chapter 13 a night in the cellar

the piece of paper was carefully folded and this time julian took it for safe keeping. 'i can't imaginewhat it means, but it's clearly important,' he said. 'we may quite suddenly come on something - orthink of something - that will give us a clue to what the words and the lines mean on the paper.'

'we mustn't forget that dear maggie has a copy of the paper too,' said dick. 'she probably knowsbetter than we do what it all means!'

'if she does, she will pay a visit to two-trees too,' said anne. 'we ought to keep a look-out for her.

should we have to hide if we saw her?'

julian considered this. 'no,' he said, 'i certainly don't think we should hide. maggie can't possiblyguess that we have had the message from nailer, and the paper too. we had better just say we are ona hike and found this place and thought we would shelter here. all perfectly true.'

'and we can keep an eye on her, and see what she does if she comes!' said dick, with a grin.

'won't she be annoyed!'

'she wouldn't come alone,' said julian, thoughtfully.

'i should think it quite likely that she would come with dirty dick! he didn't get the message, but 52she did - and probably part of her message was the statement that dirty dick would know everythingtoo. so she would get in touch with him.'

'yes - and be surprised that he hadn't got the message or the paper,' said george. 'still, they'd thinkthat the escaped fellow hadn't been able to get to dirty dick.'

'all very complicated,' said anne, yawning. 'i can't follow any more arguments and explanations- i'm half asleep. how long are you going to be before you settle down?'

dick yawned too. 'i'm coming now,' he said. 'my bed of bracken and heather looks inviting. it's not atall cold in here, is it?'

'the only thing i don't like is the thought of those cellars beyond this little underground room,'

said anne. 'i keep thinking that maggie and her friends might be there, waiting to pounce on us whenwe are asleep.'

'you're silly,' said george, scornfully. 'really silly! do you honestly suppose that timmy would liehere quietly if there was anyone in those cellars? you know jolly well he would be barking his headoff!'

'yes. i know all that,' said anne, snuggling down in her heathery bed. 'it's just my imagination.

you haven't got any, george, so you don't bother about imaginary fears. i'm not really scared whiletimmy is here. but i do think it's funny the way we always plunge into something peculiar whenwe're together.'

'adventures always do come to some people,' said dick. 'you've only got to read the lives ofexplorers and see how they simply walk into adventures all the time.'

'yes, but i'm not an explorer,' said anne. 'i'm an ordinary person, and i'd be just as pleased if thingsdidn't keep happening to me.'

the others laughed. 'i don't expect anything much will happen this time,' said julian, comfortingly.

'we go back to school on tuesday and that's not far off. not much time for anything to happen!'

he was wrong of course. things can happen one after the other in a few minutes! still, anne cuddleddown feeling happier. this was better than last night when she was all alone in that horrid little loft.

now she had all the others with her, timmy too.

anne and george had one big bed between them. they drew their two rugs over themselves, and puttheir blazers on top too. nobody had undressed because julian had said that they might be too cold injust their night things.

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timmy as usual put himself on george's feet. she moved them because he was heavy. he wormedhis way up the bed and found a very comfortable place between the knees of the two girls. he gave aheavy sigh.

'that means he's planning to go to sleep!' said george. 'are you quite comfortable, anne?'

'yes,' said anne, sleepily. 'i like timmy there. i feel safe!'

julian was blowing out the candles. he left just one burning. then he got into his bed of bracken andheather beside dick. he felt tired too.

the four slept like logs. nobody moved except timmy, who got up once or twice in the night andsniffed round inquiringly. he had heard a noise in the cellars. he stood at the closed door that led tothe cellars and listened, his head on one side.

he sniffed at the crack. then he went back to bed, satisfied. it was only a toad! timmy knew thesmell of toads. if toads liked to crawl about in the night, they were welcome to!

the second time he awoke he thought he heard something up in the kitchen above. he padded up thesteps, his paws making a click-click-click as he went. he stood in the kitchen silently, his eyesgleaming like green lamps, as the moon shone on him.

an animal with a long bushy tail began to slink away outside the house. it was a fine fox. it had smeltunusual smells near the old ruin - the scent of people and of a dog, and it had come to find out whatwas happening.

it had slunk into the kitchen and then smelt the strong scent of timmy in the room below. as quietlyas a cat it had slunk out again - but timmy had awakened!

now the dog stood watching and waiting - but the fox had gone! timmy sniffed its scent and paddedto the door. he debated whether to bark and go after the fox.

the scent grew very faint, and timmy decided not to make a fuss. he padded back to the steps thatled down to the cellar room, and curled up on george's feet again. he was very heavy, but georgewas too tired to wake up and push him off. timmy lay with one ear cocked for a while, and then wentto sleep again, with his ear still cocked. he was a good sentinel!

it was dark in the cellar when the one candle went out. there was no daylight or sunshine to wake thechildren down in that dim little room, and they slept late.

julian woke up first. he found his bed suddenly very hard, and he turned over to find a comfortableplace. the heather and bracken had been flattened with his weight, and the floor below was very hardindeed! the movement woke him up, and he lay blinking in the darkness.

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where was he?

he remembered at once and sat up. dick woke too and yawned. 'dick! it's half-past eight!' saidjulian, looking at the luminous hands of his wrist-watch. 'we've slept for hours and hours!'

they rolled out of their heathery bed. timmy leapt off george's feet and came over to them, his tailwagging gladly. he had been half-awake for a long time and was very glad to see julian and dickawake too, because he was thirsty.

the girls awoke - and soon there was a great deal of noise and activity going on. anne and georgewashed at the big stone sink, the cold water making them squeal. timmy lapped up a big bowlful ofwater gladly. the boys debated whether or not to have a splash in the lake. they felt very dirty.

dick shivered at the thought. 'still, i think we ought to,' he said. 'come on, ju!'

the two boys went down to the lake-side and leapt in. it was icy-cold! they struck out strongly andcame back glowing and shouting.

by the time they were back the girls had got breakfast in the cellar room. it was darker than thekitchen, but all of them disliked the look of the burnt, scorched rooms above. the bread and butter,potted meat, cake and chocolate went down well.

in the middle of the meal a sound came echoing into the old house - bells! anne stopped eating, andher heart beat fast.

but they were not the clanging warning bells she had heard before!

'church bells,' said julian at once, seeing anne's sudden look of fright. 'lovely sound i always think!'

'oh yes,' said anne, thankfully. 'so it is. it's sunday and people are going to church. i'd like to go too,on this lovely sunny october day.'

'we might walk across the moor to the nearest village if you like,' said dick, looking at his watch.

'but we should be very late.'

it was decided that it was much too late. they pushed their plates aside and planned what to do thatday.

'the first thing, of course, is to see if there's a boathouse and find out if there's a boat called saucyjane,' said julian. 'then we'd better try and puzzle out what that plan means. we could wander hereand there and see if we can find tall stone - and i'll look at the map to see if tock hill is marked.

that was on the plan too, wasn't it?'

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'you boys go and get some more heather and bracken while we clear away and wash up,' said anne.

'that is if you mean us to camp here another night.'

'yes. i think we will,' said julian. 'i think we may find things rather interesting here this weekend!'

julian went out with dick and they brought in a great deal more bedding. everyone had complainedthat the hard floor came through the amount of heather and bracken they had used the night before,and poor george was quite stiff.

the girls took the dirty things up to the big sink to wash them. there was nothing to dry them withbut that didn't matter. they laid them on the old worn draining board to dry.

they wiped their hands on their hankies and then felt ready for exploring round outside. the boyswere ready too.

with timmy bounding here and there they went down to the lake. a path had once led down to it,with a low wall on each side. but now the wall was broken, moss had crept everywhere, and the pathwas choked with tufts of heather and even with small bushes of gorse.

the lake was as still and dark as ever. some moor-hens chugged across it quickly, disappearing underthe water when they saw the children.

'now, what about that boat-house?' said dick at last. 'is there one - or not?'