The Runaways Read Free Page B

and trap before, but he did it as though to the manner born. He felt as though he and the pony were one person. ‘He’s called Roy,’ he shouted to the others. ‘Rob-Roy. Rob’s Roy. I’m Rob and he’s Roy.’ And throwing back his head he began to sing again. Over their heads the sky was a mysterious green and a few stars were showing.

    The others were glad to be off their feet but less ecstatic because they were cold and hungry. However, Timothy, flung off the seat to the floor as Rob-Roy whirled them round a corner, made in his prostrate position a most timely discovery. Under one seat was an old rug full of holes and a bag of apples and under the other a basket of groceries; biscuits and cheese, slices of cold ham, a jar of pickles, lump sugar, a pot of marmalade , eight tins of sardines and a bar of Sunlight soap. ‘Stop!’ yelled Timothy and they stopped by a gorse bush and had a gorgeous meal. They did not forget the ponyand Absolom. Rob-Roy crunched up four apples and a quarter of a pound of lump sugar in his strong white teeth, and Absolom had eight biscuits and a quarter of a pound of cheese. When they had finished eating there was nothing left except half a pot of marmalade, the soap and sardines, and they all felt completely different.
    From then on it was a wonderful drive, and when the road was so steep that Rob-Roy could only go at a walking pace they looked about them in wonder, for they seemed to be climbing to the top of the world. Great hills shouldered up into that strange green sky, and below they fell steeply away into deep valleys filled with mist. The shadows on the hills were the colour of grapes. Then gradually the colour drained away. The sky changed from green to deep blue, the stars grew brighter, and a hidden moon shone behind a hill that had an outcrop of rock like a castle or a city on its crest, and another rock like a lion’s head beneath it. It grew steadily colder, even with the rug, and they began to shiver. They were a bit scared too, for it was strange and lonely, and they didn’t seem to be coming to wherever it was they were going. But no one cried or complained, for though insubordinate they were courageous . Nan did say just once, ‘Robert, are you quite sure Rob-Roy knows where we’re going?’ but after Robert had answered very snappily, ‘Can’t you see he knows?’ she did not say anything more. But she could tell by his snappishness that Robert was a bit worried too.
    And then the moon sailed up from behind the hill and the whole world was washed in silver. They could see more now; low stone walls, clumps of thin treesblown all one way by the prevailing wind, and ahead of them a cluster of cottages on a small hill with lights showing in their windows and a tall church tower rising behind them. Rob-Roy quickened his pace. He rattled them down a slope and over an old stone bridge that crossed a little river, and then uphill again towards the village. Just at the foot of the village street he turned left through an open gate in a stone wall, jolted them over the cobbles of a yard and stopped dead in front of a stable door. They had arrived.

chapter two

where they went
    They jumped eagerly out of the trap and looked about them. The yard was enclosed by the stable and three high stone walls and had a pump in the middle of it. One wall was built against the hillside and a flight of stone steps led up beside it to a door at the top. Beyond the door there seemed to be a garden on the slope of the hill and above it a house. They could not see any lighted windows, but there was a glimmer through the trees that made them think there must be a light in one of the downstairs rooms.
    ‘But we must stable Rob-Roy first,’ said Robert. None of them had unharnessed a pony before, but by dint of unfastening every buckle they could find they got Rob-Roy free and led him into the stable. In the moonlight flooding through the open door they could see a rough towel hanging from a