Five Go to Mystery Moor (9 page)

„No. That"s true," said Julian, sitting down on his straw. „Let"s think hard."

„It"s easy!" said Dick. „We"ll simply take our tents, some food, and go and camp out on the moor by some spring. WHAT could be nicer?"

„Oh yes!" said Anne, her eyes shining. „Oh Dick, that"s a marvellous idea! Mrs Johnson wil get rid of us all and Timmy too, then, and we would have a lovely time all by ourselves!"

„Kil ing quite a lot of birds with one stone!" said Julian. „We"ve got a couple of tents in our kit, Anne. Very small ones, but they"l do. And we can borrow rubber sheets to put on the heather, though it"s as dry as a bone, as far as I can see!"

„I"l go and tel George!" said Anne, joyfully. „Let"s go today, Julian, and be out of the way before the new children come. Captain Johnson"s got two new horses coming too. He"l be very glad to have a few of us out of the way!"

She flew off to tell George. George was busy polishing some harness, a job she liked very much. She listened to Anne"s excited tale. Henry was there too, looking gloomy. She looked gloomier stil at the end.

„It"s too bad," she said, when Anne had finished. „I could have come with you if it hadn"t been for these great-aunts of mine. WHY did they have to come just at this very moment!

Don"t you think it"s maddening?"

Neither Anne nor George thought it was maddening. They were secretly very pleased indeed to think that they could once more go off entirely on their own, with Timmy, as they had so often done before. But they would have had to ask Henry if her aunts hadn"t written at this very lucky moment!

George didn"t like to show how delighted she was to think of going off camping on the moor. She and Anne did a little comforting of poor Henry and then went off to make arrangements with Mrs Johnson.

„Well, that"s a very bright idea of Dick"s!" she said in delight. „It solves a whole lot of problems. And I know you don"t mind. You"re thril ed at the chance, aren"t you! It"s real y very helpful. I only wish poor Henry could go too, but she must go out with her old great-aunts. They adore her!"

„Of course she must," said George, solemnly. She and Anne exchanged a look. Poor Henry. But really, it would be very nice to be without her for a little while.

Everyone began to be suddenly very busy. Dick and Julian undid their packs to find out exactly what was in them. Mrs Johnson looked out rubber sheets and old rugs. She was a wonder at producing things like that!

Wil iam wanted to go with them and help to carry the things, but nobody wanted his help.

They just wanted to be off and away by themselves, just the Five and nobody else! Timmy caught the excitement too and his tail thumped and wagged the whole morning.

„You"l be pretty wel loaded," said Mrs Johnson, doubtfully. „It"s a good thing that fine weather is forecast, or you"d have to take macs as well. Stil , I imagine you won"t go very far on the moors, wil you? You can easily get back to the stable if you have forgotten anything, or want more food."

They were ready at last, and went to find Henry to say good-bye. She stared at them mournful y. She had changed into a smart little coat and dress. She looked completely different and very gloomy.

„What part of the moor are you going to?" she asked eagerly. „Up the railway?"

„Yes. We thought we would," said Julian. „Just to see where it goes to. And it"s a nice straight way to follow. We can"t lose our way if we keep near the railway!"

„Have a good time, Henry," said George, with a grin. „Do they call you Henrietta?"

„Yes," said poor Henry, putting on a pair of gloves. „Well, good-bye. For goodness" sake don"t stay away too long. Thank goodness you"re al such a hungry lot. You"l simply have to come back and get more food in a couple of days!"

They grinned and left her, Timmy at their heels. They made their way to the moor, intending to cut out the part of the railway that ran to Mil ing Green, and join it some way before that.

„Now we"re off," said George, contentedly. „Without that chatterbox of a Henry."

„She"s really not too bad," said Dick. „Al the same, it"s fine to be on our own, just the Famous Five together!"

It was a very hot day. The five had had their lunch before they started, as Mrs Johnson said it would be easier to carry that inside than outside!

Even Timmy carried something. George said that he ought to do his share, and had neatly fastened a bag of his pet biscuits on his back.

„There now!" she said. „You"ve got your load too. No, don"t try and sniff the biscuits al the time, Timmy. You can"t walk with your head screwing round like that. You ought to be used to the smel of biscuits by this time!"

They set off to the railway line, or where they hoped it would be. It took a little time to discover it running under the heather. Julian was glad. He didn"t want to walk right into Mil ing Green to find the beginning of it and then walk al the way up again!

Anne found it by tripping over it! „Oh!" she said, „here it is! I caught my foot in a bit of rusty line. Look you can hardly see it!"

„Good," said Julian, and stepped in between the narrow pair of old, rusty lines. In some places they had rusted away, and there were gaps. In other places the heather had grown completely over the lines, and unless the children had known that they must keep straight forward, they would have lost them completely. As it was they sometimes missed them and once had to do quite a bit of scrabbling about in the heather to see if they could feel them.

It was very hot. Their packs began to feel distinctly heavy. Timmy"s biscuits began to slide round his body and eventual y hung below his tummy. He didn"t like that, and George suddenly spied him sitting down trying to prise open the bag with his teeth!

She put down her own pack and adjusted Timmy"s. „If only you didn"t keep chasing rabbits, and making your pack swing about, it wouldn"t slip," she said. „There now, it"s all right again, Tim. Walk to heel and it won"t slip any more."

They went on and on up the railway lines. Sometimes the rails took a curve round an unexpected rock. Soon the soil began to look sandy, and the heather did not grow so thickly. It was easier to see the lines, though in some places the sand had sifted over them and hidden them.

„I real y must have a rest!" said Anne, sitting down in some heather. „I feel I want to pant and hang my tongue out like Timmy!"

„I wonder how far these lines go," said Dick. „It"s so very sandy now underfoot that I feel we must be getting near the quarry!"

They lay back in the heather and felt very sleepy. Julian yawned and sat up.

„This really won"t do!" he said. „If we fal asleep we"ll never want to start off with our heavy packs again. Stir yourselves, lazy-bones!"

They all got up again. Timmy"s biscuits had slithered round to his tummy once more, and George had to put them right again. Timmy stood quietly, panting, his tongue hanging out. He thought the biscuits were a great nuisance. It would be much easier to eat them!

The sand got deeper and soon there were big sandy patches with no heather or grass at all. The wind blew the sand up in the air, and the five found that they had to shut their eyes against it.

„I say! The lines end here!" said Julian, stopping suddenly. „Look, they"re broken, wrenched out of place, the engine couldn"t go any farther."

„They may appear again a bit farther on," said Dick, and went to look. But he couldn"t find any, and came back to look at the lines again.

„It"s funny," he said. „We aren"t at any quarry yet, are we! I quite thought that the line would run right to the quarry, the trucks would fil up there, and the engine would pul them back to Mil ing Green. Where is the quarry? Why do the lines stop so suddenly here?"

„Yes. The quarry should be near here, shouldn"t it?" said Julian. „Well, there simply must be more lines somewhere! Ones that go to the quarry. Let"s look for the quarry first, though.

We ought to see that easily enough!"

But it wasn"t really very easy to find because it was behind a great mass of thick tal gorse-bushes. Dick rounded them and stopped. Behind the enormous spread of bushes was a great pit, a sandy pit, quarried and hol owed for its beautiful sand.

„Here it is!" called Dick. „Come and look! My word, there"s been some quarrying here for sand. They must have taken tons and tons out of it!"

The others came to look. It certainly was an enormous pit, deep and wide. They put their packs beside it and leapt down. Their feet sank into the fine sand.

„The sides are pitted with holes," said Dick. „I bet hundreds of sand-martins nest here in May!"

„There are even some caves," said George, in surprise. „Sand-caves! Well, we can easily shelter here if we have rain. Some of these caves seem to go quite a long way back."

„Yes. But I"d be a bit afraid of the sand fal ing in and burying me, if I crawled in," said Anne. „It"s quite loose, look!" She scraped some down with her hand.

„I"ve found the lines!" called Julian. „Here, look. The sand has almost covered them. I trod on a rail and it was so rotten it broke beneath my foot!"

The others went to see, Timmy too. He was quite delighted with this place. The rabbit-holes in it! What fun he was going to have!

„Let"s fol ow these lines," said Julian. So they kicked away the sand from the rails and followed them slowly out of the quarry and towards the ends of the other broken lines.

About ten yards from these the lines they were following were wrenched apart. Some were flung into nearby heather, and could be seen there, bent and rusty.

The children stared at them. „I guess the gypsies did that, when the Bartles were here years ago," said Dick. „The day they attacked them perhaps. I say look, whatever"s that great lump over there, with gorse growing over it?"

They went to see. Timmy saw the lump and couldn"t make it out. He growled warningly at it.

Julian took up a broken piece of rail and forced back the gorse bush that had grown over and around the great lump, almost hiding it.

„See what it is?" he said, startled.

They all stared. „Why, it"s the engine! The little “injin” old Ben the blacksmith told us about!"

said Dick. „It must have run right off the broken lines and over-turned here, and through the years these great gorse-bushes grew up and hid it. Poor old engine!"

Julian forced the gorse back a little more. „What a funny old-fashioned affair!" he said.

„Look at the funnel, and the fat little boiler. And see, there"s the small cab. It can"t have had much power, only just enough to puff along with a few trucks!"

„What happened to the trucks?" wondered Anne.

„Well, they would be easy enough to set upright again and put on the rails, and hand-pushed to Mil ing Green," said Dick. „But this engine couldn"t be lifted, except by some kind of machinery. Not even a dozen men could lift it and set it on the rails!"

„The gypsies must have set on the Bartles in the mist, having first broken up the lines so that the engine would run off and overturn," said Julian. „They may even have used the broken rails to attack them with. Anyway, they won the battle, because not one of the Bartles ever returned."

„Some of the vil agers must have gone to see what became of them and have got the trucks back on the lines and pushed them to Mil ing Green," said George, trying to reconstruct the long-ago happenings in her mind. „But they couldn"t do anything about the engine."

„That"s about it," said Julian. „My word, what a shock for the Bartles when they saw the gypsies creeping out at them from the mist, like shadows!"

„I hope we don"t dream about this tonight," said Anne.

They went back to the quarry. „This wouldn"t be a bad place to camp in," said Dick. „The sand is so dry and so soft. We could make lovely beds for ourselves. We wouldn"t need the tents up, either, because the sides of the quarry shelter us beautiful y from the wind."

„Yes. Let"s camp here," said Anne, pleased. „There are quite a lot of nice holes to store our things in."

„What about water?" asked George. „We want to be fairly near it, don"t we? Timmy, find some water! Drink, Timmy, drink! Aren"t you thirsty! Your tongue looks as if it is, the way you are hanging it out like a flag!"

Timmy put his head on one side as George talked to him. Water? Drink? He knew what both those words meant! He ran off, sniffing the air. George watched him.

He disappeared round a bush and was away for about half a minute. When he came back George gave a pleased shout.

„He"s found some water! Look - his mouth is al wet! Timmy, where is it?"

Timmy wagged his tail vigorously, glad that George was pleased with him. He ran round the bush again and the others fol owed.

He led them to a little green patch and stopped. A spring bubbled up like a smal fountain, dancing a little in the sunshine. The water fel from it into a little channel it had made for itself in the sand, ran away for a short distance, and then disappeared underground again.

„Thank you, Tim," said George. „Julian, is the water al right to drink here?"

„Well I can see some that is!" said Julian, pointing to the right. „The Bartles must have put a pipe in that bank, look, and caught another spring there, a much bigger one. It"s as clear as can be. That wil do fme for us!"

„Good," said Anne, pleased. „It"s hardly any way from the quarry. It"s as cold as ice, too -

feel!"

They felt, and then they drank from their palms. How cold and pure! The moor must be ful of these little bubbling springs, welling up from underground. That explained the bril iant green patches here and there.

„Now let"s sit down and have some tea," said Anne, unpacking the bag she had carried.

„It"s too hot to feel real y hungry."

„Oh no, it isn"t," said Dick. „Speak for yourself, Anne!"

They sat in the sunny quarry, the sand warm to their legs. „Far away from everybody!" said Anne, pleased. „Nobody near us for miles!"

But she wasn"t quite right. There was somebody much nearer than she thought!