The man had no idea that Dick and Julian were sleeping in the stable. He had come in quietly because he had thought there might be other horses there, and he did not want to startle them and make them stamp about in fright. He had no torch, but his keen gypsy’s eyes made out Clip at once, lying in his straw.

He tiptoed across to him and fell over Julian’s feet, sticking out from the straw bed he was lying on. He fell with a thud, and Julian sat up very suddenly indeed, awake at once.

“Who’s there! What is it?”

The gypsy shrank down beside Clip, keeping silent. Julian began to wonder if he had been dreaming. But his foot distinctly hurt him. Surely somebody had trodden on it, or fallen over it? He woke Dick.

“Where’s the torch? Hello, look, the stable door is open! Quick, Dick, where on earth is the torch?”

They found it at last and Julian clicked it on. At first he saw nothing, for the gypsy was in Clip’s stall, lying down behind the horse. Then the torch picked him out.

“Hallo! Look there - it’s that gypsy, Sniffer’s father!” said Julian. “Get up, you! What on earth are you doing here, in the middle of the night?”

Chapter Five

George gets a headache!

The man got up sullenly. His ear-rings shone in the light of the torch. “I came to get Clip,” he said. “He’s my horse, isn’t he?”

“You were told he wasn’t fit to walk yet,” said Julian. “Do you want him to go lame for life? You ought to know enough about horses to know when one can be worked or not!”

“I’ve got my orders,” said the man. “I’ve got to take my caravan with the others.”

“Who said so?” said Dick, scornfully.

“Barney Boswell,” said the man. “He’s boss of our lot here. We’ve got to start off together tomorrow.”

“But why?” said Julian, puzzled. “What’s so urgent about all this? What’s the mystery?”

“There ain’t no mystery,” said the man, still sullen. “We’re just going to the moor.”

“What are you going to do there?” asked Dick, curiously. “It doesn’t seem to me to be the place to take a lot of caravans to. There’s nothing there at all, is there? Or so I’ve heard.”

The man shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. He turned to Clip as if to get him up. But Julian rapped out at him at once,

“Oh no, you don’t! If you don’t care about injuring a horse, I do! You’ve only got to be patient for a day or two more, and he’ll be quite all right. You’re not to take him tonight. Dick, go and wake Captain Johnson. He’ll know what to do.”

“No,” said the man, scowling. “Don’t go waking anybody. I’ll go. But just you see that Clip is given to Sniffer as soon as it’s possible, or I’ll know the reason why! See?”