Snail Trail
‘It was still light as they went through the brown gate and slipped onto the Common. They took the path that ran off to the left and after a while came across the split in the track and turned right.
There was no slime on the ground this time and no sign of the snail and they soon reached the spot where they had dropped their torches. But the torches had gone.
‘I want to go home Amy,’ Charlie moaned, ‘it’s cold out here.’
‘Let’s just find the torches – then we can go!’
The path narrowed and ran round to the left in a half-circle. They followed it, until all of a sudden it started to dip downwards. Within seconds the path became so steep and so narrow that the girls had to cling onto low tree branches to make sure that they didn’t fall.
The light began to disappear and a strong smell of warm peat wafted up towards them.
What was this place, they wondered?
The girls held their breath as the smell got stronger.
They held their noses between their fingers and looked at each other.
The path suddenly stopped.
‘Where are we?’ Charlie whispered behind her.
‘Dunno, but I’ve got a pencil torch somewhere in my pocket.’
‘Could you shine it there,’ Charlie pointed downwards, not sure what they would see.
Amy turned on the torch.
Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw next.
They gasped.
They were teetering on the edge of a wide pit and in it were hundreds and hundreds of large cream eggs, all perfectly round, and all stuck together in a steaming mass of dark brown peat. Each egg was the size of a football.
‘Turn around Charlie,’ Amy whispered almost choking. ‘I think we’ve found what we came to see!’
The girls climbed back up the steep path and didn’t say another word until they reached the bridleway where they turned to each other, hugged each other excitedly and screamed with joy.
‘Giant African Land Snail eggs!’ Amy shouted. ‘Giant eggs, Charlie!’
‘But we still don’t know who’s behind the snail drop, do we?’ Charlie said a little sadly.
‘No, but we have made a rather amazing discovery!’
They swore each other to secrecy, ran all the way home and promised to talk the next day.
When Amy reached home she added another clue to the list in her notebook: ‘Clue number eight – Snail eggs on the Common – hundreds and hundreds of them!’
She fell asleep smiling and dreamt of snails and eggs and the horrible stench of rotting peat.’
