Dick shut the cistern door at once, afraid of the noise being heard. Timmy might bark with joy in a moment, or George might shout!

The figure gave a grunt and sat up. The blanket fell away from the head — and there was George’s curly nob, and her startled face.

“Sh!” said Dick, raising his finger warningly. “SH!” Timmy was licking George from head to foot, wild with delight, but extraordinarily silent — clever old Timmy knew that this was one of the times when joy must be dumb!

“Oh!” said George, hugging Timmy anywhere she could. “Oh, Timmy! I missed you so! Darling, darling, Tim! Oh Timmy!”

Dick stood by the closed door, listening to find out if anyone was stirring in the other rooms. He heard nothing at all. Julian went to George.

“Are you all right, George?” he asked. “Have you been treated well?”

“Not very,” said George. “But then I didn’t behave very well! I did quite a lot of kicking and biting — so they locked me in here!”

“Poor old George!” said Julian. “Well, we’ll hear everything when we’ve got out of here. So far, we’ve been jolly lucky. Can you come now?”

“Yes,” said George and got off the mattress. She was dressed in an odd selection of clothes, and looked rather peculiar. “That awful old woman — Gringo’s mother — found these for me when I was taken to the caravan,” she said. “Gosh, I’ve got a lot to tell you!”

“Sh!” said Dick, at the door. “Not a sound, now! I’m going to open the door!”

He opened it slowly. All was quiet. “Now we’ll go down the stairs,” he said. “Not a sound!”

They went down the first flight of stairs and on to the enormous landing. Then, just as Dick put his foot on to the next stair down, he trod on something soft that yowled, spat and scratched. It was that cat!

Dick fell halfway down the stairs, and Timmy could not stop himself from chasing the cat up the landing and up the top stairs to the cistern room. Nor could he stop himself from barking!

Shouts came from two of the nearby bedrooms and two men appeared in pyjamas. One switched on the landing light, and then both of them tore down the stairs after the three children. Dick picked himself up, but he had ricked his ankle and could not even walk!

“Run, George — I’ll see to Dick!” yelled Julian. But George stopped too — and in a trice the two men were on to them, catching hold of Dick and Julian, and jerking them into a nearby room.

“Tim! TIM!” shouted George. “Help, Timmy!”

But before Timmy could come pelting down the stairs from the attic George was shoved into the room too, and the door locked.

“Look out for the dog!” shouted one of the men. “He’s dangerous!”

Timmy certainly was! He came tearing towards the men, snarling, his eyes blazing, showing all his teeth.