Five Go Off In A Caravan Chapter Ten A CURIOUS CHANGE OF MIND（在线收听）

Chapter Ten A CURIOUS CHANGE OF MIND

Nobby felt very much tempted to go and have a meal up in the hills with the children. But he was afraid of meeting Lou and his uncle coming back from their walk.

'We can easily look out for them and warn you if we see or hear them,' said Dick, 'and you can flop under a bush and hide till they go past. You may be sure we'll be on the look-out for them ourselves, because we don't want to meet them either!'

'Well, I'll come,' said Nobby. 'I'll take Barker and Growler too. They'll like to see Timmy.'

So all five of them, with the two dogs, set off up the hill. They climbed up short cuts at first, but they  were  soon  panting,  and  decided  to  take  the  track,  which,  although  longer,  was  easier  to follow.

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They all kept a sharp look-out for the two men, but they could see no sign of them. 'We shall be at our caravans soon,' said Julian. Then he heard Timmy barking in the distance. 'Hallo! What's old Tim barking for? I wonder if those fellows have been up to our caravans?'

'Good thing we left Timmy on guard if so,' said Dick. 'We might have missed something if not.'

Then he went red, remembering that it was Nobby's uncle he had been talking of. Nobby might feel  upset  and offended  to  hear  someone speaking  as  if he thought Tiger  Dan would commit a little robbery.

But  Nobby  wasn't  at  all  offended.  'Don't  you  worry  about  what  you  say  of  my  uncle,'  he  said, cheerfully. 'He's a bad lot. I know that. Anyway, he's not really my uncle, you know. When my father  and  mother  died,  they  left  a  little  money  for  me  -  and  it  turned  out  that  they  had  asked Tiger Dan to look after me. So he took the money, called himself my uncle, and I've had to 'be with him ever since.'

'Was he in the same circus, then?' asked Julian.

'Oh  yes.  He  and  my  father  were  both  clowns,'  said  Nobby.  'Always  have  been  clowns,  in  my family. But wait till I'm old enough, and I'll do a bunk - clear off and join another circus, where they'll let me look after the horses. I'm mad on horses. But the fellow at our circus won't often let me go near them. Jealous because I can handle them, I suppose!'

The  children  gazed  at  Nobby  in  wonder.  He  seemed  an  extraordinary  boy  to  them  -  one  who walked about with a tame chimpanzee, exercised hordes of performing dogs, lived with the chief clown in the circus, could turn the most marvellous cart-wheels, and whose only ambition was to work with horses! What a boy! Dick half-envied him.

'Haven't you ever been to school?' he asked Nobby.

The boy shook his head. 'Never! I can't write. And I can only read a bit. Most circus folk are like that, so nobody minds. Jumping Jiminy, I bet you're all clever, though! I bet even little Anne can read a book!'

'I've been able to read for years,' said Anne. 'And I'm up to fractions now in numbers.'

'Coo! What's fractions?' said Nobby, impressed.

'Well - quarters and halves and seven-eighths, and things like that,' said Anne. 'But I'd rather be able to turn a cart-wheel like you can, Nobby, than know how to do fractions.'

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'Whatever is Timmy barking for?' said George as they came near the clump of birch trees. Then she stopped suddenly, for she had seen two figures lying down in the grass below the trees. Lou -

and Tiger Dan!

It  was  too  late  for  Nobby  to  hide.  The  men  saw  him  at  once.  They  got  up  and  waited  for  the children to come near. George felt thankful that Timmy was within whistling distance. He would come at the first call or whistle, she knew.

Julian looked at the men. To his surprise they appeared to be quite amiable. A faint scowl came over Tiger Dan's face when he caught sight of Nobby, but it passed at once.

'Good  evening,'  said  Julian  curtly,  and  would  have  passed  on  without  another  word,  but  Lou stepped up to him.

'We see you're camping up by here,' said Lou, and smiled showing yellow teeth. 'Ain't you going over the hill?'

'I don't need to discuss my affairs with either you or your friend,' said Julian, sounding extremely grown-up. 'You told us to clear out from down below, and we have. What we do now is nothing to do with you.'

'Ho yes, it is,' said Tiger Dan, sounding as if he was being polite with great difficulty. 'We come up here tonight to plan a place for some of our animals, see? And we don't want you to be in no danger.'

'We  shan't  be,'  said  Julian,  scornfully.  'And  there  is  plenty  of  room  on  these  hills  for  you  and your animals and for us, too. You won't scare us off, so don't think it. We shall stay here as long as we want to - and if we want help there's the farmer and his men quite near by - to say nothing of our dog.'

'Did you leave that there dog on guard?' asked Lou, as he heard Timmy barking again. 'He ought to be destroyed, that dog of yours. He's dangerous.'

'He's  only  dangerous  to  rogues  and  scamps,'  said  George,  joining  in  at  once.  'You  keep  away from our caravans when Timmy's on guard. He'll maul you if you go near.'

Lou  began  to  lose  his  temper.  'Well,  are  you  going  or  ain't  you?'  he  said.  'We've  told  you  we want this here bit of the hill. You can come down and camp by the lake again if you want to.'

'Yes -  you come,' said Tiger Dan to the children's growing astonishment. 'You come, see? You can bathe in the lake every day, then - and Nobby here can show you round the camp, and you can make friends with all the animals, see?'

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Now it was Nobby's turn to look amazed.

'Jumping  Jiminy!  Didn't  you  beat  me  black  and  blue  for  making  friends  with  these  kids?'  he demanded. 'What's the game, now? You've never had animals up in the hills before. You've . . .'

'Shut up,' said Tiger Dan in such a fierce voice that all the children were shocked. Lou nudged Dan, and he made an effort to appear pleasant again.

'We didn't want Nobby to make friends with posh folk like you,' he began again. 'But it seems as if you want to pal up with him - so it's okay with us. You come on down and camp by the lake, and Nobby'll show you everything in the circus. Can't say fairer than that.'

'You've  got  other  reasons  for  making  all  these  suggestions,'  said  Julian,  scornfully.  'I'm  sorry  -

but our plans are made, and I am not going to discuss them with you.'

'Come on,' said Dick. 'Let's  go and find Timmy. He's barking his head off because he can hear us, and it won't be long before he comes flying along here. Then we shall find it difficult to keep him off these two fellows.'

The  four  children  began  to  move  off.  Nobby  looked  doubtfully  at  his  uncle.  He  didn't  know whether to go with them or not. Lou nudged Dan again.

'You  go,  too,  if  you  want  to,'  said  Tiger  Dan,  trying  to  grin  amiably  at  the  surprised  Nobby.

'Keep your fine friends, see! Much good may they do you!' The grin vanished into a scowl, and Nobby skipped smartly out of reach of his uncle's hand. He was puzzled and wondered what was behind his uncle's change of mind.

He tore after the  children. Timmy  came to  meet  them, barking his  head off, waving the plumy tail wildly in joy.

'Good  dog,  good  dog!'  said  George,  patting  him.  'You  keep  on  guard  beautifully.  You  know  I would have whistled for you if I'd wanted you, didn't you, Timmy? Good dog!'

'I'll get you some supper,' said Anne to everyone. 'We're all famishing. We can talk while we eat.

George, come and help.  Julian, can you get some ginger-beer? And, Dick, do fill up the water-bowl for me.'

The boys winked at one another. They always thought that Anne was very funny when she took command like this, and gave her orders. But everyone went obediently to work.

Nobby went to help Anne. Together they boiled ten eggs hard in the little saucepan. Then Anne made tomato sandwiches with potted meat and got out the cake the farmer's wife had given them.

She remembered the raspberry syrup, too - how lovely!

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Soon they were all sitting on the rocky ledge, which was still warm, watching the sun go down into the lake. It was a most beautiful evening, with the lake as blue as a cornflower and the sky flecked with rosy clouds. They held their hard-boiled eggs in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other, munching happily. There was a dish of salt for everyone to dip their eggs into.

'I don't know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors,' said George. 'For instance, even if we had hard-boiled eggs and bread and butter indoors, they wouldn't taste as nice as these.'

'Can everyone eat two eggs?' asked Anne. 'I did two each. And there's plenty of cake - and more sandwiches and some plums we picked this morning.'

'Best  meal  I've ever had in  my life,' said  Nobby,  and picked up his  second egg.  'Best  company I've ever been in, too!'

Thank you,' said Anne, and everyone looked pleased. Nobby might not have their good manners, but he always seemed to say just the right thing.

'It's  a  good  thing  your  uncle  didn't  make  you  go  back  with  him  and  Lou,'  said  Dick.  'Funny business - changing his mind like that!'

They began to talk about it. Julian was very puzzled indeed, and had even begun to wonder if he hadn't better find another camping site and go over the hill.

The others raised their voices scornfully.

'JULIAN! We're not cowards. We'll jolly well stay here!'

'What, leave now - why should we? We're in nobody's way, whatever those men say!'

'I'm not moving my caravan, whatever anyone says!' That was George, of course.

'No,  don't  you  go,'  said  Nobby.  'Don't  you  take  no  notice  of  Lou  and  my  uncle.  They  can't  do nothing to you at all. They're just trying to make trouble for you. You stay and let me show you over the camp, see?'

'It isn't that I want to give in to those fellows' ideas,' said Julian. 'It's just that - well, I'm in charge of us all - and I don't like the look of Lou and Tiger Dan - and, well . . .'

'Oh,  have  another  egg  and  forget  about  it,'  said  Dick.  'We're  going  to  stay  here  in  this  hollow, however much Dan and Lou want us out of it. And, what's more, I'd like to find out why they're so keen to push us off. It seems jolly queer to me.'

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The sun went down in a blaze of orange and red, and the lake shimmered with its fiery reflection.

Nobby got up regretfully, and Barker and Growler, who had been hobnobbing with Timmy, got up, too.

'I'll have to go,' said Nobby. 'Still got some jobs to do down there. What about you coming down tomorrow to see the animals? You'll like Old Lady, the elephant. She's a pet. And Pongo will be pleased to see you again.'

'Your uncle may have changed his mind again by tomorrow, and not want us near the camp,' said Dick.

'Well - I'll signal to you,' said Nobby. 'I'll go out in the boat, see? And wave a hanky. Then you'll know it's all right. Well - so long! I'll be seeing you.'