Macbeth wriggled out of Mary's arms and turned an inquiring eye up at the twins. Then a match spluttered and the room came to life as the candle burned up and threw strange flickering shadows round the walls.

"Here's your room," she went on. "Get to bed quickly," and she brushed past them and closed the door behind her Dickie tried the handle at once, but the door was locked. He shook it fiercely and almost hysterically until Mary pulled him away.

"That's no use, twin. She's got us. Are you frightened, Dickie?"

"Not really," he said. "I'm mad with her and worried 'bout Mother, but I don't think I'm really frightened. Are you?"

She shook her head.

"We're real prisoners this time," she said. "This is our biggest adventure, Dickie... Did you see John?"

He nodded.

"Did you see that paper?"

He nodded again.

"What did you think it was, Dickie? The paper, I mean."

He sat on the bed and slipped his shoes off without untying the laces.

"Like a drawing... or a map."

"And there was something else, Dickie. Did you notice what I noticed? Did you hear?"

He looked puzzled for a moment.

"Wasn't anything to hear, was there?"

Then they stared at each other without speaking, and Dickie's second shoe dropped to the floor.

"Of course," he went on. "Of course there was something to hear. They were talking all the time..."

"'Course they were," said Mary slowly. "But they weren't talking English."

8. Ingles and Appledore

When David left him at Ingles, Tom was very bored. He would have liked to have gone down to Onnybrook too, but knew that he must stay at the farm.

So he sauntered back across the farmyard in the sunshine and went in to see if he could do anything to help. At last he heard his uncle's motor-cycle and went out to open the farmyard gate. The doctor had been found at last and brought along in the side-car. Mr. Ingles shouted at Tom to go and try his hand at trimming hedges.

Tom was not very interested in hedging. He had tried it the other day and found to his surprise that it was a very skilful job. But he went up to the Twenty Acre and practised with the sickle. He watched the road for David but his friend did not come back, and later when Mr. Ingles returned from taking the doctor home, he had time for nothing except work.

Mrs. Morton went home to Witchend after dinner, and after tea Tom was free at last. He was still bored for, unlike the Mortons, he had never been particularly good at finding his own amusements and was still unable to adapt himself properly to life in the country.