Five Have Plenty of Fun (12 page)

„Well, Miss Jane is now safely in my cousin"s cottage," she said. „She was very miserable but I told her she must smile and play about, else the neighbours would wonder about her. I put her into some of Jo"s clothes - they fitted her al right. Hers are too expensive-looking, and would make people talk!"

They told Joan what they had discovered in the clearing that morning. She took the note and looked at it. „Gringo!" she said. „That"s a queer word - sounds like a gypsy word to me.

It"s a pity Jo isn"t here - she might tel us what it means!"

„Did you see Jo?" asked Dick.

„No. She was out shopping," said Joan, lifting the lid to look at the potatoes. „I only hope she gets on with Miss Jane al right. Really, it"s getting very difficult to remember that child"s change of names!"

The only fresh news that day was a worried telephone-cal from Aunt Fanny. She was shocked and amazed at the news she had heard. „Your uncle has collapsed!" she said.

„He has been working very hard, you know, and now this news of George has been quite the last straw. He"s very il . I can"t leave him at the moment - but anyway we couldn"t do anything! Only the police can help now. To think those horrible men took George by mistake!"

„Don"t worry too much, Aunt Fanny," said Julian. „We"ve hidden Berta away safely, and I expect the men wil free George as soon as she tells them she"s the wrong girl."

„If she does tel them!" said Dick, under his breath. „She might not, for Berta"s sake, for a few days at any rate!"

Everyone went miserable to bed that night. Anne took Timmy and Sal y with her, for both were so forlorn that she couldn"t bear to do anything else. Timmy wouldn"t eat anything at all, and Anne was worried about him.

Julian could not go to sleep. He tossed and turned, thinking about George. Hot-tempered, courageous, impatient, independent George! He worried and worried about her, wishing he could do something!

A small stone suddenly rattled against his window! He sat up, alert at once. Then something fel right into the room, and rolled over the floor. Julian was at the window in a trice. Who was throwing pebbles at his window?

He leaned out. A voice came up to him at once. „Is it you, Dick?"

„Jo! What are you doing here?" said Julian, startled. „It"s Julian speaking. Dick"s asleep. I"l wake him, and let you in."

But he did not need to go down and let Jo in. She was up a tree outside the window and across some ivy and on his window-sil before he had even shaken Dick awake!

She slid into the room. Julian switched on his light. There was Jo, sitting at the end of Dick"s bed, the familiar cheeky grin on her face! She was very brown, but stil showed her freckles, and her hair was as short and curly as ever.

„I had to come," she said. „When I got home from shopping, there was this girl Jane! She told me all about how George had been captured in mistake for her - and when I said to her, “You go straightaway and say you"re safe and sound, and it"s all a mistake, and George has got to be set free!” she wouldn"t! She just wouldn"t! Al she did was to sit and cry. Little coward!"

„No, no, Jo," said Dick, and tried to explain everything to the indignant girl. But he could not convince her.

„If I was that girl Jane I wouldn"t let someone stay kidnapped because of me," she said. „I don"t like her, she"s sil y. And I"m supposed to keep an eye on her! Phoo! Not me! I"d like her to be kidnapped, the way she"s behaving about George."

Julian looked at Jo. She was very, very loyal to the Five, and proud of being their friend.

She had been in two adventures with them now, an artful little gypsy girl, but a very loyal friend. Her father was in prison, and she was living with a cousin of Joan"s, and, for the first time in her life, going to school to learn lessons!

„Listen, Jo - we"ve found out a few more things since Berta - I mean Lesley - no, I don"t, I mean Jane..."

„What do you mean?" said Jo, puzzled.

„I mean Jane," said Julian. „We"ve found out something else since Joan parked Jane with her cousin this morning."

„Go on, tell me," said Jo. „Have you found out where George is? I"l go and break in and get her out, if you do!"

„Oh Jo - it"s no use just being fierce," said Dick. „Things are not so easy as all that!"

„George threw out a bit of paper with this written on it," said Julian, and he put it before Jo. „See? Just that one word - “Gringo”. Does it mean anything to you?"

„Gringo?" said Jo. „That rings a bel ! Let"s see now - Gringo!"

She frowned as she thought hard. Then she nodded. „Oh yes, I remember now. A Fair came to the town a few weeks back - the big town not far from our vil age. It was cal ed Gringo"s Great Fair."

„Where did it go?" asked Dick, eagerly.

„It was going to Fal enwick, then to Granton," said Jo. „I made friends with the boy whose father owned the roundabout, and gosh, I had about a hundred free rides."

„You would!" said both boys together, and Jo grinned.

„Do you suppose this Gringo, who runs the Fair, could be anything to do with the name Gringo that George wrote on this paper?" said Julian.

„I dunno!" said Jo. „But if you like I can go and find the Fair and get hold of Spiky - that"s the roundabout boy - and see if I can find out anything. I know Spiky said Gringo was a real horror to work for, and thought himself as good as a lord!"

„Had he a car - a big car?" asked Dick, suddenly.

„I dunno that either," said Jo. „I can find out. Here - I"l go now! You lend me a bike and I"l bike to Granton?"

„Certainly not," said Julian, startled at the idea of Jo biking the twelve miles to Granton in the middle of the night.

„Al right," said Jo, rather sulkily. „I just thought you"d like me to help. It might be that this Gringo has got George somewhere. He was the kind of fel ow who was a go-between, if you know what I mean."

„How?" asked Dick.

„Well, Spiky said that if anyone wanted something dirty done, this Gringo just held out his hand, and if a wad of notes was put into it, he"d do it, and nothing said!" said Jo.

„I see," said Julian. „Hm - it sounds as if kidnapping would be right up his street, then."

Jo laughed scornful y. „That would be nothing to him - chicken-feed. Come on, Julian - let me have a lend of your bike."

„NO," said Julian. „Thanks very, very much, but I"m not letting anyone ride to a Fair in the middle of the night to find out if a fel ow cal ed Gringo has anything to do with George. I can"t believe he has, either - it"s too far-fetched."

„Al right. But you asked me if the name meant anything to me," said Jo, sounding offended. „Anyway, it"s a common enough nickname in the Circus world and the Fair world too. There"s probably a thousand Gringos about!"

„It"s time you went back home," said Julian, looking at his watch. „And be decent to Berta

- I mean Jane - please, Jo. You can come over tomorrow to see if there"s any more news.

How did you get here tonight, by the way?"

„Walked," said Jo. „Well - ran, I mean. Not by the roads, though - they take too long. I go like the birds do - as straight as I can, and it"s much shorter!"

Dick had a sudden picture of the valiant little Jo speeding through woods and fields, over hil s and through valleys, as straight as a crow flying homewards. How did she find her way like that? He knew he would never be able to!

Jo slipped out over the window-sil , and down the tree, as easily as a cat. „Bye!" she said.

„See you soon."

„Give our love to Jane," whispered Dick.

„Shan"t!" said Jo, much too loudly, and disappeared.

Julian switched out the light. „Whew!" he said, „I always feel as if I"ve been blown about by a strong, fresh wind when I see Jo. What a girl! Fancy wanting to ride al the way to Granton tonight, after running al the way here from Berta"s!"

„Yes. I"m jolly glad you wouldn"t let her take your bike," said Dick. „It"s a good thing she wouldn"t dare to disobey you!"

He got into bed - and just at that very moment the two boys heard a loud ringing noise.

Dick sat up straightaway.

„Well I"m blowed!" he said. „The little wretch!"

„What"s up?" said Julian, and then he too realised what the ringing was - a Bicycle Bel .

Yes, a bel rung loudly and defiantly by someone cycling swiftly along the sea-road towards Granton!

„It"s Jo!" said Dick. „And she"s taken my bike! I know its bel . Gosh, won"t I rub her face in the mud when I get hold of her!"

Julian gave a loud guffaw. „She"s a monkey, a gallant, plucky, loyal, aggravating monkey. What a cheek she"s got! She didn"t dare to take my bike when I"d said no - so she took yours. Well - we can"t do a thing about it now. What that roundabout boy is going to think when he"s awakened in the middle of the night by Jo, I cannot imagine."

„He"s probably used to her," said Dick. „Well, let"s go to sleep. I wonder if George is asleep or awake? I hate to think of her a prisoner somewhere."

„I bet Timmy hates it more than we do," said Dick, hearing a long-drawn whimper from the next room. „Poor old Tim. He can"t go to sleep either!"

Dick and Julian managed to go to sleep at last, both thinking of a speedy little figure on a bicycle, racing through the night to ask questions of a roundabout boy cal ed Spiky!

At half past seven next morning Joan came running upstairs to Julian"s bedroom, a piece of paper in her hand. She knocked on the door.

„Master Julian! A dirty little note was on the front door mat when I got down this morning.

It"s folded over with your name on the outside."

Julian was out of bed in a trice. A note from the kidnappers perhaps? No - it couldn"t be.

They wouldn"t write to him!

It was from Jo! She had scribbled it so badly that Julian could hardly read it.

„Julian, I saw Spiky, he"s coming to the beech at levven I took Dick"s bike to go home on I wil bring it back at levven, don"t be too cross. Jo."

„I suppose “beech” doesn"t mean a tree, it means the beach, the sands," said Dick. „And

“levven” means eleven o"clock. Little scal ywag - I hope she hasn"t damaged my bike in any way."

Jo hadn"t. She had actually managed to find time to clean it before she left home, and arrived with it so bright and gleaming that Dick hadn"t the heart to scold her!

She was early so she came to the house instead of the beach. She rode through the gate and up the front path and Timmy ran to greet her with a vol ey of delighted barks. He liked Jo - in fact he real y loved the little gypsy girl. She certainly had a way with animals!

Sal y followed, dancing on her tiptoes as usual, ready to welcome as a friend anyone that Timmy liked.

Dick hailed Jo from the front door as she came up. „Hal o, bicycle-stealer! My word, what"s happened to my bike - have you spring-cleaned it?"

Jo grinned, looking at Dick warily. „Yes. I"m sorry I took it, Dick."

„You"re not a bit sorry - but I"l forgive you," said Dick, grinning too. „So you got to the Fair safely after al ?"

„Oh yes - and I woke up Spiky - he wasn"t half surprised," said Jo. „But his Pa was sleeping in the same caravan as he was, so I couldn"t say much. I just told him to be on Kirrin Beach at eleven. Then I rode back home. I ought to have left your bike on the way back, but I was a bit tired, so I rode home, instead of walking.

„You can"t have had much sleep last night," said Julian, looking at the sunburnt girl with her untidy curly hair. „Hallo - who"s that?"

A short, plump boy was hurrying past the gate. He had a mop of black hair which stuck up into curious spikes of hair at the crown.

„Oh - that"s Spiky!" said Jo. „He"s on time, isn"t he? He"s called Spiky because of his hair.

You won"t believe it, but he spends a fortune on hair-oil, trying to make those spiky bits go flat. But they won"t." She cal ed loudly.

„Spiky! Hey, SPIKY!"

Spiky turned at once. He had a pleasant, rather lopsided face, and eyes as black as currants. He stood staring at Jo and the boys. „I"m just off to the beach," he said.

„Right. We"re coming too," said Jo, and she and the boys went to join. They met the ice-cream man on the way and Julian bought an ice-cream for each of them.

„Coo - thanks," said Spiky, pleased. He was rather shy of Dick and Julian, and wondered very much why he had been asked to come.

They sat down on the beach. „I wasn"t half scared when you came tapping at the window last night," he said to Jo, licking his ice-cream with a very pink tongue. „What"s it all about?"

„Well," said Julian, cautiously, „we"re interested in somebody cal ed Gringo."

„Old Gringo?" said Spiky. „A lot of people"s interested in Gringo. Do you know what we say at the Fair? We say Gringo ought to put up a notice. “Al dirty work done here!” He"s a bad lot, Gringo is - but he pays us well, even if he makes us work like slaves."

„He owns the Fair, doesn"t he?" said Julian, and Spiky nodded. „I expect he uses it as a cover for al his other, bigger jobs," Julian said to Dick. He looked at the plump, black-eyed boy, wondering how far he could trust him. Jo saw the look and knew what it meant.

„He"s all right," she said, nodding towards Spiky. „You can say what you like. He"s an oyster, he is. Ain"t you, Spiky?"

Spiky grinned his lop-sided grin. Julian decided to trust him, and speaking in a low voice that real y thril ed Spiky, he told him about the kidnapping of George. Spiky"s eyes nearly fel out of his head.

„Coo!" he said. „I bet old Gringo"s at the bottom of that. Last week he went off up to London - he told my Pa he was on to a big job - an American job, he said it was."

„Yes - it sounds as if it al fits," said Julian. „Spiky, this kidnapping happened the night before last. Did anything unusual occur in the Fair camp, do you know? It must have happened in the middle of the night."

Spiky considered. He shook his head. „No - I don"t think so. Gringo"s big double-caravan is stil there - so he can"t have gone. He had it moved right away from the camp yesterday morning - said there was too much noise for his old Ma, who lives in his posh caravan and looks after him. We was all glad it was moved - now he can"t spy on us so easily!"