Read Online Five Get Into Trouble by Enid Blyton - Free Book Online Page A

in brass letters — Owl's Dene! We've found it!'

    'Come on,' said Julian, wheeling his bicycle through the gateway. 'We'll go in and snoop round. We might be lucky enough to find old Dick somewhere about.'

    They all went through the gates — and then Anne clutched Julian in fright. She pointed silently behind them.

    The gates were closing again! But nobody was there to shut them. They closed silently and smoothly al by themselves. There was something very weird about that.

    'Who's shutting them?' whispered Anne, in a scared voice.

    'I think it must be done by machinery,' whispered back Julian. 'Probably worked from the house. Let's go back and see if we can find any machinery that works them.'

    They left their bicycles by the side of the drive and walked back to the gates. Julian looked for a handle or latch to open them. But there was none.

    He pul ed at the gates. They did not budge. It was quite impossible to open them. They had been shut and locked by some kind of machinery, and nothing and nobody could open them but that special machinery.

    'Blow!' said Julian, and he sounded so angry that the others looked at him in surprise.

    'Well, don't you see? — we're locked in! We're as much prisoners here as Dick is, if he's here too. We can't get out through the gates — and if you take a look you'l see a high wall running round the property from the gates — and I don't mind betting it goes the whole way round. We can't get out even if we want to.'

    They went back thoughtfully to their bicycles. 'Better wheel them a little way into the trees and leave them,' said Julian. 'They hinder us too much now. We'll leave them and go snooping quietly round the house. Hope there are no dogs.'

    They left their bicycles well hidden among the trees at the side of the wide drive. The drive was not at all well-kept. It was mossy and weeds grew all over it. It was bare only where the wheels of cars had passed.

    'Shall we walk up the drive or keep to the side?' asked George.

    'Keep to the side,' said Julian. 'We should easily be seen in the moonlight, walking up the drive.'

    So they kept to the side, in the shadows of the trees. They followed the curves of the long drive until the house itself came into sight.

    It real y was very big indeed. It was built in the shape of the letter E with the middle stroke missing — E. There was a courtyard in front, overgrown with weeds. A low wall, about knee high, ran round the courtyard.

    There was a light in a room on the top floor, and another one on the ground floor.
    Otherwise from that side the house was dark.

    'Let's walk quietly round it,' said Julian, in a low voice. 'Goodness — what's that?'

    It was a weird and terrible screech that made them all jump in alarm. Anne clutched Julian in fright.

    They stood and listened.

    Something came down silently and brushed George's hair. She almost screamed — but before she could, that terrible screech came again, and she put out her hand to quieten Timmy, who was amazed and scared.

    'What is it, Ju!' whispered George. 'Something touched me then. Before I could see what it was it was gone.'

    'Listen — it's al right,' whispered back Julian. 'It's only an owl — a screech owl!'

    'Good gracious — so it was,' breathed back George, in great relief. 'What an ass I was not to think of it. It's a barn-owl — a screech owl out hunting. Anne, were you scared?'

    'I should just think I was!' said Anne, letting go her hold on Julian's arm.

    'So was I,' said Richard, whose teeth were stil chattering with fear. 'I nearly ran for my life!
    I would have too, if I could have got my legs to work — but they were glued to the ground!'

    The owl screeched again, a little farther away, and another one answered it. A third one screeched, and the night was real y made hideous with the unearthly cal s.

    'I'd rather have a brown owl any day, calling To-whooo-oo-oo,' said George. 'That's a nice noise. But this screeching is frightful.'

    'No