Five Go to Mystery Moor (11 page)

„What are you doing here?" he shouted, in a harsh voice. He was joined by a few others, and they all looked threateningly at Julian and Dick as they climbed out of the pit.

Julian decided to be honest. „We"re camping out on the moor for a night or two," he said,

„and we heard a plane last night, circling low. We also saw a glow that appeared to be guiding it, and we came along to see what it was. Did you hear the plane?"

„Mebbe we did and mebbe we didn"t," said the nearest gypsy, who was Sniffer"s father.

„What of it? Planes fly over this moor any day!"

„We found that powerful lamp," said Dick, pointing back at it. „Do you know anything about that?"

„Nothing," said the gypsy scowling. „What lamp?"

„Well, as far as I can see there"s no charge for looking at it," said Julian. „Go and have a squint, if you don"t know anything about it! But I can"t believe that you didn"t see the light it gave last night! It"s a jolly good place to hide it, I must say."

„We don"t know anything about any lamp," said another gypsy, the old one with grey hair. „This is our usual camping-place. We don"t interfere with anything or anybody - unless they interfere with us. Then we make them sorry for it."

The boys at once thought of the long-ago mystery of the disappearance of the Bartles.

They felt quite uncomfortable.

„Well, we"re going now, so don"t worry," said Julian. „We"re only camping for a night or two, as I said. We won"t come near here again, if you object to us.

He saw Sniffer creeping up behind the men, with I.iz, who for some reason of her own, was walking sedately on her hind-legs. Sniffer pul ed at his father"s arm.

„They"re all right," he said. „You know our Clip got his leg made better at the stables.

They"re al right!"

Al he got was a savage cuff that sent him to the ground, where he rolled over and over.

Liz dropped down on all fours and went to lick him.

„Here, I say!" said Julian, shocked. „Leave that kid alone! You"ve no right to hit him like that!"

Sniffer set up such a yel ing that some of the women left the caravans not far off and came running to see what was up. One of them began to shout at Sniffer"s father and he shouted back. Soon there was quite a row going on between the men and the angry women, one of whom had picked up poor Sniffer and was dabbing his head with a wet cloth.

„Come on, it"s a good time to go," said Julian to Dick. „What an unfriendly lot they are, except poor Sniffer, and he was doing his best for us, poor kid."

The two boys went off quickly, glad to be away from the men and their dogs. They were puzzled about everything. The men said they knew nothing about the lamp, but they must know something about it. Nobody but a gypsy could have lighted it last night.

They went back to the girls and told them what had happened. „Let"s get back to the stables," said Anne. „There"s something queer going on. We"ll be in the middle of an adventure before we know where we are!"

„We"ll stay one more night," said Julian. „I want to see if that plane comes again. Those gypsies don"t know where we"re camping and though Sniffer knows, I"m pretty sure he won"t tell. It was plucky of him to try and stick up for us to his father."

„Al right. We"ll stay," said George. „I"m not particularly anxious for Timmy to have that long walk home today. I think I"ve got most of that thorn out of his pad, but he stil won"t put his foot to the ground."

„He"s jolly clever at running about on three legs," said Dick, watching Timmy tearing round the quarry, sniffing as usual for rabbits.

„The amount of quarrying that Timmy has done in this pit already is colossal!" said Julian, staring round at the places where Timmy had tried to get in at some rabbit-hole and scrabbled out big heaps of sand. „He would have been a great help to the Bartles when they dug out sand! Poor old Tim - your bad foot has stopped you scraping for rabbits, hasn"t it!"

Timmy ran over on three legs. He enjoyed all the fussing he got when anything happened to him. He meant to make the most of his bad foot!

They had a very lazy day indeed. It real y was too hot to do anything much. They went to the little spring and sat with their feet in the rivulet it made - it was deliciously cool! They went and had a look at the old engine again, lying on its side, half-buried.

Dick scraped away a lot of the sand that had seeped into the cab. Soon they were all helping. They uncovered the old handles and levers and tried to move them. But they couldn"t of course.

„Let"s go round to the other side of the gorse bush and see if we can see the funnel again," said Dick, at last. „Blow these thorns. I"m getting pricked all over. Timmy"s very sensible, sitting there, not attempting to examine this old Puffing Bil y!"

They had to cut away some of the gorse before they could examine the funnel properly.

Then they exclaimed in wonder.

„Look! It"s very like the long funnel that Puffing Bil y had, you know, one of the first engines ever made!"

„It"s fil ed with sand," said Dick, and tried to scrape it out. It was fairly loose, and soon he was able to peer down the funnel quite a long way.

„Funny to think of smoke puffing out of this queer old funnel," said Dick. „Poor old engine, lying here for years, quite forgotten. I"d have thought someone would rescue it!"

„Well, you know what the blacksmith told us," said George. „The Bartle sister that was left wouldn"t have anything more to do with the railway or the engine or the quarry. And certainly nobody could move this great thing on their own."

„I shouldn"t be surprised if we"re the only people in the world who know where the old engine is," said Anne. „It"s so overgrown that nobody could see it except by accident!"

„I feel jol y hungry, all of a sudden," said Dick, stopping his work of getting sand off the engine. „What about something to eat?"

„We"ve got enough to last for a day or two more," said Anne. „Then we"ll have to get something else - or go back to the stables."

„I must spend one more night here," said Julian. „I want to see if that plane returns again."

„Right. We"ll al watch this time," said George. „It wil be fun. Come on, let"s go and get something to eat. Don"t you think that"s a good idea, Timmy?"

Timmy certainly did. He limped off at top speed on three legs, though real y his right fore-paw no longer hurt him. Timmy, you"re a fraud!

No gypsies came near them that day, not even Sniffer. The evening was as lovely as the day had been, and almost as warm.

„It"s extraordinary!" said Dick, looking up into the sky. „What weather for April! The bluebells wil be rushing out soon if the sun goes on being as hot as this!"

They lay on the sand in the quarry and watched the evening star shine in the sky. It looked very big and bright and round.

Timmy scrabbled round in the sand. „His paw is much better," said George. „Though I notice that he stil sometimes holds it up."

„Only when he wants you to say “Poor Timmy, does it hurt!” " said Dick. „He"s a baby, likes to be fussed!"

They talked for a while and then Anne yawned. „It"s early, I know - but I believe I"m going to sleep."

There was soon a trek to the spring, and everyone sluiced themselves in the cool water.

There was only one towel between them, but that did very wel . Then they settled down in their sandy beds. The sand was beautiful y warm and they did not bother about putting down the rubber sheets. There could not possibly be any dampness in that quarry after it had been baked so much by the hot sun!

„I hope we wake when that plane comes, if it does come," said Julian to Dick, as they lay without any covering in their soft, sandy bed. „My goodness, isn"t it hot! No wonder Timmy"s panting over there!"

They went to sleep at last, but Dick awoke suddenly, feeling much too hot. Phew! What a night! He lay looking up at the bril iant stars, and then shut his eyes again. But it was no use, he couldn"t go to sleep.

He sat up cautiously, so as not to awake Julian. I think I"l just go and have a squint to see if that big lamp is lighted again, down in that pit by the gypsy camp, he thought.

He went to the edge of the quarry and climbed up. He looked towards the gypsy camp and gave a sudden exclamation. Yes! he thought. It"s glowing again! I can"t see the lamp, of course, but its light is so jol y powerful that I can easily see the glow it makes. It must be very bright, looked down on from the sky. I wonder if the plane is due to come now that the lamp is lighted.

He listened, and yes, he could distinctly hear a low humming noise from the east. It must be the plane coming again? Would it land this time, and if so, who was in it?

He ran to wake Julian and the girls. Timmy was alert at once, wagging his tail excitedly. He was always ready for anything, even in the middle of the night! Anne and George got up too, very thril ed.

„Is the lamp really alight again? And I can hear the plane too now! Oh, I say! This is exciting! George, Timmy won"t bark and give us away, wil he?"

„No. I"ve told him to be quiet," said George. „He won"t make a sound. Listen, the plane is coming nearer!"

The noise was now loud enough for them to search the starry sky for the plane. Julian gave Dick a nudge. „Look, you can just see it, straight over where the gypsy camp is!"

Dick managed to pick it out. „It"s very small," he said. „Smaller even than I thought it was last night. Look, it"s coming down!"

But it wasn"t. It merely swept low, and then went round in a circle, as it had done the night before. It rose a little again and then came in low once more, almost over the boys"

heads.

Then something extraordinary happened. Something fel not far from Julian, something that bounced and then came to rest! It made a thud as it fel , and all four jumped. Timmy gave a startled whine.

Thud! Something else fell. Thud, thud, thud! Anne gave a squeal. „Are they trying to bomb us or something. Julian, what are they doing?"

Thud! Thud! Julian ducked at the last two thuds, they sounded so near. He took hold of Anne and pul ed her down into the quarry, calling to Dick and George.

„Get down here, quickly! Force yourselves into the caves somewhere! We shall get hit!"

They ran across the quarry as the plane swooped round in a circle once more and then again began dropping the things that went „thud! thud!". Some even fel into the quarry this time. Timmy got the shock of his life when one bounced in front of his nose and rolled away. He yelped and tore after George.

Soon they were al safely squeezed into the little caves that lined the sides of the quarry.

The plane swept round once more, up and then round, and the thud-thudding began again. The four could hear that some of the thuds were actual y in the quarry again and they were thankful they were well sheltered.

„Well, nothing is exploding," said Dick, thankfully. „But what on earth is the plane dropping? And why? This is a most peculiar adventure to have."

„It"s probably a dream," said Julian, and laughed. „No, not even a dream could be so mad. Here we are, snuggling into sandy caves in a quarry on Mystery Moor, while a plane drops something al round us in the middle of the night! Quite mad."

„I believe the plane"s going away now," said Dick. „It"s circled round but hasn"t dropped anything. Now it"s climbing, it"s going away! The engine doesn"t sound nearly so loud.

Goodness, when we were standing out there at the edge of the quarry, I almost thought the plane would take my head off; it was so low!"

„I thought that too," said Anne, very glad that there was to be no more swooping down and dropping dozens of unknown things. „Is it safe to go out?"

„Oh yes," said Julian, scrambling out of the sand. „Come on. We shall easily hear if the plane comes back again. I want to see what it has dropped!"

In great excitement they ran to get the parcels. The stars gave so much light on that clear night that the four did not even need a torch.

Julian picked up something first. It was a firm, flattish parcel, done up well, sewn into a canvas covering. He examined it.

„No name. Nothing," he said. „This is most exciting. Let"s have three guesses what"s inside."

„Bacon for breakfast, I hope!" said Anne at once.

„Idiot," said Julian, getting out a knife to slit the string threads that sewed up the canvas. „I guess it"s smuggled goods of some sort. That"s what that plane was doing, I should think, flying over from France, and dropping smuggled goods in a pre-arranged place, and I suppose the gypsies pick them up, and take them away, well hidden in their caravans, to deliver them somewhere. Very clever!"

„Oh Julian, is that the explanation?" said Anne. „What would be in the parcels then, cigarettes?"

„No," said Julian. „The parcels wouldn"t be so heavy if they only contained cigarettes.

There, I"ve slit the threads at last!"

The others crowded round to see. George took her torch out of her pocket so that they could see real y well. She flashed it on.

Julian ripped off the canvas covering. Next came some strong brown paper. He ripped that off too.

Then came strong cardboard, tied round with string. That was undone as well, and the cardboard fel to the ground.

„Now, what have we got?" said Julian, excited. „Thin sheets of paper, dozens and dozens of them packed together. Shine your torch nearer, George."

There was a silence as all the four craned over Julian"s hands.

„Whew! I say! Gosh, do you see what they are?" said Julian, in awe. „American money, dol ar notes. But look what they are, one hundred-dol ar notes! And my word there are scores and scores of them in this one packet."

The four stared in amazement as Julian riffled through the packet of notes. However much would they be worth?

„Julian, how much is a hundred-dol ar note worth in our money?" asked George.

„About forty pounds I think" said Julian. „Yes, just about that. Gosh, and there are scores in this one packet, and we know they dropped dozens of the packets too. Whatever is it al about?"