Part 20 (2/2)

'Pongo won't obey me,' said d.i.c.k still sitting down looking quite undisturbed. 'You'd better go before he bites big pieces out of you.'

Dan staggered to the rock ledge, looking as if he would box d.i.c.k's ears. But the boy did not move, and somehow Dan did not dare to touch him. Pongo let him go and stood glowering at him, his great hairy arms hanging down his sides, ready to fly at either of the men if they came near.

Tiger Dan picked up a stone - and as quick as lightning Pongo flung himself on him again and sent the man rolling down the hill. Lou fled in terror. Dan got up and fled, too, yelling furiously as he went. Pongo chased them in delight. He, too, picked up stones and flung them with a very accurate aim, so that d.i.c.k kept hearing yells of pain.

Pongo came back, looking extremely pleased with himself. He went to the green caravan, as d.i.c.k shouted to n.o.bby.

'All right, n.o.bby. They've gone. Pongo and I won the battle!'

n.o.bby came out. Pongo put his arm round him at once and chattered nonsense in his ear. n.o.bby looked rather ashamed of himself.

'Bit of a coward, aren't I?' he said. 'Leaving you out here all alone.'

'I enjoyed it,' said d.i.c.k truthfully. 'And I'm sure Pongo did!'

'You don't know what dangerous fellows Lou and Dan are,' said n.o.bby, looking down the hillside to make sure the men were really gone. 'I tell you they'd stick at nothing. They'd burn your caravans, hurl them down the hill, poison your dog, and do what harm they could to you, too. You don't know them like I do!'

'Well, as a matter of fact, we've had some pretty exciting adventures with men just as tough as Dan and Lou,' said d.i.c.k. 'We always seem to be falling into the middle of some adventure or other. Now, last hols we went to a place called Smuggler's Top - and, my word, the adventures we had there! You wouldn't believe them!'

'You tell me and Pongo,' said n.o.bby, sitting down beside d.i.c.k. 'We've plenty of time before the others come back.'

So d.i.c.k began to tell the tale of all the other thrilling adventures that the five of them had had, and the time flew. Both boys were surprised when they heard Timmy barking down the track, and knew that the others were back.

George came tearing up with Timmy at her heels. 'Are you all right? Did anything happen while we were away? Do you know, we saw Lou and Tiger Dan getting on the bus when we got off it! They were carrying bags as if they meant to go away and stay somewhere.'

n.o.bby brightened up at once. 'Did you really? Good! They came up here, you know, and Pongo chased them down the hill. They must have gone back to the camp, collected their bags, and gone to catch the bus. Hurrah!'

'We've got fine torches,' said Julian, and showed d.i.c.k his. 'Powerful ones. Here's one for you, d.i.c.k - and one for you, n.o.bby.'

'Oooh - thanks,' said n.o.bby. Then he went red. 'I haven't got enough money to pay you for such a grand torch,' he said awkwardly.

'It's a present for you,' said Anne at once, 'a present for a friend of ours, n.o.bby!'

'Coo! Thanks awfully,' said n.o.bby, looking quite overcome. 'I've never had a present before. You're decent kids, you are.'

Pongo held out his hand to Anne and made a chattering noise as if to say: 'What about one for me, too?'

'Oh - we didn't bring one for Pongo!' said Anne. 'Why ever didn't we?'

'Good thing you didn't,' said n.o.bby. 'He would have put it on and off all day long and wasted the battery in no time!'

'I'll give him my old torch,' said George. 'It's broken, but he won't mind that!'

Pongo was delighted with it. He kept pressing down the k.n.o.b that should make the light flash - and when there was no light he looked all about on the ground as if the light must have dropped out! The children roared at him. He liked them to laugh at him. He did a little dance all round them to show how pleased he was.

'Look here - wouldn't it be a jolly good time to explore underground now that we know Lou and Dan are safely out of the way?' asked Julian suddenly. 'If they've got bags with them, surely that means they're going to spend the night somewhere and won't be back till tomorrow at least. We'd be quite safe to go down and explore.'

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