Five Go Off In A Caravan Chapter Thirteen JULIAN THINKS OF A PLAN（在线收听）

Chapter Thirteen JULIAN THINKS OF A PLAN

George was trembling.  Her legs felt as if they wouldn't hold her up, and she sank down on the ledge. She put her arms round Timmy.

'Oh, Timmy! That meat was meant for you! Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness you were clever enough not to touch it! Timmy, you might have been poisoned!'

Timmy licked his mistress soberly. The others stood round, staring, not knowing what to think.

Poor Barker! Would he die? Suppose it had been old Timmy? They had left him all alone, and he might have eaten the meat and died.

'I'll never, never leave you up here alone again!' said George.

'Who threw him the poisoned meat, do you think?' said Anne, in a small voice.

'Who do you suppose?' said George, in a hard, scornful voice. 'Lou and Tiger Dan!'

'They want to get us away from here, that's plain,' said Dick. 'But again - why?'

'What  can  there  be  about  this  place  that  makes  the  men  want  to  get  rid  of  us  all?'  wondered Julian. 'They're real rogues. Poor Nobby. He must have an awful life with them. And now they've gone and poisoned his dog.'

Nobody felt like eating very much that evening. Anne got out the bread and the butter and a pot of jam. George wouldn't eat anything. What a horrid end to a lovely day!

They all went to bed early, and nobody objected when Julian said he was going to lock both the caravans.  'Not  that  I  think  either  Lou  or  Dan  will  be  up  here  tonight,'  he  said.  'But  you  never know!'

Whether they came or not the children didn't know, for although Timmy began to bark loudly in the middle of the night,  and scraped frantically at the shut door of George's caravan, there was nothing to be seen or heard when Julian opened his door and flashed on his torch.

Timmy didn't bark any more. He lay quite quietly sleeping with one ear cocked. Julian lay in bed and thought hard. Probably Lou and Dan had come creeping up in the dark, hoping that Timmy had  taken  the  meat  and  been  poisoned.  But  when  they  heard  him  bark,  they  knew  he  was  all right, and they must have gone away again. What plan would they make next?

'There's something behind all this,' Julian thought, again and again. 'But what can it be? Why do they want us out of this particular spot?'

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He couldn't imagine. He fell asleep at last with a vague plan in his mind. He would tell it to the others tomorrow. Perhaps if he could make Lou and Dan think they had all gone off for the day -

with  Timmy  -  but really, he, Julian, would be left  behind,  in  hiding  -  maybe he  could  find out something, if Lou and Dan came along . . .

Julian fell asleep in the middle of thinking out his plan. Like the others, he dreamt of elephants squirting  him  with  water,  of  Pongo  chasing  the  monkeys,  of  the  dogs  playing  football  with excited yaps - and then into the dream came lumps of poisoned meat! Horrid.

Anne woke with a jump, having dreamt that someone had put poison into  the hard-boiled eggs they were going to eat. She lay trembling in her bunk, and called to George in a small voice.

'George! I've been having an awful dream!'

George woke up, and Timmy stirred and stretched himself. George switched on her torch.

'I've been having beastly dreams, too,' she said. 'I dreamt that those men were after Timmy. I'll leave my torch on for a bit and we'll talk. I expect that with all the excitement we've had today, and  the  horrid  end  to  it  this  evening,  we're  just  in  the  mood  for  horrid  dreams!  Still  -  they  are only dreams.'

'Woof,' said Timmy, and scratched himself.

'Don't,' said George. 'You shake the whole caravan when you do that, Timmy. Stop it.'

Timmy  stopped.  He  sighed  and  lay  down  heavily.  He  put  his  head  on  his  paws  and  looked sleepily at George, as if to say, 'Put that torch out. I want to go to sleep.'

The next morning was not so warm, and the sky was cloudy. Nobody felt very cheerful, because they kept thinking of Nobby and poor Barker. They ate their breakfast almost in silence, and then Anne and George began to stack the plates, ready to take them to the spring to rinse.

'I'll  go  to  the  farm  this  morning,'  said  Julian.  'You  sit  on  the  ledge  and  take  the  field-glasses, Dick. We'll see if Nobby goes out in his boat and waves. I've an idea that he won't want us down in the camp this morning.  If he suspects his Uncle Dan and Lou of putting down the meat that poisoned Barker, he'll probably have had a frightful row with them.'

He went off to the farm with two empty baskets. Mrs Mackie was ready for him, and he bought a further  supply  of  delicious-looking  food.  Her  present  this  time  was  a  round  ginger  cake,  warm from the oven!

'Do the circus folk come up here often to buy food?' asked Julian, as he paid Mrs Mackie.

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'They come sometimes,' said Mrs Mackie. 'I don't mind the women or the children - dirty though they are, and not above taking one of my chickens now and again - but it's the men I can't abide.

There were two here last year, messing about in the hills, that my husband had to send off quick.'

Julian pricked up his ears. Two men? What were they like?'

'Ugly  fellows,'  said  Mrs  Mackie.  'And  one  had  the  yellowest  teeth  I  ever  saw.  Bad-tempered chaps,  both  of  them.  They  came  up  here  at  night,  and  we  were  afraid  our  chickens  would  go.

They swore they weren't after our chickens - but what else would they be up here at night for?'

'I can't imagine,' said Julian. He was sure that the two men Mrs Mackie spoke of were Lou and Tiger Dan. Why did they wander about in the hills at night?

He went off with the food. When he got near the camping-place, Dick called to him excitedly.

'Hey,  Julian!  Come  and  look  through  the  glasses.  Nobby's  out  in  his  boat  with  Pongo,  and  I simply can't make out what it is they're both waving.'

Julian took  the glasses and looked through them. Far down the hill,  on the surface of the lake, floated Nobby's little boat. In it was Nobby, and with him was Pongo. Both of them were waving something bright red.

'Can't see what they're waving  - but that doesn't matter,' said Julian. The thing is  - what they're waving is red, not white. Red for danger. He's warning us.'

'Golly - I didn't think of that. What an idiot I am!' said Dick. 'Yes - red for danger. What's up, I wonder?'

'Well, it's clear we'd better not go down to the camp today,' said Julian. 'And it's also clear that whatever  danger  there  is,  is  pretty  bad  -  because  both  he  and  Pongo  are  waving  red  cloths  -

doubly dangerous!'

'Julian,  you're  jolly  sharp,'  said  George,  who  was  listening.  'You're  the  only  one  of  us  who tumbled to all that. Double-danger. What can it be?'

'Perhaps  it  means  danger  down  at  the  camp,  and  danger  here  too,'  said  Julian,  thoughtfully.  'I hope poor old Nobby is all right. Tiger Dan is so jolly beastly to him. I bet he's had a beating or two since last night.'

'It's a shame!' said Dick.

'Don't  tell  Anne  we  think  there  is  double-danger  about,'  said  Julian,  seeing  Anne  coming  back from  the  spring.  'She'll  be  scared.  She  was  hoping  we  wouldn't  have  an  adventure  these  hols  -

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and now we seem to be plunged into the middle of one. Golly, I really think we ought to leave these hills and go on somewhere else.'

But he only said this half-heartedly, because he was burning to solve the curious mystery behind Lou's behaviour and Dan's. The others pounced on him at once.

'We can't leave! Don't be a coward, Ju!'

'I won't leave. Nor will Timmy.'

'Shut up,' said Julian. 'Here comes Anne.'

They  said  no  more.  Julian  watched  Nobby  for  a  little  while  longer.  Then  the  boy  and  the chimpanzee drew in to the shore and disappeared.

When they were all sitting together on the ledge, Julian proposed the plan he had been thinking out the night before.

'I'd  like  to  find  out  what  there  is  about  this  place  that  attracts  Lou  and  Dan,'  he  said.  There  is something not far from here that makes the men want to get rid of us. Now suppose we four and Timmy go off down the hill and pass the camp, and yell out to Nobby that we're all - all of us -

going to the town for the day - and you three do go, but I slip back up the hill - maybe Lou and Dan will come up here, and if I'm in hiding I shall see what they're up to!'

'You mean, we'll all four pretend to go to town - but really only three of us go, and you get back and hide,' said Dick. 'I see. It's a good idea.'

'And  you'll hide somewhere and watch for the men to  come,' said  George. 'Well, for goodness'

sake don't let them see you, Julian. You won't have Timmy, you know! Those men could make mincemeat of you if they wanted to.'

'Oh,  they'd  want  to  all  right.  I  know  that,'  said  Julian  grimly.  'But  you  can  be  sure  I'll  be  jolly well hidden.'

'I don't see why we can't have a good look round and see if we can't find the cave or whatever it is the men want to come to,' said Dick. 'If they can find it, we can, too!'

'We don't know that it is a cave,' said Julian. 'We haven't any idea at all what attracts the men up here. Mrs Mackie said they were up here last year, too, and the farmer had to drive them away.

They thought the men were after the chickens - but I don't think so. There's something in these hills that makes the men want to get us away.'

'Let's have a good look round,' said George, feeling suddenly thrilled. 'I've gone all adventurous again!'

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'Oh  dear!'  said  Anne.  But  she  couldn't  help  feeling  rather  thrilled,  too.  They  all  got  up  and Timmy followed, wagging his tail. He was pleased that his friends hadn't gone off and left him on guard by himself that morning.

'We'll all go different ways,' said Julian. 'Up, down and sideways. I'll go up.'

They separated and went off, George and Timmy together, of course. They hunted in the hillside for  possible  caves,  or  even  for  some  kind  of  hiding-place.  Timmy  put  his  head  down  every rabbit-hole and felt very busy indeed.

After about half an hour the others heard Julian yelling. They ran back to the caravans, sure that he had found something exciting.

But he hadn't. He had simply got tired of hunting and decided to give it up. He shook his head when they rushed up to him, shouting to know what he had found.

'Nothing,' he said. 'I'm fed up with looking. There's not a cave anywhere here. I'm sure of that!

Anyone else found anything?'

'Not a thing,' said everyone in disappointment. 'What shall we do now?'

'Put  our  plan  into  action,'  said  Julian,  promptly.  'Let  the  men  themselves  show  us  what  they're after. Off we go down the hills, and we'll yell out to Nobby that we're off for the day - and we'll hope that Lou and Tiger Dan will hear us!'