‘What a nice little girl!’ he said. ‘You will be a good companion for Marybelle. Three boys for Sooty, and one girl for Marybelle. Ha ha!’
He evidently thought George was a boy, and she did look rather like one – she was wearing shorts and jersey, as usual, and her curly hair was very short.
Nobody said that George wasn’t a boy. Certainly George was not going to! She, Dick and Julian shook hands with Mr. Lenoir. They had not even noticed Sooty’s mother!
She was there, though, sitting lost in an arm-chair, a tiny woman like a doll, with mouse-coloured hair and grey eyes. Anne turned to her.
‘Oh, how small you are!’ she said, before she could stop herself.
Mr. Lenoir laughed. He laughed no matter what anyone said. Mrs. Lenoir got up and smiled. She was only as tall as Anne, and had the smallest hands and feet that Anne had ever seen on a grown-up. Anne liked her. She shook hands, and said, ‘It’s so nice of you to have us all here like this. You know, I expect, that a tree fell on the roof of our house and smashed it.’
Mr. Lenoir’s laugh came again. He made some kind of joke, and everyone smiled politely.
‘Well, I hope you’ll have a good time here,’ he said. Pierre and Marybelle will show you the old town, and, if you promise to be careful, you can walk along the road to the mainland to go to the cinema there.’
‘Thank you,’ said everyone, and Mr. Lenoir laughed his curious laugh again.
‘Your father is a very clever man,’ he said, suddenly turning to Julian, who guessed that he had mistaken him for George. ‘I am hoping he will come here to fetch you home again when you go, and then I shall have the pleasure of talking with him. He and I have been doing the same kind of experiments, but he has got further than I have.’
‘Oh!’ said Julian, politely. Then the doll-like Mrs. Lenoir spoke in her soft voice.
‘Block will give you all your meals in Marybelle’s schoolroom, then you will not disturb my husband. He does not like talk at meal-times, and that would be rather hard on six children.’
Mr. Lenoir laughed again. His cold blue eyes looked intently at all the children. ‘By the way, Pierre,’ he said suddenly, ‘I forbid you to wander about the catacombs in this hill, as I have forbidden you before, and I also forbid you to do any of your dare-devil climbing, nor will I have you acting about on the city wall, now that you have
others here. I will not have them taking risks. Will you promise me this?’
‘I don’t act about on the city wall,’ protested Sooty. ‘I don’t take risks, either.’
‘You play the fool always/ said Mr. Lenoir, and the tip of his nose turned quite white. Anne looked at it with interest. She did not know that it always did this when Mr. Lenoir got angry.
‘Oh, sir – I was top of my form last term,’ said Sooty, in a most injured tone. The others felt certain that he was trying to lead Mr. Lenoir away from his request – he was not going to promise him what he had asked!
Mrs. Lenoir now joined in. ‘He really did do well last term,’ she said. ‘You must remember -‘
‘Enough!’ snapped Mr. Lenoir, and the smiles and laughs he had so freely lavished on everyone vanished, entirely. ‘Get out, all of you!’
Rather scared, Julian, Dick, Anne and George hurried from the room, followed by Marybelle and Sooty. Sooty was grinning as he shut the door.
‘I didn’t promise!’ he said. ‘He wanted to take all our fun away. This place isn’t any fun if you don’t explore it. I can show you heaps of queer places.’
‘What are catacombs?’ asked Anne, with a vague picture of cats and combs in her head.
‘Winding, secret tunnels in the hill,’ said Sooty. ‘Nobody knows them all. You can get lost in them easily, and never get out again. Lots of people have.’
‘Why are there so many secret ways and things here?’ wondered George.
‘Easy!’ said Julian. ‘It was a haunt of smugglers, and there must have been many a time when they had to hide not only their goods, but themselves! And, according to old Sooty, there still is a smuggler here!
What did you say his name was – Barling, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ said Sooty. ‘Come on upstairs and I’ll show you your rooms. You’ve got a good view over the town.’
He took them to two rooms set side by side, on the opposite side of the big staircase from his bedroom and Marybelle’s. They were small but well-furnished, and had, as Sooty said, a marvellous view over the quaint roofs and towers of Castaway Hill. They also had a remarkably good view of Mr. Barling’s house.
George and Anne were to sleep in one room, and Julian and Dick in the other. Evidently Mrs. Lenoir had taken the trouble to remember that there were two girls and two boys, not one girl and three boys, as Mr. Lenoir imagined!
‘Nice cosy rooms,’ said Anne. ‘I like these dark oak panels. Are there any secret passages in our rooms, Sooty?’
‘You wait and see!’ grinned Sooty. ‘Look, there are your things, all unpacked from your suitcases. I expect Sarah did that. You’ll like Sarah. She’s a good sort, fat and round and jolly – not a bit like Block!’
Sooty seemed to have forgotten all about Tim. George reminded him.
‘What about Timmy? He’ll have to be near me, you know. And we must arrange to feed him and exercise him. Oh, I do hope he’ll be all right, Sooty, I’d rather leave straight away than have Timmy unhappy.’
‘He’ll be all right!’ said Sooty. Til give him the free run of that narrow passage we came up to my bedroom by, and we’ll feed him every chance we get. And we’ll smuggle him out by a secret tunnel that opens half-way down the town, and give him plenty of exercise each morning. Oh, we’ll have a grand time with Timmy!’
George wasn’t so sure. ‘Can he sleep with me at night?’ she asked. ‘He’ll howl the place down if he can’t.’
‘Well – we’ll try and manage it,’ said Sooty, rather doubtfully. ‘You’ve got to be jolly careful, you know. We don’t want to land in serious trouble. You don’t know what my stepfather can be like!’
They could guess, though. Julian looked curiously at Sooty. ‘Was your own father’s name Lenoir, too?’ he asked.
Sooty nodded. ‘Yes. He was my stepfather’s cousin, and was as dark as all the Lenoirs usually are. My stepfather is an exception – he’s fair. People say the fair Lenoirs are no good – but don’t tell my stepfather that!’
‘As if we should!’ said George. ‘Gracious, he’d cut off our heads or something! Come on – let’s go back to Tim.’
Chapter Seven THE HIDDEN PIT
THE children were all very glad to think that they were going to have meals by themselves in the old schoolroom. Nobody wanted to have much to do with Mr. Lenoir! They felt sorry for Marybelle because she had such a queer father.
They soon settled down at Smuggler’s Top. Once George was satisfied that Timmy was safe and happy, though rather puzzled about everything, she settled down too. The only difficulty was getting Timmy to her room at night. This had to be done in darkness. Block had a most tiresome way of appearing silently and suddenly, and George was terrified of him catching a glimpse of the big dog.
Timmy had a queer sort of life the next few days! Whilst the children were indoors, he had to stay in the narrow secret passage, where he wandered about, puzzled and lonely, pricking his ears for a sound of the whistle that meant he was to come to the cupboard and be let out.
He was fed very well, for Sooty raided the larder every night. Sarah, the cook, was amazed at the way things like soup-bones disappeared. She could not understand it. But Timmy devoured everything that was given to him.
Each morning he was given good exercise by the children. The first morning this had been really very exciting!
George had reminded Sooty of his promise to take
Timmy for walks each day. ‘He simply must have exercise, or he’ll be terribly miserable!’ she said. ‘But how can we manage it? We can’t possibly take him through the house and out of the front door! We’d be certain to walk into your father!’
‘I told you I knew a way that came out half-way down the hill, silly,’ said Sooty. ‘I’ll show you. We shall be quite safe once we are down there, because even if we met Block or anyone else that knew us, they wouldn’t know it was our dog. They would think it was just a stray we had picked up.’