Sally liked the camp and nibbled the short turf contentedly, while David poured the tea. When they had both finished two mugs Peter lay back and linked her hands behind her head and began to talk. She told David that she could only just remember her mother, and that for ten years she had lived with her father - the last five being at Hatchholt in charge of the reservoir. She told him that she was a boarder at a school in Shrewsbury, but that she loved the country best and all animals. She talked to him about birds and foxes and the wild things on the mountain. She loved the stars, and told him again about these.

Then David told her about the different life in London, and of his school and of his father. An hour slipped by in this way until suddenly Sally pricked up her ears and moved uneasily. There was a rustling in the undergrowth and David looked up to see Mary's face grinning wickedly at him from the middle of a gorse bush. She wriggled out into the open and turned round to help her twin through the tunnel. It was at once obvious that they were very proud of themselves. They smirked and waited to be questioned.

There was a long silence till Dickie's roving eye noticed the empty mugs.

"You beasts!" he said. "You utter pigs! You've had tea. You didn't wait for us."

"That's what it is," said Mary. "You don't really want us. Just as soon as we go away and save you all and the Club

"You betray us bitterly," added Dickie, "an' go and have tea without us. Greedy pigs, you are!"

"And what about you two?" broke in Peter. "Haven't you had a whopping tea? I know you have - I saw you. Ginger cake - Mary had two slices - and raspberry jam. And you'd both been washed and looked so sweet and clean..."

At this final insult the twins nearly burst with suppressed fury.

They were pacified at last, and when David managed to stop them talking at the same time instead of in turn, they gave a fairly coherent story.

They had almost reached the stream, they explained, when Dickie saw something moving up the valley. At first they thought it was a wild pony, but while they were watching, Macbeth began to growl, and then they recognized Mrs. Thurston. They knew that they must keep the Lone Pine secret, so Dickie hid the kettle and they decided to try to find out what she wanted. Although the others had seen all this happen, the twins were so pleased with themselves and with the way in which they were telling the story that David and Peter dared not interrupt.

"We were very polite to her," continued Dickie. "Very best manners."

"An' she was just as nice," said Mary, "an' she only asked us once what we were doing, an' we said we were just out for a quiet walk with Mackie..."