Читать книгу Adventure of the Strange Ruby - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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No answer came to Tessa’s letter for some time. ‘I expect it had to be forwarded from their home address to their school,’ said Tessa. ‘They go to boarding-school, don’t they, not to day-school, like us.’

The end of term came, and still there was no answer. Then, on the third day of the summer holidays, there came a letter addressed to Tessa. It was from Faith.

‘Now we’ll hear their news,’ said Tessa, tearing open the envelope. Pat came and looked over her shoulder. They read in silence.

Dear Tessa and Pat,

Thanks awfully for your letter. Yes, it was our great-aunt who died. We were rich before, and now I suppose we’re richer, which is an awful nuisance, because what we really want to do when we’re older is just to run a riding-stables, and you don’t want a lot of money for that.

At least, if you do, you can earn it, and that’s fun. Just having money left to you is no fun at all AND we’ve got the Ruby—at least, it’s being kept for us, though goodness knows we don’t want the beastly thing. We haven’t seen it.

Do you remember our governess, Miss Lawley? Well, she’s gone. She’s afraid of the Ruby! Can you imagine anything so idiotic—afraid of a red stone! She told us awful things about it before she went, tried to scare us, but you know David and me, we laughed like anything at her.

We’re having someone else soon, I don’t know who. Someone mouldy, I expect—couldn’t be worse than old Lawley, anyway, with her scare-stories!

We’re going somewhere for the hols. I don’t know where, because for some reason or other it’s all hush-hush. If only it was Swanage again! If we can manage to find out where we’re going, we’ll send a note. David sends you one of his grins.

Love from

Faith Gathergood

Tessa looked at Pat. ‘So their governess kept her word! Well, she couldn’t have been very fond of them. It must be pretty awful to have nobody fond of you, no mother or anything.’

‘Well, they’ve got each other, and you know what twins are,’ said Pat. ‘They stick together like glue, usually. I do hope they’ll manage to let us know where they’re going for the hols. I only wish it was somewhere near us.’

They heard nothing more for a whole week, and then another letter turned up—rather a grubby, creased one, which held only a few lines.

Only have a moment to scribble this—we’re going off somewhere now, this minute, in a car. Things aren’t too good somehow. All we know is that we overheard someone mention Bringking Hill—at least that’s what it sounded like. We’re throwing this letter out of the car hoping it will be found and posted by someone. We’ll write again if we can.

Faith

Pat and Tessa read this twice. Then they looked at one another.

‘What does Faith mean—“things aren’t too good, somehow”, do you suppose?’ said Pat. ‘And why weren’t they told where they were going? They must have asked! And why on earth weren’t they allowed even to post a letter?’

‘It seems a bit funny,’ said Tessa. ‘But, of course, the twins always were a bit mad, and given to making mysteries out of things, weren’t they? We’ll probably get a letter or card in a day or two with their proper address.’

But they didn’t. No letter or card came at all. Then, for some reason, Tessa began to worry.

‘I’m sure there’s something up,’ she said. ‘I’ve got one of my Feelings. I think we ought to tell Mummy.’

‘Don’t be so silly,’ said Pat. ‘You and your Feelings! The last time you had a Feeling, it was about Dumpy the cat, and you gave me an awful time, making me think she had been run over and killed or something—and she was in the kitchen all the time.’

‘But she had stolen all the fish out of the larder,’ said Tessa.

‘Oh well—if you’re going to have Feelings about cats stealing fish, I don’t think much of them,’ said Pat. ‘But I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Tessa—we’ll look up Daddy’s hotel and garage book, that gives all the towns of Britain, and see if Bringking Hill is mentioned.’

There was no mention of Bringking Hill, but there was apparently a town called Brinkin—and what was more, it was in Dorset, not so very far from Swanage, which the children knew very well indeed!

‘Gosh—suppose this Brinkin is the Bringking Hill Faith writes about!’ said Pat. ‘We’re going down to Dorset soon—we might be able to find Brinkin Hill, if it’s near Brinkin, and see if we can spot the twins!’

‘Let’s get the big map of Dorset,’ said Tessa. ‘Where is it? Oh, I know—it’s in the cupboard with all the other maps. I’ll get it.’

She found it, and the two of them spread out the big, detailed map on the playroom floor and studied it very carefully.

Pat spotted Brinkin first and jabbed his finger on it triumphantly.

‘There you are—Brinkin—and look at this nearby, it’s a hill. I bet it’s Brinkin Hill!’

‘It’s not terribly far from Swanage,’ said Tessa considering the map. ‘We’d have to go through Corfe Castle village—and take this road here.’

‘Well—as soon as we get down to Swanage this year, let’s cycle to Brinkin Hill and find the twins!’ cried Pat. ‘What a surprise we’ll give them!’