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over to the hole, where she knelt down. With a swift swipe of her arm she reached into the hole and grabbed the squirming vermin. The creature squeaked and squealed, but she held tight and made sure not to let it bite her. Pat clasped the rat in her hand and hurried over to Fred, who cringed back from the ugly rodent.
    Fred looked between Pat's captive and her twinkling eyes. "You're going to do it, aren't you?"
    Pat grinned and nodded her head. She crept around him to the entrance of the kitchen and knelt down close to the ground, where she put her hands down. With a spring of her hands the rat was free and scurried into the chaos. One of the male cooks who had a platter full of food saw the rodent and let out a glass-cracking scream. He flung the platter into the air and his pudgy legs jumped for the nearest table. The other cooks turned at his cries and one of the women noticed the rodent. Her face lit up with a smile and she pointed her knife at the creature. "Catch that rat! I need it for the stew!"
    As Fred and Pat looked on, the kitchen became a madhouse of chase-the-rat. Everyone, armed with spatulas, forks and spoons, dove at the poor, frightened creature. The pair ducked back into the hallway when the rat raced out of the kitchen and down the passage from which they'd come with the entire kitchen staff at its heels. The party rounded a corner down the hall and vanished from sight and, in a few moments, sound.
    Pat slowly turned her head toward Fred with a surprised expression on her face, who looked likewise at her. "That didn't quite turn out like I thought it would," she admitted.
    "Yeah, me either, but it got them out of there," he pointed out.
    "Yeah, and remind me not to eat the stew tonight," she added.
    The pair slunk over to the corner and knelt down to examine the stones. After a few moments Pat found a small groove in one of the stones, and pointed it out to Fred. He retrieved the metal from his pocket and inserted one end into the groove. The lip of the metal caught beneath the false top of the stone, and with their combined strength they lifted the flat rock up to reveal a wooden frame with a hollow center. In the hole was a flight of narrow steps that led down into a dark abyss.
    Pat looked over to Fred, and nodded her head toward the hole. "Think you can use your castor staff to light our way?" Fred pulled out his broken stick and held it down into the hole; nothing happened. Pat rolled her eyes. "Well, let's grab some candles."
    The pair swiped as many candles as they could hold and, each with a pair of candle holders, lit one for each of them. They stood at the top of the stairs and glanced at each other. Pat frowned at the boy. "What are you waiting for? This was your plan, so go on," she scolded him.
    "Um, ladies first?" he offered. It was at that point they heard the hunting party returning from the chase, and his face paled. "On second thought, I'll go first. I don't want to know what's for dinner."
    He jumped down and Pat soon followed. The flight of stairs went down only two yards, and Pat held Fred's flashlight while he slid the stone back into the hole. It wedged into place just as footsteps tromped into the kitchen. Fred dropped down, grabbed his candle from her and held it out to illuminate the way ahead. It was a tunnel about five feet wide and six feet tall, and had smoothed, chiseled walls with a rounded ceiling. The passage stretched out far beyond their light, and somewhere in the distance they heard the soft drip of water. Not a comfortable place by any stretch of the imagination, but it was either that or be found out by the rodent-eaters upstairs, so Fred stepped forward with Pat behind him.
    The tunnel followed a straight path for a hundred yards and then surprised the two when the walls and ceiling around them stretched out to reveal an immense cavern. Large, jagged spikes hung down from the cluttered ceiling and all around them rose up stalagmites. Their weak lights reflected off