“Good girl,” said her father, and gave her a hug. “Honestly, George, you do behave as bravely as any boy. I’m proud of you.”

George thought that was the nicest thing her father had ever said to her. She smiled at him. “Well, Father, I’ll go and see if I can find Timmy now. I simply must see that he’s all right before I go to hide in one of the other caves.”

“Very well,” said her father. “The man who took the biscuits went in that direction — still further under the sea, George. Oh — by the way — how is it you’re here, in the middle of the night?”

It seemed to strike her father for the first time that George also might have a story to tell. But George felt that she really couldn’t waste any more time — she must find Timmy!

“I’ll tell you later, Father,” she said. “Oh — where’s that book of notes?”

Her father rose and went to the back of the cave. He took a box and stood on it. He ran his hand along a dark ridge of rock, and felt about until he had found what he wanted.

He brought down a slim book, whose pages were of very thin paper. He opened the book and George saw many beautifully drawn diagrams, and pages of notes in her father’s small neat handwriting.

“Here you are,” said her father, handing her the book, “do the best you can. If anything happens to me, this book will still enable my fellow-workers to give my idea to the world. If I come through this all right, I shall be glad to have the book, because it will mean I shall not have to work out all my experiments again.”

George took the precious book. She stuffed it into her macintosh pocket, which was a big one. “I’ll keep it safe, Father. Now I must go and find Timmy, or those two men will be back before I can hide in one of the other caves.”

She left her father’s cave and went into the next one. There was nothing there at all. Then on she went down a passage that twisted and turned in the rock.

And then she heard a sound she longed to hear. A whine! Yes, really a whine!

“Timmy!” shouted George, eagerly. “Oh Timmy! I’m coming!”

Timmy’s whine stopped suddenly. Then he barked joyously. “Woof, woof, woof, woof!” George almost fell as she tried to run down the narrow tunnel. Her torch showed her a big boulder that seemed to be blocking up a small cave in the side of the tunnel. Behind the boulder Timmy barked, and scraped frantically!

George tugged at the stone with all her strength. “Timmy!” she panted. “Timmy! I’ll get you out! I’m coming! Oh, Timmy!”

The stone moved a little. George tugged again. It was almost too heavy for her to move at all, but despair made her stronger than she had ever been in her life. The stone quite suddenly swung to one side, and George just got one of her feet out of its way in time, or it would have been crushed.