“I’ve got something to say to you,” he began. “You remember those two friends of mine — scientists working on a scheme with me — you remember the big American?”

“Yes,” said everyone.

“He gave us a whole pound,” said Anne.

Uncle Quentin took no notice of that remark. “Well,” he said, “he’s got a daughter — let’s see now — she’s got some silly name…”

“Berta,” said his wife.

“Don’t interrupt me,” said Uncle Quentin. “Yes, Berta. Well, Elbur, her father, has been warned that she’s going to be kidnapped.”

“Whatever for?” said Julian, amazed.

“Because it so happens that her father knows more secrets about a new scheme we’re planning than anyone else in the world,” said his uncle. “And he says, quite frankly, that if this girl — what’s her name now…”

“Berta,” said everyone, obligingly.

“That if his Berta is kidnapped, he will give away every single secret he knows to get her back,” said Uncle Quentin. “Pah! What’s he made of? Traitor to us all! How can he even think of giving away secrets for the sake of a silly girl?”

“Quentin, she’s his only child and he adores her,” said Aunt Fanny. “I should feel the same about George.”

“Women are always soft and silly,” said her husband, in a tone of great disgust. “It’s a good thing you don’t know any secrets — you’d give them away to the milkman!”

This was so ridiculous that the children laughed. Uncle Quentin glared at them.

“This is no laughing matter. It has been a great shock to me to be told by one of the leading scientists of the world that he feels certain he might give all our secrets to the enemy if this — this…”

“Berta,” said everyone again, at once.

“If this Berta was kidnapped,” went on Uncle Quentin. “So he came to ask if we’d take this — this Berta into our own home for three weeks. By that time the scheme will be finished and launched, and our secrets will be safe.”

There was a silence. Nobody looked very pleased. In fact, George looked furious. She burst out at last.

“So that’s who the bed is for in our room! Mother, have we got to be squashed up with nowhere to move about the room, for three whole weeks? It’s too bad.”

“For once you and I agree, George,” said her father. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with it. Elbur is in such a state about this kidnapping warning that he couldn’t be reasoned with. In fact he threatened to tear up all his figures and diagrams and burn them, if I didn’t agree to this. That would mean we couldn’t get on with the scheme.”

“But why has she got to come here?” said George, fiercely. “Why put her on to us? Hasn’t she any relations or friends she can go to?”

“George, don’t be so fierce,” said her mother. “Apparently Berta has no mother, and has been everywhere with her father. They have no relations in this country — and no friends they can trust. He won’t send her back to America because he has been warned by the police that she might be followed there — and at the moment he can’t leave this country himself to go with her.”