He remembered at once and sat up. Dick woke too and yawned. “Dick! It’s half-past eight! !” said Julian, looking at the luminous hands of his wrist-watch. “We’ve slept for hours and hours!”

They rolled out of their heathery bed. Timmy leapt off George’s feet and came over to them, his tail wagging gladly. He had been half-awake for a long time and was very glad to see Julian and Dick awake too, because he was thirsty.

The girls awoke - and soon there was a great deal of noise and activity going on. Anne and George washed at the big stone sink, the cold water making them squeal. Timmy lapped up a big bowlful of water gladly. The boys debated whether or not to have a splash in the lake. They felt very dirty.

Dick shivered at the thought. “Still, I think we ought to,” he said “Come on, Ju!”

The two boys went down to the lake-side and leapt in. It was icy-cold! They struck out strongly and came back glowing and shouting.

By the time they were back the girls had got breakfast in the cellar room. It was darker than the kitchen, but all of them disliked the look of the burnt, scorched rooms above. The bread and butter, potted meat, cake and chocolate went down well.

In the middle of the meal a sound came echoing into the old house - bells! Anne stopped eating, and her heart beat fast.

But they were not the clanging warning bells she had heard before!

“Church bells,” said Julian at once, seeing Anne’s sudden look of fright. “Lovely sound I always think!”

“Oh yes,” said Anne, thankfully. “So it is. It’s Sunday and people are going to church. I’d like to go too, on this lovely sunny October day.”

“We might walk across the moor to the nearest village if you like,” said Dick, looking at his watch, “But we should be very late.”

It was decided that it was much too late. They pushed their plates aside and planned what to do that day.

“The first thing, of course, is to see if there’s a boathouse and find out if there’s a boat called Saucy Jane,” said Julian. “Then we’d better try and puzzle out what that plan means. We could wander here and there and see if we can find Tall Stone - and I’ll look at the map to see if Tock Hill is marked. That was on the plan too, wasn’t it?”

“You boys go and get some more heather and bracken while we clear away and wash up,” said Anne. “That is if you mean us to camp here another night.”

“Yes. I think we will,” said Julian. “I think we may find things rather interesting here this week-end!”

Julian went out with Dick and they brought in a great deal more bedding. Everyone had complained that the hard floor came through the amount of heather and bracken they had used the night before, and poor George was quite stiff.