"From round here?"

"No, not round here exactly," said Peter, "Round the whole district, but all the thefts fit inside a big circle. Always ponies, and always at night."

"The poor things!" said Shara.

"She's pony mad," said Shara's Mum, "More concerned about the ponies than the people who owned them!"

"I've got a daughter like that," said Peter smiling, "They should get to meet each other!"

After he had gone, Shara got dressed and went outside for a walk. She always thought better if she was walking. It was a cold morning, with strips of cloud like grey cloth ribboning the sky, and a chilly breeze. Shara wrapped herself in a coat with a hood and put her red gloves on. She went along the road for a while and stopped on the bridge so she could look at the tiny stream. It was silver and brown.

She thought about Zeras, and the other girls (probably girls, she thought), who had lost their ponies, and she wondered about the person who could sink so low as to actually steal them. How could anyone steal a pony, especially from a girl who loved it? Having a pony, for most girls, was like having a friend. It was a special friendship too, except for Linda. That made Shara feel sad too, because Linda was more upset about losing her money than losing the pony.

Shara wandered back towards the house. She was allowed to go for walks as long as she kept the house in sight. It didn't seem to Shara like a very good rule, because she had lived safely in the country for eight years without any problems, and she knew all her neighbors, and everyone that went past was either a friend or too busy to stop anyway. But rules were rules.

"Five other ponies!" she thought, "Five girls who loved their ponies and lost them. I wonder who those girls were?" And as soon as she thought that, she also thought of Mrs Cunningham, the organizer of the Pony Club. "Maybe I should ring her and see if she knows anything about all this?"

Later in the morning, Shara sat beside the phone, with a pencil and some paper, and rang Mrs Cunningham.

"Hello?"

"Barbara here?"

"Mrs Cunningham, this is Shara Nicholson. Could I please ask you some questions?"