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him! See that house over there to the right, lower down the hill? Well, that's where he lives. He's as rich as can be. His name is Barling. Even the police know his goings-on, but they can't stop him! He is very rich and very powerful, so he does what he likes - and he won't let anyone play the same game as he plays! No one else would dare to do any smuggling in Castaway, while he does it!'
    'This seems rather an exciting place,' said Julian. 'I have a kind of feeling there might be an adventure somewhere about!'
    'Oh no,' said Sooty. 'Nothing ever happens, really. It's only just a feeling you get here, because the place is so old, so full of secret ways and pits and passages. Why, the whole hill is mined with passages in the rock, used by the smugglers of olden times!'
    'Well,' began Julian, and stopped very suddenly. Everyone stared at Sooty. His secret buzzer had suddenly barked from its hidden corner! Someone had opened the door at the end of the passage!
     

Chapter Six
     
    SOOTY'S STEPFATHER AND MOTHER
     
    'SOMEONE'S coming!' said George, in a panic. 'What shall we do with Tim? Quick!'
    Sooty took Timmy by the collar and shoved him into the old cupboard, and shut the door on him. 'Keep quiet!' he commanded, and Timmy stood still in the darkness, the hairs at the back of his neck standing up, his ears cocked.
    'Well,' began Sooty, in a bright voice, 'perhaps I'd better show you where your bedrooms are now!'
    The door opened and a man came in. He was dressed in black trousers and a white linen coat. He had a queer face. 'It's a shut face,' thought Anne to herself. 'You can't tell a bit what he's like inside, because his face is all shut and secret.'
    'Oh hallo, Block,' said Sooty, airily. He turned to the others. 'This is Block, my stepfather's man,' he said. 'He's deaf, so you can say what you like, but it's better not to, because though he doesn't hear he seems to sense what we say.'
    'Anyway, I think it would be beastly to say things we wouldn't say in front of him if he wasn't deaf,' said George, who had very strict ideas about things of that sort.
    Block spoke in a curiously monotonous voice. 
    'Your stepfather and your mother want to know why you have not brought your friends to see them,' he said. 'Why did you rush up here like this?'
    Block looked all round as he spoke - almost as if he knew there was a dog, and wondered where he had gone to, George thought, in alarm. She did hope the car-driver had not mentioned Timmy.
    'Oh - I was so pleased to see them I took them straight up here!' said Sooty. 'All right, Block. We'll be down in a minute.'
    The man went, his face quite impassive. Not a smile, not a frown! 'I don't like him,' said Anne. 'Has he been with you long?'
    'No - only about a year,' said Sooty. 'He suddenly appeared one day. Even Mother didn't know he was coming! He just came, and, without a word, changed into that white linen coat, and went to do some work in my stepfather's room. I suppose my stepfather was expecting him - but he didn't say anything to my mother, I'm sure of that. She seemed so surprised.
    'Is she your real mother, or a stepmother, too?' asked Anne.
    'You don't have a stepmother and a stepfather!' said Sooty, scornfully. 'You only have one or the other. My mother is my real mother, and she's Marybelle's mother, too. But Marybelle and I are only half-brother and sister, because my stepfather is her real father.'
    'It's rather muddled,' said Anne, trying to sort it out.
    'Come on - we'd better go down,' said Sooty, remembering. 'By the way, my stepfather is always being very affable, always smiling and joking - but it isn't real, somehow. He's quite likely to fly into a furious temper at any moment.'
    'I hope we shan't see very much of him,' said Anne uncomfortably. 'What's your mother like, Sooty?'
    'Like a frightened mouse!' said Sooty. 'You'll like her, all right. She's a darling. But she doesn't like living here; she doesn't like this house, and she's terrified of my