Julian opened the front door. Jo silently gave him a plain envelope. Julian tore it open, not knowing what in the least to expect. Jo turned to go - but Julian put out his hand and caught hold of her firmly, whilst he read the note in complete amazement.
"Dick!" he called. "Hold on to Jo. Don't let her go. Better take her indoors. This is serious."
Jo wasn't going to be taken indoors. She squealed, and wriggled like an eel. Then she began to kick Dick viciously with her bare feet.
"Let me go! I'm not doing any harm. I only brought you that note!"
"Stop squealing and being silly," said Dick. "I don't want to hurt you, you know that. But you must come indoors."
But Jo wouldn't stop wriggling and pulling and kicking. She looked scared out of her life. It was as much as Dick and Julian could do to get the little wriggler into the dining-room and shut the door. Anne followed, looking very frightened. Whatever was happening?
"Listen to this," said Julian, when the door was shut. "It's unbelievable!" He held out the typewritten note for the others to see as he read it out loud.
"We want the second notebook, the one with figures in, and we mean to have it. Find it and put it under the last stone on the crazy paving path at the bottom of the garden. Put it there tonight.
"We have got the girl and the dog. We will set them free when we have what we want from you. If you tell the police, neither the girl nor the dog will come back. The house will be watched to see that nobody leaves it to warn the police. The telephone wires are cut.
"When it is dark, put the lights on in the front room and all three of you sit there with the maid Joan, so that we can keep a watch on you. Let the big boy leave the house at eleven o'clock, shining a torch and put the note-book where we said. He must then go back to the lighted room. You will hear a hoot like an owl when we have collected it. The girl and the dog will then be returned."
This amazing and terrifying note made Anne burst into tears and cling to Julian's arm.
"Julian! Julian! George can't have come back from her walk with Timmy last night! She must have been caught then - and Timmy, too. Oh, why didn't we start hunting for her then?"
Julian looked very grim and white. He was thinking hard. "Yes - someone was lying in wait, I've no doubt - and she and Timmy were kidnapped. Then the kidnapper - or one of them - came back to the house and shut the front door to make it seem as if George was back. And someone has probably been hanging round all day to find out whether we're worried about George, or just think she's gone off for the day!"
"Who gave you the note?" said Dick, sharply, to the scared Jo.
She trembled.
"A man," she said.
"What sort of a man?" asked Julian.
"I don't know," said Jo.
"Yes, you do," said Dick. "You must tell, Jo."
Jo looked sullen. Dick shook her, and she tried to get away. But he held her far too tightly. "Go on - tell us what the fellow was like," he said.
"He was tall and had a long beard and a long nose and brown eyes," rattled off Jo suddenly. "And he was dressed in fisherman's clothes, and - he spoke foreign."
The two boys looked sternly at her. "I believe you're making all that up, Jo," said Julian.
"I'm not," said Jo sulkily. "I'd never seen him before, so there."
YOU ARE READING
FIVE FALL INTO ADVENTURE by Enid Blyton
AdventureGeorge and Timmy have disappeared, and someone has broken into Kirrin Cottage!
