chapter 13 a thrilling plan

anne called them to dinner. 'come along!' she cried. i've got it all ready. tell mr. luffy there'splenty for him, too.'

mr. luffy came along willingly. he thought anne was a marvellous camp-housekeeper. helooked approvingly at the spread set out on a white cloth on the ground.

'hm! salad. hard-boiled eggs. slices of ham. and what's this - apple-pie! my goodness! don'ttell me you cooked that here, anne.'

anne laughed. 'no. all this came from the farm, of course. except the lime juice and water.'

george ate with the others, but said hardly a word. she was brooding over her wrongs, and mr.

luffy looked at her several times, puzzled.

'are you quite well, george?' he said, suddenly. george went red.

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'yes, thank you,' she said, and tried to be more herself, though she couldn't raise a smile at all.

mr. luffy watched her, and was relieved to see that she ate as much as the others. probably hadsome sort of row, he guessed correctly. well, it would blow over! he knew better than tointerfere.

they finished lunch and drank all the lime juice. it was a hot day and they were very thirstyindeed. timmy emptied all his dish of water and went and gazed longingly into the canvasbucket of washing-water. but he was too well-behaved to drink it, now that he knew he mustn't.

anne laughed, and poured some more water into his dish.

'well,' said mr. luffy, beginning to fill his old brown pipe, 'if anyone wants to come into townwith me this afternoon, i'll be starting in fifteen minutes.'

'i'll come!' said anne, at once. 'it won't take george and me long to wash-up these things. willyou come too, george?'

'no,' said george, and the boys heaved a sigh of relief. they had guessed she wouldn't want tocome with them - but, if she'd know what they were going to try and find out, she would havecome all right!

'i'm going for a walk with timmy,' said george, when all the washing-up had been done.

'all right,' said anne, who secretly thought that george would be much better left on her own towork off her ill-feelings that afternoon. 'see you later.'

george and timmy set off. the others went with mr. luffy to where his car was parked besidethe great rock. they got in.

'hi! the trailer's fastened to it,' called julian. 'wait a bit. let me get out and undo it. we don'twant to take an empty trailer bumping along behind us for miles.'

'dear me. i always forget to undo the trailer,' said mr. luffy, vexed. 'the times i take it alongwithout meaning to!'

the children winked at one another. dear old luffy! he was always doing things like that. nowonder his wife fussed round him like an old hen with one foolish chicken when he was athome.

they went off in the car, jolting over the rough road till they came to the smooth highway. theystopped in the centre of the town. mr. luffy said he would meet them for tea at five o'clock atthe hotel opposite the parking-place.

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the three of them set off together, leaving mr. luffy to go to the library and browse there. itseemed funny to be without george. anne didn't much like it, and said so.

'well, we don't like going off without george either,' said julian. 'but honestly, she can't behavelike that and get away with it. i thought she'd grown out of that sort of thing.'

'well, you know how she adores an adventure,' said anne. 'oh dear - if i hadn't felt so scaredyou'd have taken me along, and george would have gone too. it's quite true what she said aboutme being a coward.'

'you're not,' said dick. 'you can't help being scared of things sometimes - after all, you're theyoungest of us - but being scared doesn't make you a coward. i've known you to be as brave asany of us when you've been scared stiff!'

'where are we going?' asked anne. the boys told her, and her eyes sparkled.

'oh - are we going to find out where the spook-train comes from? it might come from one of twovalleys then, judging from the map.'

'yes. the tunnels aren't really very long ones,' said julian. 'not more than a mile, i should think.

we thought we'd make some inquiries at the station and see if there's anyone who knowsanything about the old railway yard and the tunnel beyond. we shan't say a word about thespook-train of course.'

they walked into the station. they went up to a railway plan and studied it. it didn't tell themmuch. julian turned to a young porter who was wheeling some luggage along.

'i say! could you help us? we're camping up on the moorlands, and we're quite near a desertedrailway yard with lines that run into an old tunnel. why isn't the yard used any more?'

'don't know,' said the boy. 'you should ask old tucky there - see him? he knows all the tunnelsunder the moors like the back of his hand. worked in them all when he was a boy.'

'thanks,' said dick, pleased. they went over to where an old whiskered porter was sitting in thesun, enjoying a rest till the next train came in.

'excuse me,' said julian politely. 'i've been told that you know all about the moorland tunnels likethe back of your hand. they must be very, very interesting.'

'my father and my grandfather built those tunnels,' said the old porter, looking up at the childrenout of small faded eyes that watered in the strong sunlight. 'and i've been guard on all the trainsthat ran through them.'

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he mumbled a long string of names, going through all the list of tunnels in his mind. thechildren waited patiently till he had finished.

there's a tunnel near where we're camping on the moorlands,' said julian, getting a word in atlast. 'we're not far from olly's farm. we came across an old deserted railway yard, with linesthat led into a tunnel. do you know it?'

'oh yes, that's an old tunnel,' said tucky, nodding his grey head, on which his porter's cap sat allcrooked. 'hasn't been used for many a long year. nor the yard either. wasn't enough traffic there,far as i remember. they shut up the yard. tunnel isn't used any more.'

the boys exchanged glances. so it wasn't used any more! well, they knew better.

'the tunnel joins another, doesn't it?' said julian.

the porter, pleased at their interest in the old tunnels he knew so well, got up and went into anoffice behind. he came out with a dirty, much-used map, which he spread out on his knee. hisblack finger-nail pointed to a mark on the map.

that's the yard, see? it was called o'lly's yard, after the farm. there're the lines to the tunnel.

here's the tunnel. it runs right through to kilty vale - there it is. and here's where it used to jointhe tunnel to roker's vale. but that was bricked up years ago. something happened there - theroof fell in, i think it was - and the company decided not to use the tunnel to roker's vale at all.'

the children listened with the utmost interest. julian reasoned things out in his mind. if thatspook-train came from anywhere then it must come from kilty vale, because that was the onlyplace the lines went to now, since the way to roker's vale had been bricked up where the tunnelsjoined.

'i suppose no trains run through the tunnel from kilty vale to olly's yard now, then?' he said.

tucky snorted. 'didn't i tell you it hasn't been used for years? the yard at kilty vale's beenturned into something else, though the lines are still there. there's been no engine through thattunnel since i was a young man.'

this was all very, very interesting. julian thanked old tucky so profusely that he wanted to tellthe children everything all over again. he even gave them the old map.

'oh, thanks,' said julian, delighted to have it. he looked at the others. 'this'll be jolly useful!' hesaid, and they nodded.

they left the pleased old man and went out into the town. they found a little park and sat downon a seat.

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they were longing to discuss all that tucky had told them.

'it's jolly strange,' said dick. 'no trains run there now - the tunnel's not been used for ages - andolly's yard must have been derelict for years.'

'and yet, there appear to be trains that come and go!' said julian.

'then, they must be spook-trains,' said anne, her eyes wide and puzzled. 'julian, they must be,mustn't they?'

'looks like it,' said julian. 'it's most mysterious. i can't understand it.'

'ju,' said dick, suddenly. 'i know what we'll do! we'll wait one night again till we see the spook-train come out of the tunnel to the yard. then one of us can sprint off to the other end of thetunnel - it's only about a mile long - and wait for it to come out the other side! then we'll find outwhy a train still runs from kilty vale to olly's yard through that old tunnel.'

'jolly good idea,' said julian, thrilled. 'what about tonight? if jock comes, he can go, too. if hedoesn't, just you and i will go. not george.'

they all felt excited. anne wondered if she would be brave enough to go too, but she knew thatwhen the night came she wouldn't feel half as brave as she did now! no, she wouldn't go. therewas really no need for her to join in this adventure at present. it hadn't even turned out to be aproper one yet - it was only an unsolved mystery!

george hadn't come back from her walk when they reached the camp. they waited for her, andat last she appeared with timmy, looking tired out.

'sorry i was an ass this morning,' she said at once. 'i've walked my temper off! don't know whatcame over me.'

'that's all right,' said julian amiably. 'forget it.'

they were all very glad that george had recovered her temper, for she was a very prickly personindeed when she was angry. she was rather subdued and said nothing at all about spook-trains ortunnels. so they said nothing either.

the night was fine and clear. stars shone out brilliantly again in the sky. the children said goodnight to mr. luffy at ten o'clock and got into their sleeping-bags. julian and dick did not meanto go exploring till midnight, so they lay and talked quietly.

about eleven o'clock they heard somebody moving cautiously outside. they wondered if it wasjock, but he did not call out to them. who could it be?

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then julian saw a familiar head outlined against the starlit sky. it was george. but what in theworld was she doing? he couldn't make it out at all. whatever it was, she wasn't making anynoise over it, and she obviously thought the boys were asleep. julian gave a nice little snore ortwo just to let her go on thinking so.

at last she disappeared. julian waited a few minutes and then put his head cautiously out of thetent opening. he felt about, and his fingers brushed against some string. he grinned to himselfand got back into the tent.

'i've found out what george was doing," he whispered. 'she's put string across the entrance ofour tent, and i bet it runs to her tent and she's tied it to her big toe or something, so that if we goout without her she'll feel the pull of the string when we go through it and wake up and followus!'

'good old george,' chuckled dick. 'well, she'll be unlucky. we'll squeeze out under the sides ofthe tent!' which was what they did do at about a minute past twelve! they didn't disturbgeorge's string at all.

they were out on the heather and away down the slope while george was sleeping soundly inher tent beside anne, waiting for the pull on her toe which didn't come. poor george!

the boys arrived at the deserted railway yard and looked to see if wooden-leg sam's candle wasalight. it was. so the spook-train hadn't come along that night, yet.

they were just scrambling down to the yard when they heard the train coming. there was thesame rumbling noise as before, muffled by the tunnel - and then out of the tunnel, again with nolamps, came the spook-train, clanking on its way to the yard!

'quick, dick! you sprint off to the tunnel opening and watch for the train to go back in again.

and i'll find my way across the moor to the other end of the tunnel. there was a path marked onthat old map, and i'll follow that!' julian's words tumbled over each other in his excitement. i'lljolly well watch for the spook-train to complete its journey, and see if it vanishes into thin air orwhat!'

and off he went to find the path that led over the moors to the other end of the tunnel. he meantto see what happened at the other end if he had to run all the way!