Lone pine five, p.10
Lone Pine Five, page 10
"I'll keep quiet," Percy sulked. "Dirty bullies, all of you! Six of you to one... "
Farther up the track they were warned by the clink of metal on stone and the sound of Smithson's voice. David held up his hand and the trailer stopped. Then, with Peter, he tiptoed forward until they could see round a pile of loose rocks at a sharp turn in the track.
Round the corner the track, which looked as if it had once been the bed of a stream, widened, and here, digging rather feebly among the loose stones, was Mr Wilkins. A few yards away Mr Smithson, with his hands on his hips and a cigar in his mouth, was watching him, and a little farther off Mrs Smithson was sitting on a rock smoking a cigarette.
"The beasts!" Peter whispered. "They're making him do it. What shall we do?"
David pulled her back round the rocks and spoke to the twins.
"How much farther to the camping place?"
"Not far," Dickie said confidently. "I remember this. 'Bout two more turns and we're there... Is it them? Mr Wilkins, too?"
Peter told them what they had seen and then David made his decision. "I'm sure we must go ahead and make camp. When we've got our headquarters we can leave a sentry and explore. We must get the trailer past, and I suggest we don't take any notice of any of them, and that includes Mr Wilkins, Jenny. Let's all pretend we don't know him, and I guess that will confuse Smithson a bit. He won't know what to believe."
It was very difficult for Jenny to obey these orders, but Mr Wilkins made it easier for them, for, after a quick smile of recognition as they came talking and laughing round the corner, he, too, pretended not to know them as Smithson let out a bellow of rage.
" 'Ere!" he shouted as David brushed by him hauling the trailer, "what are you kids doing? And 'ow did yer get in 'ere, I'd like to know? I left the car in the path."
Mrs Smithson jumped to her feet.
"Percy!" she shouted. "What have you done to my Percy?... Oh dear! Oh dear! Maybe they've kidnapped him!" She turned and stumbling among the stones disappeared round the corner.
"Excuse me, sir," David said politely, "but will you please move? You know quite well you daren't stop us and we've a perfect right to be here... We're camping in the hills."
Sullenly Mr Smithson moved aside and the Lone Pine procession moved with dignity up the dingle. Not one of them looked back.
8. Powerless Percy
It was after six when Dickie woke the next morning. Although he was very snug in his sleeping-bag it was a moment or two before he remembered where he was. Then he turned on his back and saw a ceiling of rock above him and realized that he was in the cave in Greystone Dingle. He remembered that the Lone Piners had now established themselves in H.Q.4 and that today there would almost certainly be some fun.
The morning smelled fresh and clean, and when he sat up he saw that it was no longer raining and that the red, watery sun was doing its best to dispel the mist. A yard away on his right Mary was still sleeping, and he could hear Peter and Jenny breathing gently in the gloom at the back of the cave. Outside, on the little plateau perched above the dingle, was the tent in which David and Tom were apparently still sleeping.
It seemed a pity to waste a beautiful morning, Dickie thought. Perhaps there was something that could be done before the others woke? Suddenly he realized what that something ought to be, wriggled out of his bag and scrambled into his jeans and sweater. Then he tiptoed across to his twin, kneeled down beside her, and with his mouth to her ear whispered, "Wake up, Mary. I've got an idea for us... Come out quietly when you are ready and don't wake the others."
She was with him in three minutes, and together they crept past the tent and down the little track which took them to the dingle. Mackie trotted happily at their heels.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Dickie said, "Do you know what it is, twin? Do you know what we ought to be doing right now?"
"Yes, I do. We ought to be getting sticks for the fire, 'cos we're the first to wake, and I s'pose we ought to be lugging a pail of water up to the cave, too."
He snorted with disgust. "Just like a girl!... There's plenty of people there to do that sort of thing, but what I want us to do is to go down right now and see if we can rescue Mr Wilkins."
"Dickie! That's a marvellous idea, but how can we do it... I mean, where is he and what shall we do with him when we've got him?"
"I don't think you're properly awake, twin," Dickie said. "I'm disappointed with you this morning, 'cos you keep on saying stupid things. It doesn't really matter what we do with him, does it? We can just give him to Jenny."
Mary nodded. "Sorry, Dickie... Let's go and spy on them. I'd better carry Mackie in case he barks... "
The nearer they got to the wood and the road where the Smithsons had left their caravan, the thicker was the mist, and they shivered in the damp chill.
"We shall be able to get close to their camp if it's still in the same place," Mary whispered through chattering teeth. "Careful, Dickie. We must be nearly there."
The fog hid them as they tiptoed across the wet grass between the foot of the dingle and the wood., but they did not realize how close they were to the caravan until a puff of wind sighed through the trees and began to move the mist. Then the sun tried a little harder and they both turned and ran back to the shelter of a gorse bush as the shapes of car, caravan and two tents became clear.
Dickie was curious.
"If old man Wilkins is in one of those tents I could creep up and tell him we're here and that he's only got to come with us and be rescued."
Mary was dubious. "Sounds too easy. twin. It won't happen like that... LOOK! I think someone is moving in that near tent... Anyway, Dickie, it he really is their prisoner, they'd lock him in the caravan... Yes, it is. Someone's coming out... Quiet, Mackie."
As they crouched behind the gorse bush, speechless with excitement, the flaps of the little tent nearest to them shook, and then, rather like something emerging from a chrysalis, Percy, fully dressed, crawled out into the daylight. The boy stretched, rubbed his tousled head and yawned. Then he strolled over to the caravan. It was difficult for the two spies to see exactly what he did because the tents were in the way, but it seemed as if he was peering through the window in the door.
"What shall we do now, Mary?" Dickie whispered.
"Did you say what shall we do?" Mary returned.
Dickie nodded, and then they looked at each other and, without words, began to giggle.
Then followed the seduction of Percy.
As he crossed the little clearing towards his tent Mary stood up, moved from behind the gorse bush and waved to him. As he stopped short in surprise she put her finger to her lips and beckoned. She stood there with the morning mist glinting on her curls. She looked very shy and afraid. Her violet eyes - always attractively large - were now dewy with unshed tears, and her lower lip trembled a little as she beckoned the reluctant Percy and whispered, "Please come over and help us... We've come all this way to find you... Do please come."
Slowly and suspiciously he advanced towards the bush, while Dickie quietened Macbeth.
"What you kids doing here?" Percy said as soon as he was in earshot. "You'd better get out quick before I wake my father... And keep that dog away."
"We've come to ask you to help us," Mary whispered. "But it's a secret and we don't want any of the grown-ups to know... We did so hope you would be awake, Percy... I was just telling you that we - that's my twin and me - are sure you're the only one who can help us. Will you come up the dingle a little way so that we can tell you everything?... Please, Percy."
Slowly the twins led their victim away, but when they were round the bend of the dingle and could no longer see the caravan, he stopped short and said suspiciously:
"What's the game, anyway. What do you two kids want?"
Shamelessly they flattered him and asked his advice. Shamelessly they betrayed their friends by telling him how badly they were treated by the other Lone Piners.
"It's because we're smaller than they are," Mary said bravely, but with a sob in her throat. "We're the youngest, you see, and they're big and they're too busy for us. They're stronger, too."
"And they bully us," Dickie gulped.
"What's all this got to do with me anyway?" Percy inquired with some logic.
"Well, you see, Percy" (this was Mary, of course), "we did rather hope that maybe you'd sort of join up with us and help us to show the grown-ups and these stuck-up, bossy seniors how clever we are... Would you, Percy? We know a few things about this adventure."
Percy tried to look cunning, but only succeeded in looking meaner than usual. "What adventure? Is it to do with that red-haired kid what lives in Barton?"
Mary thought that it might be better to evade a direct answer to this question, but that it would be safe to say, "Oh! Jenny Harman, you mean? We can't stand her. We hate her, don't we, Dickie?"
"We do. She's almost the worse, except David and Tom. But it was exciting when Tom found that you-know-what and gave it to her, wasn't it, twin? I s'pose that really started everything, didn't it?"
"I wish you'd explain what you're talking about," Percy snapped. "What do you mean? You just tell me what he gave that red-head that started everything... And hurry, because I want my breakfast."
Then they launched into a long, complicated and entirely imaginary story about something which Tom had found when he was at work on the farm. They contradicted each other, they flattered Percy unceasingly, they sneered at Tom and Jenny and when their victim asked a question they got him and themselves into such a muddle with evasive answers that all three of them lost touch with the original question. But they got Percy into a good humour and kept him guessing until they had passed the little plateau of H.Q.4 and were scrambling up the narrowing, stony track towards the top of the Stiperstones. Then, very subtly, Dickie changed the tone of the conversation, just when Percy was becoming really condescending. They told him legends of the Stiperstones and the Devil's Chair, and showed him how the latter was now hidden in mist and what this meant. They recounted with gusto all the eerie legends they had ever heard of this strange countryside, and many more besides. It was Mary who first noticed that their victim's sallow face became paler still and that his voice shook with fear as he questioned them. Just for a moment she felt sorry for him., for he was really frightened, but then she caught Dickie's eye and her heart was hardened.
They were passing a narrow, lonely cleft in the rocky hillside when Dickie stepped in front of Percy and nodded to his twin. Then they fell upon him. Dickie turned and hurled himself at the victim's knees and brought him down, while Mary, like a little fury, flung herself at him from behind.
They rolled him on to his face and forced his arms behind his back. Mary, sobbing with fury and muttering, "You beastly little beast! You didn't really think we liked you, did you? We'll teach you to throw rocks at little dogs," sat on his head and helped her twin to tie his hands together with his tie. Then Dickie rolled him back again, and as Percy began to kick out furiously they each fell upon a leg and tied his shoe laces together while he raged and fumed.
"Let me go," their victim snivelled.
"We told you that nobody could do what you did to this dog and not be sorry," said Mary. "Now you're going to have lots of time to be sorry up here with the old Devil who is sitting on his throne now... I s'pect we'll let you starve to death... Sorry, Mackie, but you've got to stay and guard him... Come on; Dickie."
Even when they were round the next corner they could still hear Percy's cries for help.
Dickie looked at Mary uneasily.
"We're not really bullyin' him, are we, twin? O' course, I know it serves him right, but... "
"I know how you feel, twin, 'cos I feel the same. Maybe we were a bit rough, but he started it all, and he shouldn't throw stones at dogs and be cheeky to us... What are we going to do now?"
"Get some food and more odds and ends and then go back to torture him - or pretend to - until we find out something about Mr Wilkins and what he really is doing for them... If we don't go back now they'll all wake up and fuss and come and look for us and spoil everything... There they are. They've got up and the fire's going, and I only hope one of them has fetched the water... Come on, twin. Don't tell 'em a thing. I'll get round Peter for some food and we'll be off again as quickly as we can."
They climbed the track to the little plateau and smiled sweetly on David.
"Good morning, David... Hello, Tom... "
David stood up and Tom joined him, barring the way into the cave.
"Where have you two been?" he said. "How long have you been out, and who said you could go, anyway? You know perfectly well that everyone has to take a share in helping to run the camp."
"We've been out looking for things," Dickie said, truthfully enough. "Things to help you, maybe, but private things too... "
"Where's Mackie?" David said suspiciously.
"He's all right," Mary smiled. "Don't you worry about him... Hello, Peter and Jenny."
The four seniors stood round the twins in a silent circle - "One at each corner," as Dickie remarked later - but their disapproval failed to impress them. Mary looked at them curiously as if she had never seen them before and then gazed into the sky, which was clouding over again. Dickie thrust his hands in his pockets and whistled "Oh! What a beautiful morning!"
Jenny tried to stifle a giggle, and then Peter said: "What have you been up to? It wasn't fair to go off like that without leaving a note. We were worried."
"I wasn't," Tom snorted. "Put it on record that I'm never likely to worry about either of 'em. They're too young to be brought on a trip like this."
Mary put out her tongue at him as Dickie spoke to Peter.
"That's all right, Peter. Don't worry about us. As Tom thinks we're too young to be with you We'll go off by ourselves... Matter of fact, we've got a secret camp of our own, so if you'll just let us have our share of the food we'll be on our way."
"Don't give them any food, Peter," David said.
The twins then strolled out of the circle and Dickie went into the cave and began to pack some things in his rucksack while Mary stood on guard outside.
"So you're going to let us starve, are you, Peter?" she said sweetly. "Not even a biscuit for breakfast? Well, you'll all be sorry one day when the hawks and things up here have picked our bleached bones clean... Ready, twin? Let's go, then."
Dickie turned halfway down the track.
"If you should happen to want old Mr Wilkins, Jenny," he called, "just let us know - if you can find us! Just leave it all to us."
"You'd better not spoil everything we fixed for you all," Mary added. "Don't try and do anything today without us, else you'll be sorry... If we don't come back, thro' lack of nourishment, maybe Mackie will lead you to us."
"That's right," Dickie added. "Dogs last longer than twins without food." And then, unexpectedly, he raised his arm in salute and added, "Farewell!"
As soon as they were out of sight round the corner of the dingle Peter laughed.
"They're up to something. Let's have breakfast and then go and find them."
"Leave 'em alone, I say," Tom remarked. "They'll come back when they're hungry."
"I think you're all rather beastly to the twins," Jenny said stoutly. "I think it must be wonderful to be a twin. It's one of the things I've always wanted to be."
David pointed out that whatever she wanted to be was nothing to do with how the twins were behaving now. "But I do agree," he went on, "that they're really up to something. They were definitely smug..."
Half an hour later the four were sitting comfortably round the fire enjoying breakfast, while David, in his usual logical way, was arguing that although it was great fun to have a camp like this and enemies like the Smithsons, they still did not really know whether Mr Wilkins knew what he was talking about.
"Of course he does," Jenny protested. "You're most unfair to him, David. You always have been. Didn't we see him digging down the dingle yesterday? Anyway, I know that what he's told me is true. Haven't I got this?" and dramatically she whisked out the strange silver spoon from inside her jersey. "It's very precious and it really is Roman treasure, I'm sure."
"Is it?" said a strange voice. "Who said so?"
"Mr Wilkins, of course," Jenny said without thinking. And then, when she saw the expression of horror on Peter's face, she turned round and saw Mr and Mrs Smithson watching them from a few yards away.
"Show me that spoon," the man demanded.
With a scuffle and wriggle Jenny restored her treasure to its temporary resting-place and then stood up with the others and faced their enemies across the camp-fire.
There was a long silence, and then Smithson, with a horrid leer, took a step forward and held out his hand.
"Please let me see that bit of old metal, kid. Just for a moment. I'm interested in things like that."
"I know," Jenny said. ''That's what we're afraid of. I won't show it to you and I won't sell it for any money in the world... Where's Mr Wilkins?"
David looked at her with admiration and smiled when he saw Smithson's face. Somehow or other Jenny had got her courage back!
Mrs Smithson looked a wreck. Her stockings were torn, her dyed hair awry, and the make-up on her face was rather like a clown's. After a few uneasy moments she gulped and said, "Never mind about that now... Have any of you kids seen my Percy this morning?"
David smiled at the idea which suddenly occurred to him.
"Since you ask us so politely," he said cheerfully, "we have not seen Percy. Has he run away from you?"
"That's enough of your cheek," Smithson blustered, while Mrs Smithson plucked at her lip with a painted finger-nail and then turned on him.
"You see. I know what's happened. Percy told me yesterday that he'd had trouble with some dirty gipsies and sent 'em off packing... Now they've come back and kidnapped my precious out of his tent... That's what has happened... He told me about 'em."
