We'll meet again

It could be of great importance. Captain Brent was testing it in this part of the world and he was keeping it for a while in Riverside Cottage. They wished to get hold of it, which was why they had burgled the place. Charley saw them and stopped that. Charley has been something of a help. I'll tell you more of that later.”

"I suppose at that time, the important box was in Riverside Cottage,” said Violetta.

"Yes. But for Charley, they might have found it.”

"What happened after I drove away with Tristan?”

"Our people had the place surrounded. I think we fooled them.

The box you were given was a replica of the actual one, though, of course, it lacked the vital parts. They were naturally deceived ... but that would have been only temporary. They believed you had carried out their orders, and they gave up Tristan. No doubt they thought it would not be wise to deceive you. They may have planned to use you again. We came in as soon as you left.”

"I heard shooting.”

"Inevitable in the circumstance. We got one of them in the leg.”

"How many were there?" asked Violetta.

"Six. We got them all. This is where Charley comes in again. The boys were riding round on their bicycles when they discovered a motorboat ready for departure. It was right down by the sea at Penwarlock. They reported it to me. Charley likes a bit of adventure and, since that scare about the lights, he has been keeping his eyes open. There have been a number of things he has reported to me.

Well, this was something very important. We had people waiting down by this motorboat. Those people were about to get into the boat with their prize-the bogus box-when we took them all.”

"Who would believe such things could happen?" said Violetta.

"This is wartime," Gordon reminded her.

In a neighborhood like ours, people were very much involved in what was going on around them; there had to be plausible explanations. When it was assumed that Tregarland had paid a ransom to the kidnappers, this was not contradicted.

We watched Tristan closely, to discover what effect the adventure had had on him. He was physically unharmed, so they could not have treated him badly. True, he would not stay in a room unless Violetta, Nanny Crabtree, or I were there and we noticed his eyes followed us when we moved away, and often he would stretch out a hand to grip our skirts.

It was rather touching.

At night, the door between his room and that of Nanny Crabtree was kept open, and I suggested that a bed should be put in his room so that I could sleep there.

His delight at this was very revealing. No one, not even a child who did not know what it was all about, could go through an experience such as he had had without being affected by it.

I was so glad that I was sleeping there. Sometimes during the night, he would creep into my bed and I would hold him tightly in my arms.

This brought us closer together and I could tell myself that I was grateful because I was able to make up for what I had lost in the past through my desertion.

Never again would I leave him, I told myself in the darkness. For as long as he needed me, I should be there.

We thought we should not question him too closely, but gradually, little bits of information emerged. He had been in a house. There was someone he called "Her." We learned by degrees that "Her" had told him that, if he were good and did not cry, he would go back to his mummy, his Auntie Violetta, and Nanny Crabtree. He had to eat his food too.

"Was the food nice?”

He wrinkled his nose.

"Not like Nanny's?" I suggested.

"Not like Nanny's," he agreed.

"Her" was the one who had come in and told him about the dinosaurs in the garden.

"She came into your bedroom?”

He nodded.

"All by herself?”

He looked puzzled.

"Was there someone with her?”

"Outside the door," he said.

"One of the servants?”

He did not know.

It was all very mysterious.

"It must never happen again," I said to Violetta.

"It won't. It failed once, didn't it?”

"There might be other attempts.”

"It was all due to the box and your connection with Captain Brent.”

"Please... don't remind me.”

"I'm sorry. But Tristan will be all right now.”

Nanny had been very shaken by the incident-more so than we had realized at first. She could not stop blaming herself for being asleep when Tristan had been taken.

"Right from under my nose," she would murmur to herself, shaking her head, looking bewildered and shocked. "It was no more than one of my cozy naps after lunch. I've had them as long as I can remember.”

There were no more of those cozy little naps. I remembered that when we were young, after she had, as she said, "put us down to sleep for an hour," she would doze as she rocked herself in the next room. When we were older, we had been sent to the nursery to "play nice and quiet” while she took her well-earned rest.

Now, there were more cups of tea instead of the rest, for they were something she could not do without in her present state.