Chapter Twenty

A thrilling time

The two boys went back to the gates. Dick turned round and looked behind him two or three times. “I do hope nobody is shadowing us!” he said. “I keep on feeling somebody’s watching us all the time.”

“Oh, stuff!” said Julian, impatiently. “Look — here are the gates. Give me a leg-up and I’ll be over in a jiffy.”

Dick gave him a shove, and Julian climbed over the gates without much difficulty. They were bolted, not locked. He slid the great bolts carefully, and opened one gate a little for Dick and Timmy. “Timmy can’t be left behind!” he said. “And he certainly couldn’t climb this gate!”

They kept to the shadowed side of the drive as they walked up towards the house. The small moon came out from behind a cloud as they came near. It was an old house, with high chimneys, an ugly house with narrow windows that seemed like watching eyes.

Dick glanced behind him suddenly and Julian saw him. “Got the jitters again?” he said, impatiently. “Dick, don’t be an ass. You know perfectly well that if anyone was shadowing us, Timmy would hear them and go for them at once.”

“Yes, I know,” said Dick. “I’m an idiot — but I’ve just got that feeling tonight — the feeling that someone else is there!”

They came right up to the house. “How shall we get in?” whispered Julian. “The doors are all sure to be locked. We’ll have to try the windows.”

They tiptoed silently round the big house. As Julian had said, the doors were all locked. The windows were all fastened too — well and truly fastened. Not one was open or could be opened.

“If this is a house belonging to Gringo he must be able to hide plenty of things in absolute safety — bolted gates, high walls, locked doors, fastened windows!” said Dick. “No burglar could possibly get in.”

“And neither can we,” said Julian, desperately. “We’ve been all round the house three times now! There’s no door, no window we can get in. No balcony to climb up to — no ivy to hang on to — nothing!”

“Let’s go round once more,” said Dick. “We might have missed something.”

So once more they went round — and discovered something curious when they got to the kitchen quarters. The moon came out, and showed them a round black hole in the ground! Whatever could it be?

They tiptoed to it just as the moon went in again. They shone their torches on it briefly.

“It’s a coal-hole!” said Dick, astonished. “Why didn’t we see it before? Look, there’s the lid just beside it. It’s been left open. I suppose the moon was in last time we came by this part of the house. I can’t think how we didn’t notice it.”

Julian was uneasy. “I didn’t see it before, certainly. It’s queer. Could it be a trap, do you think?”