Suddenly the rain lashed across the field and he knew that Slinky would be looking for shelter. He looked quickly again at the rotting steps above him and decided that he had no choice. The last four steps had gone long ago, so he had to jump for the handrail and pull himself up. He was careful to put his weight on the sides of the steps and not in the centre, where they would be weakest, and although he felt one of them give under his feet he managed to get his hands on to the edge of the floor and pull himself to safety. Even as he scrambled up he heard voices and the sound of running footsteps. He had only just been in time.

When he got off his knees he saw that he was in a round room with a great wooden shaft running through both floor and ceiling. There were so many cracks and splits in the wooden walls that the place was quite light, and Jon noticed at once a big trap-door with a ring in the floor. He examined this carefully, but it fitted closely, and it was obviously much too heavy to lift. He put his ear down in the dust, but could hear nothing, and then moved over to the great shaft. This, of course, could not fit the floor so closely and there was a crack about half an inch all round, but he tried in vain to see through this. Then he lay down full length and, with his head against the massive oak shaft and his ear to the crack, found, to his excitement, that he could hear every word which was being spoken below.

A woman's voice was speaking.

"Well, don't let's spend any more time in this foul place than we need. Have you got it?"

Jon realized with a shock that this voice was certainly not Miss Ballinger's. It was a younger, more attractive voice and one which he had never heard before. There was a pause before Mr. Grandon replied:

"I have got something... something important, but I do not know what it means."

"Let me see," said the strange voice quickly. "All right! All right! No need to hold on to it like that... I only want to look at it, and I shall have to take it to her, anyway, so I may as well see it now... You know that you're not to be seen with her or even to know her at present, so you'd better hand it over to me at once. If you don't I'll tell her you kept it from me and you know you won't like what happens then... Come on. Let me see... But this doesn't make any sense at all... 'nt 8 April 7'... Wasn't there something else? Are you sure this was all?"