“Blow it!” said Julian. “I’m getting the jitters now, being watched by a shadowy cat. I suppose it is real?”

“Timmy thinks so!” said Dick. “Come on — there are any amount of bedroom doors on this landing.”

They tiptoed into the ones whose doors were open, but no one was sleeping in the beds there. They came to a closed door and listened. Someone was snoring inside!

“That’s not George,” said Dick. “Anyway, she’d be locked in, and the key is in this door.”

They went to the next door, which was also shut. They listened and could hear someone breathing heavily.

“Not George,” said Dick, and they went on up the next flight of stairs. There were four more rooms there, two of them not even furnished. The doors of the other two were ajar, and it was clear that people were sleeping in them because once more there was loud breathing to be heard.

“There don’t seem to be any more rooms,” said Dick, in dismay, as they flashed their torches carefully round the top landing. “Blow! Where’s George then?”

“Look — there’s a little wooden door there,” said Julian, in Dick’s ear. “A door leading into the cistern room, I should think.”

“She wouldn’t be there,” said Dick. “But wait — look, there’s a strong bolt on the door! And cistern rooms don’t have bolts on their doors, or even locks. This one hasn’t a lock, but it has a bolt.”

“Sh! Not so loud!” said Julian. “Yes, that’s funny, I must say. How can we get the door open without waking the people in those other two rooms?”

“We’ll shut their doors very quietly, and we’ll lock them!” said Dick, excited. “I’ll go and do it.”

He drew the doors gently to, and then locked first one and then the other, having taken the keys from the other side of the doors to do so. Except that one made a slight click as he locked it, there was no noise. Nobody stirred in the two rooms, and the boys breathed freely again.

They went to the little wooden door opposite. They pulled gently at the bolt, afraid that it might squeak. But it didn’t. It was obviously quite new, and ran easily. The door opened outwards with a small creak. There was pitch darkness inside, and the sound of trickling water from the cistern.

Dick flashed his torch on and off quickly. In that second he saw something that made his heart jump!

There was a small mattress on the floor of the little cistern room, and someone was lying on it, rolled so completely in blankets that even the head was covered! Julian had seen it too, and he put his arm on Dick’s, afraid that it might not be George, afraid that it might be someone who would give the alarm, perhaps another prisoner.

But Timmy knew who it was! Timmy ran straight in with a small, loving whimper and flung himself on the sleeping figure!