CHAPTER ONE

THE BEGINNING OF THE HOLIDAYS

"Hallo, Roger!"
"Hallo, Diana! Had a good term?"
The boy and girl grinned at one another, half-shy as they always were when they met again at the end of the school term. They were brother and sister, and rather alike to look at - sturdy, dark-haired with determined chins and wide smiles.
"My train came in twenty minutes before yours." said Roger. "Bit of luck, breaking up on the same day - we usually don't. I waited about for you. Now we've got to wait for Miss Pepper."
Diana groaned. She dragged her night-case, her tennis racket and a large brown parcel along with her. Roger had a racket and a case too.
"These aren't going to be very nice hols," said Diana, "with Mummy and Daddy away, and us poked down in the country somewhere with Miss Pepper. Whatever made Mummy ask her to look after us? Why couldn't we have gone to Auntie Pam?"
"Because her kids have got measles," said Roger. "Miss Pepper isn't so bad, really - I mean she does understand how hungry we always are, and she does know we like things like sausages and salad and cold meat and potatoes in their jackets and ice-cream and
ginger-beer..."
"Oh, don't go on - you make me feel hungry already," said Diana. "What are the plans for to-day, Roger? I only know you were going to meet me and then we were to see Miss Pepper somewhere."
"I had a letter from Dad yesterday," said Roger, as they pushed their way through the crowds on the platform. "He and Mummy sail to-day for America. They had fixed up for us to go to Aunt Pam, but the measles knocked that on the head, so Mummy wired to her old governess, Miss Pepper, and got her to fix up to spend the hols with us - and we're to go to a little cottage somewhere that Dad managed to get hold of in Rockingdown - goodness knows where that is!"
"Where we're to moulder all the hols, I suppose," said Diana sulkily. "I think it's too bad."
"Well, there's a riding school not far off and we can ride," said Roger, "and I believe there's a river near. We might get a boat. And it's jolly good country all round Rockingdown for birds and flowers."
"All very nice for you because you're so mad on nature," said Diana."I shall feel buried alive - no tennis, no parties - and I suppose that horrid little Snubby is coming too."
"Of course," said Roger, digging somebody hard with his tennis racket. "Oh, sorry! Did I hurt you? Do let's get out of this awful crowd, Di. We seem to be going round and round in it."
"We've got into one that's rushing for a train," said Diana. "Let them go by, for goodness' sake. Look, here's a seat - let's sit down for a bit. When do we meet Miss Pepper?"
"Not for twenty-four minutes," said Roger, looking at the station clock. "Shall we go and see if we can get an ice-cream somewhere nearby?"
Diana immediately got up from the seat. "Oh, yes - what a brainwave! Look, there's the exit. There'll be a tea-shop or something nearby. We'll get ices there."
Over the ices the chatter went on. "You said Snubby was coming, didn't you?" said Diana as she ate her strawberry ice. "Little pest!"
"Well, he hasn't got any parents," said Roger. "That's pretty awful, you know, Di. He gets kicked about from one aunt to another, poor kid - and he likes coming to us better than anywhere else. He's not so bad, if only he wouldn't play the fool so much."
"Just our luck to have an idiotic cousin with an idiotic dog," said Diana.
"Oh, I like Loony," said Roger at once. "He is quite potty, of course - but he's a lovely spaniel, he really is! Loony's a wonderful name for him - he's an absolute lunatic, but honestly he's wizard, the things he does. I bet he plays Miss Pepper up!"
"Yes. He'll go off with all her shoes and hide them under a bush, and fight her Sunday hat, and get himself cleverly locked up in the larder," said Diana. "What about another ice?"
"If Snubby was more our age, it wouldn't be so bad," said Roger. "After all, I'm fourteen and you're thirteen - and he's only eleven - quite a baby."
"Well, he doesn't behave like one," said Diana, beginning on her second ice."He behaves like a horrible little imp or goblin or something - always up to mischief of some sort - and thinking he can tag along with us. Oh dear - what with Miss Pepper and Snubby these hols look as if they'll be awful."
"Gosh, look at the time," said Roger. "We shall miss Miss Pepper if we don't look out. I must get the bill and we'll go."
The girl brought him the bill, and he got up with Diana to go to the desk and pay. As they were going out of the door Roger glanced at Diana's hands. "Idiot! You've left your racket and bag at the table. I knew you would. You always do! It's a marvel to me you ever manage to bring anything home safely!"