Read Online Five on Finniston Farm by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online

farm. Maybe she took them down a secret underground passage, leading from the dungeons to the old chapel itself."
    „An old chapel - is it stil there?" asked Anne. „Or was it burnt too?"
    „No - it wasn"t burnt. It"s stil standing," said Mr Finniston. „Old Great-Grand-dad wil show you." He shook his head sorrowful y. „It"s a store-house for grain now. Sad, sad. But, mind you - it"s stil full of prayer!"
    The girls stared at him, wondering what he meant. They began to think he must be a little mad. He stood with his head bent, saying nothing for a while. Then he looked up.
    „Well, that"s the story, my dears - and it"s not only a story, it"s history! It happened over seven hundred years ago. And I"l tel you something else..."
    „What?" asked the two girls.
    „That castle had cel ars - and dungeons!" said the old man. „The fire only burnt down to the ground floor, which was made of earth flattened down, not wood, so it wouldn"t burn.
    The cel ars and dungeons can"t have been destroyed - are they stil there, undamaged?
    That"s what"s been in my mind all these long years. What was down in those cellars - and is it stil there?"
    He spoke in such a hol ow voice that the girls felt quite scared. George recovered herself first. „But why were the dungeons never uncovered?" she asked. „I mean, surely someone must have thought of them and wondered about them?"
    „Well, when the castle fel , and the walls collapsed, any underground entrances must have been completely covered with enormously heavy stones," said Mr Finniston, peering at them earnestly. „The peasants and farm-hands living around couldn"t possibly move them, and maybe they were too scared to, anyhow. They probably lay there for years, til the wind and weather broke them up. Then they were taken to build walls and line wel s.
    But by that time everyone had forgotten about dungeons. Might have been centuries later, you see."

    He stood and brooded for a while, and the girls waited politely for him to go on. „Yes -
    everyone forgot ... and everyone stil forgets," he said. „Sometimes I wake up in the night and wonder what"s underground there. Bones of prisoners? Chests of money? Things stored away by the Lady of the castle? I wake up and wonder!"
    Anne felt uncomfortable. Poor old man! He lived absolutely in the past! His mind had weaved for him a living fantasy, a story that had no certain foundation, no real truth. She was sorry for him. She wished she could go and see the place where the old castle had once stood! It would be overgrown with grass and weeds, nettles would wave there, and poppies dance in the summer. There would probably be nothing at all to show where once a proud castle had stood, its towers high against the sky, flags flying along the battlements. She could almost hear the cries of the enemy, galloping up on horseback, and the fearful clash of swords! She shook herself and stood up straight.
    „I"m as bad as this old man!" she thought. „Imagining things! But what a tale! The others wil love to hear it. I wonder if the American knows it."
    „Does that American, Mr Henning, know the old story?" she asked, and the old man straightened up at once.
    „Not the whole of it - only what he has heard in the vil age!" he said. „He comes here and pesters me. He"d like to bring in men and dig up the whole thing! I know him! He"d buy up all the farm, just for the sake of getting that castle site - if he real y knew there was something worth having, deep under the ground where it once stood. You won"t tell him what I"ve told you, wil you? I"ve talked too much. I always do when someone"s upset me.
    Ah - to think my ancestors once lived in Finniston Castle - and here I am now - a poor old man in a little antique shop that nobody comes to!"
    „Well, we"ve come to it," said Anne. „I did want to buy some horse-brasses, but I"l come another time. You"re upset now. You go and have a rest!"
    They went out of the little shop, almost on tiptoe! „My