"Come up here, Dickie! Come quickly. There's something most mysterious comin' down the lane - it's not a car and it's not any one of Mr. Ingles's wagons - at least I don't think it is... I saw it turn out of the Onnybrook road into the lane - NO. NOT YOU, DAVID! IT'S DICKIE I WANT!"

So David shrugged and helped his brother up into the tree. Then there was a long silence until the twins said together:

"All right, David. You'd better come too... And Tom."

Swaying down the lane, gleaming cheerfully in the pale afternoon sun, came a gay caravan.

"Gosh!" breathed Dickie. "The chimney's smokin'!'

"It's stopped at Ingles. Stop hopping about, Dickie, else I can't see."

"That's a women with something bright round her head and carrying a bundle going through the gate... Here! Come on, Mary - please let us down, David. We're in a hurry."

But David didn't move.

"You needn't think you're going down to Ingles till we've all signed the book and the crocks have been washed up. If Peter was here I know she'd insist."

The twins looked at each other, and then Mary said sweetly enough:

"Very well, David, just as you say. Let's hurry up and get the chores done, and then we can go and see the caravan."

So David and the twins came down, leaving Tom to watch and report.

"She's at the back door now... Auntie is talking to her... Bet you she gets her a cup of tea... Now there's a kid got out of the caravan. She's swinging on the gate. She'll catch it if Uncle sees her."

Suddenly there was a shout from David.

"Come here, you two! Come back and do your jobs."

Two muffled voices came from the other side of the gorse.

"'Bye, David dear. 'Bye, Tom."

"Be good little boys and wash up nicely. Come on, Mackie," and the voices died away down the hillside.

"Did they catch you, David?" Tom called down.

"They did," said David ruefully. "I ought to have known when Mary agreed to do the chores. Silly of me... you see, they know what to do together sometimes without talking about it at all..."

"How did they get out?"

"When I wasn't looking they crawled through that narrow tunnel in the gorse. What's the caravan doing now, Tom? Just give me a hand and I'll come up again."

"It looks as if Auntie is buying something, and I'm sure she's brought out a cup of tea... Look! There are those two just jumping the stream."

And so they were. Breathlessly the twins raced down the narrow path which followed the tinkling stream down the valley. Soon they came to Witchend itself, tucked snugly against the hillside. They climbed to the top of the fence which was supposed to keep the heather from their garden and waited for Macbeth, who was yelping after a rabbit.