“DICK! DICK! ANNE! Look, there they are! Hey, Dick, DICK!”

It was Julian’s voice! Dick swung round in delight. He saw Julian, George and Timmy racing along the village street, shouting and waving. Timmy was first to reach them of course - and there was no sign of limping either! He leapt on them, barking madly, and licked every bare part of them he could reach.

“Oh, Ju! I’m so glad to see you!” said Anne, in rather a trembling voice. “We lost our way last night. George, is Timmy all right?”

“Quite, Absolutely,” said George. “You see...”

“Have you had breakfast?” interrupted Julian. “We haven’t. We were so worried about you we were just going to see the police. But now we can all have breakfast together and tell our news!”

Chapter Eight

All together again

It was wonderful to be all together again. Julian took hold of Anne’s arm and squeezed it. “All right, Anne?” he said, rather worried at her pale face.

Anne nodded. She felt better at once, now she had Julian, George and Timmy, as well as Dick. “I’m only just terribly hungry,” she said.

“I’ll ask for breakfast straight away,” said Julian. “All news later!”

The woman who had leaned out of the window shaking a duster the evening before, came up to them. “I expect it’s a bit late for you,” said Julian. “But we haven’t had any breakfast. What have you got?”

“Porridge and cream,” said the woman. “And our own cured bacon and our own eggs. Our own honey and the bread I bake myself. Will that do? And coffee with cream?”

“I could hug you,” said Julian, beaming at her. The others felt the same. They went into a small, cosy dining-room and sat down to wait. Soon a smell of frying bacon and hot strong coffee would come into the room - what joy!

“Your news first,” said Dick, patting Timmy. “Did you get to Spiggy House? Was Mr Gaston there?”

“No, he wasn’t,” said Julian. “He was out somewhere. He had a very nice wife who made us wait for him, and said he wouldn’t mind in the least looking at Timmy when he came back. So we waited and waited,”

“We waited till half past seven!” said George, “and we felt rather awkward because we thought it might be getting near their meal-time. And then at last Mr Gaston came.”

“He was awfully kind,” said Julian. “He looked at Timmy’s leg, and then he did something, I don’t know what - put it back into place, I suppose - and Timmy gave a yell and George flung herself on him, and Mr Gaston roared with laughter at George...”

“Well, he was very rough with Timmy’s leg,” said George “But he knew what he was doing, of course, and now Timmy is perfectly all right, except for that bruise on his back, and even that is getting better. He can run as well as ever.”

“I’m glad,” said Anne. “I kept thinking of poor old Tim all last night.” She patted him, and he licked her lavishly and wetly.