Читать книгу Secret Seven Adventure - Enid blyton - Страница 5

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By the time Peter had stood up to see where the horrified man had gone, he had completely disappeared. There wasn’t a sign of him anywhere.

‘Blow!’ said Peter, vexed. ‘Fat lot of good I am as a Red Indian. Can’t even stalk somebody right under my nose. Where in the world has the fellow gone?’

He began to hunt here and there, and soon the others, seeing him standing up, knew that something had happened. They called to him.

‘Peter—what is it? Why are you showing yourself?’

‘There was a man hiding under one of the bushes,’ said Peter. ‘I just wondered why. But he got up and shot away. Anyone see where he went?’

No one had seen him at all. They clustered round Peter, puzzled. ‘Fancy—seven of us crawling hidden in this field—and not one saw the man run off,’ said Pam. ‘We haven’t even seen Colin!’

‘The game’s finished for this afternoon,’ said Peter. He didn’t want the girls to come suddenly on the man in hiding—it would give them such a fright. ‘We’ll call Colin.’

So they yelled for him. ‘Colin! Come out, wherever you are! The game’s finished.’

They waited for him suddenly to stand up and appear. But he didn’t. There was no answer to their call, and no Colin suddenly appeared.

‘Colin!’ yelled everyone. ‘Come on out.’

Still he didn’t come. He didn’t even shout back. It was queer.

‘Don’t be funny!’ shouted George. ‘The game’s over! Where are you?’

Colin was where he had been all the time—hidden up in his tree. Why didn’t he shout back? Why didn’t he shin down the tree and race over to the others, pleased that he hadn’t been caught?

He didn’t show himself for a very good reason. He was much too frightened to!

He had had a shock when he saw the man drop down from the wall, and run to the thicket and hide—and he had an even greater shock when he saw him suddenly appear from a nearby bush, and run to the foot of the tree that he himself was hiding in.

Then he heard the sounds of someone clambering up at top speed—good gracious, the man was climbing the very tree that Colin himself had chosen for a hiding place!

Colin’s heart beat fast. He didn’t like this at all. What would the man say if he suddenly climbed up on top of him? He would certainly be very much annoyed.

The man came steadily up. But when he was almost up to the branch on which Colin sat, he stopped. The branch wasn’t strong enough to hold a man, though it was quite strong enough for a boy.

The man curled himself up in a fork of the tree just below Colin. He was panting hard, but trying to keep his breathing as quiet as possible. Peter was not so very far away and might hear it.

Colin sat as if he was turned to stone. Who was this man? Why had he come over the wall? Why had he hidden in Little Thicket? He would never have done that if he had known it was full of the Secret Seven playing at Red Indians!

And now here he was up Colin’s tree, still in hiding—and at any moment he might look up and see Colin. It was very unpleasant indeed.

Then Colin heard the others shouting for him. ‘Colin! Come out, wherever you are—the game’s finished!’

But poor Colin didn’t dare to come out, and certainly didn’t dare to shout back. He hardly dared to breathe, and hoped desperately that he wouldn’t have to sneeze or cough. He sat there as still as a mouse, waiting to see what would happen.

The man also sat there as still as a mouse, watching the six children below, peering at them through the leaves of the tree. Colin wished they had brought old Scamper with them. He would have sniffed the man’s tracks and gone to the foot of the tree!

But Scamper had been left behind. He always got much too excited when they were playing Red Indians, and by his barking gave away where everyone was hiding!

After the others had hunted for Colin and called him, they began to walk off. ‘He must have escaped us and gone home,’ said Peter. ‘Well, we’ll go too. We can’t find that man, and I don’t know that I want to, either. He looked a nasty bit of work to me.’

In despair, Colin watched them leave Little Thicket and disappear down the field-path. The man saw them go too. He gave a little grunt and slid down the tree.

Colin had been able to see nothing of him except the top of his head and his ears. He could still see nothing of the man as he made his way cautiously out of the thicket. He was a far, far better Red Indian than any of the Secret Seven, that was certain!

And now—was it safe for Colin to get down? He certainly couldn’t stay up in the tree all night!