Five Go To Smuggler's Top by Enid Blyton Read Free Book Online Page B

and be ready for when we let him down.'
    Sooty disappeared down the dark hole, holding his torch between his teeth. Down and down he went, down and down. At last he stood safely at the bottom, and flashed his torch upwards. His voice came to them, sounding rather queer and far away.
    'Come on! Lower Timmy down!'
    The laundry basket, feeling extraordinarily heavy now, was pushed to the edge of the hole. Then down it went, knocking against the sides here and there. Timmy growled. He didn't like this game!
     

     
    Dick and Julian had hold of the rope between them. They lowered Timmy as smoothly as they could. He reached the bottom with a slight bump, and Sooty undid the basket. Out leapt Timmy, barking! But his bark sounded very small and distant to the watchers at the top.
    'Now come on down, one by one!' shouted up Sooty, waving his torch. 'Is the door locked, Julian?'
    'Yes,' said Julian. 'Look out for Anne. She's coming now.'
    Anne climbed down, a little frightened at first, but, as her feet grew use to searching for and finding the rungs of the rope-ladder, she went down quite quickly.
    Then the others followed, and soon they were all standing together at the bottom of the hole, in the enormous pit. They looked round curiously. It had a musty smell and its walls were damp and greenish. Sooty swung his torch round, and the children saw various passages leading off here and there.
    'Where do they all lead to?' asked Julian, in amazement.
    'Well, I told you this hill was full of tunnels,' said Sooty. 'This pit is down in the hill and these tunnels lead into the catacombs. There are miles and miles of them. No one explores them now, because so many people have been lost in them and never heard of again. There used to be an old map of them, but it's lost.'
    'It's weird!' said Anne, and shivered. 'I wouldn't like to be down here alone.'
    'What a place to hide smuggled goods in,' said Dick. 'No one would ever find them here.'
    'I guess the old-time smugglers knew every inch of these passages,' said Sooty. 'Come on! We'll take the one that leads out of the hillside. We'll have to do a bit of climbing when we get there. I hope you don't mind.'
    'Not a bit,' said Julian. 'We're all good climbers. But I say, Sooty - you're sure you know the way? We don't want to be lost for ever down here!'
    'Course I know the way! Come on!' said Sooty, and, flashing his torch in front of him, he led the way into a dark and narrow tunnel.
     

Chapter Eight
     
    AN EXCITING WALK
     
    THE tunnel ran slightly downwards, and smelt nasty in places. Sometimes it opened out into pits like the one they themselves had come from. Sooty flashed his torch up them.
    'That one goes into Barling's house somewhere,' he said. 'Most of the old houses hereabouts have openings into pits, like ours. Jolly well hidden some of them are, too!'
    'There's daylight or something in front!' said Anne, suddenly. 'Oh good! I hate this tunnel.'
    Sure enough, it was daylight, creeping in through a kind of cave-entrance in the hillside. The children crowded there, and looked out.
    They were outside the hill, and outside the town, somewhere on the steep cliff-side that ran down to the marsh. Sooty climbed out on to a ledge. He put his torch into his pocket.
    'We've got to get to that path down there,' he said, pointing. 'That will lead us to a place where the city wall is fairly low, and we can climb over it. Is Timmy sure-footed? We don't want him tumbling into the marsh down there!'
    The marsh lay a good way below, looking ugly and flat. George sincerely hoped Timmy would never fall into it. Still, he was very sure-footed, and she didn't think he would slip. The path was steep and rocky, but quite passable.
     

     
    They all went down it, clambering over rocks now and again. The path led them to the city wall, which, as Sooty had said, was fairly low just there. He climbed up to the top. He was like a cat for climbing!
    'No wonder he's got such a name for climbing about everywhere