FIVE ON A HIKE TOGETHER by Enid Blyton

12 A HIDING PLACE AT TWO-TREES

Nobody particularly liked the place. They all stared round and Julian pointed silently to something. At each end of the house was the great burnt trunk of a big tree.

"Those must be the two trees that gave the place its name," said Julian. "How horrid they look now, so stiff and black. Two-Trees and Gloomy Water - all so lonely and desolate now."

The sun disappeared and a little chill came on the air. Julian suddenly became very busy. "Come on - we must see if there's anywhere to shelter at all in this old ruin!"

They went to the silent house. The upper floors were all burnt out. The ground floor was pretty bad too, but Julian thought it might be possible to find a sheltered corner.

"This might do," he said, coming out of a blackened room and beckoning the others to him. "There is even a mouldy carpet still on the floor! And there's a big table. We could sleep under it if it rained - which I don't think it will do!"

"What a horrid room!" said Anne, looking round. "I don't like its smell, either. I don't want to sleep here."

"Well, find somewhere else then, but be quick about it," said Julian. "It will soon be dark. I'm going to collect heather and bracken straight away, before it's too dark. Coming, Dick and George?"

The three of them went off and came back with vast armfuls of heather and brown bracken. Anne met them, looking excited.

"I've found somewhere. Somewhere much better than this horrid room. Come and look."

She took them to what once had been the kitchen. A door lay flat on the floor at the end of the room, and a stone staivvay led downwards.

"That leads down to the cellars," said Anne. "I came in here and saw that door. It was locked and I couldn't open it. Well, I tugged and tugged and the whole door came off its rusty old hinges and tumbled down almost on top of me! And I saw there were cellars down there!"

She stared at Julian beseechingly. "They'll be dry. They won't be burnt and black like everywhere else. We'll be well-sheltered. Can't we sleep down there? I don't like the feel of these horrid burnt rooms."

"It's an idea," said Julian, He switched on his torch and let the beam light up the cellar below. It seemed spacious and smelt all right.

He went down the steps, Timmy just in front. He called up in surprise.

"There's a proper room down here, as well as cellars all round. Maybe it was a kind of sitting-room for the staff. It's wired for electricity too - they must have had their own electricity generator. Yes - we'll certainly come down here."

It was a queer little room. Moth-eaten carpets were on the floor, and the furnishings were moth-eaten too and covered with dust. Spiders had been at work and George slashed fiercely at the long cobwebs that hung down and startled her by touching her face.

"There are still candles in the candle-sticks on this shelf!" said Dick, surprised. "We can light them and have a bit of brightness when it's dark. This isn't bad at all. I must say I agree with Anne. There's something hateful about those burnt-out rooms."

They piled heather and bracken into the cellar room on the floor. The furniture was so old and moth-eaten that it gave beneath their weight, and was useless for sitting on. The table was all right though, They soon set out their food on it after George had wiped it free of dust. She caused them all to have fits of choking because she was so vigorous in her dusting! They were driven up into the kitchen till the dust had settled.

It was dark outside now. The moon was not yet up. The wind rustled the dry leaves left on the trees around, but there was no lap-lap of water. The lake was as still as glass.