SOON, the was pressed and the entranced, revealed.
The stone stirred again and then suddenly gave way. It moved upwards— and the children fell over on top of one another like a row of dominoes suddenly pushed down Justin and Stephen shot to their feet and rushed to the opening that the moved stone had disclosed. They stood there, looking downwards, their faces shining with delight. They had found the entrance to the secret passage! A steep flight of steps, cut out of the rock itself, led downwards into deep darkness.
"Come on!" cried Justin, snapping on his torch. "We've found what we wanted! Now for the Ingots!"
The steps down were slippery. Tim darted down first, lost his foot-hold and rolled down five or six steps, yelping with fright. Justin went after him, then Stephen, then Theo and then Mary. They were all tremendously thrilled. Indeed, they quite expected to see piles of gold and all kinds of treasure everywhere around them!
It was dark down the steep flight of steps, and smelt very musty. Mary choked a little.
"I hope the air down here is all right," said Justin. "Sometimes it isn't good in these underground places. If anyone feels a bit funny they'd better say so and we'll go up into the open air again."
But however funny they might feel nobody would have said so. It was all far too exciting to worry about feeling queer.
The steps went down a long way. Then they came to an end. Justin stepped down from the last rock-stair and flashed his torch around. It was a weird sight that met his eyes.
The subterranean of Aucrea Castle were made out of the rock itself. Whether there were natural caves there, or whether they had been hollowed out by man the children could not tell. But certainly they were very mysterious, dark and full of echoing sounds. When Justin gave a sigh of excitement it fled into the rocky hollows and swelled out and echoed around as if it were a live thing. It gave all the children a very queer feeling.
"Isn't it strange?" said Stephen, in a low voice. At once the echoes took up her words, and multiplied them and made them louder— and all the caves gave back the girl's words over and over again. "Isn't it strange, ISN'T IT STRANGE, ISN'T IT STRANGE."
Mary slipped her hand into Theo's. She felt rather scared. She didn't like the echoes at all. She knew they were only echoes— but they did sound exactly like the voices of scores of people hidden in the caves!
"Where do you suppose the ingots are?" said Theo. And at once the caves threw him back his words. "INGOTS! Ingots are! INGOTS ARE! ARE! ARE!"
Justin laughed— and his laugh was split up into dozens of different laughs that came out of the caves and spun round the listening children. It really was the queerest thing.
"Come on," said Justin. "Maybe the echoes won't be so bad a little farther in."
"FARTHER IN," said the echoes at once. "FARTHER IN!"
They moved away from the end of the rocky steps and explored the nearby dungeons. They were really only rocky cellars stretching under the castle. Maybe wretched prisoners had been kept there many, many years before, but mostly they had been used for storing things.
"I wonder which dungeon was used for storing the ingots," said Justin. He stopped and took the map out of his pocket. He flashed his torch on to it. But although it showed him quite plainly the dungeon where INGOTS were marked, he had no idea at all of the right direction.
"I say— look— there's a door here, shutting off the next dungeon!" suddenly cried Theo. "I bet this is the dungeon we're looking for! I bet there are ingots in here!"