"We're not in yet... Hold me on and I'll look round the corner... The gates are still shut but I can see that chap tugging the bell we tried. I s'pose they've got a code signal... I say, Jon! We've got to get inside this van somehow else we're sure to be caught. Let's try this bar again... Ready?"

As they pushed together with all their strength the van moved forward again and the extra jolt moved the bar a little so that as Jon pushed upwards he was able to free it in the socket. David struggled to pull one side of the great door open and as the van bumped slowly through the now open gates the two boys scrambled in and pulled the doors close behind them.

"Hang on to it? Jon," David grunted. "Don't let it swing open."

"We've done it, David! We're in! Bit of luck for us that the bar shifted, else they'd have got us by now."

Then the lorry stopped and the engine was cut off. In the sudden silence they heard the rumble of men's voices from outside and one of them seemed to be apologizing.

"Sorry, guv'nor, if we're a bit behind, but a tyre went on the hill outside. Gippos been chucking glass about. Someone will have to change the wheel."

Then the voices moved away.

"What do we do now?" David whispered.

"Wait a minute or two," Jon said as he rubbed his arm, but even as he spoke there came a new sound - the deep, resonant and angry bark of a great dog. They heard a man shout and then the barking came nearer and almost before they had time to press the door into place the dog, in a frenzy of rage and excitement, began to jump up at the back and hurl himself at the doors, on the other side of which both boys felt themselves go cold with terror.

11. Tom on His Own

When Tom left David so suddenly and ran off down the great ditch after a shadow, he acted for once without thinking first. This was not like Tom for although he was quick-witted he was, by instinct, cautious and liked to make up his mind before taking action.

But somehow this adventure at Clun had changed Tom, and this may have been because it was a real holiday for him. For almost the first time since he had joined the Lone Piners he was acting entirely on his own, and he enjoyed that too as he trotted cautiously along the narrow track at the foot of the great bank.