A few nights later, the group reassembled in the Wiltshire Manor dining room not long after sunset. Catherine and Sunny were there along with Howard and his two daughters. All five of them were plainly dressed, their clothing more fit for the servant's hall than for the main dining room. This was a rare chance to see any of them wearing simple trousers and button-down flannel shirts. However, it made no sense to wear better clothes when they were going to be digging around in dusty and dirty sections of the Manor.

The original exploration plan had not included the two girls. However, they had begged Howard to come along. Both kids were eager to explore their new house. Howard had reluctantly agreed, but only after certain ground rules were established. Neither girl was happy that they had to accompany an adult at all times, but they understood that there could be unknown dangers in the Manor. It would be better safe than sorry.

Right now, the family was eating sandwiches and drinking tea from thermoses. Not knowing what foods were available in the Manor Sunny had made the victuals at home and brought them to be consumed on-site. Since it was going to be a long night of exploration, she had brought extra food just in case the family became hungry later in the evening.

The result was that there was almost a picnic atmosphere despite the opulent dining table at which the family sat. Lorelei couldn't stop giggling because of her excitement, and even the more reserved Chelsey let out a periodic chuckle. Both girls' eyes positively twinkled with their feelings of adventure.

After chewing a bite of his roast beef, lettuce, and mayonnaise sandwich, Howard commented, "So, Catherine, where would you like to begin?"

"I would like to begin in the library. Since Mr. Wiltshire was working there during the last days of his life, I think that would be the best place to start."

"I agree," Howard answered. "I brought my lock picks along, so hopefully I will be able to get into the desk and retrieve Mr. Wiltshire's notebooks."

"Be sure to check it for charms of some kind before attempting to open it. From how you described the copula, Mr. Wiltshire excelled at protection and warding magics."

"Of course," Howard answered after chewing another bite. "Even the residual wards from the fourth floor all but fried my shields and zapped me good. I hate to think what it would have been like if I hadn't dismantled them beforehand."

"Howard... please... be... careful..." Lorelei interjected.

"I will be okay. Now you see why you have to follow the rules I set out. I don't want you to get hurt either, Lorelei."

"Yes..." came the girls' drawn-out reply.

"Howard, you're the one who needs to watch out the most," Catherine said. "You are by far the most fragile of us all."

"I know, which is why I will be doubly careful."

----

After finishing their informal dinner, the group made their way to the library by way of the entry hall. As Howard's estate manager, Sunny opened the library with the keys that Olson had turned over to Howard.

"Kids, stay back," Howard warned. "You can wait here in the entry hall."

"Okay..." came the children's joint response as the adults entered the bookshelf-lined room.

"I will begin with the desk," Howard announced as he scanned the desk for any mystical traps. Much to his surprise, he found no evidence of magical wards or pitfalls. "Nothing?!" Howard exclaimed.

"If there aren't any magical shields, then I doubt you will find anything of use in the desk," Catherine said. "Still, let me look just to be sure."

After placing her hands on top of the desk, she did a thorough scan of it in moments.

"You're right, there are no wards on the desk. Come and use your lock picks. I don't want to break the latches after all."

Howard pulled a small pouch from his back pocket. Inside were a number of small and oddly shaped metal instruments. After choosing one of them, Howard inserted it into the keyhole. After a few minutes of fumbling around, there was a click as the latch became unlocked.

One by one the duo looked through the drawers, only to find one alchemical text after another.

"While these books are expensive, they aren't exactly rare either," Catherine commented. "Could these have been the books that Olson brought down from the cupola?"

"They might be, but why lock them up like this?" Howard said. "These books aren't dangerous."

"All books involving magic can be dangerous." Catherine corrected him. "Just like all books on chemistry can be fatal. It just depends on how they are used."

"You have a point," Howard agreed.

Then, upon reaching the bottom of the last drawer, Howard sighed.

"No notebooks in here, huh?" Catherine stated.

"Nope."

"I didn't think that it would be that easy, but it was worth a shot," Catherine said.

"I'm thinking that he stored it in a hidden compartment somewhere in this room," Howard answered.

"That's logical."

Howard walked around the perimeter of the library, doing his best to detect any magical traces

Catherine did the same, starting from the other side.

When they found nothing, they both scanned the floor and ceiling.

"Looks like we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way," Howard begrudgingly admitted.

That was the point where they allowed the children into the library, and they began the laborious task of finding hidden compartments that might, or might not exist.

----

It only took about two hours for the four of them to find the hidden compartment. After slowly shifting the books around the library the adults carefully knocked on the rear of the built-in shelves. Each time they used their knuckles to wrap on the wood they listened carefully to see if it had a solid or a hollow noise. After hours of work, they finally found the compartment because of its hollow sound.

They spent another hour trying to open the panel, but they could not find the switch to open it. Finally, Howard gave up and had Catherine open it with a punch. It took her level of strength to break through the tough oak that they constructed the shelves out of. Luckily, the damage was isolated, so it should be easy to have repaired.

Inside the compartment were four leather-bound notebooks, all carefully written in an illegible cipher.

"I should have known that he would keep his notes in a code," Howard groaned. "This expedition is just one dead end after another."

"It is hardly a dead-end, Howard," Catherine admonished her friend and protege. "We just have to break the code."

"Hopefully it will be a simple letter for letter cipher like in 'The Gold-Bug' by Edgar Allan Poe," Howard said. "To complicate things Wiltshire knew German, Latin, Greek, and French besides English. Thus, the notebook could be in any of those languages."

"Oh, that won't be a problem," Catherine informed him. "I speak all of those languages as well, just as you will eventually learn them yourself. Being a medical doctor, you should already be familiar with Latin and Greek, and I know that you at least know a smattering of French, mon cheri."

"I never learned German, though. I never felt it was necessary since English has been the Lingua franca since the end of World War Two and the founding of the Alliance," Howard responded.

"Many of the magical texts that you will eventually need to read are written in German, but right now that is neither here nor there," Catherine said. "Right now, we have to determine the best way to crack the code's algorithm."

"If I remember correctly computers can crack ciphers, can they not?" Howard asked.

"Yes, they can," Catherine responded with a smile.

"I happen to have a friend who might be able to get me some time on a supercomputer. We could use that time to work on breaking the code."

"Let me guess, your contact works for Lovecraft Aerospace."

"How did you know?"

"Nevermind Howard," Catherine replied as she shook her head at the familiar banter. "That is a brute force method of cracking the cipher, but it would be the fastest and most efficient way of doing so. You will just need a programmer to write the scripts needed to analyze the texts."

"Heck, with our luck each of the notebooks will have a different key algorithm."

"All the more reason to continue searching the house to see if we can find the code keys tonight. That would be even faster than running the notebooks through a computer, no matter how powerful it is."

"We also need to find Mr. Wiltshire's laboratory," Howard reminded Catherine. "Hopefully, we can locate it tonight and that we will find more clues about what Mr. Wiltshire was working on."

"Let's get to looking then."

----