Five Go To Smuggler's Top Read Online Free PDF Page B

passage, laid with mats. At the end of it a big window let in light. There was a door there, a great oak one, which was shut.
    'See? We're quite safe here, all by ourselves,' said Sooty. 'Timmy could bark if he liked, and no one would know.'
    'But doesn't anyone ever come?' said Anne, surprised. 'Who keeps your rooms tidy, and cleans them?'
    'Oh, Sarah comes and does that every morning,' said Sooty. 'But usually no one else comes. And anyway, I've got a way of knowing when anyone opens that door!'
    He pointed to the door at the end of the passage. The others stared at him.
    'How do you know?" said Dick.
    'I've rigged up something that makes a buzzing noise here, in my room, as soon as that door is opened,' said Sooty, proudly. 'Look, I'll go along and open it, while you stay here and listen.'
    He sped along the passage and opened the heavy door at the end. Immediately a low buzzing noise sounded somewhere in his room, and made everyone jump. Timmy was startled too, pricked up his ears, and growled fiercely.
     

     
    Sooty shut the door and ran back. 'Did you hear the noise? It's a good idea, isn't it? I'm always thinking of things like that.'
    The others thought they had come to rather a queer place! They stared round Sooty's bedroom, which was quite ordinary in its furnishings, and in its general untidiness. There was a big diamond-paned window, and Anne went to look out of it.
    She gave a gasp. She had not expected to look down such a precipice! Smuggler's Top was built at the summit of the hill, and, on the side where Sooty's bedroom was, the hill fell away steeply, down and down to the marsh below!
    'Oh look!' she said. 'Look how steep it is! It really gives me a very queer feeling to look down there!'
    The others crowded round and looked in silence, for it certainly was strange to gaze down such a long way. 
    The sun was shining up on the hill-summit, but all around, as far as they could see, mists hid the marsh and the far-off sea. The only bit of the marsh that could be seen was far down below, at the bottom of the steep hill.
    'When the mists are away, you can see over the flat marshes to where the sea begins,' said Sooty. 'That's quite a fine sight. You can hardly tell where the marsh ends and sea begins except when the sea is very blue. Fancy, once upon a time, the sea came right up and around this hill, and it was an island.'
    'Yes. The innkeeper told us that,' said George. 'Why did the sea go back and leave it?'
    'I don't know,' said Sooty. 'People say it's going back farther and farther. There's a big scheme on foot to drain the marsh, and turn it into fields, but I don't know if that will ever happen.'
    'I don't like that marsh,' said Anne, with a shiver. 'It looks wicked, somehow.'
    Timmy whined. George remembered that they must hide him, and make plans for him. She turned to Sooty.
    'Did you mean what you said about hiding Tim?' she asked. 'Where shall we put him? And can he be fed? And how can we exercise him? He's a big dog, you know.'
    'We'll plan it all,' said Sooty. 'Don't you worry. I love dogs, and I shall be thrilled to have Timmy here. But I do warn you that if my stepfather ever finds out we shall probably all get a jolly good thrashing, and you'll be sent home in disgrace.'
    'But why doesn't your father like dogs?' said Anne puzzled. 'Is he afraid of them?'
    'No, I don't think so. It's just that he won't have them here in the house,' said Sooty. 'I think he must have a reason for it, but I don't know what it is. He's a queer sort of man, my stepfather!'
    'How is he queer?' asked Dick.
    'Well - he seems full of secrets,' said Sooty. 'Queer people come here, and they come secretly without anyone knowing. I've seen lights shining in our tower on certain nights, but I don't know who puts them there or why. I've tried to find out, but I can't.'
    'Do you think - do you think your father is a smuggler?' said Anne, suddenly.
    'I don't think so,' said Sooty. 'We've got one smuggler here, and everyone knows