“Well,” said Mr. Luffy, beginning to fill his old brown pipe. “If anyone wants to come into town with me this afternoon, I’ll be starting in fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll come!” said Anne, at once. “It won’t take George and me long to wash-up these things. Will you come too, George?”

“No,” said George, and the boys heaved a sigh of relief. They had guessed she wouldn’t want to come with them — but, if she’d known what they were going to try and find out, she would have come all right!

“I’m going for a walk with Timmy,” said George, when all the washing-up had been done.

“All right,” said Anne, who secretly thought that George would be much better left on her own to work off her ill-feelings that afternoon. “See you later.”

George and Timmy set off. The others went with Mr. Luffy to where his car was parked beside the great rock. They got in.

“Hi! The trailer’s fastened to it,” called Julian. “Wait a bit. Let me get out and undo it. We don’t want to take an empty trailer bumping along behind us for miles.”

“Dear me. I always forget to undo the trailer,” said Mr. Luffy, vexed. “The times I take it along without meaning to!”

The children winked at one another. Dear old Luffy! He was always doing things like that. No wonder his wife fussed round him like an old hen with one foolish chicken when he was at home.

They went off in the car, jolting over the rough road till they came to the smooth highway. They stopped in the centre of the town. Mr. Luffy said he would meet them for tea at five o’clock at the hotel opposite the parking-place.

The three of them set off together, leaving Mr. Luffy to go to the library and browse there. It seemed funny to be without George. Anne didn’t much like it, and said so.

“Well, we don’t like going off without George either,” said Julian. “But honestly, she can’t behave like that and get away with it. I thought she’d grown out of that sort of thing.”

“Well, you know how she adores an adventure,” said Anne. “Oh dear — if I hadn’t felt so scared you’d have taken me along, and George would have gone too. It’s quite true what she said about me being a coward.”

“You’re not,” said Dick. “You can’t help being scared of things sometimes — after all, you’re the youngest of us — but being scared doesn’t make you a coward. I’ve known you to be as brave as any of us when you’ve been scared stiff!”

“Where are we going,” asked Anne. The boys told her, and her eyes sparkled.

“Oh — are we going to find out where the spook-train comes from? It might come from one of two valleys then, judging from the map.”

“Yes. The tunnels aren’t really very long ones,” said Julian. “Not more than a mile, I should think. We thought we’d make some inquiries at the station and see if there’s anyone who knows anything about the old railway yard and the tunnel beyond. We shan’t say a word about the spook-train, of course.”