"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 19 - Five Go to Demon's Rock" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

But Timmy leapt to his feet at once, and ran to the entrance door, growling so ferociously that Anne felt really frightened. Julian ran down and went to the door. It was still well and truly jammed.
‘Timmy! Maybe it’s just the poor milkman, come with some milk again,’ he said, and unjammed the door. He took hold of the handle to open it.
It wouldn’t open! Julian pulled and tugged, but it was of no use, The door simply would NOT open!
By this time everyone was down beside him. ‘Let me try,’ said Dick. ‘The door must just have stuck.’
No - he couldn’t open it either! Julian looked gravely round at everyone. ‘I’m afraid - very much afraid - that SOMEBODY has locked us in!’ he said.
There was a horrified silence. Then George cried out in anger. ‘Locked us in! How dare they! Who’s done this!’
‘Well - I think we can guess,’ said Julian. ‘It was whoever came and stole our key the other day!’
‘Ebenezer - no, Jacob!’ cried Dick. ‘One of the two, anyway. How DARE they? What are we to do? We can’t get out. Why have they done this - this - silly - wicked thing?’
‘I’m afraid it’s because they think we might go looking for the treasure - and find it,’ said Julian, his face grave. ‘We felt sure that Mischief might remember where he had found that gold coin - and lead us there - and I’m pretty sure they think the same. So this is their way of making sure they have time to find the treasure, before we do!’
‘They’re wicked, they’re wicked!’ cried George, taking hold of the handle of the door, and pulling it violently. ‘We’re prisoners!’
‘Don’t pull the handle off, old thing,’ said Julian. ‘That wouldn’t help at all. Let’s go upstairs and talk about it. We’ll have to think of some way out of this unexpected difficulty.’
They went soberly upstairs again, and sat down in the living-room. Yes - they were certainly prisoners!
‘What are we going to do?’ said Dick. ‘We are in a real fix, Julian.’
‘Yes. You’re right,’ said Julian, looking worried. ‘We can’t get out of the light-house, that’s certain. On the other hand - how can we get help? No telephone. Shouting would never be heard. Can’t use our boat. No one would ever know we are prisoners - they’ve seen us going in and out of the light-house, and if we suddenly don’t appear any more, they’ll simply think we have gone home, and that the light-house is empty again!’
‘We shall die of starvation!’ said Anne, scared.
‘Oh no - I expect we shall think of something,’ said Dick, seeing that Anne was really frightened. ‘All the same, it’s a puzzle. We can’t get out - and no one can get in! Whoever locked that door has certainly taken the key away with him.’
They talked and they talked, and finally they felt hungry, so they had a meal - though they felt that they ought to eat sparingly, in case their food ran short too quickly.
‘And I feel so hungry,’ complained George. ‘I keep feeling hungry here.’
‘That’s what I told you. Living in a light-house somehow makes you feel hungry all the time!’ said Tinker.
‘We’ll try and catch the milkman tomorrow morning,’ said Julian, suddenly. ‘Let’s see, now - we could write a note, and push it under the door, so that he would see it tomorrow when he comes. We could put “HELP - WE ARE LOCKED IN.”’
‘It would blow away,’ said George. ‘You know it would.’
‘We could pin it down our side - and then it wouldn’t,’ said Anne. ‘Half of it would still stick out under the door.’
‘Well, it’s worth trying,’ said Dick, and immediately wrote out the note on a large sheet of paper. He shot downstairs to pin it to the mat - and shoved half the paper underneath so that it stuck out on the other side of the door.
He ran back upstairs. ‘I don’t for a moment think that the milkman will come across the rocks in this weather,’ he said. ‘They’ll be almost impassable. Still we’ll hope for the best!’
There didn’t seem anything else to do. The evening came early, for the sky was very dark again, and the wind once more got up, and howled dismally. Even the gulls decided that it was no longer a good idea to glide to and fro.
They played games that evening, and tried to laugh and make jokes. But secretly everyone was worried. Suppose that the stormy weather went on and on, and nobody guessed they were locked in the light-house, and the milkman didn’t bring any milk, and didn’t see the note - and they ate all their food and...
‘Cheer up, everyone,’ said Julian, seeing the dismal looks around the table. ‘We’ve been in worse fixes than this.’
‘Well, I don’t think we have!’ said Anne. ‘I just can’t see ANY way out of this one!’
There was rather a long silence during which Timmy sighed heavily, as if he too was worrying! Only the monkey seemed cheerful, and went head-over-heels at top speed round the room, sitting up for laughs at the end. But nobody laughed. Nobody even seemed to notice him. Mischief felt very sad, and crept over to Timmy for comfort.
‘There is one idea that might be a good one,’ said Julian, at last. ‘It’s been running round in my mind for a while - and I’m not sure whether it’s possible or not. Anyway, it’s one we might try tomorrow, if help doesn’t come.’
‘What?’ asked everyone, at once, and Timmy lifted his head and whined, as if he too quite understood.
‘Well, do you remember that I went down that foundation shaft?’ said Julian, ‘and saw the water swirling at the bottom? Now - do you suppose it’s at all possible that that shaft was bored down through a natural hole - and the light-house builders chose to put the foundation shaft there because there was a ready-made shaft they could use? - a fine hole going right down through the rock! And they made the hole into a cement-lined shaft, strong and everlasting, so that the light-house would never be at the mercy of waves and wind - but would stand firm, whatever happened?’
This was a new idea to everyone, and it took a little while to sink in. Then Dick smacked the table-top and made them all jump.
‘Julian! You’ve got it! Yes - that strong cement-lined shaft runs down a natural hole - and that hole must be the one we’ve been looking for! The one that connects up with the tunnels we were in this morning! No wonder we couldn’t find it when we hunted all over the rocks! The shaft-makers used it!’
There was silence again. Everyone was taking this in, even Tinker. Julian looked round the table and smiled. ‘Have you all jumped to it?’ he said. ‘If that is the hole we were looking for - what about one of us going down that iron ladder again to the bottom - and finding out if it does lead into the tunnel we were in today?’
‘And walking through it, and up the passage and coming out through the cliff entrance we used this morning!’ said George. ‘Julian! What an absolutely wonderful idea! We could escape that way! What a shock for Ebby and Jacob! We’ll do it somehow - we’ll do it!’


Chapter Twenty

DOWN THE SHAFT AND INTO THE TUNNEL

It was a most exciting idea to think that the iron ladder in the great cement-lined shaft might possibly lead to the tunnel they had been into that morning. Julian had seen water swirling at the bottom, when the tide was in - possibly if they went down it when the tide was going out, there would be no danger of being trapped!
The storm was very fitful now - sometimes it came back again, and then the wind blew so hard that it seemed as if the buffeted light-house must fall! Rain fell in torrents that night, and during the dark early hours of the morning, when the tide was in, great waves pounded over the rocks, sending spray almost over the top of the light-house. Julian awoke and looked out of the bedroom window in awe.
‘I hope there’s no ship out anywhere near here tonight,’ he said, and then gave a sudden exclamation, ‘What’s that - something swept right across the sky!’
‘It’s the beam from the new light-house at High Cliffs,’ said Dick. ‘I saw it last night. It must have a very powerful beam, mustn’t it, to show even on a night like this?’
They watched for a little while, and then Julian yawned.
‘Let’s try to go to sleep,’ he said. ‘We thought we were going away for a nice little holiday - and BANG - we’re in the middle of something again!’
‘Well, let’s hope that we come out of it all right,’ said Dick, settling down in his rugs once more, ‘I must say that I feel a bit cut off from civilization at the moment. ‘Night, Julian.’
In the morning the storm was still about, and the wind was terrific. Julian ran down to the entrance door to see if the milkman could possibly have come - and had seen their message for help.