"That was unintelligent of me," he admitted, "and it was stupid to forget it before we came up again... Shine the torch somebody and let me see if I can find the latch which will do the trick."

But he was unsuccessful. Both torches began to dim; and Penny was worried as they searched and fumbled for the secret catch.

"Trouble is," Jon said, "that the catch seems to work from the inside and that hole we found is lower on that side than it is on this, and that's why we can't get at it here... The only way to find it would be to heave up these floorboards, and I s'pose nobody has got a strong knife?"

Nobody had, and Jon sat back on his heels in despair. Then one torch flickered and went out and Mary said:

"I'm not very keen on this. Shall we go right down the passage again and then come up the steps outside and knock at the front door? We're tired now, aren't we, twin?"

"I don't know about you chaps," Dickie yawned, "but I'm going down to wake up Slinky. He'll just have to let us through his room. If he tries to be funny, I'll just fix him... Come on. Mary and me are tired, and it's all because David hasn't been clever with this secret door... But he would do it himself!"

"Don't be crazy, Dickie," David said. "And don't show off. You know perfectly well that we can't go and wake him up. He'd give the whole game away and that would be the end of everything for us... Golly! This torch is going now. I'll switch it off while we talk."

"We've got to do something, anyway," Penny replied. " We can't sit here all night in the dark."

"There are three things we can do," Jon said. "We can stay here in the cold, we can walk back as Mary suggested and try to get into the Dolphin without waking anybody, or do what Dickie says - and I think the last suggestion is the best."

"All right," David said. "Maybe it's the best idea - and he might give himself away somehow. Just enough in the torch to get us down to his room, I think, and if he does give the game away we shan't be any worse off than if we have to wake somebody up from the front. Let's try him and let Penny do her act."