GO AHEAD SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 15 UNDERGROUND HAPPENINGS

The three boys down in the coal-hole were now carefully opening the door they had seen. Scamper was at Peter's heels, as excited as they were. Peter wished he didn't pant quite so loudly, but Scamper couldn't help that!

The door creaked as it was opened. There was no light beyond. Peter cautiously flashed his torch on and off. A passage lay before him, leading to a few steps. A closed door was at the top of the steps.

The boys went along the passage and up the few steps and then turned the handle of the door. Would it be locked? No, it wasn't. It opened towards them, and Peter peered round the crack. Still there was darkness in front of them. He flashed his torch round.

Now they were in the main cellars that lay under the big building. They stretched here and there, low-roofed, with brick pillars standing up from floor to roof at intervals.

A noise came to Scamper's ears, and he listened, head on one side. Peter saw him listening, and listened too. But he could hear nothing. Scamper's ears were sharper than his.

They moved forward very cautiously, stopping every now and again to listen. It was very weird to be so far under a building, in the pitch darkness and loneliness of these vast cellars. They smelt queer too musty and old and damp.

They came to another door - a wooden one - and now Scamper began to get very excited. Peter had difficulty in preventing him from barking. And then, as they opened the stout wooden door, they heard what Scamper heard!

It was the noise of whining dogs! Scamper whined too when he heard, and wanted to dash through the door. Then came a barking and a yapping. Then more whining.

"There are dogs shut up here," whispered Peter. "We were right. Go carefully now, for goodness' sake."

They came to a long, narrow cellar, where a faint light glowed from a glass bulb. On one side was a wooden bench, on which cages were set. In them were five or six dogs, their eyes gleaming red in the faint light.

Nobody was there with the dogs. They gazed warily and snarled as the three boys came quietly near, but when Scamper gave an excited, friendly whine, they whined too, pawing at their cages in excitement.

"They've got water and food," whispered Peter. "I say, look, there's the lovely car-sick poodle, we saw in that car, Jack, do you remember? We saw it when we were doing a bit of practice, hiding by the road in a spy-hole, watching people go by. I'm sure it's the same poodle."

"Yes. It is," said Jack. "Colin, there's a bull-terrier, see? He's the same one you saw with that young man, I suppose?"

Colin nodded. He was very fond of dogs, and he was already making friends with these, allowing them to lick his hand through the wires of the cages.

"There's a greyhound, and a magnificent Alsatian!" said Peter. "I bet those are the ones the girls read about in the papers as lost or stolen. And here's a Dalmatian ... hallo, Spots! You're a beauty, aren't you?"

The dogs were now all very friendly to the boys, partly because they had a dog with them who was friendly too. Peter stood and looked at the dogs, wondering what to do next.

"Should we set them free from their cages, tie them together with rope and see if we can get them out of the coal-hole?" he said.

"Don't be silly!" said Colin. They'd never go up the rope-ladder ... and I bet they'd begin to fight if we set them free."

"Listen, somebody's coming!" said Jack, suddenly, and Scamper gave a warning growl. The boys went into the shadows and waited.

They saw an old bent man shuffling along, carrying a lantern. His head shone in the faint radiance of the electric light above, for he was quite bald. He had a small dog with him, a mongrel of some kind, and he talked to it as he came in a curious, hoarse voice like a creaking gate!

"Come on, Tinks. We'll see if all the lords and ladies are all right. They don't think nothing of the likes of you and me, but us don't care, do we?"

The little dog trotted beside him, and they came to the cages. The old fellow went on talking in his creaking voice, staring at the caged dogs.

"Well, my high-and-mighty ones, my lords and ladies, you're worse off than little Tinks here. You've lost your own masters, but he's got his. You may be worth your weight in gold, for all I know, but you'd give all you've got for a nice long walk, wouldn't you? Well, Tinks goes for two each day. Tell 'em, Tinks, tell 'em."

But Tinks was not listening. He had smelt strange smells, the smells of the three boys and the golden spaniel, Scamper! In a trice he was over beside them, barking madly.

The old man held up his lantern and peered at them. "What, more visitors?" he creaked. "Come to sec the lords and ladies, have you? Wait now, you're only lads!"

Peter came out from the shadows with Jack and Colin. He didn't feel at all afraid of this queer old man.

"Where did these dogs come from?" he said. "Who brought them here? Who do they belong to? What are you doing with them?"

The old man gave him a helpless look.

"Them dogs, why, they comes and they goes," he said. "They comes and they goes. They comes in at that hole and..."

But whatever he said next was quite drowned by a sudden yelping and barking by the dogs. They had heard somebody else coming. Who was it this time?

"Here comes the Guvnor," said the old man, and chuckled drily. "Now you'll be introuble. Likely he'll lock you up in them cages!"