“Five, please,” said Julian, giving her twenty-five pence.

“You can’t take the dog in,” said the old woman, mumbling so much that they couldn’t make out what she said. She pointed to the dog and repeated her remark again, shaking her head all the time.

“Oh — can’t we really take our dog?” said George. “He won’t do any harm.”

The old woman pointed to a set of rules: “DOGS NOT ALLOWED IN.”

“All right. We’ll leave him outside then,” said George, crossly. “What a silly rule! Timmy, stay here. We won’t be long.”

Timmy put his tail down. He didn’t approve of this. But he knew that he was not allowed into certain places, such as churches, and he imagined this place must be an enormous church — the kind of place into which George so often disappeared on Sundays. He lay down in a sunny corner.

The five children went in through the clicking turnstile. They opened the door beyond and went into the castle grounds. The door shut behind them.

“Wait — we ought to get a guide-book,” said Julian. “I want to know something about that tower.”

He went back and bought one for another five pence. They stood in the great castle yard and looked at the book. It gave the history of the old place — a history of peace and war, quarrels and truces, family feuds, marriages and all the other things that make up history.

“It would be an exciting story if it was written up properly,” said Julian. “Look — here’s the plan. There are dungeons!”

“Not open to the public,” quoted Dick, in disappointment. “What a pity.”

“It was once a very strong and powerful castle,” said Julian, looking at the plan. “It always had the strong wall that is still round it — and the castle itself is built in the middle of a great courtyard that runs all round. It says the walls of the castle itself are eight feet thick. Eight feet thick! No wonder most of it is still standing!”

They looked at the silent ruins in awe. The castle towered up, broken here and there, with sometimes a whole wall missing, and with all the doorways misshapen.

“There were four towers, of course,” said Julian, still with his nose glued to the guide-book. “It says three are almost completely ruined now — but the fourth one is in fairly good condition, though the stone stairway that led up to the top has fallen in.”

“Well then — you couldn’t have seen a face at that window,” said George, looking up at the fourth tower. “If the stairway has fallen in, no one could get up there.”

“Hm. We’ll see how much fallen in it is,” said Julian. “It may be dangerous to the public, and perhaps we’ll find a notice warning us off — but it might be quite climbable in places.”

“Shall we go up it if so?” said Jo, her eyes shining. “What shall we do if we find the Face?”