Chapter 12 A HIDING PLACE AT TWO-TREES
　　Nobody particularly liked the place. They all stared round and Julian pointed¹ silently to something.
　　At each end of the house was the great burnt trunk of a big tree.
　　'Those must be the two trees that gave the place its name,' said Julian. 'How horrid² they look now, sostiff and black. Two-Trees and Gloomy Water - all so lonely and desolate³ now.'
　　The sun disappeared and a little chill came on the air. Julian suddenly became very busy. 'Come on -we must see if there's anywhere to shelter at all in this old ruin!'
　　They went to the silent house. The upper floors were all burnt out. The ground floor was pretty badtoo, but Julian thought it might be possible to find a sheltered corner.
　　'This might do,' he said, coming out of a blackened room and beckoning⁴ the others to him. 'There iseven a mouldy carpet still on the floor! And there's a big table. We could sleep under it if it rained -which I don't think it will do!'
　　'What a horrid room!' said Anne, looking round. 'I don't like its smell, either. I don't want to sleephere.'
　　'Well, find somewhere else then, but be quick about it,' said Julian. 'It will soon be dark. I'm going tocollect heather and bracken straight away, before it's too dark. Coming, Dick and George?'
　　The three of them went off and came back with vast armfuls of heather and brown bracken. Anne metthem, looking excited.
　　'I've found somewhere. Somewhere much better than this horrid room. Come and look.'
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　　She took them to what once had been the kitchen. A door lay flat on the floor at the end of the room,and a stone stairway led downwards⁵.
　　'That leads down to the cellars,' said Anne. 'I came in here and saw that door. It was locked and Icouldn't open it. Well, I tugged⁶ and tugged and the whole door came off its rusty⁷ old hinges andtumbled down almost on top of me! And I saw there were cellars down there!'

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