Jon nodded. "I suppose so, but I wish we could stay here all night and see what really is going on round here. Anyway, good luck, David, and just restrain Tom a bit if you can! He's an amazing chap when he gets excited. If I can't get on the back of the lorry I'll watch from here and see what you do, and then if you don't come out soon I'll go back and tell the others and warn Denton as well. I'd better do that, hadn't I?"

"I suppose so. Nobody can say what will happen if we do get in but let's have a shot, Jon. If you're on the back of the lorry as it comes down, drop off just where the big ditch ends by the track. That's where we'll be hiding and we'll throw the broken glass as far up the track as we can

... Cheerio, Jon. Hope we don't have to wait too long," and he dodged through the trees and then crawled through the heather after Tom.

It took him longer to reach the ditch than he had expected and the journey was very unpleasant for he dared not raise his head too often to see where he was going. The hill sloped down steeply to the house and if a watcher was hidden behind the peephole in the closed doors he could easily have seen anyone approaching in the normal way. David had to stop several times to rest and take his bearings, but he rolled over the edge of the ditch without knowing that he had reached it. He got to his feet cautiously and looked round. The light was going fast now and with a shock he realized that he did not know which way to turn to find Tom. He was just making up his mind to climb the side of the ditch and look round him when he heard the peewit's whistle from his left. Thankfully he answered, and in two minutes found Tom, who was crouching under a hawthorn bush which was growing within a few feet of the top of the bank.

"So it's you, is it?" he grinned. "Don't talk loud because we're at the end of the ditch here and the gates are only a few yards away... Can't you see them? And the wall? Where's Jon?"

David answered the last question first.

"In the wood. If a lorry or anything comes through he's going to try and hop on the back... If nothing comes in half an hour I told him we'd go back to him and try again to-morrow. Have you heard anything?"

"Not a sound. It's the rummest place I've ever struck."

"Have you done the broken glass, Tom?"