Five on a Hike Together (15 page)

Julian"s fingers fumbled at the knots of the rope. George couldn"t bear waiting. She took a pocket-knife and handed it to Julian.

„For goodness" sake, cut the rope!" she said. „I simply can"t wait another moment."

Julian grinned. He cut the rope - and then he looked to see how to undo the waterproof wrapping.

„I see," he said. „It"s been folded over and over the goods, and then sewn up to make a kind of bag. It must have kept the loot absolutely waterproof."

„Buck up!" said George. „I shal tear it open myself in a minute!"

Julian cut the strong stitches that closed the covering. They began to unwrap the bundle.

There seemed to be yards and yards of waterproof covering! But at last it was off - and there, in the middle of the mass of waterproof, were scores of little boxes - leather-covered boxes that everyone knew at once were jewel-boxes!

'It is jewel ery then!" said Anne, and she opened a box, They all exclaimed in wonder.

A magnificent necklace glittered on black velvet. It shone and glinted and sparkled in the candlelight as if it were on fire. Even the two boys gazed without a word. Why - it was fit for a queen!

„It must be that wonderful necklace stolen from the Queen of Fal onia," said George at last. „I saw a picture of it in the papers. What diamonds!"

„Oooh - are they diamonds!" said Anne, in awe. „Oh Julian - what a lot of money they must be worth! A hundred pounds, do you think?"

„A hundred thousand pounds more likely, Anne," said Julian, soberly. „My word - no wonder the Nailer hid these stolen goods careful y, in such an ingenious place. No wonder Maggie and Dirty Dick were longing to find them. Let"s see what else there is."

Every box contained precious stones of some kind - sapphire bracelets, ruby and diamond rings, a strange and wonderful opal necklace, ear-rings of such enormous diamonds that Anne was quite sure no one would be able to bear the weight of them!

„I would never, never dare to own jewel ery like this," said Anne. „I should always be afraid of its being stolen. Did it all belong to the Queen of Fal onia?"

„No. Some to a princess who was visiting her," said Julian. „These jewels are worth a king"s ransom. I just hate the thought of being in charge of them, even for a little while."

„Well, it"s better that we should have them, rather than Maggie or Dirty Dick," said George. She held a string of diamonds in her hands and let them run through her fingers.

How they sparkled! No one could have imagined that they had been at the bottom of a lake for a year or two!

„Now let"s see," said Julian, sitting down on the edge of the table. „We"re due back at school tomorrow afternoon, Tuesday - or is it Tuesday already? It must be past midnight -

gosh, yes, it"s almost half past two! Would you believe it?"

„I feel as if I"d believe anything," said Anne, blinking at the glittering treasure on the table.

„We"d better start off fairly early tomorrow," went on Julian. „We"ve got to get these things to the police ..."

„Not to that awful policeman we saw the other day!" said George, in horror,

„Of course not. I think our best course would be to ring up that nice Mr. Gaston and tell him that we"ve got important news for the police and see which police station he recommends us to go to," said Julian. „He might even arrange a car for us, so that we don"t need to take this stuff about in buses. I"m not particularly keen on carrying it about with me!"

„Have we got to carry all these boxes?" said George, in dismay.

„No. That would be asking for trouble if anyone spotted them," said Julian. „I fear we"l just have to wrap up the jewels in our hankies and stuff them down into the bottom of our rucksacks. We"ll leave the boxes here. The police can col ect them afterwards if they want to."

It was al decided. The four divided up the glittering jewel ery and wrapped it careful y into four handkerchiefs, one for each of them. They stuffed the hankies into their rucksacks.

„We"d better use them for pillows," said Dick. „Then they"l be quite safe."

„What! These horrid rough bags!" said Anne. „Why? Timmy"s on guard, isn"t he? I"l put mine beside me under the rug but I just won"t put my head on it."

Dick laughed, „Al right, Anne. Timmy won"t let any robber through, I"m quite sure. Now -

we start off first thing in the morning, do we, Julian?"

„Yes. As soon as we wake," said Julian. „We can"t have much to eat. There"s only a few biscuits and a bit of chocolate left."

„I shan"t mind," said Anne. „I"m so excited that at the moment I don"t feel I"l ever eat anything again!"

„You"l change your mind tomorrow," said Julian with a laugh. „Now - to bed, everyone."

They lay down on their heather and bracken, excited and pleased. What a week-end!

And all because Dick and Anne had lost their way and Dick slept in the wrong barn!

„Good-night," said Julian, yawning, „I feel very very rich - richer than I"l ever be in my life again. Well - I"l enjoy the feeling while I can!"

They awoke to hear Timmy barking. It was daylight already. Julian leapt up the steps to see what was the matter. He saw Maggie not very far away.

„Why do you keep such a fierce dog?" she called. „I just came to see if you wanted to take any food with you. We"l give you some if you like."

„It"s too kind of you, all of a sudden!" said Julian. How anxious Maggie was to get rid of them! She would even give them food to get rid of them quickly. But Julian didn"t want any food from Maggie or Dirty Dick!

„Do you want some, then?" asked the woman. She couldn"t make Julian out. He looked a youngster, and yet his manner was anything but childish. She was rather afraid of him.

„No thanks," said Julian. „We"re just about to go, Got to get back to school today, you know."

„Well, you"d better hurry then," said the woman. „It"s going to rain."

Julian turned on his heel, grinning. It wasn"t going to rain. Maggie would say anything to hurry them away! Stil , that was just what Julian wanted - to get away as quickly as possible!

In ten minutes" time the four children were ready to go. Each had rucksack and mac on their back - and each had jewels worth thousands of pounds in their charge! What a very extraordinary thing.

„It wil be a lovely walk across the moors," said Anne, as they went along. „I feel like singing now everything"s turned out all right. The only thing is - nobody at school wil believe George or me when we tell them what"s happened,"

„We shall probably be set a composition to do - “What did you do on your half-term?” "

said George. „And Miss Peters wil read ours and say “Quite well written, but rather far-fetched, don"t you think?” "

Everyone laughed. Timmy looked round with his tongue out and what George cal ed „his smiling face". Then his „smile" vanished, and he began to bark, facing to the rear of the children.

They looked round, startled. „Gosh - it"s Maggie and Dirty Dick - rushing along like fury!"

said Dick. „What"s up? Are they sorry we"ve gone and want us back again?"

„They"re trying to cut us off," said Julian. „Look - they"ve left the path and they"re going to take a short cut to come across us. There is marshland all round, so we can"t leave our own path. What idiots they are! Unless they know this bit of marsh-moor country they"l get bogged."

Maggie and Dirty Dick were yel ing and shouting in a fury. Dirty Dick shook his fists, and leapt from tuft to tuft like a goat.

„They look as if they have gone quite mad," said Anne, suddenly afraid. „What"s the matter with them?"

„I know!" said George. „They"ve been into our cellar room - and they"ve found that waterproof covering and all those empty boxes. They"ve found out that we"ve got the goods!"

„Of course!" said Julian. „We should have thrown all the boxes into the cel ars beyond. No wonder they"re in a fury. They"ve lost a fortune to us four!"

„What do they think they can do now, though?" said Dick. „We"ve got Timmy. He"l certainly fly at them if they come too near. But Dirty Dick looks mad enough to fight even Timmy. Honestly, I think he"s gone off his head."

„I think he has," said Julian, startled by the man"s mad shouts and behaviour.

He looked at Anne, who had gone white. Julian felt sure that Timmy would go for Dirty Dick and bring him to the ground, and he didn"t want Anne to see dog and man fighting savagely. There was no doubt that Dirty Dick was quite out of his mind with rage and disappointment.

Timmy began to bark fiercely. He snarled, and looked very savage. He could see that the man was spoiling for a fight with someone. Al right - Timmy didn"t mind!

„Let"s hurry on," said Julian. „But no short cuts for us, mind - we"ll keep strictly to the path.

Maggie is in difficulties already."

So she was. She was floundering ankle deep in marshy ground, yel ing to Dirty Dick to help her. But he was too intent on cutting right across the children"s path.

And then he got into difficulties too! He suddenly sank up to his knees! He tried to clamber out and reach a tuft of some sort. He missed his footing and went down again. He gave an anguished yell. „My ankle! I"ve broken it! Maggie, come over here!"

But Maggie was having her own difficulties and paid no attention. The children stopped and looked at Dirty Dick. He was sitting on a tuft, nursing his foot, and even from where the children stood they could see that his face was deathly white. He certainly had done something to his ankle.

„Ought we to help him?" said Anne, trembling.

„Good gracious no!" said Julian. „He may be pretending for al we know - though I don"t think so. The chase is over, anyway. And if, as I think, Dirty Dick really has injured his ankle, he won"t be able to get far out of that marsh - and nor wil Maggie by the look of her -

down she goes again, look! It may be that the police wil find it very easy to pick up that unpleasant couple when they come along to look for them."

„Nicely embedded in the marsh," said Dick. „Well, personal y, I don"t feel sorry for either of them, They"re bad lots."

They went on their way again, Timmy gloomy because he hadn"t had a fight with Dirty Dick after al . They walked all the way to Reebles. It took them two hours.

„We"ll go to the post-office, and telephone from there," said Julian.

The old man was pleased to see them again. „Had a nice time?" he said. „Did you find Two-Trees?"

Julian left him talking to the others while he went to look up Mr. Gaston"s telephone number. He found it - and hoping devoutly that Mr. Gaston wouldn"t mind giving his help, he rang him up.

Mr. Gaston answered the telephone himself. „Hal o? Who? Oh, yes, of course I remember you. You want a bit of help? Well, what can I do for you?"

Julian told him. Mr. Gaston listened in amazement.

„WHAT! You"ve found the Fal onia jewels! I can"t believe it! In your rucksacks now, you say!

Bless us all! You"re not spoofing me, are you?"

Julian assured him that he wasn"t. Mr. Gaston could hardly believe his ears. „Right. Right -

of course I"l put you in touch with the police. We"d better go to Gathercombe - I know the Inspector there, a fine fel ow. Where are you? Oh yes, I know it. Wait there and I"l fetch you in my car - in about half an hour, say."

He rang off and Julian went to find the others, delighted that he had thought of getting into touch with Mr. Gaston. Some grown-ups were so jol y decent - and they knew exactly what to do. The other three were delighted too, when he told them.

„Well, I must say that although it"s nice to have things happening to us, it"s a sort of safe, comfortable feeling when we hand over to the grown-ups," said George. „Now I only want one thing - breakfast!"

„We"d better have a mixture of breakfast and lunch," said Julian. „It"s so late."

„Oh yes - let"s have brunch!" said Anne, delighted, „I love brunch."

So they had some „brunch" - sandwiches, buns, biscuits and ginger-beer, which they bought at a little shop down the road. And just as they were finishing, up swept Mr.

Gaston in an enormous car!

The four children grinned at him with pleasure, Julian introduced Anne and Dick. Timmy was thril ed to see him again and offered him a polite paw, which Mr. Gaston shook heartily.

„Nice manners your dog"s got," he said, and pressed down the accelerator. Whoooosh!

Away they went at top speed, with Timmy sticking his head out of the window as he always did in a car.

They told their extraordinary story as they went. Mr. Gaston was full of admiration for all they had done. „You"re a bunch of plucky kids!" he kept saying. „My word, I wish you were mine!"

They came to the police station. Mr. Gaston had already warned the inspector they were coming, and he was waiting for them.

„Come along into my private room," he said. „Now first of all - where are these jewels?

Have you real y got them with you? Let"s have a look at them before you tell your story."

„The children undid their rucksacks - and out of the hankies inside they poured the shining, glittering jewel ery on to the oak table.

The inspector whistled and exchanged a look with Mr. Gaston. He picked up the diamond necklace.

„You"ve got them!" he said. „The very jewels! And to think the police everywhere have been hunting for them for months and months and months. Where did you find them, youngsters?"

„It"s rather a long story," said Julian. He began to tell it, and he told it well, prompted by the others, when he forgot anything. Mr. Gaston and the inspector listened with amazement on their faces. When Julian came to the bit where Dirty Dick and Maggie had been left floundering in the marshes, the inspector interrupted him.

„Wait! Would they stil be there? They would? Right. Half a minute!"

He pressed a bell and a peliceman appeared. „Tell Johns to take his three men and the car, and go to the Green Marshes, near Gloomy Water," ordered the inspector. „He"s to pick up two people floundering there - man and woman. Our old friends Dirty Dick and Maggie Martin! Look sharp!"