"Well?" both parties said simultaneously when they were near enough, and then Dickie grinned and said, "Where are the others hiding, anyway? Don't fool about because we're weary and we've got the most terrific story to tell you... But we must wait for the others."

They waited behind their buttress while an angry sun sank into the west. The cold increased and they lit a little fire of twigs to keep them warm. The girls were soon aware that the twins had a secret, but they could not persuade them to tell it until the boys came.

Peter looked at her watch, "I'm worried. They're over an hour late and now it's dark and getting colder. What shall we do?... I do wish they'd come."

10. The Boys' Adventure

As soon as they had left the girls, David, Jon and Tom set out for the mysterious house with the grey walls. They strode along with their hands in their pockets, for the wind was bitterly cold, and when Tom was not whistling he was yawning.

"It's no use," he said when they were rude to him, "I just can't help it. I could go to sleep right here... In this adventure we don't seem to do anything else but be yanked out of bed and walk or bike madly about in the cold... I'm fed up with it."

"We ought not to be far from that little wood now," David said after a few more minutes. "Have a look at the map, Jon. I think we're on the right trail."

"Not on your life!" Jon replied. "You're doing the map. If we're lost I'm not going to have anything to do with it, are you, Tom?... Besides, three people reading a map is always a hopeless mess... A glance round the countryside just now made me feel that we might be in the middle of the Sahara desert in winter-time - if it has a winter. This is the rummest country I've ever been in. I don't like it much."

"Neither do I," Tom said. "I keep on telling you I couldn't care less about it... I wonder how the twins are getting on with old man Cantor? I bet they're giving him a marvellous time..." He suddenly stopped and said, "Jon, David, look at the ground here carefully. I'd swear that these marks are the tracks left by the wheels of a big lorry."

"You're right," David said. "Now I know we're on the right road! Bet you these tracks lead us to the house."

Five minutes later they reached the little clump of fir trees and soon they were looking down on the mysterious grey walls.

"Let's go down," Tom said. "We shan't find out much from here, shall we? Let's make a row outside until they have to open the gates."

"Someone must live there," David replied; "and, anyway, we know that they do, and I've got the feeling now that someone is spying on us."