Then a very strange thing happened. The wind, which was blowing from the road towards them in the field, suddenly strengthened and with it brought an unexpected scent, and a strangely muffled but familiar sound. Peter could hardly believe her nose or her ears, but she suddenly decided to see for herself why these men wanted to keep her off the road. She bent, patted the horse's neck and urged her forward as the man with the squint grabbed at the bridle and missed.

As she turned round the rick to make for the open gate she realized with a shock that a huge van was blocking her way out into the road. Like a flash she pulled Sally's head round and the good little pony pivoted and turned like a ballet dancer. Back into the field she cantered, past the two angry men, and past the rick, searching for another gate or a lower part of the hedge. Peter found the gap first and set Sally at it, praying that there would be a grass verge on the other side. The pony sailed through the hedge like a bird and landed safely in soft earth.

"You've never failed me, Sally," Peter whispered as she patted her again. Then she looked back down the road.

The van was certainly large and although she was now some distance away she was as sure as she could be that it was a furniture van. It was painted a dull red, and she thought she could just read the word "Wolverhampton" on the back. As she strained her eyes the two men came out into the road and stood watching her.

Peter shuddered slightly, turned the pony's head and rode on her way with a puzzled frown on her forehead. It was certainly all very odd.

"Jiminy!" Peter said aloud suddenly. "I've just remembered that smell. Now I know what it was. It was sheep - and that noise was sheep baaing. That van was full of sheep, but what beasts those men were to keep the van closed up like that. P'raps that's why they didn't want me to go near, just in case I reported such cruelty to someone."

And so she rode on while the weather worsened, the sun disappeared, and a bitterly cold wind swept across the wide valley to the hillside along which she was now riding. She knew that the other Lone Piners would reach Clun from the direction of Craven Arms, but she had planned her ride so that she would discover the little secret town - as she called Clun in her own mind - from the other side.