“Whew! And George was inside!” said Dick. “What a cunning way of moving her off to another hiding-place!”

“When did the van come back?” asked Julian, worried.

“Just before you came,” said Spiky. “I don’t know where it went. It was gone an hour, I should think.”

“An hour,” said Dick. “Well, suppose it goes at an average of 25 miles an hour — you can’t go very fast if you are towing something — that would mean he had gone somewhere about 12 miles or so away, and come back the same distance — making about an hour’s drive, allowing for a stop when they arrived at the place they had to leave her at.”

“Yes,” said Julian. “But there are a lot of places within the radius of 12 miles!”

“Where’s Gringo’s car?” said Dick suddenly.

“Over there, under that big tarpaulin,” said Spiky. “It’s a silver-grey one — American and very striking. He thinks the world of it, Gringo does.”

“I’m going to have a peep at it,” said Julian, and strode off. He came to the tarpaulin, which covered the car right to the ground. He lifted it and was just about to look under it when a man ran up, shouting.

“Here, you! Leave that alone! You’ll be turned out of the Fair if you mess about with things that don’t concern you!”

But Timmy was with Julian, and he turned and growled so fiercely that the man stopped in a hurry. Julian had plenty of time to take a good look under the tarpaulin!

Yes — the car was silver grey, a big American one — and the wings were bright blue! Julian took a quick look at the two left-hand ones and saw a deep scratch on one of them. Before he dropped the tarpaulin he had time to glance at the tyres. He was sure they had the same pattern as those shown in the wheel-tracks he had sketched! He had checked the sketch with Jim, at Kirrin Garage, who had told him they were an American design.

Yes — this was the car that had hidden in the clearing the night before last — the car that had turned with difficulty and made those deep ruts — the car that had taken George away, and this afternoon had towed away the caravan with her inside, to hide her somewhere else.

He dropped the tarpaulin and walked back to the others, excited, taking no notice of the rude things that the nearby man called out to him.

“It’s the car all right,” said Julian. “Now — WHERE did it go this afternoon? If only we could find out!”

“It’s such a very striking car that anyone would notice it — especially as it was towing a rather nice little caravan,” said Dick.

“Yes — but we can’t go round the countryside asking everyone we meet if they’ve noticed a silver grey car with blue wings,” said Julian.

“Let’s go back home and get a map and see the lie of the country round about,” said Dick. “Spiky, which way did the car turn when it went out of the field-gate?”