Five on a Hike Together (9 page)

„What exactly are we looking for?" asked Anne. „Do you suppose there"s some secret here, Julian?"

„Yes," said Julian. „And I think I know what it is!"

„What?" asked George and Anne, surprised. Dick thought he knew. Julian explained.

„Well, we know that a prisoner called Nailer sent an important message by his escaped friend to two people - one he wanted to send to Dirty Dick - but he didn"t get it - and the other to Maggie, whoever she is. Now what secret does he want to tell them?"

„I think I can guess," said Dick. „But go on."

„Now suppose that Nailer has done some big robberies," said Julian. „I don"t know what.

Jewellery robberies probably, because they are the commonest with big criminals. Al right - he does a big robbery - he hides the stuff til he hopes the hue and cry wil be over -

but he"s caught and put into prison for a number of years. But he doesn"t tell where the stuff is hidden! He daren"t even write a letter to tell his friends outside the prison where it is.

Al his letters are read before they leave the prison, So what is he to do?"

„Wait til someone escapes and then give him a message," said Dick. „And that"s just what happened, isn"t it, Julian? That round-headed man I saw was the escaped prisoner, and he was sent to tell Dirty Dick and Maggie where the stolen goods were hidden - so that they could get them before anyone else did!"

„Yes. I"m sure that"s it," said Julian, „His friend, the escaped prisoner, probably wouldn"t understand the message at all - but Dirty Dick and Maggie would, because they knew al about the robbery. And now Maggie wil certainly try to find out where the stuff is."

„Well, we must find it first!" said George, her eyes gleaming with excitement. „We"re here first, anyway. And tomorrow, as early as possible we"ll begin to snoop round. What was the next clue in the message, Dick? After Two-Trees and Gloomy Water."

„Saucy Jane," said Dick.

„Sounds a sil y sort of clue," said Anne. „Do you suppose Maggie and Jane are both in the secret?"

'Saucy Jane sounds more like a boat to me," said Dick.

'Of course!" said George. „A boat! Why not? There"s a lake here, and I imagine that people don"t build a house beside a lake unless they want to go boating and bathing and fishing. I bet we shall find a boat called Saucy Jane tomorrow - and the stolen goods wil be inside it."

„Too easy!" said Dick. „And not a very clever place either. Anyone could come across goods hidden in a boat. No - Saucy Jane is a clue, but we shan"t find the stolen goods in her. And remember, there"s that bit of paper as well It must have something to do with the hiding-place too, I should think."

„Where is it?" asked Julian. „That wretched policeman! He tore it up. Have you stil got the pieces, Dick?"

„Of course," said Dick. He fished in his pocket and brought them out. „Four little pieces!

Anyone got some gummed paper?"

Nobody had - but George produced a small roll of Elastoplast. Strips were cut and stuck behind the four portions of paper, Now it was whole again. They al examined it careful y.

„Look - four lines drawn, meeting in the centre," said Julian. „At the outer end of each line there"s a word, so faintly written I can hardly read one of them. What"s this one? “Tock Hill.” And this next one is “Steeple”. Whatever are the others?"

They made them out at last. „ “Chimney,” " said Anne. „That"s the third."

„And “Tall Stone” is the fourth," said George. „Whatever do they all mean? We shall never, never find out!"

„We"ll sleep on it," said Julian, cheerfully. „It"s wonderful what good ideas come in the night. It wil be a very interesting little problem to solve tomorrow!"

The piece of paper was careful y folded and this time Julian took it for safe keeping. „I can"t imagine what it means, but it"s clearly important," he said. „We may quite suddenly come on something - or think of something - that wil give us a clue to what the words and the lines mean on the paper."

„We mustn"t forget that dear Maggie has a copy of the paper too," said Dick. „She probably knows better than we do what it all means!"

„If she does, she wil pay a visit to Two-Trees too," said Anne „We ought to keep a look-out for her. Should we have to hide if we saw her?"

Julian considered this. „No," he said, „I certainly don"t think we should hide. Maggie can"t possibly guess that we have had the message from Nailer, and the paper too, We had better just say we are on a hike and found this place and thought we would shelter here.

Al perfectly true."

„And we can keep an eye on her, and see what she does if she comes!" said Dick, with a grin. „Won"t she be annoyed!"

„She wouldn"t come alone," said Julian, thoughtfully.

„I should think it quite likely that she would come with Dirty Dick! He didn"t get the message, but she did - and probably part of her message was the statement that Dirty Dick would know everything too. So she would get in touch with him."

„Yes - and be surprised that he hadn"t got the message or the paper," said George, „Stil , they"d think that the escaped fel ow hadn"t been able to get to Dirty Dick."

„Al very complicated," said Anne, yawning. „I can"t follow any more arguments and explanations - I"m half asleep. How long are you going to be before you settle down?"

Dick yawned too. „I"m coming now," he said. „My bed of bracken and heather looks inviting. It"s not at all cold in here, is it?"

„The only thing I don"t like is the thought of those cellars beyond this little underground room," said Anne. „I keep thinking that Maggie and her friends might be there, waiting to pounce on us when we are asleep.",

„You"re sil y," said George, scornful y. „Real y sil y! Do you honestly suppose that Timmy would lie here quietly if there was anyone in those cellars? You know jolly well he would be barking his head off!"

„Yes. I know all that," said Anne, snuggling down in her heathery bed. „It"s just my imagination. You haven"t got any, George, so you don"t bother about imaginary fears.

I"m not really scared while Timmy is here. But I do think it"s funny the way we always plunge into something peculiar when we"re together."

„Adventures always do come to some people," said Dick. „You"ve only got to read the lives of explorers and see how they simply walk into adventures al the time."

„Yes, but I"m not an explorer," said Anne. „I"m an ordinary person, and I"d be just as pleased if things didn"t keep happening to me."

The others laughed, „I don"t expect anything much wil happen this time," said Julian, comfortingly. „We go back to school on Tuesday and that"s not far off. Not much time for anything to happen!"

He was wrong of course. Things can happen one after the other in a few minutes! Stil , Anne cuddled down feeling happier. This was better than last night when she was al alone in that horrid little loft. Now she had al the others with her, Timmy too.

Anne and George had one big bed between them. They drew their two rugs over themselves, and put their blazers on top too. Nobody had undressed because Julian had said that they might be too cold in just their night things.

Timmy as usual put himself on George"s feet, She moved them because he was heavy. He wormed his way up the bed and found a very comfortable place between the knees of the two girls. He gave a heavy sigh.

„That means he"s planning to go to sleep!" said George. „Are you quite comfortable, Anne?"

„Yes," said Anne, sleepily. „I like Timmy there. I feel safe!"

Julian was blowing out the candles. He left just one burning. Then he got into his bed of bracken and heather beside Dick. He felt tired too.

The four slept like logs. Nobody moved except Timmy, who got up once or twice in the night and sniffed round inquiringly. He had heard a noise in the cellars. He stood at the closed door that led to the cellars and listened, his head on one side.

He sniffed at the crack. Then he went back to bed, satisfied. It was only a toad! Timmy knew the smell of toads. If toads liked to crawl about in the night, they were welcome to!

The second time he awoke he thought he heard something up in the kitchen above. He padded up the steps, his paws making a click-click-click as he went. He stood in the kitchen silently, his eyes gleaming like green lamps, as the moon shone on him.

An animal with a long bushy tail began to slink away outside the house. It was a fine fox. It had smelt unusual smel s near the old ruin - the scent of people and of a dog, and it had come to find out what was happening.

It had slunk into the kitchen and then smelt the strong scent of Timmy in the room below.

As quietly as a cat it had slunk out again - but Timmy had awakened!

Now the dog stood watching and waiting - but the fox had gone! Timmy sniffed its scent and padded to the door. He debated whether to bark and go after the fox.

The scent grew very faint, and Timmy decided not to make a fuss. He padded back to the steps that led down to the cellar room, and curled up on George"s feet again. He was very heavy, but George was too tired to wake up and push him off. Timmy lay with one ear cocked for a while, and then went to sleep again, with his ear stil cocked. He was a good sentinel!

It was dark in the cel ar when the one candle went out. There was no daylight or sunshine to wake the children down in that dim little room, and they slept late.

Julian woke up first. He found his bed suddenly very hard, and he turned over to find a comfortable place. The heather and bracken had been flattened with his weight, and the floor below was very hard indeed! The movement woke him up, and he lay blinking in the darkness. Where was he?

He remembered at once and sat up. Dick woke too and yawned. „Dick! It"s half-past eight! !" said Julian, looking at the luminous hands of his wrist-watch. „We"ve slept for hours and hours!"

They rolled out of their heathery bed. Timmy leapt off George"s feet and came over to them, his tail wagging gladly. He had been half-awake for a long time and was very glad to see Julian and Dick awake too, because he was thirsty.

The girls awoke - and soon there was a great deal of noise and activity going on. Anne and George washed at the big stone sink, the cold water making them squeal. Timmy lapped up a big bowlful of water gladly. The boys debated whether or not to have a splash in the lake. They felt very dirty.

Dick shivered at the thought. „Stil , I think we ought to," he said „Come on, Ju!"

The two boys went down to the lake-side and leapt in. It was icy-cold! They struck out strongly and came back glowing and shouting.

By the time they were back the girls had got breakfast in the cellar room. It was darker than the kitchen, but al of them disliked the look of the burnt, scorched rooms above. The bread and butter, potted meat, cake and chocolate went down well.

In the middle of the meal a sound came echoing into the old house - bel s! Anne stopped eating, and her heart beat fast.

But they were not the clanging warning bel s she had heard before!

„Church bel s," said Julian at once, seeing Anne"s sudden look of fright. „Lovely sound I always think!"

„Oh yes," said Anne, thankful y. „So it is. It"s Sunday and people are going to church. I"d like to go too, on this lovely sunny October day."

„We might walk across the moor to the nearest vil age if you like," said Dick, looking at his watch, „But we should be very late."

It was decided that it was much too late. They pushed their plates aside and planned what to do that day.

„The first thing, of course, is to see if there"s a boathouse and find out if there"s a boat cal ed Saucy Jane," said Julian. „Then we"d better try and puzzle out what that plan means. We could wander here and there and see if we can find Tal Stone - and I"l look at the map to see if Tock Hill is marked. That was on the plan too, wasn"t it?"

„You boys go and get some more heather and bracken while we clear away and wash up," said Anne. „That is if you mean us to camp here another night."

„Yes. I think we wil ," said Julian. „I think we may find things rather interesting here this week-end!"

Julian went out with Dick and they brought in a great deal more bedding. Everyone had complained that the hard floor came through the amount of heather and bracken they had used the night before, and poor George was quite stiff.

The girls took the dirty things up to the big sink to wash them. There was nothing to dry them with but that didn"t matter. They laid them on the old worn draining board to dry.

They wiped their hands on their hankies and then felt ready for exploring round outside.

The boys were ready too.

With Timmy bounding here and there they went down to the lake. A path had once led down to it, with a low wall on each side. But now the wall was broken, moss had crept everywhere, and the path was choked with tufts of heather and even with smal bushes of gorse.

The lake was as stil and dark as ever. Some moor-hens chugged across it quickly, disappearing under the water when they saw the children.

„Now, what about that boat-house?" said Dick at last. „Is there one - or not?"

They walked beside the lake-side as best they could. It was difficult because bushes and trees grew right down to the edge. It seemed as if there was no boat-house at all.

And then George came to a little backwater, leading off the lake. „Look!" she cal ed.

„Here"s a sort of river running from the lake."

„It"s not a river. It"s only a little backwater," said Dick. „Now we may find a boat-house somewhere here."

They followed the backwater a little way, and then Julian gave an exclamation. „There it is! But it"s so covered up with ivy and brambles that you can hardly see it!"

They all looked where he pointed. They saw a long low building built right across the backwater, where it narrowed and came to an end. It was almost impossible to tel that it was a building, it was so overgrown.

„That"s it!" said Dick, pleased. „Now for the Saucy Jane!"