"Yes--he does seem to have rather a twang on him. Perhaps that's where he's been to," remarked D'Arcy. "Penny bank coal-mine's only fifty miles away," said Percy. "It runs under the sea ever so far. I should say it was a ripping place to hide in." From which and other similar remarks it was concluded that the juniors had a much better notion as to where Rollitt had been than they chose to admit. They eagerly embraced the first opportunity of going to the shop, and investigating the scene of the mystery for themselves. They carefully locked the outer door against possible intruders, and then in Indian file ascended the stone ladder, and after it the corkscrew staircase. The room in which they found themselves was pretty much as Rollitt had left it. It had evidently been made use of by a former lodge-keeper as a dwelling-room, for there was a ragged paper on the wall, and an attempt here and there to board over dangerous holes in the floor. Besides which there was a rude shutter to the tiny window, by means of which no doubt Rollitt had succeeded in concealing his presence at night. The remains of a wood fire were on the hearth, and a candle-end showed (what they already knew) that the hermit did not spend all his evenings in darkness. More than this, in one corner still lay some of the wraps which he had evidently used to extemporise a bed. And an empty box on end in the window convinced them he had sat down during part of his residence. There was also a leaf of exercise paper and a Horace lying on the floor, which evidently had not been brought there by the owls. Altogether, as they looked round, they concluded that, but for the cold, he might have had worse quarters during his temporary exile. But the discovery that delighted them most was a fragment of a newspaper in which were wrapped the not yet exhausted end of a ham, and half a biscuit! Over these relics they dwelt with quite an affectionate interest, till somebody said-- "What did he have to drink? He didn't take any of our ginger-beer, and there's no water here." "Why, you duffer, of course he could get out any time he liked. It's only a latch on the door; any one can open it from inside. He could easily get down to the river in the night, and have a tub, and fetch up some water." They decided that in future the shop committee, except when Mr and Mrs Stratton were present, should meet nowhere but in "Rollitt's chamber," as they forthwith named the room, and proceeded to dedicate it to that use there and then. "Do you know," said Wally, "that after we pay back Mr Stratton what he lent us to start with, there'll be a clear £5 to give to the clubs out of the profits?" "Not bad," said Percy. "They ought to put us in the first fifteen for that." "Never mind," said D'Arcy; "they've got a jolly hot fifteen for Saturday, Rollitt and all of 'em. We ought to put the Penchurch chaps to bed for once, I fancy."