'Really?' he stuttered, still frantically trying to figure out exactly who the old woman was.
'Yes, for your very nice letter. Can't see as well as I used to, but Mr. Embers read it to me.'
Suddenly, it all fell into place, and Dr. Burrows sighed with relief, the fog of confusion blown away by the cool breeze of realization.
'The glowing sphere! It is certainly an intriguing object, Mrs. Tantrumi.'
'Oh, good, dear.'
'Mr. Embers probably told you I need to get it checked.'
She held her head to one side, waiting expectantly for him to continue while she stirred the tea.
'…well, I was rather hoping you could show me where you found it,' he finished.
'Oh, no, dear, wasn't me — it was the gas men. Shortbread or gingersnap?' she said, holding out a battered cookie tin.
'Er… shortbread, please. You were saying the gas men found it?'
'They did. Just inside the basement.'
'Down there?' Dr. Burrows asked, looking at an open door at the bottom of a short flight of steps. 'Mind if I take a look?' he said, pocketing the shortbread as he began to negotiate the mossy brick steps.
Once inside the doorway he could see that the basement was divided into two rooms. The first was empty, save for some dishes of extremely dark and dessicated cat food and loose rubble strewn across the floor. He crunched through to the second room, which lay beneath the front of the house. It was much the same as the first, except that the light was poorer in here and there was an old wardrobe with a broken mirror, tucked in a shadowy recess. He opened one of its doors and was immediately still.
He sniffed several times, recognizing the same musty odor he had smelled on the man in the street and more recently in the duct at Penny Hanson's house. As his eyes became used to the darkness, he could see that inside the wardrobe were several overcoats — black, as far as he could tell — and an assortment of flat caps and other headwear stacked in a compartment to one side.
Beneath the hat compartment, he found a small drawer, which he slid open. Inside were five or six pairs of glasses. Taking one of these and pulling an overcoat from its hanger, he made his way back out into the garden.
'Mrs. Tantrumi,' he called from the bottom of the steps. She waddled to the kitchen door. 'Did you know there's quite a few things in a wardrobe down here?'
'Are there?'
'Yes, some coats and sunglasses. Do they belong to you?'
'No, hardly ever go down there myself. The ground's too uneven. Would you bring them closer so I can see?'
He went to the kitchen door, and she reached out and ran her fingers over the material of the overcoat as if she were stroking the head of an unfamiliar cat. Heavy and waxy to the touch, the coat felt strange to her. The cut was old-fashioned, with a shoulder cape of heavier material.
'I can't say I've ever seen this before. My husband, God rest his soul, may have left it down there,' she said dismissively and returned to the kitchen.
Dr. Burrows examined the dark glasses. They consisted of two pieces of thick and absolutely flat, almost opaque, glass, similar to welder's goggles, with curious spring mechanisms on the arms on either side — evidently to keep them snug against the wearer's head. He was puzzled. Why would the strange people keep their belongings in a forgotten wardrobe in an empty basement?
'Does anyone else come here, Mrs. Tantrumi?' Dr. Burrows said to her as she started to pour the tea with a very shaky hand.
There was a lull in the rattling as she looked confused. 'I really don't know what you mean,' she said, as if Dr. Burrows was suggesting she had been doing something improper.
'It's just that I've seen some rather odd characters around this part of town — always wearing big coats and sunglasses like these…,' Dr. Burrows trailed off, because the old woman was looking so anxious.
'Oh, I hope they aren't those criminal types one hears about. I don't feel safe here anymore—'
'So you haven't seen any people in coats like these — men with white hair?' Dr. Burrows interrupted.
'No, dear, can't say I know what you're talking about.' She looked inquiringly at him, then resumed pouring the tea. 'Do come in and sit down.'
'I'll just put these back,' Dr. Burrows said, returning to the basement. Before he left, he couldn't resist another quick look around the place, even resorting to stamping on the ground to see if there was a trapdoor hidden there. He did the same in the small garden, stamping around the lawn while trying to avoid the plastic dishes, all the time watched curiously by Mrs. Tantrumi's cats.
On the other side of town, Chester and Will were back in the Forty Pits tunnel.
'So what did your dad say? What does he think we've found?' Chester asked as Will used a mallet and coal chisel to loosen the mortar between the bricks in the unidentified structure.
'We looked at the maps again, and there's nothing on them.' He was lying; Dr. Burrows had not emerged from the cellar before Will had gone to bed and had left the house before Will was up in the morning.
'No water mains, sewers, or anything on this plot,' Will went on, trying to reassure Chester. 'The brickwork is pretty solid, you know — this thing was built to last.' Will had already removed two layers of bricks but hadn't yet broken through. 'Look, if I'm wrong about this and anything gushes out, just make sure you get yourself to the far side of the main chamber. The flow should carry you up to the entrance,' Will said, redoubling his efforts on the brickwork.
'What?' Chester asked quickly. 'A flow… carry me up? I don't like the sound of that at all. I'm out of here.' He turned to go, paused as if undecided, then made up his mind and began walking toward the main chamber, grumbling to himself all the way.
Will simply shrugged. There was no way he was going to stop, not with the possibility that he could bring to light some fantastic mystery, something so important that it would bowl over his father, and that he'd discovered by himself. And no one was going to stop him, not even Chester. He immediately proceeded to chisel around another brick, chipping away at the wedge of mortar at its edge.
Without warning, part of the mortar exploded with a high pneumatic hiss, and a chunk of it shot straight past Will's gloved hands like a stone bullet and struck the tunnel wall behind him. He dropped his tools and flopped back onto the ground in astonishment. Shaking his head, he pulled himself together and set about the task of removing the brick, which he accomplished in seconds.
'Hey, Chester!' Will called.
'Yeah, what?' Chester shouted gruffly from the main chamber. 'What is it?'
'There's no water!' Will shouted back, his voice echoing oddly. 'Come and see.'
Chester reluctantly retraced his steps. He found that Will had indeed penetrated the wall and was holding his face up to the small breach he'd made, sniffing at the air.
'It's definitely not a sewage pipe, but it
'Could it be a gas pipe?'
'Nope, doesn't smell like it and, anyway, they've never been made of brick. Judging by the echo, it's quite a large space.' His eyes flashed with anticipation. 'I just knew we were on to something. Get me a candle and the iron rod from the main chamber, will you?'
When Chester returned, Will lit the candle a good distance back from the hole and then carried it slowly before him, nearer and nearer to the opening, watching the flame intently with every step he took.
'What does that do?' Chester asked as he looked on in fascination.
'If there are any gases you'll notice a difference in the way it burns,' Will answered matter-of-factly. 'They did this when they cracked open the pyramids.' There was no change in the flickering flame as he brought it closer, then held it directly in front of the opening. 'Looks like we're all clear,' he said as he blew out the flame and reached for the iron rod Chester had leaned against the tunnel wall. He carefully lined up the ten-foot pole with the hole and then rammed it through, pushing it all the way in until only a short length protruded from between the bricks.
'It hasn't hit anything — it's pretty big,' Will said excitedly, grunting with exertion as he checked the depth by letting the end of the pole swing down. 'But I think I can feel what might be the floor. OK, let's widen this a bit
