Five Have Plenty of Fun (15 page)

He shone his torch into the hole. „Yes, look - there"s a whole lot of coke down there - we can easily jump on to it. Tim, you go first and spy out the land."

Timmy jumped down at once, the coke slithering away from beneath his four paws. „He"s down all right," said Julian. „I"l go next."

Down he jumped, and the coke slithered away again, making what seemed to be a very loud noise in the silent night. Julian shone his torch around.

They were standing on a very large heap of coke in the middle of a big cel ar. At the end was a door.

„Hope it"s not locked," said Dick, in a whisper. „Now, Tim, keep to heel, for goodness" sake, and don"t make a sound!"

They went to the door, treading on gritty bits of coke. Julian turned the dirty handle - and the door opened inwards! „It"s not locked!" said Julian, thankfully.

They crept through it, Timmy treading on their heels, and found themselves in another cel ar, set with stone shelves on which were piled tins and boxes and crates. „Enough food here to stand a siege!" whispered Dick. „Where are the cel ar-steps? We"ve got to get out."

„Over there," said Julian. Then he stopped and put out his torch. He had heard something.

„Did you hear that?" he whispered. „It sounded like somebody treading on the coke in the coal-cel ar! Gosh, I hope nobody is shadowing us. We"ll soon be prisoners if so."

They listened but heard nothing further. Up the stone steps they went and undid the door at the top. A big kitchen lay beyond, lighted by the dim moon. A shadow rose suddenly in front of them and Timmy growled. Dick"s heart almost stopped beating. What in the world was that, crawling silently over the floor and disappearing in the shadows? He clutched at Julian and made him jump.

„Don"t do that, ass! That was only the kitchen cat you saw," whispered Julian. „Gosh, you made me jump. Wasn"t it a good thing that Timmy didn"t go for the cat? There would have been an awful yowling!"

„Where do you suppose George wil be?" asked Dick. „Somewhere at the top of the house?"

„I"ve no idea. We"ll just have to look into every room," said Julian. So they looked into every room on the ground floor, but they were empty. They were huge rooms, ugly and over-furnished.

„Come on - up the stairs!" said Dick, and up they went. They came to an enormous landing, hung with tapestry curtains at the windows. Timmy suddenly gave a smal growl and in a trice both boys had hidden themselves in the folds of the long window-curtains.

Timmy went with them, feeling surprised. Dick peeped out after a minute.

„I think it was that cat again," he whispered. 'Look, there it is, up on that chest. It"s following us, wondering what on earth we"re doing, I expect!"

„Blow it!" said Julian. „I"m getting the jitters now, being watched by a shadowy cat. I suppose it is real?"

„Timmy thinks so!" said Dick. „Come on - there are any amount of bedroom doors on this landing."

They tiptoed into the ones whose doors were open, but no one was sleeping in the beds there. They came to a closed door and listened. Someone was snoring inside!

„That"s not George," said Dick. „Anyway, she"d be locked in, and the key is in this door."

They went to the next door, which was also shut. They listened and could hear someone breathing heavily.

„Not George," said Dick, and they went on up to the next flight of stairs. There were four more rooms there, two of them not even furnished. The doors of the other two were ajar, and it was clear that people were sleeping in them, because once more there was loud breathing to be heard.

„There don"t seem to be any more rooms," said Dick, in dismay, as they flashed their torches careful y round the top landing. „Blow! Where"s George then?"

„Look - there"s a little wooden door there," said Julian, in Dick"s ear. „A door leading into the cistern room, I should think."

„She wouldn"t be there," said Dick. „But wait - look, there"s a strong bolt on the door! And cistern rooms don"t have bolts on their doors, or even locks. This one hasn"t a lock, but it has a bolt."

„Sh! Not so loud!" said Julian. „Yes, that"s funny, I must say. How can we get the door open without waking the people in those other two rooms?"

„We"ll shut their doors very quietly, and we"ll lock them!" said Dick, excited. „I"l go and do it."

He drew the doors gently to, and then locked first one and then the other, having taken the keys from the other side of the doors to do so. Except that one made a slight click as he locked it, there was no noise. Nobody stirred in the two rooms, and the boys breathed freely again.

They went to the little wooden door opposite. They pul ed gently at the bolt, afraid that it might squeak. But it didn"t. It was obviously quite new, and ran easily. The door opened outwards with a smal creak. There was pitch darkness inside, and the sound of trickling water from the cistern.

Dick flashed his torch on and off quickly. In that second he saw something that made his heart jump!

There was a smal mattress on the floor of the little cistern room, and someone was lying on it, rolled so completely in blankets that even the head was covered! Julian had seen it too, and he put his arm on Dick"s, afraid that it might not be George, afraid that it might be someone who would give the alarm, perhaps another prisoner.

But Timmy knew who it was! Timmy ran straight in with a small, loving whimper and flung himself on the sleeping figure!

Dick shut the cistern room door at once, afraid of the noise being heard. Timmy might bark with joy in a moment, or George might shout!

The figure gave a grunt and sat up. The blanket fel away from the head - and there was George"s curly nob, and her startled face.

„Sh!" said Dick, raising his finger warningly. „SH!" Timmy was licking George from head to foot, wild with delight, but extraordinarily silent - clever old Timmy knew that this was one of the times when joy must be dumb!

„Oh!" said George, hugging Timmy anywhere she could. „Oh, Timmy! I missed you so!

Darling, darling, Tim! Oh Timmy!"

Dick stood by the closed door, listening to find out if anyone was stirring in the other rooms. He heard nothing at all. Julian went to George.

„Are you all right, George?" he asked. „Have you been treated wel ?"

„Not very," said George. „But then I didn"t behave very well! I did quite a lot of kicking and biting - so they locked me in here!"

„Poor old George!" said Julian. „Well, we"ll hear everything when we"ve got out of here. So far, we"ve been jol y lucky. Can you come now?"

„Yes," said George and got off the mattress. She was dressed in an odd selection of clothes, and looked rather peculiar. „That awful old woman - Gringo"s mother - found these for me when I was taken to the caravan," she said. „Gosh, I"ve got a lot to tell you!"

„Sh!" said Dick, at the door. „Not a sound, now! I"m going to open the door!"

He opened it slowly. Al was quiet. „Now we"ll go down the stairs," he said. „Not a sound!"

They went down the first flight of stairs and on to the enormous landing. Then, just as Dick put his foot on to the next stair down, he trod on something soft that yowled, spat and scratched. It was that cat!

Dick fel half-way down the stairs, and Timmy could not stop himself from chasing the cat up the landing and up the top stairs to the cistern room. Nor could he stop himself from barking!

Shouts came from two of the near-by bedrooms and two men appeared in pyjamas. One switched on the landing light, and then both of them tore down the stairs after the three children. Dick picked himself up, but he had ricked his ankle and could not even walk!

„Run, George - I"l see to Dick!" yelled Julian. Rut George stopped too - and in a trice the two men were on to them, catching hold of Dick and Julian, and jerking them into a near-by room.

„Tim! TIM!" shouted George. „Help, Timmy!"

But before Timmy could come pelting down the stairs from the attic George was shoved into the room too, and the door locked.

„Look out for the dog!" shouted one of the men. „He"s dangerous!"

Timmy certainly was! He came tearing towards the men, snarling, his eyes blazing, showing al his teeth.

The men darted into the room next to the one into which they had locked the children, and banged the door. Timmy flung himself against it in rage, snarling and growling in a most terrifying manner. If only he could get at those men! If only he could!

Soon there was real pandemonium in the old house! The sleepers in the rooms on the top landing awoke suddenly and found their doors locked, and began to bang on them and shout. The three children in the locked room on the ground floor shouted and banged too

- and Timmy nearly went mad!

Only the men in the room next to the children were silent. They were terrified at Timmy"s growling and snarling. They would have liked to lock themselves in, but the key was on the other side of the door - and they certainly didn"t dare to open it to get the key!

Soon the children quietened down. Dick sat on a chair, exhausted. „That cat! That wretched, prowling, sly old cat! Gosh, I stepped on it and it scratched me to the bone - to say nothing of pitching me headlong down the stairs and making me wrench my ankle!"

„We so nearly managed to escape!" groaned Julian.

„I can"t think what wil happen now!" said George. „Timmy"s out there and can"t get in to us, and we can"t possibly get out to him because the door"s locked - and those men won"t dare to set a foot outside their door while Tim"s there!"

„And we"ve locked the people into their rooms upstairs!" said Julian. „Well, it"s certain that nobody can get out of their rooms to help anyone else - so it looks as if we"ll al be here til Doomsday!"

It certainly did seem a very poor look-out! The only people who were not behind locked doors were the two men, whoever they were - and they simply dared not put a foot outside their room. Timmy roamed about, occasionally whimpering and scratching outside the children"s door, but more often growling outside the next door, sometimes flinging his heavy body against it as if he would break it down.

„I bet the men are shaking with fright," said Dick. „They won"t even dare to try and get out of a window in case they meet Timmy outside somewhere!"

„Serve them right," said George. „Gosh, I"m glad you came! Wasn"t I an absolute ass to take Sal y down to the kennel that night?"

„You were," said Julian, „I agree wholeheartedly. The men were waiting for a chance to get Berta, of course, and they saw you, complete with Berta"s dog, and thought you were the girl they wanted!"

„Yes. They flung something al over my head so that I couldn"t make a sound," said George. „I fought like anything, and my dressing-gown girdle must have slipped off - did you find it?"

„Yes," said Dick. „We were jol y glad to find a few other things too - the comb - the hanky -

the sweet - and of course the note!"

„They carried me quite a way to somewhere in the wood," said George. „Then they plonked me down at the back of the car. But they had to turn it and it was difficult - and I had the bright thought of throwing out all the things in my dressing-gown pocket just in case you came along and saw them."

„What about that note - with the word Gringo on?" asked Julian. „That was a terrific help.

We wouldn"t be here tonight if it hadn"t been for that."

„Well, I heard one of the men cal the other Gringo," said George. „And it was such an unusual name I thought I"d scribble it on a bit of paper and throw that out too - it was just on chance I did it."

„A jolly good chance!" said Dick. „Good thing you had a notebook and pencil with you!"

„I hadn"t," said George. „But one of the men had left his coat in the back of the car and there was a notebook with a pencil in the breast-pocket. I just used that!"

„Jolly good!" said Julian.

„Well, they whizzed me off in the car to some Fairground or other," said George. „I heard the roundabout music next day. There was a horrid old witch-like woman in the caravan; she didn"t seem at al pleased to see me. I had to sleep in a chair that night, and I got so wild that I yel ed and shouted and threw things about and smashed quite a lot of cups and saucers. I enjoyed that."

The boys couldn"t help laughing. „Yes - I bet you did," said Dick. „They had to move the caravan away from the Fair itself, because they were afraid people would hear you. In fact, I expect that"s why Gringo decided to hide you here!"

„Yes. I suddenly felt a jolt, and found the caravan we were in was being towed away!"

said George. „I was awfully surprised. I waved at the windows and shouted as we drove through the streets, but nobody seemed to notice anything wrong - in fact some people waved back to me! Then we swung in through some gates, and came here - and, as I told you, they put me up here because I made such a nuisance of myself!"

„Did you tell them you weren"t Berta?" asked Dick.

„No," said George. „Of course not. For two reasons - I knew there would be no fear of Berta"s father giving those secrets away, because he"d be told by you that I had been kidnapped, not his precious Berta. So he"d hang on to them. And also I thought Berta would be safe, so long as I didn"t tell the men they"d got the wrong person."

„You"re a good kid, George," said Julian, and slapped her gently on the back. „A - very -

good - kid. I"m jol y proud of you. There"s nobody like our George!"

„Don"t be a fathead," said George, but she was very pleased al the same.

„Well, there"s no more to tell," she said, „except that the cistern room was most frightful y draughty, and I had to wrap my head up as well as my body when I lay down. And the cistern made awful noises - sort of rude noises, that made me want to say “I beg your pardon!” al the time! Of course I knew you"d rescue me, so I wasn"t awfully worried!"

„And we haven"t rescued you!" said Julian. „Al we"ve done is to get ourselves locked up as well as you!"

„Tell me how you found out I was here," said George. So the boys told her everything and she listened, thril ed.