"Blyton, Enid - Famous Five 20 - Five Have a Mystery to Solve" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

It opened slowly and painfully, with creaks and groans. It was about eighteen inches high and not quite so much wide. Dick pulled it back with difficulty and then peered through the hole.
He could see nothing at all but black darkness - how very disappointing! He fumbled in his pocket to see if he had a torch. Yes - good! He shone it through the little door, his hand trembling with excitement. What would he see?
His torch was small and not very powerful. The light fell first of all on a face with gleaming eyes, and Dick had such a shock that he almost fell down the well. The eyes seemed to glare up at him in a very threatening manner! He switched his torch to the right - and yet another face gleamed up at him. ‘A queer face,’ thought Dick. ‘Yellow as can be! YELLOW! YELLOW! I believe that face is made of gold!’
His hand was trembling even more, he shone his torch here and there through the opening, catching first one yellow face in its light, and then another. The faces had yellow bodies too, and their eyes glinted very queerly.
‘I believe - yes, I really do believe - that I’ve found the hiding-place of the golden statues!’ thought Dick. ‘And those gleaming eyes must be precious jewels. My word, I did have a shock when I saw them all looking at me! Whatever is this place they’re in?’
‘DICK! What can you see? Do tell us!’ yelled Julian, and poor Dick almost fell off the rope when the shouts echoed round him. ‘Pull me up!’ he shouted. ‘It’s too extraordinary for words. Pull me up and I’ll tell you!’
And before a minute had passed, he was standing by the others, his eyes gleaming almost as brightly as the eyes of the golden statues, his words tumbling over one another.
‘That door leads into the place where all the treasures are hidden. The first thing I saw was a golden statue staring at me - brilliant eyes in a yellow face - a golden face, real gold! There are dozens of them. I don’t think they liked me much - they glared so! Thank goodness they didn’t say a word - though I half expected them to. My word, what a hiding-place - right down under the earth!’
‘There must be another entrance to it,’ said Julian, thrilled to hear such extraordinary news. ‘The well door must be a secret one. Statues couldn’t be pushed through it. My word, what a find, Dick.’
‘Let’s all go down in turn and look through the door!’ said George. ‘I can’t believe it. I think I must be dreaming it. Quick, let me go down!’
One by one they all went down on the rope and looked through the door. Anne came back rather scared. She had felt very queer when she had seen the silent statues looking at her. ‘I know they’re not really looking, it’s only that their eyes gleam,’ she said. ‘But I kept expecting one or other to take a step forward and speak to me!’
‘Well - the next thing to do is to climb down through the door, and see exactly where the statues are, underground,’ said Julian. ‘And find out the opening they were brought in by. There must be a door the other end of their room, through which they were brought. What a hiding-place, though! No wonder the police could find nothing in the way of statues or other treasures.’
‘We might find the golden sword there, with the jewelled handle!’ said Anne. ‘And the golden bed.’
She had hardly finished speaking when there came a loud noise from behind them. Timmy was barking his head off! Whatever was the matter?
‘Sh!’ said George, fiercely. ‘You’ll bring the guards here, you idiot! Stop it!’
Timmy stopped barking and whined instead. Then he ran off towards the wood, his tail waving happily. ‘Who in the world is he going to meet?’ said George, amazed. ‘Someone he knows, by the look of his tail!’
The others all followed Timmy, who raced along towards the cove where they had landed - and lost - their boat. And there, in the cove, was another boat! A small one, to be sure, but still, a boat - and by it, fondling Timmy, was Wilfrid! Wilfrid! What an amazing thing!
‘WILFRID! How did you get here - did you hire that boat? Did you come all by yourself? Did you...’
Wilfrid grinned round in delight, thrilled at the surprise he was giving everyone. Timmy licked him without stopping, and George didn’t even seem to notice!
‘Well,’ he said, ‘you didn’t come back, so I guessed something was wrong - and when the boat boy told me you’d taken one of his boats, and it had been reported tossing about, empty on the water near the island, I guessed what had happened - I said, ‘Aha! they didn’t make the boat fast when they got to the island - and now they’re marooned there! You were pretty mean to go without me - but I guessed you’d be pleased to see me, if I borrowed a boat and came over!’
Anne was so pleased that she gave the boy a hug. ‘Now we can go back whenever we want to,’ she said.
‘But we don’t want to, at the moment,’ said Dick. ‘We’ve made some startling discoveries, Wilfrid - and I’m jolly pleased you’ll be able to share in them! Er - what have you got in your pocket'' Something keeps poking its head out at me.’
‘Oh, that’s only a baby hedgehog,’ said Wilfrid, taking it out gently. ‘It got trodden on - by a horse I think - so I’m just caring for it for a day or two.’ He put it back into his pocket. ‘But I say - go on - tell me what you’ve found. Not the lost treasures, surely?’
‘Yes!’ said Anne. ‘We saw them when we went down a well near the castle.’
‘Gracious - did somebody throw them into the water there?’ said Wilfrid, amazed.
‘No,’ said Dick, and told him about the curious door in the side of the well-wall. Wilfrid’s eyes nearly fell out of his head.
‘I am glad I came!’ he said. ‘I nearly didn’t. I thought you wouldn’t really want me - and I knew George wouldn’t be pleased, because of Timmy. I can’t help him coming round me - and anyway he’d feel hurt if I pushed him off.’
Timmy came nosing round him at that moment, with his ball. He wanted Wilfrid to throw it for him. But Wilfrid didn’t notice the ball. He just patted the soft head, and went on talking.
‘The boat boy wasn’t very pleased when he heard that the boat you hired was loose on the sea. He said you’d hired it for a week, and there it was, back the same day, wet and empty! His cousin brought it in. No damage done.’
‘I’ll make it up to him when I see him,’ said Julian. ‘I haven’t paid him for the hire of it either, but he knows I will, when I get back. I had no idea that the sea would throw up waves here whose backwash would drag out an unmoored boat.’
‘You ought to have taken me with you,’ said Wil-frid, grinning. Timmy, tired of trying to make him throw his ball, went off to George, who was only too pleased to. She threw it into the air, and Timmy leapt up and caught it.
Then very suddenly he made a horrible noise and rolled over, kicking as if he were in great pain. ‘What’s the matter, Timmy?’ cried George, and rushed to him. Wilfrid ran too. The dog was choking, and his eyes were almost starting out of his head.
‘That ball’s stuck in his throat!’ cried Wilfrid. ‘I knew it was dangerous! I told you it was! Cough it up, Timmy, cough it up. Oh, you poor, choking thing! Oh Timmy, Timmy!’
The boy was beside himself with fear that the dog would choke, as he had once seen another dog do, and as for George, she was wild with terror. Poor Timmy’s eyes looked terrible as he choked and choked, trying to get the ball out of his throat.
‘He’ll choke to death,’ cried Wilfrid. ‘Julian, force his mouth open, and hold it. I must try to get out the ball. Quick!’
Timmy was growing weaker, and it was not too difficult to force his mouth wide open. Wilfrid could see the ball down the dog’s throat - the ball with the hole in the middle. He put his small hand into the dog’s big mouth, and forced his fore-finger into the hole in the ball. His finger-joint stuck there - Wilfrid gently drew back his hand - and the ball came too, on his finger! There it was, with his finger still stuck in the hole! Timmy began to breathe again, great panting breaths, while George stroked his head and cried for joy that he was all right.
‘I shouldn’t have given you that ball, I shouldn’t!’ she said. ‘It was too small for a big dog like you - and you will throw them up into the air and catch them. Oh Timmy, Timmy, I’m very very sorry. Timmy, are you all right?’
Wilfrid had gone off but now came back with some water from the pail. He dipped his hand in it and let drops of water drip into the dog’s mouth. Timmy swallowed it gratefully. His throat was sore, but the water was cool and soothing. George let Wilfrid do this without a word. She looked rather white and shaken. Why - Timmy might be dead by now if Wilfrid hadn’t put his finger into that hole in the ball, and drawn it out!
‘Thank you, Wilfrid,’ she said, in a low voice. ‘You were very clever.’
‘Thank goodness the ball had a hole through it,’ said Wilfrid, and he put his arms round Timmy’s neck. The dog licked him gratefully. Then he turned and licked George too.
‘He says he belongs to both of us now,’ said George. ‘I’ll share him with you. You saved his life.’
‘Thanks,’ said Wilfrid. ‘I’d love to have just a bit of him - he’s the nicest dog I know!’


Chapter Thirteen
A MEAL - A SLEEP - AND A DISAPPEARANCE

‘I feel hungry again,’ said George, who always had a very good appetite indeed. ‘We’ve finished all that ham, haven’t we? I had to give old Timmy some. What about a barley sugar, Dick?’
‘Two more left for each of us - just ten,’ said Dick, counting. ‘Sorry, Timmy, old thing - none for you this time. Have one, everybody? We’ll have five left then!’
‘Oh, I quite forgot to tell you,’ said Wilfrid, taking a barley sugar. ‘I brought some food in my boat! I didn’t think you’d taken any, and I guessed you’d soon be jolly hungry!’