He added this hurriedly, and obviously did not refer to the female dragon. Miss Blow had opened the door and passed through it into the hall.
"The door opposite to you," said Lord Manton, "leads into the drawing-room."
It did not look like a drawing-room when they entered it. A heavy deal table, like a carpenter's bench, stood in the middle of the floor, and on it were a number of curiously shaped metal flasks. There was a pile of long brass tubes in one corner of the room, which looked like empty cartridge cases, intended to contain ammunition for some very large gun. There were wooden shelves all round the walls stocked with thick glass bottles, such as are seen in chemists' shops, bottles with glass stoppers. In one corner the floor was charred, as if a fire had been lighted on it.
"Nobody here," said Mr. Goddard, looking round.
Lord Manton was staring curiously at the things about him. He picked up one of the brass tubes.
"A.M.B.A.," he read. "What do you suppose that means, Miss Blow? Hullo! She's gone again. After her, Goddard! We can't allow her to escape. There may be an explosion at any moment. This place looks uncommonly explosive, and if she is shattered into little bits her father will hold us responsible."
Miss Blow stood at the bottom of the stairs, listening intently.
"I hear a noise in the upper story," she said. "The house isn't empty."
"There is a noise," said Lord Manton. "Goddard, unsheathe your sword and proceed cautiously up the first flight of stairs. We will protect your rear."
They reached the first floor of the house and the noise became much more plainly audible.
"It sounds to me," said Lord Manton, "as if Mr. Red--the man Red, I mean--and his friends were having a hurdle race in the attics."
"Let us pause for a moment," said Lord Manton, "and consider the situation before we rush headlong into some unknown danger. I am inclined to think that several men are jumping hurdles, and from the occasional violence of the bumps I should say that one of them is a heavy man, much heavier than the others. Can you infer anything else from the noise we hear, Miss Blow? Or you, Goddard? Very well, if neither of you can, we may as well go on, bearing in mind that there are several men and that one of them is large."