The,girls crept into their bags and Timmy flopped down on George. The boys were in their bags about the same time and Dick gave a loud yawn.
‘Good night, Ju,’ he said, and fell fast asleep. Julian was soon asleep too. In fact, everyone was sound asleep when Timmy gave a little growl. It was such a small growl that neither of the girls heard it, and certainly Dick and Julian didn’t, away in their tent.
Timmy raised his head and listened intently. Then he gave another small growl. He listened again. Finally he got up, shook himself, still without waking George, and stalked out of the tent, his ears cocked and his tail up. He had heard somebody or something, and although he thought it was all right, he was going to make sure.
Dick was sound asleep when he felt something brushing against the outside of his tent. He awoke at once and sat up. He looked at the tent opening. A shadow appeared there and looked in.
Was it Timmy? Was it Mr Luffy? He mustn’t make a mistake this time. He waited for the shadow to speak. But it didn’t! It just stayed there as if it were listening for some movement inside the tent. Dick didn’t like it.
‘Timmy!’ he said at last, in a low voice.
Then the shadow spoke: ‘Dick? Or is it Julian? It’s Jock here. I’ve got Timmy beside me. Can I come in?’
‘Jockl’ said Dick, in surprise. ‘Whatever have you come at this time of night for? And why didn’t you come today? We waited ages for you.’
‘Yes. I know I’m awfully sorry,’ said Jock’s voice, and the boy wriggled himself into the tent. Dick poked Julian awake.
‘Julian! Here’s Jock – and Timmy. Get off me, Timmy. Here, Jock, see if you can squeeze inside my sleeping-bag – there’s room for us both, I think.’
‘Oh, thanks,’ said Jock, and squeezed inside with difficulty. ‘How warm it is! I say, I’m terribly sorry I didn’t come today – but my stepfather suddenly announced he wanted me to go somewhere with him for the whole day. Can’t think why. He doesn’t bother about me as a rule.’
‘That was mean of him, seeing that he knew you were to come on a picnic with us,’ said Julian. ‘Was it something important?’
‘No. Not at all,’ said Jock. ‘He drove off to Endersfield – that’s about forty miles away – parked me in the public library there, saying he’d be back in a few minutes – and he didn’t come back till past tea-time! I had some sandwiches with me, luckily. I felt pretty angry about it, I can tell you.’
‘Never mind. Come tomorrow instead,’ said Dick.
‘I can’t,’ said Jock in despair. ‘He’s gone and arranged for me to meet the son of some friend of his-a boy called Cecil Dearlove – what a name! I’m to spend the day with this frightful boy. The worst of it is Mum’s quite pleased about it. She never thinks my stepfather takes enough notice of me – good thing he doesn’t, /think.’
‘Oh blow – so you won’t be able to come tomorrow either,’ said Julian. ‘Well – what about the next day?’
‘It should be all right,’ said Jock. ‘But I’ve feeling I’ll have dear love of a Cecil plonked on me for the day – to show him the cows and the puppies, dear pet! Ugh! When I could be with you four and Timmy.’
‘It’s bad luck,’ said Julian. ‘It really is.’
‘I thought I’d better come and tell you,’ said Jock. ‘It’s the first chance I’ve had, creeping up here tonight.
I’ve brought some more food for you, by the way. I guessed you’d want some. I feel down in the dumps about that adventure – you know, going to see the railway yard. I was going to ask you to take me today.’
‘Well – if you can’t come tomorrow either – and perhaps not the next day – what about going one night?’ said Dick. ‘Would you like to come up tomorrow night, about this time? We won’t tell the girls. We’ll just go off by ourselves, we three boys – and watch!’
Jock was too thrilled to say a word. He let out a deep breath of joy. Dick laughed.
‘Don’t get too thrilled. We probably shan’t see a thing. Bring a torch if you’ve got one. Come to our tent and jerk my toe. I’ll probably be awake, but if I’m not, that’ll wake me all right! And don’t say a word to anyone of course.’
‘Rather not, ‘said Jock, overjoyed. ‘Well -1 suppose I’d better be going. It was pretty weird coming over the moorland in the dark. There’s no moon, and the stars don’t give much light. I’ve left the food outside the tent. Better look out that Timmy doesn’t get it.’
‘Right. Thanks awfully,’ said Julian. Jock got out of Dick’s sleeping-bag and went backwards out of the tent, with Timmy obligingly licking his nose all the way. Jock then found the bag of food and rolled it in to Julian, who put it safely under the groundsheet.
‘Good night,’ said Jock, in a low voice, and they heard him scrambling over the heather. Timmy went with him, pleased at this unexpected visitor, and the chance of a midnight walk. Jock was glad to have the dog’s company. Timmy went right to the farm with him and then bounded back over the moorland to the camping-place, longing to pounce on the rabbits he
could smell here and there, but wanting to get back to George.
In the morning Anne was amazed to find the food in her ‘larder’ under the gorse bush. Julian had popped it there to surprise her. ‘Look at this!’ she cried, in astonishment. ‘Meat-pies – more tomatoes – eggs, wherever did they come from?’
‘Spook-train brought them in the night,’ said Dick, with a grin.
‘Volcano shot them up into the air,’ said Mr Luffy, who was also there. Anne threw a tea-cloth at him.
‘Tell me how it came here,’ she demanded. ‘I was worried about what to give you all for breakfast – and now there’s more than we can possibly eat. Who put it there? George, do you know?’
But George didn’t. She glanced at the smiling faces of the two boys. ‘I bet Jock was here last night,’ she said to them. ‘Wasn’t he?’ And to herself she said: ‘Yes – and somehow I think they’ve planned something together. You won’t trick me, Dick and Julian. I’ll be on the lookout from now on! Wherever you go, I go too!’
10 Hunt for a spook-train
That day passed pleasantly enough. The children, Timmy, and Mr Luffy all went off to a pool high up on the moorlands. It was called The Green Pool’ because of its cucumber-green colour. Mr Luffy explained that some curious chemicals found there caused the water to look green.
‘I hope we shan’t come out looking green, too,’ said Dick, getting into his bathing trunks. ‘Are you going to bathe, Mr Luffy?’
Mr Luffy was. The children expected him to be a very poor swimmer and to splash about at the edge and do very little-but to their surprise he was magnificent in the water, and could swim faster even than Julian.
They had great fun, and when they were tired they came out to bask in the sun. The highroad ran alongside the green pool, and the children watched a herd of sheep being driven along, then a car or two came by, and finally a big army lorry. A boy sat beside the driver, and to the children’s surprise he waved wildly at them.
‘Who was that?’ said Julian astonished. ‘Surely he doesn’t know us?’
George’s sharp eye had seen who it was. ‘It was Jock! Sitting beside the driver. And, look, here comes his stepfather’s fine new car. Jock’s preferred to go with the lorry-driver instead of his stepfather! I don’t blame him, either!’
The bright new car came by, driven by Mr Andrews. He didn’t glance at the children by the wayside, but drove steadily on after the lorry.
‘Going to market, I suppose,’ said Dick, lying back again. ‘Wonder what they’re taking?’
‘So do I,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘He must sell his farm produce at very high prices to be able to buy that fine car and all the machinery and gear you’ve told me about. Clever fellow, Mr Andrews!’
‘He doesn’t look at all clever,’ said Anne. ‘He looks rather a weak, feeble sort of man, really, Mr Luffy. I can’t even imagine him being clever enough to beat anyone down, or get the better of them.’
‘Very interesting,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘Well, what about another dip before we have our dinner?’
It was a very nice day, and Mr Luffy was very good company. He could make fine jokes very solemnly indeed, and only the fact that his ear waggled violently showed the others that he too, was enjoying the joke. His right ear seemed to love to join in the joke, even if Mr Luffy’s face was as solemn as Timmy’s.