GO AHEAD SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 3 A NEW PASSWORD AND A FEW IDEAS

Everyone sat quiet. Scamper stopped his tail-thumping and sat still too, his head on one side. He was very, very proud to be at all the meetings, even though he wasn't a proper member.

"First of all," said Peter, "we must choose a new password, partly because Susie knows it!"

Jack was startled. How did Peter know that Susie knew it? "Yes, she does know it," he said, and fished the piece of paper out of his pocket, on which he had written the old password, and on which Susie had scribbled her nonsense.

"Look there, she found this bit of paper, with our password on it. I wrote it down so that I wouldn't forget it, and I hid it, and she found it and scribbled on it! But how did you know she knew it, Peter?"

"She told me," said Peter. "She seemed to think our Society was about to come to an end, or something, and she was so annoying that it made me decide to call a meeting at once. Jack, for goodness' sake don't leave our passwords about again!"

"All right. I won't," said Jack, looking rather red in the face. "But you don't know what it is to have a sister like Susie. I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't trying to peep in at the window this very minute."

Everyone at once looked up at the little window, Scamper too. Peter shook his head.

"No, nobody's about. Scamper would bark if he heard the slightest sound. Well, what about a new password? Anyone got a good idea?"

"Snooper!" said Colin, thinking of Susie. "That would be a good one."

"Yes, we'd all remember that because of Susie," said Janet

"We'll have to remember the password is Snooper, not Susie," said Pam, with a giggle. "I'm sure I shall say 'Susie' if anyone asks me the password next week!"

Jack often felt cross with his sister, but he didn't very much like the idea of the password being chosen because of Susie's snoopy behaviour. After all, she was his sister, and although she was very annoying at times, he was fond of her. He shook his head.

"No. I don't want that password, if you don't mind. I've got a better one. One that nobody would ever think of. What about 'Beware' ? It sounds sort of suitable for us."

"Yes; it does," agreed Peter, and the others nodded their heads. They began to say the password to one another, in hollow, mysterious voices, and Scamper looked rather startled.

"Beware!" Janet said to Barbara, solemnly.

"Be-warrrrrrre!" hissed Colin to Jack.

"Beware!" said Peter to Scamper, who got up at once and sniffed in every comer of the shed, as if he had to discover what it was that everyone was warning him about. Beware! Well, he would beware all right, but what of?

"Look at Scamper. He's puzzled to bits," said Pam, with a laugh. "It's all right, Scamper. It's just our new password. Well, I don't think any of us will forget it. It's a very good one. Beware! It makes me feel quite creepy."

"The next thing to discuss is what the Secret Seven are to do," said Peter. "I suppose nobody has heard of anything peculiar or mysterious or extraordinary that we could look into?"

Nobody said a word. They just looked at one another hopefully, and then shook their heads.

"Well, as there's nothing peculiar to make plans about, we'll have to decide something to do," said Peter. "I mean, it's been such a long time since we held a meeting, and societies just fizzle out if they're not kept going somehow. We must do something to keep up our interest or when something does come along, we'll miss it."

"Yes, but what do you mean, do something?" asked Colin. "We can't make things happen."

"No. I know that," said Peter. "But we can put in a bit of practice. We can set ourselves one or two things to do."

"What, for instance?" said George.

"Well, we could practise shadowing people," said Peter. "And we might perhaps have a shot at disguising ourselves, just to see if we could get away with it."

"Disguising ourselves? But how could we?" said Pam. "We're only children. We can't wear false beards, or ragged clothes, or pretend to walk with limps or anything. We'd be spotted at once."

"Well, perhaps that's not a frightfully good idea," admitted Peter. "We'll leave that for the minute. But we could practise spotting somebody, and then writing down a very clear description of him, so as to get practice at that kind of thing. It's always useful to be able to describe a thief in great detail, for instance."

"But how do we know who's a thief?" said Jack.

"We don't," said Peter, beginning to be impatient. "We just go, say, to the railway station, and sit down on a seat. We watch the people standing there waiting for a train. We pick on somebody, it doesn't matter who. We look at them carefully, and memorize everything about them. Then, when they've gone, we write down what we've remembered. It would be very, very good practice for observing people."

"It sounds rather dull to me," said George. "I'd much sooner do some shadowing or something. Anyway, I'm not much good at describing anything. I'm always bottom in composition at school. I just can't think of a thing to say."

"All right, you can do the shadowing," said Peter. "Perhaps the girls would be better at spotting people and describing them."

"Woof!" said Scamper, suddenly. "Woof!"

"Somebody's about," said Peter. "Quick,open the door and let Scamper out. If it's Susie we'll give her the fright of her life!"