chapter 14 the gypsies are not pleased

julian and dick went to stand where they had stood the night before, trying to see exactly in whatdirection the glow had been.

'i think it was beyond the gypsies' camp, to the left,' said julian. 'what do you think, dick?'

'yes. that's about it,' said dick. 'shall we go now?' he raised his voice. 'we're going, george andanne. are you coming? we can leave our stuff here, tucked away in the caves because we shan't bevery long.'

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george called back. 'julian, i think timmy's got a thorn in his foot or something. he's limping.

anne and i think we'll stay here with him and try to get it out. you go, but for goodness' sake don'tget into trouble with the gypsies!'

'we shan't,' said julian. 'we've as much right on this moor as they have and they know it. all right,we'll leave you two here then with timmy. sure you don't want any help with his paw?'

'oh no,' said george. 'i can manage, thank you.'

the two boys went off, leaving anne and george fussing over timmy's paw. he had leapt into agorse bush after a rabbit and a thorn had gone right into his left fore-paw. then it had broken off,leaving the point in poor timmy's pad. no wonder he limped! george was going to have quite a timetrying to ease out the bit of thorn.

julian and dick set off over the moor. it was a day like summer, far too warm for april. there wasnot a single cloud to be seen in the sky, which was as blue as forget-me-nots. the boys felt too hot intheir pullovers and longed to take them off. but that would mean carrying them, which would be anawful nuisance.

the gypsy camp was not really far away. they soon came near to the curious hill that stood up fromthe flatness of the moor. the caravans still stood in its shelter, and the boys saw that a little group ofmen were sitting together, talking earnestly.

'i bet they're having a jaw about that aeroplane last night,' said dick. 'and i bet it was they who setthat light or fire, or whatever it was, to guide it. i wonder why it didn't land.'

they kept in the shelter of big gorse bushes, as they skirted the camp. they were not particularlyanxious to be seen. the dogs, sitting round the group of men, apparently did not see or hear them,which was lucky.

the boys made their way towards the place where they thought they had seen the glow, some way tothe left of the camp, and beyond it.

'doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary anywhere,' said julian, stopping and looking round.

'i was expecting to see a big burnt patch, or something.'

'wait - what's in that dip over there?' said dick, pointing to where the ground seemed to dipdownwards. 'it looks like another old quarry, rather like the one we're camping in, but smaller, muchsmaller. i bet that's where the fire was!'

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they made their way to the quarry. it was much more overgrown than theirs was, and was evidentlyone that had been worked at an earlier time. it dipped down to quite a pit in the middle and set therewas something unusual. what was it?

the boys scrambled down into the pit-like quarry and made their way to the middle. they stared atthe big thing that was set there, pointing to the sky.

'it's a lamp, a powerful lamp of some kind,' said dick. 'like those we see making a flare-path at anaerodrome, guiding planes in to land. fancy seeing one here!'

'how did the gypsies get it?' wondered dick, puzzled. 'and why signal to a plane that doesn't land? itlooked as if it wanted to, circling round low like that.'

'may be the gypsies signalled that it wasn't safe to land for some reason,' said julian. 'or perhaps theywere going to give something to the pilot and it wasn't ready.'

'well, it's a puzzle,' said dick. 'i can't imagine what's going on. something is, that's certain. let'ssnoop round a bit.'

they found nothing else, except a trail that led to the lamp and back. just as they were examining it, ashout came to their ears. they swung round - and saw the figure of a gypsy at the edge of the pit.

'what are you doing here?' he shouted, in a harsh voice. he was joined by a few others, and they alllooked threateningly at julian and dick as they climbed out of the pit.

julian decided to be honest. 'we're camping out on the moor for a night or two,' he said, 'and weheard a plane last night, circling low. we also saw a glow that appeared to be guiding it, and we camealong to see what it was. did you hear the plane?'

'mebbe we did and mebbe we didn't,' said the nearest gypsy, who was sniffer's father. 'what of it?

planes fly over this moor any day!'

'we found that powerful lamp,' said dick, pointing back at it. 'do you know anything about that?'

'nothing,' said the gypsy scowling. 'what lamp?'

'well, as far as i can see there's no charge for looking at it,' said julian. 'go and have a squint, if youdon't know anything about it! but i can't believe that you didn't see the light it gave last night! it's ajolly good place to hide it, i must say.'

'we don't know anything about any lamp,' said another gypsy, the old one with grey hair. 'this is ourusual camping-place. we don't interfere with anything or anybody - unless they interfere with us.

then we make them sorry for it.'

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the boys at once thought of the long-ago mystery of the disappearance of the bartles. they felt quiteuncomfortable.

'well, we're going now, so don't worry,' said julian. 'we're only camping for a night or two, as i said.

we won't come near here again, if you object to us.'

he saw sniffer creeping up behind the men, with i.iz, who for some reason of her own, was walkingsedately on her hind-legs. sniffer pulled at his father's arm.

'they're all right,' he said. 'you know our clip got his leg made better at the stables. they're all right!'

all he got was a savage cuff that sent him to the ground, where he rolled over and over. liz droppeddown on all fours and went to lick him.

'here, i say!' said julian, shocked. 'leave that kid alone! you've no right to hit him like that!'

sniffer set up such a yelling that some of the women left the caravans not far off and came running tosee what was up. one of them began to shout at sniffer's father and he shouted back.

soon there was quite a row going on between the men and the angry women, one of whom hadpicked up poor sniffer and was dabbing his head with a wet cloth.

'come on, it's a good time to go,' said julian to dick. 'what an unfriendly lot they are, except poorsniffer, and he was doing his best for us, poor kid.'

the two boys went off quickly, glad to be away from the men and their dogs. they were puzzledabout everything. the men said they knew nothing about the lamp, but they must know somethingabout it. nobody but a gypsy could have lighted it last night.

they went back to the girls and told them what had happened. 'let's get back to the stables,' saidanne. 'there's something queer going on. we'll be in the middle of an adventure before we knowwhere we are!'

'we'll stay one more night,' said julian. 'i want to see if that plane comes again. those gypsies don'tknow where we're camping and though sniffer knows, i'm pretty sure he won't tell. it was plucky ofhim to try and stick up for us to his father.'

'all right. we'll stay,' said george. 'i'm not particularly anxious for timmy to have that long walkhome today. i think i've got most of that thorn out of his pad, but he still won't put his foot to theground.'

'he's jolly clever at running about on three legs,' said dick, watching timmy tearing round thequarry, sniffing as usual for rabbits.

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'the amount of quarrying that timmy has done in this pit already is colossal!' said julian, staringround at the places where timmy had tried to get in at some rabbit-hole and scrabbled out big heapsof sand. 'he would have been a great help to the bartles when they dug out sand! poor old tim - yourbad foot has stopped you scraping for rabbits, hasn't it!'

timmy ran over on three legs. he enjoyed all the fussing he got when anything happened to him.

he meant to make the most of his bad foot!

they had a very lazy day indeed. it really was too hot to do anything much. they went to the littlespring and sat with their feet in the rivulet it made - it was deliciously cool! they went and had a lookat the old engine again, lying on its side, half-buried.

dick scraped away a lot of the sand that had seeped into the cab. soon they were all helping.

they uncovered the old handles and levers and tried to move them. but they couldn't of course.

'let's go round to the other side of the gorse bush and see if we can see the funnel again,' said dick, atlast. 'blow these thorns. i'm getting pricked all over. timmy's very sensible, sitting there, notattempting to examine this old puffing billy!'

they had to cut away some of the gorse before they could examine the funnel properly. then theyexclaimed in wonder.

'look! it's very like the long funnel that puffing billy had, you know, one of the first engines evermade!'

'it's filled with sand,' said dick, and tried to scrape it out. it was fairly loose, and soon he was able topeer down the funnel quite a long way.

'funny to think of smoke puffing out of this queer old funnel,' said dick. 'poor old engine, lying herefor years, quite forgotten. i'd have thought someone would rescue it!'

'well, you know what the blacksmith told us,' said george. 'the bartle sister that was left wouldn'thave anything more to do with the railway or the engine or the quarry. and certainly nobody couldmove this great thing on their own.'

'i shouldn't be surprised if we're the only people in the world who know where the old engine is,'

said anne. 'it's so overgrown that nobody could see it except by accident!'

'i feel jolly hungry, all of a sudden,' said dick, stopping his work of getting sand off the engine.

'what about something to eat?'

'we've got enough to last for a day or two more,' said anne. 'then we'll have to get something else -or go back to the stables.'

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'i must spend one more night here,' said julian. 'i want to see if that plane returns again.'

'right. we'll all watch this time,' said george. 'it will be fun. come on, let's go and get something toeat. don't you think that's a good idea, timmy?'

timmy certainly did. he limped off at top speed on three legs, though really his right fore-paw nolonger hurt him. timmy, you're a fraud!