9 Night visitor

    

    Mr Luffy slept very late the next morning and nobody liked to disturb him. The girls yelled with laughter when they heard how Dick had spoken to him the night before, thinking he was Timmy the dog.

    ’He was very decent about it,’ said Dick. ‘Seemed to think it was quite amusing. I hope he’ll still think so this morning!’

    They were all sitting eating their breakfast - ham, tomatoes, and the bread Mrs Andrews had given them the day before. Timmy collected the bits as usual, and wondered if George would let him have a lick of the cream cheese she was now putting on her bread. Timmy loved cheese. He looked at the lump in the dish and sighed all over George. He could easily eat that in one mouthful! How he wished he could.

    ’I wonder what time Jock will come up,’ said George. ‘If he came up pretty soon, we could go for a nice long walk over the moors, and picnic somewhere. Jock ought to know some fine walks.’

    ’Yes. We’ll mess about till he comes, and then tell him he’s to be our guide and take us to the nicest walk he knows,’ said Anne. ‘Oh Timmy, you beast -you’ve taken my nice lump of cream cheese right out of my fingers!’

    ’Well, you were waving it about under his nose, so what could you expect?’ said George. ‘He thought you were giving it to him.’

    ’Well, he §han’t have any more. It’s too precious,’ said Anne. ‘Oh, dear -1 wish we didn’t eat so much. We keep bringing in stacks of food, and it hardly lasts any time.’

    ’I bet Jock will bring some more,’ said Dick. ‘He’s a sensible sort of fellow. Did you get a peep into that enormous larder of his mother’s? It’s like a great cave, goes right back into the wall, with dozens of stone shelves - and all filled with food. No wonder Jock’s tubby.’

    ’Is he? I never noticed,’ said Anne. ‘Is that him whistling?’

    It wasn’t. It was a curlew, very high up. ‘Too early for him yet,’ said Julian. ‘Shall we help you to clear up, Anne?’

    ’No. That’s my job and George’s,’ said Anne firmly. ‘You go down and see if Mr Luffy is awake. He can have a bit of ham and a few tomatoes, if he likes.’

    They went down to Mr Luffy’s tent. He was awake, sitting at the entrance, eating some kind of breakfast. He waved a sandwich at them.

    ’Hallo, there! I’m late this morning. I had a job getting back. I went much too far. Sorry I woke you up last night, Dick.’

    ’You didn’t. I wasn’t asleep,’ said Dick, going rather red. ‘Did you have a good day, Mr Luffy?’

    ’Bit disappointing. Didn’t find quite all the creatures I’d hoped,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘What about you? Did you have a good day?’

    ’Fine,’ said Dick, and described it. Mr Luffy seemed very interested in everything, even in Mr Andrews’s rather frightening warning about the railway yard.

    ’Silly chap he sounds,’ said Mr Luffy, shaking the crumbs off his front. ‘All the same - I should keep away from the yard, if I were you. Stories don’t get about for nothing, you know. No smoke without fire!’

    ’Why, sir - surely you don’t believe there’s anything spooky about the trains there?’ said Dick, in surprise.

    ’Oh, no - I doubt if there are any trains,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘But when a place has got a bad name it’s usually best to keep away from it.’

    ’I suppose so, sir,’ said Dick and Julian together. Then they hastily changed the subject, afraid that Mr Luffy, like Mr Andrews, might also be going to forbid them to visit the railway yard. And the more they were warned about it and forbidden to go, the more they felt that they really must!

    ’Well, we must get back,’ said Dick. ‘We’re expecting Jock - that’s the boy at the farm - to come up for the day, and we thought we’d go out walking and take our food with us. Are you going out, too, sir?’

    ’Not today,’ said Mr Luffy. ‘My legs are tired and stiff with so much scrambling about yesterday, and I want to mount some of the specimens I found. Also I’d like to meet your farm friend - what’s his name -Jock?’

    ’Yes, sir,’ said Julian. ‘Right. We’ll bring him along as soon as he comes, then off we’ll go. You’ll be left in peace all day!’

    But Jock didn’t come. The children waited for him all the morning and he didn’t turn up. They held up their lunch until they were too hungry to wait any longer, and then they had it on the heather in front of their tents.

    ’Funny,’ said Julian. ‘He knows where the camp is, because we pointed it out to him when he came half-way home with us yesterday. Perhaps he’ll come this afternoon.’

    But he didn’t come in the afternoon either, nor did he come after tea. Julian debated whether or not to go and see what was up, but decided against it. There must be some good reason why Jock hadn’t come, and Mrs Andrews wouldn’t want them all visiting her two days running.

    It was a disappointing day. They didn’t like to leave the tents and go for even a short stroll in case Jock came. Mr Luffy was busy all day long with his specimens. He was sorry Jock had disappointed them. ‘He’ll come tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Have you got enough food? There’s some in that tin over there if you want it.’

    ’Oh, no, thank you, sir,’ said Julian. ‘We’ve plenty really. We’re going to have a game of cards. Like to join us?’

    ’Yes, I think I will,’ said Mr Luffy, getting up and stretching himself. ‘Can you play rummy?’

    They could - and they beat poor Mr Luffy handsomely, because he couldn’t play at all. He blamed his luck on his bad cards, but he enjoyed the game immensely. He said the only thing that really put him off was the way that Timmy stood behind him and breathed down his neck all the time.

    ’I kept feeling certain that Timmy thought he knew how to play my cards better than I could,’ he complained. ‘And whenever I did something wrong, he breathed down my neck harder than usual.’

    Everyone laughed, and George privately thought that Timmy would probably play very much better than Mr Luffy if only he could hold the cards.

    Jock didn’t come at all. They put the cards away when they could no longer see them, and Mr Luffy announced that he was going to bed. ‘It was very late when I got back last night,’ he said. ‘I really must have an early night.’

    The others thought they would go to bed too. The thought of their cosy sleeping-bags was always a nice one when darkness came on.

    The,girls crept into their bags and Timmy flopped down on George. The boys were in their bags about the same time and Dick gave a loud yawn.

    ’Good night, Ju,’ he said, and fell fast asleep. Julian was soon asleep too. In fact, everyone was sound asleep when Timmy gave a little growl. It was such a small growl that neither of the girls heard it, and certainly Dick and Julian didn’t, away in their tent.

    Timmy raised his head and listened intently. Then he gave another small growl. He listened again. Finally he got up, shook himself, still without waking George, and stalked out of the tent, his ears cocked and his tail up. He had heard somebody or something, and although he thought it was all right, he was going to make sure.

    Dick was sound asleep when he felt something brushing against the outside of his tent. He awoke at once and sat up. He looked at the tent opening. A shadow appeared there and looked in.

    Was it Timmy? Was it Mr Luffy? He mustn’t make a mistake this time. He waited for the shadow to speak. But it didn’t! It just stayed there as if it were listening for some movement inside the tent. Dick didn’t like it.

    ’Timmy!’ he said at last, in a low voice.

    Then the shadow spoke: ‘Dick? Or is it Julian? It’s Jock here. I’ve got Timmy beside me. Can I come in?’

    ’Jockl’ said Dick, in surprise. ‘Whatever have you come at this time of night for? And why didn’t you come today? We waited ages for you.’

    ’Yes. I know I’m awfully sorry,’ said Jock’s voice, and the boy wriggled himself into the tent. Dick poked Julian awake.

    ’Julian! Here’s Jock - and Timmy. Get off me, Timmy. Here, Jock, see if you can squeeze inside my sleeping-bag - there’s room for us both, I think.’

    ’Oh, thanks,’ said Jock, and squeezed inside with difficulty. ‘How warm it is! I say, I’m terribly sorry I didn’t come today - but my stepfather suddenly announced he wanted me to go somewhere with him for the whole day. Can’t think why. He doesn’t bother about me as a rule.’

    ’That was mean of him, seeing that he knew you were to come on a picnic with us,’ said Julian. ‘Was it something important?’

    ’No. Not at all,’ said Jock. ‘He drove off to Endersfield - that’s about forty miles away - parked me in the public library there, saying he’d be back in a few minutes - and he didn’t come back till past tea-time! I had some sandwiches with me, luckily. I felt pretty angry about it, I can tell you.’

    ’Never mind. Come tomorrow instead,’ said Dick.

    ’I can’t,’ said Jock in despair. ‘He’s gone and arranged for me to meet the son of some friend of his-a boy called Cecil Dearlove - what a name! I’m to spend the day with this frightful boy. The worst of it is Mum’s quite pleased about it. She never thinks my stepfather takes enough notice of me - good thing he doesn’t, /think.’

    ’Oh blow - so you won’t be able to come tomorrow either,’ said Julian. ‘Well - what about the next day?’

    ’It should be all right,’ said Jock. ‘But I’ve feeling I’ll have dear love of a Cecil plonked on me for the day - to show him the cows and the puppies, dear pet! Ugh! When I could be with you four and Timmy.’

    ’It’s bad luck,’ said Julian. ‘It really is.’

    ’I thought I’d better come and tell you,’ said Jock. ‘It’s the first chance I’ve had, creeping up here tonight.

    I’ve brought some more food for you, by the way. I guessed you’d want some. I feel down in the dumps about that adventure - you know, going to see the railway yard. I was going to ask you to take me today.’

    ’Well - if you can’t come tomorrow either - and perhaps not the next day - what about going one night?’ said Dick. ‘Would you like to come up tomorrow night, about this time? We won’t tell the girls. We’ll just go off by ourselves, we three boys - and watch!’

    Jock was too thrilled to say a word. He let out a deep breath of joy. Dick laughed.

    ’Don’t get too thrilled. We probably shan’t see a thing. Bring a torch if you’ve got one. Come to our tent and jerk my toe. I’ll probably be awake, but if I’m not, that’ll wake me all right! And don’t say a word to anyone of course.’

    ’Rather not, ‘said Jock, overjoyed. ‘Well -1 suppose I’d better be going. It was pretty weird coming over the moorland in the dark. There’s no moon, and the stars don’t give much light. I’ve left the food outside the tent. Better look out that Timmy doesn’t get it.’

    ’Right. Thanks awfully,’ said Julian. Jock got out of Dick’s sleeping-bag and went backwards out of the tent, with Timmy obligingly licking his nose all the way. Jock then found the bag of food and rolled it in to Julian, who put it safely under the groundsheet.

    ’Good night,’ said Jock, in a low voice, and they heard him scrambling over the heather. Timmy went with him, pleased at this unexpected visitor, and the chance of a midnight walk. Jock was glad to have the dog’s company. Timmy went right to the farm with him and then bounded back over the moorland to the camping-place, longing to pounce on the rabbits he could smell here and there, but wanting to get back to George.

    In the morning Anne was amazed to find the food in her ‘larder’ under the gorse bush. Julian had popped it there to surprise her. ‘Look at this!’ she cried, in astonishment. ‘Meat-pies - more tomatoes - eggs, wherever did they come from?’

    ’Spook-train brought them in the night,’ said Dick, with a grin.

    ’Volcano shot them up into the air,’ said Mr Luffy, who was also there. Anne threw a tea-cloth at him.

    ’Tell me how it came here,’ she demanded. ‘I was worried about what to give you all for breakfast - and now there’s more than we can possibly eat. Who put it there? George, do you know?’

    But George didn’t. She glanced at the smiling faces of the two boys. ‘I bet Jock was here last night,’ she said to them. ‘Wasn’t he?’ And to herself she said: ‘Yes - and somehow I think they’ve planned something together. You won’t trick me, Dick and Julian. I’ll be on the lookout from now on! Wherever you go, I go too!’