Five Fall Into Adventure (5 page)

‘I hope nothing very important has been taken,’ said Dick. ‘It looks as if somebody knew there was something valuable here, and meant to get it!’

‘And has probably got it,’ said Julian. ‘Hallo - that must be the police! Come on - I can see it will be a long time before we get our breakfast this morning!’

“Famous Five 09 - Five Fall Into Adventure” By Enid Blyton
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The police were very, very thorough. The children got tired of them long before lunch-time; Joan didn’t. She made them cups of coffee and put some of her homemade buns on a plate and sent Anne to pick up ripe plums. She felt proud to think that it was she who had discovered the ransacked study.

There were two policemen. One was a sergeant, rather solemn and very correct. He interviewed each of the children and asked them exactly the same questions. The other man went over the study bit by bit, very thoroughly indeed.

‘Looking for finger-prints, I suppose,’ said Anne. ‘Oh dear - when can we go and bathe?’

The thing that puzzled everyone, the police included, was - how did the thief or thieves get in? Both policemen went round the house, slowly and deliberately trying every door and window still locked or fastened. They stood and looked at the pantry window for some time.

‘Got in there, I suppose,’ said one of them.

‘Must have been as small as a monkey then,’ said the other. He turned to Anne, who was the smallest of the four children. ‘Could you squeeze through there, Missy, do you think?’

‘No,’ said Anne. ‘But I’ll try if you like.’ So she tried - but she stuck fast before she got even half-way through, and Julian had to pull hard to get her down again.

‘Have you any idea what has been stolen, sir?’ the sergeant asked Julian, who seemed extraordinarily grownup that morning.

‘No, sergeant - none of us has,’ said Julian. ‘Not even George here, who knows her father’s work better than any of us. The only thing we know is that my uncle went to America to lecture a short time ago - and he brought back two notebooks, full of valuable diagrams and notes. He did say that other countries might be very glad to get hold of those. I expect they were in that safe.’

‘Well - they’ll certainly be gone then,’ said the sergeant, shutting his own fat notebook with a snap. ‘Pity when people leave such things in an ordinary safe - and then go off without leaving an address. Can’t we possibly get in touch with him? This may be terribly important.’

‘I know,’ said Julian, looking worried. ‘We shall have an address in a day or two - but I honestly don’t see how we can get in touch before then.’

‘Right,’ said the sergeant. ‘Well - we’ll go now - but we'll bring back a photographer with us after lunch to photograph the room - then your cook can tidy it up. I know she’s longing to.’

‘Coming back again!’ said Anne, when the two men had solemnly walked down the path, mounted very solid-looking bicycles, and gone sailing down the lane. ‘Good gracious!

Have we got to answer questions all over again?’

‘Well, we’ll go down to the beach and take a boat and go rowing,’ said Julian, with a laugh. ‘We’ll be out of reach then. I don’t see that we can give them any more help. I must say it’s all very peculiar - I wish to goodness I knew how the thief got in.’

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George had been very quiet and subdued all the morning. She had worried about Timmy, fearing that he had been poisoned, and not merely drugged, as Julian had said.

But Timmy was now quite recovered, except that he seemed a bit sleepy still, and not inclined to gambol round in his usual ridiculous way. He looked extremely sheepish, too.

‘I can’t think why Timmy looks like that,’ said George, puzzled. ‘He usually only puts that look on when he’s done something he’s ashamed of - or got into mischief. He couldn’t possibly know, could he, that whatever he picked up and ate last night was something he shouldn’t eat?’

‘No,’ said Dick. ‘He’s sensible though, I think, not to touch poisoned meat - but he couldn’t know if some harmless sleeping powder had been put into anything. It might have no smell and no taste. Perhaps he’s just ashamed of being so sleepy!’

‘If only he’d been awake!’ groaned George. ‘He would have heard any noise downstairs at once - and he’d have barked and waked us all, and flown downstairs himself to attack whoever was there! Why, oh why didn’t I take him out myself last night as I usually do?’

‘It was a chapter of accidents,’ said Julian. ‘You didn’t take him out, so he was alone -

and it happened that someone was waiting there with drugged food - which he either found or took from the thief....’

‘No,’ said George. ‘Timmy would never, never take anything from someone he didn’t know. I’ve always taught him that.’

‘Well, he got it somehow - and slept through the very night he should have been awake,’

said Julian. ‘What I’m so afraid of, George, is that the thieves have got your father’s two American notebooks. They seem to have left most of the stuff - piles and piles of books of all kinds, filled with your father’s tiny handwriting.’

Joan came in to say lunch was ready. She told the children that the policemen had eaten every one of her home-made buns. She still felt important and excited, and was longing to get out to the village and tell everyone the news.

‘You’d better stay in and give the policemen a good tea,’ said Julian. ‘They’re coming back with a photographer.’

‘Then I’d better do another baking,’ said Joan, pleased.

‘Yes. Make one of your chocolate cakes,’ said Anne.

‘Oh, do you think they’d like one?’ said Joan.

‘Not for them, Joan - for us, of course!’ said George. ‘Don’t waste one of your marvellous chocolate cakes on policemen. Can you make us up a picnic tea? We’re fed up with being indoors - we’re going out in a boat.’

Joan packed them a good tea after they had had their lunch and they all set off before the police came back. Timmy was much less sleepy now and did a little caper round them as they walked to the beach. George brightened up at once.

‘He’s getting better,’ she said. ‘Timmy, I simply shan’t let you out of my sight now! If anyone’s going to dope you again they’ll have to do it under my very nose.’

They had a lovely time out in George’s boat. They went half-way to Kirrin Island and bathed from the boat, diving in and having swimming races till they were tired out.

Timmy joined them, though he couldn’t swim nearly as fast as they could.

‘He doesn’t really swim,’ said Anne. ‘He just tries to run through the water. I wish he’d let me ride on his back like a sea-dog - but he always slips away under me when I try.’

‘They got back about six o’clock to find that the policemen had eaten the whole of the chocolate cake that Joan had made, besides an extraordinary amount of scones and buns.

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Also the study was now tidied up, and a man had come to mend the safe. Everything was safely back there, though the police had told Joan that if there was anything of real value it should be handed to them till George’s father came back.

‘But we don’t know which of all those papers are valuable!’ said Julian. ‘Well - we’ll have to wait till Uncle Quentin cables us - and that may not be for days. Anyway, I don’t expect we’ll be worried by the thief again - he’s got what he wanted.’

The exciting happenings of the day had made them all tired except Julian. ‘I’m off to bed,’ said Dick, about nine o’clock. ‘Anne, why don’t you go? You look fagged out.’

‘Yes, I will,’ said Anne. ‘Coming, George?’

‘I’m going to take Timmy out for his last walk,’ said George. ‘I shall never let him go out alone at night again. Come on, Timmy. If you want to go to bed I’ll lock up the front door, Ju.’

‘Right,’ said Julian. ‘I’ll go up in a minute. I don’t fancy staying down here by myself tonight. I’ll fasten everything and lock up, except the front door. Don’t forget to put up the chain, too, George - though I’m pretty certain we don’t need to expect any more burglaries!’

‘Or faces at the window,’ said Anne, at once.

‘No,’ said Julian. ‘There won’t be any more of those either. Good night, Anne - sleep well!’

Anne and Dick went upstairs. Julian finished the paper be was reading, and then got up to go round the house and lock up. Joan was already upstairs, dreaming of policemen eating her chocolate cakes.

George went out with Timmy. He ran eagerly to the gate and then set off down the lane for his usual night walk with George. At a gate in the lane he suddenly stood still and growled as if he saw something unusual.

‘Silly, Timmy!’ said George, coming up. ‘It’s only somebody camping in a caravan!

Haven’t you seen a caravan before! Stop growling!’

They went on, Timmy sniffing into every rathole and rabbit-hole, enjoying himself thoroughly. George was enjoying the walk, too. She didn’t hurry - Julian could always go up to bed if he didn’t want to wait.

Julian did go up to bed. He left the front door ajar, and went yawning upstairs, suddenly feeling sleepy. He got into bed quietly and quickly seeing that Dick was already asleep.

He lay awake listening for George. When he was half asleep, he heard the front door shut.

‘There she is,’ he thought, and turned over to go to sleep.

But it wasn’t George. Her bed was empty all that night, and nobody knew, not even Anne. George and Timmy didn’t come back!

Anne woke up in the night, feeling thirsty. She whispered across the room:

‘George! Are you awake?’

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There was no answer, so, very cautiously and quietly Anne got herself a drink from the decanter on the washstand. George was sometimes cross if she was awakened in the middle of the night. Anne got back into bed, not guessing that George hadn’t answered because she wasn’t there!

She fell asleep and didn’t wake till she heard Dick’s voice. ‘Hey, you two - get up; it’s a quarter to eight. We’re going for a bathe!’

Anne sat up, yawning. Her eyes went to George’s bed. It was empty. More than that, it was all neat and tidy, as if it had just been made!

‘Well!’ said Anne in astonishment. ‘George is up already, and has even made her bed.

She might have waked me, and I could have gone out with her. It’s such a lovely day. I suppose she’s taken Timmy for an early morning walk, like she sometimes does.’

Anne slipped into her bathing costume and ran to join the boys. They went downstairs together, their bare feet padding on the carpet.

‘George has gone out already,’ said Anne. ‘I expect she woke early and took Timmy; I never even heard her!’

Julian was now at the front door. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The door isn’t locked or bolted - George must have slipped down, undone it and then just pulled the door softly to. How very considerate of her! Last time she went out early she banged the door so hard that she woke everyone in the house!’

‘She may have gone fishing in her boat,’ said Dick. ‘She said yesterday she’d like to some early morning when the tide was right. She’ll probably arrive complete with stacks of fish for Joan to cook.’

They looked out to sea when they got to the beach. There was a boat far out on the water with what looked like two people in it, fishing.

‘I bet that’s George and Timmy,’ said Dick. He yelled and waved his hands, but the boat was too far away, and nobody waved back. The three of them plunged into the cold waves. Brrr-rrr-rrr!

‘Lovely!’ said Anne, when they came out again, the drops of sea-water running down their bodies and glistening in the early morning sun. ‘Let’s have a run now.’

They chased one another up and down the beach, and then, glowing and very hungry, went back to breakfast.

‘Where’s George?’ asked Joan, as she brought in their breakfast. ‘I see her bed’s made and all - what’s come over her?’

‘I think she’s out fishing with Timmy,’ said Dick. ‘She was up and about long before we were.’

‘I never heard her go,’ said Joan. ‘She must have been very quiet. There you are now -

there’s a fine breakfast for you - sausages and tomatoes and fried eggs!’

‘O-o-o-h, lovely,’ said Anne. ‘And you’ve done the sausages just how I like them, Joan -

all bursting their skins. Do you think we’d better eat George’s too? She’s still out in the boat. She may not be back for ages.’

‘Well, then you’d better eat her share,’ said Joan. ‘I’ve no doubt she took something out of the larder before she went. Pity I didn’t lock it last night, as usual!’

They finished George’s share between them and then started on toast and marmalade.

After that Anne went to help Joan make the beds and dust and mop. Julian and Dick went off to the village to do the morning’s shopping at the grocer’s.

Nobody worried about George at all. Julian and Dick came back from their shopping and saw the little boat still out on the sea.

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‘George will be absolutely starving by the time she comes back,’ said Julian. ‘Perhaps she’s got one of her moods on and wants to be alone. She was awfully upset about Timmy being drugged.’

They met the ragamuffin Jo. She was walking along the beach, collecting wood, and she looked sullen and dirtier than ever.

‘Hallo, Jo!’ called Dick. She looked up and came towards them without a smile. She looked as if she had been crying. Her small brown face was streaked where the tears had run through the dirt.

‘Hallo!’ she said, looking at Dick. She looked so miserable that Dick felt touched.

‘What’s the matter, kid?’ he said, kindly.

Tears trickled down Jo’s face as she heard the kindness in his voice. She rubbed them away and smudged her face more than ever.

‘Nothing,’ she said. ‘Where’s Anne?’

‘Anne’s at home, and George is out in that boat with Timmy fishing,’ said Dick, pointing out to sea.

‘Oh!’ said Jo, and turned away to go on with her collecting of wood. Dick went after her.