But the door was fast shut.
No amount of pushing or pulling would open it.
It had a great key-hole— but no key there!
The four children stared in exasperation at the door.
Bother it! Just as they really thought they were near the ingots, this door wouldn't open!
"We'll fetch the axe," said Julian, suddenly.
"We may be able to chop round the keyhole and smash the lock."
"That's a good idea!" said George, delighted.
"Come on back!"
They left the big door, and tried to get back the way they had come.
But the dungeons were so big and so rambling that they lost their way.
They stumbled over old broken barrels, rotting wood, empty bottles and many other things as they tried to find their way back to the big flight of rock-steps.
"This is sickening!" said Julian, at last.
"I simply haven't any idea at all where the entrance is.
We keep on going into one dungeon after another, and one passage after another, and they all seem to be exactly the same—dark and smelly and mysterious."
"Suppose we have to stay here all the rest of our lives!" said Anne, gloomily.
"Idiot!" said Dick, taking her hand.
"We shall soon find the way out.
Hallo!— what's this—"
They all stopped.
They had come to what looked like a chimney shaft of brick, stretching down from the roof of the dungeon to the floor.
Julian flashed his torch on to it.
He was puzzled.
"I know what it is!" said George, suddenly.
"It's the well, of course!
You remember it was shown in the plan of the dungeons, as well as in the plan of the ground floor.
Well, that's the shaft of the well going down and down.
I wonder if there's any opening in it just here—so that water could be taken into the dungeons as well as up to the ground floor."
They went to see.
On the other side of the well-shaft was a small opening big enough for one child at a time to put his head and shoulders through and look down.
They shone their torches down and up.
The well was so deep that it was still impossible to see the bottom of it.
Julian dropped a stone down again, but there was no sound of either a thud or a splash.
He looked upwards, and could see the faint gleam of daylight that slid round the broken slab of stone lying a little way down the shaft— the slab on which Tim had sat, waiting to be rescued.
"Yes," he said,"this is the well all right.
Isn't it queer?
Well— now we've found the well we know that the entrance to the dungeons isn't very far off!"
That cheered them all up tremendously.
They took hands and hunted around in the dark, their torches making bright beams of light here and there.
Anne gave a screech of excitement.
"Here's the entrance! It must be, because I can see faint daylight coming down!"
The children rounded a corner and sure enough, there was the steep, rocky flight of steps leading upwards.
Julian took a quick look round so that he might know the way to go when they came down again.
He didn't feel at all certain that he would find the wooden door!
They all went up into the sunshine.
It was delicious to feel the warmth on their heads and shoulders after the cold air down in the dungeons.
Julian looked at his watch and gave a loud exclamation.
"It's half-past six!
Half-past six!
No wonder I feel hungry.