The adventures of two 12 year old runaways as they dodge entrapments from unscrupulous adults, on a cross country chase, running from two burglars whose loot they have hidden.
Synopsis:Jerry and Darren, aged twelve, drive their foster mother, Ida, up the wall, teasing her unmercifully. Coming second to her mangy cat, to kill boredom they go for a night time bike ride. They witness two burglars and their foster dad, Don, burying some loot. Darren keeps a ring as they hide the loot where the crooks will never find it. The ring rolls out of his pocket next morning right in front of Don. The burglars accuse Don of taking their loot and he admits that one of his boys had found it. Hard man Silver will repossess his treasure whatever it takes. Next stop – the boys. Jerry is the appealing one, who everyone likes but he leads them into trouble, jumping before thinking. Darren is slower and gradually takes command, being physically stronger. The boys just avoid capture and run away from their foster home, dropping from their window to the sound of Ida`s yells. They take to the road, hoping to reach Jerry’s old aunt hundreds of K distant. They cadge a lift with gypsies, who want to use them as free labor. Having bonded with the gipsy children, dancing to Patrick’s accordion, they narrowly escape the burglars` dog. A frightening night in the woods, hiding from the burglars leads to Jerry stuck in a tree as they climb to find their bearings. Leaving Jerry hanging like washing, dangling from a broken branch by his belt, Darren takes off for help. Jerry releases himself. They have seen the gypsies on the road again and are without protection. Darren returns and they wend their way again. They survive a mad chase through woods, the burglars hot on their tail, and Darren`s crazy plan to start the crooks’ van by jamming it into gear. A Keystone Cops scene shows the burglars chasing the van as it freewheels down the country lane and then having to flee as it chases them in reverse down the hill. The boys discover an old brick house. It is deserted and boarded up, with a large walled garden; the ideal hiding place. They enter via the coal hole. They find a hoard of tinned food. They visit the town tip and Darren shows electrical skills, making a wind dynamo, charging a car battery. So they have light. They are over-run by local boys and eventually leave as the burglars arrive. A well meaning vicar has the boys to tea and offers them a room for the night. They use a vine as an escape route, having heard the vicar ringing the police. Eventually they climb a mountain to shed the burglars and seek refuge in a lonely farm house. Mrs Jones appears quite eccentric and living alone, is happy to accommodate them, having established that they would not be missed. She sets them to cutting logs, dressed only in pyjamas. Jerry and Darren escape having locked Mrs Jones in their bedroom. They smash a window and Darren leaps out, dragging his drugged mate behind him. They survive Jerry falling into a bog and the burglars searching a barn, hiding their wet clothes under the hay. Jerry and Darren steal some sandwiches from a motorway café and hide in a van belonging to two hypnotists, the Reeses. Discovered, they are hypnotized and made to act in the Hypnotist shows. Jerry runs away, hotly pursued by Mr Rees, who is held back by a ferocious dog. Jerry reaches a farm and mistaken for a hen thief by the farmer, is slightly wounded by pellets from his shotgun. Their children grown up, the couple dote on Jerry and offer him a home. He explores the farm and finds a cheetah hiding in a ruin. He tames the cheetah, feeding it rabbits he has shot. A policeman turns up to check the sheep dipping records. Jerry hightails it away, fearing the cop is after him. He “borrows” a little boat and drifts down to the nearest town, hotly pursued by the boat’s owner. Jerry reaches his aunt to find Darren has beaten him to it. The farming couple allow both boys to stay with them. All seems serene. The burglars arrive to reclaim the ring and force the boys to show them where the buried loot is hidden. Having bound up everyone, they leave with a boy under their arms. A despairing Jerry whistles and the cheetah arrives to bale up the burglars.
The boys have to watch over their shoulders all the time for the relentless burglars as well as cope with one adult after another wanting to use them for their own purposes.