Free Five Run Away Together by Enid Blyton Page A

all ours!"
    They gazed through a big broken-down archway, to old steps beyond. The castle had once had two fine towers, but now one was almost gone. The other rose high in the air, half-ruined. The black jackdaws collected there, talking loudly. "Chack, chack, chack! Chack, chack, chack!"
    "Nice birds," said Dick. "I like them. See the grey patch at the back of their heads, Anne? I wonder if they ever stop talking."
    "I don't think so," said George. "Oh, look at the rabbits—tamer than ever!"
    The courtyard was full of big rabbits, who eyed them as they came near. It really seemed as if it would be possible to pat them, they were so tame—but one by one they edged away as the children approached.
    Timothy was in a great state of excitement, and his tail quivered from end to end. Oh those rabbits! Why
    couldn't he chase them? Why was George so difficult about rabbits? Why couldn't he make them run a bit?
    But George had her hand on his collar, and gave him: stern glance. "Now, Timothy, don't you dare to chase even the smallest of these rabbits. They're mine, every one o them."
    "Ours!" corrected Anne at once. She wanted to share in the rabbits, as well as in the castle and the island.
    "Ours!" said George. "Let's go and have a look at the little dark room where we'll spend the nights."
    They made their way to where the castle did not seen to be quite so ruined. They came to a doorway and looked inside.
    "Here it is!" said Julian, peeping in. "I shall have to us my torch. The windows are only slits here, and it's quit dark."
    He turned on his torch—and the children all gaze< into the old room where they proposed to store their goods and sleep.
    George gave a loud exclamation. "Golly! We can't use this room! The roof has fallen in since last summer."
    So it had. Julian's torch shone on to a heap of fallen stones, scattered all over the floor. It was quite impossible to use the old room now. In any case it might be dangerous to do so, for it looked as if more stones might fall at any moment.
    "Blow!" said Julian. "What shall we do about this? W shall have to find somewhere else for a storing an sleeping-place!"

Chapter Eleven
    ON THE OLD WRECK

    IT was quite a shock to have their plans spoilt. They knew there was no other room in the ruined castle that was sufficiently whole to shelter them. And they must find some sort of shelter, for although the weather was fine at the moment, it might rain hard any day—or a storm might blow up.
    "And storms round about Kirrin are so very violent," said Julian, remembering one or two. "Do you remember the storm that tossed your wreck up from the bottom of the sea, George?"
    "Oh yes," said George and Anne, together, and Anne added eagerly: "Let's go and see the wreck today if we can. I'd love to see if it's still balanced on those rocks, as it was last year, when we explored it."
    "Well, first we must make up our minds where we are going to sleep," said Julian, firmly. "I don't know if you realise it, but it's about three o'clock in the afternoon!
    We slept for hours on the sand—tired out with our exciting night, I suppose. We really must find some safe place and put our things there at once, and make our beds."
    "Well, but where shall we go?" said Dick. "There's no other place in the old castle."
    "There's the dungeon below," said Anne, shivering. "But I don't want to go there. It's so dark and mysterious."
    Nobody wanted to sleep down in the dungeons! Dick
    frowned and thought hard. "What about the wreck?" he said. "Any chance of living there?"
    "We might go and see," said Julian. "I don't somehow fancy living on a damp old rotting wreck—but if it's still high on the rocks, maybe the sun will have dried it, and it might be possible to have our bed and stores there."
    "Let's go and see now," said George. So they made their way from the ruined castle to the old wall that ran round it. From there they would be able to see the wreck. It had been cast up the year before, and had settled