Free Five Fall Into Adventure by Enid Blyton

could duck down behind the gate. There was a car in the field. A car that had just started up its engine and switched on its lights. It was going, moving slowly down to the gate!
    Dick tried his hardest to see who was in the car. He could make out only one man, and he was driving. It didn’t seem as if anyone else was in the car at all. Where was the other fellow, then - the one who must have collected the parcel and given it to the man in the car? Had he been left behind? If so, Dick had better be careful!
    The car was soon out in the lane. It gained speed and then Dick heard it roaring off in the distance. He couldn’t stalk a car, that was certain! He held his breath, listening for some movement of the other man who, he felt certain, was still there.
    He heard a sniff and crouched lower still. Then a shadow passed quickly through the gate, turned back in the direction of Kirrin Cottage and was lost in the darkness of the lane.
    In a trice Dick was after it again. At least he could track down this fellow! He must be going somewhere!
    Down the lane to the stile. Over the stile and into the field. Across the field and back at the hedge that grew at the bottom of Kirrin Cottage.
    Why was this fellow going back there? Dick was puzzled. He heard the shadow creeping through the hedge and he followed. He watched it go silently up the path and peer in at a darkened window.
    ‘Going to get into the house again and ransack it, I suppose!’ thought Dick, in a rage. He considered the shadowy figure by the window. It didn’t look big. It must be a small man -
    one that Dick could tackle and bring to the ground. He could yell loudly for Julian, and maybe he could hold the fellow down till Julian came.
    ‘And then perhaps we could do a little kidnapping, and a little bargaining, too,’ thought Dick grimly. ‘If they hold George as a hostage, we’ll hold one of them, too! Tit for tat!’
    He waited till the shadow left the window, and then he pounced. His victim went down at once with a yell.
    Dick was surprised how small he was - but how he fought! He bit and scratched and heaved and kicked, and the two of them rolled over and over and over, breaking down Michaelmas daisies in the beds, and scratching legs and arms and faces on rose bushes. Dick yelled for Julian all the time.
    ‘Julian! Julian! Help! Julian!’
    Julian heard. He tore out at once. ‘Dick, Dick, where are you? What is it?’
    He flashed his torch towards the shouting and saw Dick rolling on top of somebody. He ran to help at once, throwing his torch on the grass so that both hands were free.

    “Famous Five 09 - Five Fall Into Adventure” By Enid Blyton 35
    It wasn’t long before they had the struggling figure firmly in their grasp and dragged it, wailing, to the back door. Dick recognized that wailing voice! Good gracious - no, it couldn’t be - it couldn’t be Jo!
    But it was! When they dragged her inside she collapsed completely, sobbing and wailing, rubbing her scratched and bruised legs, calling both boys all the names she could think of. Anne and Joan looked on in complete amazement. Nore what had happened?
    ‘Put her upstairs,’ said Julian. ‘Get her to bed. She’s in a awful state now. So am I! I wouldn’t have lammed her like that if I’d known it was only Jo.’
    ‘I never guessed,’ said Dick, wiping his filthy face with his handkerchief. ‘My word, what a wild-cat! See how she’s bitten me!’
    ‘I didn’t know it was you, Dick; I didn’t know,’ wailed Jo. ‘You pounced on me, and I fought back. I wouldn’t have bitten you like that.’
    ‘You’re a savage, deceitful, double-dealing little wildcat,’ said Dick, looking at his bites and scratches. ‘Pretending you know nothing about the man who gave you that note -
    and all the time you’re in with that crooked lot of thieves and kidnappers, whoever they are.’
    ‘I’m not in with them,’ wept Jo.
    ‘Don’t tell lies,’ shouted Dick, in a fury, ‘I was up in a tree