"It's really true, Mrs. Blake, it really is, it's really true," Lucy kept babbling, right at their heels as they ran up the steps. And right at her heels came the members of the Indian band, with their mouths full of cooky.
"In the bathroom?" expostulated Mrs. Blake. "How could it possibly be in the b—" But by then they had ushered her in, and she saw what they had seen: the medicine cabinet swung out from the wall, and in the wall the little metal door with its nickel knobs and dials, the little door that had been hidden all these years!
"Why, I never—I absolutely never—" murmured Mrs. Blake, almost at a loss for words. Then she said: "How do you suppose we'll get it open?"
Portia gave another of her leaps.
"Julian!" she exclaimed. "Jule has the combination, Mother; he found it in the helmet!"
"He found it where?" begged poor Mrs. Blake, but nobody was there to tell her; already they were tumbling and galumphing down the stairs.
The big front door flew open and stayed open. The children, led by Portia, streamed across the lawn.
"Jul—i—an! Oh, Jule!" roared Portia, marveling even as she did so at her own lung power.
But the big boys were nowhere to be seen; nowhere within earshot, either, obviously.
"They must have gone to Gone-Away; where else would they go?" suggested Lucy.