Dick grinned. “Well, you never know,” he said. “Are you ready to come and meet George, Anne? It’s about time we went.”

Anne went down the steps and joined Dick and Julian. “Better lock the door,” said Dick. “We’ve locked ours.” He locked Anne’s door and the three set off down the grassy hillside to the stile that led into the lane below. The old castle on the opposite hill seemed to tower up higher and higher as they went down and down towards the village.

“It will be lovely to see Timmy again,” said Anne. “And I’ll be jolly glad to have George too, in my caravan. I didn’t really mind being alone at night — but it’s always nice to have George near me, and Timmy grunting in his sleep.”

“You want to sleep with Dick if you like grunts and snorts and moans,” said Julian. “What do you dream about, Dick? You must have more nightmares than anyone else in the kingdom!”

“I never grunt or snort or moan,” said Dick indignantly. “You want to hear yourself! Why…”

“Look — isn’t that the train coming in — isn’t that it curving round the line in the distance?” said Anne. “It must be! There’s only one train in the morning here! We’d better run!”

They ran at top speed. The train drew in at the station just as they raced on to the platform. A head of short curly hair looked out from a window — and then another dark brown head just below it.

“George — and Timmy!” yelled Anne.

“Hallo!” shouted George, almost falling out of the door.

“WOOF!” barked Timmy, and leapt down to the platform almost on top of Dick. Down jumped George, her eyes shining. She hugged Anne, and gave Julian and Dick a punch each. “I’m here!” she said. “I felt awful knowing you were away camping without me. I gave poor old Mother a dreadful time.”

“I bet you did,” said Julian, and linked his arm in hers. “Let me take that suit-case. We’ll just slip into the village first and have a few ice-creams to celebrate. There’s a shop here that has some jolly decent ones.”

“Good. I feel exactly like ice-creams,” said George, happily. “Look, Timmy knows what you said. His tongue is hanging out for an ice-cream already. Timmy, aren’t you pleased we’re all together again?”

“Woof,” said Timmy, and licked Anne’s hand for the twentieth time.

“I really ought to bring a towel with me when I meet Timmy,” said Anne. “His licks are so very wet. Oh no, not again, Timmy — go and use your tongue on Julian!”

“I say, look — George has brought her field-glasses with her!” said Dick, suddenly noticing that the brown strap over George’s shoulder did not belong to a camera but to a very fine leather case that held the new field-glasses. “Good! We wanted to watch the jackdaws with them — and there are some herons down on the marsh too.”