Читать книгу Secret Seven Fireworks - Enid blyton - Страница 3

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Peter, Jack and Janet were walking home from school one fine October day, when someone came skipping up behind them. It was Susie, Jack’s sister.

‘Hallo, you three!’ she said. ‘What’s happened to the Secret Seven? You never seem to have meetings now.’

‘Nothing’s happened to the Secret Seven,’ said Peter. ‘Don’t be silly.’

Susie began to chant a little song just behind them.

‘The Secret Seven’s falling to bits

It doesn’t meet any more,

The only thing that is left of it

Is the silly S.S. on the door!’

‘Susie! You little horror!’ said Jack, angrily. ‘Singing like that in the street about the Secret Seven! Falling to bits! You don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘Oh, I do,’ said Susie, skipping in front of them now. ‘I know you haven’t met for ages—I know Jack’s lost his badge—I know you can’t use Peter’s shed for meeting-places—I know ...’

Peter, Janet and Jack glared at the smiling, irritating Susie.

‘What do you mean—you know we can’t use our shed?’ demanded Peter. ‘You’ve been snooping.’

‘No, I haven’t. My ball went over your wall, Peter, and I ran to get it—and I saw your shed full of onions! Onions!’ Susie laughed loudly. ‘So I knew you couldn’t be meeting there—and I’ve a very particular reason for asking if the Secret Seven is still going on or not.’

Peter stopped at once, and the others stopped too. Now what was Susie up to? Why was she so anxious to know about the Secret Seven?

‘What’s this silly, particular reason?’ asked Peter, sharply. ‘Go on—tell us.’

‘Well, you see—if your Secret Seven has stopped, I thought I’d like to form a Secret Seven Club of my own,’ said Susie, solemnly, with a wicked glint in her bright eyes. ‘I thought I’d ask Leonard, and Harry and ...’

‘What! Copy us!’ said Janet, in scorn. ‘Well—I wouldn’t want to be a copy-cat like that!’

‘And anyway, forget about it,’ said Peter. ‘The Secret Seven is meeting this very Saturday morning. Isn’t it, Jack?’

This was the first that Jack had heard of any meeting, but he nodded his head vigorously. ‘Yes. Let me see—ten o’clock, wasn’t it, Peter?’

‘That’s right,’ said Peter, giving Janet a little nudge in case she should say she hadn’t heard of any meeting.

‘It’ll be a pretty smelly meeting, sitting on top of all those onions,’ said Susie. ‘Shall I help you to clear them out of the shed?’

‘No!’ roared Peter and Jack together.

Janet gave Susie a push. ‘Go away!’ she said, fiercely. ‘You’re just trying to be annoying. Fancy thinking you could run a club!’

‘I could, easily,’ said Susie. ‘You just wait and see!’

She skipped off, leaving the other three feeling really furious. ‘Can’t you possibly keep that sister of yours in order, Jack?’ said Peter. ‘Like I do Janet?’

‘You do not keep me in order,’ said Janet, at once, and stalked off ahead of the two boys. They looked at one another.

‘Girls!’ said Jack, in a disgusted voice, low enough for Janet not to hear. ‘They’re all the same.’

‘Except that Susie is a bit worse,’ said Peter. ‘Now look, Jack, we’d better have this Secret Seven meeting, as we’ve said we’re going to. It’s an awful bore, really, because we’ll have to turn all those onions out and put them somewhere else. I hope my father won’t mind!’

‘Well, look, let’s all come at a quarter to ten, not ten, and help you,’ said Jack. ‘We can easily tell the others in good time.’

‘All right,’ said Peter. ‘Quarter to ten, then—and tell Susie if she dares to so much as put her nose round the door of our shed, I’ll ... I’ll—well, I really can’t think of anything bad enough to do to her.’

‘What shall we have a meeting about?’ said Jack. ‘Nothing much has happened—no mystery or anything to work on. But we must have something to talk about.’

‘Well, we will,’ said Peter, an idea suddenly coming into his head. ‘What about planning for Bonfire Night? It will be here in a couple of weeks or so, and we ought to start saving up for fireworks, and decide about a guy—and where to burn him.’

‘Golly, yes!’ said Jack, thrilled. ‘Of course—that’s what we’ll have the meeting about. If we don’t start saving up soon we shan’t have any fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night. Jolly good idea of yours, Peter.’

‘And for goodness sake find your badge,’ said Peter. ‘Susie said you’d lost it.’

‘What a tell-tale!’ said Jack. ‘I had lost it. It went to the cleaner’s on the lapel of my blazer—Mother didn’t notice it. And I was awfully upset when the blazer came back without it, and grumbled like anything. That’s how Susie knew it was gone.’

‘Well, you’d better get your mother to make you a new one,’ said Peter. ‘Can’t have anyone turning up without a badge, you know.’

‘All right, all right. Why don’t you lose yours for once?’ said Jack. ‘Then you’d know what it feels like. How was I to know that my mother was going to send my blazer to the cleaner’s all of a sudden?’

Peter gave him a friendly punch. ‘Don’t be so touchy! Tell George about the meeting on Saturday, will you? And I’ll tell Colin. Janet will tell Pam and Barbara.’

‘Right,’ said Jack, as Peter swung in at his gate. ‘There’s one good thing to be said for Susie—she’s made us call a meeting! I shall look forward to it. So long, Peter!’

‘So long!’ said Peter, and ran down the path that led to the shed where the Secret Seven met. He opened the door—and a dozen onions rolled out at once. He kicked them back.

‘You wait till Saturday!’ he said. ‘You’ll have to get out of here, and make room for the Secret Seven! Janet—Janet! Where are you? I say—won’t it be fun to have one of our meetings again!’