Five Go to Mystery Moor (10 page)

It was Timmy who first knew there was somebody not far off. He pricked up his ears and listened. George saw him.

„What is it, Tim?" she said. „Nobody is coming here, surely?"

Timmy gave a tiny growl, as if he were not quite sure of himself. Then he leapt up, his tail wagging, and tore out of the quarry!

„Where"s he gone to?" said George astonished. „Gosh, here he is, back again!"

So he was, and with him was a funny little hearthrug of a dog - yes, Liz! She was not quite sure of her welcome and crawled up to the children on her tummy, looking more like a hearthrug than ever!

Timmy leapt round her in delight. She might have been his very best friend, he was so delighted! George patted the funny little dog and Julian looked thoughtful.

„I hope this doesn"t mean that we are anywhere near the gypsy camp," he said. „It"s quite likely that the lines might end somewhere near them. I"ve rather lost my sense of direction."

„Oh goodness, I do HOPE we"re not near their camp!" said Anne, in dismay. „Those old-time gypsies must have camped pretty near to the Bartles" quarry before they attacked them, so perhaps the present camp is near too."

„Well, what"s it matter if it is?" said Dick. „Who"s afraid of them? I"m not!"

They all sat stil , thinking hard, Liz licking Anne"s hand. And in the silence they heard an al -

too-familiar sound.

Sniff! Sniff!

„Sniffer!" called George. „Come on out, wherever you are hiding. I can hear you!"

A pair of legs stuck out from a great clump of heather at the edge of the quarry, and then the whole of Sniffer"s wiry little body slithered out and down into the sand. He sat there, grinning at them, half-afraid to come any nearer in case they were cross with him.

„What are you doing here?" said Dick. „Not spying on us, I hope?"

„No," said Sniffer, „Our camp isn"t very far away. Liz heard you, I think, and ran off. I followed her."

„Oh blow. We hoped we weren"t near anyone else," said George. „Does anyone at your camp know we"re here."

„Not yet," said Sniffer. „But they"l find out. They always do. I won"t tell, though, if you don"t want me to."

Dick tossed him a biscuit. „Well, keep your mouth shut if you can," he said. „We"re not interfering with anyone and we don"t want anyone interfering with us. See?"

Sniffer nodded. He suddenly put his hand in his pocket and pul ed out the red and white hanky that George had given him. It was stil clean and beautifully folded.

„Not dirty yet!" he said to George.

„Well, it ought to be," said George. „It"s for your sniffs. No don"t use your coat-sleeve."

Sniffer simply could not understand why he should use a beautiful clean hanky when he had a dirty coat-sleeve. He put the hanky careful y back into his pocket.

Liz ran to him and fawned on him. Sniffer fondled the peculiar little creature, and then Timmy went over and played with them both. The four finished their tea, threw Sniffer one last biscuit, and got up to put their things away safely. Now that Sniffer was about, and the gypsy camp near, they didn"t feel it was terribly safe to leave anything unguarded or unhidden.

„Scoot off, now, Sniffer," said Julian. „And no spying on us, mind! Timmy wil know immediately you arrive anywhere near, and come hunting for you. If you want to see us, give a whistle when you get near. No creeping or slipping into the quarry. Understand?"

„Yes," said Sniffer, standing up. He took the hanky from his pocket again, waved it at George, and disappeared with Liz at his heels.

„I"m just going to see exactly how near to the gypsy camp we are," Julian said. He walked to the entrance of the quarry and up on to the moor. He looked in the direction that Sniffer had gone. Yes, there was the hil in the shelter of which the gypsies had their caravans. It wasn"t more than a quarter of a mile away. Blow! Stil , it was far enough for the gypsies not to discover them, unless by chance.

„Or unless Sniffer gives the game away," thought Julian. „Well, we"ll spend the night here, anyway, and we can move off somewhere else tomorrow if we feel like it."

They felt rather energetic that evening and played a bal game in the quarry, in which Timmy joined wholeheartedly. But as he always got the bal before anyone else did they had to tie him up in order to get a game themselves. Timmy was very cross. He turned his back on them and sulked.

„He looks like you now, George," said Dick, grinning, and got the ball bang on the side of his head from an angry George!

Nobody wanted much supper. Julian took a little aluminium jug to the spring and fil ed it once for everyone. It real y was lovely water from that bubbling spring!

„I wonder how Henry"s getting on," said Anne. „Spoilt to bits by her great-aunts. I expect.

Didn"t she look odd in proper clothes, gloves and all!"

„Yes, she ought to have been a boy," said Dick. „Like you, George," he added hastily.

„Both of you are real sports, plucky as anything."

„How do you know Henry"s plucky?" said George, scornful y. „Only by her sil y tales! I bet they"re al made-up and exaggerated."

Julian changed the subject. „Shall we want rugs tonight, do you think?" he said.

„Rather! It may be warm now, and the sand is hot with the sun, but it won"t be quite so nice when it"s gone down," said Anne. „Anyway we can always creep into one of those cosy little caves if we feel chil y. They"re as warm as toast. I went into one, so I know."

They settled down quite early to sleep. The boys took one side of the quarry, the girls the other. Tim, as usual, was on George"s feet, much to Anne"s discomfort.

„He"s on mine too," she complained to George. „He"s so long, he stretches over my feet as well. Move him, George."

So George moved him, but as soon as Anne was asleep he stretched out again and lay on both girls" legs. He slept with one ear open.

He heard a scurrying hedgehog. He heard al the rabbits out for a night-time game. He heard the frogs in a far-off pool croaking in the night. His sharp ear even heard the tinkle of the little spring outside the pit.

Nobody moved in the quarry. There was a small moon but it gave very little light. The stars that studded the sky seemed to give more light than the moon.

Timmy"s one open ear suddenly pricked itself right up. Then the other ear stood up too.

Timmy was stil asleep but his ears were both listening very hard!

A low, humming sound came slowly over the night. It came nearer and nearer. Timmy awoke properly and sat up, listening, his eyes wide open now.

The sound was now very loud indeed. Dick awoke and listened. What was that noise? An aeroplane? It must be jolly low! Surely it wasn"t about to land on the moor in the dark!

He woke Julian and they both got up and went out of the quarry. „It"s an aeroplane al right," said Dick, in a low voice. „What"s it doing? It doesn"t seem to be going to land. It"s gone round in a low circle two or three times."

„Is it in trouble, do you think?" asked Julian. „Here it comes again."

„Look, what"s that light over there?" suddenly said Dick, pointing to the east. „See, that sort of glow. It"s not very far from the gypsies" camp."

„I don"t know," said Julian, puzzled. „It"s not a fire, is it? We can"t see any flames and it doesn"t seem to flicker like a fire would."

„I think it may be some sort of guide to that plane," said Dick. „It seems to be circling round and about over the glow. Let"s watch it."

They watched it. Yes, it did seem to be circling round the glow, whatever it was, and then, quite suddenly it rose in the air, circled round once more and made off to the east.

„There it goes," said Dick, straining his eyes. „I can"t tel what kind it is, except that it"s very small."

„What can it have been doing?" said Julian, puzzled. „I thought the glow might have been to guide it in landing, though where it could land here in safety I simply don"t know. But it didn"t land at all, it just circled and made off"

„Where would it have come from?" said Dick. „From the coast, I suppose, from over the sea, do you think?"

„I simply don"t know," said Julian. „It beats me! And why should the gypsies have anything to do with it? Gypsies and planes don"t seem to mix, somehow."

„Well, we don"t know that they do have anything to do with the plane, except that we saw that glow," said Dick. „And that"s going now, look."

Even as they watched, the bright glow died completely away. Now the moor lay in darkness again.

„Funny," said Julian, scratching his head. „I can"t make it out. It"s true that the gypsies may be up to something, the way they come out here secretly, apparently for no purpose at all, and also they don"t want us snooping round, that"s clear."

„I think we"d better try and find out what that glow is," said Dick. „We could have a bit of a snoop tomorrow. Or perhaps Sniffer could tell us."

„He might," said Julian. „We"ll try him. Come on, let"s get back into the quarry. It"s cold out here!"

The quarry struck quite warm to them as they went down into it. The girls were sound asleep stil . Timmy, who had been with them, did not wake them. He had been as puzzled as Julian and Dick over the low-flying plane, but he had not barked at all. Julian had been glad about that, Timmy"s bark might have carried right over to the gypsy camp and warned it that someone was camping near.

They got back under their rug, keeping close to one another for warmth. But they soon lost their shivers, and Dick threw off his share of the rug. In a few minutes they were asleep.

Timmy awoke first and stretched himself out in the warm morning sunshine. Anne sat up with a little scream. „Oh Timmy, don"t! You nearly squashed me to bits. Do that to George if you must stretch yourself all over somebody!"

The boys awoke then, and went to the spring to splash their faces and bring back a jugful of water to drink. Anne got the breakfast, and over it the boys told the girls of the aeroplane in the night.

„How queer!" said Anne. „And that glow too. It must have been a guide of some sort to the plane. Let"s go and see where it was. It must have been a fire of some kind!"

„Right," said Dick. „I vote we go this morning, but we"ll take Tim with us in case we meet those gypsies!"

Julian and Dick went to stand where they had stood the night before, trying to see exactly in what direction the glow had been.

„I think it was beyond the gypsies" camp, to the left," said Julian. „What do you think, Dick?"

„Yes. That"s about it," said Dick. „Shall we go now?" He raised his voice. „We"re going, George and Anne. Are you coming? We can leave our stuff here, tucked away in the caves because we shan"t be very long."

George cal ed back. „Julian, I think Timmy"s got a thorn in his foot or something. He"s limping. Anne and I think we"ll stay here with him and try to get it out. You go, but for goodness" sake don"t get into trouble with the gypsies!"

„We shan"t," said Julian. „We"ve as much right on this moor as they have and they know it.

Al right, we"ll leave you two here then with Timmy. Sure you don"t want any help with his paw?"

„Oh no," said George. „I can manage, thank you."

The two boys went off, leaving Anne and George fussing over Timmy"s paw. He had leapt into a gorse bush after a rabbit and a thorn had gone right into his left fore-paw. Then it had broken off, leaving the point in poor Timmy"s pad. No wonder he limped! George was going to have quite a time trying to ease out the bit of thorn.

Julian and Dick set off over the moor. It was a day like summer, far too warm for April.

There was not a single cloud to be seen in the sky, which was as blue as forget-me-nots.

The boys felt too hot in their pul overs and longed to take them off. But that would mean carrying them, which would be an awful nuisance.

The gypsy camp was not real y far away. They soon came near to the curious hil that stood up from the flatness of the moor. The caravans stil stood in its shelter, and the boys saw that a little group of men were sitting together, talking earnestly.

„I bet they"re having a jaw about that aeroplane last night," said Dick. „And I bet it was they who set that light or fire, or whatever it was, to guide it. I wonder why it didn"t land."

They kept in the shelter of big gorse bushes, as they skirted the camp. They were not particularly anxious to be seen. The dogs, sitting round the group of men, apparently did not see or hear them, which was lucky.

The boys made their way towards the place where they thought they had seen the glow, some way to the left of the camp, and beyond it.

„Doesn"t seem to be anything out of the ordinary anywhere," said Julian, stopping and looking round. „I was expecting to see a big burnt patch, or something."

„Wait - what"s in that dip over there?" said Dict, pointing to where the ground seemed to dip downwards. „It looks like another old quarry, rather like the one we"re camping in, but smaller, much smaller. I bet that"s where the fire was!"

They made their way to the quarry. It was much more overgrown than theirs was, and was evidently one that had been worked at an earlier time. It dipped down to quite a pit in the middle and set there was something unusual. What was it?

The boys scrambled down into the pit-like quarry and made their way to the middle. They stared at the big thing that was set there, pointing to the sky.

„It"s a lamp, a powerful lamp of some kind," said Dick. „Like those we see making a flare-path at an aerodrome, guiding planes in to land. Fancy seeing one here!"

„How did the gypsies get it?" wondered Dick, puzzled. „And why signal to a plane that doesn"t land? It looked as if it wanted to, circling round low like that."

„Maybe the gypsies signalled that it wasn"t safe to land for some reason," said Julian. „Or perhaps they were going to give something to the pilot and it wasn"t ready."

„Well, it"s a puzzle," said Dick. „I can"t imagine what"s going on. Something is, that"s certain. Let"s snoop round a bit."

They found nothing else, except a trail that led to the lamp and back. Just as they were examining it, a shout came to their ears. They swung round - and saw the figure of a gypsy at the edge of the pit.