‘No,’ she said, Tm not a coward. Really I’m not. I want to help to rescue the boys. I wish George was here. Where’s George?’
Mr Luffy had no idea. Anne clung to his hand, scared but eager to prove that she was not a coward. Mr Luffy thought she was grand!
Meanwhile, Julian and the others had been in the vent for a good while, tired and uncomfortable. The men had searched in vain for them and were now looking closely into every niche at the sides of the tunnel.
And, of course, they found the vent! One of the men shone his light up it. It shone on to poor Julian’s feet! The man gave a loud shout that almost made Julian fall off the rung he was standing on.
‘Here they are! Up this vent. Who’d have thought it? Come on down or it’ll be the worse for you!’
Julian didn’t move. George pushed desperately at the iron bars above her head, but she could not move them. One of the men climbed up the vent and caught hold of Julian’s foot.
He dragged so hard at it that the boy’s foot was forced off the rung. Then the man dragged off the other foot, and Julian found himself hanging by his arms with the man tugging hard at his feet. He could hang on no longer. His tired arms gave way and he fell heavily down, landing half on the man and half on the pile of soot. Another man pounced on Julian at once, while the first climbed up the vent to find the next boy.
Soon Dick felt his feet being tugged at, too.
‘All right, all right. I’ll come down!’ he yelled, and climbed down. Then Jock climbed down, too. The men looked at them angrily.
‘Giving us a chase like this! Who undid your ropes?’ said Mr Andrews, roughly. One of the men put a hand on his arm and nodded up towards the vent. ‘Someone else is coming down,’ he said. ‘We only tied up three boys, didn’t we? Who’s this, then?’
It was George, of course. She wasn’t going to desert the three boys. Down she came, as black as night with soot.
‘Another boy!’ said the men. ‘Where did he come from?’
‘Any more up there?’ asked Mr Andrews.
‘Look and see,’ said Julian, and got a box on the ears for his answer.
‘Treat them rough now,’ ordered Peters. ‘Teach them a lesson, the little pests. Take them away.’
The children’s hearts sank. The men caught hold of them roughly. Blow! Now they would be made prisoners again.
Suddenly a cry came from down the tunnel: ‘Police! Run for it!’
The men dropped the children’s arms at once and stood undecided. A man came tearing up the tunnel. ‘I tell you the police are coming!’ he gasped. ‘Are you stone deaf? There’s a whole crowd of them. Run for it! Somebody’s split on us.’
‘Get along to Kilty’s Yard!’ shouted Peters. ‘We can get cars there. Run for it!’
To the children’s dismay, the men tore down the tunnel to Kilty’s Yard. They would escape! They heard the sound of the men’s feet as they ran along the line.
George found her voice. ‘Timmy! Where are you? After them, Timmy! Stop them!’
A black shadow came streaking by out of the hole in the wall, where Timmy had been hiding and watching for a chance to come to George. He had heard her voice and obeyed. He raced after the men like a greyhound, his tongue hanging out, panting as he went.
These were the men who had ill-treated George and the others, were they? Aha, Timmy knew how to deal with people like that!
The policemen came running up, and Mr Luffy and Anne came up behind them.
‘They’ve gone down there, with Timmy after them,’ shouted George. The men looked at her and gasped. She was black all over. The others were filthy dirty too, with sooty-black faces in the light of the lamp that still shone down from the wall of the tunnel.
‘George!’ shrieked Anne in delight. ‘Julian! Oh, are you all safe? I went bach to tell Mr Luffy about you and I got lost. I’m so ashamed!’
‘You’ve nothing to be ashamed of, Anne,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘You’re a grand girl! Brave as a lion!’
From down the tunnel came shouts and yells and loud barks. Timmy was at work! He had caught up with the men and launched himself on them one after anu’.her, bringing each one heavily to the ground. They were terrified to find a big animal growling and snapping all around them. Timmy held them at bay in the tunnel, riot allowing them to go one step further, snapping at any man who dared to go near.
The police ran up. Timmy growled extra fiercely just to let the men know that it was quite impossible to get by him. In a trice each of the men was imprisoned by a pair of strong arms and they were being told to come quietly.
They didn’t go quietly. For one thing Mr Andrews lost his nerve and howled dismally. Jock felt very ashamed of him.
‘Shut up,’ said a burly policeman. ‘We know you’re only the miserable little cat’s-paw – taking money from the big men to hold your tongue and obey orders.’
Timmy barked as if to say, ‘Yes, don’t you dare call him a dog’s paw! That would be too good a name for him!’
‘Well, I don’t think I ever in my life saw dirtier children,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘I vote we all go back to my car and I drive the lot of you over to Olly’s Farm for a meal and a bath!’
So back they all went, tired, dirty, and also feeling very thrilled.
What a night! They told Anne all that had happened, and she told them her story, too. She almost fell asleep in the car as she talked, she was so tired.
Mrs Andrews was sensible and kind, though upset to hear that her husband had been taken off by the police. She got hot water for baths, and laid a meal for the hungry children.
‘I wouldn’t worry overmuch, Mrs Andrews,’ said kindly Mr Luffy. ‘That husband of yours needs a lesson, you know. This will probably keep him going straight in future. The farm is yours, and you can now hire proper farm-workers who will do what you want them to do. And I think Jock will be happier without a stepfather for the present.’
‘You’re right, Mr Luffy,’ said Mrs Andrews, wiping her eyes quickly. ‘Quite right. I’ll let Jock help me with the farm, and get it going beautifully. To think that Mr Andrews was in with all those black marketeers! It’s that friend of his, you know, who makes
him do all this. He’s so weak. He knew Jock was snooping about in that tunnel, and that’s why he wanted him to go away – and kept making him have a boy here or go out with him. I knew there was something funny going on.’
‘No wonder he was worried when Jock took it into his head to go and camp with our little lot,’ said Mr Luffy.
‘To think of that old yard and tunnel being used again!’ said Mrs Andrews. ‘And all those tales about spook-trains – and tha way they hid that train, and hid all the stuff, too. Why, it’s like a fairy tale isn’t it!’
She ran to see if the water was hot for the baths. It was, and she went to call the children, who were in the big bedroom next door. She opened it and looked in. Then she called Mr Luffy upstairs.
He looked in at the door, too. The five, and Timmy, were lying on the floor in a heap, waiting for the bathwater. They hadn’t liked to sit on chairs or beds, they were so dirty. And they had fallen asleep where they sat, their faces as black as a sweep’s.
‘Talk about black marketeers!’ whispered Mrs Andrews. ‘Anyone would think we’d got the whole lot of them here in the bedroom!’
They all woke up and went to have a bath one by one, and a good meal after that. Then back to camp with Mr Luffy, Jock with them, too.
It was glorious to snuggle down into the sleeping-bags. George called out to the three boys.
‘Now don’t you dare to go off without me tonight, see?’
‘The adventure is over,’ called back Dick. ‘How did you like it, Jock?’
‘Like it?’ said Jock, with a happy sigh. ‘It was simply – smashing!’
A complete list of the FAMOUS FIVE ADVENTURES by Enid Blyton
01 FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND
02 FIVE GO ON ADVENTURING AGAIN
03 FIVE RUN AWAY TOGETHER
04 FIVE GO TO SMUGGLER’S TOP
05 FIVE GO OFF IN A CARAVAN