chapter 10 what can be happening?

forty fingers and thumbs were very hard at work trying to loosen the heavy stone. at last julian gothold of a corner which could be held more easily than any other part of the stone. he tried to lift itand it came away a little.

'help me this side, dick,' said julian, and dick put his strong fingers there too. 'heave-ho!' he said -and up came the stone.

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it went over with a crash and timmy barked loudly, jumping aside. everyone peered down - and thenlooked exceedingly disappointed!

there was nothing there at all. not even a hole! the black earth, hard as iron, lay underneath, andnothing else.

they all stared down at the dry, hard earth, puzzled. george looked up at julian.

'well - that's queer, isn't it? why should anyone lift up this heavy stone if there is nothing hiddenunderneath?'

'well, it's clear that whoever was here didn't find anything - nor did he hide anything either,' saidjulian. 'dear me - why should anyone lift up a heavy stone and put it back - just for nothing?'

'he was obviously looking for something that wasn't here,' said anne. 'the wrong stone, probably!'

'yes. i think anne's right,' said dick. 'it's the wrong stone! probably there is something veryinteresting under the right stone! but which one is it?'

they all sat and looked at one another, and timmy saw it too, wondering why all this fuss was madeabout a flat white stone. julian thought hard.

'from what you've told me, anne - about seeing a light in the cottage that first night you were here -and hearing voices - and then seeing those figures outside last night in the storm - it looks as ifsomeone is urgently hunting for something round about here.'

'yes - something under a stone. treasure of some sort, do you think?' said george.

julian shook his head. 'no. i hardly think that much treasure would be hidden anywhere about thisold cottage - all the people who lived here must have been fairly poor. the most they would havehidden would have been a few pieces of gold, and that would have been found long ago.'

'well - someone modern might have hidden something valuable here - even something stolen,'

said anne.

'yes. we can't tell. it's obviously important and urgent to somebody,' said dick. 'i wonder if thepeople that guy said came bothering him were anything to do with this?'

'they may have been,' said julian. 'but they have clearly decided that what they are looking for ishere now, whatever it is. and they must have been most annoyed to find you and anne here lastnight, george. that's why someone came and looked in at the window, i expect - to make sure youwere asleep! and you weren't.'

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'i don't know whether i want to stay on here or not now,' said anne, alarmed. 'if they haven't foundwhat they want, they'll probably come again - in the night too.'

'who cares?' said dick. 'we've got timmy, haven't we? i'm not turning out of here becausesomebody's got a habit of turning up big stones!'

julian laughed. 'nor am i. let's stay on! and i don't see why we shouldn't do a bit of pulling up ofstones ourselves! we might come across something very interesting!'

'right. it's decided that we stay on then, is it?' said dick. 'what about you, anne?'

'oh yes - of course i'll stay,' said anne, not wanting to in the least, but knowing that she simply couldnot bear not to be with the others.

the five walked round and about the cottage for a while, trying to make out where the people thatthe girls had seen the night before had come from - from what direction did they come and go?

'the figures i saw first in the lightning stood about there,' said anne, pointing. 'let's go and see ifthere are any foot-prints. it was pouring with rain and the ground must have been very muddy.'

'good idea,' said dick, and off they went to where anne had pointed. but it was a heathery piece ofground, and difficult to tell even if anyone had trodden there, for the heather was thick and springy.

'let's look just outside the window now - the one where anne saw someone looking in,' said dick.

and there they had a find! just in front of the window were two quite deeply-printed footmarks. onewas slightly blurred as if the maker of them had turned his foot sideways as he waited. the other wasvery clear indeed.

dick got out a piece of paper. 'i rather think i'll measure these,' he said, 'and make a note of thepattern on the soles. they had rubber soles and heels - look at the markings - crepe rubber i shouldthink.'

he measured the prints. 'size eight shoes,' he said. 'same as yours, ju. then he carefully drew anexact picture of the sole and heel markings.

'you're quite a detective, dick,' said anne, admiringly, and he laughed.

'oh, anyone can copy foot-prints!' he said. 'the thing is to match them up with the owner!'

'i have a feeling it's getting on for supper-time - if anyone wants any supper,' said george. 'it's half-past eight! would you believe that the time could fly so fast.'

'i don't really feel very hungry,' said dick. 'we've done pretty well today.'

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'well, don't waste our precious food if you don't feel hungry,' said george. 'we shall have to keepgoing home for more if we eat everything too quickly.'

nobody felt terribly hungry. they made a cosy corner in the cottage and had a slice of cake and abiscuit each, with a drink of pineapple juice and spring-water. george had had the bright idea offilling the big empty pineapple tin, and they each filled a mug from it in turn, and drank.

'it's getting dark,' said julian. 'are we going to sleep inside the cottage or out?'

'in,' said dick, promptly. 'we'll make things just as difficult for any night-prowlers as possible!'

'right,' said julian. 'i bet they won't be pleased to find old timmy here too. shall we go out and getsome heather for beds? i don't fancy sharing a thin rug between the four of us.'

soon they were all dragging in armfuls of the springy heather. they laid it in the front room, in twocorners, for the boys thought they would rather be in the same room as the girls, in case of danger.

'you need an awful lot of heather to make a soft bed,' said dick, trying his. 'my bones seem to goright through the clumps and rub against the floor!'

'we can put our macs over our heather,' said julian. 'that will help. the girls can have the rug.

we shan't need any covering, it's so hot.'

by the time they had finished, it was dark. george lay on her heather and yawned. 'i'm going tosleep,' she announced. 'we don't need to keep guard or anything like that do we? timmy will bark ifanyone comes near.'

'you're right. i really don't think we need take turns at keeping awake,' said julian. 'move up, dick -you've left me no room.'

julian was the last to go to sleep. he lay awake puzzling over the lifted stone slab. it was clear thatsomeone had expected to find something under it. how did they know it was that particular slab? hadthey a map? if so, it must have shown the wrong stone - or perhaps the searchers read the mapwrong?

before he could work it out any further, he was asleep. timmy was asleep too, happy because all theothers were under his care. he had one ear open as usual, but not very much open!

it was enough to let him hear a small mouse of some kind run across the floor. it was even enough forhim to hear a beetle scraping its way up the wall. after a while his ear dropped down and he didn'teven hear a hedgehog outside.

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but something caused his ear to listen again and it pricked up. a noise crept inside the cottage - anoise that got louder and louder - a weird and puzzling noise!

timmy woke up and listened. he pawed at george, not knowing whether to bark or not. he knew heshould not bark at owls, but this was not an owl. perhaps george would know.

'don't, timmy,' said george sleepily, but timmy went on pawing her. then she too heard the noiseand sat up in a hurry.

what a truly horrible sound! it was a whining and a wailing, rising and falling through the night.

a sound of misery and woe, that went on and on.

'julian! dick! wake up!' called george, her heart beating wildly. 'something's happening.'

the boys awoke at once and so did anne. they sat and listened to the weird noise. what in the worldcould it be? there it went again - wailing high in the air, and then dying away with a moan, only tobegin again a few seconds later.

dick felt the roots of his hair pricking. he leapt off the heather-bed and ran to the window.

'quick! come and look at this!' he cried. 'what is it?'

they all crowded to the window, timmy barking now as loudly as he could. in silence the othersgazed at a very strange sight.

blue and green lights were shining here and there, sometimes dimly, sometimes brightly. a curiousround white light was travelling slowly in the air, and anne clutched george, breathing fast.

'it won't come here,' she said. 'it won't, will it? i don't like it. what is happening, julian?'

'i wish that awful wailing, whining noise would stop,' said dick. 'it gets right inside my head. do youmake anything of all this, julian?'

'something's queer abroad,' said julian. 'i'll go out with timmy and see what i can find.' and beforeanyone could stop him, out he went, timmy barking beside him.

'oh julian - come back!' called anne, listening as his footsteps became distant. they all waitedtensely at the window - and then suddenly the wailing noise stopped and the strange lights began tofade.

then they heard julian's footsteps coming back firmly in the darkness.

'ju! what was it?' called dick, as his brother came in at the doorway.'

'i don't know dick,' said julian, sounding very puzzled. 'i simply - don't - know! perhaps we can findout in the morning.'