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. ‘Come back, stupid! 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. ‘I know my stepfather is in, and I tell you, if he sees that dog he’ll pack you all into the car again, and send you back! 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 Marybelle’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.
Sooty shut the door and ran back. ‘Did you hear the noise? It’s a good idea, isn’t it? I’m always thinking of things like that.’
The others thought they had come to rather a queer place! 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.