Chapter 21 MOST UNEXPECTED!
Soon there was real pandemonium¹ in the old house! The sleepers² in the rooms on the top landingawoke suddenly and found their doors locked, and began to bang on them and shout. The threechildren in the locked room on the ground floor shouted and banged too - and Timmy nearly wentmad!
Only the men in the room next to the children were silent. They were terrified at Timmy's growlingand snarling⁵. They would have liked to lock themselves in, but the key was on the other side of thedoor - and they certainly didn't dare to open it to get the key!
Soon the children quietened down. Dick sat on a chair, exhausted⁶. 'That cat! That wretched,prowling, sly old cat! Gosh, I stepped on it and it scratched me to the bone - to say nothing ofpitching me headlong down the stairs and making me wrench⁸ my ankle!'
'We so nearly managed to escape!' groaned⁹ Julian.
'I can't think what will happen now!' said George. 'Timmy's out there and can't get in to us, and wecan't possibly get out to him because the door's locked - and those men won't dare to set a footoutside their door while Tim's there!'
'And we've locked the people into their rooms upstairs!' said Julian. 'Well, it's certain that nobody canget out of their rooms to help anyone else - so it looks as if we'll all be here till Doomsday!'
It certainly did seem a very poor look-out! The only people who were not behind locked doors werethe two men, whoever they were - and they simply dared not put a foot outside their room.
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Timmy roamed about, occasionally whimpering and scratching outside the children's door, but moreoften growling³ outside the next door, sometimes flinging his heavy body against it as if he wouldbreak it down.
'I bet the men are shaking with fright,' said Dick. 'They won't even dare to try and get out of awindow in case they meet Timmy outside somewhere!'
'Serve them right,' said George. 'Gosh, I'm glad you came! Wasn't I an absolute

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