Blyton, Enid – Famous Five 14 – Five Have Plenty of Fun

Jo was listening to all this, puzzled and worried. She nudged Dick. ‘Spiky’s beckoning to us,’ she said. They went over to the roundabout boy, whose father was now in charge of the noisy machine.

Spiky took them into his caravan, a small and rather dirty one, in which he lived with his father.

‘I saw Gringo’s old Ma chasing you!’ he said with his lopsided grin. ‘What was your dog dragging out of the van?’

They told him. He nodded. ‘I’ve been asking round a bit, cautious-like,’ he said. ‘Just to see if anyone had heard anything from Gringo’s caravan – and the fellow whose caravan is nearest told me he heard shouts and yells two nights ago. He reckoned it was someone in Gringo’s van – but he’s too scared of Gringo to go and interfere, of course.’

‘That would be George yelling,’ said Dick.

‘Well, then Gringo’s vans were moved the next day right away from the other vans,’ said Spiky. ‘And this afternoon, before the Fair opened, Gringo got his car and towed the little van – the second one – out of the field, and set off with it. We all wondered why, but he told somebody it needed repairing.’

‘Whew! And George was inside!’ said Dick. ‘What a cunning way of moving her off to another hiding-place.’

‘When did the van come back?’ asked Julian.

‘Just before you came,’ said Spiky. ‘I don’t know where it went. It was gone an hour, I should think.’

‘An hour,’ said Dick. ‘Well, suppose it goes at an average of 25 miles an hour – you can’t go very fast if you are towing something – that would mean he had gone somewhere about 12 miles or so away, and come back the same distance – making about an hour’s drive, allowing for a stop when they arrived at the place they had to leave her at.’

‘Yes,’ said Julian. ‘But there are lots of places within the radius of 12 miles!’

‘Where’s Gringo’s car?’ said Dick suddenly.

‘Over there, under that big tarpaulin,’ said Spiky. ‘It’s a silver-grey one – American and very striking, He thinks the world of it, Gringo does.’

‘I’m going to have a peep at it,’ said Julian, and strode off. He came to the tarpaulin, which covered the car right to the ground. He lifted it and was just about to look under it when a man ran up, shouting.

‘Here, you! Leave that alone! You’ll be turned out of the Fair if you mess about with things that don’t concern you!’

But Timmy was with Julian, and he turned and growled so fiercely that the man stopped in a hurry. Julian had plenty of time to take a good look under the tarpaulin!

Yes – the car was silver-grey, a big American one – and the wings were bright blue! Julian took a quick look at the two left-hand ones and saw a deep scratch on one of them. Before he dropped the tarpaulin he had time to glance at the tyres. He was sure they had the same pattern as those shown in the wheel-tracks he had sketched! He had checked the sketch with Jim, at Kirrin Garage, who had told him they were an American design.

Yes – this was the car that had hidden in the clearing the night before last – the car that had turned with difficulty and made those deep ruts – the car that had taken George away, and this afternoon had towed away the caravan with her inside, to hide her somewhere else.

He dropped the tarpaulin and walked back to the others, excited, taking no notice of the rude things that the near-by man called out to him.

‘It’s the car, all right,’ said Julian. ‘Now – WHERE did it go this afternoon? If only we could find out!’

‘It’s such a very striking car that anyone would notice it – especially as it was towing a rather nice little caravan,’ said Dick.

‘Yes – but we can’t go round the countryside asking everyone we meet if they’ve noticed a silver-grey car with blue wings,’ said Julian.

‘Let’s go back home and get a map and see the lie of the country round about,’ said Dick. ‘Spiky, which way did the car turn when it went out of the field-gate?’

‘Towards the east,’ said Spiky. ‘On the road to Big Twillingham.’

‘Well, that’s something to know,’ said Dick. ‘Come on, let’s get our bikes. Thanks most awfully, Spiky. You’ve been a terrific help. We’ll let you know what happens.’

‘Call on me if ever you want more help,’ said Spiky, proudly, and gave them a smart little salute, bobbing his head so that his spikes of hair shook comically.

The three of them rode off, with Timmy running beside them again. As soon as they got home they told Anne and Joan all they had found out. Joan was for ringing up the police at once again, but Julian stopped her.

‘I think perhaps we can do this next bit of work better than they can,’ he said. ‘We’re going to try and find out where the car went, Joan. Now – where are the maps of the district?’

They found them and began to pore over them. Jo was quite lost when it came to map-reading. She could find her way anywhere, day or night – but not with a map!

‘Now – here’s the road to Big Twillingham and Little Twillingham,’ he said. ‘Let’s list carefully all the roads the car could take from there. My word – it’s a job!’

Chapter Nineteen

AN EXCITING PLAN

After fifteen minutes they had six towns on their list, all of which could have been reached in about half-an-hour from Big Twillingham, which was two miles away from the Fair.

‘And now what do you propose to do, Ju?’ asked Dick. ‘Bike over to all the towns and ask if anyone has seen the car?’

‘No. We can’t possibly do that,’ said Julian. ‘I’m going down to the garage to see our friend Jim, and get his help! I’m going to ask him to ring up any friends he has in the garages in those towns, and ask if they’ve seen the car passing through.’

‘Won’t he think it’s a bit funny?’ asked Anne.

‘Yes. But he won’t mind how funny it is if we pay the telephone-calls and give him fifty pence for his trouble!’ said Julian, folding up the map. ‘And what’s more he won’t ask any questions either. He’ll probably think it’s some silly bet we’ve got on with one another.’

Jim was quite willing to ring up the garages for them. He knew boys working in main garages in four of the towns, and he knew the hall-porter of a hotel in the fifth town. But he knew no one in the sixth.

‘That don’t matter!’ he said. ‘We’ll ring up the garage in the High Street there, and just ask whoever comes to the phone.’

Jim rang up the garage in Hillingford, and had a rather cheeky conversation with his friend there. He put the receiver down. ‘No go,’ he said. ‘He says no car like that came through Hillingford, or he’d have noticed it that time of day. I’ll ring up Jake at Green’s Garage in Lowington now.’

‘That’s no go, either,’ he said, after a minute’s telephone conversation. ‘I’ll try my hall-porter now. He’s a cousin of mine.’

The hall-porter had some news. ‘Yes!’ Jim kept saying. ‘Yes, that’s the one! Yes, yes! You heard him say that, did you? Thanks most awfully.’

‘What is it?’ asked Dick, eagerly, when Jim at last put down the receiver.

‘Pat – that’s the hall porter – says he was off duty this afternoon, and went to buy some cigarettes at a little shop in the main street of Graysfield, where his hotel is – and as he stood talking to the fellow in the shop an enormous car drew up at the kerb – silver-grey, with blue wings – an American car, left-hand drive and all.’

‘Yes – what next?’ said Julian, eagerly.

‘Well, the driver got out to get some cigarettes at the shop. He had dark glasses on, and a big gold ring on his finger – Pat noticed that…’

‘That must be the man who asked about us at the tea-shop in Kirrin!’ said Julian, remembering. ‘Go on, Jim – this is wonderful!’

‘Well, Pat’s interested in big cars, so he went out and had a good look at it,’ said Jim. ‘He said the car had its blinds drawn down at the back, so he couldn’t see inside. The fellow with the dark glasses came out and got into the driver’s seat again. He called out to whoever was behind and said “Which way now?” ’

‘Yes, yes – did he hear the answer?’ said Julian.

‘Somebody called back and said, “Not far now. Into Twining, turn to the left, and it’s the house on the hill.” ’