"Only he wasn't quiet," interrupted Dickie. "He was awful. He hates her, and Mary an' me had to hold him in all the time... She tried to pat him, and he snapped at her, and we didn't dare let him go 'cause he might have come running up here and betrayed us all."

"Once she asked where you were, David," Mary went on.

"And what did you say?" he asked.

Dickie looked down his nose. "Gone to Onnybrook for your bike," he said.

But they admitted that they were really surprised when Mrs. Thurston told them she was going to call on their mother, and asked them to show her the way to Witchend.

"You know how we think, sometimes," Dickie went on. "Well, we both thought just then that we'd better get her away as quickly as we could and keep her talking and not looking up here..."

"We thought you might be watching," said Mary, "and I 'spose you were after what Peter said about ginger cake for tea... Anyway, you'd better tell us how much you know

Peter explained hurriedly how and why she had followed them and how little she and David knew, so the twins went on to explain how friendly Mrs. Thurston had been and how interested in Witchend.

"When we got in," Mary said, "I managed just to 'splain to Mummy quickly not to say anything about you two, and once at tea when Mrs. Thurston asked what time David would be back from Onnybrook, we felt rather beastly, but Mummy sort of looked at us and didn't say anything special."

"You see," Dickie went on, "we were wonderin' whether to come back here quickly, but it was difficult, 'cause we'd just said we were out for a walk, and then Mother told us to wash and change and come down to tea."

"And there we had to sit, thinkin' of you two up here having a lovely tea and the two grown-ups just talkin' and talkin' and we couldn't get away."

David asked them how they managed it in the end.

"That was easy," said Mary. "When they'd finished tea - an' they finished before Dickie an' me - and had their cigarettes, and Mummy was talking about Daddy and Agnes and Ingles, I just asked whether we could come and meet you. Mummy said 'Yes' quickly and 'Don't interrupt, twins.' "

"Anyhow," said Dickie, "there's one more exciting thing you don't know about, and I s'pose we'd better tell you... an' we think you ought to be glad we saved the camp..."

"Where's Mackie?" asked Peter suddenly. "What have you done with him?"

"That's just it," said Mary. "Something very terrible an' awful has happened, and we were thinking we ought to make a new rule of the Club."