Chapter 18 A FEW SURPRISES
　　IT seemed so very queer to hear a bell ringing in that dead and silent city that the little company feltreally startled. The sound came nearer.
　　"Dong-dong-dong." Kiki didn't like it either and crouched¹ against Jack²'s cheek. Micky chatteredquietly.
　　"Dong-dong-dong!"
　　"Something's coming round that corner," said Jack suddenly. And something did.
　　It was a donkey, a little grey donkey with a big bell hanging from his neck! With him was a smallboy, an imp³ of a boy, riding astride, with panniers each side of the donkey, great baskets that werefull of something covered in white cloths.
　　"Good gracious!" said Dinah, and she sat down on a big stone, most relieved to see that it was just adonkey-bell that had startled them all. "I don't know what I thought was coming!""I suppose the boy's from one of the farms," said Bill, looking puzzled. "But why has he come here?
　　There is nobody living here."
　　Then an even more surprising thing happened. The boy caught sight of the five people watching him,and grinned a welcome. He leapt off the donkey, pointed⁴ to the pannier baskets and screamed outsomething that sounded like sheer gibberish, but which the children imagined must be the speech ofThamis. Then he brought the donkey right up to them, and began to throw back the cloths thatcovered whatever was in the panniers.
　　"It's food," said Bill, in amazement⁵. "Bread — cheeses — meat. Gosh, he's unpacking⁶ the lot."The boy unpacked⁷ everything, chattering⁸ all the time. He evidently couldn't understand why nobodyhelped him, and addressed quite a few cutting remarks to the two boys, who, of course, couldn't makehead or tail of them.

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