CHAPTER XXVTHE RESCUE OF DANNY
“The deserted Grange.” The very words thrilled Nipper to the marrow. It was Bobby Brown who suggested going there. He knew about it because, once, when out with his father as he drove on his rounds in his dog-cart, Dr. Brown had pointed it out.
It was a smallish, grey stone house, in a straggling garden where a huge army of weeds had nearly choked the flowers, a few of which still fought for existence—a rose or two, and a few thin, sad wallflowers.
A moat ran half-way round the deserted Grange. In one place the walls went right down into the water.
With all the strength of their lungs the Cubs’ shouted the familiar call, “Ya-hoo-oo-wah!” and then stood still and listened.
“Ya-hoo-oo-wah! Yah-hoo-oo-wah!” came back a faint answer from the grey walls of the Grange.
“A beastly echo again,” said Nipper, in despair. But Billy Brown was clutching his arm with perspiring fingers.
“No, no, Nipper!” he panted; “not an echo; echoes don’t say ittwice!”
“Nothey don’t!” cried Nipper excitedly.“Bob, you aren’t such a chump as I thought you were!”
“Danny—Danny!” shouted Nipper.
“Hul-lo!” came Danny’s voice, very faint and far away.
Running through the tangled garden, the Cubs entered the Grange through the open door. Their footsteps sounded hollow and uncanny on the wooden floors.
Again they called, and again Danny answered. This time his voice came from below their feet.
“He’s in thedungeons!” said Nipper, dwelling on the word with delicious horror. “I expect he’s chained up among the skeletons of the men what’s beenstarvedto death—like that guide told us at the Castle. It’s a good thing there aren’t anybloodhoundsnowadays.”
But try as they would, the Cubs could not force open a single one of the heavy doors that seemed as if they might lead down to the cellar.
“Come round to the window,” called Danny. “If you could give me a rope, and break the bars, I could climb up and get out.”
The Cubs ran out again into the garden. Before long they had espied what must be the grating of the dungeon—a small, barred window. But, alas! it was in the wall which went down into the moat. Calling out once more, they found Danny’s voice certainly came from this window. Whatshouldthey do?
Then the puzzle was suddenly solved, for, moored to a stump they discovered an old and rotten punt. It was half-full of water, but this did not matter.Getting in, they pushed off from the bank with two long sticks, and punted themselves across.
“Here we are!” they said, as they reached the barred window.
“Thank God!” came Danny’s voice. “I knew He wouldn’t let me die here!”
“What shall we do?” said Nipper.
“Let down a rope; about five foot would do,” said Danny.
The Cubs looked around them in despair. They hadn’t got a rope. Then Nipper caught sight of the chain by which the punt had been moored to the bank. This the Cubs let down through the grating, and then hung on to it for dear life. Soon Danny’s face appeared at the window. It filled them with horror, for he looked years older and as pale as a ghost, with grey shadows under his eyes.
“Oh, how ripping to see you kids!” he said. “You don’t know all I’ve suffered in that damp hole, with the rats, and no food.”
The bars were thin and rusty, but Danny could not manage to break them. Punting themselves back to the other side of the moat, the Cubs collected two enormous stones, and then punted back.
Danny slipped to the ground again, and by dint of a few tremendous blows with the stones, the Cubs smashed in the bars. Letting down the chain, they then hauled Danny up once more. Crawling through the tiny window he stepped into the punt.
“Quick—she’s sinking!” he said, and got her back to the bank only just in time.
“Now,” said Danny, “for home, and then to rescue Mariette!”