GO AHEAD SECRET SEVEN by Enid Blyton

CHAPTER 8 A FEW REPORTS

Another Secret Seven meeting was held the next night, to hear the result of the various 'observations' and 'watchings'. All the seven were there, but the seventh this time was Scamper, not George. It seemed queer without him.

It was quite a business-like meeting. Janet spoke first. She took out her note-book and read from it.

"I was at the railway station," she said, "and I picked out three people to observe as they passed. They came off the 10.13 train from Pilberry.

"First, an old woman with a round face, a big nose with a wart at one side, and grey curly hair. She wore a green coat with a belt, a hat with lots of red cherries round it and..."

"Mrs Lawson!" yelled everyone at once, and Janet looked pleased.

"Yes," she said. "Quite right. I chose her just to see if I could describe her well enough for you to recognize. Here's the second person, not very exciting. A young woman in a nurse's uniform, golden hair, doll-like face, small feet and a quick walk."

"Well, it's quite a good short description," said Peter. "I feel as if I might know her if I saw her. I think you're good at this, Janet."

Janet went red with pleasure. She loved Peter to praise her. "Here's my last," she said. "I chose him because he really was a bit peculiar. Listen.

"A very stoopy man, who walked a bit lame, had an old soft hat pulled well down over his face, a long overcoat with the shoulders very square, small feet for his size, a funny hand."

"What do you mean, a funny hand?" asked Peter.

"Well, I don't quite know what was the matter with it," said Janet. "It looked as if two fingers were missing, and it was sort of deformed and crooked. Oh, and he smoked a cigarette in a long holder. That's all."

"Colour of his hair, his tie or scarf, and how did he walk ; quick, slow or medium?" asked Peter.

"His hat was too low, I couldn't see his hair, and he had no tie or scarf," said Janet. "And he limped a bit. There! Do you think you would recognize him if you saw him?"

"Rather!" said everyone. "Jolly good, Janet."

"Now you, Barbara and Pam," said Peter. But their notes proved to be rather silly.

"They sound as if you'd had one of your stupid giggling fits," said Peter, reprovingly. "Don't read any more. They wouldn't be a bit of use if we were really trying to find out something. Very poor, both of you. Now you, Colin. Did you do any shadowing?"

"No," said Colin. "I began a cold on Saturday night, so my mother wouldn't let me. I'm doing it tonight, after this meeting. I'm sorry, but it wasn't my fault."

"Right," said Peter. "Well, that only leaves me and Jack. We found a good spy-hole in a thick clump of leafy twigs springing out round the trunk of a great elm-tree. They hid us beautifully. We sat there, peeping through the leaves, and at first we saw nothing."

"Not many people walk along that road," explained Jack. "It's Fairmile Road, and you know how long it is. Most people take a bus. We didn't see anyone for ages."

"In fact, we haven't much to report," said Peter. "The only possible thing of interest we saw was a car that came by, and stopped just near us."

"But why was that interesting?" asked Pam.

"Well, it wasn't very interesting, actually," said Peter. "All that happened was that a man got out with a dog, a magnificent grey poodle, fluffy in patches and bare in patches, you know how poodles look! The dog was terribly frightened, I thought. But you could see it was only car-sick and it soon recovered, and began to sniff round quite naturally."

"It didn't like going back into the car, though," said Jack. "It whined like anything and pulled away from the man as hard as it could. He was pretty rough with it, I thought."

"I suppose the poor thing knew it would be car-sick again," said Janet. "Do you remember our next-door neighbour's dog, Peter? Every time it went out in the car, it cried and cried because it felt so ill."

"Well your report doesn't seem very interesting," said Barbara, rather glad to repay Peter for his candid remarks about her report and Pam's. "Did you take the car's number? I bet you didn't."

"There wasn't much point in taking it," said Peter. "But as it happens, we did. Here it is ... PSD 188."

"PSD ... pretty sick dog!" said Colin. "That's easy enough to remember!"

There was a laugh, and then a pause. Peter shut his notebook.

"Well that's all," he said. "I don't really feel we've done very much that is useful. Janet's reports are the best. They show how good she would be if she had to describe someone seen for only half a minute. The police are always asking for descriptions of persons seen by the public, and hardly anyone ever seems to be able to remember much about any stranger they saw."

"But Janet would be able to tell them everything," said Pam, rather jealously.

"The only big thing that has come out of this practice idea is George having to leave the Secret Seven," said Colin, gloomily. "Well, is it worth while my doing my bit of shadowing tonight, Peter? I mean, we don't seem to have done anything much, and I don't want to get caught like George."

"George should have looked behind him as well as in front," said Peter. "You won't make that mistake. I think you should do your bit, Colin. I've a good mind to make Pam and Barbara do their bits again too!"

But the girls looked so crossly at him that he decided to say no more!

Colin got up. "Well, I'm going on my job," he said. "What are you all going to do?"

"Let's go indoors and play a game," suggested Janet. "There are five of us left ... sorry, Scamper, six ... I forgot you! We've got an hour before it's supper-time. Come along in, Pam, Barbara and Jack."

So they all five went in, and were soon playing a peaceful game of cards. But it wasn't peaceful for long! Who was that rapping at the window?

Tap-tap-tap! Tap-tap-tap!

"Quick!Open the window. I've something to tell you all!"