"Let me get at it," Jon said, "I can't open it with you in the way!" Penny was so excited that she stood meekly aside while he fitted the great key. He used both hands to turn it, but the lock shot back easily enough, and when he grasped the big iron handle and pulled, the heavy door swung quietly towards him and as he stepped back to avoid it he trod on Penny's foot.

"Mind your head as you go in," Mrs. Warrender called. "The doorway is very low."

They crowded in and there was a long silence as they looked round. They were in a narrow room right under the roof. The walls, like the stairway outside, were panelled in oak and the floor, which was bare, was very uneven. On the right, where the beamed ceiling sloped down sharply, were three narrow windows of thick greenish glass which reached to the floor. Penny found that she had to kneel to look through them. Opposite the door was an old brick fireplace with iron dogs still on the blackened hearth.

"Well, what do you think of your new home?" Mrs. Warrender smiled from the door.

Penny ran over and flung her arms round her.

"Do you mean this room is ours, darling? Our very own to do what we like in?"

"That's what I thought! There's not much furniture, as you see, but that is a very valuable table and I should think it must have been built up here, for they could never have got it up the stairs in one piece. And you can have those three chairs and there's plenty of room in the two cupboards, and I suppose there's no reason why Jon shouldn't build some bookshelves if he's careful not to spoil the woodwork... There's something odd about this room, Jon, and I don't quite know what it is. It seems strange that such a nice room should have been built in this way under the roof. That fireplace is really old and has been used a lot, and as soon as I found the room I wondered why it should have been used at all for living in."

"Perhaps it was a hiding place?" Jon said.

"A secret room?" said Penny.

Mrs. Warrender dusted the table top and then sat on it.