Had the screw come out of the window-seat? Why should it, anyway? The others there were all screwed down tightly. She examined one. Then she gave a low cry.
'One's missing. The one in the middle of this side. Now just let me think.'
She remembered last night. She remembered how someone had crept in, while she had hidden under the bed, and had fiddled about by the window, bending over the polished window-seat. She remembered the little noises - the metallic clinks and the tiny squeaks. It was screws being screwed into the seat!
'Someone screwed down the window-seat last night - and in the darkness, dropped one of the little screws,' thought George, beginning to feel excited. 'Why did he screw it down? To hide something? What's in this window-seat? It sounds hollow enough. It never lifted up. I know that. It was always screwed down, because I remember looking for a cupboard under it, like the one we have at home, and there wasn't one.'
George began to feel certain there was some secret about the window-seat. She rushed off to get a screwdriver. She found one and hurried back.
She shut the door and locked it behind her in case Block should come snooping around. Then she set to work with the screwdriver. What would she find in the window-seat? She could hardly wait to see!
Chapter Eighteen
CURIOUS DISCOVERIES
JUST as she had unscrewed almost the last screw there came a tapping at the door. George jumped and stiffened. She did not answer, afraid that it was Block, or Mr Lenoir.
Then, to her great relief she heard Julian's voice. 'George! Are you in here?'
The little girl hurried across to the door and unlocked it. The boys came in, looking surprised, followed by Anne and Marybelle. George shut the door and locked it again.
'Mr Barling's gone away and shut up the house,' said Julian. 'So that's that. What on earth are you doing, George?'
'Unscrewing this window-seat,' said George, and told them about the screw she had found on the floor. They all crowded round her, excited.
'Good for you, George!' said Dick. 'Here, let me finish the unscrewing.'
'No, thanks. This is my job!' said George. She took out the last screw. Then she lifted the edge of the window-seat. It came up like a lid.
Everyone peered inside, rather scared. What would they see? To their great surprise and disappointment they saw nothing but an empty cupboard! It was as if the window-seat was a box, with the lid screwed down for people to sit on.
'Well - what a disappointment!' said Dick. He shut down the lid. 'I don't expect you heard anyone screwing down the lid, really, George. It might have been your imagination.'
'Well, it wasn't,' said George, shortly. She opened the lid again. She got right into the box-like window-seat and stamped, and pressed with her feet.
And quite suddenly, there came a small creaking noise, and the bottom of the empty window-seat fell downwards like a trap-door on a hinge!
George gasped and clutched at the side. She kicked about in air for a moment and then scrambled out. Everyone looked down in silence.
They looked down a straight yawning hole, which, however, came to an end only about eight feet down. There it appeared to widen out, and, no doubt, entered a secret passage which ran into one of the underground tunnels with which the whole hill was honeycombed. It might even run to Mr Barling's house.
'Look at that!' said Dick. 'Who would have thought of that? I bet even old Sooty didn't know about this.'
'Shall we go down?' said George. 'Shall we see where it goes to? We might find old Timmy.'
There came the noise of someone trying the handle of the door. It was locked. Then there was an impatient rapping, and a cross voice called out sharply:
'Why is this door locked? Open it at once! What are you doing in here?'
'It's father!' whispered Marybelle, with wide eyes. 'I'd better unlock the door.'
George shut the lid of the window-seat down at once, very quietly. She did not want Mr Lenoir to see their latest discovery. When the door was opened Mr Lenoir saw the children standing about, or sitting on the window-seat.
'I've had a good talk to Block,' he said, 'and, as I thought, he doesn't know a thing about all the goings-on here. He was most amazed to hear about the signalling from the tower. But he doesn't think it's Mr Barling. He thinks it may be a plot of some sort against me'
'Oh!' said the children, who felt that they would not believe Block so readily as Mr Lenoir appeared to.
'It's quite upset Block,' said Mr Lenoir. 'He feels really sick, and I've told him to go and have a rest till we decide what to do next.'
The children felt that Block would not be so easily upset as all that. They all suspected at once that he would not really go to rest, but would probably sneak out on business of his own.
'I've some work to attend to for a little while,' said Mr Lenoir. 'I've rung up the police, but unluckily the Inspector is out. He will ring me directly he comes back. Now can you keep out of mischief till I've finished my work?'
The children thought that was a silly question. They made no reply. Mr Lenoir gave one of his sudden smiles and little laughs, and went.
'I'm going to pop along to Block's room and see if he really is there,' said Julian, as soon as Mr Lenoir was out of sight.
He went to the wing where the staff bedrooms were, and stopped softly outside Block's. The door was a little ajar, and Julian could see through the crack. He saw the shape of Block's body in the bed, and the dark patch that was his head.
The curtains were drawn across the window to keep out the light, but there was enough to see all this.
Julian sped back to the others. 'Yes, he's in bed all right,' he said. 'Well, he's safe for a bit. Shall we have a shot at getting down the window-seat hole? I'd dearly like to see where it leads to!'
'Oh yes!' said everyone. But it was not an easy job to drop eight feet down without being terribly jolted! Julian went first and was very much jarred. He called up to Dick: 'We'll have to get a bit of rope and tie it to something up there, and let it hang down the hole - it's an awful business to let yourself drop down.'
But just as Dick went to find a rope, Julian called up again. 'Oh, it's all right! I've just seen something. There are niches carved into the sides of the hole - niches you can put foot or hand into. I didn't see them before. You can use them to help you down.'
So down went everyone, one after another, feeling for the niches and finding them. George missed one or two, clawed wildly at the air, and dropped down the last few feet, landing with rather a bump, but she was not hurt.
As they had thought, the hole led to another secret passage in the house, but this one went straight downwards by means of steps, so that very soon they were well below the level of the house. Then they came into the maze of tunnels that honeycombed the hill. They stopped.
'Look here - we can't possibly go any farther,' said Julian. 'We shall get lost. We haven't got Sooty with us now, and Marybelle isn't any good at finding the way. It would be dangerous to wander about.'
'Listen!' said Dick, suddenly, in a low voice. 'There's someone coming!'
They could hear the hollow sound of footsteps coming from a tunnel to the left of them. They all shrank back into the shadows, and Julian switched off his torch.
'It's two people!' whispered Anne, as two figures came out of the nearby tunnel. One was very tall and long. The other - yes, surely the other was Block! If it wasn't Block it was someone the exact image of him.
The men were talking in low voices, answering one another. How could it be Block, though, if he could hear as well as that? Anyway, Block was asleep in bed. It was hardly ten minutes since Julian had seen him there. Were there two Blocks, then, thought George, as she had once thought before.
The men disappeared into another tunnel, and the bright light of their lanterns disappeared gradually. The muffled rumble of their voices echoed back.
'Shall we follow them?' said Dick.
'Of course not,' said Julian. 'We might lose th
em - and lose ourselves too! And supposing they suddenly turned back and found us following them? We should be in a horrid fix.'
'I'm sure the first man was Mr Barling,' said Anne, suddenly. 'I couldn't see his face because the light of the lantern wasn't on it - but he seemed just like Mr Barling - awfully tall and long everywhere!'
'But Mr Barling's gone away,' said Marybelle.
'Supposed to have gone away!' said George. 'It looks as if he's come back, if it was him. I wonder where those two have gone - to see my father and Sooty, do you think?'
'Quite likely,' said Julian. 'Come on, let's get back. We simply daren't wander about by ourselves in these old tunnels. They run for miles, Sooty said, and cross one another, and go up and down and round about - even right down to the marsh. We should never, never find our way out if we got lost.'
They turned to go back. They came to the end of the steps they had been climbing, and found themselves at the bottom of the window-seat hole. It was quite easy to pull themselves up by the niches in the sides of the hole.
Soon they were all in the room again, glad to see the sunshine streaming in at the window. They looked out. The marshes were beginning to be wreathed in mist once more, though up here the hill was golden with sunlight.
I’m going to put the screws back into the window-seat again,' said Julian, picking up the screwdriver, and shutting down the lid. Then if Block comes here he won't guess we've found this new secret place. I'm pretty certain that he unscrewed the seat so that Mr Barling could get into this room, and then screwed it down again so that no one would guess what had happened.'
He quickly put in the screws. Then he looked at his watch.
'Almost dinner-time, and I'm jolly hungry. I wish old Sooty was here - and Uncle Quentin. I do hope they're all right - and Timmy too,' said Julian. 'I wonder if Block is still in bed - or wandering about the tunnels. I'm going to have a peep again.'
He soon came back, puzzled. 'Yes, he's there all right, safe in bed. It's jolly funny.'
Block did not appear at lunch time. Sarah said he had asked not to be disturbed, if he did not appear.
'He does get the most awful sick headaches,' she said. 'Maybe he'll be all right this afternoon.'
She badly wanted to talk about everything, but the children had decided not to tell her anything. She was very nice and they liked her, but somehow they didn't trust anyone at Smuggler's Top. So Sarah got nothing out of them at all, and retired in rather a huff.
Julian went down to speak to Mr Lenoir after the meal. He felt that even if the Inspector of police was not at the police-station, somebody else must be informed. He was very worried about his uncle and Sooty. He couldn't help wondering if Mr Lenoir had made up the bit about the Inspector being away, to put off time.
Mr Lenoir was looking cross when Julian knocked at his study-door. 'Oh, it's you!' he said to Julian. 'I was expecting Block. I've rung and rung for him. The bell rings in his room and I can't imagine why he doesn't come. I want him to come to the police-station with me.'
'Good!' thought Julian. Then he spoke aloud. 'I'll go and hurry him up for you, Mr Lenoir. I know where his room is.'
Julian ran up the stairs and went to the little landing up which the back-stairs went to the staff bedrooms. He pushed open Block's door.
Block was apparently still asleep in bed! Julian called loudly, then remembered that Block was deaf. So he went over to the bed and put his hand rather roughly on the hump of the shoulder between the clothes.
But it was curiously soft! Julian drew his hand away, and looked down sharply. Then he got a real shock.
There was no Block in the bed! There was a big ball of some sort, painted black to look like a head almost under the sheets - and, when Julian threw back the covers, he saw instead of Block's body, a large lumpy bolster, cleverly moulded to look like a curved body!
'That's the trick Block plays when he wants to slip off anywhere, and yet pretend he's still here!' said Julian. 'So it was Block we saw in the tunnel this morning - and it must have been Block that George saw talking to Mr Barling yesterday, when she looked through the window. He's not deaf, either. He's a very clever - sly - double-faced - deceitful ROGUE!'
Chapter Nineteen
MR BARLING TALKS
MEANTIME, what was happening to Uncle Quentin and Sooty? Many strange things!
Uncle Quentin had been gagged, and drugged so that he could neither struggle nor make any noise, when Mr Barling had crept so unexpectedly into his room. It was easy to drop him down the hole in the window-seat. He fell with a thud that bruised him considerably.
Then poor Sooty had been dropped down too, and after them had come Mr Barling, climbing deftly down by the help of the niches in the sides.
Someone else was down there, to help Mr Barling. Not Block, who had been left to screw down the window-seat so that no one might guess where the victims had been taken, but a hard-faced servant belonging to Mr Barling.
'Had to bring this boy, too - it's Lenoir's son,' said Mr Barling. 'Snooping about in the room. Well, it will serve Lenoir right for working against me!'
The two were half-carried, half-dragged down the long flight of steps and taken into the tunnels below. Mr Barling stopped and took a ball of string from his pocket. He tossed it to his servant.
'Here you are. Tie the end to that nail over there, and let the string unravel as we go. I know the way quite well, but Block doesn't, and he'll be coming along to bring food to our couple of prisoners tomorrow. Don't want him to lose his way! We can tie the string up again just before we get to the place I'm taking them to, so that they won't see it and use it to escape by.'
The servant tied the string to the nail that Mr Barling pointed out, and then as he went along he let the ball unravel. The string would then serve as a guide to anyone not knowing the way. Otherwise it would be very dangerous to wander about in the underground tunnels. For some of them ran for miles.
After about eight minutes the little company came to a kind of rounded cave, set in the side of a big, but rather low tunnel. Here had been put a bench with some rugs, a box to serve as a table, and jug of water. Nothing else.
Sooty by now was coming round from his blow on the head. The other prisoner, however, still lay unconscious, breathing heavily.
'No good talking to him' said Mr Barling. 'He won't be all right till tomorrow. We'll come and talk to him then. I'll bring Block.'
Sooty had been put on the floor. He suddenly sat up, and put his hand to his aching head. He couldn't imagine where he was.
He looked up and saw Mr Barling, and then suddenly he remembered everything. But how had he got here, in this dark cave?
'Mr Barling!' he said. 'What's all this? What did you hit me for? Why have you brought me here?'
'Punishment for a small boy who can't keep his nose out of things that don't concern him!' said Mr Barling, in a horrid sarcastic voice. 'You'll be company for our friend on the bench there. He'll sleep till the morning, I'm afraid.
You can tell him all about it, then, and say I'll be back to have a little heart-to-heart talk with him! And see here, Pierre - you do know, don't you, the foolishness of trying to wander about these old passages? I've brought you to a little-known one, and if you want to lose yourself and never be heard of again, well, try wandering about, that's all!'
Sooty looked pale. He did know the danger of wandering about those lost old tunnels. This one he was in he was sure he didn't know at all. He was about to ask a few more questions when Mr Barling turned quickly on his heel and went off with his servant. They took the lantern with them and left the boy in darkness. He yelled after them.
'Hie, you beasts! Leave me a light!'
But there was no answer. Sooty heard the footfalls going farther and farther away, and then there was silence and darkness.
The boy felt in his pocket for his torch, but it wasn't there. He had dropped it in his bedroom. He groped his way over to the bench, and felt about for George's father. He wished
he would wake up. It was so horrid to be there in the darkness. It was cold, too.
Sooty crept under the rugs and cuddled close to the unconscious man. He longed with all his heart for him to wake up.
From somewhere there sounded the drip-drip-drip of water. After a time Sooty couldn't bear it. He knew it was only drops dripping off the roof of the tunnel in a damp place, but he felt he couldn't bear it. Drip-drip-drip. Drip-drip-drip. If only it would stop!
I'll have to wake George's father up!' thought the boy, desperately. 'I must talk to someone!'
He began to shake the sleeping man, wondering what to call him, for he did not know his surname. He couldn't call him 'George's father!' Then he remembered that the others called him Uncle Quentin, and he began yelling the name in the drugged man's ear.
'Uncle Quentin! Uncle Quentin! Wake up! Do wake up! Oh, won't you please wake up!'
Uncle Quentin stirred at last. He opened his eyes in the darkness, and listened to the urgent voice in his ear feeling faintly puzzled.
'Uncle Quentin! Wake up and speak to me. I'm scared!' said the voice. 'UNCLE QUENTIN!'
The man thought vaguely that it must be Julian or Dick. He put his arm round Sooty and dragged him close to him. 'It's all right. Go to sleep,' he said. 'What's the matter, Julian? Or is it Dick? Go to sleep.'
He fell asleep again himself, for he was still half-drugged. But Sooty felt comforted now. He shut his eyes, feeling certain that he couldn't possibly go to sleep. But he did, almost at once! He slept soundly all through the night, and was only awakened by Uncle Quentin moving on the bench.
The puzzled man was amazed to find his bed so unexpectedly hard. He was even more amazed to find someone in bed with him, for he remembered nothing at all. He stretched out his hand to switch on the reading-lamp which had been beside his bed the night before.