Five Go To Smuggler's Top
Chapter
One
BACK
TO KIRRIN COTTAGE
ONE
fine day right at the beginning of the Easter holidays, four childien and a dog
travelled by train together.
'Soon
be there now,' said Julian, a tall strong boy, with a determined face.
'Woof,'
said Timothy the dog, getting excited, and trying to look out of the window
too.
'Get
down, Tim,' said Julian, 'Let Anne have a look.'
Anne
was his young sister.  'We're coming into
Kirrin Station!' she said. T do hope Aunt Fanny will be there to meet us.'
'Of
course she will!' said
'It's
nice to be going home,' she said. 'I love school -but it will be fun to be at
Kirrin Cottage and perhaps sail out to
'Dick's
turn to look out now,' said Julian, turning to his younger brother, a boy with
a pleasant face, sitting reading in a corner. 'We're just coming into sight of
Kirrin, Dick.  'The most exciting
adventure story I've ever read!
'Pooh!
I bet it's not as exciting as some of the adventures we've had!' said Anne, at
once.
It
was quite true that the five of them, counting in
Timmy
the dog, who always shared everything with them, had had the most amazing
adventures together. But now it looked as if they were going to have nice quiet
holidays, going for long walks over the cliffs, and perhaps sailing out in
George's boat to their
'I've
worked jolly hard at school this term,' said Julian.  Aunt Fanny will see to
that. She's a great one for trying to fatten people up. It will be nice to see
your mother again, George. She's an awfully good sort.'
'Yes.
I hope Father will be in a good temper these holls,' said George. 'He ought to
be because he has just finished some new experiments, Mother says, which have
been quite successful.'
George's
father was a scientist, always working out new ideas. He liked to be quiet, and
sometimes he flew into a temper when he could not get the peace he needed or
things did not go exactly as he wanted them to. The children often thought that
hot-tempered
Aunt
Fanny was there to meet them. The four children jumped out on the platform and
rushed to hug her. George got there first. She was very fond of her gentle
mother, who had so often tried to shield her when her father got angry with
her. Timmy pranced round, barking in delight. He adored George's mother.
 'Timmy's bigger than
ever!' she said, laughing. 'Down, old boy! You'll knock rne over.'
Timmy
was certainly a big dog. All the children loved him, for he was loyal, loving
and faithful. His brown eyes looked from one to the other, enjoying the
children's excitement. Timmy shared in it, as he shared in everything.
But
the person he loved most, of course, was his mistress, George. She had had him
since he was a small puppy. She took him to school with her each term, for she
and Anne went to a boarding-school that allowed pets. Otherwise George would
most certainly have refused to go!
They
set off to Kirrin in the pony-trap. It was very windy and cold, and the
children shivered and pulled their coats tightly round them.
'It's
awfully cold,' said Anne, her teeth beginning to chatter. 'Colder than in the
winter!'
'It's
the wind,' said her aunt, and tucked a rug round her. 'It's been getting very
strong the last day or two. The fishermen have pulled their boats high up the
beach for fear of a big storm.'
The
children saw the boats pulled right up as they passed the beach where they had
bathed so often. They did not feel like bathing now. It made them shiver even
to think of it.
The
wind howled over the sea. Great scudding clouds raced overhead. The waves
pounded on the beach and made a terrific noise. It excited Timmy, who began to
bark.
'Be
quiet, Tim,' said George, patting him. 'You will have to learn to be a good
quiet dog now we are home again, or Father will be cross with you. Is Father
very busy, Mother?'
'Very,'
said her mother. 'But he's going to do very
little
work now you aie coming home.
would
like to go for walks with you, or go out in the boat,
if
the weather calms down.'
The
children looked at one another. Uncle Quentin was not the best of companions.
He had no sense oi humour, and when the children went off into fits of
laughter, as they did twenty times a day or moie, he could not see the joke at
all.
'It
looks as if these holls won't be quite so jolly if Uncle Quentin parks himself
on us most of the time,' said Dick in a low voice to Julian.
'Sh,'
said Julian, afraid that his aunt would hear, and be hurt. George frowned.
'Oh
Mother! Father will be bored stiff if he comes with us - and we'll be bored
too.'
George
was very outspoken, and could never learn to keep a guard on her tongue. Her
mother sighed. 'Don't talk like that, dear. I daresay your father will get
tired of going with you after a bit. But it does him good to have a bit of
young life about him.'
'Here
we are!' said Julian, as the trap stopped outside an old house. 'Kirrin
Cottage! My word, how the wind is howling round it, Aunt Fanny!'
'Yes.
It made a terrible noise last night,' said his aunt. 'You take the trap round
to the back, Julian, when we've got the things out. Oh, heie's your uncle to
help!'
Uncle
Quentin came out, a tall, clever-looking man, with rather frowning eyebrows. He
smiled at the children and kissed George and Anne.
'Welcome
to Kirrin Cottage!' he said. 'I'm quite glad your mother and father are away,
Anne, because now we shall have you all here once again!'
Soon
they were sitting round the table eating a big tea. Aunt Fanny always got ready
a fine meal for their first
one,
for she knew they were very hungry after their long journey in the train.
Even
George was satisfied at last, and leaned back in her chair, wishing she could
manage just one more of her mother's delicious new-made buns.
Timmy
sat close to her. He was not supposed to be fed at meal-times but it was really
surprising how many titbits found their way to him under the table!
The
wind howled round the house. The windows rattled, the doors shook, and the mats
lifted themselves up and down as the draught got under them.
'They
look as if they've got snakes wriggling underneath them,' said Anne. Timmy
watched them, and growled. He was a clever dog, but he did not know why the
mats wriggled in such a queer way.
'I
hope the wind will die down tonight,' said Aunt Fanny. 'It kept me awake last
night. Julian dear, you look rather thin. Have you been working hard? I must
fatten you up.'
The
children laughed. 'Just what we thought you'd say, Mother!' said George.
'Goodness, what's that?'
They
all sat still, startled. There was a loud bumping noise on the roof, and Timmy
put up his ears and growled fiercely.
'A
tile off the roof,' said Uncle Quentin. 'How tiresome! We shall have to get the
loose tiles seen to, Fanny, when the storm is over, or the rain will come in.'
The
children rather hoped that their uncle would retire to his study after tea, as
he usually did, but this time he didn't. They wanted to play a game, but it
wasn't much good with Uncle Quentin there. He really wasn't any good at all,
not even at such a simple game as snap.
'Do
you know a boy called Pierre Lenoirj!' suddenly;
asked
Uncle Quentin, taking a letter from his pocket. 'I believe he goes to your
school and Dick's, Julian.'
'Sooty!
Now why do you call him that?' said Uncle Quentin. 'It seems a silly name for a
boy.'
'If
you saw him you wouldn't think so,' said Dick, with a laugh. 'He's awfully
dark! Hair as black as soot, eyes like bits of coal, eyebrows that look as if
they've been put in with charcoal. And his name means "The black
one," doesn't it? Le-noir - that's French for black.'
'Yes.
Quite true. But what a name to give anyone -Sooty \' said Uncle Quentin. 'Well,
I've been having quite a lot of correspondence with this boy's father. He and I
are interested in the same scientific matters. In fact, I've asked him whether
he wouldn't like to come and stay with me a few days - and bring his boy, Pierre.'
'Oh
really!' said Dick, looking quite pleased. 'Well, it wouldn't be bad sport to
have old Sooty here, Uncle. But he's quite mad. He never does as he's told, he
climbs like a monkey, and he can be awfully cheeky. I don't know if you'd like
him much.'
Uncle
Quentin looked sorry he had asked Sooty after he had heard what Dick had to
say. He didn't like cheeky boys. Nor did he like mad ones.
'H'm,'
he said, putting the letter away. 'I wish I'd asked you about the boy first,
before suggesting to his father that he might bring him with him. But perhaps I
can prevent him coming.'
'No,
don't, Father,' said George, who rather likecl the sound of Sooty Lenoir.
'Let's have him. He could come out with us and liven things up!'
'We'll
see,' said her father, who had already made up his mind on no account to have
the boy at Kirrin Cottage,
if
he was mad, climbed everywhere, and was cheeky. George was enough of a handful
without a madcap of a boy egging her on!
Much
to the children's relief Uncle Quentin retired to read by himself about eight
o'clock. Aunt Fanny looked at the clock.
'Time
for Anne to go to bed,' she said. 'And you too, George.'
'Just
one good game of Slap-Down Patience, all of us playing it together, Mother!'
said George. 'Come on -you play it too. It's our first evening at home. Anyway,
I shan't sleep for ages, with this gale howling round! Come on, Mother- one
good game, then we'll go to bed. Julian's been yawning like anything already!'
Chapter
Two
A
SHOCK IN THE NIGHT
IT
was nice to climb up the steep stairs to their familiar bedrooms that night.
All the children were yawning widely. Their long train journey had tired them.
'If
only this awful wind would stop!' said Anne, pulling the curtain aside and
looking out into the night. 'There's a little moon, George. It keeps bobbing
out between the scurrying clouds.'
'Let
it bob!' said George, scrambling into bed. I'm jolly cold. Hurry, Anne, or
you'll catch a chill at that window.'
'Don't
the waves make a noise?' said Anne, still at the window. 'And the gale in the
old ash-tree is making a whistling, howling sound, and bending it right over.'
'Timmy,
hurry up and get on my bed,' commanded George, screwing up her cold toes.
'That's one good thing about being at home, Anne. I can have Timmy on my bed!
He's far better than a hot water bottle.'
'You're
not supposed to have him on your bed at home, any more than you're supposed to
at school,' said Anne, curling up in bed. 'Aunt Fanny thinks he sleeps in his
basket over there.'
'Well,
I can't stop him coming on my bed at night, can I, if he doesn't want to sleep
in his basket?' said George. 'That's right, Timmy darling. Make my feet warm.
Where's your nose? Let me pat it. Good-night, Tim. Good-night, Anne.'
'Good-night,'
said Anne, sleepily. 'I hope that Sooty boy comes, don't you? He does sound
fun.'
Yes.
And anyway father would stay in with Mr. Lenoir, the boy's father, and not come
out with us,' said George. 'Father doesn't mean to, but he does spoil things
somehow.'
'He's
not very good at laughing,' said Anne. 'He's too serious.'
A
loud bang made both girls jump. 'That's the bathroom door!' said George, with a
groan. 'One of the boys must have left it open. That's the sort of noise that
drives Father mad!  But Julian and Dick were thinking that George or Anne might shut it, so
nobody got out of bed to see to the banging door.
Very
soon Uncle Quentin's voice roared up the stairs, louder than the gale.
'Shut
that door, one of you! How can I work with that noise going on!'
All
four children jumped out of bed like a shot. Timmy leapt off George's bed.
Everyone fell over him as they rushed to the bathroom door. There was a lot of
giggling and scuffling. Then Uncle Quentin's footsteps were heard on the stairs
and the five fled silently to their looms.
The
gale still roared. Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny came up to bed.
Uncle
Quentin leapt too, startled. 'This wretched gale!' he said, fiercely. 'Never
known one like it all the time we've been here. If it gets much worse the
fishermen's boats will be smashed up, even though' they've pulled them as high
up the beach as possible.'
'It
will blow itself out soon, dear,' said Aunt Fanny,
soothingly.
'Probably by the time morning comes it will be quite calm.'
But
she was wrong. The gale did not blow itself out that night. Instead it raged
round the house even more fiercely, shrieking and howling like a live thing.
Nobody could sleep. Timmy kept up a continuous low growling, for he did not
like the shakes and rattles and howls.
Towards
dawn the wind seemed in a fury. Anne thought it sounded as if it was in a
horrible temper, out to do all the harm it could. She lay and trembled,
half-frightened.
Suddenly
there was a strange noise. It was a loud and woeful groaning and creaking, like
someone in great pain. The two girls sat up, terrified. What could it be?
The
boys heard it too. Julian leapt out of bed and ran to the window. Outside stood
the old ash tree, tall and black in the fitful moonlight. It was gradually
bending over!
'It's
the ash! It's falling!' yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits.
'It's falling, I tell you. It'll crash on the house! Quick, warn the girls!'
Shouting
at the top of his voice, Julian raced out of his door on to the landing.
'Uncle! Aunt! George and Anne! Come downstairs quickly! The ash tree is
falling!'
George
jumped out of bed, snatched at her dressing-gown, and raced to the door,
yelling to Anne. The little girl was soon with her. Timmy ran in front. At the
door of Aunt Fanny's bedroom Uncle Quentin appeared, tall and amazed, wrapping
his dressing-gown round him.
'What's
all this noise? Julian, what's happening?'
'Aunt
Fanny! Come downstairs - the ash tree is falling! Listen to its terrible groans
and creaks!' yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience. 'It'll smash
in
the room and the bedrooms! Listen, here it comes!'
Everyone
fled downstairs as, with an appalling wail, the great ash tree hauled up its
roots and fell heavily on to Kirrin Cottage. There was a terrible crash, and
the sound of tiles slipping to the ground everywhere.
'Oh
dear!' said poor Aunt Fanny, covering her eyes. 'I knew something would happen!
Quentin, we ought to have had that ash tree topped. I knew it would fall in a
great gale like this. What has it done to the roof?'
After
the great crash there had come other smaller noises, sounds of things falling,
thuds and little smashing noises. The children could not imagine what was
happening. Timmy was thoroughly angry, and barked loudly. Uncle Quentin slapped
his hand angrily on the table, and made everyone jump.
'Stop
that dog barking! I'll turn him out!' But nothing would stop Timmy barking or
growling that night, and George at last pushed him into the warm kitchen, and
shut the door on him.
'I
feel like barking or growling myself,' said Anne, who knew exactly what Timmy
felt like. 'Julian, has the tree broken in the roof?'
Uncle
Quentin took a powerful torch and went carefully up the stairs to the landing
to see what damage had been done. He came down looking rather pale.
'The
tree has crashed through the attic, smashed the roof in, and wrecked the girls'
bedroom,' he said. 'A big branch has penetrated the boys' room too, but not
badly, But the girls' room is ruined! They would have been killed if they had
been in their beds.'
Everyone
was silent. It was an awful thought that George and Anne had had such a narrow
escape.
'Good
thing I yelled my head off to warn them, then,' said Julian, cheerfully, seeing
how white Anne had gone.
'Cheer
up, Anne - think what a tale you'll have to tell at school next term.'
'I
think some hot cocoa would do us all good,' said Aunt Fanny, pulling herself
together, though she felt very shaken. 'I'll go and make some. Quentin, see if
the fire is still alight in your study. We want a little warmth!'
The
fire was still alight. Everyone crowded round it. They welcomed Aunt Fanny when
she came in with some steaming milk-cocoa.
Anne
looked curiously round the room as she sat sipping her drink. This was where
her uncle did his work, his very clever work. He wrote his difficult books
here, books which Anne could not understand at all. He drew his queer diagrams
here, and made many strange experiments.
But
just at the moment Uncle Quentin did not look very clever. He looked rather
ashamed, somehow. Anne soon knew why.
'Quentin,
it is a mercy none of us was hurt or killed,' said Aunt Fanny, looking at him
rather sternly.
I knew it was too big and heavy to withstand a great gale. I was always afraid
it would blow down on the house.'
'Yes,
I know, my dear,' said Uncle Quentin, stirring his cup of cocoa very
vigorously. 'But I was so busy these last months.'
'You
always make that an excuse for not doing urgent things,' said Aunt Fanny, with
a sigh. 'I shall have to manage things myself in the future. I can't risk our
lives like this!'
'Well,
a thing like this would only happen once in a blue moon!' cried Uncle Quentin,
getting angry. Then he calmed down, seeing that Aunt Fanny was really
shocked
and upset, very near to tears. He put down his cocoa and slipped his arm round
her.
'You've
had a terrible shock,' he said. 'Don't you worry about things. Maybe they won't
be so bad when morning comes.'
'Oh,
Quentin - they'll be much worse!' said his wife. 'Where shall we sleep tonight,
all of us, and what shall we do till the roof and upstairs rooms are repaired?
The children have only just come home. The house will be full of workmen for
weeks! I don't know how I'm going to manage.'
'Leave
it all to me!' said Uncle Quentin. 'I'll settle everything. Don't you worry.
I'm sorry about this, very sorry, particularly as it's my fault. But I'll
straighten things out for everyone, you just see!'
Aunt
Fanny didn't really believe him, but she was grateful for his comforting. The
children listened in silence, drinking their hot cocoa. Uncle Quentin was so
very clever, and knew so many things - but it was so like him to neglect
something urgent like cutting off the top of the old ash tree. Sometimes he
didn't seem to live in this world at all!
It
was no use going up to bed! The rooms upstairs were either completely ruined,
or so messed up with bits and pieces, and clouds of dust, that it was
impossible to sleep there. Aunt Fanny began to pile rugs on sofas. There was
one in the study, a big one in the sitting-room and a smaller one in the
dining-room. She found a camp bed in a cupboard and, with Julian's help, put
that up too.
'We'll
just have to do the best we can,' she said. 'There isn't much left of the
night, but we'll get a little sleep if we can! The gale is not nearly so wild
now.'
'No
- it's done all the damage it can, so it's satisfied,'
said
Uncle Quentin, grimly. 'Well, we'll talk things over in the morning.'
The
children found it very difficult to go to sleep after such an excitement, tired
though they were. Anne felt worried. How could they all stay at Kirrin Cottage
now? It wouldn't be fair on Aunt Fanny.
'I
hope we shan't be sent back to school,' thought Anne, trying to get comfortable
on the sofa. 'It would be too awful, after having left there, and started off
so gaily for the holidays.'
George
was afraid of that, too. She felt sure that they would all be packed back to
their schools the next morning. That would mean that she and Anne wouldn't see
Julian and Dick any more those holidays, for the boys, of course, went to a
different school.
Timmy
was the only one who didn't worry about things. He lay on George's feet,
snoring a little, quite happy. So long as he was with George he didn't really
mind where he went!
Chapter
Three
UNCLE
QUENTIN HAS AN IDEA
NEXT
morning the wind was still high, but the fury of the gale was gone. The
fishermen on the beach were relieved to find that their boats had suffered very
little damage. But word soon went round about the accident to Kirrm Cottage,
and a few sightseers came up to marvel at the sight of the great, uprooted
tree, lying heavily on the little house.
The
children rather enjoyed the importance of relating how nearly they had escaped
with their lives. In the light
of
day it was surprising what damage the big tree had done. It had cracked the
roof of the house like an eggshell, and the rooms upstairs were in a terrible
mess.
The
woman who came up from the village to help Aunt Fanny during the day exclaimed
at the sight: 'Why, Mam, it'll take weeks to set that right!' she said. 'Have
you got on to the builders, Mam? I'd get them up here right away and let them
see what's to be done.'
I'm
seeing to things, Mrs. Daly,' said Uncle Quentin. 'My wife has had a great
shock. She is not fit to see to things herself. The first thing to do is to
decide what is to happen to the children. They can't remain here while there
are no usable bedrooms.'
'They
had better go back to school, poor things,' said Aunt Fanny.
'No.
I've a better idea than that,' said Uncle Quentin, fishing a letter out of his
pocket. 'Much better. I've had a letter from that fellow Lenoir this morning -
you know, the one who's interested in the same kind of experiments as I am. He
says - er, wait a minute, I'll read you the bit. Yes, here it is.'
Uncle
Quentin read it out: 'It is most kind of you to suggest my coming to stay with
you and bringing my boy Pierre.  I do not know how many you have, but all are welcome here in
this big house. My Pierre will be glad of company, and so will his sister,
Marybelle.'
Uncle
Quentin looked up triumphantly at his wife. 'There you are! I call that a most
generous invitation! It couldn't have come at a better time. We'll pack the
whole of the children off to this fellow's house.'
'But
Quentin - you can't possibly do that! Why, we don't know anything about him or
his family!' said Aunt Fanny.
'His
boy goes to the same school as Julian and Dick, and I know Lenoir is a
remarkable, clever fellow,' said Uncle Quentin, as if that was all that really
mattered. 'I'll telephone him now. What's his number?'
Aunt
Fanny felt helpless in face of her husband's sudden determination to settle
everything himself. He was ashamed because it was his forgetfulness that had
brought on the accident to the house. Now he was going to show that he could
see to things if he liked. She heard him telephoning, and frowned. How could
they possibly send off the children to a strange place like that?
Uncle
Quentin put down the receiver, and went to find his wife, looking jubilant and
very pleased with himself.
'It's
all settled,' he said. 'Lenoir is delighted, most delighted. Says he loves
children about the place, and so does his wife, and his two will be thrilled to
have them. If we can hire a car today, they can go at once.'
'But,
Quentin - we can't let them go off like that to strange people!  I shouldn't be surprised if George refuses to go,' said his wife.
'Oh
- that reminds me. She's not to take Timothy,* said Uncle Quentin. 'Apparently
Lenoir doesn't like dogs.'
'Well,
then, you know George won't go!' said his wife. 'That's foolish, Quentin.
George won't go anywhere without Timmy.'
'She'll
have to, this time,' said Uncle Quentin, quite determined that George should
not upset all his marvellous plans. 'Here are the children. I'll ask them what
they feel about going, and see what they say!'
He
called them into his study. They came in, feeling sure that they were to hear
bad news - probably they were all to return to school!
'You
remember that boy I spoke to you about last
night?'
began Uncle Quentin. Pierre Lenoir.
'Ah
yes, Sooty. Well, his father has kindly invited you all to go and stay with him
at Smuggler's Top,' said Uncle Quentin.
The
children were astonished.
 'What's Smuggler's Top?'
'The
name of his house/ said Uncle Quentin. 'It's very old, built on the top of a
queer hill surrounded by marshes over which the sea once flowed. The hill was
once an island, but now it's just a tall hill rising up from the marsh.
Smuggling went on there in the old days. It's a very peculiar place, so I've
heard.'
All
this made the children feel excited. Also Julian and Dick had always liked
Sooty Lenoir. He was quite mad, but awfully good fun. They might have a
first-rate time with him.
'Well
- would you like to go? Or would you rather go back to school for the
holidays?' asked Uncle Quentin impatiently.
'Oh
no - not back to school!' said everyone at once.
'I'd
love to go to Smuggler's Top,' said Dick. 'It sounds a thrilling place. And I
always liked old Sooty, especially since he sawed half through one of the legs
of our form-master's chair. It gave way at once when Mr. Toms sat down!'
'H'm.
I don't see that a trick like that is any reason for liking someone,' said
Uncle Quentin, beginning to feel a little doubtful about Master Lenoir.
'Perhaps, on the whole, school would be best for you.'
'Oh
no, no!' cried everyone. 'Let's go to Smuggler's Top! Do, do let's!'
'Very
well,' said "Uncle Quentin, pleased at their eagerness to follow his plan.
'As a matter of fact, I have already settled it. I telephoned a few minutes
ago. Mr. Lenoir was very kind about it all.'
'Can
I take Timmy?' asked George, suddenly.
'No,'
said her father. I'm afraid not. Mr. Lenoir doesn't like dogs.'
'Then
I shouldn't like him' said George, sulkily. 'I won't go without Timmy.'
'You'll
have to go back to school, then,' said her father, sharply. 'And take off that
sulky expression, George. You know how I dislike it.'
But
George wouldn't. She turned away. The others looked at her in dismay. Surely
old George wasn't going to get into one of her moods, and spoil everything! It
would be fun to go to Smuggler's Top. But, of course, it certainly wouldn't be
so much fun without Timmy. Still - they couldn't all go back to school just
because George wouldn't go anywhere without her dog.
They
all went into the sitting-room. Anne put her arm through George's. George shook
it off.
'George!
You simply must come with us,' said Anne, 'I can't bear to go without you - it
would be awful to see you going back to school all alone.'
'I
shouldn't be all alone,' said George. 'I should have Timmy.'
The
others pressed her to change her mind, but she shook them off. 'Leave me alone,'
she said. 'I want to think. How are we supposed to get to Smuggler's Top, and
where is it? Which road do we take?'
'We're
going by car, and it's right up the coast somewhere, so I expect we'll take the
coast-road,' said Julian. 'Why, George?'
'Don't
ask questions,' said George. She went out with
Timmy.
The others didn't follow her. George was not very nice when she was cross.
Aunt
Fanny began to pack for them, though it was impossible to get some of the
things from the girls' room. After a time George came back, but Jimmy was not
with her. She looked more cheerful.
'Where's
Tim?' asked Anne, at once.
'Out
somewhere,' said George.
'Are
you coming with us, George?' asked Julian, looking at her.
'Yes.
I've made up my mind to,' said George, but for some reason she wouldn't look
Julian in the eyes. He wondered why.
Aunt
Fanny gave them all an early lunch, and then a big car came for them. They
packed themselves inside. Uncle Quentin gave them all sorts of messages for Mr.
Lenoir, and Aunt Fanny kissed them good-bye. 'I do hope you have a nice time at
Smuggler's Top,' she said. 'Mind you write at once and tell me all about it.'
'Aren't
we going to say good-bye to Timmy?' said Anne, her eyes opening wide in
amazement at George forgetting. 'George, surely you're not going without saying
good-bye to old Timmy!'
'Can't
stop now,' said Uncle Quentin, afraid that George might suddenly become awkward
again. 'Right, driver! You can go off now. Don't drive too fast, please.'
Waving
and shouting the children drove away from Kirrin Cottage, sad when they looked
back and saw the smashed roof under the fallen tree. Never mind - they had not
been sent back to school. That was the main thing. Their spirits rose as they
thought of Sooty and his queerly-named home, Smuggler's Top.
'Smuggler's
Top! It sounds too exciting for words!' said Anne. 'I can picture it, an old
house right on the top
of
a hill. Fancy being an island once. I wonder why the sea went back and left
marshes instead.3
George
said nothing for a while, and the car speeded on. The others glanced at her
once or twice, but came to the conclusion that she was grieving about Timmy.
Still she didn't look very sad!
The
car went over a hill and speeded down to the bottom. When they got there George
leaned forward and touched the driver's arm.
'Would
you stop a moment, please? We have to pick somebody up here.'
Julian,
Dick and Anne stared at George in surprise. The driver, also rather surprised,
drew the car to a standstill. George opened the car door and gave a loud
whistle.
Something
shot out of the hedge and hurled itself joyfully into the car. It was Timmy! He
licked everyone, trod on everyone's toes, and gave the little short barks that
showed he was excited and happy.
'Well,'
said the driver, doubtfully, 'I don't know if you're supposed to take that dog
in, Miss.  'Quite all right. You needn't
worry. Start the car again, please.'
'You
are a monkey!' said Julian, half-annoyed with George, and half-pleased because
Timmy was with them after all. 'Mr.  'Anyhow, the main
thing is, we've got Timmy after all, and I am coming with you.'
'Yes
- that's fine,' said Anne, and gave first George and then Timmy a hug. I didn't
like going without Tim either.'
'On
to Smuggler's Top!' said Dick, as the car started off again. 'On to Smuggler's
Top. I wonder if we shall have any adventures there!'
Chapter
Four SMUGGLER'S TOP
THE
car sped on, mostly along the coast, though it sometimes went inland for a few
miles. But, sooner or later it was in sight of the sea again. The children
enjoyed the long drive. They were to stop somewhere for lunch, and the driver
told them he knew of a good inn.
At
half past twelve he drew up outside an old inn, and they all trooped in. Julian
took charge, and ordered lunch. It was a very good one, and all the children
enjoyed it. So did Timmy. The innkeeper liked dogs, and put down such a
piled-up plate for Timmy that the dog hardly liked to begin on his meal in case
it was not for him!
He
looked up at George and she nodded to him. 'It's your dinner, Timmy. Eat it
up.'
So
he ate it, hoping that if they were going to stay anywhere they might be
staying at the inn. Meals like this did not arrive every day for a hungry dog!
But
after lunch the children got up. They went to find the driver, who was having
his lunch in the kitchen with the innkeeper and his wife. They were old friends
of his.
'Well,
I hear you're going to Castaway,' said the innkeeper, getting up. 'You be
careful there!'
'Castaway!'
said Julian. 'Is that what the hill is called, where Smuggler's Top is?'
'That's
its name,' said the innkeeper.
'Why
is it called that?' said Anne. 'What a funny name! Were people cast away on it
once, when it was an island?'
'Oh
no. The old story goes that the hill was once joined to the mainland,' said the
innkeeper. 'But it was the haunt of bad people, and one of the saints became
angry with the place, and cast it away into the sea, where it became an
island.'
'And
so it was called Castaway,' said Dick. 'But perhaps it has got good again,
because the sea has gone away from it, and you can walk from the mainland to
the hill, can't you?'
'Yes.
There's one good road you can take,' said the innkeeper. 'But you be careful of
wandering away from it, if you go walking on it!  'Smuggler's Top on Castaway
Hill! Only one road to it!'
'Time
to get on,' said the driver, looking at the clock. 'You've got to be there
before tea, your uncle said.'
They
got into the car again, Timmy clambering over legs and feet to a comfortable
place on George's lap. He was far too big and heavy to lie there but just
occasionally he seemed to want to, and George never had the heart to refuse
him.
They
drove off once more. Anne fell asleep, and the others felt drowsy too. The car
purred on and on. It began to rain, and the countryside looked rather dreary.
The
driver turned round after a while and spoke to Julian. 'We're coming near to
Castaway Hill, sir. We'll soon be leaving the mainland, and taking the road
across the marsh.'
Julian
woke Anne. They all sat up expectantly. But it was very disappointing after
all! The marshes were full of mist! The children could not pierce through it
with their eyes, and could only see the flat road they were on, raised a little
higher than the surrounding flat marsh.
When
the mist shifted a little now and again the children saw a dreary space of flat
marsh on either side.
'Stop
a minute, driver,' said Julian. I'd like to see what the marsh is like.
'Well,
don't step off the road,' warned the driver, stopping the car.  Once he runs off the road and gets into the marsh he'll
be gone for good.'
'What
do you mean - gone for good?' said Anne, her eyes wide.
 'Shut him in the
car, George.'
 He pawed at the door,
and tried to look out of the window. The driver turned and spoke to him. 'It's
all right. They'll be back soon old fellow!'
But
Timmy whined all the time the others were out of the car. He saw them go to the
edge of the road. He saw Julian jump down the couple of feet that raised the
road above the marsh.
There
was a line of raised stones running in the marsh alongside the road. Julian
stood on one of these peering at the flat marsh.
'It's
mud,' he said. 'Loose, squelchy mud! Look, when I touch it with my foot it
moves!
Anne
didn't like it. She called to Julian. 'Come up on the road again. I'm afraid
you'll fall in.'
Mists
were wreathing and swirling over the salty marshes. It was a weird place, cold
and damp. None of the children liked it. Timmy began to bark in the car.
'Tim
will scratch the car to bits if we don't get back,' said George. So they all
went back, rather silent. Julian
wondered
how many travellers had been lost in that strange sea-marsh.
'Oh,
there's many that's never been heard of again,' said the driver, when they
asked him. 'They do say there's one or two winding paths that go to the hill
from the mainland, that were used before the road was built. But unless you
know every inch of them you're off them in a trice, and find your feet sinking
in the mud.'
'It's
horrid to think about,' said Anne. 'Don't let's talk about it any more. Can we
see Castaway Hill yet?'
'Yes.
There it is, looming up in the mist,' said the driver. 'The top of it is out of
the mist, see? Queer place, isn't it?'
The
children looked in silence. Out of the slowly moving mists rose,a tall, steep
hill, whose rocky sides were as steep as cliffs. The hill seemed to swim in the
mists, and to have no roots in the earth. It was covered with buildings which
even at that distance looked old and quaint. Some of them had towers.
'That
must be Smuggler's Top, right at the summit,' said Julian, pointing. 'It's like
an old building of centuries ago - probably is! Look at the tower it has. What
a wonderful view you'd get from it.'
The
children gazed at the place where they were to stay. It looked exciting and
picturesque, certainly - but it also looked rather forbidding.
'It's
sort of - sort of secret, somehow,' said Anne, putting into words what the
others were thinking. 'I mean it looks as if it had kept all kinds of queer
secrets down the centuries. I guess it could tell plenty of tales!'
The
car drove on again, quite slowly, because the mists came down thickly. The road
had a line of sparkling round buttons set all along the middle, and when the
driver switched on his fog-lamp, they shone brightly and guided
him
well. Then as they neared Castaway Hill the road began to slope upwards.
'We
go through a big archway soon,' said the driver. 'That used to be where the
city gate once was. The whole town is surrounded by wall still, just as it used
to be in olden times. It's wide enough to walk on, and if you start at a
certain place, and walk long enough, you'll come round to the place you started
at!'
All
the children made up their minds to do this without fail. What a view they
would have all round the hill, if they chose a fine day!
The
road became steeper, and the driver put the engine into a lower gear. It
groaned up the hill. Then it came to an archway, from which old gates were
fastened back. It passed through, and the children were in Castaway.
'It's
almost as if we've gone back through the centuries, and come to somewhere that
existed ages ago!' said Julian, peering at the old houses and shops, with their
cobbled streets, their diamond-paned windows, and stout old doors.
They
went up the winding high street, and came at last to a big gateway, set with
wrought-iron gates. The driver hooted and they opened. They swept into a steep
drive, and at last stopped before Smuggler's Top.
They
got out, feeling suddenly shy. The big old house seemed to frown down at them.
It was built of brick and timber, and its front door was as massive as that of
a castle.
Queer
gables jutted here and there over the diamond-paned windows. The house's one
tower stood sturdily at the east side of the house, with windows all round. It
was not a square tower, but a rounded one, and ended in a point.
'Smuggler's
Top!' said Julian. 'It's a good name for it somehow. I suppose lots of
smuggling went on here in the old days.'
Dick
rang the bell. To do this he had to pull down an iron handle, and a jangling at
once made itself heard in the house.
There
was the sound of running feet, and the door was opened. It opened slowly, for
it was heavy.
Beyond
it stood two children, one a girl of about Anne's age, and the other a boy of
Dick's age.
'Here
you are at last!' cried the boy, his dark eyes dancing. 'I thought you were
never coming!'
'This
is Sooty,' said Dick to the girls, who had not met him before. They stared at
him.
He
was certainly very very dark.  In contrast to him the girl beside him looked pale and delicate.
She had golden hair, blue eyes and her eyebrows were so faint they could hardly
be seen.
'This
is Marybelle, my sister,' said Sooty. 'I always think we look like Beauty and
the Beast!'
Sooty
was nice. Everyone liked him at once. George found herself twinkling at him in
a way quite strange to her, for usually she was shy of strangers, and would not
make friends for some time.
'Come
in,' said Sooty. 'Driver, you can take the car round to the next door, and
Block will take in the luggage for you and give you tea.'
Suddenly
Sooty's face lost its smile and grew very solemn. He had seen Timmy!
'I
say! I say - that's not your dog, is it?' he said.
'He's
mine,' said George, and she laid a protecting-hand
on
Timmy's head. 'I had to bring him. I can't go anywhere without him.'
'Yes,
but - no dog's allowed at Smuggler's Top,' said Sooty, still looking very
worried, and glancing behind him as if he was afraid someone might come along
and see Timmy. 'My stepfather won't allow any dogs here. Once I brought in a
stray one and he licked me till I couldn't sit down - my stepfather licked me,
I mean, not the dog.'
Anne
gave a frightened little smile at the poor joke. George looked stubborn and
sulky.
'I
thought -1 thought maybe we could hide him somewhere while we were here,' she
said. 'But if that's how you feel, I'll go back home with the car. Good-bye.'
She
turned and went after the car, which was backing away. Timmy went with her.
Sooty stared, and then he yelled after her.  We'll think of
something!'
Chapter
Five SOOTY LENOIR
SOOTY
ran down the steps that led to the front door, and tore after George. The
others followed. Marybelle went too, shutting the big front door behind her
carefully.
There
was a small door in the wall just where George was. Sooty caught hold of her
and pushed her roughly through the door, holding it open for the others.
'Don't
shove me like that,' began George, angrily. 'Timmy will bite you if you push me
about.'
'No,
he won't,' said Sooty, with a cheerful grin. 'Dogs like me. Even if I boxed
your ears your dog would only wag his tail at me.'
The
children found themselves in a dark passage. There was a door at the farther
end. 'Wait here a minute and I'll see if the coast is clear,' said Sooty.  And I don't want him to do that
because I can't tell you how I've looked forward to having you all!'
He
grinned at them, and their hearts warmed towards him again, even George's,
though she still felt angry at being so roughly pushed. She kept Timmy close
beside her.
All
the same everyone felt a bit scared of Mr. Lenoir. He sounded rather a fierce
sort of person!
Sooty
tiptoed to the door at the end of the passage and opened it. He peeped into the
room there, and then came back to the others.
'All
clear,' he said. 'We'll take the secret passage to my
bedroom.
No one will see us then, and once we're there we can make plans to hide the
dog. Ready?'
A
secret passage sounded thrilling. Feeling rather as if they were in an
adventure story, the children went quietly to the door and into the room
beyond. It was a dark, oak-panelled room, evidently a study of some sort, for
there was a big desk there, and the walls were lined with books. There was no
one there.
Sooty
went to one of the oak panels in the wall, felt along it deftly, and pressed in
a certain place. The panel slid softly aside. Sooty put in his hand and pulled
at something. A much larger panel below slid into the wall, and left an opening
big enough for the children to pass through.
'Come
on,' said Sooty in a low voice. 'Don't make a row.'
Feeling
excited, the children all passed through the opening. Sooty came last, and did
something that shut the opening and slid the first panel back into its place
again.
He
switched on a small torch, for it was pitch dark where the children were
standing.
They
were in a narrow stone passage, so narrow that two people could not possibly
have passed one another unless both were as thin as rakes. Sooty passed his torch
along to Julian, who was in front.
'Keep
straight on till you come to stone steps,' he said. 'Go up them, turn to the
right at the top, and keep straight on till you come to a blank wall, then I'll
tell you what to do.'
Julian
led the way, holding up the torch for the others. The narrow passage ran
straight, and came to some stone steps. It was not only very narrow but rather
low, so that Anne and Marybelle were the only ones who did not have to bend
their heads.
Anne
didn't like it very much. She never liked being in a very narrow enclosed
space. It reminded her of dreams she sometimes had of being somewhere she
couldn't get away from. She was glad when Julian spoke. 'The steps are here. Up
we go, everyone.'
'Don't
make a row,' said Sooty, in a. low voice. 'We're passing the dining-room now.
There's a way into this passage from there too.'
Everyone
fell silent, and tried to walk on tiptoe, though this was unexpectedly
difficult when heads had to be bent and shoulders stooped.
They
climbed up fourteen steps, which were quite steep, and curved round half-way.
Julian turned to the right at the top. The passage ran upwards then, and was as
narrow as before. Julian felt certain that a very fat person could not possibly
get along it.
He
went on until, with a start, he almost bumped into a blank stone wall! He
flashed his torch up and down it. A low voice came from the back of the line of
children.
'You've
got to the blank wall, Julian. Shine your torch up to where the roof of the
passage meets the wall. You will see an iron handle there. Press down on it
hard.'
Julian
flashed his torch up and saw the handle. He put his torch into his left hand,
and grasped the thick iron handle with his right. He pressed down as hard as he
could.
And,
quite silently, the great stone in the middle of the wall slid forward and
sideways, leaving a gaping hole.
Julian
was astonished. He let go the iron handle and flashed his torch into the hole.
There was nothing but darkness there!
'It's
all right it leads into a big cupboard in my bedroom!' called Sooty from the
back. 'Get through, Julian, and we'll follow. There won't be anyone in my
room.'
Julian
crawled through the hole and found himself in a spacious cupboard, hung with
Booty's clothes. He groped his way through them and bumped against a door. He
opened it and at once daylight flooded into the cupboard, lighting up the way
from the passage into the room.
One
by one the others clambered through the hole, lost themselves in clothes for a
moment and then went thankfully into the room through the cupboard door.
Timmy,
puzzled and silent, followed close beside George. He had not liked the dark,
narrow passage very much. He was glad to be in daylight again!
Sooty,
coming last, carefully closed the opening into the passage by pressing the
stone back. It worked easily, though Julian could not imagine how. There must
be some sort of pivot, he thought.
Sooty
joined the others in his bedroom, grinning. George had her hand on Timmy's
collar. 'It's all right, George,' said Sooty. 'We're quite safe here. My room
and Marybelle's are separate from the rest of the house. We're in a wing on our
own, reached by a long passage!'
He
opened the door and showed the others what he meant. There was a room next to
his, which was Mary-belle's. Beyond stretched a stone-floored, stone-walled
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.
 'Did you hear the noise? It's a good idea, isn't
it? I'm always thinking of things like that.'
 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.  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 toy 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.
'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
him! See that house over there to the right, lower down the hill? Well, that's
where he lives. He's as rich as can be. His name is Barling. Even the police
know his goings-on, but they can't stop him! He is very rich and very powerful,
so he does what he likes - and he won't let anyone play the same game as he
plays!
No one else would dare to do any smuggling in Castaway, while he does it!'
'This
seems rather an exciting place,' said Julian. 'I have a kind of feeling there
might be an adventure somewhere about!'
'Oh
no,' said Sooty. 'Nothing ever happens, really. It's only just a feeling you
get here, because the place is so old, so full of secret ways and pits and
passages. Why, the whole hill is mined with passages in the rock, used by the
smugglers of olden times!'
'Well,'
began Julian, and stopped very suddenly. Everyone stared at Sooty. His secret
buzzer had suddenly barked from its hidden corner! Someone had opened the door
at the end of the passage!
Chapter
Six
BOOTY'S
STEPFATHER AND MOTHER
'SOMEONE'S
coming!' said George, in a panic. 'What shall we do with Tim? Quick!'
Sooty
took Timmy by the collar and shoved him into the old cupboard, and shut the
door on him.
'Well,'
began Sooty, in a bright voice, 'perhaps I'd better show you where your
bedrooms are now!'
The
door opened and a man came in. He was dressed in black trousers and a white
linen coat.  'It's a shut face,' thought Anne to herself.
 He turned to the others. 'This is Block, my
stepfather's man,' he said. 'He's deaf, so you can say what you like, but it's
better not to, because though he doesn't hear he seems to sense what we say.'
'Anyway,
I think it would be beastly to say things we wouldn't say in front of him if he
wasn't deaf,' said George, who had very strict ideas about things of that sort.
Block
spoke in a curiously monotonous voice. 'Your stepfather and your mother want to
know why you have not brought your friends to see them,' he said. 'Why did you
rush up here like this?'
Block
looked all round as he spoke - almost as if he knew there was a dog, and wondered
where he had gone
to,
George thought, in alarm. She did hope the car-driver had not mentioned Timmy.
'Oh
-I was so pleased to see them I took them straight up here!' said Sooty. 'All
right, Block. We'll be down in a minute.'
The
man went, his face quite impassive. Not a smile, not a frown! 'I don't like
him,' said Anne. 'Has he been with you long?'
'No
- only about a year,' said Sooty. 'He suddenly appeared one day. Even Mother
didn't know he was coming! He just came, and, without a word, changed into that
white linen coat, and went to do some work in my stepfather's room. I suppose
my stepfather was expecting him - but he didn't say anything to my mother, I'm
sure of that. She seemed so surprised.
'Is
she your real mother, or a stepmother, too?' asked Anne.
'You
don't have a stepmother and a stepfather!' said Sooty, scornfully. 'You only
have one or the other.  But Marybelle and I are only half-brother and sister, because my
stepfather is her real father.'
'It's
rather muddled,' said Anne, trying to sort it out.
'Come
on - we'd better go down,' said Sooty, remembering. 'By the Way, my stepfather
is always being very affable, always smiling and joking - but it isn't real,
somehow. He's quite likely to fly into a furious temper at any moment.'
'I
hope we shan't see very much of him,' said Anne5 uncomfortably.  'You'll like her, all right. She's a darling.
But she doesn't like living here; she doesn't like this house, and she's
terrified of my step-father. She wouldn't say so herself, of course, but I know
she is.'
Marybelle,
who was too shy to have joined in any talking until then, nodded her head.
'I
don't like living here, either/ she said. 'I shall be glad when I go to
boarding-school, like Sooty. Except that I shall leave Mother all alone then.'
'Come
on,' said Sooty, and led the way. 'We'd better ' leave Timmy in the cupboard
till we come back, just in case Block does a bit of snooping. I'll lock the
cupboard door and take the key.'
Feeling
rather unhappy at leaving Timmy locked up in the cupboard, the children
followed Sooty and Mary-belle down the stone passage to the oak door. They went
through, and found themselves at the top of a great flight of stairs, wide and
shallow. They went down into a big hall.
At
the right was a door, and Sooty opened it. He went in and spoke to someone.
'Here
they all are,' he said. 'Sorry I rushed them off to my bedroom like that,
Father, but I was so excited to see them all!'
'Your
manners still need a little polishing, Pierre,' said Mr. Lenoir, in a deep
voice. The children looked at him. He sat in a big oak chair, a neat,
clever-looking man, with fair hair brushed upwards, and eyes as blue as
Marybelle's. He smiled all the time, but with his mouth, not his eyes.
'What
cold eyes!' thought Anne, when she went forward to shake hands with him. His
hand was cold, too. He smiled at her, and patted her on the shoulder.
 'You will be a good companion for Marybelle.
Three boys for Sooty, and one girl for Marybelle. Ha ha!'
He
evidently thought George was a boy, and she did look rather like one - she was
wearing shorts and jersey, as usual, and her curly hair was very short.
Nobody
said that George wasn't a boy. Certainly George was not going to! She, Dick and
Julian shook hands with Mr. Lenoir. They had not even noticed Sooty's mother!
 Anne turned to her.
'Oh,
how small you are!' she said, before she could stop herself.
Mr.
Lenoir laughed. He laughed no matter what anyone said. Mrs. Lenoir got up and
smiled. She was only as tall as Anne, and had the smallest hands and feet that
Anne had ever seen on a grown-up. Anne liked her. She shook hands, and said,
'It's so nice of you to have us all here like this. You know, I expect, that a
tree fell on the roof of our house and smashed it.'
Mr.
Lenoir's laugh came again. He made some kind of joke, and everyone smiled
politely.
'Well,
I hope you'll have a good time here,' he said. Pierre and Marybelle will show
you the old town, and, if you promise to be careful, you can walk along the
road to the mainland to go to the cinema there.'
'Thank
you,' said everyone, and Mr. Lenoir laughed his curious laugh again.
'Your
father is a very clever man,' he said, suddenly turning to Julian, who guessed
that he had mistaken him for George. 'I am hoping he will come here to fetch
you home again when you go, and then I shall have the pleasure of talking with
him. He and I have been doing the same kind of experiments, but he has got
further than I have.'
'Oh!'
said Julian, politely. Then the doll-like Mrs. Lenoir spoke in her soft voice.
'Block
will give you all your meals in Marybelle's schoolroom, then you will not
disturb my husband. He does not like talk at meal-times, and that would be
rather hard on six children.'
Mr.
Lenoir laughed again. His cold blue eyes looked intently at all the children.
'By the way, Pierre,' he said suddenly, 'I forbid you to wander about the
catacombs in this hill, as I have forbidden you before, and I also forbid you
to do any of your dare-devil climbing, nor will I have you acting about on the
city wall, now that you have
others
here. I will not have them taking risks. Will you promise me this?'
'I
don't act about on the city wall,' protested Sooty.  Anne looked at it with interest. She did not know that it always did
this when Mr. Lenoir got angry.
'Oh,
sir - I was top of my form last term,' said Sooty, in a most injured tone. The
others felt certain that he was trying to lead Mr. Lenoir away from his request
- he was not going to promise him what he had asked!
Mrs.
Lenoir now joined in. 'He really did do well last term,' she said. 'You must
remember -'
'Enough!'
snapped Mr. Lenoir, and the smiles and laughs he had so freely lavished on
everyone vanished, entirely. 'Get out, all of you!'
Rather
scared, Julian, Dick, Anne and George hurried from the room, followed by
Marybelle and Sooty.
'I
didn't promise!' he said. 'He wanted to take all our fun away. This place isn't
any fun if you don't explore it. I can show you heaps of queer places.'
'What
are catacombs?' asked Anne, with a vague picture of cats and combs in her head.
'Winding,
secret tunnels in the hill,' said Sooty. 'Nobody knows them all. You can get
lost in them easily, and never get out again. Lots of people have.'
'Why
are there so many secret ways and things here?' wondered George.
'Easy!'
said Julian. 'It was a haunt of smugglers, and there must have been many a time
when they had to hide not only their goods, but themselves! And, according to
old Sooty, there still is a smuggler here!
What
did you say his name was - Barling, wasn't it?'
'Yes,'
said Sooty. 'Come on upstairs and I'll show you your rooms. You've got a good
view over the town.'
He
took them to two rooms set side by side, on the opposite side of the big
staircase from his bedroom and Marybelle's. They were small but well-furnished,
and had, as Sooty said, a marvellous view over the quaint roofs and towers of
Castaway Hill. They also had a remarkably good view of Mr. Barling's house.
George
and Anne were to sleep in one room, and Julian and Dick in the other. Evidently
Mrs. Lenoir had taken the trouble to remember that there were two girls and two
boys, not one girl and three boys, as Mr. Lenoir imagined!
'Nice
cosy rooms,' said Anne. 'I like these dark oak panels. Are there any secret
passages in our rooms, Sooty?'
'You
wait and see!' grinned Sooty. 'Look, there are your things, all unpacked from
your suitcases. I expect Sarah did that. You'll like Sarah. She's a good sort,
fat and round and jolly - not a bit like Block!'
Sooty
seemed to have forgotten all about Tim. George reminded him.
'What
about Timmy? He'll have to be near me, you know. And we must arrange to feed
him and exercise him. Oh, I do hope he'll be all right, Sooty, I'd rather leave
straight away than have Timmy unhappy.'
'He'll
be all right!' said Sooty. Til give him the free run of that narrow passage we
came up to my bedroom by, and we'll feed him every chance we get. And we'll
smuggle him out by a secret tunnel that opens half-way down the town, and give
him plenty of exercise each morning. Oh, we'll have a grand time with Timmy!'
George
wasn't so sure. 'Can he sleep with me at night?' she asked. 'He'll howl the
place down if he can't.'
'Well
- we'll try and manage it,' said Sooty, rather doubtfully. 'You've got to be
jolly careful, you know. We don't want to land in serious trouble. You don't
know what my stepfather can be like!'
They
could guess, though. Julian looked curiously at Sooty. 'Was your own father's
name Lenoir, too?' he asked.
Sooty
nodded. 'Yes. He was my stepfather's cousin, and was as dark as all the Lenoirs
usually are. My stepfather is an exception - he's fair. People say the fair
Lenoirs are no good - but don't tell my stepfather that!'
'As
if we should!' said George. 'Gracious, he'd cut off our heads or something!
Come on - let's go back to Tim.'
Chapter
Seven THE HIDDEN PIT
THE
children were all very glad to think that they were going to have meals by
themselves in the old schoolroom. Nobody wanted to have much to do with Mr.
Lenoir! They felt sorry for Marybelle because she had such a queer father.
They
soon settled down at Smuggler's Top. Once George was satisfied that Timmy was
safe and happy, though rather puzzled about everything, she settled down too.
The only difficulty was getting Timmy to her room at night. This had to be done
in darkness. Block had a most tiresome way of appearing silently and suddenly,
and George was terrified of him catching a glimpse of the big dog.
 Whilst the children were indoors,
he had to stay in the narrow secret passage, where he wandered about, puzzled
and lonely, pricking his ears for a sound of the whistle that meant he was to
come to the cupboard and be let out.
He
was fed very well, for Sooty raided the larder every night. Sarah, the cook,
was amazed at the way things like soup-bones disappeared. She could not
understand it. But Timmy devoured everything that was given to him.
Each
morning he was given good exercise by the children. The first morning this had
been really very exciting!
George
had reminded Sooty of his promise to take
Timmy
for walks each day. 'He simply must have exercise, or he'll be terribly
miserable!' she said. 'But how can we manage it? We can't possibly take him
through the house and out of the front door! We'd be certain to walk into your
father!'
'I
told you I knew a way that came out half-way down the hill, silly,' said Sooty.
'I'll show you. We shall be quite safe once we are down there, because even if
we met Block or anyone else that knew us, they wouldn't know it was our dog.
They would think it was just a stray we had picked up.'
'Well
- show us the way,' said George, impatiently. They were all in Booty's bedroom,
and Timmy was lying on the mat beside George. They felt really safe in Booty's
room because of the buzzer that warned them when anyone opened the door at the
end of the long passage.
'We'll
have to go into Marybelle's room,' said Sooty. 'You'll get a shock when you see
the way that leads down the hill, I can tell you!'
He
looked out of the door. The door at the end of the passage was shut.
'Marybelle, slip along and peep through the passage door,' said Sooty. 'Warn us
if anyone is coming up the stairs. If not, well all dip quickly into your
room.'
Marybelle
ran to the door at the end of the passage. She opened it, and at once the
warning buzzer sounded in Sooty's room, making Timmy growl fiercely. Marybelle
looked through the doorway to the stairs. Then she signalled to the others that
no one was coming.
They
all rushed out of Sooty's room into Marybelle's, and Marybelle came to join
them. She was a funny little mouse of a girl, shy and timid. Anne liked her,
and once or twice teased her for being so shy.
But
Marybelle did not like being teased. Her eyes filled
with
tears at once, and she turned away. 'She'll be better when she goes to school,'
Sooty said.  She hardly ever sees anyone of her own age.'
 Sooty turned the key
in the lock. 'Just in case friend Block comes snooping,' he said with a grin.
Sooty
began to move the furniture in the room to the sides, near the walls. The
others watched in surprise and then helped. 'What's the idea of the furniture
removal?' asked Dick, struggling with a heavy chest.
'Got
to get this heavy carpet up,' panted Sooty. 'It's put there to hide the
trap-door below. At least, that's what I've always thought.'
Once
the furniture stood by the walls, it was easy to drag up the heavy carpet.
There was a felt lining under it too, and that had to be pulled aside as well.
Then the children saw a trap-door, let flat into the floor, with a ring-handle
to pull it up.
They
felt excited. Another secret way! This house seemed full of them. Sooty pulled
at the ring and the heavy door came up quite easily. The children peered down,
but they could see nothing. It was pitch-dark.
'Are
there steps down?' asked Julian, holding Anne back in case she fell.
'No,'
said Sooty, reaching out for a big torch he had brought in with him. 'Look!'
He
switched on his torch, and the children gave a gasp. The trap-door led down to
a pit, far, far below!
'Why!
It's miles below the foundations of the house, surely!' said Julian, surprised.
 What's it for?'
'Oh,
it was probably used to hide people - or to get rid of them!' said Sooty. 'Nice
little place, isn't it? If
you
fell down there you'd land with an awful bump'!'
'But
- how in the world could we get Timmy down there - or get down ourselves?' said
George. 'I'm not going to fall down it, that's certain!'
Sooty
laughed. 'You won't have to,' he said. 'Look here.' He opened a cupboard and
reached up to a wide shelf. He pulled something down, and the children saw that
it was a rope-ladder, fine but very strong.
'There
you are! We can all get down by that,' he said.
'Timmy
can't,' said George at once. 'He couldn't possibly climb up or down a ladder.'
'Oh,
couldn't he?' said Sooty. 'He seems such a clever dog - I should have thought
he could easily have done a thing like that.'
'Well,
he can't,' said George, decidedly. 'That's a silly idea.'
'I
know,' said Marybelle, suddenly, going red at her boldness in breaking in on
the conversation. T think I know! We could get the laundry basket and shut
Timmy in it. And we could tie it with ropes, and let him down -and pull him up
the same way!'
The
others stared at her. 'Now that really is a brainwave!' said Julian, warmly.
'Good for you, Marybelle. Timmy would be quite safe in a basket. But it would
have to be a big one.'
'There's
a very big one in the kitchen,' said Marybelle. 'It's never used except when we
have lots of people to stay, like now. We could borrow it.'
'Oh
yes!' said Sooty. 'Of course we could. I'll go and get it now.'
'But
what excuse will you give?' shouted Julian after him. Sooty had already
unlocked the door and shot out! He was a most impatient person, and could never
put off anything for a single minute.
Sooty
didn't answer. He sped down the passage. Julian locked the door after him. He
didn't want anyone coming in and seeing the dragged-up carpet and the yawning
hole!
Sooty
was back in two minutes, carrying a very heavy wicker laundry basket on his
head. He banged on the door, and Julian unlocked it.
'Good!'
said Julian. 'How did you get it? Did anyone mind?'
'Didn't
ask them,' grinned Sooty. 'Nobody there to ask. Block's with Father, and Sarah
has gone out shopping. I can always put it back if any awkward questions are
asked.'
The
rope-ladder was shaken out down the hole. It slipped like an uncoiling snake,
down and down, and reached the pit at the bottom. Then Timmy was fetched from
Sooty's room. He came in wagging his tail overjoyed at being with everyone
again. George hugged him.
'Darling
Timmy!  But never mind, we're all going
out together this morning!'
Til
go down first,' said Sooty. 'Then you'd better let Timmy down. I'll tie his
basket round with this rope. It's nice and strong, and there's plenty to let
down. Better tie the other end to the end of the bed, then when we come up
again we can easily pull him up.'
Timmy
was made to get inside the big basket and lie down. He was surprised and barked
a little. But George put her hand over his mouth.
'Sh!
You mustn't say a word, Timmy,' she said. 'I know all this is very astonishing.
But never mind, you'll have a marvellous walk at the end of it.'
Timmy
heard the word 'walk' and was glad. That was
what
he wanted - a really nice long walk in the open air and sunshine!

'He's
really a marvellous dog,' said Marybelle. 'Sooty, get down the hole now, and be
ready for when we let him down.'
Sooty
disappeared down the dark hole, holding his torch between his teeth. Down and
down he went, down and down. At last he stood safely at the bottom, and flashed
his torch upwards. His voice came to them, sounding rather queer and far away.
'Come
on! Lower Timmy down!'
The
laundry basket, feeling extraordinarily heavy now, was pushed to the edge of
the hole. Then down it went, knocking against the sides here and there. Timmy
growled. He didn't like this game!
Dick
and Julian had hold of the rope between them. They lowered Timmy as smoothly as
they could. He reached the bottom with a slight bump, and Sooty undid the
basket. Out leapt Timmy, barking! But his bark sounded very small and distant
to the watchers at the top.
'Now
come on down, one by one!' shouted up Sooty, waving his torch. 'Is the door
locked, Julian?'
'Yes,'
said Julian. 'Look out for Anne. She's coming now.'
Anne
climbed down, a little frightened at first, but, as her feet grew use to
searching for and finding the rungs of the rope-ladder, she went down quite
quickly.
Then
the others followed, and soon they were all standing together at the bottom of
the hole, in the enormous pit. They looked round curiously. It had a musty
smell.
and
its walls were damp and greenish. Sooty swung his torch round, and the children
saw various passages leading off here and there.
'Where
do they all lead to?' asked Julian, in amazement.
 'This pit is down in the
hill and these tunnels lead into the catacombs. There are miles and miles of
them. No one explores them now, because so many people have been lost in them
and never heard of again. There used to be an old map of them, but it's lost.'
'It's
weird!' said Anne, and shivered. 'I wouldn't like to be down here alone.'
'What
a place to hide smuggled goods in,' said Dick. 'No one would ever find them
here.'
'I
guess the old-time smugglers knew every inch of these passages,' said Sooty.
'Come on! We'll take the one that leads out of the hillside. We'll have to do a
bit of climbing when we get there. I hope you don't mind.'
'Not
a bit,' said Julian. 'We're all good climbers. But I say, Sooty - you're sure
you know the way? We don't want to be lost for ever down here!'
"Course
I know the way! Come on!' said Sooty, and, flashing his torch in front of him,
he led the way into a dark and narrow tunnel.
Chapter
Eight
AN
EXCITING WALK
THE
tunnel ran slightly downwards, and smelt nasty in places. Sometimes it opened
out into pits like the one they themselves had come from. Sooty flashed his
torch up them.
'That
one goes into Barling's house somewhere,' he said. 'Most of the old houses
hereabouts have openings into pits, like ours. Jolly well hidden some of them
are, too!'
'There's
daylight or something in front!' said Anne, suddenly. 'Oh good!
Sure
enough, it was daylight, creeping in through a kind of cave-entrance in the
hillside. The children crowded there, and looked out.
They
were outside the hill, and outside the town, somewhere on the steep cliff-side
that ran down to the marsh. Sooty climbed out on to a ledge. He put his torch
into his pocket.
'We've
got to get to that path down there,' he said, pointing. 'That will lead us to a
place where the city wall is fairly low, and we can climb over it. Is Timmy
surefooted? We don't want him tumbling into the marsh down there!'
The
marsh lay a good way below, looking ugly and flat. George sincerely hoped Timmy
would never fall into it. Still, he was very sure-footed, and she didn't think
he would slip. The path was steep and rocky, but quite passable.
They
all went down it, clambering over rocks now and again. The path led them to the
city wail, which, as Sooty
had
said, was fairly low just there. He climbed up to the top. He was like a cat
for climbing!
'No
wonder he's got such a name for climbing about everywhere at school!' said Dick
to Julian. 'He's had good practice here. Do you remember how he climbed up to
the roof of the school the term before last? Everyone was scared he'd slip and
fall, but he didn't. He tied the Union Jack to one of the chimney-pots!'
'Come
on!' called Sooty. 'The coast is clear. This is a lonely bit of the town, and
no one will see us climbing up.'
Soon
they were all over the wall, Timmy too. They set off for a good walk, swinging
down the hill, enjoying themselves. The mist began to clear after a while, and
the sun felt nice and warm.
The
town was very old. Some of the houses seemed almost tumble-down, but there were
people living in them, for smoke came from the chimneys. The shops were quaint,
with their long narrow windows, and over-hanging eaves. The children stopped to
look into them.
'Look
out - here's Block!' said Sooty suddenly in a low voice. 'Don't take any notice
of Timmy at all. If he comes around licking us or jumping up, pretend to try
and drive him off as if he was a stray.'
The/all
pretended not to see Block, but gazed earnestly into the window of a shop.
Timmy feeling rather out of it, ran up to George and pawed at her, trying to
make her take notice of him.
'Go
away, dog!' said Sooty, and flapped at the surprised Timmy. 'Go away! Following
us about like this! Go home, can't you?'
Timmy
thought this was some sort of a game. He barked happily, and ran round Sooty
and George, giving them an occasional lick.
'Home,
dog, home!' yelled Sooty, flapping hard again.
Then
Block came up to them, no expression on his face at all. 'The dog bothers you?'
he said. 'I will throw a stone at him and make him go.'
'Don't
you dare!' said George, immediately. 'You go home yourself! I don't mind the
dog following us. He's quite a nice one.'
'Block's
deaf, silly,' said Sooty. 'It's no good talking to him.' To George's horror
Block picked up a big stone, meaning to throw it at Timmy. George flew at him,
punched him hard on the arm, and made him drop the stone.
 Til - I'll
tell the police.'
'Now,
now,' said a voice nearby. 'What's all this about? Pierre, what's the trouble?'
The
children turned and saw a tall man standing near them, wearing his hair rather
long. He had long, narrow eyes, a long nose and a long chin. 'He's long
everywhere!' thought Anne, looking at his long thin legs and long narrow feet.
'Oh,
Mr. Barling! I didn't see you,' said Sooty, politely. 'Nothing's the matter,
thanks. It's only that this dog is following us, and Block said he'd make it go
away by chucking a stone at it. And George here is fond of dogs and got angry
about that.'
'I
see. And who are all these children?' said Mr. Barling, looking at each one of
them out of his long, narrow eyes.
 'George's father's house, I mean. At Kirrin.'
'Ah
- at Kirrin?' said Mr. Barling, and seemed to prick up his long ears. 'Surely
that is where that very clever scientist friend of Mr. Lenoir's lives?'
'Yes.
He's my father,' said George. 'Why, do you know him?'
'I
have heard of him - and of his very interesting experiments,' said Mr. Barling.
'Mr. Lenoir knows him well, I believe?'
'Not
awfully well,' said George, puzzled. 'They just write to one another, I think.
My father telephoned to Mr. Lenoir to ask him if he could have us to stay while
our own house is being mended.'
'And
Mr. Lenoir, of course, was only too delighted to have the whole company of
you?' said Mr. Barling. 'Such a good, generous fellow, your father, Pierre!'
The
children stared at Mr. Barling, thinking that it was queer of him to say nice
things in such a nasty voice.
They
felt uncomfortable. It was plain that Mr. Barling did not like Mr. Lenoir at
all. Well, neither did they, but they didn't like Mr. Barling any better!
Timmy
saw another dog and darted happily after him. Block had now disappeared, going
up the steep high street with his basket. The children said good-bye to Mr.
Barling, not wanting to talk to him any more.
They
went after Timmy, talking eagerly as soon as they had left Mr. Barling behind.
'Goodness
- that was a narrow escape from Block!' said Julian. 'Old beast - going to
throw that enormous stone at Timmy. No wonder you flew at him, George! You
nearly gave the game away, though.'
'I
don't care,' said George. 'I wasn't going to have Timmy's leg broken. It was a
bit of bad luck meeting Block our very first morning out.'
'We'll
probably never meet him again when we take Timmy out,' said Sooty,
comfortingly. 'And if we do we'll simply say the dog always joins us when it
meets us. Which is perfectly true.'
They
enjoyed their walk. They went into a quaint old coffee shop and had steaming
cups of delicious creamy coffee and jammy buns. Timmy had two of the buns and
gobbled them greedily. George went off to buy some meat for him at the
butcher's, choosing a shop that Sooty said Mrs. Lenoir did not go to. She did
not want any butcher telling Mrs. Lenoir that the children had been buying
dog-meat!
They
went back the same way as they had come. They made their way up the steep
cliff-path, and in at the tunnel-entrance, back through the winding tunnel to
the pit, and there was the rope-ladder waiting for them. Julian and Dick went
up first, while George packed the surprised Timmy into the basket again and
tied the rope
firmly
round it. Then up went the whining Timmy, bumping against the sides of the hole,
until the two panting boys pulled the basket into Marybelle's room and undid
it.
It
was ten minutes before the dinner-hour.  'And I'll put old Timmy back
into the secret passage behind the cupboard in my room, George. Where is that
meat you bought? I'll put that in the passage too. He can eat it when he
likes.'
'Did
you put him a nice warm rug there, and a dish of fresh water?' asked George,
anxiously, for the third or fourth time.
'You
know I did. I keep telling you,' said Sooty. 'Look, we won't put back all the
furniture except the chairs. We can say we want it left back because we like to
play a game on the carpet. It'll be an awful bore if we have to move chests and
things every time we exercise Tim.'
They
were just in time for their dinner. Block was there to serve it, and so was
Sarah. The children sat down hungrily, in spite of having had coffee and buns.
Block and Sarah ladled out hot soup on to their plates.
'I
hope you got rid of the unpleasant dog,' said Block in his monotonous voice. He
gave George a rather nasty look. Evidently he had not forgotten how she had
flown at him.
Sooty
nodded. It was no good speaking in answer, for Block would not hear. Sarah
bustled round, taking away the soup-plates and preparing to give them their
second course.
The
food was very good at Smuggler's Top. There was plenty of it, and the hungry
visitors and Sooty ate everything put before them. Marybelle hadn't much
appetite,
but
she was the only one. George tried to secrete tit-bits and bones whenever she
could, for Timmy.
Two
or three days went by, and the children fell into their new life quite happily.
Timmy was taken out each morning for a long walk. The children soon got used to
slipping down the rope-ladder, and making their way with Timmy to the
cliff-side.
In
the afternoons they went to either Booty's room or Marybelle's, and played
games or read. They could have Timmy there, because the buzzer always warned
them if anyone was coming.
At
night it was always an excitement to get Timmy to George's room without being
seen. This was usually done when Mr. and Mrs. Lenoir were sitting at their
dinner, and Block and Sarah were serving them. The children had a light supper
first, and Mr. and Mrs. Lenoir had their dinner an hour later. It was quite the
best time to smuggle Timmy along to George's room.
Timmy
seemed to enjoy the smuggling. He ran silently beside George and Sooty, stopped
at every corner, and scampered gladly into George's room as soon as he got
there. He lay quietly under the bed till George was in bed herself, and then he
came out to lie on her feet.
George
always locked their door at night. She didn't want Sarah or Mrs. Lenoir coming
in and finding Timmy there! But nobody came, and as night after night went by,
George grew more easy about Timmy.
Taking
him back to Sooty's room in the morning was a bit of nuisance, because it had
to be done early, before anyone was up. But George could always wake herself at
any time she chose, and each morning about half past six the little girl
slipped through the house with Timmy. She went in at Sooty's door, and he
jumped out of bed to deal with Timmy. He was always awakened by the buzzer that
sounded
when George opened the door at the end of the passage.
'I
hope you are all enjoying yourselves,' Mr. Lenoir said to the children,
whenever they met him in the hall or on the stairs. And they always replied
politely. 'Oh yes, Mr. Lenoir, thank you.'
'It's
quite a peaceful holiday after all,' said Julian. 'Nothing happens at all!'
And
then things did begin to happen and once they had begun they never stopped!
Chapter
Nine
WHO
IS IN THE TOWER?
ONE
night Julian was awakened by someone opening his door. He sat up at once. 'Who
is it?' he said. 'Me, Sooty,' said Sooty's voice, very low. 'I say, I want you
to come and see something.'
Julian
woke Dick, and the two of them put on their dressing-gowns.  All kinds of things were kept here, trunks and boxes,
old toys, chests of old clothes, broken vases that had never been mended, and
many other worthless things.
'Look,'
said Sooty, taking them to the window. They saw that the little room had a view
of the tower belonging to the house. It was the only room in the house that
did, for it was built at a queer angle.
The
boys looked - and Julian gave an exclamation. Someone was signalling from the
tower! A light there flashed every now and again. In and out - pause - flash,
flash, in and out - pause. The light went regularly on and off in a certain
rhythm.
'Now
- who's doing that?' whispered Sooty.
'Your
father?' wondered Julian.
'Don't
think so,' said Sooty. 'I think I heard him snoring away in his room. We could
go and find out though -see if he really is in his bedroom.'
'Well
- for goodness sake don't let's get caught,' said Julian, not at all liking the
idea of prying about in his host's house.
They made their way to where Mr. Lenoir
had his | room. It was quite plain he was there, for a regular low snoring came
from behind the closed door. 'It may
be Block up in the tower,' said Dick. 'He looks full of secrets. I wouldn't
trust him an inch. I bet it's it Block.'
'Well
- shall we go to his room and see if it's empty?' whispered Sooty. 'Come on. If
it's Block signalling, he's doing it without Father knowing.'
'Oh,
your father might have told him to,' said Julian, who felt that he wouldn't
trust Mr. Lenoir much further than he would trust Block.
They
went up the back-stairs to the wing where the staff slept. Sarah slept in a
room there with Harriet the 'kitchen-maid. Block slept alone.
Sooty
pushed open Block's door very softly and slowly. When he had enough room to put
in his head, he did so. The room was full of moonlight. By the window was
'}\Block's bed. And Block was there!
He
listened, but he could not catch Block's breathing. He must sleep very quietly.
He
withdrew his head, and pushed the other two boys quietly down the back-stairs.
'Was
he there?' whispered Julian.
'Yes.
So it can't be him, signalling up in our tower,' said Sooty. 'Well - who can it
be then? I don't like it. It couldn't possibly be Mother or Sarah or the little
kitchen-maid. Is there a stranger in our house, someone we don't know, living
here in secret?'
'Can't
be!' said Julian, a little shiver running down his back. 'Look here - what about
us going up to the tower and trying to peep through the door or something? We'd
soon
find out who it was then. Perhaps we ought to tell your father.'
'No.
Not yet. I want to find out a whole lot more befoie I say anything to anyone,'
said Sooty, sounding obstinate. 'Let's creep up to the tower. We shall have to
be jolly careful though. You get to it by a spiral staircase, rather narrow.
There's nowhere much to hide if anyone suddenly came down out of the tower.'
'What's
in the tower?' whispered Dick, as they made their way through the dark and
silent house, thin streaks of moonlight coming in here and there between the
cracks of the closed curtains.
'Nothing
much. Just a table and a chair or two, and a bookcase of books,' said Sooty.
'We use it on hot summer days when the breeze gets in strongly through the
windows there, and we can see a long way all round us.'
They
came to a little landing. From this a winding, narrow stairway of stone went up
to the rounded tower. The boys looked up. Moonlight fell on the stairway from a
slit-like window in the wall.
'We'd
better not all go up,' said Sooty. 'We should find it so difficult to hurry
down, three of us, if the person in the tower suddenly came out. I'll go. You
stay down here and wait. I'll see if I can spy anything through the crack in
the door or the key-hole.'
He
crept softly up the stairway, soon lost to view as he rounded the first spiral.
Julian and Dick waited in the shadows at the bottom. There was a thick curtain
over one of the windows there, and they got behind it, wrapping its folds round
them for warmth.
Sooty
crept up to the top. The tower-room had a stout oak door, studded and barred.
It was shut! It was no use trying to look through the crack, because there
wasn't one. He bent down to peer through the key-hole.
But
that was stuffed up with something, so he could not see through that either. He
pressed his ear to it and listened.
He
heard a series of little clicks. Click - click - click -click - click. Nothing
else at all.
'That's
the click of the light they're using,' thought Sooty. 'Still signalling like
mad! What for? Who to? And who is in our tower-room, using it as a
signalling-station? How I wish I knew!'
Suddenly:
the clicking stopped. There was the sound of someone walking across the stone
floor of the tower. And almost at once the door opened!
Sooty
had no time to hurry down the stairs. All he could do was to squeeze into a
niche, and hope that the person would not see him or touch him as he went by.
The moon went behind a cloud at that moment, and Sooty was thankful to know he
was hidden in black shadow. Someone came down the stairs and actually brushed
against Sooty's arm.
Sooty
jumped almost out of his skin, expecting to be hauled out of his niche. But the
person did not seem to notice, and went on down the spiral stairway, walking
softly.
Sooty
did not dare to go down after him, for he was afraid the man would come out,
and cast his shadow down for the signaller to see.
So
he stayed squeezed in his niche, hoping that Julian and Dick were well-hidden,
and would not think it was he, Sooty, who was walking down the stairs!
Julian
and Dick heard the soft footsteps coming, and-thought at first it was Sooty.
Then, not hearing his whisper, they stiffened behind the curtains, guessing
that it was the signaller himself who was walking by!
'We'd
better follow him!' whispered Julian to Dick. 'Come on. Quiet, now!'
But
Julian got muddled up with the great curtains, and could not seem to find his
way out. Dick, however, slipped out easily enough, and padded after the
disappearing person. The moon was now out again, and Dick could catch glimpses
of the signaller as he went past the moonlight streaks. Keeping well in the
shadows himself, he darted quietly after him. Where was he going?
He
followed him across the landing to a passage. Then across another landing and
up the back-stairs! But those led to the staff bedrooms. Surely the man was not
going there?
Dick,
to his enormous surprise, saw the person disappear silently into Block's
bedroom. He crept to the door,
which
had been left a little ajar. There was no light in the room except that of the
moon. There was no sound of talking. Nothing at all except a creak which might
have come from the bed.
 Would he see the man waking up
Block? Would he see him climbing out of the window?
He
stared round the room. There was no one there at all, except Block lying in
bed. The moonlight lit up the corners, and Dick could quite plainly see that
the room was empty.
'Well!
That's the queerest thing I ever saw,' thought Dick, puzzled. 'A man goes into
a room and completely disappears, without a single sound! Where can he have
gone?'
He
went back to find the others.
They
went to find Dick, and suddenly bumped into him, creeping along quietly in the
darkness. They all jumped violently, and Julian almost cried out, but stifled
his voice just in time.
'Golly!
You gave me a scare, Dick!' he whispered. 'Well, did you see who it was and
where he went?'
 'He simply went into Block's room and
vanished,' he said. 'Is there any secret passage leading out of Block's room,
Sooty?'
'No,
none,' said Sooty. 'That wing is much newer than the rest of the house, and
hasn't any secrets in at all. I simply can't imagine what happened to the man.
How very queer! Who is he, and why does he come, and where on earth does he
go?'
'We
really must find out,' said Julian. 'It's such a mystery! Sooty, how did you
know there was signalling going on from the tower?'
'Well,
some time ago I found it out, quite by accident,' said Sooty. 'I couldn't
sleep, and I went along to that funny little box-room place, and ferreted about
for an old book I thought I'd seen there. And suddenly I looked up at the tower,
and saw a light flashing there.'
'Funny,'
said Dick.
'Well,
I went along there at night a good many times after that, to see if I could see
the signals again,' said Sooty, 'and at last I did. The first time I had seen
them there was a good moon, and the second time there was, too. So, I thought,
next time there's a moon, I'll creep along to that old box-room and see if the
signaller is at work again. And sure enough he was!'
'Where
does that window look out on, that we saw the light flashing from?' asked
Julian, thoughtfully. 'The seaward side - or the landward?'
'Seaward,'
said Sooty at once. 'There's something or someone out at sea that receives
those signals. Goodness knows who.'
'Some
kind of smugglers, I suppose,' said Dick. 'But it can't be anything to do with
your father, Sooty. I say -let's go up into the tower, shall we? We might find
something there-or see something.'
They
went back to the spiral staircase and climbed up to the tower-room. It was
dark, for the moon was behind a cloud. But it came out after a while, and the
boys looked out of the seaward window.
There
was no mist at all that night. They could see the flat marshes stretching away
to the sea. They gazed down in silence. Then the moon went in and darkness
covered the marsh.
Suddenly
Julian clutched the others, making them jump. 'I can see something!' he
whispered. 'Look beyond there. What is it?'
They
all looked. It seemed like a tiny line of very small dots of light. They were
so far away that it was difficult to see if they stayed still or moved. Then
the moon came out again, flooding everywhere with silvery light, and the boys
could not see anything except the moonshine.
But
when the moon went in again, there was the line of tiny, pricking lights again!
'A bit nearer, surely!' whispered Sooty. 'Smugglers - coming over a secret path
from the sea to Castaway Hill! Smugglers!'
Chapter
Ten
TIMMY
MAKES A NOISE
THE
three girls were very excited the next day when the boys told them their
adventure of the night before.
'Gracious!'
said Anne, her eyes wide with surprise. 'Who can it be signalling like that?
And wherever did he go to? Fancy him going into Block's room, with Block there
in bed!'
'It's
very peculiar,' said George. 'I wish you had come and told me and Anne.'
'There
wasn't time - and anyway, we couldn't have Timmy about at night. He might have
flown at the signaller,' said Dick.
'The
man must have been signalling to the smugglers,' said Julian, thoughtfully.
'Let me see - probably they came over from France in a ship - came as near to
the marsh as they could - waited for a signal to tell them that the coast was
clear - probably the signal from the tower -and then waded across a path they
knew through the marsh. Each man must have carried a torch to prevent himself from
leaving the path and falling into the marsh. No doubt there was someone waiting
to receive the goods they brought - someone at the edge of the marsh below the
hill.'
'But
who?' said Dick.  Because the signal lights came from our house, not his. It's all
very puzzling.'
'Well,
we'll do our best to solve the mystery,' said George. 'There's some queer game
going on in this very
house,
with or without your father's knowledge, Sooty. We'll keep a jolly good lookout
and see if we can find out what it is.'
They
were at breakfast alone, when they discussed the night's adventure. Block came
in to see if they had finished at that moment. Anne did not notice him.
'What
does Mr. Barling smuggle?' she asked Sooty. Immediately she got a hard kick on
her ankle, and stared in pain and surprise. 'Why did you ...?' she began, and
got another kick, harder still. Then she saw Block.
'But
he's deaf,' she said. 'He can't hear anything we say.'
Block
began to clear away, his face as usual showing no expression. Sooty glared at
Anne. She was upset and cross, but said no more. She rubbed her bruised ankle
hard. As soon as Block went out of the room she turned on Sooty.
'You
mean thing!   He's quite deaf!' said Anne, her face very red.
'I
know he's supposed to be,' said Sooty. 'And I think he is. But I saw a funny
look come over his face when you asked me what Mr. Barling smuggled - almost as
if he had heard what you said, and was surprised.'
'You
imagined it!' said Anne, crossly, still rubbing her ankle. 'Anyway, don't kick
me so hard again. A gentle push with your toe would have been enough.  'I dropped a plate off the table yesterday, by
accident, just behind him, and it smashed to bits, if you remember. Well, he
didn't jump or turn a hair, as he would have done if he could have heard.'
'All
the same - I never trust Block, deaf or not,' said Sooty. 'I always feel he
might read our lips or something. Deaf people can often do that, you know.'
They
went off to take Timmy for his usual morning walk. Timmy was quite used to
being shut in the laundry basket by now, and lowered into the pit. In fact, he
always jumped straight into the basket as soon as the lid was opened, and lay
down.
That
morning they again met Block, who stared with great interest at the dog. He
plainly recognized it as the same dog as before.
'There's
Block,' said Julian, in a low voice. 'Don't drive Timmy off this time. We'll
pretend he's a stray who always meets us each morning.'
So
they let Timmy run round them, and when Block came up, they nodded to him, and
made as if to go on their way. But the man stopped them.
'That
dog seems to be a friend of yours,' he said, in his curious monotone of a
voice.
'Oh
yes. He goes with us each morning now,' said Julian, politely. 'He quite thinks
he's our dog! Nice fellow, isn't he?'
Block
stared at Timmy, who growled. 'Mind you do not bring that dog into the house,'
said Block. 'If you do, Mr. Lenoir will have him killed.'
Julian
saw George's face beginning to turn red with fury. He spoke hurriedly. 'Why
should we bring him to the house, Block? Don't be silly!'
Block,
however, did not appear to hear. He gave Timmy a nasty look, and went on his
way, occasionally turning round to look at the little company of children.
'Horrid
fellow!' said George, angrily.
When
they got back to Marybelle's bedroom that morning, they pulled Timmy up from
the pit, and let him out of the basket. 'We'll put him into the secret passage
as usual,' said George, 'and I'll put some biscuits in with him. I got some
nice ones for him this morning, the sort he likes, all big and crunchy.'
She
went to the door - but just as she was about to unlock it and take Timmy into
Sooty's room next door, Timmy gave a small growl.
George
took her hand away from the door at once. She turned to look at Timmy. He was
standing stiffly, the hackles on his neck rising up, and he was staring fixedly
at the door. George put her hand to her lips warningly, and whispered:
'Someone's
outside. Timmy knows. He's smelt them. Will you all talk loudly, and pretend to
be playing a game? I'll pop Timmy into the cupboard where the rope-ladder is
kept.'
At
once the others began to talk to one another, whilst George swiftly dragged
Timmy to the cupboard, patted him to make him understand he was to be quiet,
and shut him in.
'My
turn to deal,' said Julian loudly, and took a pack of snap cards from the top
of the chest. 'You won last time, Dick. Bet I'll win this time.'
He
dealt swiftly. The others, still talking loudly, saying
anything
that came into their heads, began to play snap.
They
yelled 'snap' nearly all the time, pretending to be
very
jolly and hilarious. Anyone listening outside the door
would
never guess it was all pretence.
George,
who was watching the door closely, saw that the handle was gradually turning,
very slowly indeed. Someone meant to open the door without being heard, and
come in unexpectedly. But the door was locked!
Soon
the person outside, whoever it was, realized that
the
door was locked, and the handle slowly turned the other way again. Then it was
still. There came no other sound. It was impossible to know if anyone was still
outside the door or not.
But
Timmy would know! Signing to the others to carry on with their shouting and
laughing, George let Timmy out of the cupboard. He ran to the door of the room,
and stood there, sniffing quietly. Then he turned and looked at George, his
tail wagging.
'It's
all right,' said George to the others. 'There's no one there now. Timmy always
knows. We'd better quickly take him into your room, Sooty, while the coast is
clear. Who could it have been, do you think, snooping outside?'
'Block,
I should say,' said Sooty. He unlocked the door and peered out. There was no
one in the passage. Sooty tiptoed to the door at the end and looked out there
also. He waved to George to tell her it was all right to take Timmy into his
room.
Soon
Timmy was safely in the secret passage, crunching up his favourite biscuits. He
had got quite used to his queer life now, and did not mind at all. He knew his
way about the passage, and had explored other passages that led from it. He was
quite at home in the maze of secret ways!
'Better
go and have our dinner now,* said Dick.  'I wouldn't have before, but I never
thought of him reading my lips. If he does, he's very clever.'
Soon
they were all sitting down to lunch. Block was there, waiting to serve them.
Sarah was out for the day and did not appear. Block served them with soup, and
then went out.
Suddenly,
to the children's intense surprise and fright, they heard Timmy barking loudly!
They all jumped violently.
'Listen!
Hark at Timmy!' said Julian. 'He must be somewhere near here, in that secret
passage. How weird it sounds, his bark coming muffled and distant like that.
 'Not a word. Pretend not to hear at all, if
Timmy barks again. What on earth is he barking for?'
'It's
the bark he uses when he's excited and pleased,' said George. 'I expect he's
chasing a rat.  There he goes again. Oh, dear, I hope he catches the rat quickly and
settles down!'
Block
came back at that moment. Timmy had again just stopped barking. But, in a
moment or two, his doggy voice could be heard once more, very muffled. 'Woof!
Woof-woof!'
Julian
was watching Block closely. The man went on serving the meat. He said nothing,
but looked round at the children intently, as if he wanted to see each child's
expression, or see if they said anything.
'Jolly
good soup that was today,' said Julian, cheerfully, looking round at the
others. 'I must say Sarah is a wonderful cook.'
'I
think her ginger buns are gorgeous,' said Anne. 'Especially when they are all
hot from the oven.'
'Woof-woof,'
said Timmy's voice from far away behind the walls.
'George,
your mother makes the most heavenly fruit cake I ever tasted,' said Dick to
George, wishing Timmy would be quiet. 'I do wonder how they're all getting on
at
Kirrin Cottage, and if they've started mending the roof yet.'
'Woof!'
said Timmy, joyfully chasing his rat down another bit of passage.
Block
served everyone and then silently disappeared. Julian went to the door to make
sure he had gone and was not outside.
'I
hope old Block is as deaf as a post!' he said. 'I could have sworn I saw a
surprised look come into those cold eyes of his, when Timmy barked.'
'Well,
if he could hear him,-which I don't believe,' said George, 'he must have been
jolly surprised to see us talking away and not paying any attention to a dog's
barking at all!'
The
others giggled. They kept a sharp ear for Block's return. They heard footsteps
after a time, and began to pile their plates together for him to take away.
The
schoolroom door opened. But it was not Block who came in. It was Mr. Lenoir! He
came in, smiling as usual, and looked round at the surprised children.
'Ah!
 He always irritated the children because he spoke to them as if they were
very small. 'Does Block wait on you properly?'
'Oh
yes, sir, thank you,' said Julian, standing up politely. 'We are having a very
nice time here. We think Sarah is a wonderful cook!'
'Ah,
that's good, that's good,' said Mr. Lenoir. The children waited impatiently for
him to go. They were so afraid that Timmy would bark again. But Mr. Lenoir
seemed in no hurry.
And
then Timmy barked again! 'Woof, woof, woof!'
Chapter
Eleven GEORGE IS WORRIED
MR.
LENOIR cocked his head on one side almost like a startled dog, when he heard
the muffled barking. He looked at the children. But they made no sign of having
heard anything. Mr. Lenoir listened a little while, saying nothing. Then he
turned to a drawing-book, belonging to Julian, and began to look at the
sketches there.
The
children felt somehow that he was doing it for the sake of staying in the
schoolroom a little longer. Into Julian's mind came the quick suspicion that
somehow Mr. Lenoir must have been told of Timmy's barking and come to
investigate it for himself. It was the first time he had ever come to the
schoolroom!
Timmy
barked again, a little more distantly. Mr. Lenoir's nose grew white at the tip.
Sooty and Marybelle knew the danger-sign, and glanced at one another. That
white-tipped nose usually meant a storm of temper!
'Do
you hear that noise?' said Mr. Lenoir, snapping out the words.
'What
noise, sir?' asked Julian, politely.
Timmy
barked again.
'Don't
be foolish! There's the noise again!' said Mr. Lenoir. At that moment a gull
called outside the window, circling in the sea-breeze.
'Oh
- that gull, sir? Yes, we often hear the gulls,' said Dick, brightly.
'Sometimes they seem to mew like a cat sir.'
'Pah!'
said Mr. Lenoir, almost spitting out the word. T suppose you will say they also
bark like a dog?'
'Well,
they might, I suppose, sir,' agreed Dick, looking faintly surprised. 'After
all, if they can mew like cats, there's no reason why they shouldn't bark like
dogs.5
Timmy
barked again very joyfully. Mr. Lenoir faced the children, in a very bad temper
indeed now.
'Can't
you hear that? Tell me what that noise is!'
The
children all put their heads on one side, and pretended to listen very
carefully. 'I can't hear anything,' said Dick. 'Not a thing.'
'I
can hear the wind,' said Anne.
'I
can hear the gulls again,' said Julian, putting his hand behind one ear.
'I
can hear a door banging. Perhaps that's the noise you mean, sir!' said Sooty,
with a most innocent expression. His stepfather gave him a poisonous look. He
could really be very unpleasant.
'And
there's a window rattling,' said Marybelle, eager to do her bit too, though she
felt very frightened of her father, for she knew his sudden rages very well.
'I
tell you, it's a dog, and >ou know it!' snapped Mr. Lenoir, the tip of his
nose so white now that it looked very queer indeed. 'Where's the dog? Whose is
he?'
'What
dog, sir?' began Julian, frowning as if he were very puzzled indeed. 'There's
no dog here that I can see.'
Mr.
Lenoir glared at him, and clenched his fingers. It was quite clear that he
would have liked to box Julian's ears. 'Then listen!' he hissed. 'Listen and
say what you think could make that barking, if not a dog?'
They
were all forced to listen, for by now they felt scared of the angry man. But
fortunately Timmy made no sound at all. Either he had let the rat escape, or
was now gobbling it up. Anyway, there was not a single sound from him!
'Sorry,
sir but really I can't hear a dog barking,' said Julian, in rather an injured
tone.
'Nor
can I!' said Dick, and the others joined in, saying the same. Mr. Lenoir knew
that this time they were speaking the truth, for he too could not hear
anything.
'When
I catch that dog I will have him poisoned,' he said, very slowly and clearly.
'I will not have dogs in my house.'
He
turned on his heel and went out quickly, which was a very good thing, for
George was quite ready to fly into one of her rages, and then there would have
been a real battle! Anne put her hand on George's arm to stop her shouting
after Mr. Lenoir.
'Don't
give the game away!' she whispered. 'Don't say anything, George!'
George
bit her lip. She had gone first red with rage and then white. She stamped her
foot.
'How
dare he, how dare he?' she burst out.
'Shut
up, silly,' said Julian. 'Block will be back in a minute. We must all pretend
to be awfully surprised that Mr. Lenoir thought there was a dog, because, if
Block can read our lips, he mustn't know the truth.'
Block
came in with the pudding at that moment, his face as blank as ever. It was the
most curious face the children had ever seen, for there was never any change of
expression on it at all. As Anne said, it might have been a wax mask!
'Funny
how Mr. Lenoir thought there was a dog barking!' began Julian, and the others
backed him up valiantly. If Block could indeed read their lips he would be
puzzled to know whether there had been a dog barking or not!
The
children escaped to Sooty's room afterwards, and held a council of war. 'What
are we to do about Timmy?' said George. 'Does your stepfather know the secret
way behind the walls of Smuggler's Top, Sooty? Could he possibly get in and
find Timmy? Timmy might fly at him, you know.'
'Yes,
he might,' said Sooty, thoughtfully. I don't know if Father does know about the
secret passages. I mean, I expect he knows, but I don't know if he guessed
where the entrances are. I found them out quite by accident.'
'I'm
going home,' said George, suddenly. 'I'm not going to risk Timmy being
poisoned.'
'You
can't go home alone,' said Julian. 'It would look funny. If you do, we'd all
have to, and then we won't have a chance to solve this mystery with Sooty.'
'No,
for goodness sake don't go and leave me just now,' said Sooty, looking quite
alarmed. 'It would make my father furious, simply furious.'
George
hesitated. She didn't want to make trouble for Sooty, whom she liked very much.
But, on the other hand, she certainly was not going to risk danger to Timmy.
'Well
- I'll telephone my father and say I'm homesick and want to go back,' said
George. 'I'll say I miss Mother. It's quite true, I do miss her. You others can
stay on here and solve the mystery. It wouldn't be fair of you to try and keep
me and Timmy here when you know I'd worry every moment in case someone got into
the secret passage and put down poisoned meat for him to eat.'
The
others hadn't thought of this. That would be terrible. Julian sighed. He would
have to let George have her own way after all.
'All
right. You telephone to your father,' he said. 'There's a phone downstairs. Do
it now if you like. There won't be anyone about now, I don't suppose.'
George
slipped down the passage, out of the door there, and down the stairs to where
the telephone was enclosed in a dark little cupboard. She asked for the number
she wanted.
There
was a long wait. Then she heard the buzzing noise - brr - brr - brr - brr -
that told her that the telephone bell at Kirrin Cottage was ringing. She began
to plan what she should say to her father. She must, she really must go home
with Timmy. She didn't know how she was going to explain about Timmy - perhaps
she needn't explain at all. But she meant to go home that day or the next!
'Brr
- brr - brr - brr' said the bell at the other end. It went on and on, and
nobody answered it. She did not
hear
her father's familiar voice - only the bell that went on ringing. Why did
nobody answer?
The
operator at the exchange spoke to her. I'm sorry. There's no reply.'
George
put down the receiver miserably. Perhaps her parents were out? She would have
to try again later on.
Poor
George tried three times, but each time there was the same result. No reply. As
she was coming out of the telephone cupboard for the third time, Mrs. Lenoir
saw her.
'Have
you been trying to telephone to your home?' she said. "Haven't you heard
any news?'
'I
haven't had a letter yet,' said George. 'I've tried three times to telephone
Kirrin Cottage but each time there is no reply.'
'Well,
we heard this morning that it is impossible to live in Kirrin Cottage while the
men are hammering and knocking everywhere,' said Mrs. Lenoir, in her gentle
voice. 'We heard from your mother. She said that the noise was driving your
father mad, and they were going away for a week or so, till things were better.
But Mr. Lenoir at once wrote and asked them here. We shall know tomorrow,
because we have asked them to telephone a reply. We could not get them on the
telephone today, of course, any more than you could, because they have gone
away already.'
'Oh,'
said George, surprised at all this news and wondering why her mother had not
written to tell her too.
'Your
mother said she had written to you,' said Mrs. Lenoir. 'Maybe the letter will
come by the next post. The posts are often most peculiar here. It will be a
pleasure to have your parents if they can come. Mr. Lenoir particularly wants
to meet your clever father. He thinks he is quite a genius.'
George
said no more but went back to the others, her face serious. She opened Booty's
door, and the others saw at once that she had had news of some sort.
'I
can't go home with Timothy,' said George. 'Mother and Father can't stand the
noise the workmen make, and they have both gone away!'
'Bad
luck!' said Sooty. 'All the same, I'm glad you'll have to stay here, George. I
should hate to lose you or Timmy.'
'Your
mother has written to ask my mother and father to come and stay here too,' said
George. 'What I shall do about Timmy I don't know! And they are sure to ask
questions about him too. I can't tell a downright lie and say I left him with
Alf the fisher-boy, or anything like that. I can't think what to do!'
'We'll
think of something,' promised Sooty. 'Perhaps I can get one of the villagers to
look after him for us. That would be a very good idea.'
'Oh
yes!' said George, cheering up. 'Why didn't I think of that before? Let's ask
someone quickly, Sooty.3
But
it was impossible to do anything that day because Mrs. Lenoir asked them to go
down into the drawing-room after tea, and have a game with her. So none of them
could go out to find someone to look after Timmy.
'Never
mind,' thought George. 'He'll be safe tonight on my bed! Tomorrow will be soon
enough.'
It
was the first time that Mrs. Lenoir had asked them down to be with her. 'You
see, Mr. Lenoir is out tonight on important business,' she explained. 'He has
had to go to the mainland with the car. He doesn't like his evenings disturbed
when he is at home, so I haven't been able to see as much of you all as I
should have liked. But tonight I can.'
Julian
wondered if Mr. Lenoir had gone to the mainland on smuggling business! Somehow
the smuggled goods must be taken across to the mainland - and if all that
signalling business the other night had to do with Mr. Lenoir's smuggling then
maybe he had now gone to dispose of the goods!
The
telephone bell rang shrilly. Mrs Lenoir got up. 'I expect that is your mother
or father on the phone,' she said to George. 'Maybe I shall have news for you!
Perhaps your parents will be arriving here tomorrow.'
She
went out into the hall. The children waited anxiously. Would George's parents
come or not?
Chapter
Twelve
BLOCK
GETS A SURPRISE
MRS.
LENOIR came back after a time. She smiled at George.
'That
was your father,' she said.  They
went to your aunt's, and your mother says she thinks she must stay and help
her, because your aunt is not very well. But your father would like to come,
because he wants to discuss his latest experiments with Mr. Lenoir, who is very
interested in them. It will be very nice to have him.'
The
children would very much rather have had Aunt Fanny instead of Uncle Quentin,
who could be very difficult at times. But still, he would probably be talking
with Mr. Lenoir most of the time, so that would be all right!
They
finished their game with Mrs. Lenoir and went up to bed. George was to get
Timmy to take him to her room. Sooty went to see that the coast was clear. He
could not see Block anywhere. His stepfather was still away from the house.
Sarah was singing in the kitchen and the little kitchen-maid, Harriet, was
knitting there in a corner.
'Block
must be out,' thought Sooty, and went to tell George that the coast was clear.
As he went across the landing to the long passage that led to his own room, the
boy noticed two black lumps sticking out at the bottom of the thick curtains
drawn across the landing window. He looked at them in surprise, and then
recognized them. He grinned.
'So
old Block suspects we have a dog, and he thinks it sleeps in George's room or
Julian's, and he's posted himself there to watch!' he thought 'Aha! I'll give
friend Block a nasty shock!'
He
ran to tell the others. George listened, alarmed. But Sooty, as usual, had a
plan.
'We'll
give Block an awful shock!' he said. 'I'll get a rope, and we'll all go down to
the landing. I'll suddenly yell out that there's a robber hiding behind the
curtains and I'll pounce on Block, and give him a few good punches.
The
others began to laugh. It would be fun to play a trick on Block. He really was
such an unpleasant fellow. A good lesson would do him no harm.
'While
all the excitement is beginning I'll slip by with Timmy,' said George. 'I only
hope he won't want to join in! He might give Block a good nip!'
'Well,
hold on to Timmy firmly,' said Julian. 'Get him into your room quickly. Now -
are we ready?'
They
were. Feeling excited they crept down the long passage that led to the door
which opened out on to the landing where Block was hiding. They saw the
curtains move very slightly as they came along. Block was watching.
George
waited with Timmy at the passage door, not showing herself at all. Then, with a
yell from Sooty, a really blood-curdling yell that made both George and Timmy
jump, things began to happen!
Sooty
flung himself on the hidden Block with all his might. 'A robber! Help, a robber
hiding here!' he shouted.
Block
jumped, and began to struggle. Sooty got in two or three well-aimed punches.
Block had often got him
into
trouble with his father, and now Sooty was getting a bit of his own back!
Julian and Dick rushed to help.
A
violent tug at the curtains brought them down on Block's head! Not only that,
the curtain pole descended on him too, and knocked him sideways. Poor Block -
he was completely taken by surprise, and could do nothing against the three
determined boys. Even Anne gave a hand, though Marybelle stood apart, enjoying
the fun though not daring to take part in it.
Just
as it all began George slipped by with Timmy. But Timmy could not bear to miss
the fun. He dragged behind George, and would not go with her.
She
tried to force him, her hand on his collar. But Timmy had seen a nice fat leg
waving about near him, protruding from the curtain. He pounced on it.
There
was an agonized yell from Block. Certainly Timmy could nip hard with his sharp
white teeth. He worried at the kicking leg for a few seconds, and then had a
sharp slap from George. Shocked, Timmy let go the leg and humbly followed his
mistress. She never slapped him! She must indeed be angry with him. With tail
well down Timmy followed her into the bedroom and got under the bed at once.
 'You see, you might have spoilt everything if you'd been seen.
As it is I'm sure you bit Block and I don't know how we're going to explain
that! Lie. quietly now, old fellow. I'm going out to join the others.'
Timmy's
tail thumped softly on the floor. George ran out of the room and joined the
others on the landing. They were having a fine game with Block, who was yelling
and wriggling and struggling for all he was worth.
He
was wrapped up in the blanket like a caterpillar inside a cocoon. His head was
completely covered and he could see nothing.
Suddenly
Mr. Lenoir appeared in the hall below, with a very scared Mrs. Lenoir beside
him. 'What's all this?' thundered Booty's stepfather. 'Have you gone mad?
Mr.
Lenoir ran up the stairs two steps at a time, amazed. He saw the kicking figure
on the ground well-tied up in the heavy curtains. 'A robber! Do you mean a
burglar? Where did you find him?'
'He
was hiding behind the curtains, sir!' said Julian. 'We managed to get hold of
him and tie him up before he could escape. Could you call the police sir?'
An
anguished voice came from inside of the curtains. 'Let me go! I've been bitten!
Let me go!'
'Good
heavens! You've got Block tied up there!' said Mr. Lenoir, in amazement and
anger. 'Untie him, quickly.'
'But,
sir - it can't be Block. He was hiding behind those curtains at the window,'
protested Sooty.
'Do
as you're told,' commanded Mr. Lenoir, getting angry. Anne looked at the tip of
his nose. Yes, it was turning white, as usual!
The
boys reluctantly undid the ropes. Block angrily parted the curtains that
enfolded him, and looked out, his usually blank face crimson with rage and
fright.
'I
won't stand this sort of thing!' he raged. 'Look here, at my leg, sir! I've
been bitten. Only a dog could have done that. See my leg?'
Sure
enough there were the marks of teeth on his leg,
slowly
turning purple. Timmy had taken a good nip, and almost gone through the skin.
'There's
no dog here,' said Mrs. Lenoir, coming timidly up the stairs at last. 'You
couldn't have been bitten by a dog, Block.'
'Who
bit him, then?' demanded Mr. Lenoir, turning fiercely on poor Mrs. Lenoir.
'Do
you think 7 could have bitten him, sir, in my excitement?' suddenly said Sooty,
to the enormous surprise of the others, and to their immense amusement. He
spoke very seriously with a worried look on his face. 'When I lose my temper,
sir, I hardly know what I do. Do you think I bit him?'
'Pah!'
said Mr. Lenoir, in disgust. 'Don't talk nonsense, boy! I'll have you whipped
if I think you go about biting people. Get up, Block. You're not badly hurt.'
'My
teeth do feel a bit funny, now I come to think of it,' said Sooty, opening and
shutting his mouth as if to see if they were all right. I think I'd better go
and clean them, sir. I feel as if I've got the taste of Block's ankle in my
mouth. And it isn't nice.'
Mr.
Lenoir, driven to fury by Sooty's impudence, reached out swiftly to box the
boy's ears. But Sooty dodged and ran back up the passage. 'Just going to clean
my teeth!' he called, and the others tried to keep from laughing. The idea of
Sooty biting anyone was absurd. It was quite obvious, however, that neither Mr.
nor Mrs. Lenoir guessed what had bitten Block.
'Go
to bed, all of you,' ordered Mr. Lenoir. 'I hope I shall not have to complain
of you to your father tomorrow when he comes - or your uncle, as it may be. I
don't know which of you are his children, and which not. I'm surprised at you
making such a nuisance of yourselves
in
somebody else's house. Tying up my servant! If he leaves, it will be your
fault!'
The
children hoped fervently that Block would leave. It would be marvellous to have
the deaf, blank-faced fellow out of the house. He was on the watch for Timmy,
they felt sure. He would snoop about till he got Timmy-or one of them into
trouble.
But
Block was still there next morning. He came into the schoolroom with the breakfast,
his face almost as blank as usual. He gave Sooty an evil look.
'You
look out for yourself,' he said, in a curiously soft voice. 'You look out.
Something's going to happen to you one of these days. Yes - and that dog too! I
know you've got a dog, see? You can't deceive me.'
The
children said nothing, but looked at one another.
'Dark,
dire, dreadful threats!' he said. 'You look out for yourself too, Block.  You never know. My teeth feel quite ready for it this
morning.'
He
bared his teeth at Block, who made no reply at all, but merely looked as if he
had not heard a word. The man went out, and closed the door softly behind him.
'Nasty
bit of work, isn't he?' said Sooty. But George felt rather alarmed. She feared
Block. There was something cold and clever and bad about those narrow eyes of
his. She longed with all her heart to get Timmy out of the house.
She
got a terrible shock that morning! Sooty came to her, looking agitated. I say!
What do you think? Your father's going to have my room. I've got to sleep with
Julian and Dick. Block is taking all my things from my
room
to theirs this very minute, with Sarah. I hope we shall have a chance to get
him out all right, before your father comes!'
'Oh
Sooty!' said George, in despair. 'I'll go and see if I can get him at once.'
She
went off, pretending to go to Marybelle's room for something. But Block was
still in Booty's room. And there he stayed, cleaning it all morning!
George
was very worried about Timmy. He would wonder why she hadn't fetched him. He
would miss his walk. She hovered about the passage all morning, getting into
Sarah's way as she carried clothes from Sooty's old room to Julian's.
Block
gave George some curious looks. He walked with a limp to show that his leg was
bad from the bite. He left the room at last and George darted in. But Block
returned
almost
at once and she dashed back into Marybelle's room. Again Block left and went
down the passage, and again the desperate little girl rushed into Sooty's room.
But
Block was back before she could even open the cupboard door. 'What are you
doing in this room?' he said, roughly.  Clear out of it!'
George
went - and then once more waited for Block to go. He would have to see to the
luncheon soon! He went at last. George rushed to the door of Sooty's room,
eager to get poor Timmy.
But
she couldn't open the door. It was locked - and Block had taken the key!
Chapter
Thirteen POOR GEORGE!
BY
now George was in despair. She felt as if she was in a nighI'mare. She went to
find Sooty. He was in Julian's room, next to hers, washing his hands ready for
lunch.
'Sooty!
I shall have to get into the secret passage the way you first took us in,' she
said. 'Through that little study-room of your father's - you know, where the
sliding panels are.'
'We
can't,' said Sooty, looking rather alarmed. 'He uses it now, and he'd half-kill
anyone who went in there. He's got the records of all his experiments there,
and he's put them ready to show your father.'
'I
don't care,' said George, desperately. 'I've got to get in there somehow. Timmy
may starve!'
'Not
Timmy! He'll live on the rats in the passages!' said Sooty. 'Timmy could always
look after himself, I bet!'
'Well,
he'd die of thirst then,' said George, obstinately. 'There's no water in those
secret passages. You know that!'
George
could hardly eat any lunch because she was so worried. She made up her mind
somehow to get into that little study-room, and see if she could open the
entrance into the wall behind the panels. Then she would slip in and get Timmy.
She didn't care what happened; she was going to get Timmy.
'I
shan't tell the others, though,' she thought. 'They would only try and stop me,
or offer to do it themselves, and I don't trust anyone but myself to do this.
Timmy's my dog, and I'm going to save him!'
After
lunch, everyone went to Julian's room to discuss things. George went with them.
But after a few minutes she left them. 'Back in a minute,' she said. They took
no notice and went on discussing how to rescue Timmy. It really did seem as if
the only way was to raid the study, and try and get into the secret passage
without being seen.
'But
my stepfather works there now,' said Sooty. 'And I shouldn't be surprised if he
locks the door when he leaves the room.'
George
didn't come back. After about ten minutes Anne grew puzzled.
'What
can George be doing? It must be about ten minutes since she went.'
'Oh,
she's probably gone to see if my old room is unlocked yet,' said Sooty, getting
up. You peep out and see if she's about.'
She
wasn't. She didn't seem to be anywhere! She wasn't in the passage that led to
Sooty's old room; she couldn't be in that room because it was still locked, and
she wasn't in Marybelle's room.
Sooty
peeped in George's own room, the one she shared with Anne. But that was empty
too. He went downstairs and snooped around a bit. No George!
He
went back to the others, puzzled.
'I
can't find her anywhere,' he said. 'Where can she be?'
Anne
looked alarmed.  She wished
George would come.
'She's
not gone into that little study-room, has she?' said Julian, suddenly. It would
be just like George to try and get into the lion's den!
'I
didn't think of that,' said Sooty. 'Silly of me. I'll go and see.'
He
went down the stairs. He made his way cautiously to his father's study. He
stood quietly outside the shut door. There was no sound from inside. Was his
father there or not?
Sooty
debated whether to open the door and peep in or whether to knock. He decided to
knock. Then, if his father answered he could rush back upstairs before the door
could be opened, and his father would not know whom to scold for the
interruption.
So
he knocked, very smartly, Rap-rap.
'Who's
that?' came his stepfather's irritable voice. 'Come in! Am I to have no peace?'
Sooty
fled upstairs at once. He went to the others. 'George can't be in the study,'
he said. 'My stepfather's there, and he didn't sound in too good a temper
either.'
'Then
where can she be?' said Julian, looking worried.  She must be somewhere about. She wouldn't
go very far from Timmy.'
They
all had a good hunt over the house, even going into the kitchen. Block was
there, reading a paper. 'What do you want?' he said. 'You won't get it,
whatever it is.'
'We
don't want anything from you,' said Sooty.
Block
looked so unpleasantly at them that they all retreated from the kitchen in a
hurry. Sooty put Julian and Dick on guard, and went up to the staff bedrooms to
see if by any chance George had gone there. A silly idea, he knew, but George
must be somewhere!
She
wasn't there, of course. The children went back gloomily to Julian's room.
'This beastly house!' said Julian. 'I can't say I like it.
Sooty
was not hurt at all. 'Oh, I agree with you,' he
said.
'I've always thought the same myself. So has Mother, and so has Marybelle. It's
my stepfather that likes it.'
'Where
is George?' said Anne. 'I keep on and on trying to think. There's only one
place I'm certain she's not in and that's your stepfather's study, Sooty. Even
George wouldn't dare to go there while your stepfather was there.'
But
Anne was wrong. The study was the very place where George was at that very
moment!
The
little girl had made up her mind that it was best to try and get in there, and
wait for a chance to open the sliding panel. So she had slipped downstairs,
gone across the hall, and tried the door of the study. It was locked.
'Blow!'
said George, desperately. 'Everything is against me and Timmy. How can I get
in? I must, I must!'
She
slipped out of the side-door near the study and went into the little yard on to
which the study-window looked. Could she get in there?
But
the window was barred! So that was no good either. She went back again, wishing
she could find the key to unlock the door. But it was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly
she heard Mr. Lenoir's voice in the room across the hall. In a panic George
lifted up the lid of a big wooden chest nearby, and climbed hurriedly into it.
She closed the lid over her, and knelt there, waiting, heart beating fast.
Mr.
Lenoir came across the hall. He was going to his study. 'I shall get everything