Five Go Off In A Caravan Part 10

'Here we are!' he said, and set them to his eyes. 'Yes - I can see the boat clearly now - and it is n.o.bby in it - but who's with him? Golly, it's Pongo!'

Everyone had to look through the gla.s.ses to see n.o.bby and Pongo in the boat. 'You know, we could always get n.o.bby to signal to us somehow from his boat when he wanted to tell us that Lou and his uncle were away,' said d.i.c.k. Then we should know it was safe, and we could pop down to the camp and see round it.'

'Yes. Good idea,' said George. 'Give me the gla.s.ses, d.i.c.k. Timmy wants to have a turn at seeing, too.'

'He can't see through gla.s.ses like these, idiot,' said d.i.c.k, handing them to George. But Timmy most solemnly glued his eyes to the gla.s.ses, and appeared to be looking through them very earnestly indeed.

'Woof,' he remarked, when he took his eyes away at last.

'He says he's seen n.o.bby and Pongo, too,' said George, and the others laughed. Anne half-believed that he had. Timmy was such an extraordinary dog, she thought, as she patted his smooth head.

It was a terribly hot day. Too hot to do anything - even to walk down to the lake and bathe! The children were glad they were up in the hills, for at least there was a little breeze that fanned them now and again. They did not expect to see n.o.bby again that day, but they hoped he would come up the next day. If not they would go down and bathe in the lake and hope to see him somewhere about there.

Soon the rocky ledge got too hot to sit on. The children retreated to the clump of birch trees, which at least cast some shade. They took books with them, and Timmy came along, too, panting as if he had run for miles. He kept going off to the little spring to drink. Anne filled a big bowl with the cold water, and stood it in a breezy place near by, with a cup to dip into it. They were thirsty all day long, and it was pleasant to dip a cup into the bowl of spring-water and drink.

The lake was unbelievably blue that day, and lay as still as a mirror. n.o.bby's boat was no longer in the water. He and Pongo had gone. There was not a single movement to be seen down by the lake.

'Shall we go down to the lake this evening, when it's cooler, and bathe there?' said Julian, at tea-time. 'We haven't had much exercise today, and it would do us good to walk down and have a swim. We won't take Timmy in case we happen to come across Lou or Dan. He'd certainly fly at them today. We can always keep an eye open for those two and avoid them ourselves - but Timmy would go for them as soon as he spotted them. We might be in the water and unable to stop him.'

'Anyway, he'll guard the caravans for us,' said Anne. 'Well, I'll just take these cups and plates and rinse them in the stream. n.o.body wants any more to eat, do they?'

'Too hot,' said d.i.c.k, rolling over on to his back. 'I wish we were by the lake at this moment - I'd go straight into the water now!'

At half-past six it was cooler, and the four children set off down the hill. Timmy was angry and hurt at being left behind.

'You're to be on guard, Timmy,' said George firmly. 'See? Don't let anyone come near our caravans. On guard, Timmy!'

'Woof,' said Timmy dismally, and put his tail down. On guard! Didn't George know that the caravans wouldn't walk off by themselves, and that he wanted a good splash in the lake?

Still, he stayed behind, standing on the rocky ledge to see the last of the children, his ears c.o.c.ked to hear their voices and his tail still down in disgust. Then he went and lay down beneath George's caravan, and waited patiently for his friends to return.

The children went down the hill with their bathing-things, taking short cuts, and leaping like goats over the steep bits. It had seemed quite a long way up when they had gone so slowly in the caravans with Dobby and Trotter - but it wasn't nearly so far when they could go on their own legs, and take rabbit-paths and short cuts whenever they liked.

There was one steep bit that forced them back on to the track. They went along it to where the track turned a sharp corner round a cliff-like bend - and to their surprise and dismay they walked almost straight into Lou and Tiger Dan!

'Take no notice,' said Julian, in a low voice. 'Keep together and walk straight on. Pretend that Timmy is somewhere just behind us.'

'Tim, Tim!' called George, at once.

Lou and Dan seemed just as surprised to see the children, as they had been to see the two men. They stopped and looked hard at them, but Julian hurried the others on.

'Hey, wait a minute!' called Dan. 'I thought you had gone off - over the hill-top!'

'Sorry we can't stop!' called back Julian. 'We're in rather a hurry!'

Lou looked round for Timmy. He wasn't going to lose his temper and start shouting in case that mad dog came at him again. He spoke to the children loudly, forcing himself to appear good-tempered.

'Where are your caravans? Are you camping up here anywhere?'

But the children still walked on, and the men had to go after them to make them hear.

'Hey! What's the matter? We shan't hurt you! We only want to know if you're camping here. It's better down below, you know.'

'Keep on walking,' muttered Julian. 'Don't tell them anything. Why do they tell us it's better to camp down below when they were so anxious for us to clear out yesterday? They're mad!'

'Timmy, Timmy!' called George, again, hoping that the men would stop following them if they heard her calling for her dog.

It did stop them. They gave up going after the children, and didn't shout any more. They turned angrily and went on up the track.

'Well, we've thrown them off all right,' said d.i.c.k, with relief. 'Don't look so scared, Anne. I wonder what they want up in the hills. They don't look the sort that would go walking for pleasure.'

'd.i.c.k - we're not going to have another adventure, are we?' said Anne suddenly, looking very woebegone. 'I don't want one. I just want a nice ordinary, peaceful holiday.'

''Course we're not going to have an adventure!' said d.i.c.k, scornfully. 'Just because we meet two bad-tempered fellows from a circus camp you think we're in for an adventure, Anne! Well, I jolly well wish we were! Every hols we've been together so far we've had adventures - and you must admit that you love talking about them and remembering them.'

'Yes, I do. But I don't like it much when I'm in the middle of one,' said Anne. 'I don't think I'm a very adventurous person, really.'

'No, you're not,' said Julian, pulling Anne over a very steep bit. 'But you're a very nice little person, Anne, so don't worry about it. And, anyway, you wouldn't like to be left out of any of our adventures, would you?'

'Oh no,' said Anne. 'I couldn't bear it. Oh, look - we're at the bottom of the hill - and there's the lake, looking icy-cold!'

It wasn't long before they were all in the water - and suddenly there was n.o.bby too, waving and yelling. 'I'm coming in! Lou and my uncle have gone off somewhere. Hurray!'

Barker and Growler were with n.o.bby, but not Pongo the chimpanzee. n.o.bby was soon in the water, swimming like a dog, and splas.h.i.+ng George as soon as he got up to her.

'We met Lou and your uncle as we came down,' called George. 'Shut up, n.o.bby, and let me talk to you. I said, we met Lou and your uncle just now - going up into the hills.'

'Up into the hills?' said n.o.bby, astonished. 'Whatever for? They don't go and fetch things from the farm. The women do that, early each morning.'

'Well, we met those two,' said d.i.c.k swimming up. They seemed jolly surprised to see us. I hope they aren't going to bother us any more.'

'I've had a bad day,' said n.o.bby, and he showed black bruises on his arms. 'My uncle hit me like anything for making friends with you. He says I'm not to go talking to strangers no more.'

'Why ever not?' said d.i.c.k. 'What a surly, selfish fellow he is! Well, you don't seem to be taking much notice of him now!'

''Course not!' said n.o.bby. 'He's safe up in the hills, isn't he? I'll have to be careful he doesn't see me with you, that's all. n.o.body else at the camp will split on me - they all hate Lou and Tiger Dan.'

'We saw you out in your boat with Pongo,' said Julian, swimming up to join in the conversation. 'We thought that if ever you wanted to signal to us you could easily do it by going out in your boat, and waving a handkerchief or something. We've got field-gla.s.ses, and we can easily see you. We could come along down if you signalled. We'd know it would be safe.'

'Right,' said n.o.bby. 'Come on, let's have a race. Bet you I'm on the sh.o.r.e first!'

He wasn't, of course, because he didn't swim properly. Even Anne could race him. Soon they were all drying themselves vigorously.

'Golly, I'm hungry!' said Julian. 'Come on up the hill with us, n.o.bby, and share our supper!'