chapter 8 all together again

it was wonderful to be all together again. julian took hold of anne's arm and squeezed it. 'all right,anne?' he said, rather worried at her pale face.

anne nodded. she felt better at once, now she had julian, george and timmy, as well as dick.

'i'm only just terribly hungry,' she said.

'i'll ask for breakfast straight away,' said julian. 'all news later!'

the woman who had leaned out of the window shaking a duster the evening before, came up to them.

'i expect it's a bit late for you,' said julian. 'but we haven't had any breakfast. what have you got?'

'porridge and cream,' said the woman. 'and our own cured bacon and our own eggs. our own honeyand the bread i bake myself. will that do? and coffee with cream?'

'i could hug you,' said julian, beaming at her. the others felt the same. they went into a small, cosydining-room and sat down to wait. soon a smell of frying bacon and hot strong coffee would comeinto the room - what joy!

'your news first,' said dick, patting timmy. 'did you get to spiggy house? was mr. gaston there?'

'no, he wasn't,' said julian. 'he was out somewhere. he had a very nice wife who made us wait forhim, and said he wouldn't mind in the least looking at timmy when he came back. so we waited andwaited,'

'we waited till half past seven!' said george, 'and we felt rather awkward because we thought it mightbe getting near their meal-time. and then at last mr. gaston came.'

'he was awfully kind,' said julian. 'he looked at timmy's leg, and then he did something, i don'tknow what - put it back into place, i suppose - and timmy gave a yell and george flung herself 31on him, and mr. gaston roared with laughter at george...'

'well, he was very rough with timmy's leg,' said george. 'but he knew what he was doing, of course,and now timmy is perfectly all right, except for that bruise on his back, and even that is gettingbetter. he can run as well as ever.'

'i'm glad,' said anne. 'i kept thinking of poor old tim all last night.' she patted him, and he licked herlavishly and wetly.

'what did you do then?' asked dick.

'well, mrs. gaston insisted on us staying to supper,' said julian. 'she simply wouldn't take no for ananswer, and i must say that by that time we were jolly hungry. so we stayed - and we had a jollygood meal too. so did timmy! you should have seen his tummy afterwards - as round as a barrel.

good thing it's gone down today or i was thinking of changing his name to tummy.' they alllaughed, george especially.

'idiot,' she said. 'well, we didn't leave till about nine o'clock. we didn't worry about you because wefelt sure you would be safely at blue pond farm-house and would guess we'd had to wait about withtimmy. and when we got there and found you hadn't arrived - well, we were in a state!'

'and then we thought you must have found somewhere else for the night,' said julian, 'but we thoughtif we heard nothing we'd go down to the police first thing this morning and report yourdisappearance!'

'so down we came - without any breakfast either!' said george. 'that shows how worried we were!

blue pond farm-house was nice. they gave us a bed each in two tiny little rooms, and timmy sleptwith me, of course.'

a wonderful smell came creeping into the little dining-room, followed by the inn-woman carrying alarge tray. on it was a steaming tureen of porridge, a bowl of golden syrup, a jug of very thick cream,and a dish of bacon and eggs, all piled high on crisp brown toast. little mushrooms were on the samedish.

'it's like magic!' said anne, staring 'just the very things i longed for!'

'toast, marmalade and butter to come, and the coffee and hot milk,' said the woman, busily settingeverything out. 'and if you want any more bacon and eggs, just ring the bell.'

'too good to be true!' said dick, looking at the table. 'for goodness' sake, help yourselves quickly,girls, or i shall forget my manners and grab.'

32

it was a wonderful breakfast - extra wonderful because they were all so ravenously hungry.

there wasn't a word said as they spooned up their porridge and cream, sweetened with golden syrup.

timmy had a dishful too - he loved porridge, though he didn't like the syrup - it made his whiskerssticky!

'i feel better,' said anne, looking at the porridge dish. 'the thing is - shall i have some more porridgeand risk not enjoying my bacon and eggs so much - or shall i go straight on with bacon and eggs?'

'a difficult question,' said dick. 'and one that i am faced with too. on the whole i think i'll go onwith bacon and eggs - we can always have more of those if we want to - and those little mushroomsreally do make my mouth water! aren't we greedy? but how can anyone help that when they're sohungry?'

'you haven't told us a single word of what happened to you last night,' said julian, serving out thebacon and eggs with a generous hand. 'now that you've got something inside you, perhaps you feelable to tell us exactly why you ignored my instructions and didn't arrive where you were supposed tolast night.'

'you sound like our headmaster at school!' said dick. 'the plain fact is - we got lost! and when wedid finally arrive somewhere, we thought it was blue pond farm-house, and we stayed the nightthere.'

'i see,' said julian, 'but didn't the people there tell you it wasn't the right place? just so that you couldhave let us know? you must have known that we would worry about you.'

'well, the old woman there was stone- deaf,' explained anne, attacking her bacon and eggsvigorously. 'she didn't understand a word we said, and as we thought it was blue pond farmhouse,we stayed there - though it was a horrible place. and we were worried because you didn't arrive!'

'a chapter of accidents,' said julian. 'all's well that ends well, however.'

'don't sound so pompous!' said dick. 'actually we had a pretty poor time, ju. poor anne had to sleepin a little loft, and i slept in straw in a barn - not that i minded that - but - well, peculiar thingshappened in the night. at least - i think they did. i'm not really sure it wasn't all a dream.'

'what peculiar things?' asked julian at once.

'well - i think perhaps i'll tell you when we're on our way again,' said dick. 'now i think about it infull daylight i feel that either it was all a silly dream - or - well, as i said - something very 33peculiar.'

'you never told me, dick!' said anne, in surprise.

'well, to tell you the truth i forgot about it because other things happened,' said dick. 'having to getaway from that man, for instance - and wondering about julian and george - and feeling so hungry.'

'you don't sound as if you had a good night at all,' said george. 'it must have been awful, too, tryingto find your way in the dark. it poured with rain, didn't it?'

'yes,' said anne, 'but oh - the thing that frightened me more than anything was the bells! did youhear them julian? they suddenly clanged out, and they made me terribly scared. i couldn't think whatthey were! whatever were they ringing out for? they were so loud.'

'didn't you know what they were ringing for?' said julian. 'they were bells rung from the prison thatnice old woman told us about - they were rung to tell everyone on the countryside that a prisoner hadescaped! lock your doors. guard your folk.'

anne stared at julian in silence. so that was why the bells had made such a clamour and clangour.

she shivered.

'i'm glad i didn't know that,' she said. 'i would have slept in the straw with dick if i'd known therewas an escaped prisoner. have they caught him?'

'i don't know,' said julian. 'we'll ask the inn-woman when she comes.'

they asked her, and she shook her head. 'no. he's not caught yet. but he will be. all the roads fromthe moor are guarded and everyone is on the watch. he was a robber who broke into houses andattacked anyone who tried to prevent him. a dangerous fellow.'

'julian - is it all right to go hiking on the moors if there's an escaped prisoner about?' said anne.

'i shan't feel very comfortable.'

'we've got timmy,' said julian. 'he would be strong enough to protect us from three prisoners ifnecessary! you needn't worry.'

'woof,' agreed timmy, at once, and thumped his tail on the floor.

at last everyone had finished breakfast. even starving anne couldn't manage the last bit of toast.

she sighed happily, 'i feel myself again,' she announced. 'i can't say i feel very much like walking -but i know it would be good for me after that enormous meal.'

'good or not, we're going on our way,' said julian, getting up. 'i'll buy some sandwiches first.'

the inn-woman was delighted with their hearty praises. she gave them some packets of 34sandwiches and waved good-bye. 'you come again whenever you can,' she said. 'i'll always havesomething nice for you.'

the four went down the street and took a lane at the bottom. it wound about for a short way and thencame into a valley. a stream ran down the middle of the valley. the children could hear it gurglingfrom where they stood.

'lovely!' said anne. 'are we going along by the stream? i'd like to.'

julian looked at his map. 'yes - we could,' he said. 'i've marked the path to follow, and the streamjoins it some way on. so if you like we could go along by it, though it will be very rough walking.'

they made their way to the stream. 'now dick,' said julian, when they had left the path. 'what abouttelling us all those peculiar things that happened in the night? there's nobody about to hear- not a soul in sight. let's hear everything. we'll soon tell you whether it was a dream or not.'

'right,' said dick, 'well, here's the tale. it does sound pretty queer. listen...'