Five on a Secret Trail (6 page)

I"m going a bit deaf!"

„Shut up, Tim," ordered George. „Let other people bark a bit. Do you notice his col ar, Julian?"

„Can"t help seeing it!" said Julian. „He looks a scream in it, doesn"t he? Ha ha! You"re an Elizabethan dog with a ruff, Timmy - that"s what Uncle Quentin told us - and that"s what you look like, old fel ow!"

„He looks most comical, I must say," said Dick. „Enough to make a cat laugh, hey, Timmy!"

Anne looked at George. Goodness, what would she say to hear Julian and Dick laughing at Timmy and making fun of him! Would she lose her temper at once?

But George only grinned. In fact she gave a little laugh herself. „Yes - he does look funny, doesn"t he? But he doesn"t mind a bit!"

„You know, we came here to camp because George couldn"t bear people laughing at

..." began Anne, thinking that she wouldn"t let George get away with this! But George gave her such a beseeching look, that she stopped at once. George could never bear to look smal in front of Julian and Dick. She prided herself on being just like a boy - and she was suddenly certain that her two cousins would think she was „just like a girl" if they heard of the fuss she had made about people laughing at Timmy"s collar.

„I say - you two seem to be packing up," said Julian, looking at the package strapped to the back of George"s bicycle. „What"s happened?"

„Well - it got a bit lonely and Anne was..." and then in her turn George caught a beseeching loop from Anne! She knew what it meant „I didn"t tell tales of you - so don"t tell tales of me - don"t say I was scared!"

„Er - Anne was certain that there was something queer going on here," went on George, who had quite meant to say that Anne was scared and insisted on going home. „And we didn"t feel that we could tackle it ourselves - though if you had been here we wouldn"t have dreamed of going home, of course."

„What do you mean - something queer?" asked Dick.

„Well - you see - it began like this," said George, but Julian interrupted.

„If there"s a tale to tel , let"s have it over a meal, shal we? We"ve had nothing to eat since six o"clock this morning, Dick and I - and we"re ravenous!"

„Yes. Good idea," said Dick, and began to undo a big package which he took out of his bag. „I"ve a picnic lunch here from your mother, George - a jol y good one, I can tell you.

I think she was so relieved to think that she was going to get rid of us that she really surpassed herself! We"ve got a marvellous piece of boiled ham - look! It"l last us for ages -

if we don"t give bits to Timmy. Get away, Tim. This is not for you! Grrrrrr!"

George suddenly felt so happy that she could hardly speak. It had been fun camping with Anne - but what a difference the boys made! So confident of themselves, so merry, full of jokes, so idiotic, and yet so dependable. She felt that she wanted to sing at the top of her voice!

The sun had been hot again that morning and had dried the common beautiful y. It wasn"t long before the Five were sitting down in the heather with a very fine feast before them.

„I wouldn"t sel anyone my hunger for a hundred pounds," said Dick. „Now then - who"s going to carve this magnificent piece of gammon?"

There were no plates, so they had to make sandwiches of the ham. Dick had actually brought some mustard, and dabbed it generously over the slices of ham before George put them between pieces of bread. „Aha, Tim - this is one way of making sure you won"t get even a bite of these wonderful ham sandwiches!" said Dick. „You can"t bear mustard, can you? Ju, where"s the meat we brought for Tim?"

„Here. Pooh - it smel s a bit strong," said Julian. „Do you mind taking it to a nice secluded corner, Tim?"

Timmy immediately sat down close to Julian. „Now - don"t be so disobedient!" said Julian, and gave Timmy a friendly push.

„He doesn"t understand the word “seclucled”," said George, with a grin. „Tim - buzz off a bit!"

Timmy understood that and took his meat a little way away. Everyone took a ripe red tomato, and a little lettuce heart from a damp cloth brought by Julian, and settled down happily to munch sandwiches.

„Lovely!" said Anne, contentedly. „Goodness gracious - I can hardly believe we had such a peculiar time last night!"

„Ah - tell us all about it!" said Dick.

So first Anne, then George related al that had happened. Anne told of the night she had seen a light in the old cottage and had heard whispers and footfal s inside.

„We did think I might have been dreaming," she said, „but now we don"t think I was. We think I real y did see and hear those things."

„What next?" asked Julian, taking his third sandwich. „This all sounds most interesting. Quite Famous Five-ish, in fact!"

George told of the storm in the night, and how they had had to leave their heather-bed and go to shelter in the old cottage - and how, in the flashes of lightning, Anne had seen two or three people standing outside - and then how they had both seen someone standing silently, looking in at the window.

„Queer," said Julian, puzzled. „Yes - something is up. I wonder what? I mean - there"s absolutely nothing on this lonely bit of common that"s at all interesting."

„Well - there are the remains of an old Roman camp," said Anne. „And a boy there who is examining them to see if he can find anything old and interesting."

„A completely mad boy," said George. „He doesn"t seem to know what he says or doesn"t say. Contradicts himself all the time - or, to put it another way, tells the most idiotic fibs."

„And he apparently thinks it"s awful y funny to meet us somewhere, and then double round on his tracks and appear suddenly somewhere else," said Anne. „Sometimes I can"t help liking him - other times he"s too fat-headed for words."

„He"s got a little one-eyed dog cal ed Jet," said George, and Timmy gave a sudden bark as he heard the name. „You like Jet, don"t you, Tim'?"

„This al sounds most interesting," said Dick. „Pass me the tomato bag, Ju, before you eat the lot. Thanks. As I said, most interesting - a one-eyed dog, a mad boy, Roman remains -

and people who come to an old ruined cottage in the dead of night and look into windows!"

„I wonder you two girls didn"t pack up and go home," said Julian. „You must be braver without us than I thought possible!"

George caught Anne"s eye and grinned mischievously, but said nothing. Anne owned up, red in the face.

„Well - I did tel George I was going home this very morning, I was so scared last night.

George didn"t want to, of course, but she was coming, all the same. But now you"ve turned up, things are different."

„Ah - well, do we stay on, or don"t we, Ju?" said Dick. „Are we scared or are we not?"

Everyone laughed. „Well - if you go back I shall stay on alone!" said Anne. „Just to show you!"

„Good old Anne!" said Dick. „We all stay, of course. It may be nothing - it may be something - we can"t tell. But we"ll certainly find out. And the first thing to do is to have a look at the Roman remains and the mad boy. I"m looking forward to meeting him, I must say! After that we"ll tackle the ruined cottage!"

Timmy came up to see if he could get any tit-bits. Julian waved him away. „You smell of too-strong meat, Timmy," he said. „Go and get a drink. By the way, is there anything to drink here, George?"

„Oh yes," said George. „A lovely spring. Not far off, either. Let"s take the remains of our meal there, and the mug. We"ve only got one unfortunately, so it"s no good getting water unless we al sit by the spring and take turns at the mug. Come on!"

The boys thought that the spring was a real y splendid one. They grouped themselves around it and took turns at fil ing the mug and drinking from it. They were now eating slabs of Joan"s fruit-cake and it was very good.

„Now, you girls unpack again," said Dick, when they had finished their meal. „Goodness, I did enjoy that! We"d better unpack too, Julian."

„Right, Where shal we put our things?" asked Julian, looking around. „I don"t somehow like to leave everything under that little tent, with a mad boy about, and a one-eyed dog. I feel that both of them might like the rest of that ham."

„Oh, it"s too hot to leave ham out in this sun," said George. „We"ll have to put it into the old cottage, on a shelf. We"ll put everything there, shal we? Move in properly, in case it rains again at night. It"s so tiresome to have to bundle everything indoors in the dark and the rain."

„I agree," said Dick. „Right. We"ll move into the ruined cottage. What fun! Come on, everyone!"

They spent the next half-hour taking their things into the cottage and putting them in corners or on shelves. George found a dark corner behind the fireplace where she put the food, for she was half-afraid that Jet, nice little dog though he seemed, might perhaps smell the ham and gobble up most of their food.

„Now!" said Julian, „are we ready to go and see the Roman remains and the Mad Boy?

Here we go, then - the Famous Five are off again, and who knows what wil happen!"

The Five walked off together, Timmy at the back, delighted to have all his friends with him again. He kept nudging first one person"s heels and then another, just to remind them that he was there.

As they came near the old camp, they saw a boy sitting beside a bush, reading.

„There"s that boy we told you of!" said George. „See?"

„He looks fairly ordinary," said Dick. „Very absorbed in his book, I must say. Determined to take no notice of us!"

„I"l speak to him," said George. So, as they drew near, she cal ed to the boy.

„Hal o! Where"s Jet?"

The boy looked up, annoyed. „How do I know?"

„Well, he was with you this morning," said George.

„He was not," said the boy. „He"s never with me! Please don"t disturb me, I"m reading."

„There you are!" said George to the others. „He came to see us this morning with Jet - and now he says the little dog is never with him. Quite, quite mad!"

„Or plain rude," said Dick. „Not worth bothering about, anyway. Well, if he"s not doing any excavating in his Roman Camp, perhaps we can explore it without being ordered off!"

They walked on slowly and came to the camp, and at once heard a cheerful whistling going on, and the sound of someone digging. George looked over the top of the dug-out trench in surprise. She almost toppled in, she was so amazed at what she saw!

The boy was there, digging careful y, whistling as he did so! He brushed his tousled hair from his hot forehead and caught sight of George and the others. He looked rather astonished.

„How on earth did you get down here so quickly?" said George. „Do you have wings or something?"

„I"ve been down here all the afternoon," said the boy. „For at least an hour, I should think."

„Fibber!" said George. The boy looked very angry, and shouted back at once.

„I"m tired of you two girls - and now you"ve brought your friends too, I suppose you think you can come and aggravate me even more!"

„Don"t be a fathead," said Dick, feeling as puzzled about this boy as George and Anne had been. How in the world had he run around them and got down in the trench so quickly? Did he enjoy playing tricks like that? He real y didn"t look mad!

„Is this your property, this old camp?" asked Julian.

„No. Of course not. Don"t be daft!" said the boy. „As if I could own a whole camp like this!

It was discovered by my father some time ago, and he gave me permission to work here for the hols. It"s pretty exciting, I can tel you. See my finds?"

He pointed to a rough shelf where stood a broken pot, something that looked like an old brooch, a long pinlike thing, and part of a stone head. Julian was at once interested. He leapt down into the trench.

„I say - you"ve certainly got something there!" he said. „Any coins too?"

„Yes - three," said the boy and put his hand in his pocket. „I found this one first - then these two close together yesterday. They must be hundreds and hundreds of years old."

By this time all the others were down in the trench too. They looked about with much interest. Evidently the place had been well excavated by experts, and now the boy was working here and there on his own, hoping to find something that had been overlooked.

Dick went out of the trench and began to clamber about over the great stones and rocks. A small animal suddenly caught his eye - a young rabbit.

It stared at him in fright and then disappeared behind a slab of stone. It peeped out at Dick again, and he was amused. He went cautiously over to the slab, and the little rabbit disappeared - but soon two or three whiskers poked out. Dick got down on hands and knees and looked behind the slab. A dark hole was there.

Dick pul ed out his torch and flashed it into the hole, wondering if the small rabbit was hiding there, or whether it was the entrance to a burrow.

To his surprise there was a very big hole indeed - a hole that seemed to go down and down and down - his torch could make out no bottom to it.

„It"s far too wide for a rabbit-hole," thought Dick. „I wonder where it leads to, I"l ask that boy."

He went back to where the boy was stil showing his things to Julian, talking eagerly. „I say," began Dick, „there"s a most interesting hole behind one of the stone slabs over there

- what is it?"

„Oh that - my father says it was explored and that it was only a place for storages - meat in hot weather, or loot, or something like that. Actually nothing whatever was found there

- most uninteresting. As a matter of fact it may be nothing to do with the Camp at al ."

„I say, look - here"s another shelf with things on it," said George, suddenly spying a little collection of things on a rough shelf in another part of the trench. „Are these yours too?"

„Those? No," said the boy. „Nothing to do with me at all. Don"t touch them, please."

„Whose are they then?" asked George, curiously. The boy took no notice whatever of her question and went on talking to Julian. George took down a beautiful little round pot.

„Hey! I told you NOT to touch those!" yel ed the boy, so suddenly and angrily that George almost dropped the pot. „Put it back - and clear out if you can"t do what you"re told."