Madam , Madam , I beg of you - you must n&apos;t do that ! Andrea implored her . you must help me to go ! to - to beguile a man I do n&apos;t love in order to trap him - it &apos;s shameless , horrible ! I will not do it ! you will - because you must ! Madam told her inflexibly . and then , impatiently : heavens , girl , what a to-do ! the man is presentable enough - and if you marry him , you will get what you want . you will be Mistress of Galleon House . what more do you want ? more - much more ! Andrea was hardly aware of what she was saying . love , I suppose ? Madam asked resignedly . it is the way with all young people , but it is an illusion - a mirage . you will do very well without it . or who knows , you may fall in love with Simon . never ! Andrea declared passionately . never ! he has robbed me - and here is your chance to make him pay back ! Madam interrupted . now go away and think over what I have said , for it is the best advice that I or anyone else could give you . she shut her eyes resolutely , and because Andrea knew that it was purposeless to stay , she went to her own room . as Madam &apos;s door closed , she opened her eyes and one thin hand picked nervously at the sheet . had she been wise ? ought she to have hinted at what she knew to be the truth - that Simon had fallen in love with the girl at first sight ? no ! she said aloud . I doubt if she would have believed it ! and there is Simon to be considered . with his absurd chivalry , he will need a little encouragement . and when the child has thought it over , she will give it . it will all work out as Leo planned - the tired eyes closed and Madam drifted into the brief , easy sleep of age . and Simon , sitting at Leo &apos;s desk in the tower room , what did he feel about it all ? as Andrea herself had done , he had taken it for granted that Leo would have left everything to her . his first reaction , when he heard that he was Leo &apos;s heir , was to refuse his inheritance . not only was it grossly unfair to Andrea to do anything else , but , if he accepted it , he was also accepting banishment from his own country and the home he had known all his life . and yet - and yet - which was home ? that far-off , sun-filled house with its glorious views of pasture and distant mountains ? or this grim , sturdy house that was practically a fortress ? from the moment of his arrival it had been as if he had known this place before . it was like coming home , and yet , before very long , he had been conscious of a feeling of unreality about it all . but that was not because of the House . it was the people who lived in it . he remembered having thought that they were fantastic , people left over from an earlier age who defied the passing of time . Leo , who should have been an adventurer . Madam , one of those rare , magnificent woman who , no matter what their age , have the ability to attract and hold the devotion and loyalty of men . and Andrea ? what was she ? a younger version of Madam ? in some ways , perhaps . as far as loyalty and courage were concerned , without doubt . but as yet unsure of herself , as Madam , he was convinced , had never been unsure . Andrea . it all came back to her . whatever he decided to do must serve her best interests . that being so , on the face of it , it would seem that he must somehow pass his inheritance on to her . but there was more to it than that . Luke , for one thing . and for another , the secret of Galleon House which he believed he had all but solved . an odd word here and there , a look of amusement in Leo &apos;s eyes - the amusement of a man who has always enjoyed playing with fire . and , now and again , a sudden feeling of tension in the air . there were other things too , some so nebulous as to make them impossible to grasp , some insignificant in themselves , but adding up , surely , to give substance to an incredible conviction . yes , convincing to himself but lacking actual proof . and that he was determined to have before he went to Madam and demanded the truth , as he fully intended doing . already he knew that he would not find that proof among Leo &apos;s papers . sitting in this quiet room with an unpleasant feeling of guilt , he had gone through every cupboard , every drawer , every file . all dealt with the normal business of the estate . and all were in apple-pie order . Leo had been a good man of business as well as - everything else . there was the safe too . that yielded up a certain amount of jewellery , though none of very great value , a list of Leo &apos;s investments , a statement showing at which bank they were deposited and various certificates and statements from the same bank . these last Simon went through carefully . for a good many years past Leo had been paying in large sums from time to time - twice or three times a year at the outside . one had been made very recently , and Simon recognised it as being approximately the amount that the diamond necklace and bracelet had fetched . surely , all clear and above board ! and yet he was not satisfied . but for days past he had had the growing conviction that there was one place where he would find the information he wanted . that story , which Leo had confirmed , about the Trevaine treasure buried beneath the House itself , had always fired his imagination . his grandfather had told him stories about it that , to his boyish mind , had held the very essence of romance . and though he had never mentioned the fact to Leo , he knew where the entry to the hidden chamber was . what was more , he himself had taken the key on its slender chain from around his dead cousin &apos;s neck and had worn it round his own neck ever since . no one had asked him about it , but he thought Madam knew where it was since he had made no secret of what he was doing with it and she had doubtless been told . now he slipped it off and looked at it intently . it was a modern key , beautifully made and engraved with the name of a famous firm of safe-makers . that further confirmed his suspicions . his grandfather had spoken of a massive oak door , studded with steel bosses and strengthened with steel bars - strong enough , no doubt , in the days when it was put there , but evidently not strong enough to please Leo . well , he would go and see what it was all about , for only when he knew the whole story could he decide - he went to his bedroom for an electric torch into which he had recently put a new battery and made his way to Leo &apos;s bedroom - a room which , in fact , he could claim for his own now if he wished since it was always used by the owner of the House . this , however , he had no desire to do , but at least the fact gave him the feeling that he was not trespassing . when one generation succeeded another over so many years as was the case here , some rooms , at least , acquired an almost impersonal quality . it was so here . presumably Madam had given orders for the room to be entirely cleared of all of Leo &apos;s personal property . it was simply a bedroom , swept and garnished for its next occupant - himself . like many of the other rooms in the House , this was panelled . by one side of the fireplace was a door which looked as if it might lead to another room . Simon knew better . carefully locking the door through which he had just come , he opened the second door and flashed on his torch . at right angles to the door and in the thickness of the massive wall a flight of stone steps ran down and at the bottom was a heavy oak door - the one his grandfather had told him about . as he went down , he counted the steps and estimated that they must have brought him just about to ground level . it did not surprise him very much to find that the door opened on the latch , for it was so old and worn that it offered little security . beyond it Simon found more steps which suddenly took a turn , so that he knew the old story was true ; the Trevaine treasure was buried right under the house itself . it did not surprise him to find that now , instead of the walls and steps being of stone , they were hewn out of solid rock , and then , at the bottom of the further flight , he found a new door . it was painted a dull grey , but as Simon laid his hand on it , he knew from the coldness of it that it was made of steel . he pursed his lips in a whistle as he flashed the torch over it . set in the rock itself , it presented a formidable barrier - and it must have been no easy task getting it into place . all the same , it opened easily at the turn of Leo &apos;s key and Simon pushed it open . eager though he was to get on with his discoveries , he examined the edge of the thick door and its interior carefully before letting go of it . he had no wish to take part in a latter-day mistletoe bough story ! it looked safe enough to him to let go of the door , but just in case , he looked round for something to prop against it so that it could not shut , and then , for the first time , he realised that he was actually in the treasure chamber . neatly ranged against the rock walls were all manner of chests and trunks . some were comparatively modern , some , Simon thought , Captain Jeremy might well have brought home full of plunder . he found a good , solid metal one that was not too heavy to lift and set it between the door and its frame . then he began his search . it would have been tempting to investigate the contents of the chests , but there was something else which intrigued Simon even more than they did . sunk right into the rock so that only its door showed was a modern safe , and a glance showed that it had a combination lock . so , after all , he could not find out what he wanted to know without taking someone into his confidence , he thought wryly . Madam , presumably , would know the word that unlocked the safe , but the last thing he wanted to do was ask her for it . well , at least he could have a shot - he did not know much about such locks , but he did know that you could tell the number of letters in the word by the number of dials . this was a six-letter word . six letters - and it might be any word in the world ! but it was worth while trying words which had some connection with Galleon House . Andrea - that had the right number of letters , but he quickly found it was not the right one . Galleon - no , seven . Trevaine , much too long . well , how about - he looked about himself for inspiration - Jeremy - or pirate ? he tried each in turn without success . feeling considerably discouraged , he tried other family names . Cherry , Leo &apos;s mother . Esther , his grandfather &apos;s sister . two other surnames connected with the family - Penlee and Polwyn - though with little hope over the last . Leo , he felt , would hardly use the name of a man he despised so heartily . he thought deeply . what else was there to try ? Poldean , on the other side of the estuary , was too long . so was St Finbar - although Finbar alone - suddenly he gave a shout of laughter that echoed oddly in the confined space . 