CHAPTER TEN

A CURIOUS CHANGE OF MIND

n.o.bby felt very much tempted to go and have a meal up in the hills with the children. But he was afraid of meeting Lou and his uncle coming back from their walk.

'We can easily look out for them and warn you if we see or hear them,' said d.i.c.k, 'and you can flop under a bush and hide till they go past. You may be sure we'll be on the look-out for them ourselves, because we don't want to meet them either!'

'Well, I'll come,' said n.o.bby. 'I'll take Barker and Growler too. They'll like to see Timmy.'

So all five of them, with the two dogs, set off up the hill. They climbed up short cuts at first, but they were soon panting, and decided to take the track, which, although longer, was easier to follow.

They all kept a sharp look-out for the two men, but they could see no sign of them. 'We shall be at our caravans soon,' said Julian. Then he heard Timmy barking in the distance. 'Hallo! What's old Tim barking for? I wonder if those fellows have been up to our caravans?'

'Good thing we left Timmy on guard if so,' said d.i.c.k. 'We might have missed something if not.'

Then he went red, remembering that it was n.o.bby's uncle he had been talking of. n.o.bby might feel upset and offended to hear someone speaking as if he thought Tiger Dan would commit a little robbery.

But n.o.bby wasn't at all offended. 'Don't you worry about what you say of my uncle,' he said, cheerfully. 'He's a bad lot. I know that. Anyway, he's not really my uncle, you know. When my father and mother died, they left a little money for me - and it turned out that they had asked Tiger Dan to look after me. So he took the money, called himself my uncle, and I've had to 'be with him ever since.'

'Was he in the same circus, then?' asked Julian.

'Oh yes. He and my father were both clowns,' said n.o.bby. 'Always have been clowns, in my family. But wait till I'm old enough, and I'll do a bunk - clear off and join another circus, where they'll let me look after the horses. I'm mad on horses. But the fellow at our circus won't often let me go near them. Jealous because I can handle them, I suppose!'

The children gazed at n.o.bby in wonder. He seemed an extraordinary boy to them - one who walked about with a tame chimpanzee, exercised hordes of performing dogs, lived with the chief clown in the circus, could turn the most marvellous cart-wheels, and whose only ambition was to work with horses! What a boy! d.i.c.k half-envied him.

'Haven't you ever been to school?' he asked n.o.bby.

The boy shook his head. 'Never! I can't write. And I can only read a bit. Most circus folk are like that, so n.o.body minds. Jumping Jiminy, I bet you're all clever, though! I bet even little Anne can read a book!'

'I've been able to read for years,' said Anne. 'And I'm up to fractions now in numbers.'

'Coo! What's fractions?' said n.o.bby, impressed.

'Well - quarters and halves and seven-eighths, and things like that,' said Anne. 'But I'd rather be able to turn a cart-wheel like you can, n.o.bby, than know how to do fractions.'

'Whatever is Timmy barking for?' said George as they came near the clump of birch trees. Then she stopped suddenly, for she had seen two figures lying down in the gra.s.s below the trees. Lou - and Tiger Dan!

It was too late for n.o.bby to hide. The men saw him at once. They got up and waited for the children to come near. George felt thankful that Timmy was within whistling distance. He would come at the first call or whistle, she knew.

Julian looked at the men. To his surprise they appeared to be quite amiable. A faint scowl came over Tiger Dan's face when he caught sight of n.o.bby, but it pa.s.sed at once.

'Good evening,' said Julian curtly, and would have pa.s.sed on without another word, but Lou stepped up to him.

'We see you're camping up by here,' said Lou, and smiled showing yellow teeth. 'Ain't you going over the hill?'

'I don't need to discuss my affairs with either you or your friend,' said Julian, sounding extremely grown-up. 'You told us to clear out from down below, and we have. What we do now is nothing to do with you.'

'Ho yes, it is,' said Tiger Dan, sounding as if he was being polite with great difficulty. 'We come up here tonight to plan a place for some of our animals, see? And we don't want you to be in no danger.'

'We shan't be,' said Julian, scornfully. 'And there is plenty of room on these hills for you and your animals and for us, too. You won't scare us off, so don't think it. We shall stay here as long as we want to - and if we want help there's the farmer and his men quite near by - to say nothing of our dog.'

'Did you leave that there dog on guard?' asked Lou, as he heard Timmy barking again. 'He ought to be destroyed, that dog of yours. He's dangerous.'

'He's only dangerous to rogues and scamps,' said George, joining in at once. 'You keep away from our caravans when Timmy's on guard. He'll maul you if you go near.'

Lou began to lose his temper. 'Well, are you going or ain't you?' he said. 'We've told you we want this here bit of the hill. You can come down and camp by the lake again if you want to.'

'Yes - you come,' said Tiger Dan to the children's growing astonishment. 'You come, see? You can bathe in the lake every day, then - and n.o.bby here can show you round the camp, and you can make friends with all the animals, see?'

Now it was n.o.bby's turn to look amazed.

'Jumping Jiminy! Didn't you beat me black and blue for making friends with these kids?' he demanded. 'What's the game, now? You've never had animals up in the hills before. You've ...'

'Shut up,' said Tiger Dan in such a fierce voice that all the children were shocked. Lou nudged Dan, and he made an effort to appear pleasant again.

'We didn't want n.o.bby to make friends with posh folk like you,' he began again. 'But it seems as if you want to pal up with him - so it's okay with us. You come on down and camp by the lake, and n.o.bby'll show you everything in the circus. Can't say fairer than that.'

'You've got other reasons for making all these suggestions,' said Julian, scornfully. 'I'm sorry - but our plans are made, and I am not going to discuss them with you.'

'Come on,' said d.i.c.k. 'Let's go and find Timmy. He's barking his head off because he can hear us, and it won't be long before he comes flying along here. Then we shall find it difficult to keep him off these two fellows.'

The four children began to move off. n.o.bby looked doubtfully at his uncle. He didn't know whether to go with them or not. Lou nudged Dan again.

'You go, too, if you want to,' said Tiger Dan, trying to grin amiably at the surprised n.o.bby. 'Keep your fine friends, see! Much good may they do you!' The grin vanished into a scowl, and n.o.bby skipped smartly out of reach of his uncle's hand. He was puzzled and wondered what was behind his uncle's change of mind.

He tore after the children. Timmy came to meet them, barking his head off, waving the plumy tail wildly in joy.

'Good dog, good dog!' said George, patting him. 'You keep on guard beautifully. You know I would have whistled for you if I'd wanted you, didn't you, Timmy? Good dog!'

'I'll get you some supper,' said Anne to everyone. 'We're all famishing. We can talk while we eat. George, come and help. Julian, can you get some ginger-beer? And, d.i.c.k, do fill up the water-bowl for me.'

The boys winked at one another. They always thought that Anne was very funny when she took command like this, and gave her orders. But everyone went obediently to work.

n.o.bby went to help Anne. Together they boiled ten eggs hard in the little saucepan. Then Anne made tomato sandwiches with potted meat and got out the cake the farmer's wife had given them. She remembered the raspberry syrup, too - how lovely!

Soon they were all sitting on the rocky ledge, which was still warm, watching the sun go down into the lake. It was a most beautiful evening, with the lake as blue as a cornflower and the sky flecked with rosy clouds. They held their hard-boiled eggs in one hand and a piece of bread and b.u.t.ter in the other, munching happily. There was a dish of salt for everyone to dip their eggs into.

'I don't know why, but the meals we have on picnics always taste so much nicer than the ones we have indoors,' said George. 'For instance, even if we had hard-boiled eggs and bread and b.u.t.ter indoors, they wouldn't taste as nice as these.'

'Can everyone eat two eggs?' asked Anne. 'I did two each. And there's plenty of cake - and more sandwiches and some plums we picked this morning.'

'Best meal I've ever had in my life,' said n.o.bby, and picked up his second egg. 'Best company I've ever been in, too!'

Thank you,' said Anne, and everyone looked pleased. n.o.bby might not have their good manners, but he always seemed to say just the right thing.

'It's a good thing your uncle didn't make you go back with him and Lou,' said d.i.c.k. 'Funny business - changing his mind like that!'

They began to talk about it. Julian was very puzzled indeed, and had even begun to wonder if he hadn't better find another camping site and go over the hill.