FUN FOR THE SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 2 BOB SMITH'S STORY

The Secret Seven meeting was soon under way. Jack stood up to tell everyone why he had wanted it called that afternoon. He looked worried, and spoke earnestly.

"Thanks awfully, Peter, for calling a meeting so quickly. You see, it's on account of something Bob told me. I saw him looking pretty worried yesterday and I asked him what was the matter and he told me about Old Man Tolly."

"Old Man Tolly? The old fellow who lives in that tumbledown house on the top of the hill?" asked Peter, in surprise. "What's the matter with him? You tell us all about it, Bob!"

"Well ... he lives all alone except for an old horse and his dog," said Bob. "You've often seen that nice old horse ... brown and white, with a lovely mane. Tolly's cottage has two rooms, and he lives in one, and Brownie the horse lives in the other."

"Goodness ... how odd!" said Pam.

"Not really," said Bob. "He loves that old horse. When old Tolly worked for the farmer on the hill beyond, he and the horse were together all the time. The horse was strong then, and could pull carts and wagons and goodness knows what. Then one day it pulled a heavy cart-load of stones down that big hill ... and the weight made the cart run too quickly for the old horse, and it ran into his back legs and lamed them. So he wasn't any use for heavy work any more."

"What happened then?" asked Peter.

"Well ... the farmer blamed Tolly for the accident," said Bob, "and he said the horse was only fit to be shot, he wasn't going to buy fodder for him, if he couldn't work for his keep."

"Oh! How dreadful!" said Pam and Janet together, tears coming suddenly into their eyes. "Poor old horse!"

"Well, Tolly was heart-broken," said Bob. "He was sure that the horse-doctor ... that vet man called Whistler ... could make the horse's legs right again, and he called him in."

"Good for him!" said Peter, and the others nodded.

"Well, it might have been good for the vet, but it wasn't very good for old Tolly," said Bob. The farmer wouldn't pay the vet's fees, though the horse was his, and told him to send the bills to Tolly ... and they came to over ten pounds!"

"Goodness!" said Peter, startled. "What a lot of money! Surely Tolly couldn't pay all that?"

"Of course he couldn't," said Bob. "Apart from his pension, his wages are so low ... he's old, you see, and can only potter about, and now he's really ill with worry. I was up there yesterday ... my mother sent me up with some eggs ... he used to work for us once, and we're fond of him... And he told me all about it then. He showed me the vet's bills too. Whew! I do think the vet might have kept his fees low."

"My father won't use that new vet," said Peter. "He says he's too young and too hard. He hasn't learnt to love animals properly yet. He wouldn't even come to one of our cows one night when it got caught in a fallen tree. Poor thing, the tree had fallen on top of it in a high wind, and it was scared stiff, and one of its horns was broken."

"Will he have old Tolly sent to prison if he can't pay?" asked Pam, in a frightened voice.

There was a shocked silence as the children thought of poor old Tolly all alone in prison, without the dog he loved, and without the horse whose friend he was.

"Have you come to us for advice?" asked Peter, at last. "Is there something you want us to do?"

"Well ... I simply don't know what I can do to help, and I thought you Secret Seven might have some ideas," said Bob, looking round at them all, his face very worried indeed. "How can old Tolly pay that bill? Where can he put the old horse now, so that the farmer won't take him away? I'm no good at solving puzzles like these ... but I thought you Secret Seven could help somehow."