rise they were kneeling beside him with their arms round his neck and trying to tell him, all at the same time, how glad they were to see him, and how sorry they were for all he had suffered, and how they had managed to find him, and who Mr. Corvo was, and who the Puma was, and what adventures they had had, and how they would now rescue him almost immediately, though they hadn't quite decided the method, of course, and a dozen other things as well.

After a long time and many questions, Major Palfrey managed to disentangle their story, but still he could not get over his amazement at seeing them. He was deeply moved by their devotion to him, which had prompted them to undertake so dangerous a journey, and full of admiration for their courage and resource; but when he heard that they had left Midmeddlecum without their mother's permission, and without even saying goodbye to her, he spoke sadly and sternly, and said, ‘That was very wrong of you. Very wrong indeed. I am very much displeased to hear that.'

‘It will be all right, and beautifully all right, when we have rescued you,' said Dorinda.

‘Your poor mother,' said Major Palfrey. ‘To deceive her, and to give her this new worry when she was already so gravely worried—I do not know how you could do it.'

‘This is just like being at home again,' said Dinah gloomily. ‘Whenever we did anything that we thought was particularly good, it nearly always turned out to be particularly bad.'

‘Yes,' said Dorinda, ‘our lives have been full of disappointment, haven't they?—Why have you grown a beard, Father? It doesn't suit you.'

‘After my razor was taken from me,' said Major Palfrey, ‘I had no choice in the matter.' And then, very politely, he began to talk to Mr. Corvo, and though he still felt ill at ease with the Puma, he thought it would be good manners to stroke her head. But neither he nor the Puma really enjoyed this.

Dinah and Dorinda examined the dungeon, and were horrified to think that their father had been living in so dreadful a place. It measured about twelve feet long by ten feet broad by eight feet high, and the walls and the roof were the natural rock on which the Castle was built. There was no furniture except a low wooden bed with a pair of old blankets, a couple of tin plates and a chipped enamel jug, and the heap of sacking on which Major Palfrey was sitting. The outer wall was at least three feet thick, but a shaft about a foot square had been driven through it to give light, and light also came from a gaping hole in the floor.

The floor was roughly paved. At one time there had been a lower dungeon which could be entered only by lifting a ringed piece of the pavement, but the outer wall of this other cell had fallen away, rotted by frost and rain that found their way into cracks in the rock, and now it stood open like a cave. The paving-stone which had been the entrance to it had disappeared, and through the hole in the floor the wind blew fitfully.

A simple ladder—a stout pole with pieces of wood nailed across it—led to the lower cell, and Dinah and Dorinda, climbing down to see what it was like, looked cautiously out from the open side. Sheer rock stretched above and below them, smooth and precipitous. The view was magnificent, but quite clearly there was no way of escape. They felt slightly dizzy as they looked down at the valley far beneath.

They returned to the upper dungeon and found their father intently studying Mr. Corvo's plan of the Castle.

‘I agree with you,' he said to Mr. Corvo, ‘that our best course will be to return to Count Hulagu's rooms, and then try to make our way, unobserved, to the banqueting hall, and conceal ourselves among the furniture there till nightfall. Then, if we are lucky, we may find some means of getting out under cover of darkness.'

‘We should start immediately,' said Mr. Corvo. ‘We have no time to lose.'

‘Then come,' said Major Palfrey. ‘Are you ready, children?'

‘The peppermint creams,' said Dorinda. ‘Where are they?'

‘There,' said Dinah.

‘Who's been eating them? They're nearly all gone.'

‘Not I,' said Mr. Corvo.

‘Nor I,' said Major Palfrey.

‘Oh!' cried Dorinda. ‘There's a hole in the bag! I must have been spilling them all the way!'

‘That can't be helped now,' said Major Palfrey. ‘We have things more important than peppermint creams to think about. Mr. Corvo, as you know the route, will you be so kind as to lead us?'

‘We must go swiftly and quietly,' said Mr. Corvo. ‘Keep close together, make no noise, and be ready for anything!'

He moved towards the door, but before he could reach it, it was thrown violently open and two soldiers came in with rifles pointed. Other soldiers could be seen behind them.

And then a more menacing and fearful figure entered. With a sneer of triumph on his face, Count Hulagu Bloot appeared.

His gorgeous white uniform was rather crumpled, and he had not shaved. After watching the execution at Lodoban he had driven straight back to Gliedermannheim without waiting to have breakfast—he had taken a few sandwiches with him—and so had returned a good deal sooner than Mr. Corvo had thought possible.

Going straight to his bedroom to have a bath and some peppermint creams, he found the bag had disappeared, but on the floor of the bathroom lay a single sweet. Opening the door in the wall he saw another on the third step down, and calling for some soldiers to accompany him, he followed the trail. It led straight to Dungeon Number 200.

Now, with a smile of hideous triumph on his yellow face, he snatched the bag from Dorinda and ate seven or eight sweets, one after another, as quickly as he could. No one dared to say a word.

Then he made a speech.

‘Uqi esi stee chi refai ont assi,' he said, ‘dun chi refai ont reac. Amsi vendelity esi stee rusovel dun masi nov el Nagsali Palfrey. Laprouce chi sifa esi nemi sornireps. Chi beeli sornireps. Chi beah hundossat nov sornireps. Setse eni nov nemi bosh-bie a renti meth. El remo el rerimer! Ehri esi stee, dun ehri esi nezratted dun tro nulit esi stee troms! Ha-ha-ha!'