The four children mounted hurriedly and the horses were surprised at the double weight. William swung his horse’s head round and set off with George sitting behind him. Henry took Anne. Timmy, feeling much better, ran after them, his legs no longer feeling so shaky.

The gypsies ran too, shaking their fists and shouting. Sniffer’s father was amazed beyond measure. Why, there were the two girls he had tied up - and that dog he had sent off to trick the other two boys on the moor.

Then who were these on horse-back, and how had they found their way to the hill? How had the prisoners been able to find their way out of the hill, too? That was a real puzzle to Sniffer’s father.

The gypsies tore after the horses, but the dogs contented themselves with excited barks. Not one of them dared to go after Timmy. They were afraid of him.

The horses went off as fast as they dared in the mist, Timmy running in front. He seemed very much better, though George was afraid it was only the excitement that now kept him going. She glanced back at the gypsies. They would never catch up now, thank goodness!

Somewhere behind the mist the sun was shining. Soon it would disperse the strange fog that had come up so suddenly from the sea. She glanced down at her watch. Good gracious, could it really be almost six o’clock in the morning. It was tomorrow now!

She wondered what had happened to Julian and Dick.

She thought of Sniffer gratefully, and all those patrins he had left in the hill. They would never have got out but for those. She thought of Henry and William, and gave William a sudden tight hug round the waist for coming out in the middle of the night and rescuing them!

“Where are Julian and Dick, do you suppose?” she said to William. “Do you think they are still lost on the moor? Ought we to shout, and look for them?”

“No,” called back William over his shoulder. “We’re going straight back to the stables. They can look after themselves!”

Dick and Julian had certainly tried to look after themselves, that cold, misty night, but not very successfully. By the time that their torch showed them that it was a quarter to five by their watches, they had had enough of the bush they were in. If only they had known it, Henry and William, with Timmy, were just then riding over the moor, not a great distance from where they were!

They got out of the bush, damp and stiff. They stretched themselves and looked into the dark night, still full of mist.

“Let’s walk,” said Julian. “I can’t bear keeping still in this mist. I’ve got my compass. If we walk due west we should surely come to the edge of the moor, not far from Milling Green.”

They set off stumbling in the now dim light of the torch, whose battery was getting low. “It will give out soon,” groaned Dick, giving it a shake. “Blow the thing! It hardly gives us any light now, and we simply must keep looking at the compass.”