Blyton, Enid – Famous Five 15 – Five On a Secret Trail

‘No one here. The kids have gone. We can get on with the job!’

The boys let out a long breath. Good – they were safe – for the time being at any rate! The visitors down below were no longer cautious – they spoke in ordinary voices and torches flashed all over the place. Then someone lighted two lanterns, and the little cottage shone quite brightly.

‘Where do we start?’ said a voice. ‘Here, Jess – where’s that plan?’

‘I’ve got it. I’ll spread it on the floor,’ said a voice that the boys recognized at once. It was the voice of the ‘country-woman’ who had spoken to them that day! ‘Not that it’s much use. Paul’s no good at drawing!’

Evidently the searchers were now leaning over the plan. Voices came up the stone stairway.

‘All we know for certain is that we have to find that white stone slab – and we know the size. But we don’t know the place, except that we think it must be here. After all – we’ve searched the old Roman camp, and there are no slabs there that size!’

Julian nudged Dick. So some of the visitors that Guy had complained of must have been these searchers! Whatever was it they were looking for, hidden behind a slab of stone?

He knew a minute later! A drawling voice said: ‘If we have to get up every great slab in this neighbourhood, we will. I’m going to find that secret way if it’s the last thing I do! If we don’t find that, we don’t find those blue-prints – and if we don’t find them, we might as well go into the poor-house for the rest of our lives.’

‘Or prison!’ said someone.

‘Not prison,’ said the drawling voice. ‘It’ll be Paul who goes to prison. He managed to steal them, we didn’t!’

‘Can’t you get Paul to draw a better plan than this?’ said the voice of the ‘country-woman’. ‘I can’t understand half that’s written here.’

‘He’s ill – almost off his head, too,’ said someone. ‘No good asking him. He had such a time escaping with those prints, he nearly died. No good asking him, I say.’

‘I can’t make out this word here,’ said the woman. ‘ “W-A-D-E-R” – whatever does it mean?’

‘I don’t know – wait, though, I do! It might be W-A-T-E-R – water. T not D in the middle. Where’s the well? Anywhere in this kitchen? That’s it, that’s it. Water! I bet there’s a slab over the well. That’s the way to the secret hiding-place!’

Julian clutched Dick. He was as excited as the man down below. They listened eagerly, straining their ears.

‘Here’s the old sink – and this must be the remains of the pump. The well’s underneath this slab – and see, the stone is just about the right size. Get busy! Buck up, get busy!’

Chapter Fourteen

AN EXCITING NIGHT – AND A SURPRISING MORNING

Soon there came the sound of loud breathing and grunts, as the searchers tried to prise up the stone by the pump. It was obviously very heavy, and very difficult to move, for it had become almost part of the floor itself, through the centuries!

‘Drat the thing! It’s tearing my hands to pieces!’ said a voice. ‘Lend me that jemmy, Tom – you don’t seem to be doing much good with it!’

After a lot more struggling and panting the stone was loosened. ‘Up she comes!’ said a voice, and up came the stone so suddenly that it sounded as if most of those pulling at it had sat down very hard on the floor!

The two hidden boys were beside themselves with interest and excitement. How they wished they could go and watch! But it was impossible. They must just listen and try to make out what was happening from what the men said below them.

‘Is it a well down there? Yes, it is! My, the water’s pretty far down – and black as pitch too.’

There was a silence as the well was examined in the light of torches. Then an exasperated voice, the one with the drawl, said: ‘This is no secret way! Who’s going to get through that water! It’s just an ordinary small well, and nothing else. That word can’t have meant Water.’

‘All right, boss. What does it mean then?’ said the woman. ‘I don’t know. This isn’t a plan, it’s a riddle! Why couldn’t Paul have made it clear where this stone slab is – he just goes and does a lot of scribble round it – and all we can make out is that it’s on this common, somewhere near here – and the secret way is behind the slab!’

‘And all we have to do is to go and look behind dozens of heavy slabs!’ said someone else. ‘I’m fed up. We’ve lifted slabs in that wretched camp – we’ve lifted some here – and we still don’t know if we’re anywhere near the right one.’

‘Shut up,’ said the voice of the drawler but now the voice was sharp and angry. ‘If we have to pull this cottage down, if we have to lift every slab there is, if we have to take over that camp, I’ll do it! I tell you, this makes all the difference between wealth and poverty! Anyone who wants to back out can do so – but he’d better be careful!’

‘Now boss, now boss, don’t you fly off the handle!’ said the woman. ‘We’re all in this! We’ll do all you say. Look, let’s start by lifting a few more slabs. There are not so very many that are the size that Paul figured on this plan.’

Then began a boring time for the two hidden boys, as slab after slab was lifted and put back. Nothing was found under any of them, apparently.

The men went to the out-buildings too, leaving the woman in the cottage. The boys thought she had gone as well, and Julian moved a little, feeling rather cramped after being still for so long. The woman’s ears must have been sharp for she called out at once.

‘Who’s there? Is it you, Tom?’

The boys stiffened and stood like statues. The woman said no more. It was not long before the men came back, talking among themselves. It sounded as if there were three of them.

‘No go,’ said the drawler. ‘I think we’ll have to search that camp really well again.’

‘That’s going to be difficult with someone already there,’ said the woman.

‘We’ll deal with him,’ said a voice, grimly. Julian frowned. Did that mean that Guy was in danger? He had better warn him!

‘I’m fed up with this place,’ said the woman. ‘Let’s go. I don’t think the slab is anywhere here! We’re wasting our time!’

To the boys’ great relief, the four searchers left the cottage and went off together. Julian and Dick leaned over the crumbling wall of the room they stood in, and watched the lights of the torches and lanterns getting dimmer and dimmer over the common. Good! Now they could go back to the girls!

‘I’m stiff!’ said Dick, stretching himself.

‘Well, Ju – we know a lot more now, don’t we? It’s clear that someone called Paul has stolen some valuable blue-prints of something – maybe a new plane, or battleship perhaps – and has hidden them in some secret place he knew of about here – and to get to it you have to lift a slab of stone of a certain size.’

‘Yes. And we know the size because we’ve already seen the one they lifted in the old stables,’ said Julian. ‘I vote we go there and measure it – or measure the one by the sink. I should think that the right slab will be somewhere in the old camp. We’d better tell Guy and let him into the secret. He’ll help us to search!’

‘What a peculiar business this is to find ourselves mixed up in,’ said Dick. ‘All because George didn’t like people laughing at old Timmy with a cardboard collar round his neck! Timmy’s the cause of this!’

The boys went down the stone stairs, and, of course, Dick quite forgot about the rambler, which caught him neatly round the ankle and almost tripped him headlong down the stairs!

‘Blow!’ he said, clutching Julian and nearly making him topple too. ‘Sorry. It was that rambler again. It’s ripped my ankle all round. Put on the torch for goodness’ sake.’

They carefully measured the stone slab by the sink and then made their way out of the cottage and up towards the spring, hoping that they would find the great gorse-bush in the dark. They tried to get under the wrong one at first, but at last found the right one. They heard a small welcome bark from Timmy.

‘Oh! Julian! Dick! Is it you?’ said Anne’s voice, as the boys squeezed through into the hollow middle. ‘Oh, what AGES you’ve been! We haven’t slept a wink. Keep still, Timmy, do – this place is too small for you to rampage about in!’