‘We certainly are,’ said Julian. ‘It’s a lovely place and nobody will disturb us here!’
But he spoke too soon!
CHAPTER NINE
AN UNPLEASANT MEETING
It really was fun settling into that cosy hollow. The two caravans were backed in side by side. The horses were taken out and led to a big field where the farmer’s horses were kept when they had done their day’s work. Trotter and Dobby seemed very pleased with the green, sloping field. It had a spring of its own that ran into a stone trough and out of it, keeping it always filled with fresh cold water. Both horses went to take a long drink.
‘Well, that settles the two horses all right,’ said Julian. ‘We’ll tell the farmer he can borrow them if he wants to he’ll be harvesting soon and may like to have Dobby and Trotter for a few days. They will enjoy hobnobbing with other horses again.’
At the front of the hollow was a rocky ledge, hung with heathery tufts. This is the front seat for Lake View!’ said Anne. ‘Oh, it’s warm from the sun! How lovely!’
‘I vote we have all our meals on this ledge,’ said George, sitting down too. ‘It’s comfortable and roomy and flat enough to take our cups and plates without spilling anything and honestly the view from here is too gorgeous for words. Can anyone see anything of the circus from up here?’
‘There’s a spire or two of smoke over yonder,’ said Dick, pointing. ‘I should think that’s where the camp is. And look there’s a boat pushing out on the lake doesn’t it look tiny?’
‘Perhaps Nobby is in it,’ said Anne. ‘Haven’t we brought any field-glasses, Julian? I thought we had.’
‘Yes we have,’ said Julian, remembering. ‘I’ll get them.’ He went to the green caravan, rummaged about in the drawers, and came out with his field-glasses swinging on the end of their straps.
‘Here we are!’ he said, and set them to his eyes. ‘Yes I can see the boat clearly now and it is Nobby in it but who’s with him? Golly, it’s Pongo!’
Everyone had to look through the glasses to see Nobby and Pongo in the boat. ‘You know, we could always get Nobby to signal to us somehow from his boat when he wanted to tell us that Lou and his uncle were away,’ said Dick. Then we should know it was safe, and we could pop down to the camp and see round it.’
‘Yes. Good idea,’ said George. ‘Give me the glasses, Dick. Timmy wants to have a turn at seeing, too.’
‘He can’t see through glasses like these, idiot,’ said Dick, handing them to George. But Timmy most solemnly glued his eyes to the glasses, and appeared to be looking through them very earnestly indeed.
‘Woof,’ he remarked, when he took his eyes away at last.
‘He says he’s seen Nobby and Pongo, too,’ said George, and the others laughed. Anne half-believed that he had. Timmy was such an extraordinary dog, she thought, as she patted his smooth head.
It was a terribly hot day. Too hot to do anything even to walk down to the lake and bathe! The children were glad they were up in the hills, for at least there was a little breeze that fanned them now and again. They did not expect to see Nobby again that day, but they hoped he would come up the next day. If not they would go down and bathe in the lake and hope to see him somewhere about there.
Soon the rocky ledge got too hot to sit on. The children retreated to the clump of birch trees, which at least cast some shade. They took books with them, and Timmy came along, too, panting as if he had run for miles. He kept going off to the little spring to drink. Anne filled a big bowl with the cold water, and stood it in a breezy place near by, with a cup to dip into it. They were thirsty all day long, and it was pleasant to dip a cup into the bowl of spring-water and drink.
The lake was unbelievably blue that day, and lay as still as a mirror. Nobby’s boat was no longer in the water. He and Pongo had gone. There was not a single movement to be seen down by the lake.
‘Shall we go down to the lake this evening, when it’s cooler, and bathe there?’ said Julian, at tea-time. ‘We haven’t had much exercise today, and it would do us good to walk down and have a swim. We won’t take Timmy in case we happen to come across Lou or Dan. He’d certainly fly at them today. We can always keep an eye open for those two and avoid them ourselves but Timmy would go for them as soon as he spotted them. We might be in the water and unable to stop him.’
‘Anyway, he’ll guard the caravans for us,’ said Anne. ‘Well, I’ll just take these cups and plates and rinse them in the stream. Nobody wants any more to eat, do they?’
‘Too hot,’ said Dick, rolling over on to his back. ‘I wish we were by the lake at this moment I’d go straight into the water now!’
At half-past six it was cooler, and the four children set off down the hill. Timmy was angry and hurt at being left behind.
‘You’re to be on guard, Timmy,’ said George firmly. ‘See? Don’t let anyone come near our caravans. On guard, Timmy!’
‘Woof,’ said Timmy dismally, and put his tail down. On guard! Didn’t George know that the caravans wouldn’t walk off by themselves, and that he wanted a good splash in the lake?
Still, he stayed behind, standing on the rocky ledge to see the last of the children, his ears cocked to hear their voices and his tail still down in disgust. Then he went and lay down beneath George’s caravan, and waited patiently for his friends to return.
The children went down the hill with their bathing-things, taking short cuts, and leaping like goats over the steep bits. It had seemed quite a long way up when they had gone so slowly in the caravans with Dobby and Trotter but it wasn’t nearly so far when they could go on their own legs, and take rabbit-paths and short cuts whenever they liked.
There was one steep bit that forced them back on to the track. They went along it to where the track turned a sharp corner round a cliff-like bend and to their surprise and dismay they walked almost straight into Lou and Tiger Dan!
‘Take no notice,’ said Julian, in a low voice. ‘Keep together and walk straight on. Pretend that Timmy is somewhere just behind us.’
‘Tim, Tim!’ called George, at once.
Lou and Dan seemed just as surprised to see the children, as they had been to see the two men. They stopped and looked hard at them, but Julian hurried the others on.
‘Hey, wait a minute!’ called Dan. ‘I thought you had gone off over the hill-top!’
‘Sorry we can’t stop!’ called back Julian. ‘We’re in rather a hurry!’
Lou looked round for Timmy. He wasn’t going to lose his temper and start shouting in case that mad dog came at him again. He spoke to the children loudly, forcing himself to appear good-tempered.
‘Where are your caravans? Are you camping up here anywhere?’
But the children still walked on, and the men had to go after them to make them hear.
‘Hey! What’s the matter? We shan’t hurt you! We only want to know if you’re camping here. It’s better down below, you know.’
‘Keep on walking,’ muttered Julian. ‘Don’t tell them anything. Why do they tell us it’s better to camp down below when they were so anxious for us to clear out yesterday? They’re mad!’
‘Timmy, Timmy!’ called George, again, hoping that the men would stop following them if they heard her calling for her dog.
It did stop them. They gave up going after the children, and didn’t shout any more. They turned angrily and went on up the track.
‘Well, we’ve thrown them off all right,’ said Dick, with relief. ‘Don’t look so scared, Anne. I wonder what they want up in the hills. They don’t look the sort that would go walking for pleasure.’
‘Dick we’re not going to have another adventure, are we?’ said Anne suddenly, looking very woebegone. ‘I don’t want one. I just want a nice ordinary, peaceful holiday.’
”Course we’re not going to have an adventure!’ said Dick, scornfully. ‘Just because we meet two bad-tempered fellows from a circus camp you think we’re in for an adventure, Anne! Well, I jolly well wish we were! Every hols we’ve been together so far we’ve had adventures and you must admit that you love talking about them and remembering them.’