Timmy ran over on three legs. He enjoyed all the fussing he got when anything happened to him. He meant to make the most of his bad foot!

They had a very lazy day indeed. It really was too hot to do anything much. They went to the little spring and sat with their feet in the rivulet it made - it was deliciously cool! They went and had a look at the old engine again, lying on its side, half-buried.

Dick scraped away a lot of the sand that had seeped into the cab. Soon they were all helping. They uncovered the old handles and levers and tried to move them. But they couldn’t of course.

“Let’s go round to the other side of the gorse bush and see if we can see the funnel again,” said Dick, at last. “Blow these thorns. I’m getting pricked all over. Timmy’s very sensible, sitting there, not attempting to examine this old Puffing Billy!”

They had to cut away some of the gorse before they could examine the funnel properly. Then they exclaimed in wonder.

“Look! It’s very like the long funnel that Puffing Billy had, you know, one of the first engines ever made!”

“It’s filled with sand,” said Dick, and tried to scrape it out. It was fairly loose, and soon he was able to peer down the funnel quite a long way.

“Funny to think of smoke puffing out of this queer old funnel,” said Dick. “Poor old engine, lying here for years, quite forgotten. I’d have thought someone would rescue it!”

“Well, you know what the blacksmith told us,” said George. “The Bartle sister that was left wouldn’t have anything more to do with the railway or the engine or the quarry. And certainly nobody could move this great thing on their own.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised if we’re the only people in the world who know where the old engine is,” said Anne. “It’s so overgrown that nobody could see it except by accident!”

“I feel jolly hungry, all of a sudden,” said Dick, stopping his work of getting sand off the engine. “What about something to eat?”

“We’ve got enough to last for a day or two more,” said Anne. “Then we’ll have to get something else - or go back to the stables.”

“I must spend one more night here,” said Julian. “I want to see if that plane returns again.”

“Right. We’ll all watch this time,” said George.

“It will be fun. Come on, let’s go and get something to eat. Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Timmy?”

Timmy certainly did. He limped off at top speed on three legs, though really his right fore-paw no longer hurt him. Timmy, you’re a fraud!

Chapter Fifteen

A startling night

No gypsies came near them that day, not even Sniffer. The evening was as lovely as the day had been, and almost as warm.

“It’s extraordinary!” said Dick, looking up into the sky. “What weather for April! The bluebells will be rushing out soon if the sun goes on being as hot as this!”