Five Go Adventuring Again Read Online Free PDF

at all,' said Dick. 'It's a very small place - just a few inches of hollow space behind that brick or stone that fell down.'
    'Well, I'll just put my hand in and see,' said Julian. They all went back into the hal].
    Julian put his arm into the open panel, and slid it along the wall to where ,the stone had fallen out. His hand went into the space there, and his long fingers groped about, feeling for anything else that might be there.
    There was something else, something soft and flat that felt like leather. Eagerly the boy's fingers closed over it and he drew it out carefully, half afraid that it might fall to pieces with age.
    'I've got something!' he said, his eyes gleaming brightly. 'Look - what is it ?'
    The others crowded round. 'It's rather like Daddy's tobacco pouch,' said Anne, feeling it. The same shape. Is there anything inside ?'
    It was a tobacco pouch, very dark brown, made of soft leather and very much worn.
    Carefully Julian undid the flap, and unrolled the leather.
    A few bits of black tobacco were still in the pouch -but there was something else, too! Tightly rolled up in the last bit of pouch was a piece of linen. Julian took it out and unrolled it. He put it flat on the hall-table.
    The children stared at it. There were marks and signs on the linen, done in black ink that had hardly faded. But the four of them could not make head or tail of the marks.
    'It's not a map,' said Julian. 'It seems a sort of code, or something. I do wonder what it means. I wish we could make it out. It must be some sort of secret.'
    The children stared at the piece of linen, very thrilled. It was so old - and contained some kind of secret. Whatever could it be ?
    They ran to show it to Mrs. Sanders. She was studying the old recipe book, and her face glowed with pleasure as she raised it to look at the excited children.
    'This book's a wonder!' she said. 'I can hardly read the writing, but here's a recipe for backache. I shall try it myself. My back aches so much at the end of the day.
    Now, you listen ...'
    But the children didn't want to listen to recipes for backache. They pushed the piece of lineii on to Mrs. Sanders' lap.
    'Look! What's this about, Mrs. Sanders? Do you
    know ? We found it in a kind of tobacco pouch in that place behind the panel.'
    Mrs. Sanders took off her glasses, polished them, and put them on again. She looked carefully at the piece of linen with its strange marks.
    She shook her head. 'No - this doesn't make any sense to me. And what's this now - it looks like an old tobacco pouch. Ah, my John would like that, I guess. He's got such an old one that it won't hold his tobacco any more! This is old too - but there's a lot of wear in it yet.'
    'Mrs. Sanders, do you want this piece of linen too?' asked Julian, anxiously. He was longing to take it home and study it. He felt certain there was some kind of exciting secret hidden there, and he could not bear the thought of leaving it with Mrs.
    Sanders.
    'You take it, Master Julian, if you want it,' said Mrs. Sanders, with a laugh. Til keep the recipes for myself, and John shall have the pouch. You can have the old rag if you want it, though it beats me why you set such store by it! Ah, here's John!'
    She raised her voice and shouted to the deaf old man. 'Hey, John, here's a tobacco pouch' for you. The children found it somewhere behind that panel that opens in the hall.'
    John took it and fingered it. 'It's a queer one,' he said. 'But better than mine. Well, youngsters, I don't want to hurry you, but it's one o'clock now, and you'd best be going if it's near your dinner-time!'
    'Gracious!' said Julian. 'We shall be late! Good-bye, Mrs. Sanders, and thanks awfully for the shortbread and this old rag. We'll try our best to make out what's on it and tell you. Hurry, everyone! Where's Tim ? Come on, Timothy, we're late!'
    The five of them ran off quickly. They really were late, and had to run most of the way, which meant that it was difficult to talk. But they were so