‘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! I hate this tunnel.’
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 surefooted, 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.
‘How dare you throw stones at a dog!’ yelled the little girl in a fury. 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.
‘They’ve come to stay with us because their uncle’s house had an accident to it,’ explained Sooty. ‘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. ‘Just time to shut the trap-door, pull back the carpet and wash our hands,’ said Sooty. ‘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.’