There were no lessons the next day. George looked rather pale, and wasvery quiet. Tim was already out in the yard-kennel, and the childrencould hear him whining unhappily. They were all upset to hear him."Oh, George, I'm awfully sorry about it all," said Dick. "I wish youwouldn't get so fierce about things. You only get yourself intotrouble—and poor old Tim."George was full of mixed feelings. She disliked Mr. Roland so much nowthat she could hardly bear to look at him—and yet she did not dare tobe openly rude and rebellious because she was afraid that if she was,the tutor would give her a bad report, and perhaps she would not beallowed even to _see_ Timothy. It was very hard for a defiant naturelike hers to force herself to behave properly.Mr. Roland took no notice of her at all. The other children tried tobring George into their talks and plans, but she remained quiet anduninterested."George! We're going over to Kirrin Farmhouse to-day," said Dick."Coming? We're going to try and find the entrance to the Secret Way. Itmust start somewhere there."The children had told George what Mr. Roland had said about the piece ofmarked linen. They had all been thrilled about this, though theexcitements of Christmas Day had made them forget about it for a while.[Illustration: She set out with Timothy, a lonely little figure goingdown the garden path]"Yes—of course I'll come," said George, looking more cheerful. "Timothycan come too. He wants a walk."But when the little girl found that Mr. Roland was also going, shechanged her mind at once. Not for anything would she go with the tutor!No—she would go for a walk alone with Timothy."But, George—think of the excitement we'll have trying to find theSecret Way," said Julian, taking hold of her arm. George wrenched itaway."I'm not going if Mr. Roland is," she said, obstinately, and the othersknew that it was no good trying to coax her."I shall go alone with Tim," said George. "You go off together with yourdear Mr. Roland!"She set out with Timothy, a lonely little figure going down the gardenpath. The others stared after her. This was horrid. George was beingmore and more left out, but what could they do about it?"Well, children, are you ready?" asked Mr. Roland. "You start off byyourselves, will you? I'll meet you at the farm-house later. I want torun down to the village first to get something."So the three children set off by themselves, wishing that George waswith them. She was nowhere to be seen.Old Mr. and Mrs. Sanders were pleased to see the three children, and satthem down in the big kitchen to eat ginger buns and drink hot milk."Well, have you come to find a few more secret things?" asked Mrs.Sanders, with a smile."May we try?" asked Julian. "We're looking for a room facing east, witha stone floor, and panelling!""All the rooms downstairs have stone floors," said Mrs. Sanders. "Youhunt all you like, my dears. You won't do any damage, I know. But don'tgo into the room upstairs with the cupboard that has a false back, willyou, or the one next to it! Those are the rooms the two artists have.""All right," said Julian, rather sorry that they were unable to fiddleabout with the exciting cupboard again. "Are the artists here, Mrs.Sanders? I'd like to talk to them about pictures. I hope one day I'll bean artist too.""Dear me, is that so?" said Mrs. Sanders. "Well, well—it's always amarvel to me how people make any money at painting pictures.""It isn't making money that artists like, so much as the painting of thepictures," said Julian, looking rather wise. That seemed to puzzle Mrs.Sanders even more. She shook her head and laughed."They're queer folk!" she said. "Ah well—you go along and have a huntfor whatever it is you want to find. You can't talk to the two artiststo-day though, Master Julian—they're out."The children finished their buns and milk and then stood up, wonderingwhere to begin their search. They must look for a room or rooms facingeast. That would be the first thing to do."Which side of the house faces east, Mrs. Sanders?" asked Julian. "Doyou know?""The kitchen faces due north," said Mrs. Sanders. "So east will be overthere." She pointed to the right."Thanks," said Julian. "Come on, everyone!" The three children went outof the kitchen, and turned to the right. There were three rooms there—akind of scullery, not much used now, a tiny room used as a den by oldMr. Sanders, and a room that had once been a drawing-room, but which wasnow cold and unused."They've all got stone floors," said Julian."So we'll have to hunt through all of the three rooms," said Anne."No, we won't," said Julian. "We shan't have to look in this scullery,for one thing!""Why not?" asked Anne."Because the walls are of stone, silly, and we want panelling," saidJulian. "Use your brains, Anne!""Well, that's one room we needn't bother with, then," said Dick."Look—both this little room and the drawing-room have panelling,Julian. We must search in both.""There must be some reason for putting _eight_ squares of panelling inthe directions," said Julian, looking at the roll of linen again. "Itwould be a good idea to see whether there's a place with eight squaresonly—you know, over a window, or something."It was tremendously exciting to look round the two rooms! The childrenbegan with the smaller room. It was panelled all the way round in darkoak, but there was no place where only eight panels showed. So thechildren went into the next room.The panelling there was different. It did not look so old, and was notso dark. The squares were rather a different size, too. The childrentried each panel, tapping and pressing as they went, expecting at anymoment to see one slide back as the one in the hall had done.But they were disappointed. Nothing happened at all. They were still inthe middle of trying when they heard footsteps in the hall, and voices.Somebody looked into the drawing-room. It was a man, thin and tall,wearing glasses on his long nose."Hallo!" he said. "Mrs. Sanders told me you were treasure-hunting, orsomething. How are you getting on?""Not very well," said Julian, politely. He looked at the man, and sawbehind him another one, younger, with rather screwed-up eyes and a bigmouth. "I suppose you are the two artists?" he asked."We are!" said the first man, coming into the room. "Now, just exactlywhat are you looking for?"Julian did not really want to tell him, but it was difficult not to."Well—we're just seeing if there's a sliding panel here," he said atlast. "There's one in the hall, you know. It's exciting to hunt round.""Shall we help?" said the first artist, coming into the room. "What areyour names? Mine's Thomas, and my friend's name is Wilton."The children talked politely for a minute or two, not at all wanting thetwo men to help. If there was anything to be found, _they_ wanted tofind it. It would spoil everything if grown-ups solved the puzzle!Soon everyone was tap-tap-tapping round the wooden panels. They were inthe middle of this when a voice hailed them."Hallo! My word, we _are_ all busy!"The children turned, and saw their tutor standing in the doorway,smiling at them. The two artists looked at him."Is this a friend of yours?" asked Mr. Thomas."Yes—he's our tutor, and he's very nice!" said Anne, running to Mr.Roland and putting her hand in his."Perhaps you will introduce me, Anne," said Mr. Roland, smiling at thelittle girl.Anne knew how to introduce people. She had often seen her mother doingit. "This is Mr. Roland," she said to the two artists. Then she turnedto Mr. Roland. "This is Mr. Thomas," she said, waving her hand towardshim, "and the other one is Mr. Wilton."The men half-bowed to one another and nodded. "Are you staying here?"asked Mr. Roland. "A very nice old farm-house, isn't it?""It isn't time to go yet, is it?" asked Julian, hearing a clock strike."Yes, I'm afraid it is," said Mr. Roland. "I'm later meeting you than Iexpected. We must go in about five minutes—no later. I'll just give youa hand in trying to find this mysterious secret way!"But no matter how anyone of them pressed and tapped around the panels ineither of the two rooms, they could not find anything exciting. Itreally was most disappointing."Well, we really must go now," said Mr. Roland. "Come and say good-byeto Mrs. Sanders."They all went into the warm kitchen, where Mrs. Sanders was cookingsomething that smelt most delicious."Something for our lunch, Mrs. Sanders?" said Mr. Wilton. "My word, youreally are a wonderful cook!"Mrs. Sanders smiled. She turned to the children. "Well, dearies, did youfind what you wanted?" she asked."No," said Mr. Roland, answering for them. "We haven't been able to findthe secret way, after all!""The secret way?" said Mrs. Sanders, in surprise. "What do you knowabout that now? I thought it had all been forgotten—in fact, I haven'tbelieved in that secret way for many a year!""Oh, Mrs. Sanders—do you know about it?" cried Julian. "Where is it?""I don't know, dear—the secret of it has been lost for many a day,"said the old lady. "I remember my old grandmother telling me somethingabout it when I was smaller than any of you. But I wasn't interested inthings like that when I was little. I was all for cows and hens andsheep.""Oh, Mrs. Sanders—do, do try and remember something!" begged Dick."What _was_ the secret way?""Well, it was supposed to be a hidden way from Kirrin Farm-house tosomewhere else," said Mrs. Sanders. "I don't know where, I'm sure. Itwas used in the olden days when people wanted to hide from enemies."It was disappointing that Mrs. Sanders knew so little. The children saidgood-bye and went off with their tutor, feeling that their morning hadbeen wasted.George was indoors when they got to Kirrin Cottage. Her cheeks were notso pale now, and she greeted the children eagerly."Did you discover anything? Tell me all about it!" she said."There's nothing to tell," said Dick, rather gloomily. "We found threerooms facing east, with stone floors, but only two of them had woodenpanelling, so we hunted round those, tapping and punching—but therewasn't anything to be discovered at all.""We saw the two artists," said Anne. "One was tall and thin, and had along nose with glasses on. He was called Mr. Thomas. The other wasyounger, with little piggy eyes and an enormous mouth.""I met them out this morning," said George. "It must have been them. Mr.Roland was with them, and they were all talking together. They didn'tsee me.""Oh, it couldn't have been the artists you saw," said Anne, at once."Mr. Roland didn't know them. I had to introduce them.""Well, I'm sure I heard Mr. Roland call one of them Wilton," saidGeorge, puzzled. "He _must_ have known them.""It couldn't have been the artists," said Anne, again. "They reallydidn't know Mr. Roland, Mr. Thomas asked if he was a friend of ours.""I'm sure I'm not mistaken," said George, looking obstinate. "If Mr.Roland said he didn't know the two artists, he was telling lies.""Oh, you're always making out that he is doing something horrid!" criedAnne, indignantly. "You just make up things about him!""Sh!" said Julian. "Here he is."The door opened and the tutor came in. "Well," he said, "it _was_disappointing that we couldn't find the secret way, wasn't it! Anyway,we were rather foolish to hunt about that drawing-room as we did—thepanelling there wasn't really old—it must have been put in years afterthe other.""Oh—well, it's no good looking there again," said Julian, disappointed."And I'm pretty sure there's nothing to be found in that other littleroom. We went all over it so thoroughly. Isn't it disappointing?""It is," said Mr. Roland. "Well, Julian, how did you like the twoartists? I was pleased to meet them—they seemed nice fellows, and Ishall like to know them."George looked at the tutor. Could he possibly be telling untruths insuch a truthful voice? The little girl was very puzzled. She felt sureit was the artists she had seen him with? But why should he pretend hedidn't know them? She must be mistaken. But all the same, she feltuncomfortable about it, and made up her mind to find out the truth, ifshe could.
