“I say — I wonder if this is just some animal’s runway — or leads somewhere!” thought George. “TIMMY! Where are you?”

From somewhere deep in the quarry side there came a faint whine. George felt thankful. So Timmy was there, after all. She crawled along, and then quite suddenly the tunnel became high and wide and she realized that she must be in a passage. It was perfectly dark, so she could not see anything, she could only feel.

Then she heard the sound of pattering feet, and Timmy pressed affectionately against her legs, whining. “Oh Timmy — you gave me a bit of a fright!” said George. “Where have you been? Is this a real passage — or just a tunnel in the quarry, made by the old miners, and now used by animals?”

“Woof,” said Timmy, and pulled at George’s jeans to make her go back to the daylight.

“All right, I’m coming!” said George. “Don’t imagine I want to wander alone in the dark! I only came to look for you.”

She made her way back to the shelf of rock. By this time Dick was awake, and wondered where George had gone. He waited a few minutes, blinking up into the deep blue sky, and then sat up.

“George!” There was no answer. So, in his turn Dick slipped down from the rock and looked around. And, to his very great astonishment he saw first Timmy, and then George on hands and knees, appearing out of the hole under the rock. He stared open-mouthed, and George began to giggle.

“It’s all right. I’ve only been rabbiting with Timmy!”

She stood beside him, shaking and brushing soil from her jersey and trousers. “There’s a passage behind the entrance to the hole under the rock,” she said. “At first it’s just a narrow tunnel, like an animal’s hole — then it gets wider — and then it becomes a proper high wide passage! I couldn’t see if it went on, of course, because it was dark. Timmy was a long way in.”

“Good gracious!” said Dick. “It sounds exciting.”

“Let’s explore it, shall we?” said George. “I expect Julian’s got a torch.”

“No,” said Dick. “We won’t explore today.”

The others were now awake, and listening with interest. “Is it a secret passage?” said Anne, thrilled. “Oh do let’s explore it!”

“No, not today,” said Dick again. He looked at Julian. Julian guessed that Dick did not want Martin to share this secret. Why should he? He was not a real friend of theirs, and they had only just got to know him. He nodded back to Dick.

“No, we won’t explore today. Anyway, it may be nothing — just an old tunnel made by the quarrymen.”

Martin was listening with great interest. He went and looked into the hole. “I wish we could explore,” he said. “Maybe we could plan to meet again with torches and see if there really is a passage there.”