“Are you sure he hasn’t just wandered off? Kiddies do that, you know.”

“I know. But we’ve called and called and he’s not anywhere.”

He put an arm around me. “Don’t worry, ducks. He’ll turn up. You get on with your searching and I’ll help. But he wouldn’t have got this far from the house on his own, would he?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so, but . . . wait! What’s that down there?” I had spotted the glint of something red, lying on the light gravel not far from the gates. I ran toward it and bent to pick it up. “It’s one of Podge’s toy soldiers,” I shouted. “Go and tell them.”

I started to run as fast as I could until I reached the castle gate. I looked up and down the road. I heard no sound of a retreating motorcar. There was silence apart from the sigh of the wind in the pine trees and the gentle splash of waves on the shore of the loch. I stood, hesitant, at the side of the road, not knowing what to do next. I had no way of knowing in which direction he might have gone if he had, in fact, come out of the gate by himself. Someone should alert the police, of course. I hoped Granddad would do just that.

At that moment I heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. It was a small motorcar, a Morris, by the look of it. I stepped out into the road, waved it down as it approached and wrenched open the passenger door. “You haven’t seen a small boy, by any chance, have you?” I asked. Then I realized that I recognized the driver. “Oh, Ronny, it’s you.”

“Oh, hello, Georgie,” she said pleasantly. “A small boy? About how old? There were a couple of boys fishing about a mile back.”

“He’s only three. My nephew, Podge. He’s run off. His nurse is beside herself.”

“He can’t have run far if he’s only three. He’s probably hiding somewhere.” She grinned. “I used to hide when I was that age. I used to scare the daylights out of my parents. Once I got up in the attic and couldn’t get down.”

I held up the toy soldier. “I found this on the driveway, not far from the gate, so he must have come this way.”

“In that case, hop in,” she said. “I can help you look if you like.”

“Thanks awfully.” I climbed in and we started off slowly, scanning the lochside and hedgerow as we drove, windows open and constantly calling his name. It suddenly struck me how ironic this situation was, if her father was indeed the kidnapper and she was helping me to chase him down.

We had gone about half a mile when something caught my eye. “Wait. What’s that over there?”