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for those who knew them, but a trap for anyone who did not know them and
intruded under the dark branches.
All of them stopped instinctively at the top of the green rise, including
Aragh; and stood or sat silent, gazing down at their destination. Beyond the
trees, the castle was bathed in the last sunlight. Only an ominous grayness of
the castellated parts of it, the towers and walls and turrets, seemed at all
forbidding. The sculptured gardens, arbors, small pools, and stretches of
grass that lay about the foot of the castle for some distance, were attractive
and inviting. But from where the castle proper started, all was as it might be
around the sternest fortress; except that there was no moat.
Once Jim would have laughed at the notion but now it occurred to him that the
moat might be there after all, as invisible to their eyes as the road that
Malvinne caused to appear, from his estate to the main road, when he had
visitors he wished to welcome.
"We'll wait at least until twilight," said Jim, surprised to hear the note of
command in his voice. "Then when the light begins to get uncertain we'll
reconnoiter those woods. Meanwhile, we probably ought to find some place where
we can be invisible ourselves, until the sun is down."
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"Indeed, you're right, James," said Brian. "The wisest part by far is to find
a place to hide ourselves, not only for the moment, but for several days if
necessary. For something tells me it'll take at least several days of trying,
to make contact with this thing that was once a man."
"Look down and to our left, perhaps a quarter of an English mile," said
Aragh. "See where the hillside dimples. There are no trees or other growth to
hide it; but unless I miss my guess that dimple turnsinward, and there'll be
either a small closed valley of sorts, or a cave."
The rest of them looked. Aragh's sharp sense of observation had picked it
out, where the rest of them had missed it. Any casual glance would have passed
over what appeared to be, as Aragh said, merely a dimple in the hillside. But
now that they looked closely, there were indeed shadows in the depths of it
that seemed to hint that it went back farther and to one side.
"Let's ride down to it, then," said Brian.
They went down; and Aragh was right. The dimple turned out to be an
indentation in the hillside that went backward and then turned to its right;
so that the bulge of its earth wall hid them from all sight of the wood and
the castle below. A small stream came down the hillside, to trickle around the
corner of the dimple, and on toward the trees below. It was not only a good
hiding place, Jim thought, it was also a very good place to camp.
But it was a cold camp, because they were too close to the castle to risk
lighting a fire. It was fortunate they were supplied with previously-cooked
meat as well as bread and cheese; because these, with wine mixed with water
from the stream, made their dinner.
After they had eaten, they sat around in the last light of the closing day,
talking with that close camaraderie that comes to those who are about to go
into danger together. The only one who had little to say was Aragh, who lay
like a lion, on his belly with his head up and his forelegs projecting
together before him on the ground. Although the castle and the wood were out
of sight, Aragh maintained a steady gaze on the curve of the hillside that hid
the view from them. Clearly, he was on watch even now.
The others compared their maps and their memories; and came to agreement on
where, at the edge of the woods, they should probably find the entrance to the
path that would lead them in among the trees and eventually to the spot where
they might contact the one they were going to meet. They might have to search
about a hundred yards of the edge of the wood, but not much farther than that.
All this settled,the talk wandered off onto other matters.
Sir Brian was not merely the eldest, but the only child of his father, so
that there had never been any question about his inheriting Castle Smythe. It [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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