They watched it. Yes, it did seem to be circling round the glow, whatever it was, and then, quite suddenly it rose in the air, circled round once more and made off to the east.

“There it goes,” said Dick, straining his eyes. “I can’t tell what kind it is, except that it’s very small.”

“What can it have been doing?” said Julian, puzzled. “I thought the glow might have been to guide it in landing, though where it could land here in safety I simply don’t know. But it didn’t land at all, it just circled and made off”

“Where would it have come from?” said Dick. “From the coast, I suppose, from over the sea, do you think?”

“I simply don’t know,” said Julian. “It beats me! And why should the gypsies have anything to do with it? Gypsies and planes don’t seem to mix, somehow.”

“Well, we don’t know that they do have anything to do with the plane, except that we saw that glow,” said Dick. “And that’s going now, look.”

Even as they watched, the bright glow died completely away. Now the moor lay in darkness again.

“Funny,” said Julian, scratching his head. “I can’t make it out. It’s true that the gypsies may be up to something, the way they come out here secretly, apparently for no purpose at all, and also they don’t want us snooping round, that’s clear.”

“I think we’d better try and find out what that glow is,” said Dick. “We could have a bit of a snoop tomorrow. Or perhaps Sniffer could tell us.”

“He might,” said Julian. “We’ll try him. Come on, let’s get back into the quarry. It’s cold out here!”

The quarry struck quite warm to them as they went down into it. The girls were sound asleep still. Timmy, who had been with them, did not wake them. He had been as puzzled as Julian and Dick over the low-flying plane, but he had not barked at all. Julian had been glad about that, Timmy’s bark might have carried right over to the gypsy camp and warned it that someone was camping near.

They got back under their rug, keeping close to one another for warmth. But they soon lost their shivers, and Dick threw off his share of the rug. In a few minutes they were asleep.

Timmy awoke first and stretched himself out in the warm morning sunshine. Anne sat up with a little scream. “Oh Timmy, don’t! You nearly squashed me to bits. Do that to George if you must stretch yourself all over somebody!”

The boys awoke then, and went to the spring to splash their faces and bring back a jugful of water to drink. Anne got the breakfast, and over it the boys told the girls of the aeroplane in the night.

“How queer!” said Anne. “And that glow too. It must have been a guide of some sort to the plane. Let’s go and see where it was. It must have been a fire of some kind!”