THE GLASS TUBES
Written By - Prabir Rai Chaudhuri
© All Copyright Reserved By Prabir Rai Chaudhuri- 2023
The train was speeding towards the beautiful forests of the
Ardennes. In a compartment, Alex and his sister Linnea were already
dreaming of this promising end to their holiday with their
grandmother. This one, very nice, had suggested to the boy to bring his
best friend, Ethan, and to Linnea, his best friend, Celeste.
As the
landscape flashed by, they launched many projects. The forest to explore,
the great bike rides, swimming in the river, visiting the old abbey of
Bois-le-Dieu where a crusader stayed surrounded by mystery.
But
above all they dreamed of the castle of the fourth flute player. Visit it
again and this time without being disturbed!
Arrived
at the grandmother's, a mountain of pancakes awaited them. The same
charming welcome as the other time! But when they told her of their plan
to visit the castle, she immediately dissuaded them.
The
palace of the Russian prince, which remained an empty building and left to
itself, had just been purchased. Its occupant was far from
pleasant. Pretentious, unconscious, she rode like a whirlwind through the
village, indifferent to the children playing in the streets. When she went
to the store, she thought she was allowed anything and passed in front of the
line of customers who watched, dumbfounded, at her absolute lack of
embarrassment.
A little disappointed, the four friends nevertheless decided to go to the
prince's castle, to at least see him from afar. It was sunny. They
crossed the fields, the wood and finally, arrived in front of the sumptuous
building.
It was
built in place of an old fortified castle, of which only the keep
remained. The new building, of proud appearance, dates from the 17th
century and integrated this old tower. Both the ground floor and the first
floor were pierced with numerous windows lined with orange shutters. The
whole stood on a rocky outcrop, itself surrounded by a lake, the moat. This
palace was accessed by a stone bridge, preceded by high wrought iron gates.
Our
friends carefully observed the castle. It seemed well restored. The
roof tiles gleamed in the sun. The railings which barred the bridge,
gilded with fine gold, shone with all their fire. The facade seemed to
have been cleaned up.
No sign
of life, of human presence, even in the gardens, now in bloom, and cut into
diamonds by carefully trimmed hedges. The green water of the moat, smooth
and still, seemed drowsy from the summer heat.
They sat down in the grass at the edge of the trees and opened the packet of
cookies that Alex and Linnea's grandmother had prepared for them to eat.
At the
same time, they heard a noise behind them, the snap of a creaking branch, then
the dull sound of something falling on the ground. Frightened at first,
they straightened up, then all four turned around.
They
then saw a young girl of their age get up in the middle of nettles and
brambles. She approached our friends. Ethan asked if we could help
him. She nodded.
-What's
your name? asked Alex.
-Lauranne. And
you?
- Me,
it's Alex. This is my friend Ethan, my sister Linnea and her great friend,
Celeste.
The
observant girls noticed that Lauranne was wearing a rather dirty t-shirt, worn,
patched, soaked jeans, and mud-brown sneakers.
"You
fell in the moat," said Celeste kindly.
The
mysterious girl looked at all four of them and then burst into tears.
Immediately,
our friends surrounded him. They offered her their pancakes which she ate
with great appetite. She looked hungry.
-Where
do you live? Linnea asked.
"There,"
Lauranne said, pointing to the prince's castle.
Our
friends remained even more astonished and perplexed.
-I'll tell you, she said. Until a year ago, I was leading a happy life
near my parents. Alas, one day, while I was returning from school, I
learned that mum and dad had just died in a tragic accident. I have
neither brother nor sister. I found myself almost alone in the
world. My only family, an aunt who doesn't love me, adopted me. In
fact, she adopted me mainly to seize the fortune of my parents, money which
would normally come back to me later, when I come of age. During the
school year, she puts me in boarding school. She bought this
castle. I live there on vacation.
"It's
terrible," murmured Ethan. We think we are happy, then suddenly...
-When I
got to her house, Lauranne went on, she sold all the beautiful dresses that mom
and dad gave me. She only buys me used jeans, used t-shirts, sneakers that
aren't even new. I can never choose from time to time a garment that I
like, like other children. However, she has more than ample
means. Besides, she thinks feeding me is going to ruin her. At her
house, I'm always hungry. And besides, she sometimes makes me skip meals
like last night and this morning, for example...
-What do
you mean? asked Veronique. She deprives you of your meals?
"Yes,"
continued the girl. My aunt often receives gentlemen, always the
same. They arrive loaded with boxes or bags, which seem very heavy, and
leave empty-handed, in a white Mercedes. On those days, she takes me by
force and locks me up in a dungeon in the old tower, on the ground
floor. She leaves me there for hours, sometimes an entire night, as long
as these individuals stay at the castle. She then forgets to give me food
and drink.
-What a
bad and mean person! said Philip.
-Yesterday,
she locked me up around five o'clock in the afternoon. I stayed there all
night. But soon, I managed to escape. I had hidden a large file
between two stones in my jail. I spent hours sawing off one of the window
bars and jumped into the moat water. That's why my jeans are still
soaked. I hid here when you arrived because I didn't know you.
Our
friends remained impressed by this poor Lauranne who had spent the evening, the
night and then the morning and the hour of noon, without eating, locked up in
the dungeon of an old tower by this horrible creature.
-And why
does she prevent you from meeting these people? asked Alex.
-I don't
know. I don't understand, she said with a sigh.
-Listen, Linnea went on. From now on, you can count on us. We are on
vacation and we usually manage well. We want to help you. But, for
that, you have to tell us everything you discovered, everything you observed or
heard. Something weird is going on while you're locked up.
"I don't
know much," replied Lauranne. My aunt installed an armored door
between the entrance hall and the stairs leading to the cellar. It always
stays locked with a high security key that she keeps hanging from a cord around
her neck. I never got through that door.
-I
wonder what she is doing in these crypts, said Celeste.
-When
she finally decides to release me, I often smell a strange pungent smell that
spreads into the salons of the castle...
-In my
opinion, they must have created a sort of chemical laboratory down there, Alex
reflects.
-And
then, a few days ago, I was a prisoner in the tower since dawn. A thick
fog stagnated over the moat. I heard a lapping, a steady sound of
water. I rushed to the small window of my prison closed by bars and I saw
a boat with two people on board. They were rowing in the mist towards the
middle of the moat. They passed along the dungeon. They were carrying
a large black bag. When they came back, they didn't have it
anymore. I wonder where they hid it, and more importantly, what was in
it. And this is not the first time...
Lauranne
fell silent and our friends remained silent for a moment.
Philip
spoke.
-Look,
we're going to start by spying on the castle. We will come very early in
the morning, even sometimes before sunrise. We may see the boat
pass. We will then find out where they get rid of the bags. It
remains to know their content. I have the impression that your aunt is
engaged in a curious traffic which does not seem very honest to me.
"Thank
you," Lauranne whispered, smiling through her tears. I count on
you. What a pleasure to have met you! Now I have to go home.
Our four friends returned to the grandmother's.
The next
day, at dawn, they began a surveillance tour. Once the boys, once the
girls.
On the
third day, Alex and Ethan were rewarded for their patience.
They
were initially hesitant to go to the castle that morning. A rather thick
fog had spread in the night. They dressed anyway, got on their bikes and
pedaled towards the gardens of the estate.
Arriving
around the building, which they could not see because of the mist, they took
advantage of it to get as close as possible to the famous moat.
After a
few minutes, they heard the steady sound of oars plunging into the water and
the lapping created by the small waves caused by a gently advancing
boat. The fog was an accomplice of the two boys. No one could spot
our friends.
They
crawled to the edge of the small lake. They then saw the mysterious shadow
of the tray. Two people were on board. They even heard snippets of their
conversation. The mist carries the voice. And the silence that
reigned also contributed to it.
-I think
it's here. Stop rowing. I'll check with the goof.
One of
the two shadows stood up, grabbed a long stick and sounded the bottom of the
water.
- Yes, I
smell the bags. We can balance the other two.
Alex and
Ethan, widening their eyes, saw the second man get up in the ghostly shadow of
the mist and throw two dark gray bags into the water. Then the boat set
off again in the direction of the castle.
The boys
knew enough. They returned to the grandmother and told the girls what they
had just discovered.
They
made many assumptions.
-They
eliminate corpses, suggested Linnea.
"Unless
they're hiding drugs," adds Celeste.
"Counterfeiters,
perhaps," suggested Alex.
Ethan
was silent.
They
decided to try to discover the contents of these famous bags. For this,
after having made several plans, they decided that the best formula was to
visit the moat at night. They would leave as soon as the grandmother was
asleep and go to the castle. They would enter the water and open one of
the bags.
-It will
take courage, remarked Linnea. The water will be cold. With the
elves, at the last camp, we bathed in moats and I can tell you that we were
shivering when we left.
-And if
it's corpses, added Celeste, it won't be funny when we open the bag and slip
our hand into it...
Alex and Linnea's grandmother didn't turn off her light that evening until
around eleven o'clock. Both boys and girls chatted discreetly in their
rooms so as not to fall asleep. Finally, they were able to get out
quietly, down the stairs by the banister to prevent it creaking in the night
and attracting the attention of the old lady. They then got on their bikes
and pedaled towards the castle.
They hid
them behind the high hedges and approached the moat in
silence. Unfortunately, lights were still shining on the ground floor of
the building. Their glow reflected off the surface of the lake, which
shivered from time to time in the wind. They couldn't enter the water
there.
The moat
was extended by a long canal lined with tall trees. They skirted it
noiselessly and reached a small bridge which spanned it. There they were
out of sight. To avoid the tall grass, the rushes, but also the nettles
and brambles that lined this canal, they chose to jump into the water from the
footbridge that spanned it.
The
girls in bathing suits under their t-shirts, gym sandals on their feet, didn't
hesitate for a moment. The boys were wearing old shorts. They quickly
took off their t-shirts, but kept their sneakers on. All slipped into the
water from the bridge. They were shivering. The water always looks
black and cold at night.
The
bottom was muddy and strewn with dead leaves. Each step lifted the
mud. It smelled bad. The flukes contain rotten branches, dead fish,
duck droppings, frog slime. All of this creates a particularly nauseating
mixture. We are in stagnant water.
The four
friends progressed slowly under the gaze of a half-moon whose reflection danced
on the water which they stirred as they advanced. Suddenly, arrived at the
spot spotted by the boys, they felt something soft under their feet. It
corresponded well to large bags. We had to go “see”.
Linnea
plunged her head under the water. She quickly fingered one of the bags,
and not finding a zipper, she grabbed a penknife which she never separates (she
is second in the elves, a youth movement she likes to frequent). She
thrust the large blade and succeeded in tearing the wall.
She
bravely reached inside the bag and felt something that looked like a human
bone. It was elongated and hard in consistency. She came to the
surface with the thing in her hand. She saw that she was holding a glass
tube. Our friend dived back and found others. She showed them to her
friends. Fairly large test tubes, hermetically sealed with a cap
surrounded by wax. They contained a blue powder.
The
children kept only one tube. They made their way back to the canal bridge
but failed to pull themselves out of the water. They emerged from the moat
by the bank, not without scratching brambles and stinging nettles.
Then,
drenched and shivering, they got back on their bikes.
The
return to the grandmother was painful. They dripped as they pedaled and
the cold night wind made them shiver. They arrived home frozen. They
kissed in the hallway and quickly went to bed.
The next day, our four friends went to see the old village
teacher. Retired for a few years, he devoted his time to his two hobbies,
namely chemistry and telling stories. Alex and Linnea knew him
well. The teacher opened his door to them and greeted them with a big
smile.
- So
these are your friends whose qualities you boast to me. The brilliant Ethan
and the clever and radiant Celeste!
She
blushed and looked down for a moment. Ethan murmured, without conviction,
that the extent of his mind was being exaggerated a little.
- Come
in children. What is your visit worth to me?
Our
friends showed him the tube of blue powder.
- Well,
the teacher wondered, where did you find that?
Surprised
by the question, Alex mentioned the woods around the castle. He didn't
want to confess their nocturnal expedition.
The man
looked him straight in the eye for a moment, but didn't insist.
An
old teacher knows perfectly how to recognize when a child is lying, or like
here, is hiding something from him.
-I will
try to find out what it contains. Looks like copper sulphate to
me. It is better not to drink or eat it, it is poisonous. As soon as
I have the answer to your request, I will give your grandmother a little call.
Our
friends thanked them and walked away puzzled. The mystery thickened.
In the afternoon, they returned near the castle. They saw Lauranne arrive
who opened the gates and invited them to enter the building. She explained
to them that her aunt wouldn't be back until the evening. Our friends
willingly accompanied the young girl.
The
interior of the castle appeared to them sumptuously decorated and brilliantly
restored.
She made
them sit in a very beautiful living room.
-I can't
even offer you a lemonade, she says, my aunt locks the fridge and the kitchen
cupboards.
What a
horrible person! thought our friends.
They
described at length to Lauranne their discovery made during their nocturnal
expedition. They evoked the blue tube. She congratulated them and
thanked them.
-We should
be able to communicate with you, insisted Alex, even if we can't see each
other, even if we lock you up in the tower. Here is my idea. Do you
know Morse code?
The
young girl, looking surprised, never seemed to have heard of this.
-I'm
going to the Cub Scouts, explained Alex. I learned Morse code
there. It is a kind of coded language. Each letter of the alphabet is
symbolized by dots and bars. Thus, the "s" is written with three
dots, the "o" with three bars. An “sos” therefore becomes: three
dots, three bars, three dots. If you send this message, even by whistling,
shouting or flashing, some will know that it means: “Save our souls. Save
our souls (help)”. I'll teach you a few more letters. I write them
down for you on this sheet of paper.
Lauranne
listened attentively.
-The
"I" is represented by two points and the "r" point bar
point. Suppose you want to warn us that you fear a danger for this
evening. You see us on the other side of the moat. You send us point
point point; bar bar bar; dot dot; dot bar dot. "
Evening ".
- Great,
exclaimed their friend. Write me the alphabet, Alex. I will learn it
by heart.
-Excellent,
said Linnea. If you can't call or write to us, if your naughty aunt locks
you in the dungeon, you can communicate in Morse code at any time with us, and
we can answer you. Try to hide a flashlight to send us messages at night,
if necessary. You light briefly for a dot and longer for a bar.
-Now,
added Alex, you can also communicate in Morse code with us otherwise. Let
me explain. You are locked in the dungeon, behind bars. You take
anything that makes noise, a pebble, an old nail and you knock on a
bar. If you leave a short space between two strokes, it will be a
point. If you leave a long space, it will be a bar.
-Oh yes
! Lauranne smiled, even a prisoner, I'll stay in touch with
you. Thank you my friends.
Suddenly they heard the sound of a car whose tires squealed on the gravel of
the driveway that preceded the large bridge.
-My aunt
is already back! His car stops in front of the castle entrance. You
can't go out anymore. Quick, hide in the library. She hardly ever
goes there. And if she locks me in the dungeon, save yourself as you
can. See you soon my friends.
The four
friends rushed into the reading room. The girls hid on their stomachs
under a large sofa, the boys behind fairly wide armchairs. They heard the
wicked woman scream in a particularly aggressive voice.
-Come
here now. Hurry up. I'm locking you up in the dungeon, you curious
little thing. And since you managed to escape from the ground floor the
other day, I'm going to put you in the dungeon on the first floor. We'll
deal with that later, by the way.
She
locked Lauranne upstairs in the dungeon. And, of course, she kept the key
in her pocket. Then she ushered two or three people into the cellars
through the high security door.
The
castle fell into an eerie silence.
The four
friends left their hiding place, slowly crossed the living room and noticed
that Lauranne's aunt had seized the sheet containing the Morse code and had
thrown it into the fireplace where it was burning.
Impossible
to deliver their friend. The dungeon door resisted their
efforts. They promised to come back later.
To leave
the castle, not having the key of the large grids, they were obliged to step
over a window and to swim in the ditches. They returned soaked to the
grandmother's, very surprised because it was not raining. She suggested
that they take their bathing suits for their next swim.
Our
friends did not want to delay in acting. They knew that their friend would
remain locked up, without food or drink, in the cold of the dungeon all
night. So that same evening, taking advantage of the fact that the
grandmother had gone to bed a little earlier, they left the house around ten
o'clock in the evening, without telling her of their plan, because they did not
want to worry her. They carried a long rope as well as an iron punch and a
hammer.
The idea
came from Alex, this time.
As he
and his sister go rock climbing, he thought he could climb up the castle wall
to the first floor after crossing the moat, and manage to reach the
dungeon. Thanks to the awl and the hammer, tapping lightly so as not to
arouse Lauranne's aunt's attention, he would no doubt succeed in unsealing one
of the prison bars. He would hook the rope to the second and Lauranne
would only have to abseil down along the facade.
Ethan
pointed out to his friend that, unlike a climbing wall in a sports hall, there
would be no belts and no safety devices. If he slipped, he would fall on
the stones or in the moat. Alex agreed to take the risk.
All four equipped themselves with old t-shirts, jeans or overalls and
sneakers. They jumped on their bikes and rode towards the castle in the
night.
When
they got to the edge of the lake, the four of them entered the cold, dirty
water. Approaching the tower, they tried to send a message in Morse code
with their flashlight, to signal their presence to their friend.
Alex,
having reached the foot of the wall of the dungeon, began his ascent towards
the window where Lauranne was standing, watching them with anguish. She
had seen them coming.
The boy
had to resume his ascent several times because the facade of the building
offered few points of support or grips. He clung to what he could, looking
for the slightest roughness, some crack in the old walls, some crack between
the stones. He managed to reach his friend's jail.
The
others watched him in silence, immersed in water and mud almost up to his neck.
Finally,
the climber touched the bars of the dungeon on the first floor. The young
girl, who couldn't keep still, greeted him with her frank smile.
She
helped him as best she could to unseal one of the bars. Alex then tied a
solid knot in the other bar and Lauranne gently poked her head out of her
prison. She tightened the rope and began the descent. She scratched
against the wall and hurt her elbows and knees several times, without moaning.
Alas,
below, the free piece of rope was dancing in the void. She knocked several
times, without our friends realizing it, against the windows of the ground
floor which were still lit.
One of
the windows opened. Lauranne's aunt appeared. She looked then shouted
her rage, and forced the young girl and Alex to enter the living room.
Ethan, Celeste
and Linnea began a cautious retreat so as not to be spotted and then be able to
come to the aid of their friends. The wicked woman saw them in the water
of the moat and called to them, her face disfigured with hatred. Our
friends turned a deaf ear.
So the
horrible person grabbed a gun and threatened them. The three children,
well obliged, turned around and hoisted themselves dripping inside the living
room, in turn.
The
woman seemed alone. She watched our friends for a moment in silence, still
threatening all five of them with her weapon.
Then she
took them to the second floor of the dungeon, where she locked them in a
dungeon, of course after having confiscated the hammer and the awl which came
out of Alex's pockets. The rope that could have enabled them to escape was
still hanging from the bar, but alas, on the first floor.
She
announced that she would settle the accounts the next day.
Our friends sat around in despair. They had tried and succeeded in getting
their friend out of her dungeon, but now they found themselves locked up with
her in another, at the mercy of this odious creature who might not hesitate to
keep them secret for a long time. To make matters worse, the white
Mercedes had just arrived. Our friends were already thinking about the
black bags, and feared finding themselves plunged and drowned at the bottom of
the moat.
An hour
later, Linnea, peering through the bars of their prison, noticed a few
flashlight beams along the water. Cupping her hands, she called for
help. A response came.
-Shut
up. Silence.
The lamp
beams went out.
Long minutes passed. Our friends feared dealing only with walkers
indifferent to their fate. It was bad luck.
But, a few minutes later, searchlights aimed at the walls of the castle,
illuminated it. Police came out of the thickets. They surrounded the
building. They invaded it, forcing the gates and the front door.
They
arrested Lauranne's aunt and her accomplices and took them away for
questioning.
Our
friends, released immediately, had the pleasant surprise to discover that the
one leading the intervention force was none other than the old teacher. He
took the four friends and Lauranne back to the grandmother's. He spoke.
-I made,
he explained briefly, a surprising discovery by analyzing the contents of the
tube that you brought me. The blue powder, copper sulphate, is used to
mask well-sealed bulbs which are found in the middle of each tube. These
bulbs contain uranium, a dangerous, radioactive substance, which is used in the
manufacture of atomic weapons.
Lauranne's
aunt and her accomplices sold their product, refined in the cellars of the
castle transformed into a secret laboratory, to certain particularly aggressive
and warlike countries. They stored these bulbs in the moats. This
illegal but very lucrative trade was immediately interrupted, thanks to the
intervention of the children.
Lauranne remained in the care of our friends' grandmother for a few
days. Then a nice family adopted him. They already had three little
ones, of whom she became the big sister. The kindness, sensitivity and
simplicity of the young girl worked wonders. She lived there very happily
and even had the pleasure of meeting up with her four friends from time to
time.
The end
of the holidays took place like a dream, under the sun of five friendships.
