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“NOW give us all the Clarig news,” said Alison Campbell happily. “Tell us all that’s been happening while we’ve been away at school.”

She and her brother Niall had arrived home that day for the summer holidays, and having had supper were now relaxing on deck chairs on the lawn in front of the Cottage, with their grown-up brother and sister, Hamish and Mary.

“There’s nothing special to tell,” Mary said, “except what you know already — that Uncle is in London.”

“I wish he wasn’t,” said Alison. “This is the very first time he hasn’t been here when we’ve come home. Seems awfully funny somehow.”

Niall turned to his brother. “When is he coming back, Hamish?”

Hamish laid his coffee cup down on the grass beside him before he said casually, “Not very sure, really.”

“I suppose it must have been something very important to take him to London just now?” asked Alison.

“Meaning now that you’re home?” said Hamish laughing.

“Alison laughed too. Of course.”

“Has he gone south on business?” asked Niall.

Hamish took a cigarette from his case and lit it before he replied, “I wasn’t here when he left — I was still in Glasgow.”

Alison looked at her sister. “And didn’t Uncle tell you why he was going?”

Mary raised her eyebrows. “This sounds like an inquisition!”

Hamish said, a trifle testily, “You two are so accustomed to think on the lines of story-book detectives — Sherlock Holmes, Peter Wimsey and the rest — that you look for mysteries where they don’t exist. Uncle has gone to attend one of his periodic Intelligence meetings in London. No secret about it at all.”

Niall opened his mouth to reply but before he could say anything Hamish added in definite tones, “I don’t know how long he’s gone for, nor when he’ll be back.”

Niall longed to say, “And if you did you wouldn’t tell us!” but he restrained himself and presently Hamish said in milder fashion, “Now, is there anything else you want to ask?”

“Not at the moment,” Niall said glibly, “but if there is I’ll tell you.”

“I bet you do,” said Hamish with conviction, and they all laughed, for Niall’s determination to probe to the bitter end anything that hinted at a mystery was a family joke.

The young Campbells had been brought up by their uncle, George Campbell, who while living a very quiet and apparently peaceful life in this small seaside village, and seemingly content to spend his time fishing, shooting, golfing, with a little sketching thrown in, was, unknown to most people outside his family, employed by the Secret Service. On this account he made many trips away from home regarding which no detailed explanation was ever given.

Alison and Niall, the younger members of the household, were still at school, while Hamish was an engineer working with a big naval firm in Glasgow, and Mary, who had taken her medical degree at Edinburgh some months ago, was employed at a hospital in the south of England.

But the background of the family was here at Clarig, this tiny village on the west coast of Sutherland, off the beaten track, even of tourists. It was an ideal holiday spot, and for the Campbells Clarig had everything. In fine weather they more or less lived in and on the water, for in addition to a couple of rowboats, they also had, in return for a service done by Alison and Niall to Sir Angus Forbes, a motor boat as well. They were all keen swimmers, they golfed reasonably well on the nine-hole golf course that sprawled across the moor, and when nothing else offered, they went scrambling over the hills that surrounded Clarig.

But as a family they liked fishing best of all, and spent much of the holidays “whipping the water” on the various rivers and lochs that dotted the countryside around. Both Alison and Niall had landed their first salmon when they were very young, and given their choice, there was nothing they would rather do than go off for the day with their rods. The waters were mostly private, belonging to the laird, Sir Angus Forbes, but he was a friend of Mr. Campbell, and so there was usually some stretch of water available.

Nothing could have been more perfect than the setting for the Campbells’ home — a long, low, white-washed cottage, built on a rocky promontory just above the beach, with the garden separated from the sands only by a wall.

Sir Angus was the uncle of Alison’s friend, Shona Lessing whose home was near London, but who with her mother spent most of her holidays at Clarig House. The Campbells saw a lot of Shona, but there was a “but” in their friendship. Niall considered that she was spoiled and frequently told her so, but while Alison found her a little difficult at times she liked her quite well. As the only niece of the wealthy Sir Angus, possessing almost everything she wanted, from a horse of her own to a motor boat, Shona, perhaps naturally, had not learned to be unselfish and think of others.

Alison had much more in common with her other friend, Sallie Macleod, whose father farmed Tigh-an-eas, a few miles down the coast. Sallie, though not much older than Alison, had left school and was learning dairy work on Mr. Macleod’s farm, which meant that she had to refuse many invitations to golf and fish and ride. This Shona could not understand, or pretended she could not, but Sallie loved her job and was not in the least offended when Shona became sulky and made fun of Sallie’s chores.

Sallie’s cousin, Ronald, also lived at Tigh-an-eas, where he was learning farming with his uncle, and he was Niall’s special friend. The Campbells loved visiting the farm. Like themselves the Macleods were not too well off and had to do without most of the luxuries that Shona considered necessities.

The curious thing about Shona was that while she had everything at hand to make her holidays perfect, and Alison and Niall had to make their own amusements, she somehow envied everything they did. She could not understand why, when she had so much and — as she thought — they had so little, they should have so much more fun than she had. This was a constant puzzle to her; vaguely she felt that it was not fair!

Shona would have been much more envious had she guessed that of late years they had encountered a new type of excitement. Properly speaking this was not “fun”, for it was caused by a gang of crooks who had made a great deal of trouble in the quiet countryside of Clarig, and not only had Alison and Niall become involved in their extraordinary doings, but more than once it had been due to what Niall called their “detecting” that the crooks had been discovered and the mystery unravelled. Nobody could call that fun, but Niall revelled in the dangerous situations they had found themselves in, and even Alison who vowed that these adventures terrified her, enjoyed them after a fashion, once they were safely over.

 

But Alison did not want to remember these happenings on this beautiful evening. She sat up very straight in her chair, gazing out at the rich blue of the sea faintly ruffled by a fresh breeze, and said, “Isn’t this wizard after school? I always think it’s so funny to come home and find everything here just the same — the rocks and the hills and everything — although we’ve not been here to see them.”

The others laughed and Niall said, “How d’you know the hills and rocks don’t set to partners every time you leave? Dance a reel —”

“Like Alice in Wonderland. You remember, ‘reeling and writhing’?”

“Mm,” said Niall turning to his brother. “The golf course is looking pretty good.”

“A bit boggy after all the rain we’ve had,” said Hamish. “But it’ll soon dry up —”

“What does it matter anyway?” said Alison. “What does anything matter so long as we’re home?”

Hamish tweaked her ear affectionately. “No place like Clarig, eh?”

“Course not!”

“And so say all of us,” he replied lightly.

“To go back to Uncle’s visit to London —” began Niall.

Hamish wrinkled his brows and glanced at Mary. “A dog gnawing at a bone has nothing on Niall. He never lets go. All the same, Niall, I think we may consider that subject closed for the time being.”

“I’m just wondering if this important visit to London —”

“I never said it was important,” Hamish said quickly.

“Didn’t you?” Niall said pertly. “Well, you said it had to do with the Secret Service and I’m wondering if it could have anything to do with the gang who came up to Clarig —”

“How d’you mean?” asked Hamish coldly.

Niall hesitated. “Just — could they be coming up our way again?”

“I don’t know what Uncle was discussing with the Intelligence, but I should say it’s very unlikely that it has anything to do with the gang. I would suggest that you put all such ideas out of your head —”

“And go and build sand castles instead?” Niall said flippantly.

“If you like,” said Hamish, and there was silence for a few minutes. Niall gazed ahead with a determined twist to his mouth, but Alison was not sorry at this ending to the conversation. Nor was she at all sorry to learn that the crooks were not likely to be near Clarig this summer. These adventures were all very well, wildly exciting and fun to talk about afterwards, but she much preferred more ordinary holidays, bathing, golfing and fishing with Niall and their friends. Leaning back in her chair, she planned what they would do.

“Have you heard when Shona’s arriving?” she asked Mary.

“Shona has arrived,” Mary said. “She rode down this morning on her horse.”

“That would be Amber,” said Alison with a smile. She adored horses and everything connected with riding and the one thing she envied Shona was her always having had a pony of her own. To Alison, Amber seemed the perfect mount. Shona often rode over to the Cottage and recounted Amber’s good points, and yet, while she often teased Alison on her keenness for horses, it did not appear to have occurred to her to offer to lend her a mount — for there were other horses in her uncle’s stables.

“Shona was full of some surprise she has for you,” went on Mary. “She wouldn’t tell me what it was but she wants you to ring up immediately.”

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