Новые приключения Великолепной Пятерки

[275] She shook her head. 'No - this doesn't make any sense to me. And what's this now - it looks like an old tobacco pouch. Ah, my John would like that, I guess. He's got such an old one that it won't hold his tobacco any more! This is old too - but there's a lot of wear in it yet.'

[276] 'Mrs. Sanders, do you want this piece of linen too?' asked Julian, anxiously. He was longing to take it home and study it. He felt certain there was some kind of exciting secret hidden there, and he could not bear the thought of leaving it with Mrs. Sanders.

[277] 'You take it, Master Julian, if you want it,' said Mrs. Sanders, with a laugh. I'll keep the recipes for myself, and John shall have the pouch. You can have the old rag if you want it, though it beats me why you set such store by it! Ah, here's John!'

[278] She raised her voice and shouted to the deaf old man. 'Hey, John, here's a tobacco pouch' for you. The children found it somewhere behind that panel that opens in the hall.'

[279] John took it and fingered it. 'It's a queer one,' he said. 'But better than mine. Well, youngsters, I don't want to hurry you, but it's one o'clock now, and you'd best be going if it's near your dinner-time!'

[280

] 'Gracious!' said Julian. 'We shall be late! Good-bye, Mrs. Sanders, and thanks awfully for the shortbread and this old rag. We'll try our best to make out what's on it and tell you. Hurry, everyone! Where's Tim? Come on, Timothy, we're late!'

[281] The five of them ran off quickly. They really were late, and had to run most of the way, which meant that it was difficult to talk. But they were so excited about their morning that they panted remarks to one another as they went.

[282] 'I wonder what this old rag says!' panted Julian. 'I mean to find out. I'm sure it's something mysterious.'

[283] 'Shall we tell anyone?' asked Dick.

[284] 'No!' said George. 'Let's keep it a secret.'

[285] 'If Anne starts to give away anything, kick her under the table, like we did last summer,' said Julian, with a grin. Poor Anne always found it difficult to keep a secret, and often had to be nudged or kicked when she began to give things away.

[286

] 'I won't say a word,' said Anne, indignantly. 'And don't you dare to kick me. It only makes me cry out and then the grown-ups want to know why.'

[287] 'We'll have a good old puzzle over this piece of linen after dinner,' said Julian. 'I bet we'll find out what it says, if we really make up our minds to!'

[288] 'Here we are,' said George. 'Not too late. Hallo, Mother! We won't be a minute washing our hands! We've had a lovely time.'

[ 289 ] Chapter Five AN UNPLEASANT WALK

[290] AFTER dinner the four children went upstairs to the boys' bedroom and spread out the bit of linen on a table there. There were words here and there, scrawled in rough printing. There was the sign of a compass, with E marked clearly for East. There were eight rough squares, and in one of them, right in the middle, was a cross. It was all very mysterious.

[291

] 'You know, I believe these words are Latin,' said Julian, trying to make them out. 'But I can't read them properly. And I expect if I could read them, I wouldn't know what they meant. I wish we knew someone who could read Latin like this.'

[292] 'Could your father, George?' asked Anne.

[293] 'I expect so,' said George. But nobody wanted to ask George's father. He might lake the curious old rag away. He might forget all about it, he might even burn it. Scientists were such queer people.

[294] 'What about Mr. Roland?' said Dick. 'He's a tutor. He knows Latin.'

[295] 'We won't ask him till we know a bit more about him,' said Julian, cautiously. 'He seems quite jolly and nice -but you never know. Oh, blow - I wish we could make this out, I really do.'

[296] 'There are two words at the top,' said Dick, and he tried to spell them out. 'VIA OCCULTA.'

'What do you think they could mean, Julian?'

[297] 'Well - the only thing I can think of that they can mean is - Secret Way, or something like that,' said Julian, screwing up his forehead into a frown.

[298] 'Secret Way!' said Anne, her eyes shining. 'Oh, I hope it's that! Secret Way! How exciting. What sort of secret way would it be, Julian?'

[299] 'How do I know, Anne, silly?' said Julian. 'I don't even know that the words are meant to mean "Secret Way". It's really a guess on my part.'

[300] 'If they did mean that - the linen might have directions to find the Secret Way, whatever it is,' said Dick. 'Oh Julian - isn't it exasperating that we can't read it? Do, do try. You know more Latin than I do.'

[301] 'It's so hard to read the funny old letters,' said Julian, trying again. 'No - it's no good at all. I can't make them out.'

[302] Steps came up the stairs, and the door opened. Mr. Roland looked in.

[303] 'Hallo, hallo!' he said. 'I wondered where you all were. What about a walk over the cliffs?'