Chester was still flummoxed. 'It's just… I was thinking if we aren't heading for anything in particular, why don't we just work on the other tunnel?'
Will shook his head again but offered no further explanation…
'But it would be so much easier,' Chester said, a tone of exasperation creeping into his voice as if he knew he wasn't going to get a sensible answer out of Will. 'Why not?'
'A hunch,' Will said abruptly and was off down the tunnel before Chester could utter another word. He shrugged and reached for his pickax.
'He's crazy. And
Dr. Burrows's day had been the same as usual. He was reclining luxuriously in the dentist's chair with a newspaper folded in his lap, on the brink of slipping into his post-lunchtime nap, when the door of the museum burst open. Joe Carruthers, former major, strode purposefully in and scanned the room until he located Dr. Burrows, whose head was lolling drowsily in the dentist's chair.
'Look sharp, Burrows!' he bellowed, almost taking pleasure in Dr. Burrows's reaction as his head jerked up. Joe Carruthers, a veteran of the Second World War, had never lost his military bearing or his brusqueness. Dr. Burrows had given him the rather unkind nickname 'Pineapple Joe' because of his strikingly red and bulbous nose — possibly the result of a war injury or, as Dr. Burrows sometimes speculated, more likely due to his consumption of excessive amounts of gin. He was surprisingly sprightly for a man in his seventies and tended to bark loudly. He was the last person Dr. Burrows wanted to see right now.
'Saddle up, Burrows, need you to come and have a look at something for me, if you can spare a mo'? Course you can, see you're not busy here, are you?
'Ah, no, sorry Mr. Carruthers, I can't leave the museum unattended. I'm on duty, after all,' Dr. Burrows said sluggishly, reluctantly abandoning the last vestiges of sleep.
Joe Carruthers continued to bellow at him from across the museum hall. 'Come on, man, this is a
'Funny in what way?' Dr. Burrows asked, still irked by the intrusion.
'Funny hole in the floor.'
'Isn't that something for the builders to deal with?'
'Not that sort of thing, old man. Not that sort of thing at all.'
'Why?' Dr. Burrows asked, his curiosity roused.
'Better if you come and have a gander for yourself, old chap. I mean, you know all about the history hereabouts. Thought of you immediately. Best man for the job, I told my Penny. This chappie really knows his stuff, I said to her.'
Dr. Burrows rather relished the idea that he was regarded as the local historical expert, so he got to his feet and self-importantly put on his jacket. Having locked up the museum, he fell into step beside Pineapple Joe's forced march along Main Street, and they soon turned onto Jekyll Street. Pineapple Joe spoke only once as they turned another corner, into Marrineau Square.
'Those darn dogs — people shouldn't let them run wild like that,' he grumbled as he squinted at some papers blowing across the road in the distance. 'Should be kept on a leash.' They arrived at the house.
Number 23 was a terraced house, no different from all the others that lined the four sides of square, built of brick with typical early Georgian features. Although each property was rather narrow, with just a thin sliver of garden at the rear, Dr. Burrows had admired them on the occasions he'd happened to be in the area and welcomed the chance to have a look inside one.
Pineapple Joe hammered on the original four-paneled Georgian door with enough force to cave it in, Dr. Burrows wincing with each blow. A young woman answered the door, her face lighting up at the sight of her father.
'Hello, Dad. You got him to come, then.' She turned on Dr. Burrows with a self-conscious smile. 'Do come down to the kitchen. Bit of a mess, but I'll put the kettle on,' she said, closing the door behind them.
Dr. Burrows followed Pineapple Joe as he stomped over the tarpaulins in the unlit corridor, where the wallpaper had been half stripped from the walls.
Once in the kitchen, Pineapple Joe's daughter turned to Dr. Burrows. 'Sorry, how rude, I didn't introduce myself. My name's Penny
'We thought it was a good idea to take out the chimney, to give us the space for a breakfast bar over there,' Penny said, pointing at the wall opposite the one with the new units. 'The architect said we just needed a brace in the ceiling.' She indicated a gaping hole where Dr. Burrows could see that a new metal joist had been bedded in. 'But when the builders were knocking out the old brickwork, the back wall collapsed, and they found this. I've contacted our architect, but he hasn't called me back yet.'
To the rear of the fireplace a heap of soot-stained bricks indicted where the hearth wall had been. With this wall removed, a sizable space had been revealed behind it, like a hidey-hole.
'That's unusual. A second chimney flue?' he said to himself, almost immediately uttering a series of no's as he shook his head. He moved closer and looked down. In the floor was a vent about three feet by a foot and a half in size.
Stepping between the loose bricks, he crouched down at the edge of the opening, peering into it.
'Uh… have you got a flashlight handy?' he asked. Penny fetched one. Dr. Burrows took it from her and shone it down into the opening. 'Brick lining, early nineteenth century, I would venture. Seems to have been built at the same time as the house,' he muttered to himself as Pineapple Joe and his daughter watched him intently. 'But what the blazes is it for?' he added. The strangest thing was that at he leaned over and peered down into it, he couldn't see where it ended. 'Have you tested how deep it is?' he asked Penny, straightening up.
'What with?' she replied simply.
'Can I have this?' Dr. Burrows picked up a jagged half-brick from the pile of rubble by the collapsed hearth. She nodded, and he turned back to the hole and stood poised to drop it in.
'Now listen,' he said to them as he released it over the vent. They heard it knocking against the sides as it fell, the sounds growing quieter until only faint echoes reached Dr. Burrows, who was now kneeling over the opening.
'Is it-?' Penny began.
'Shhh!' Dr. Burrows hissed impolitely, giving her a start as he held up his hand. After a moment he raised his head and frowned at Pineapple Joe and Penny. 'Didn't hear it land,' he observed, 'but it seemed to bounce off the sides for ages. How… can it be
'Can't be!'
'What's that, Burrows?' Pineapple Joe asked. 'Anything to report?'
'I might be mistaken, but I could swear there's a bit of an updraft,' Dr. Burrows said, pulling his head out of the gap. 'Why that should be, I just don't know — unless the whole block was built with some form of ventilation system between each house. But I can't for the life of me imagine why it would have been. The most curious thing is that the duct' — he rolled over onto his back and shone his flashlight upward, above the hole — 'appears to carry on up, just behind the normal chimney. I presume it also vents as part of the chimney stack, on the roof?'
What Dr. Burrows did not tell them — did not dare tell them, because it would have appeared too outlandish — is that he had smelled that peculiar mustiness again: the same smell he had noticed on his collision with the man-in-a-hat the day before on Main Street.
Back in the tunnel, Will and Chester were finally making progress. They were digging out the soil below the
