The Secret Seven have a fantastic new hiding place but someone else is using it at night and it's Jack's little sister Susie who helps them catch the intruder.
At six o'clock that evening there was a continual noise of footsteps up the path to the little summer-house. Janet, Peter, and Scamper were inside, waiting.
'Easter-egg,' said Jack, walking inside. There was no door, for the summer-house was three-sided, with its fourth side open to the garden.
'Easter-egg,' said Barbara, walking in, too.
'Where's your badge?' asked Peter sharply.
'Oh, I've got it, it's all right,' said Barbara, feeling in her pocket. 'I don't know why I forgot to pin it on.' She pinned it on carefully and sat down.
The other three came along, each solemnly giving the password.
'For once in a way nobody yelled it out,' said Peter. He took a note-book out of his pocket, and licked his pencil. 'Now then, I want your reports on any likely place to meet secretly. Colin, you begin.
'Well, there's a fine big tree at the bottom of our garden,' began Colin hopefully. 'It's a great chestnut, and ...'
'No good, I'm afraid,' said Peter, 'but I'll put it down. It would hardly be a secret meeting-place! Everyone would see us going down the garden to it, and people passing the wall near-by would hear us up there. Barbara, what's your idea?'
'Oh, it's a silly one,' said Barbara. "There's an old hut in a field near-by our house, and ...'
'I know it,' said Peter, scribbling in his note-book. 'Not a bad idea, Barbara. You, Pam?'
'I simply haven't any idea at all,' said Pam. 'I've thought and thought, but it's no use.'
'Not very helpful,' said Peter, putting a cross against Pam's name in his note-book. 'You, George?'
'Well, there's an empty caravan in a field not far from here,' said George. 'I know who owns it, it's a friend of my father's. I think I could get permission for us to use it.'
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
This sounded exciting. Everyone looked admiringly at George, who seemed quite pleased with himself.
'You, Jack?' said Peter. 'And don't suggest anywhere near your house, because of Susie.'
'I'm not going to,' said Jack. 'I'm not quite so silly as that. I've chosen somewhere a long way away , down by the river. It's an old boat-house that nobody ever uses.'
This sounded exciting too. Peter wrote it down solemnly. 'Now we've heard everyone's idea except mine and Janet's. We went out hunting together, and Scamper came too, and we've all got the same idea.'
'What?' asked everyone.
'Well, it's a cave in the quarry near the field where we grow potatoes,' said Peter. 'So it's on my father's farm, and not very far. It's absolutely lonely and secret, and goes back into the hill behind the quarry. Scamper found it, actually.'
