"That's strange! I can only see ten," said Mr Wilkins. "There must be one boy that I haven't counted."
"There must be two boys that you haven't counted," corrected Mr Carter. "Eleven in the team plus a linesman is... Linesman! Yes, of course, where are Jennings and Darbishire?"
Mr Wilkins looked surprised for a moment. Then he said, "They must be on bus, some-where. Maybe they are upstairs!"
"Upstairs! This is a single-decker bus, Wilkins."
"Sorry, I didn't notice."
"Well, really, Wilkins, why didn't you count them before?"
"All right, all right, all right!" Mr Wilkins was getting angry. He jumped to his feet and called loudly, "Put your hands up, everybody! I want to see who is here."
The Linbury boys put their hands up, and an old woman with a shopping bag put her hands up too: she was very frightened.
"Quickly, now. Put up your hands all the boys who are not here," shouted Mr Wilkins. "Well, I mean, has anybody seen Jennings and Darbishire?"
"Are you sure they are not here, sir?" asked Temple. ,
"Of course I'm sure," said Mr Wilkins. I "They didn't put up their hands when I asked those who were here to put them up and they didn't put up their hands when I asked those who were not here to... oh, shut up!"
Mr Wilkins wanted to do something at, once. He ran to the back door.
"I say, conductor, stop the bus!" he cried. "You are going the wrong way - I mean, I want to get off!"
"Please, Wilkins, come back to your seat," said Mr Carter calmly. "If we stop here on a country road two miles from the town and walk back it will already be dark, and I don't think we shall find the boys. Let's go back to school and telephone the station to see if they were still there." Mr Wilkins came back to his seat. "Maybe they left something on the train and went back to find it and the train took them to the next stop," guessed Mr Carter.
"And where is the next stop?" asked M Wilkins.
"It's only a local train. The next station is a little place which is called Pottlewhistle Halt."
Soon the bus stopped near the school. When the boys got off the two teachers went to the telephone in Mr Carter's room. They telephoned Dunhambury Station, but the man there could not tell them anything about the two boys.
"I'll go and tell the Headmaster at once,' said Mr Carter, "and if you want to do some thing you can telephone the next station and see if they got off there."
"Yes, of course. I'll do it at once." And Mr Wilkins went to the telephone as the door closed behind Mr Carter.
Chapter Sixteen
A search-party for Jennings and Darbishire
"The next station," thought Mr Wilkins, "will be... What is the name that Carter told me in the bus? Whistlepottle Halt?... Pottlewhistle Halt? Or is it Haltpottle Whistle?" Mr Wilkins couldn't be sure.
"Well, it's either Whistlehalt Pottle or Pottlchalt Whistle," he said to himself and sat down with the receiver to his ear. "Hullo! Can you put me through to a station whose name is Whistlepott Horttle, please?.... What's that? There's no such place? Well, try Haltpottle Whistle, then... You can't find that place either?... Then try Haltwhistle Pottle... or Pittlewhostle Halt... Oh, you know what I mean?... Very good - that's more than I know."
A few moments later Mr Wilkins heard the voice of the old porter.
"Hullo, are you Whistlehalt Pott? Who is speaking? Whistlehalt Pott porter? Can you tell me whether the last train from Dunhambury stopped at Pottlewhistle Stop?... II stopped at Pottlewhistle Halt?... All right. Well, did you see if two boys in red-and-white school caps got off at the illation?"
"Yes," said the voice of the porter. "I really saw two boys. They walked from the station to the wood after the train had left. But the strange thing is that I'm sure they didn't get off the train."
"Thank you very much. Good-bye!" Mr Wilkins put down the receiver. "Well, now we know where they went. All we have to do now is to walk to the wood near Pottlewhatever-it-was, and meet them."
He hurried to the Headmaster's room where he found Mr Pemberton and Mr Carter.
"It's all right - I've found them," said Mr Wilkins. "I mean I know where they are."
"Did you speak to Pottlewhistle Halt?" asked Mr Carter.
"That's the name! Why didn't you tell me? Well, I spoke to the porter. He saw the boys walking to the wood."
"It's very dark now," said the Headmaster, "and the boys may lose their way... if they knew it. But they have never known the way from Pottlewhistle Halt to the school."
"I think if we have a search-party with torches and whistles, it will help us to find the boys," said Mr Carter.
"You are right," said the Headmaster.
Then the teachers decided that only the boys from the football team should be in the search-party.
"They are still in their outdoor shoes and raincoats," said Mr Carter, "and they know who we are looking for and they have already had their tea in Bracebridge School."
Five minutes later the ten football players were standing in the school yard.
"We are going towards Pottlewhistle Halt," Mr Carter said to them. "Jennings and Darbishire are coming from Pottlewhistle Halt. You must all keep together. You must be able to hear each other's whistles and see each other's torches. Now, have you all got torches?"
"I told them to go and take them," said Mr Wilkins, "because... Oh, I say. Carter, I haven't got a torch myself. I quite forgot to go and take one."
"If only Wilkins could stay at home!" thought Mr Carter. "With his help we may lose some other boys before we find Jennings and Darbishire."
But Mr Carter did not say so.
"Has any boy got a torch to give Mr Wilkins?" he asked.
"Yes, I have, sir," said Temple. "Here you are, sir; you can have this torch."
"Thank you," said Mr Wilkins. "Are you sure you don't want it yourself?
"Oh, no, sir, that's all right. I don't want it, sir,- it hasn't got a battery."
"I... I... But you, silly little boy, what can I do with it?"
"Let's go," said Mr Carter. "We have very little time. Let me count you."
Mr Carter switched on his torch and counted; ten boys plus two teachers.
"Let's go," he said and the search-party set out!
* * *
There was not one but many paths that lad to the road between Pottlewhistle Halt and Linbury. Jennings decided to take a short-ill, so the boys turned right, then left, then right again, and soon they understood that they were lost.
"How many miles do you think we have already walked?" asked Darbishire. "I'm tired."
"I don't really know. I think three or four," answered Jennings.
"Are you sure we are going the right way?"
"No, maybe we are walking round and round in circles," said Jennings. "It's so dark that I can't see anything. I can't see my hand in front of my face... Oh, Darbi! I've 1ost my glove again!"
"You couldn't lose your glove again. You have never really lost it."
Jennings turned and went back along the path. "It can't be very far away from here, I remember I had them five minutes ago," he thought.
Darbishire went after him. "As we've lost our way, it doesn't matter which way we go," he thought.
At that moment they heard a whistle - three long whistles.
"I say, Darbi, did you hear a whistle?"
"That wasn't a whistle: that was a bird," Darbishire decided.
"But there were three of them!"
"All right then, there were three birds; or the same bird whistled three times."
"Oh, don't talk! Listen, there it is again!"
The whistles were nearer now.
"It's Mr Carter's referee whistle," said Jennings.
"How can it be?" exclaimed Darbishire. "You are hearing things."
"Of course I'm hearing things. I've heard Mr Carter's whistle."