The House of Puzzles

by Richard Newsome

  Gerald gave Sam a nod. Sam picked up the box. ‘Careful, boy,’ Green said. ‘I can’t have it damaged.’ He pulled a small golden key from his trouser pocket and knelt by the casket. The key slid into the lock, then Green shot a glance at Gerald. ‘Let’s hope for the professor’s sake that you have chosen well,’ he said.

  Gerald swallowed. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

  Green turned the key. The tip of his tongue flickered across his lips. He took the lid by the sides and tilted it back.

  For a moment, no one said anything. The only sound was the drip from a leaking pipe somewhere in the cavernous space above them; a slow, mournful drip, drip, drip…

  Gerald’s eyes slowly closed.

  The box was empty.

  Chapter 25

  Mason Green stared into the bare gloss interior of the wooden box as if he had been snap-frozen. Only his steadily reddening face gave any indication that he was still alive.

  No one spoke.

  No one moved.

  The leaky pipe in the ceiling sounded its sorrowful tone.

  drip…

  drip…

  drip…

  Finally, Gerald ventured a thought. ‘I could go get another box and—’

  Sir Mason Green erupted in volcanic fury. He grabbed the box, wound up like an Olympic hammer thrower and hurled it into the exposed brick of the nearest wall. The casket shattered into a storm of splinters, spraying needles of ebony everywhere. Then he snatched up a table lamp, yanked the power cord from the socket and, with a swinging heft, sent it to the same fate. Coloured glass showered through the air in a kaleidoscope of destruction. Green turned his rage onto anything not bolted down—chairs, books, boxes—all the while emitting a guttural ‘Noooooo’.

  Gerald took a pace back and beckoned Sam, Ruby and Felicity to follow. Quiet as cats, they retreated into the shadows as Sir Mason Green raged on, unchecked and unstoppable. A blizzard of broken furnishings filled the air.

  Then Gerald saw it: the doorway in the gloom through which Professor McElderry had disappeared. He grabbed Sam by the shoulders and shoved him through it, then ushered Felicity and Ruby after him. The four of them clattered into a narrow tunnel-like corridor, walled with grimy brown bricks. The air was sour with mould and disuse. The only light came from a line of dim bulbs that were fixed in wire cages at regular intervals along the ceiling, snaking into the distance.

  Sam led the way, running deeper and deeper into the unknown. They dashed around bends and down stairwells, past alcoves and doorways, all the while the clamour of Sir Mason Green’s fury becoming softer and softer behind them.

  Sam suddenly stopped.

  ‘What’s the hold up?’ Ruby asked, catching her breath. ‘Green will run out of stuff to throw soon enough, and then he’ll notice we’re gone.’

  Sam looked back at them, his face flushed. ‘There’s a crossroad,’ he said.

  Ruby elbowed past Felicity to get to her brother. ‘What do you mean “crossroad”?’ she said. ‘We’re under a building, not trying to navigate a motorway.’ But then she saw what Sam was referring to: an identical brown brick passage running across the corridor, with a line of caged lights tracing into the distance in each direction.

  ‘Should we call out to the professor?’ Felicity suggested. ‘He can’t be far away.’

  ‘And tell Green exactly where we are?’ Ruby said. ‘I don’t think that’s such a great idea given the mood he’s in.’

  ‘I agree,’ Gerald said. ‘Confronting an enraged psychopath is one thing—an enraged psychopath with a gun is another thing altogether.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Sam asked. ‘Left, right or straight ahead.’

  The four of them clustered in the eye of the crossroads, each staring along a different route. Gerald strained his eyes, as much to wring his brain into finding a solution as to see into the distance. He was on the verge of popping a blood vessel when the answer came to him.

  ‘We need to split up,’ he said.

  Ruby, Sam and Felicity turned to look at him as if he had just suggested they all put their tongues in a light socket.

  ‘Are you nuts?’ Sam said. ‘Who knows where all these passages lead. If we all head off in different directions we might never see each other again—or anyone else for that matter.’

  ‘I hate to say it, but Sam’s right,’ Ruby said. ‘There’s no telling how long and twisted these corridors get.’

  ‘I’m with Ruby,’ Felicity said. ‘We could be wandering around down here forever.’

  ‘I’m not saying we go four different ways,’ Gerald said. ‘Hear me out. Now, what are we looking for?’

  Felicity shrugged. ‘Professor McElderry, of course.’

  ‘That’s one thing,’ Gerald said. ‘But we’re also looking for a way out. If Mason Green is happy to let the professor wander around down here by himself then it’s a safe bet that McElderry doesn’t know how to get back to the street. It’s no use us finding him and not being able to get out of here.’

  ‘What about the way we came in?’ Sam said. ‘Can’t we get out back there?’

  ‘There are two problems with that,’ Gerald said. ‘I couldn’t see any ladder or stairs to get back to the street. And there’s a gun-toting psychopath back there.’

  Ruby chewed on her bottom lip. ‘So what do you suggest we do?’

  Gerald tightened the straps of his backpack. ‘Sam and Felicity go one way. Ruby, you and I go another. If one of us finds the professor, bring him back here. If one of us finds a way out, we come back here. Either way, we should meet back at this spot in thirty minutes.’ Gerald tore a blank page from the notebook in his pack and rolled it into a loose tube. He lit the end with Alex’s zippo and let it burn for a moment before stubbing it out on the floor. With the scorched end he marked a large sooty cross at the intersection of the four corridors.

  ‘X marks the spot, all right?’ he said. ‘If we’re lucky, when we next see each other we’ll have both the professor and a way out.’

  There was a general murmur of agreement. Then Sam piped up. ‘What about rats?’ He peered uncertainly down the corridor to the left.

  ‘That’s why you’re teamed with Felicity,’ Gerald said. ‘She won’t tease you as much as Ruby would.’

  Felicity laughed. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Nowhere near as much.’ She took Sam by the arm. ‘Come along, my hero. Let’s go kick some tiny furry butt.’

  Gerald watched as they wound out of sight, then turned to Ruby. ‘Which way do you want to go?’

  ‘As long as we keep track of where we’ve gone,’ Ruby said, ‘either way is as good as the other.’

  A sudden fusillade of swearing echoed through the network of tunnels, seemingly coming from all directions at once.

  ‘I think someone has noticed we’re gone,’ Gerald said. He took Ruby’s hand and stepped into the corridor to the right. ‘We better hurry. I’d like to get out of this labyrinth as soon as possible.’

  Ruby tightened her grip on Gerald’s hand. ‘Lead the way then, Theseus.’

  Gerald looked ba
ck at her blankly. ‘Who?’

  Ruby dropped his hand like it was a day-old haddock. ‘Never mind,’ she said. ‘Let’s see where this takes us.’

  Gerald watched as Ruby strode ahead. He sighed—he would never understand girls.

  Another string of blistering abuse sounded through the passageways. Gerald broke into a trot to catch up with Ruby. They soldiered on in silence until the corridor branched in two.

  ‘Which one do you want to take?’ Gerald asked, still smarting from whatever he had done to annoy Ruby.

  ‘I think with mazes the trick is to always turn to the right, isn’t it? That’s how you get to the centre,’ Ruby said.

  ‘What have mazes got to do with anything?’

  ‘This is the house of puzzles, right?’ Ruby said. ‘Who’s to say these cellars aren’t part of some giant puzzle that has to be solved.’

  Gerald thought for a moment. After his experience in the rooms up above, there was every reason to suppose that Ruby was right. ‘But what if you don’t want to get to the centre?’ he said. ‘What if you want to find the way out?’

  Ruby shrugged. ‘You turn to the left, maybe?’ She snatched up Gerald’s hand one more time. ‘Let’s go, minotaur brain, before Green catches up.’

  Gerald was going to ask what a minotaur was but thought better of it.

  Another burst of cursing flooded the bricked corridors, this time louder and very much closer than before.

  Ruby and Gerald broke into a run.

  The path branched again—they took the left branch. It led them down a short flight of stairs, which they took at a jump, then into another offshoot to the left.

  ‘This is getting us nowhere,’ Gerald panted, chancing a look over his shoulder. ‘Will we be able to find our way back to Sam and Felicity?’

  Then Mason Green hobbled out of a passageway about ten paces ahead of them. He walked straight across their path and into the corridor opposite. Ruby and Gerald skidded to a halt and stared down the passage that Green had entered just as the back of his silver head disappear around a bend.

  They paused there a second, staring down the empty corridor, when Green’s face re-emerged to look back at them. Also looking at them was the business end of Green’s handgun.

  The bullet shattered into the brick wall a split second after Ruby had pulled Gerald clear. This time there was no neat plan of left hand turns. Gerald and Ruby pelted down any corridor they could find. Left. Right. Up stairs. Down ramps. Anywhere, just as long as Mason Green’s gun was as far away as possible.

  Another shot rang out—it was impossible to tell from where—when Gerald and Ruby stormed into a long passage. This time there were no intersecting tunnels, just smooth walls and a floor that seemed to slope ever so gently upwards.

  ‘This must take us somewhere,’ Gerald said.

  ‘It better,’ Ruby panted. ‘Because if this is a blind alley I don’t fancy retracing our steps.’

  They rounded a bend just as another shot echoed along the brick walls. Then came a shout—from not as far away as Gerald would have liked. ‘I know where you went, Mr Wilkins.’ Mason Green’s voice was full of purpose. ‘And I’m coming after you.’

  Ruby squeezed hard on Gerald’s hand. ‘Hurry!’

  The corridor curved, then ended abruptly in a blank wall of bricks. Gerald and Ruby skidded to a stop.

  ‘A blind alley,’ Ruby said. She looked to Gerald. ‘We’re trapped.’

  Gerald turned to run back the way they had come but he halted at the sound of boots, advancing steadily up the corridor towards them.

  Chapter 26

  The blind passage seemed to close in on Gerald. He pressed his hands flat to the end wall, as if pushing on a solid brick barrier would somehow produce a path to freedom.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ Ruby whispered. ‘The only way out is straight back to Mason Green.’

  ‘And his gun,’ Gerald said. He balled his right hand into a fist and pounded the wall in frustration. All that did was shoot pain up Gerald’s arm and into his skull. He nursed the offending fist with his other hand, spun around and slid his back down the wall until he was sitting on the cold stone floor, cursing his luck.

  Ruby dropped next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. She went to speak, but the advancing footsteps made anything she had to say pretty much redundant.

  ‘It will all be okay,’ Ruby said softly. ‘I’m sure of it.’

  Gerald’s head slumped. He was not sure of it at all.

  Then he saw the writing. The letters were pressed into a brick at the base of the blank end to the passage. Gerald rolled onto his stomach and squinted to make out the words. ‘What gets wet the more it dries?’ He blinked up at Ruby. ‘It’s a riddle.’

  His eyes darted to the adjoining brick. The alphabet was laid out in a neat grid of two rows: A to M and N to Z, each letter pressed into a carved square. Gerald sucked in a sharp breath.

  ‘What is it?’ Ruby asked.

  ‘It’s like a keyboard,’ Gerald said. He pushed gently on the ‘A’; it depressed a millimetre. He sat upright and took Ruby by the shoulders, his eyes wild. ‘I bet if we type in the answer to the riddle, something will happen.’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘I don’t know. A door will open, another clue will appear—that’s how the house works.’

  The footsteps echoed closer up the passage. Ruby grabbed Gerald’s jacket sleeve tight. ‘What gets wet the more it dries?’ she asked. ‘Um—a cat washing itself.’

  ‘That makes no sense,’ Gerald said.

  ‘At least I’m trying.’

  Gerald concentrated. How could anything get wet as it dries? ‘Uh—sand on the beach? Sweat on a hot day. A fish’s bum?’

  Ruby looked at Gerald blankly. ‘A fish’s bum? Really?’

  ‘Shut up,’ Gerald shot back. ‘I’m thinking out loud.’ Then it hit him. ‘A towel!’

  ‘Brilliant,’ Ruby said. ‘Type it in.’

  The voice of Mason Green came around the bend behind them. ‘You may as well come out, Gerald. There is no exit down here. And, as you may have guessed, I have a gun.’

  Gerald frowned and put the answer into the tiny clay keypad. Each letter clicked as he pressed it.

  T O W E

  When Gerald pressed the L a hollow clunk sounded behind the wall. Then a jagged opening appeared along the mortar between the bricks, as if a giant jigsaw piece had worked itself loose. The section swung in, revealing a continuation of the passage.

  Ruby plunged through the opening as Gerald clambered to his knees. He was halfway through behind her when he paused. He had left his pack on the stone floor in the corridor. Gerald turned to reach for it but Ruby took him by the jacket and dragged him through to the other side. A second later the brick section swung back into place, and clicked secure as if it hadn’t moved for centuries.

  Gerald slumped on the floor, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. Ruby grabbed him and hauled him to his feet. Before he could protest she had a finger to his lips, shaking her head to warn him not to speak. Then Gerald notice
d a spot of light shining from the brick wall onto Ruby’s cheek. She pulled him across until Gerald saw a small peephole in the mortar. He peered through and stifled a gasp. On the other side of the wall stood Sir Mason Green.

  Ruby’s lips brushed Gerald’s ear. ‘I don’t think he’s very happy,’ she whispered.

  From the other side of the wall came a howl of rage as Sir Mason Green let fly with a military-grade stream of swearing.

  Gerald’s eyes popped. ‘Wow,’ he whispered back to Ruby. ‘That’s impressive.’

  Ruby smothered a giggle beneath her fingers and leaned in close. ‘He must know a swearword for every letter of the alphabet.’

  ‘Just as long as he doesn’t notice the alphabet at the bottom of the wall,’ Gerald said. He ducked his eye back to the peephole. ‘Dammit,’ he said. ‘He’s taking my backpack.’

  ‘Is there anything important in it?’ Ruby whispered.

  ‘Just my notebook and all those guesses at Jeremy Davey’s coded message,’ he said. Then Gerald sucked in a breath. On the other side of the wall, Sir Mason Green was staring at the knapsack in his hand. Then he slowly raised his eyes to glare right at the peephole.

  Right at Gerald.

  In a flash, Green rushed to the wall, running his hands across its surface, searching for any opening, any chink in the bricks. For a moment, Green’s eye hovered a bare centimetre away from the peephole, looking directly at Gerald. The width of a brick away, Gerald held his breath.

  Then, just as swiftly, Green turned and was away down the corridor.

  Gerald pulled his face from the wall and he slumped back against the bricks with relief. ‘He’s gone,’ he said. Gerald looked down to find Ruby grinning at him. ‘What’s so funny?’ he asked.

  Ruby’s smile widened. ‘You were very clever working out that riddle, you know,’ she said.