Five Get Into Trouble (9 page)

He waited there about twenty minutes. The cupboard smelt musty, and it was very boring standing there doing absolutely nothing.

Then, through the crack in the door, he suddenly noticed that a light was coming. Ah —

somebody was about!

He peered through the crack. He saw Mr Perton coming quietly along the corridor with a little oil-lamp held in his hand. He went to the door of the children's bedroom and pushed it a little. Julian watched him, hardly daring to breathe.

Would he notice that the figure on one of the mattresses was only a lump made of a blanket rol ed up and covered by another blanket? Julian fervently hoped that he wouldn't. Al his plans would be spoilt if so.

Mr Perton held the lamp high in his hand and looked cautiously into the room. He saw four huddled-up shapes lying on the mattresses — four children — he thought.

They were obviously asleep. Softly, Mr Perton closed the door, and just as softly locked it.

Julian watched anxiously to see if he pocketed the key or not. No — he hadn't! He had left it in the lock. Oh good!

The man went away again, treading softly. He did not go downstairs, but disappeared into a room some way down on the right. Julian heard the door shut with a click. Then he heard another click. The man evidently believed in locking himself in. Perhaps he didn't trust his other comrade, wherever he was — or Hunchy or the woman.

Julian waited a while and then crept out of the cupboard. He stole up to Mr Perton's room and looked through the keyhole to see if the room was in darkness or not. It was!

Was Mr Perton snoring? Not that Julian could hear.

However Julian was not going to wait til he heard Mr Perton snore. He was going to find Dick — and he was pretty certain that the first place to look was in that attic upstairs!

'I bet Mr Perton was up there with Dick and heard me throwing stones at the window,'

thought Julian. 'Then he slipped down and opened that window to trap us into getting in there — and we fel neatly into the trap! He must have been waiting inside the room for us. I don't like Mr Perton — too full of bright ideas!'

He was half-way up the flight of stairs that led to the attics now — going very careful y and slowly, afraid of making the stairs creak loudly. They did creak — and at every creak poor Julian stopped and listened to see if anyone had heard!

There was a long passage at the top turning at both ends into the side-wings. Julian stood stil and debated — now which way ought he to go? — where exactly was that lighted window? It was somewhere along this long passage, he was certain. Well, he'd go along the doors and see if a light shone out through the keyhole, or under the door anywhere.

Door after door was ajar. Julian peeped round each, making out bare dark attics, or box-rooms with rubbish in. Then he came to a door that was closed. He peered through the keyhole. No light came from inside the room.

Julian knocked gently. A voice came at once — Dick's voice. 'Who's there?'

'Sh! It's me — Julian,' whispered Julian. 'Are you all right, Dick?'

There came the creak of a bed, then the pattering of feet across a bare floor. Dick's voice came through the door, muffled and cautious.

'Julian! How did you get here? This is marvel ous! Can you unlock the door and let me out?'

Julian had already felt for a key — but there was none. Mr Perton had taken that key, at any rate!

'No. The key's gone,' he said. 'Dick, what did they do to you?'

'Nothing much. They dragged me off to the car and shoved me in,' said Dick, through the door. 'The man cal ed Rooky wasn't there. The others waited for him for some time, then drove off. They thought he might have gone off to see someone they meant to visit.

So I haven't seen him. He's coming tomorrow morning. What a shock for him when he finds I'm not Richard!'

'Richard's here too,' whispered Julian. 'I wish he wasn't — because if Rooky happens to see him he'll be kidnapped, I'm sure! The only hope is that Rooky wil only see you — and as the other men think we're al one family, they may let us al go. Did you come straight here in the car, Dick?'

'Yes,' said Dick. 'The gates opened like magic when we got here, but I couldn't see anybody. I was shoved up here and locked in. One of the men came to tell me al the things Rooky was going to do to me when he saw me — and then he suddenly went downstairs and hasn't come back again.'

'Oh — I bet that was when we chucked stones up at your window,' said Julian at once.

'Didn't you hear them?'

'Yes — so that was the crack I heard! The man with me went across to the window at once — and he must have seen you. Now, what about you, Ju? How on earth did you get here? are you al real y here? I suppose that was Timmy I heard howling outside.'

Julian quickly told him all his tale from the time he and George had met the howling Richard to the moment he had slipped up the stairs to find Dick.

There was a silence when he had finished his tale. Then Dick's voice came through the crack.

'Not much good making any plans, Julian. If things go al right, we'll be out of here by the morning, when Rooky finds I'm not the boy he wants. If things go wrong at least we're all together, and we can make plans then. I wonder what his mother wil think when Richard doesn't get home tonight.'

'Probably think he's gone off to the aunt's,' said Julian. 'I should think he's a very unreliable person. Blow him! It was al because of him we got into this fix.'

'I expect the men wil have some cock-and-bul story tomorrow morning, about why they got hold of you, when they find you're not Richard,' went on Julian. 'They'l probably say you threw stones at their car or something, and they took you in hand — or found your hurt and brought you here to help you! Anyway, whatever they say, we won't make much fuss about it. We'll go quietly — and then we'l get things moving! I don't know what's going on here, but it's something queer. The police ought to look into it, I'm certain.'

'Listen — that's Timmy again,' said Dick. 'Howling like anything for George, I suppose.

You'd better go, Julian, in case he wakes up one of the men and they come out and find you here. Good-night. I'm awful y glad you're near! Thanks awful y for coming to find me.'

'Good-night,' said Julian, and went back along the corridor, walking over the patches of moonlight, looking fearfully into the dark shadows in case Mr Perton or somebody else was waiting for him!

But nobody was about. Timmy's howling died down. There was a deep silence in the house. Julian went down the stairs to the floor on which the bedroom was where the others lay asleep. He paused outside it. Should he do any further exploring? It real y was such a chance!

He decided that he would. Mr Perton was fast asleep, he hoped. He thought probably Hunchy and the woman had gone to bed too. He wondered where the other man was, who had brought Dick to Owl's Dene. He hadn't seen him at al . Perhaps he had gone out in that black Bentley they had seen going out of the gate.

Julian went down to the ground floor. A bril iant thought had just occurred to him.

Couldn't he undo the front door and get the others down, and send them out, free? He himself couldn't escape, because it would mean leaving Dick alone.

Then he gave up the idea. 'No,' he thought. 'For one thing George and Anne would refuse to go without me — and even if they agreed to get out of the front door, and go down the drive to the gates, how would they undo them? They're worked by some machinery from the house.'

So his bril iant idea came to nothing. He decided to look into al the rooms on the ground floor. He looked into the kitchen first. The fire was almost out. The moonlight came through the cracks of the curtains and lighted up the dark silent room. Hunchy and the woman had evidently retired somewhere.

There was nothing of interest in the kitchen. Julian went into the room opposite. It was a dining-room, with a long polished table, candlesticks on the walls and mantelpiece, and the remains of a wood fire. Nothing of interest there either.

The boy went into another room. Was it a workroom, or what? There was a radiogram there, and a big desk. There was a stand with a curious instrument of some kind that had a stout wheel-like handle. Julian suddenly wondered if it would open the gates! Yes —

that was what it was for. He saw a label attached to it. Left Gate. Right Gate. Both Gates.

'That's what it is — the machinery for opening either or both of the gates. If only I could get Dick out of that room I'd get us all out of this place in no time!' said Julian. He twisted the handle — what would happen?

A curious groaning, whining noise began, as some kind of strong machinery was set working. Julian hurriedly turned the handle back. If it was going to make all that noise, he wasn't going to try his hand at opening the gates! It would bring Mr Perton out of his room in a rush!

'Most ingenious, whatever it is,' thought the boy, examining it as well as he could in the moonlight that streamed through the window. He looked round the room again. A noise came to his ears and he stood stil .

'It's somebody snoring,' he thought. 'I'd better not mess about here any more! Where are they sleeping? Somewhere not far from here, that's certain.'

He tiptoed cautiously into the next room and looked inside it. It was a lounge, but there was nobody there at al . He couldn't hear the snoring there either.

He was puzzled. There didn't seem to be any other room nearby where people could sleep. He went back to the workroom or study. Yes — now he could hear that noise again

— and it was somebody snoring! Somebody quite near — and yet not near enough to hear properly, or to see. Most peculiar.

Julian walked softly round the room, trying to find a place where the snoring sounded loudest of all. Yes — by this bookcase that reached to the ceiling. That was where the snoring sounded most of all. Was there a room behind this wal , next to the workroom?

Julian went out to investigate. But there was no room behind the study at all — only the wall of the corridor, as far as he could see. It was more and more mysterious.

He went back to the study again, and over to the bookcase. Yes — there it was again.

Somebody was asleep and snoring not far off — but WHERE?

Julian began to examine the bookcase. It was full of books jammed tightly together —

novels, biographies, reference books — all higgledy-piggledy. He removed some from a shelf and examined the bookcase behind. It was of solid wood.

He put back the books and examined the big bookcase again. It was a very solid affair.

Julian looked carefully at the books, shining in the moonlight. One shelf of books looked different from the others — less tidy — the books not so jammed together. Why should just one shelf be different?

Julian quietly took the books from that shelf. Behind them was the solid wood again.

Julian put his hand at the back and felt about. A knob was hidden in a corner. A knob!

Whatever was that there for?

Cautiously Julian turned the knob this way and that. Nothing happened. Then he pressed it. Stil nothing happened. He pul ed it — and it slid out a good six inches!

Then the whole of the back of that particular shelf slid quietly downwards, and left an opening big enough for somebody to squeeze through! Julian Held his breath. A sliding panel! What was behind it?

A dim flickering light came from the space behind. Julian waited til his eyes were used to it after the bright moonlight. He was trembling with excitement. The snoring now sounded so loud that Julian felt as if the snorer must be almost within hand's reach!

Then gradual y he made out a tiny room, with a smal narrow bed, a table and a shelf on which a few articles could dimly be made out. A candle was burning in a corner. On the bed was the snorer. Julian could not see what he was like, except that he looked big and burly as he lay there, snoring peacefully.

'What a find!' thought Julian. 'A secret hiding-place — a place to hide al kinds of people, I suppose, who have enough money to pay for such a safe hole. This fel ow ought to have been warned not to snore! He gave himself away.'

The body did not dare to stay there any longer, looking into that curious secret room. It must be built in a space between the wall of the study and the wal of the corridor —

probably a very old hiding-place made when the house was built.

Julian felt for the knob. He pushed it back into place, and the panel slid up again, as noiselessly as before. It was evidently kept in good working order!

The snoring was muffled again now. Julian replaced the books, hoping that they were more or less as he had found them.

He felt very thril ed. He had found one of the secrets of Owl's Dene, at any rate. The police would be very interested to hear about that secret hole — and perhaps they would be even more interested to hear about the person inside it!

It was absolutely essential now that he and the others should escape. Would it be al right if he went without Dick? No — if the men suspected any dirty work on his part —

discovered that he knew of the secret hole, for instance — they might harm Dick.

Regretful y Julian decided that there must be no escape for him unless everyone, including Dick, could come too.

He didn't explore any more. He suddenly felt very tired indeed and crept softly upstairs.

He felt as if he simply must lie down and think. He was too tired to do anything else.

He went to the bedroom. The key was stil in the lock outside. He went into the room and shut the door. Mr Perton would find the door unlocked the next morning, but probably he would think he hadn't turned the key properly. Julian lay down on the mattress beside Richard. Al the others were fast asleep.

He meant to think out all his problems — but no sooner had he closed his eyes than he was fast asleep. He didn't hear Timmy howling outside once more. He didn't hear the screech owl that made the night hideous on the hil . He didn't see the moon slide down the sky.

It was not Mr Perton who awoke the children next morning, but the woman. She came into the room and called to them.