He crept out of bed, and stole out into the hall, listened for a moment to see if he'd awoken his grandparents, and then took his torch out from under the bed. He did not want to carry it around while they chased each other - and besides it would not be fair - but he did want to find his way silently down the stairs, out of the house, and into the bushes without disturbing anyone.

Then he was faced with a dilemma. The eastern staircase was wooden, with no carpeting, and would certainly creak, but the western one was at the end of the western hallway. There was little doubt about it. He would have to walk silently down both hallways, and go down the carpeted stairs of the western staircase.

He would then be able to choose from a number of doorways, and open any one door silently. The only one that made a significant noise was the front door. However, that would not be his choice. He went out the door to the porch. As usual, his grandmother had left the red lights on, but this did not matter. If anything, it would provide them with enough light with which to chase each other.

When he arrived at the tennis court fence, he could not see anybody on the tennis court.

Had Jenny forgotten him?

Had she been caught and sent back to bed?

Had Laura persuaded her not to do it after all?

Then Percy heard a soft giggle from high up in the tree behind him.

He looked up into the moonlit tree. They were both there. They had already climbed over the fence to Percy's side.

"We're not teasing you. Laura just thought that it would be nice to surprise you from up here."

"Yes, it was clever. You had better come down quietly now. Don't snap any branches."

Laura's brown hair was a suitable complement to her brown eyes.  

He led them out to the lawn, and explained that it would be best to restrict the game of chasings to the lawn, which followed the house around half of its perimeter.

Climbing trees and using paths while under the pressure of being chased would certainly initiate a whole series of unwarranted noises. So they played chasings for the best part of an hour and then decided to slow it down to hide and seek.

"Alright then," said Percy, "The rules can be simple. One person hides. The other two go to look for them, and the first person to find the hidden person can be the next one to have a turn at hiding."

"No," said Laura, "Why can't the person who finds them last be the one who has to hide?"
"Because hiding's the best bit, and I'll try harder to find somebody, if it means I can hide next."

"Okay," said Laura, "You can hide first."

"I will, and we'll change the boundaries. You can go anywhere outside the house - if you're quiet - but not in it. You can climb trees, but don't climb up the house, and you can also go as many as five houses down the road to the North, and as far as Eastern Road in the other direction. Close your eyes and count to sixty. Then start looking. If I'm not hiding, then it will be a longer counting time for me, because I know the place better than you two. Okay, start."

Percy ran across the lawn and played his usual gambit for the game of hide and seek. Percy loved to double back in time to position himself where he could see the seekers open their eyes and start to look. Then he would move around and follow their attempts to find him, until he made a fatal slip at the crucial moment and gave himself away, or they happened to turn around and look in the place where he was, so that he could not remain behind them.

This was why he never preferred to play a method of hide and seek wherein the hidden person must simply find a place and stay there.

Percy ran right around the house, and then crept along the narrow strip of grass on the driveway side of the hedge, and peered around the corner at the end. The girls were still out on the large lawn with their eyes closed. Then they started walking. So their eyes were open.

However, they did not both go in the direction in which Percy had run.

Laura did, but Jenny walked towards the hedge. Percy ran along the strip of grass, around the corner, and stood up straight against the third hedge, and hoped that Jenny would pass by him without noticing.

"Oh they split up!" he thought to himself.

Jenny walked into view, turned her head and spotted him.

They played another round, during which Jenny hid in the oak tree, and it was Laura who found her. She knew her cousin well, and had guessed that Jenny would make use of her height to climb a tree. So Jenny and Percy waited at the bottom of the oak tree, counted their time and stared out at the large lawn.

"Percy, can I kiss you again now?"

"What about Laura?"

"She's off hiding."

"But we're the ones who cannot see where she is. What if she's hiding somewhere close watching us?"

"Alright. Let's go and find her. I'll kiss you another night."

"How old is Laura anyway?"

"Eleven. Let's split up. We'll find her faster that way, like we found you before."

Jenny went the same way as she had gone earlier, and Percy followed the lawn around the house again.

"Nobody's hidden out in the street yet," thought Jenny, and wandered quietly down the drive. 

She stepped out into Burnseid Street, and decided to wander up past the five houses allowed, looking in bushes and up into trees. But she heard Laura's voice.

"Jenny, down here where the drain runs under the driveway. It's quite dry. You won't get dirty, and you can squeeze in too. It will be funny with Percy looking for both of us. You'll have the chance to play one round of the game the way you first suggested after all. Percy won't mind. He's a nice boy."

Percy searched in most of the obvious hiding places. He did not bother looking into places that a stranger would not consider using in the dark; and he came to the conclusion that Laura must have hidden out in the street. So he wandered out into the street himself, searched in every possible place within the boundaries, and then sat down on the front wall of 66 Burnseid Street, to think.

Then he saw Jenny's head peeking out of the drain, and he suddenly felt a special sensation in his mind. He had never seen such a sweet face before, and he guessed what had happened, and out they came.

"Oh Jenny, that looks so ... sweet. You can kiss me now if you want to. Make it the other cheek this time."

"But aren't you embarrassed? We decided to give ourselves up. It got uncomfortable in there."

"Yes of course I'm still embarrassed, but I cannot wait any longer."

So she kissed Percy for the second time.

"Can we do lots of climbing tomorrow morning at one o'clock?"

"I think so Jenny. We shall climb as many trees as we can, and probably do nothing else."

"We'll have to sleep in this morning," said Laura looking at her watch, "It's after three o'clock now."