Then Timmy appeared, dragging something behind him with his teeth. He tried to bark at the same time, but he couldn’t. He dragged the coat-like thing right down to the ground before the old woman was on him, screaming in a high voice, and hitting at him. She pulled the garment away and went up the steps, kicking out at the surprised Timmy as he tried to pull it away. The door slammed.

“If that old woman hadn’t been old, Timmy would have soon shown her he was top dog!” said Dick. “Whatever was he pulling out of the van?”

“Come over here, out of sight of the van,” said Julian, urgently. “Didn’t you recognise it, Dick? It was George’s dressing-gown!”

“My word!” said Dick, stopping in surprise. “Yes, you’re right — it was. Whew! What does that mean exactly? George certainly isn’t in those vans, or Timmy would have found her.”

“I sent him in to see if he could smell that George had been hidden there,” said Julian. “I thought he would bark excitedly if he smelt her scent anywhere — on the bunk, perhaps. I never guessed he’d find her dressing-gown and drag it out to show us!”

“Good old Timmy! Clever old Timmy!” said Dick, patting the dog, whose tail was now at half-mast instead of right down. He had at least found George’s dressing-gown — but how surprising to find it in that caravan!

“Why on earth didn’t they take the dressing-gown with them, when they took George off?” wondered Julian. “There’s no doubt that she has been in that caravan — she was taken straight there the night before last, I expect. Where is she now?”

“She must have been dressed differently,” said Dick. “They must have had to dress her properly, when they took her somewhere else. After all, she was only in pyjamas and dressing-gown.”

Jo was listening to all this, puzzled and worried. She nudged Dick. “Spiky’s beckoning to us,” she said. They went over to the roundabout boy, whose father was now in charge of the noisy machine.

Spiky took them into his caravan, a small and rather dirty one, in which he lived with his father.

“I saw Gringo’s old Ma chasing you!” he said with his lop-sided grin. “What was your dog dragging out of the van?”

They told him. He nodded. “I’ve been asking round a bit, cautious-like,” he said. “Just to see if anyone had heard anything from Gringo’s caravan — and the fellow whose caravan is nearest told me he heard shouts and yells two nights ago. He reckoned it was someone in Gringo’s van — but he’s too scared of Gringo to go and interfere, of course.”

“That would be George yelling,” said Dick.

“Well, then Gringo’s vans were moved the next day right away from the other vans,” said Spiky. “And this afternoon, before the Fair opened, Gringo got his car and towed the little van — the second one — out of the field, and set off with it. We all wondered why, but he told somebody it needed repairing.”