Jack and Annie ran up to the front entrance of the villa. Jack pushed the door open.

“Go in. Hurry,” said Annie.

They slipped into the main hall.

“Hello!” Annie called.

There was no answer. The place seemed empty.

The main hall had a large opening in the ceiling. Below it was a small stone pool filled with water. Jack looked at it carefully.

“Oh, I bet rain comes through the hole,” said Jack. “Then it lands in that pool so they can use it for their water.”

He started to take out his notebook to make a note.

“There’s no time, Jack!” said Annie. “We have to look in all the rooms for books!”

“Okay, okay, calm down,” said Jack. He put away his notebook and followed Annie.

“Books? Books?” she said, peering into a room off the hall. She moved to the next room. “Books? Books?” Then she moved on to the next.

Jack trailed behind her. Even though she had already checked the rooms, he took a quick peek in each of them. He wanted to see what a house in Roman times looked like. He’d write notes later.

The first two rooms had wooden beds. The walls had pictures painted on them. The floors were covered with tiny pieces of colored stone.

The third room had a low table with silver dishes on it. Three sloping couches were placed around the table. The couches were covered with pillows.

“This must be the dining room,” said Jack. “People from Roman times lay down on couches while they ate. Did you know that?”

He looked around for Annie. Where was she?

“Jack! Come here!” Annie called.

Jack followed her voice. She was in a garden off the dining room. It had a stone patio, palm trees, and grape vines. In the middle was a pond with a mermaid fountain. Goldfish swam in the water.

“Look, there’s another room!” said Annie. She moved to the door of a room off the garden.

She opened the door and peeked inside.

Jack looked with her. Along the walls of the room were long shelves with rolls of paper on them.

“Rats!” said Annie. “No books.” She closed the door. “No books in this whole villa. Let’s get out of here.”

“Just a minute,” said Jack. “I have an idea.”

He pulled out his book on Roman times. He found a section called WRITING. He read:

Romans used pens made of small reeds. Their ink came partly from the black ink of octopuses. They wrote their “books” on scrolls of papyrus (puh-PI-rus) paper.

“Aha!” said Jack. “That’s a library of scrolls! I bet our ancient lost story is in there!”