Читать книгу Secret Seven Adventure - Enid blyton - Страница 6

Table of Contents

Colin slid down the tree. He stood at the foot, looking warily round. Nobody was in sight. The man had completely vanished.

‘I’ll run at top speed and hope for the best,’ thought Colin, and off he went. Nobody stopped him! Nobody yelled at him. He felt rather ashamed of himself when he came to the field-path and saw the cows staring at him in surprise.

He went back to the farmhouse where Peter and Janet lived. Maybe the Secret Seven were still down in the shed, stripped of their Red Indian things and wiping the paint off their faces.

He ran down the path to the shed. The door was shut as usual. The S.S. showed up well with the two letters painted so boldly. There was the sound of voices from inside the shed.

Colin knocked. ‘Let me in!’ he cried. ‘I’m back too.’

There was a silence. The door didn’t open. Colin banged again impatiently. ‘You know it’s only me. Open the door!’

Still it didn’t open. And then Colin remembered. He must give the password, of course! What in the world was it? Thankfully he remembered it, as he caught a glimpse of brilliant Red Indian feathers through the shed-window.

‘Indians!’ he shouted.

The door opened. ‘And now everybody in the district knows our latest password,’ said Peter’s voice in disgust. ‘We’ll have to choose another. Come in. Wherever have you been? We yelled and yelled for you at Little Thicket.’

‘I know. I heard you,’ said Colin, stepping inside. ‘I say, I’m sorry I shouted out the password like that. I wasn’t thinking. But I’ve got some news—most peculiar news!’

‘What?’ asked everyone, and stopped rubbing the paint from their faces.

‘You know when Peter stood up and shouted out that he’d found a man in hiding, don’t you?’ said Colin. ‘Well, I was quite nearby—as a matter of fact, I was up a tree!’

‘Cheat!’ said George. ‘That’s not playing Red Indians!’

‘Who said it wasn’t?’ demanded Colin. ‘I bet Red Indians climbed trees as well as wriggling on their tummies. Anyway, I was up that tree—and, will you believe it, the man that Peter found came running up to my tree, and climbed it too!’

‘Golly!’ said George. ‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing,’ said Colin. ‘He didn’t come up quite as far as I was—so I just sat tight, and didn’t make a sound. I saw him before Peter did, actually. I saw him on the top of the wall that surrounds Milton Manor—then he dropped down, ran to the thicket and disappeared.’

‘What happened in the end?’ asked Janet, excited.

‘After you’d all gone, he slid down the tree and went,’ said Colin. ‘I didn’t see him any more. I slid down too, and ran for home. I felt a bit scared, actually.’

‘Whatever was he doing, behaving like that?’ wondered Jack. ‘What was he like?’

‘Well, I only saw the top of his head and his ears,’ said Colin. ‘Did you see him closely, Peter?’

‘Yes, fairly,’ said Peter. ‘But he wasn’t anything out of the ordinary really—clean-shaven, dark-haired—nothing much to remember him by.’

‘Well, I suppose that’s the last we’ll hear of him,’ said Barbara. ‘The adventure that passed us by! We shall never know exactly what he was doing, and why.’

‘He spoilt our afternoon, anyway,’ said Pam. ‘Not that we’d have caught Colin—hiding up a tree like that. We’ll have to make a rule that trees are not to be climbed when we’re playing at stalking.’

‘When’s our next meeting—and are we going to have a new password?’ asked Janet.

‘We’ll meet on Wednesday evening,’ said Peter. ‘Keep your eyes and ears open for anything exciting or mysterious or adventurous, as usual. It is a pity we didn’t capture that man—or find out more about him. I’m sure he was up to no good.’

‘What about a password?’ asked Janet again.

‘Well—we’ll have “Adventure”, I think,’ said Peter. ‘Seeing we’ve just missed one!’

They all went their several ways home—and, except for Colin, nobody thought much more of the peculiar man at Little Thicket. But the radio that evening suddenly made all the Secret Seven think of him again!

‘Lady Lucy Thomas’s magnificent and unique pearl necklace was stolen from her bedroom at Milton Manor this afternoon,’ said the announcer. ‘Nobody saw the thief, or heard him, and he got away in safety.’ Peter and Janet sprang up at once. ‘That’s the man we saw!’ yelled Peter. ‘Would you believe it! Call a meeting of the Secret Seven for tomorrow, Janet—this is an adventure again!’