SECRET SEVEN ADVENTURE by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 17 BACK AT THE CIRCUS FIELD

The key turned in the lock and the door of the caravan was pushed open. A powerful torch was switched on, and the beam flashed round the inside of the van.

The boys were under the bunks and could not be seen. But the man was so certain that somebody was inside the van that he pulled aside the draperies that hung over the side of the bunk where Peter was hiding. At once he saw the boy.

He shouted angrily and dragged poor Peter out. He shook him so hard that the boy yelled. Out came Colin at once to his rescue!

"Ah... so there are two of you!" said the man. "What are you doing here? How long have you been in this van?"

"Not long," said Peter. "We came in by mistake. We wanted to get into another van... but in the dark we missed our way."

"A pretty poor sort of story!" said the man, angrily. "Now I'm going to give you each a good hiding... that will teach you to get into other people's caravans."

He put down his torch on a shelf, so that its beam lighted the whole caravan. He pushed back his coat sleeves and looked very alarming indeed.

Colin suddenly kicked up at the torch. It jerked into the air and fell to the floor with a crash. The bulb was broken and the light went out. The caravan was in darkness.

"Quick, Peter, go for his legs!" yelled Colin, and dived for the man's legs. But in the darkness he missed them, shot out of the door, and rolled down the steps, landing with a bump on the road below.

Peter got a slap on the side of his head and dodged in the darkness. He, too, dived to get hold of the man's legs and caught one of them. The man hit out again arid then staggered and fell. Peter wriggled away, half fell down the steps and rolled into the hedge.

At the same moment the horse took fright and galloped off down the road with the caravan swinging from side to side behind it in a most alarming manner. The man inside must have been very very surprised indeed!

"Colin! Where are you?" shouted Peter. "Come on, quickly. The horse has bolted with the caravan and the man inside it. Now's our chance!"

Colin was hiding in the hedge, too. He stepped out to join Peter, and the two set off down the road as fast as they could, running at top speed, panting loudly.

"Every single thing in this adventure goes wrong," said Colin at last, slowing down. "We can't even get into the right caravan when we want to... we have to choose the wrong one."

"Well, we learnt quite a bit," said Peter. "And we know the thief is wearing those socks now, even if we still don't know who he is. Funny thing is... I seem to know his voice."

"Have you any idea at all where we are?" asked Colin. "I mean... do you suppose we're running towards home, or away from it? As this is a most contrary adventure, I wouldn't be surprised if we're running in the wrong direction as fast as ever we can!"

"Well, we're not," said Peter. "I know where we are all right. In fact, we'll soon be back at the circus field. I say... should we slip into the field again and just have a squint round for the man who's wearing the socks? I feel as if I simply must find out who he is!"

Colin didn't want to. He had had enough adventure for one night. But he said he would wait for Peter outside the gate if he badly wanted to go into the field again.

So Peter slipped over the fence and made his way to where he saw many lights. The show was over, and the people had gone home. But the circus folk were now having their supper, and the light from lanterns and fires looked very bright and gay.

Peter saw some children playing together. One of them appeared very tall indeed... and Peter saw that she was walking on stilts, just as the stilt-walkers did in the ring. It was the rude little girl who had told him there was no one-legged man in the circus. She came walking over to where he stood by a caravan, but she didn't see him. She was absorbed in keeping her balance on the stilts.

She came and went... and Peter stared at something showing on the ground. Where the child had walked, her stilts had left peculiar marks pitted in the ground; regular, round marks, just like the ones by the wall round Milton Manor! There they were, showing clearly in the damp ground, lit by the flickering light of a nearby lantern!

"Look at that!" said Peter to himself. "We were blind I Those marks weren't made by a one-legged man... they were made by a stilt-walker! Why ever didn't we think of it before?"