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

‘Else Timmy would have sniffed them out. You’re an ass, Anne – you dreamt it all!’

‘I did not!’ said Anne, indignant again. ‘I know there was someone there – in fact, more than one person, because I’m sure I heard whispering!’

George raised her voice. ‘Timmy!’ she called loudly, making Anne jump violently. ‘Timmy! Come along. We’ve sent you on a silly wild goose chase – but now we’ll go back to bed!’

Timmy came trotting out of the cottage and went obediently to George. She heard him yawn as he stood beside her, and she laughed.

‘Anne had a bad dream, that’s all, Timmy,’ she said.

Anne felt cross – very cross. She said no more and they left the old cottage and went back to their heather-bed. Anne climbed on to her side and turned over with her back to George. All right – let George think it was a dream if she liked!

But when Anne awoke in the morning and remembered the happenings of the night before, she too began to wonder uneasily if she had dreamed what she had seen and heard in the old cottage.

‘After all – Timmy would certainly have caught anyone who was there,’ she thought. ‘And he wasn’t at all excited, so there can’t have been anyone in the cottage. And anyway, why would they come? It’s just silly!’

So, when George talked about Anne’s dreaming in the middle of the night, Anne did not defend herself. She really could not be sure that it had really happened. So she held her tongue when George teased her, and said nothing.

‘Let’s go and see that boy and his camp,’ George said when they had eaten a few rather stale sandwiches and some shortbread biscuits. ‘I’m beginning to feel bored, aren’t you? I wish Timmy’s ear would quite heal up. I’d go back home like a shot then.’

They set off in the direction of the camp with Timmy. They heard a chip-chipping noise as they came near, and then something small and hairy shot out from a bush and rushed up, barking a welcome.

‘Hallo, Jet!’ said Anne. ‘Don’t you let Timmy have any more of your bones!’

The chipping noise had stopped. The two girls went on and came to a very messy piece of common. It had been well dug over, in some places very deeply. Surely that boy couldn’t have done so much excavating by himself?

‘Hey! Where are you?’ called George. Then she saw the boy below her, examining something in a trench he had dug out. He jumped and looked upwards.

Then he scowled. ‘Look – you promised not to come and disturb me!’ he shouted. ‘You’re mean. Just like girls to break a promise.’

‘Well! I like that!’ said George, amazed. ‘It was you who broke yours! Who came messing round our camp yesterday evening I’d like to know?’

‘Not me!’ said the boy at once. ‘I always keep my promises. Now go away and keep yours. Girls! Pooh!’

‘Well, I can’t say we think much of you,’ said George, disgusted. ‘We’re going. We don’t want to see anything of your silly digging. Good-bye!’

‘Good-bye and good riddance!’ called the boy rudely, and turned back to his work.

‘I think he must be quite mad,’ said Anne. ‘First he makes a promise – then last evening he broke his promise and even said he hadn’t made one – and now today he says he did make a promise and that he’d kept his and we’d broken ours. Idiotic!’

They went up a little rabbit path, and into a small copse of birch trees. Someone was sitting there reading. He looked up as they came.

The two girls stopped in amazement. It was that boy again! But how had he got here? They had just left him behind in a trench! Anne looked at the title of the book he was reading. Goodness – what a learned title – something about Archaeology.

‘Another little trick of yours, I suppose?’ said George, sarcastically, stopping in front of him. ‘You must be a jolly good runner, I must say, to have got here so quickly. Funny boy, aren’t you – very very funny!’

‘Good gracious – it’s those potty girls again,’ groaned the boy. ‘Can’t you leave me alone? You talked a lot of rubbish yesterday – and now you’re talking it again.’

‘How did you get here so quickly,’ said Anne, puzzled.

‘I didn’t get here quickly. I came very slowly, reading my book as I went,’ said the boy.

‘Fibber!’ said George. ‘You must have run at top speed. Why do you pretend like this? It’s only a minute or so ago that we saw you.’

‘Now you’re the fibber!’ said the boy. ‘I do think you two girls are awful. Go away and leave me alone and never let me see you again!’

Timmy didn’t like the tone of the boy’s voice and he growled. The boy scowled at him. ‘And just you shut up too,’ he said.

Anne pulled at George’s sleeve. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘it’s no good staying here arguing. The boy’s crazy – just mad – we’ll never get any sense out of him!’

The two girls walked off together, Timmy following.

The boy took absolutely no notice. His face was turned to his book and he was quite absorbed in it.

‘I’ve never met anyone quite so mad before!’ said Anne, rather puzzled. ‘By the way, George – you don’t suppose it could have been that idiotic boy last night in the cottage?’

‘No. I tell you I think you dreamed it,’ said George, firmly. ‘Though that boy is quite idiot enough to explore an old cottage in the middle of the night. He would probably think it a very good time to do so. Oh Anne, look – there’s a pool – in that hollow down there. Do you think we could bathe in it?’

It certainly shone very temptingly. They went down to have a closer look. ‘Yes – we’ll have a swim this afternoon,’ said George. ‘And then I really think, Anne, we ought to go back to Kirrin Cottage and get a few more provisions. The sandwiches we’ve got left are so dry that we really shan’t enjoy eating them – and as Timmy’s ear isn’t healed, it looks as if we’ll have to stay a bit longer.’

‘Right!’ said Anne, and they went on back to the camp. They changed into their swim-suits in the afternoon and went off to the little pool. It was fairly deep, very warm and quite clean. They spent a lovely hour swimming and basking and swimming again – then they reluctantly dressed and began to think of going off on the long journey to Kirrin Cottage.

George’s mother was very surprised to see the two girls and Timmy. She said yes, of course, they could have some more food, and sent them to ask Joan for all she could spare.

‘By the way, I’ve heard from Julian and Dick,’ she said. ‘They’re back from France – and may be here in a day or two! Shall I tell them to join you or will you come back here?’

‘Tell them to come and fetch us as soon as they get here!’ said George, delighted. Her face shone. Ah – the Five would be together again. How wonderful!

‘Leave me directions to give them so that they can find you,’ said her mother. ‘Then you can all come back – together. The boys can help to carry everything.’

What fun, what fun! Julian and Dick again, now things would be exciting, things would happen, as they always did. What FUN!

Chapter Six

STORM IN THE NIGHT

It was fun to go back to their little camping-place again. It was growing dark, as they had stayed to have a good meal at Kirrin Cottage, and Timmy had eaten a most enormous plate of meat, vegetables and gravy. Then he had sat down and sighed as if to say ‘That was jolly good! I could do with some more!’

However, nobody took any notice of this, so he trotted off to have a good look round the garden to make sure it was just the same as when he had left it a day or two before. Then it was time to start back to the camping-place, and Timmy heard George’s whistle.

‘Well, nobody laughed at Timmy this evening!’ said Anne. ‘Not even your father!’

‘Oh, I expect Mother had told him not to,’ said George. ‘Anyway, I said I would stay away till Tim’s ear is better, and I mean to.’

‘Well, I’m quite willing,’ said Anne. ‘The only thing I’m a bit worried about is – do you suppose there will be anyone snooping about in that old cottage again!’

‘You dreamed it all!’ said George. ‘You admitted you did!’

‘Well, yes, I did wonder if I had dreamed it,’ said Anne, as they walked up the long Carters Lane to the moor. ‘But now that it will soon be dark, I’m beginning to think I didn’t dream it – and it isn’t a very nice feeling.’