Five Go to Mystery Moor (15 page)

We"ll have to do the best we can by ourselves."

„Oh, poor, poor Timmy!" said Anne, horrified at seeing the dog stretched out quite limp, on the floor of the cave. „George, can you carry him?"

„I think so," said George, and she lugged him up in her arms. „He"s awfully heavy, but I think I can just manage him. Perhaps the fresh air wil revive him when we get outside."

„But George, we don"t know our way out of here," said Anne, fearfully. „If Timmy can"t lead us, we"re lost! We"d end up by wandering miles and miles inside this hil and never getting out!"

„Well, we"ll simply have to make a shot at it," said Wil iam. „Come on, I"l lead the way. We real y MUST go!"

He went out of the cave and down a passage; the others fol owed. George carrying the limp Timmy. But very soon Wil iam came to a fork and stopped.

„Oh dear - do we go to the left or the right?" he wondered.

Nobody knew. George shone her torch here and there, trying to remember. The beam of light picked up something on the ground nearby.

It was two sticks, one short and one long, in the shape of a cross! George gave an exclamation.

„Look - a patrin! Left by Sniffer to show us the way out. We have to take the passage that the long stick points to! Oh, I hope that Sniffer has left patrins at every corner and every fork!"

They took the right-hand way and went on, their torches making long beams in the darkness, and at every place where they might go wrong, they saw a patrin, a message left by Sniffer to show them the right way to go.

„Another cross, we go this way," said Anne.

„Here"s a patrin again, we take this fork!" said George. And so it went on until they came safely to the entrance of the hil . How thankful they were to see the mist. At least it meant that they were in the open air!

„Now to get to the horses," said Wil iam. „They wil each have to carry two of us at once, I"m afraid."

And then, just as they were making their way to where they had left the horses, the gypsies" dogs began to bark the place down!

„They"ve heard us!" said Wil iam, desperately. „Buck up! We"ll be stopped if we don"t get off at once!"

Then a voice shouted loudly. „I can see you over there, with your torches! Stop at once!

Do you hear me? STOP!"

The dawn was coming now. The mist was no longer ful of darkness, but was white, and thinning rapidly. The four children hurried to the horses, which were stamping impatiently by the trees. George couldn"t go very fast because of Timmy. He really was very heavy.

Suddenly he began to struggle. The fresh, cool air had revived him and he wanted to be set down. George put him down thankful y, and he began to bark defiantly at the gypsies who were now coming out of their caravans, their dogs with them.

The four children mounted hurriedly and the horses were surprised at the double weight.

Wil iam swung his horse"s head round and set off with George sitting behind him. Henry took Anne. Timmy, feeling much better, ran after them, his legs no longer feeling so shaky.

The gypsies ran too, shaking their fists and shouting. Sniffer"s father was amazed beyond measure. Why, there were the two girls he had tied up - and that dog he had sent off to trick the other two boys on the moor.

Then who were these on horse-back, and how had they found their way to the hil ? How had the prisoners been able to find their way out of the hil , too? That was a real puzzle to Sniffer"s father.

The gypsies tore after the horses, but the dogs contented themselves with excited barks.

Not one of them dared to go after Timmy. They were afraid of him.

The horses went off as fast as they dared in the mist, Timmy running in front. He seemed very much better, though George was afraid it was only the excitement that now kept him going. She glanced back at the gypsies. They would never catch up now, thank goodness!

Somewhere behind the mist the sun was shining. Soon it would disperse the strange fog that had come up so suddenly from the sea. She glanced down at her watch. Good gracious, could it real y be almost six o"clock in the morning. It was tomorrow now!

She wondered what had happened to Julian and Dick.

She thought of Sniffer grateful y, and al those patrins he had left in the hil . They would never have got out but for those. She thought of Henry and Wil iam, and gave Wil iam a sudden tight hug round the waist for coming out in the middle of the night and rescuing them!

„Where are Julian and Dick, do you suppose?" she said to Wil iam. „Do you think they are stil lost on the moor? Ought we to shout, and look for them?"

„No," called back Wil iam over his shoulder. „We"re going straight back to the stables. They can look after themselves!"

Dick and Julian had certainly tried to look after themselves, that cold, misty night, but not very successful y. By the time that their torch showed them that it was a quarter to five by their watches, they had had enough of the bush they were in. If only they had known it, Henry and Wil iam, with Timmy, were just then riding over the moor, not a great distance from where they were!

They got out of the bush, damp and stiff. They stretched themselves and looked into the dark night, stil ful of mist.

„Let"s walk," said Julian. „I can"t bear keeping stil in this mist. I"ve got my compass. If we walk due west we should surely come to the edge of the moor, not far from Mil ing Green."

They set off stumbling in the now dim light of the torch, whose battery was getting low. „It wil give out soon," groaned Dick, giving it a shake. „Blow the thing! It hardly gives us any light now, and we simply must keep looking at the compass."

Julian tripped against something hard and almost fel . He snatched the torch from Dick.

„Quick, let me have it!"

He shone it on what had tripped him and gave a delighted exclamation. „Look, it"s a rail!

We"re on the railway line again. What a bit of luck!"

„I should think so!" said Dick, relieved. „This torch is just about finished. Now, for GOODNESS"

sake don"t let"s lose this railway line. Stop at once if you can"t feel it with your foot."

„To think we were so jolly near the line after al , and didn"t know it!" groaned Julian. „We could have been back at the stables ages ago. I do hope the girls got back safely and didn"t alarm anyone about us. They"d know we would come back as soon as it was daylight, anyhow, if we could follow the lines!"

They stumbled in at the stables" entrance about six o"clock, tired out. Nobody was yet up, it seemed. They found the garden door open, left ajar by Wil iam and Henry, and went up to the girls" room, hoping to find them in bed.

But the beds were empty of course. They went to Henry"s room, to ask her if she had heard anything of the girls, but her bed, though slept in, was empty too!

They went across the landing to Wil iam"s room. „He"s gone as well!" said Dick, in great astonishment. „Where are they al ?"

„Let"s wake Captain Johnson," said Julian, who had no idea that the Captain was away for the night. So they awakened a very startled Mrs Johnson, and almost scared the life out of her, for she thought they were far away, camping on the moor!

She was even more startled when she heard their tale and realized that George and Anne were missing. „Where are the girls, then!" she said, flinging on a dressing-gown. „This is serious, Julian. They might be completely lost on the moor, or those gypsies might have got them! I must telephone my husband, and the police too. Oh dear, oh dear, why did I ever let you go camping out!"

She was in the middle of telephoning, with Julian and Dick beside her, looking very anxious indeed, when the sound of horses" hooves came in the yard below.

„Now goodness me! Who"s that?" said Mrs Johnson. „Horses! Who"s riding them at this time of the morning!"

They all went to the window and looked down into the yard. Dick gave a yel that almost made Mrs Johnson fall out of the window!

„Anne! George! Look, there they are, and Timmy too. And gosh, there"s Henry, and Wil iam! What is all this!"

Anne heard the yel and looked up. Tired as she was, she gave a cheerful wave and a grin. George gave a shout.

„Oh Julian! Oh Dick, you"re back then! We did hope you would be. After you left us we went back up the lines the wrong way and arrived at the quarry again!"

„And the gypsies took us prisoners" yelled Anne.

„But - but - how do Henry and Wil iam come into this?" said poor Mrs Johnson, thinking she must real y stil be asleep. „And what"s the matter with Timmy?"

Timmy had suddenly flopped on the ground. The excitement was over, they were home, now he could put his poor aching head on his paws and sleep!

George was off her horse immediately. „Timmy! Darling Timmy! Brave Timmy! Help me, Wil iam. I"l take him upstairs to my room and see to that cut."

By this time all the other children were awake and there was such a pandemonium going on that Mrs Johnson couldn"t make herself heard.

Children in dressing-gowns and without, children shouting and yel ing, children pouring into the yard and asking questions; Wil iam trying to quiet the two horses which were getting very excited at all this sudden clamour; and all the cocks round about crowing their heads off! What an excitement!

The sun suddenly shone out bril iantly, and the last wisps of mist disappeared. „Hurrah! That mist has gone!" shouted George. „The sun"s out. Cheer up, Timmy. We"ll all be al right now!"

Timmy was half-carried, half-dragged up the stairs by Wil iam and George. George and Mrs Johnson examined his cut head careful y, and bathed it.

„It real y should have been stiched up," said Mrs Johnson, „but it seems to be healing already. How wicked to hit a dog like that!"

Soon there was the sound of horse"s hooves again in the yard, and Captain Johnson arrived, looking very anxious. At almost the same moment a car slid in at the gates, a police car, with two policemen who had been sent to inquire about the missing girls! Mrs Johnson had forgotten to telephone again to say they had arrived.

„Oh dear, I"m so sorry to have bothered you," said Mrs Johnson to the police sergeant.

„The girls have just arrived back, but I stil don"t know what has real y happened. Stil , they"re safe, so please don"t bother any more."

„Wait!" said Julian, who was in the room, too. „I think we shal need the police! Something very peculiar has been happening up on the moor."

„Real y, sir? What"s that?" said the sergeant, taking out a note-book.

„We were camping there," said Julian. „And a plane came over, very low, guided by a lamp set in a sandpit by the gypsies."

„A lamp set by the gypsies!" said the sergeant, surprised. „But why should they need to guide a plane? I suppose it landed?"

„No. It didn"t," said Julian. „It came again the next night, and did exactly the same thing, swooping low and circling. But this time it dropped packages, sir!"

„Oh, it did, did it?" said the sergeant, more interested. „For the gypsies to pick up, by any chance?"

„Yes, sir," said Julian. „But the plane"s aim wasn"t very good, and the packets fel al round us and almost hit us. We ran for shelter, because we didn"t know if there were any explosives or not!"

„Did you pick up any of the packages?" asked the sergeant. Julian nodded.

„Yes, we did, and I opened one."

„What was in it?"

„Paper money, dol ars!" said Julian. „In one packet alone there were scores of notes and each note was for a hundred dol ars, about forty pounds a time! Thousands of pounds-worth thrown all around us!"

The sergeant looked at his companion. „Ha! Now we know! This explains a lot that has been puzzling us, doesn"t it, Wilkins?"

Wilkins, the other policeman, nodded grimly. „It certainly does. So that"s what happens!

That"s how the gang get the dol ars over here, from that printing-press in North France.

Just a nice little run in a plane!"

„But why do they throw the packets down for the gypsies to collect?" asked Julian. „Is it so that they can give them to someone else? Why don"t they bring them openly into the country? Surely anyone can bring dol ars here?"

„Not forged ones, my lad," said the sergeant. „These wil al be forged, you mark my words.

The gang have got a headquarters near London, and as soon as those packets are handed over to them by one of the gypsies, they wil set to work passing them off as real ones, paying hotel bills with them, buying al kinds of goods and paying for them in notes that aren"t worth a penny!"

„Whew!" said Julian. „I never thought of them being forged!"

„Oh yes. We"ve known of this gang for some time, but all we knew was that they had a printing-press to print the notes in North France, and that somehow the rest of the gang here, near London, received them and passed them off as real ones," said the sergeant.

„But we didn"t know how they were brought here, nor who took them to the gang near London."

„But now we know all right!" said Wilkins. „My word, this is a pretty scoop, Sergeant. Good kids these, finding out what we"ve been months trying to discover!"

„Where are these packages?" said the sergeant. „Did you hide them? Did the gypsies get them?"

„No, we hid them," said Julian. „But I guess the gypsies wil be hunting all over the place for them today, so we"d better get on the moors quick, Sergeant."

„Where did you hide them?" said the sergeant. „In a safe place, I hope!"

„Oh very!" said Julian. „I"l cal my brother, Sergeant. He"l come with us. Hey, Dick! Come on in here, and you"l hear a very interesting bit of news!"

Mrs. Johnson was amazed to hear that the police wanted Julian and Dick to go out on the moors again.

„But they"re tired out!" she said. „They need something to eat. Can"t it wait?"

„I"m afraid not," said the sergeant. „You needn"t worry, Mrs Johnson. These boys are tough!"

„Well actually I don"t think that the gypsies can possibly find the packets," said Julian. „So it wouldn"t matter if we had a bite to eat. I"m ravenous!"