Chapter Nine

A STRANGE TALE

The children did not bother about their skis that first day. For one thing the snow was not quite thick or smooth enough for skiing, and for another thing they longed for the swift excitement of tobogganing. Dick took George on his toboggan and Julian took Anne on his. Timmy wouldn’t come on either of them.
“Race you to the bottom!” Julian shouted. “One, two, three, go!” And away they went, swishing over the clean white snow at top speed, shouting with laughter.
Julian won easily, because Dick’s toboggan caught on a root or small bush under the snow, which upset it very suddenly. Dick and George were flung headlong into the snow, and sat up, blinking, and spitting out the cold snow from their mouths.
Timmy was terribly excited. He came plunging down the hillside after the toboggans, annoyed at the way his legs went into the snow, barking madly. He was most astonished to see Dick and George fly into the air when their toboggan upset, and pranced round them, licking them and leaping on them in a most aggravating way.
“Oh, get away, Timmy!” said Dick, trying to get up, and being knocked down again by the excited dog. “Go and knock George over, not me! Call him, George!”
Pulling the toboggans back up the hill was a tiring job - but the swift flight down over the snow was worth all the pullings-up! The four children soon had glowing faces and tingling limbs, and wished they could throw off their coats and scarves!
“I can’t pull up our toboggan one more time!” said Anne, at last. “I really can’t. You’ll have to pull it up yourself, Julian, if you want to toboggan any more.”
“Well, I do want to - but my legs will hardly walk up the hill now,” said Julian, panting. “Hey, Dick - Anne and I have had enough. We’ll go up and eat our sandwiches at the top of the slope, where we can watch you.”
The other two soon joined them, and Timmy was glad to sit down too. His long pink tongue hung out of his mouth, and he puffed his white breath out like rolling mist! At first he had been puzzled by what he thought was “smoke” coming out of his mouth so continually, but now, seeing that everyone was apparently puffing it out too, he didn’t worry!
The Five sat at the top of the slope, eating their sandwiches hungrily, very glad of the rest. Julian grinned round at them all.
“Pity Mother can’t see us now!” he said. “We look marvellous! And nobody’s coughed once. I bet we’ll be stiff tomorrow though!”
Dick was looking across the slope to the opposite hill, rising steeply up a mile or so away.
“There’s that building I thought I saw yesterday,” he said. “Isn’t that a chimney sticking up?”
“You’ve got sharp eyes! ” said George. “Nobody could surely see a building as far away as that, when the snow is on it!”
“Did we bring the field-glasses?” asked Julian. “Where are they? We could soon find out if there’s a house there or not, if we look through those.”
“I put them into a cupboard,” said Anne, getting up. “Ooooh, I’m stiff! I’ll just go and get them.”
She soon came back with the glasses and handed them to Dick. He put them to his eyes and adjusted them, till they were properly focused on the far-away hill opposite.
“Yes,” he said. “I was right. It is a building - and I’m pretty sure it must be Old Towers, too. You know - the place we went to by mistake two nights ago when we lost our way.”
“Let’s have a look,” said Anne. “I think I might recognise it. I caught a glimpse of the towers when we swung round a corner on the way up Old Towers Hill.”
She put the glasses to her eyes and gazed through them. “Yes. I’m sure that’s the place,” she said. “Wasn’t it queer - that big rude notice on the gate - and that fiercely barking dog - and nobody about! How lonely the old lady must be living there all by herself!”
As they sat there, nibbling their apples, Timmy suddenly began to bark. He stood up, turning his head towards the path that ran higher up the hill.
“Perhaps it’s Aily, that funny child, coming,” said Julian, hopefully. But it wasn’t. It was a small, wiry-looking woman, a shawl over her head, neatly-dressed, walking swiftly.
She didn’t seem very surprised to see the children. She stopped and said “Good day.”
“You’ll be the boys my Aily was telling me of last night,” she said. “Are you staying in the Jones’ hut?”
“Yes,” said Julian. “We were staying at the farm first - but our dog didn’t get on with the others, so we’ve come up here. It’s fine. Marvellous view, too!”
“If you see that Aily of mine, you tell her not to stay out tonight,” said the woman, wrapping her shawl more tightly round her. “Her and her lamb! She’s as mad as the old lady in the house yonder!” and she pointed in the direction of Old Towers.
“Oh - do you know anything about that old place?” asked Julian, at once. “We went to it by mistake, and...”
“Well, you didn’t get into it, I’ll be bound,” said Aily’s mother. “Notices on the gate and all! And to think I used to go up there three times a week, and never anything but kindness shown me! And now old Mrs. Thomas, she won’t see a soul except those friends of her son’s. Poor old lady - she’s out of her mind, so they say. Must be - or she’d see me, that waited on her for years!”
This was all very interesting.
“Why do they say ‘Keep Out’ on the gates?” asked Julian. “They’ve a fierce dog there, too.”
“Ah well, young sir, you see some of the old lady’s friends would like to know what’s going on,” said Aily’s mother. “But nobody can do a thing. It’s a queer place now - with noises at night - and mists - and shimmerings - and...”
Julian began to think this was an old wives’ tale, made up because the villagers were angry that they were now kept out of the big old house. He smiled.
“Oh, you may smile, young man,” said the woman, sounding cross. “But ever since last October, there’s queer doings there. And what’s more, vans have been there in the dead of night. What for, I’d like to know? Well, if you ask me, I reckon they’ve been taking away the poor old thing’s belongings - furniture and pictures and such. My poor old Madam - she was sweet and kind, and now I don’t know what’s happening to her!”
There were tears in the woman’s eyes, and she hastily brushed them away.
“I shouldn’t be telling you all this - you’ll be scared sleeping here alone at night now.”
“No - no, we shan’t,” Julian assured her, amused that she should think that a village tale might frighten them. “Tell us about Aily. Isn’t she frozen, going about with so few clothes on?”
“That child! She’s fey, I tell you,” said Aily’s mother. “Runs about the hills like a wild thing - plays truant from school - goes to see her father - he’s shepherd, up yonder where the sheep are - and doesn’t come home at nights. You tell her there’s a good whipping waiting for her at home if she doesn’t come back tonight. She’s like her father, she is - likes to be alone all the time - talks to the lambs and the dogs like they were human - but never a word to me!”
The children began to feel uncomfortable, and wished they hadn’t spoken to the grumbling gossipy woman. Julian got up.
“Well - if we see Aily, we’ll certainly tell her to go home - but not about the whipping, because I expect she wouldn’t go home then,” he said. “If you pass by the farmhouse will you be kind enough to step in and tell Mrs. Jones we are quite all right, and enjoying ourselves very much? Thank you!”
The woman nodded her head, muttered something, and went off down the hill, walking as swiftly as before.
“She said some queer things,” said Dick, staring after her. “Was that a silly village-tale she told us - or do you suppose there’s something in it, Ju?”
“Oh - a village tale of course!” said Julian, sensing that Anne hadn’t liked it much. “What a strange family - a shepherd who spends all his time on the hills - a child who wanders about the countryside with a lamb and a dog - and a mother who stops and tells such angry tales to strangers!”
“It’s getting dark,” said Dick. “I vote we go in and light the oil-lamp and get the hut warm - and light the table-lamp too. It’ll be cosy in there. I’m feeling a bit chilled now, sitting out here so long.”
“Well, don’t begin to cough,” said Julian, “or you’ll set us all off! Indoors, Tim! Come on!”
Soon they were all in the hut, the oil-lamp giving out a lovely warmth and glow, and the table-lamp shining brightly.
“We’ll play a game, shall we?” said Dick. “And have a sort of high tea later. Let’s have a silly game - snap, or something!”
So they sat down to play - and soon Dick’s cards had all been “snapped” by the others. He yawned and went to the window, looking out into the darkness that hid all the snowy hills. Then he stood tense for a moment, staring in surprise. He spoke to the others without turning.
“Quick! Come here, all of you! Tell me what you make of this! Did you ever see such an extraordinary thing! QUICK!”