Five Fall Into Adventure (10 page)

After a time the wood became thicker, and the sunlight could hardly pierce through the branches. Still the path went on, but now it seemed as if only one set of wheel-ruts was marked on it. They were probably the wheels of Simmy’s caravan.

Here and there a tree was shorn of one of its branches, and a bush uprooted and thrown to one side.

‘Simmy meant to go deep into the wood last time he came,’ said Julian, pointing to where a bush lay dying by the side of the path. ‘He’s cleared the way here and there.

Actually we aren’t on a proper path any longer - we’re only following wheel-ruts.’

It was true. The path had faded out. They were now in a thick part of the wood, with only the ruts of the caravan wheels to guide them.

They fell silent, The wood was very quiet. There were no birds singing, and the branches of the trees were so thick that there was a kind of green twilight round them.

‘I wish we had Timmy with us,’ half-whispered Anne at last.

Julian nodded. He had been wishing that a long time. He was also wishing he hadn’t brought Anne - but when they had started out, they had Jo with them to guide them, and warn them of any danger. Now they hadn’t.

‘I think we’d better go very cautiously,’ he said, in a low voice. ‘We may come on the caravan unexpectedly. We don’t want Simmy to hear us and lie in wait.’

‘I’ll go a little way in front and warn you if I hear or see anything,’ said Dick. Julian nodded to him and he went on ahead, peering round the trees when he came to any

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curve in the wheel-rut path. Julian began to think of what they would do when they reached the caravan. He was pretty certain that both George and Timmy would be found locked up securely inside.

‘If we can undo the door and let them out, Timmy will do the rest,’ he thought. ‘He’s as good as three policemen! Yes - that’s the best plan.’

Dick suddenly stopped and lifted up his hand in warning. He peered round the bole of a big tree, and then turned and nodded excitedly.

‘He’s found the caravan!’ said Anne, and her heart began its usual thump-thump-thump of excitement.

‘Stay here,’said Julian to Anne, and went on quietly to join Dick. Anne crept under a bush. She didn’t like this dark, silent wood, with the green light all round. She peered out, watching the boys.

Dick had suddenly seen the caravan. It was small, badly needed painting, and appeared quite deserted. No fire burned outside. No Simmy was sitting anywhere about. Not even Blackie the horse was to be seen.

The boys watched intently for a few minutes, not daring to move or speak. There was absolutely no sound or movement from the tiny clearing in which the caravan stood.

Windows and doors were shut. The shafts rested crookedly on the ground. The whole place seemed deserted.

‘Dick,’ whispered Julian at last, ‘Simmy doesn’t seem to be about. This is our chance!

We’ll creep over to the caravan and look into the window. We’ll attract George’s attention, and get her out as soon as we can. Timmy, too.’

‘Funny he doesn’t bark,’ said Dick, also in a whisper. ‘I suppose he can’t have heard us.

Well - shall we get over to the caravan now?’

They ran quietly to the little caravan, and Julian peered through the dirty window. It was too dark inside to see anything at all.

‘George!’ he whispered. ‘George! Are you there?’

There was no answer from inside the caravan. Perhaps George was asleep - or drugged! And Timmy, too. Julian’s heart sank. It would be dreadful if George had been ill-treated. He tried to peer inside the window again, but what with the darkness of the wood and the dirt on the pane, it really was impossible to see inside.

‘Shall we bang on the door?’ asked Dick.

‘No. That would only bring Simmy if he’s anywhere about - and if George is inside and awake, our voices would have attracted her attention,’ said Julian.

They went quietly round the caravan to the door at the back. It had no key in the lock.

Julian frowned.

Simmy must have got the key with him. That would mean breaking down the door and making a noise. He went up the few steps and pushed at the door. It seemed very solid

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indeed. How could he break it down, anyway? He had no tools, and it didn’t look as if kicking and shoving would burst it in.

He knocked gently on the door - rap-rap-rap. Not a movement from inside. It seemed very strange. He tried the round handle, and it turned easily.

It not only turned easily - but the door opened! ‘Dick! It’s not locked!’ said Julian, forgetting to whisper in his surprise. He went inside the dark caravan, hardly hoping now to see George or Timmy.

Dick pushed in after him. There was a nasty sour smell and it was very untidy. Nobody was there. It was quite empty, as Julian had feared.

He groaned. ‘All this way for nothing. They’ve taken George somewhere else. We’re done, now, Dick - we haven’t a clue where to go next.’

Dick fished his torch out of his pocket. He flashed it over the untidy jumble of things in the caravan, looking for some sign that George had been there. But there was nothing at all that he could see to show him that either Timmy or George had been there.

‘It’s quite likely that Jo made the whole story up about her father taking George away,’

he groaned. ‘It doesn’t look as if they’ve been here at all.’

His torch flashed on to the wooden wall of the caravan, and Dick saw something that arrested his attention. Somebody had written something on the wall!

He looked more closely. ‘Julian! Isn’t that George’s writing? Look! What’s written there?’

Both boys bent towards the dirty wall. ‘Red Tower, Red Tower, Red Tower,’ was written again and again, in very small writing.

‘Red Tower!’ said Dick. ‘What does that mean? Is it George’s writing?’

‘Yes, I think so,’ said Julian. ‘But why should she keep writing that? Do you suppose that’s where they have taken her to? She might have heard them saying something and scribbled it down quickly - just in case we found the caravan and examined it. Red Tower! It sounds queer.’

‘It must be a house with a red tower, I should think,’ said Dick. ‘Well - we’d better get back and tell the police now - and they’ll have to hunt for a red tower somewhere.’

Bitterly disappointed the boys went back to Anne. She scrambled out from under her bush as they came.

‘George is not there,’ said Dick. ‘She’s gone. But she has been there - we saw some scribbled writing on the wall of the caravan inside.’

‘How do you know it’s hers?’ said Anne.

‘Well, she’s written “Red Tower” ever so many times, and the R’s and the T’s are just like hers,’ said Dick. ‘We think she must have heard someone talking and say they were taking her to Red Tower, wherever it is. We’re going straight back to the police now. I wish we hadn’t trusted Jo. We’ve wasted such a lot of time.’

‘Let’s have something to eat,’ said Julian. ‘We won’t sit down. We’ll eat as we go. Come on.’

But somehow nobody wanted anything to eat. Anne said she felt sick. Julian was too worried to eat, and Dick was so anxious to go that he felt he couldn’t even wait to unpack sandwiches! So they started back down the path, following the wheel-ruts as before.

It suddenly grew very dark indeed, and on the leaves of the trees heavy rain fell with a loud, pattering sound. Thunder suddenly rolled.

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Anne caught hold of Julian’s arm, startled. ‘Julian! It’s dangerous to be in a wood, isn’t it, in a storm? Oh, Julian, we’ll be struck by lightning.’

‘No, we shan’t,’ said Julian. ‘A wood’s no more dangerous than anywhere else. It’s sheltering under a lone tree somewhere that’s dangerous. Look - there’s a little clearing over there; we’ll go to that, if you like.’

But when they got to the little clearing the rain was falling down in such heavy torrents that Julian could see that they would immediately be soaked through. He hurried Anne to a clump of bushes, and they crouched underneath, waiting for the storm to pass.

Soon the rain stopped, and the thunder rolled away to the east. There had been no lightning that they could see. The wood grew just a little lighter, as if somewhere above the thick green branches the sun might be shining!

‘I hate this wood,’ said Dick, crawling out from the bushes. ‘Come on, for goodness’

sake. Let’s get back to the wheel-rut path.’

He led the way through the trees. Julian called to him. ‘Wait, Dick. Are you sure this is right?’

Dick stopped, anxious at once. ‘Well,’ he said uncertainly. ‘I thought it was. But I don’t know. Do you?’

‘I thought it was through those trees there,’ said Julian. ‘Where that little clearing is.’

They went to it. ‘It’s not the same clearing, though,’ said Anne at once. ‘The other clearing had a dead tree at one side. There’s no dead tree here.’

‘Blow!’ said Julian. ‘Well - try this way, then.’

They went to the left, and soon found themselves in a thicker part of the wood than ever.

Julian’s heart went cold. What an absolute idiot he was! He might have known that it was madness to leave the only path they knew without marking it in some way.

Now he hadn’t the very faintest idea where the wheel-rut way was. It might be in any direction! He hadn’t even the sun to guide him.

He looked gloomily at Dick. ‘Bad show!’ said Dick. ‘Well - we’ll have to make up our minds which way to go! We can’t just stay here.’

‘We might go deeper and deeper and deeper,’ said Anne, with a sudden little gulp of fear. Julian put his arm round her shoulder.

‘Well, if we go deeper and deeper, we shall come out on the other side!’ he said. ‘It’s not an endless wood, you know.’

‘Well, let’s go straight on through the wood, then,’ said Anne. ‘We’ll have to come out the other side some time.’

The boys didn’t tell her that it was impossible to go straight through a wood. It was necessary to go round' clumps of bushes, to double back sometimes when they came to an impenetrable part, and to go either to the left or right when clumps of trees barred their way. It was quite impossible to go straight through.

‘For all I know we’re probably going round and round in circles, like people do when they’re lost in the desert,’ he thought. He blamed himself bitterly for having left the wheel-ruts.

They made their way on and on for about two or three hours, and then Anne stumbled and fell. ‘I can’t go on any further,’ she wept. ‘I must have a rest.’

Dick glanced at his watch and whistled. Where ever had the time gone? It was almost three o’clock. He sat down by Anne and pulled her close to him. ‘What we want is a jolly good meal,’ he said. ‘We’ve had nothing since breakfast.’

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Anne said she still wasn’t hungry, but when she smelt the meat sandwiches that Joan had made she changed her mind. She was soon eating with the others, and feeling much better.

‘There’s nothing to drink, unfortunately,’ said Dick. ‘But Joan’s packed tomatoes and plums, too - so we’ll have those instead of a drink. They’re nice and juicy.’

They ate everything, though secretly Julian wondered if it was a good thing to wolf all their food at once. There was no telling how long they might be lost in Ravens Wood!

Joan might get worried sooner or later and tell the police they had gone there, and a search would be made. But it might be ages before they were found.

Anne fell asleep after her meal. The boys talked softly over her head. ‘I don’t much like this,’ said Dick. ‘We set out to find George - and all we’ve done is to lose ourselves. We don’t seem to be managing this adventure as well as we usually do.’

‘If we don’t get out before dark we’ll have to make up some kind of bed under a bush,’

said Julian. ‘We’ll have another go when Anne wakes - and we’ll do a bit of yelling, too.

Then if we’re still lost, we’ll bed down for the night.’

But when darkness came - and it came very early in that thick wood, they were still as much lost as ever. They were all hoarse with shouting, too.

In silence they pulled bracken from an open space and piled it under a sheltering bush.

‘Thank goodness it’s warm tonight,’ said Dick, trying to sound cheerful. ‘Well - we’ll all feel much more lively in the morning. Cuddle up to me, Anne, and keep warm.That’s right. Julian’s on the other side of you! This is quite an adventure.’

‘I don’t like adventures,’ said Anne, in a small voice, and immediately fell asleep.

It took a long time for Julian and Dick to fall asleep. They were both worried - worried about George and worried about themselves, too. They were also very hungry, and their hunger kept them awake as much as their anxiety.

Dick fell asleep at last. Julian still lay awake, hoping that Anne was nice and warm between them. He didn’t feel very warm himself.

He heard the whisper of the leaves in the trees, and then the scamper of tiny paws behind his head. He wondered what animal it was - a mouse?

Something ran lightly over his hair and he shivered. A spider, perhaps. Well he couldn’t move, or he would disturb Anne. If it wanted to make a web over his hair it would have to. He shut his eyes and began to doze off. Soon he was dreaming.

He awoke very suddenly, with a jump. He heard the hoot of an owl. That must have been what wakened him. Now it would be ages before he slept again.

He shut his eyes. The owl hooted again and Julian frowned, hoping that Anne would not wake. She stirred and muttered in her sleep. Julian touched her lightly. She felt quite warm.

He settled down again and shut his eyes. Then he opened them. He had heard something! Not an owl or the pattering of some little animal’s feet - but another sound, a

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bigger one. He listened. There was a rustling going on somewhere. Some much bigger animal was about.