The Enid Blyton Society

CHAPTER FOUR
In the Cave
THE Secret Seven crowded together to see the cave. There was no proper path to it, and they
had to squeeze through close-growing bushes of bright-yellow broom to get to it. The bushes grew
almost up to the cave entrance.
'No wonder Janet and I never spotted this cave before,' said Peter. 'We've been in this old sand
quarry heaps of times, but never found the cave. It was only because old Scamper disappeared and
we went to look for him that we found it. We were standing here, calling him, when he suddenly
appeared under the trailing leaves that hide the cave! Didn't you, Scamper?'
'Woof!' said Scamper, and ran into the cave and back, as if to say, 'Do come on, it's a fine
place!'
The trailing stems that hung down over the entrance certainly hid it very well. Peter pulled the
greenery aside. 'It's like a curtain,' he said. 'Look— now you can see into the cave properly.'
Everyone bent their heads and looked in. It certainly was a fine cave!
'Nice and big—and with a lovely sandy floor!' said Jack. 'I don't see why you said it's not
comfortable, Peter. Sand is lovely to sit on.'
'Oh well—I had to say something against it, as it was Janet's suggestion and mine,' said Peter.
By now they were all in the cave. Pam flung herself down on the sand. It was very soft indeed.
'Lovely!' she said. 'I'd like to sleep here in this sand. I could burrow my body down into it and
make a lovely bed. It's a simply wonderful meeting-place, I think.'
'Nobody would EVER find it!' said George, looking round. 'It's a bit dark, that's the only thing
—it's that green curtain over the entrance that makes it so dark.'
Janet obligingly held the curtain back, and the sun streamed into the cave.
'Fine!' said Colin. 'We can have the curtain back when we're just playing about—and draw it
when we're having a secret meeting. Couldn't be better. A cave with a ready-made curtain!'
'And look—the cave has a rock roof, all uneven,
high here and low there,' said Barbara. 'And there are rocky shelves round the walls—we can
use those to put our things on—we'll bring all kinds of things here! I expect we'll have to use this cave
all the Easter hols, so we'll make it a kind of home as well as a meeting-place. Shall we?'
Everyone thought this was a very good idea. 'We'll bring the shed cushions here,' said Janet. 'And a
box for a table.'
'And keep food here, and lemonade or orangeade,' said Jack. 'Won't it be fun?'

Everyone was sorry to leave the exciting cave. It really was a nice one,
spacious, though the roof was not very high, and it was only in places
that the Seven could stand upright—clean, with its floor of soft sand—
and reaching back into a very nice, mysterious darkness, quite out of
reach of the sunshine.
Peter held back the curtain of greenery till everyone had gone out. Then
he let it drop into place and arranged it so that hardly a bit of the
entrance showed. Nobody at all would ever guess there was a big cave
behind it, going right into the hill beyond!