“Oh. Good gracious me!” said Anne, going rather red. “I didn’t even know there were trains under here. What an extraordinary thing! I really did think I was sitting on a volcano, Mr. Luffy. You won’t tell the others, will you. They would laugh at me dreadfully.”

“I won’t say a word,” said Mr. Luffy. “And now I think we’ll go back. Have you had breakfast? I’m terribly hungry. I went out early after a rather rare butterfly I saw flying by my tent.”

“We’ve had breakfast ages ago,” said Anne. “But if you like to come back with me now I’ll cook you some bacon, Mr. Luffy. And some tomatoes and fried bread.”

“Aha! It sounds good,” said Mr. Luffy. “Now — not a word about volcanoes. That’s our secret.”

And off they went to the tents, where the others were wondering what in the world had become of Anne. Little did they know she had been “sitting on a volcano!”

Chapter Four

Spook-trains

The boys and George were full of talk about the farm. “It’s a nice little place,” said Julian, sitting down whilst Anne began to cook breakfast for Mr. Luffy. “Pretty farmhouse, nice little dairy, well-kept sheds. And even a grand piano in the drawing-room.”

“Gracious! You wouldn’t think they’d make enough money to buy a thing like that, would you?” said Anne, turning over the bacon in the pan.

“The farmer’s got a fine new car,” went on Julian. “Brand new. Must have cost him a pretty penny. His boy showed it to us. And he showed us some jolly good new farm machinery too.”

“Very interesting,” said Mr. Luffy. “I wonder how they make their money, farming that bit of land. The last people were hard-working folk, but they certainly couldn’t have afforded a new car or a grand piano.”

“And you should have seen the lorries they’ve got!” said Dick. “Beauties! Old army ones, I should think. The boy said his father’s going to use them for carting things from the farm to the market.”

“What things?” said Mr. Luffy, looking across at the little farmhouse. “I shouldn’t have thought they needed an army of lorries for that! An old farm wagon would carry all their produce.”

“Well — that’s what he told us,” said Dick. “Everything certainly looked very prosperous, I must say. He must be a jolly good farmer.”

“We got eggs and butter and fruit, and even some bacon,” said George. “The boy’s mother didn’t seem worried about rations, and she hardly charged us anything. We didn’t see the farmer.”

Mr. Luffy was now eating his breakfast. He was certainly very hungry. He brushed away the flies that hung round his head, and when one settled on his right ear he waggled it violently. The fly flew off in surprise.

“Oh, do that again!” begged Anne. “How do you do it? Do you think if I practised hard for weeks I could make my ear move?”

“No, I don’t think so,” said Mr. Luffy, finishing his breakfast. “Well, I’ve got some writing to do now. What are you going to do? Go for a walk?”