In a wild panic he began to turn out the contents on to the pew beside him and hardly noticed his mother's agitated whispers. He did realize that Penny was leaning forward mouthing wordless questions, but he was far too worried to do more than shake his head vaguely as he went again through the contents. There was no doubt of it. The clue was no longer there! He felt feverishly in his other pockets as he rose with the congregation at the end of the sermon, but without success. Then he remembered that there was a chance that the parchment might be in his old jacket which he had worn after breakfast, but he continued to fidget miserably until the end of the service. Penny managed to get next to him as they crowded down the aisle.

"What happened, Jon? What have you lost?"

"I can't find the clue. Did you pick it up off the table when Mother knocked on the door?"

"Of course I didn't! Oh, Jon, how terrible."

"It might be in the pocket of my old jacket. The one I was wearing this morning."

"Come on, then! Let's dash up to your room and see if it's in your old coat."

But although they searched every pocket and even the hole in the lining, and then turned the pockets of his old trousers inside out, there was no sign of the missing clue. Jon sat back on his bed, ran his fingers through his hair and destroyed his Sunday parting. "This is grim, Penny," he said. "I just can't remember. Let's look upstairs. I may have stuffed it back into the box when we had to rush away."

They dashed up the stairs and, to their great relief, found that the door was still locked. Inside all seemed to be as they had left it two hours ago. They closed the door behind them and Jon slid the bolt across. The box was still on the table, but the precious scrap of parchment was not to be seen.

"Let's see if the box is still locked," he said. "I've got the key here."

Penny crossed the room first and then stopped suddenly and sniffed.

"Can you smell anything?" she whispered as Jon was trying the lid of the deed-box.

"No, I don't think so. This is all right. It's still locked."

"Stand still for a minute... Jon, I'm quite sure that someone has been in this room while we've been out."

"Don't be silly. How could anyone have been here? The door was locked, wasn't it? You saw me unlock it. The first thing to do is to search this box, because the clue may have slipped out of my pocket-book on to the table and I may have pushed it into the box with the other papers when Mother called us."

But Penny was still standing over by the fireplace with her nose tilted more than usual and a rapt expression on her face.