THE CASTLE OF ADVENTURE

 

DOWNLOAD: THE CASTLE OF ADVENTURE

The book starts with Lucy-Ann and Dinah at school, reading a letter from Mrs Mannering. She wants their house decorated, so has booked a cottage for the holidays. It's a place called Spring Cottage..."

At the end of the first book, it was made pretty clear that Aunt Polly and Uncle Jocelyn would have to move away from Craggy-Tops because the well had been rendered useless—and besides, Mrs Mannering had come into a bit of money by way of a reward for catching the bad guys, so could afford to buy a proper house. I was sort of expecting a little more mention of the children's new home, but instead we're whisked away to a remote place twenty miles from the nearest town. But that's fine. This is the sort of place adventures happen!

Mrs Mannering tells the children quite firmly to stay away from the castle at the top of the hill because the road up to it fell away in a landslide, and the route is treacherous. 

The Castle!

But a local "wild girl" by the name of Tassie, who is fascinated by both Philip and Kiki (in that order) and follows them around everywhere, shows them a safe path to the castle.

The children realize they're being followed...by a local girl called Tassie.

Tassie lives with her mother in an old cottage on the hill, not too far from Spring Cottage. She’s a wild girl, very grubby, ragged and barefoot and she spends most of her time out in the hills. She’s good with animals, and knows the hill like the back of her hand though she can’t read or write – and doesn’t speak very much either. She’s an odd girl, sometimes walking with the four children, and other times following them from a distance. She also doesn't know what a bath is!

Tassie and Button

Philip’s main pet in this book is Button the fox-cub, brought to him by Tassie, who is quite instrumental in the adventure. Much to Dinah’s dismay he is also training four beetles. Rounding up the menagerie is Terrance the Toad, who apparently has the most beautiful eyes. Lucy-Ann remembers a mouse that he trained to take crumbs from between his teeth, and how he “often put earwigs under Dinah’s pillow, and black-beetles in her shoes.” Jack asks about a brown rat Philip kept during the term, but to everyone’s relief he says he left it at school. He does have a baby hedgehog though, which he insists has no fleas, and Dinah recalls the hedgehog he kept the year before. Curiously in this book it’s briefly mentioned Jack has a Philip-like ability with birds and can get up close to nesting birds, even stroking them, without them reacting.

Button, Kiki and Terrence

The next thing we know, those inquisitive children are searching for a way into the castle. Tassie doesn't want to go inside, because what few locals there are say the place is haunted, but of course Jack and Philip are determined to find a way in. The castle backs onto a cliff wall, which forms a very tight passage at its base, and because the cliff wall is overgrown with creepers and vines, it's possible to climb with the help of a rope until the children are level with one of the higher castle windows. By hauling a plank into position between the cliff and the castle window, they can crawl carefully across.

The castle doors are locked, but there's another way in!

Bill Smugs begins his first "coincidental" appearance for the series, just as Mrs Mannering suddenly disappears from the picture. 

The children run across good old Bill "Smugs" in a nearby town, and he invites them to lunch at a posh hotel.

The children explore the castle and Jack takes it upon himself to stay for a few days up by the eagles' nest, on his own, so he can get some good photographs. This is when the adventure really gets under way. Jack is curled up in a sandy corner in the castle's courtyard one dark night when he realizes he's not alone. Someone is up in the tower, flashing a light about.

Jack is determined to find the eagles' nest. He knows it's up there somewhere.

At some point, when the children discover a secret room and three mysterious strangers coming and going, Philip suddenly thinks to himself, quite seriously, "This is an adventure!"

strange puddles which appear at night

The whole thing with Jack hiding in a gorse bush (his "hide") and taking photos of the eagles in their nest is nicely done. The reader can certainly imagine himself hiding in that gorse bush peering through a camera lens! 

I love this whole story, as I love old building and especially castles. I loved the part where kiki used to puzzle the eagles with her screeches and the bad guys with her human voice.  If I had to pick my absolute favorite parts they’d have to be the castle’s hidden room and the moment where Kiki “falls” off the castle wall, and panics the children until they remember she can fly! 

The eagles are surprised and puzzled by Kiki, a bird that can screech like an eagle but talk like a human!

When the strange men get too close, and the eagles attack them, I was mentally urging Jack to use his noddle and snap a few pictures—and he did! So hurrah for him!

These pictures turn out useful when Jack finally escapes through the underground passage where the stream runs and heads back to Spring Cottage.

 There he finds Bill Smugs, mystified that everyone seems to have vanished.

apparently Jack has made himself a small darkroom at some point, and has all the stuff necessary to develop the pictures. It transpires that Bill is after a man with a long scar across his chin and neck! Yay—another scarred bad guy, who goes by the nickname Scar-Neck!

The storm on the night of the rescue

And the ending of this book—the thunderstorm, and the destruction!—is superb, even more exciting than the ending of the previous book!

The thrilling conclusion is in my opinion the best part of the book. The sting on the bad guys in the middle of their meeting, the torrential rain and subsequent collapse of the castle, the trek through the rock tunnel to the secret military "farm" on the other side of the hill and the recapture of the escaped Scar-Neck make the last few chapters of the book impossible to put down until the final word is read.