A different type of story from those she has done before --this with an English setting has almost an element of fantasy in it. ""The lad with a whistle"" is a lad of the open road, who has made his way with his tones, until a dying lord bequeaths him responsibility for the grandchildren of the castle, whom he fears are not in safe hands. The lad makes friends against all odds; he uncovers a plot to defraud them, he finds the secret room, and he discovers a clue to the whereabouts of their vanished father and them. Then -- with his piper friend -- he takes again to the read.