chapter 12 the little railway

it was a very hot day. the five had had their lunch before they started, as mrs. johnson said it wouldbe easier to carry that inside than outside!

even timmy carried something. george said that he ought to do his share, and had neatly fastened abag 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 all the time,timmy. you can't walk with your head screwing round like that. you ought to be used to the smell ofbiscuits by this time!'

53

they set off to the railway line, or where they hoped it would be. it took a little time to discover itrunning under the heather. julian was glad. he didn't want to walk right into milling green to find thebeginning of it and then walk all 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 theyhad rusted away, and there were gaps. in other places the heather had grown completely over thelines, and unless the children had known that they must keep straight forward, they would have lostthem completely. as it was they sometimes missed them and once had to do quite a bit of scrabblingabout 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 hisbody and eventually hung below his tummy. he didn't like that, and george suddenly spied himsitting 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, andmaking 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 unexpectedrock. soon the soil began to look sandy, and the heather did not grow so thickly. it was easier to seethe lines, though in some places the sand had sifted over them and hidden them.

'i really must have a rest!' said anne, sitting down in some heather. 'i feel i want to pant and hang mytongue out like timmy!'

'i wonder how far these lines go,' said dick. 'it's so very sandy now underfoot that i feel we must begetting 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 fall asleep we'll never want to start off with our heavy packsagain. stir yourselves, lazy-bones!'

they all got up again. timmy's biscuits had slithered round to his tummy once more, and george hadto put them right again. timmy stood quietly, panting, his tongue hanging out. he thought thebiscuits 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 windblew the sand up in the air, and the five found that they had to shut their eyes against it.

54

'i say! the lines end here!' said julian, stopping suddenly. 'look, they're broken, wrenched out ofplace, 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, andcame 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 rightto the quarry, the trucks would fill up there, and the engine would pull them back to milling 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 linessomewhere! ones that go to the quarry. let's look for the quarry first, though. we ought to see thateasily enough!'

but it wasn't really very easy to find because it was behind a great mass of thick tall gorse-bushes.

dick rounded them and stopped. behind the enormous spread of bushes was a great pit, a sandy pit,quarried and hollowed 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 packsbeside 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 ifwe 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 falling in and burying me, if i crawled in,' said anne. 'it's quiteloose, 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 andit 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 follow these lines,' said julian. so they kicked away the sand from the rails and followed themslowly 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 intonearby heather, and could be seen there, bent and rusty.

55

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 aroundthe 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!' saiddick. 'it must have run right off the broken lines and over-turned here, and through the years thesegreat 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 thefunnel, and the fat little boiler. and see, there's the small cab. it can't have had much power, only justenough 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 tomilling 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 theengine would run off and overturn,' said julian. 'they may even have used the broken rails to attackthem with. anyway, they won the battle, because not one of the bartles ever returned.'

'some of the villagers must have gone to see what became of them and have got the trucks back onthe lines and pushed them to milling green,' said george, trying to reconstruct the long- agohappenings 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 gypsiescreeping 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 sodry 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 beautifully from the wind.'

'yes. let's camp here,' said anne, pleased. 'there are quite a lot of nice holes to store our things in.'

56

'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 outlike a flag!'

timmy put his head on one side as george talked to him. water? drink? he knew what both thosewords 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 georgegave a pleased shout.

'he's found some water! look - his mouth is all wet! timmy, where is it?'

timmy wagged his tail vigorously, glad that george was pleased with him. he ran round the bushagain and the others followed.

he led them to a little green patch and stopped. a spring bubbled up like a small fountain, dancing alittle in the sunshine. the water fell from it into a little channel it had made for itself in the sand, ranaway for a short distance, and then disappeared underground again.

'thank you, tim,' said george. 'julian, is the water all right to drink here?'

'well i can see some that is!' said julian, pointing to the right. 'the bartles must have put a pipe inthat bank, look, and caught another spring there, a much bigger one. it's as clear as can be.

that will do fine 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 full of theselittle bubbling springs, welling up from underground. that explained the brilliant green patches hereand there.

'now let's sit down and have some tea,' said anne, unpacking the bag she had carried. 'it's too hot tofeel really 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!