Free Five Are Together Again by Enid Blyton Page B

Tinker. „He"l be coming to the house. I"d better go. He might wonder why I"m all upset. Gosh, I never heard Julian be so angry before. He sounded as if he absolutely despised me!"
    He crept up the path that led to the house, and in at the garden door. Better not go and see Jenny. She might worm everything out of him, and be as disgusted with him as Julian was. She would wonder why he wasn"t camping out with them. He"d go upstairs and sleep in his own bed tonight!
    „Come on, Mischief," he said, in a mournful voice. „We"ll go to bed, and you can cuddle down with me. You"d never be mean to me, would you? You"d always be my friend."
    Mischief jabbered away, and the funny little monkey voice comforted Tinker all the time he undressed. He flung himself into bed, and Mischief lay at the bottom, on his feet. „I shall never be able to get to sleep tonight," said Tinker, stil miserable. „Never!"
    But he fel asleep at once - which was a great pity, real y. He might have shared in quite a bit of excitement, if he hadn"t slept so soundly! Poor Tinker!

Chapter Eleven
IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT

    Julian and the others made no attempt to follow Tinker. „Let him go, the little ass!" said Julian. „Come into one of the tents and have a low pow-wow before we get undressed and go to sleep."
    „I"m sorry poor old Tinker isn"t going to camp out with us, our first night in the field," said Anne. „I don"t think he meant to give anything away."
    „That"s no excuse, Anne," said George. „He can be an awful little fathead at times, and he"s got to learn not to be. Let"s go to our tent. I feel quite tired. Come along, Timmy!"
    She yawned and Dick yawned too. Then Julian found himself yawning. „Awfully catching, this yawning business!" he said. „Well, it"s turned out to be a lovely night as regards weather - warm and dry - and there"s a nice little half-moon to look at. Good night, girls, sleep tight! And don"t scream if a spider wakes you, because I warn you, I am NOT going to get up to deal with a harmless spider!"
    „You wait til one runs al over your face!" said Anne, „and starts making a web from your nose to your chin and catches flies in it!"
    „Don"t, Anne," said George. „I"m not a bit scared of spiders, but that"s a horrible idea of yours! Timmy, please watch out for spiders, and give me warning of them!"
    Everyone laughed. „Well, good night, girls," said Dick. „Pity about young Tinker. Stil , he"s got to learn a few things, and keeping his mouth shut is one of them."
    They were al quite tired, and it wasn"t long before everyone"s torch was out, and peace and quiet descended on the little camp. Much farther up the field the circus was also peaceful and quiet, though there were stil lights here and there in the tents. Someone belonging to the circus band was strumming a banjo, but not loudly, and the sound was pleasant to hear - strum-a-strum - strum-a-strum - strummmm...
    A few clouds blew up and slid across the moon. One by one the lights went out in the circus tents. The wind blew softly through the trees, and an owl hooted.
    Anne was stil awake. She lay listening to the wind, and to the owl"s „Too-whoo-too-whit", and then she too fel asleep. Nobody heard someone stirring in the circus camp. Nobody saw a shadowy figure creep out when the moon was safely behind a cloud. It was late, very late, and the two camps were lost in dreams.
    Timmy was fast asleep too - but in his sleep he heard a faint sound, and at once he was awake. He didn"t move, except for his ears, which switched themselves up to listen. He gave a little growl, but not enough to wake George. So long as the person who was moving about in the circus camp did not come near to George"s tent, or the boys" tent, Timmy did not mean to bark. He heard a tiny grunt, and recognized it at once. Charlie the Chimp! Well, that was all right! Timmy fel asleep again.
    Tinker, too, was fast asleep in his bed up at the house, Mischief at his feet. He had thought he