GO AHEAD SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 5 A LITTLE SHADOWING

"Peter, when is the next meeting, do you suppose?" asked Janet, on Saturday morning. "I'm going to the station now, to do my practice for the Secret Seven, you know, watching somebody and describing them, and I'd like to know when I can give my work in to the Society. I'm going to do it jolly well."

"Well, I'll call the meeting for one evening next week," said Peter. That will be time enough. I'm going off now to find a good spy-hole with Jack. Have I got my notebook and pencil? Yes, I have. Well, good luck at the station, Janet, and don't choose just one person. That would be too easy. Choose three at least."

"I thought I'd choose somebody we all know, too, if I can," said Janet. "Then you'll see if you can recognize them when I read out my notes."

"Good idea," said Peter. "Well, I'm off to call for Jack."

He set off, and Janet went in the opposite direction, to the station. She passed Barbara and Pam on the way. They were sitting on the bus-stop seat, looking rather giggly, with note-books in their hands.

"Have you begun yet?" asked Janet, in a low voice.

"No. No bus has stopped here yet," said Pam. "We're each going to choose one passenger getting out, and wait till the bus has gone off again. Then we're going to put down exactly what we remember about the two passengers."

Colin and George were not thinking about their Secret Seven jobs just then. Both had decided to do them at night. Shadowing would be so much easier then. They were not going together, of course. Peter had forbidden that.

But when the evening came, only George set out. Colin had sneezed three times, and his mother had heard him. As she knew he caught colds very easily, she wouldn't let him go out after tea!

"But, Mother, I must." said Colin, desperately. "It's Secret Seven work. I've got to do it."

"Can't it be done another night?" said his mother. "Surely it isn't absolutely necessary to do it tonight."

Colin hesitated. "Well, yes, I suppose it could be done another night," he said truthfully. "All right, Mother, I won't go tonight. But you will let me go another night, won't you?"

So only George went out shadowing that night. He had put on rubber shoes so that he made no sound when walking or running. He had put on a dark overcoat, so that he wouldn't be seen in the shadows. He had even blacked his face. He looked most peculiar!

He stared at himself in the glass and grinned, so that his teeth suddenly showed startlingly white in his black face. "I'd better slip out of the garden door," he decided. "If Mother catches sight of me she'll have a fit! I do look frightful!"

He decided to take a rubber truncheon that he had had for Christmas, to make it seem more real. Now I can really pretend I'm a policeman! he thought, swinging the rubber truncheon from his wrist. It looked exactly like a real one, but was only made of thin brown rubber!

He crept downstairs and out of the garden door. His rubber shoes made no sound. He went down the path to the back gate and came out quietly into the dark street. The street lamps were lighted. He would have to keep out of their radiance.

He went along cautiously, swinging the rubber truncheon. Now then, you thieves! Now then, you spies! Look out, here comes P.C. Rubber-Soles, hard on your trail!

Who was he to shadow? Nobody seemed to come along at all. Wait a minute, was this the bus coming? Yes, it was. Good! It would set some passengers down, and he could trail one of them to his home, wherever it was.

The bus stopped up the street, and George saw some black shadows moving as people stepped down from it. Somebody was walking towards him now, having got off the bus. He would shadow him! George pressed himself back into the hedge, and waited, scarcely daring to breathe.

The man came along. He was a tall, stooping fellow, wearing a bowler hat, and carrying a bag. Good! Suppose there were stolen jewels in that bag! George would trail him right to his home, and he would then know where this supposed robber lived!

It seemed very real somehow, not pretence. The night was dark, the man came along without guessing that a boy was pressing himself into the shadows of a bush, and George suddenly found his heart beginning to thump. The man passed.

Now to follow him without being seen. If he spotted George, then George had failed. But George was certain that he could shadow the man right back to his house without once being seen.

He came out from the bush and began to follow the man, keeping well into the darkness of the trees that lined the road. Down the road to the corner. Round the corner. Be careful now, creep round the comer, in case the man knows he is being followed!

George crept round cautiously, his rubber truncheon in his hand, pretending to himself that there might be great danger from a fierce thief!

He heaved a sigh of relief. There was the man,halfway down the road. George trotted on after him. Look behind you, George, as well as in front. Quick, George, look behind you!