Читать книгу Look Out Secret Seven - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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In the evening Peter and Janet telephoned to the other members of the Secret Seven, and told them about the meeting, and the enormous tin of chocolate biscuits.

‘If you like to bring something to drink—orangeade or lemonade, for instance, we’ll provide the mugs,’ said Peter.

Soon all the members knew of the meeting and Peter put down the telephone for the last time. ‘Phew—I do hate telephoning,’ he said. ‘Everyone wants to be so chatty!’

‘Well, you sounded pretty chatty yourself when you spoke to George and Colin,’ said Janet. ‘And what a pity Susie came to the telephone when you wanted to speak to Jack! Now she knows there’s a meeting she’ll try and play one of her usual silly tricks—I bet she won’t give Jack your message.’

‘She said she was going to a fancy-dress party tomorrow,’ said Peter. ‘So we’ll be safe from her for once.’

‘Oh yes—I remember now,’ said Janet. ‘Her cousin’s giving a fancy-dress affair tomorrow afternoon. I wonder what Susie’s going as. That awful friend of hers, Binkie, is going too.’

‘Susie said they were going as Jack and Jill,’ said Peter. ‘But I bet they won’t bother to take a pail of water with them. I’d like to empty a pail of very, very cold water over Susie’s head.’

‘You’d never get the chance,’ said Janet, with a giggle at the thought of Peter throwing water over that monkey of a Susie. ‘She’d souse you before you could stop her.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said Peter. ‘I’d never let a girl do a thing like that. Now listen—we’ll have to be pretty busy tomorrow if we’re going to meet in the shed. You’ll have to find those green letters, S.S., and pin them on to the door—we took them off because they were getting wet with all that rain, you remember. And for goodness’ sake find our badges.’

‘I put them away safely in my jewel-case,’ said Janet. ‘So you needn’t worry.’

‘Well, I hope you’ll find them there,’ said Peter. ‘Last time I saw your jewel-case it had sweets in it, and a new rubber, and a bit of sealing-wax, a broken brooch, a ...’

‘You’d no right to look into my jewel-case,’ said Janet, ‘and I shall ...’

‘All right, all right,’ said Peter, hastily. ‘Let’s not quarrel when there’s so much to do. I hope Gardener hasn’t taken away the boxes we used to sit on in the shed. And Scamper, I hope you’ve been keeping down the mice and rats there for us. I should feel very ashamed of you tomorrow evening if a few rats came to join us.’

‘Ugh! What a horrible thought!’ said Janet. Scamper gave a loud bark at the same time, as if to tell her that all the rats and mice had been safely dealt with. He decided to go down to the shed the first thing next morning to make quite sure there wasn’t even a sniff of them.

It was very pleasant next day to turn out the old shed and make it tidy and clean. Gardener popped his head in at the door, grunted and went away again, nodding his head in approval of all the tidying up going on.

‘ ’Bout time too,’ they heard him mutter as he went up the path. Janet looked round the clean shed, pleased with their work. Boxes to sit on—mugs on the little shelf, ready for any drinks that were brought—seven little plastic plates for the biscuits, one for each member—the tin itself standing proudly on a little box of its own—and an old, rather raggedy rug on the earth floor.

‘Nice!’ said Janet. ‘The shed smells a bit of apples, doesn’t it, Peter—there were some stored here in the winter, you know. I’ve put the S.S. on the door. It’s a pity the shed has such a small window, it makes it rather dark in here. But it’s not dark enough for candles, is it?’

‘No,’ said Peter. ‘Anyway, Mother gets scared if we have candles down here—says Scamper is sure to knock one over and then up would go the shed in flames, and ...’

‘And the fire-engine would come, and we’d have the most exciting meeting we’ve ever had,’ said Janet.

The meeting was to begin at five o’clock, and at five to five Peter, Janet, and Scamper were sitting in the shed, waiting. Scamper eyed the tin of biscuits longingly, and gave pathetic little whines, as if to say he was so hungry that he couldn’t wait another second for a meal.

Then he suddenly whined excitedly. He had heard footsteps! ‘The others are coming,’ said Peter, pleased. ‘Nice and punctual, too.’

Bang-bang. That was someone knocking on the shed door.

‘Password, please!’ called Peter, and Pam’s and Barbara’s voices answered at once.

‘Holidays!’

Peter opened the door, grinning. ‘Right!’ he said. ‘Come in. Hallo, here comes someone else. Password, please!’

‘Holidays!’ said Colin’s voice. No sooner was he in the shed than there came another knock—this time it was George.

‘Password!’ shouted Peter.

‘Peter, is it “Holidays”?’ asked George. ‘Thank goodness it is! I say, isn’t it nice to be the Secret Seven again? Are we all here? It’s a bit dark in the shed this evening.’

‘Only Jack to come,’ said Peter. ‘I think I can hear him now. Yes, here he is. Password, Jack!’

‘Holidays’, came the answer, and then the door was shut on the Seven. The meeting was about to begin!

And then, very surprisingly, Scamper suddenly began to growl! He sat in a dark corner of the shed and growled and growled without stopping. Everyone stared at him in wonder.

‘What’s up, Scamper?’ asked Peter, but the only answer was another fierce growl. It really was very puzzling.

‘Scamper seems to be growling at Jack!’ said Pam. ‘Look at him staring at him. He’s even showing his teeth!’

‘He’s never done that before to any of us,’ said Janet. ‘Stop it, Scamper. Jack, take off your cap, perhaps that’s why Scamper’s growling. You forgot to take it off when you came in.’

‘Er—I think I’d better keep it on,’ said Jack. ‘I’ve—er—a bit of a cold in my head.’

George suddenly whipped off the cap—and everyone stared in amazement and anger. Hair tumbled out from under the cap—but not short hair!

‘It’s Susie! Susie, not Jack! Susie, how dare you dress up in Jack’s clothes and come to a meeting?’ shouted Peter.

‘Well—Binkie and I were on our way home from a fancy-dress party, and we thought we’d look in on our way past,’ grinned Susie. ‘We went as Jack and Jill, you see. I’m Jack—and Binkie, who’s hiding outside, is Jill. Jack lent me his clothes, so that I could be a boy at the party—and my voice and his are alike, so it was easy to get into your meeting. Ha ha—I heard your password being said—you really are a lot of simpletons, you know—and here I am!’

‘And Scamper was the only sensible one among us!’ groaned George. ‘He knew it wasn’t old Jack sitting here with us! Get out, Susie. Get out!’

‘With pleasure,’ said Susie, and stood up, still with a most infuriating grin on her face. ‘Jack will be along here soon. I told him the meeting was at half past five, instead of five, so it’s not his fault he’s late. Am I clever enough to be one of the Secret Seven?’

But that was too much for Peter. He gave Susie a push to send her out of the shed, but she wouldn’t go, and, instead, began to yell.

‘Binkie! Help, Binkie!’

She rushed out of the shed door with all the others following her in a real rage—and then, quite suddenly, something very cold and wet descended on them, soaking their heads and shoulders!

‘Oh—sorry—that was the pail of water we took as Jack and Jill!’ called Susie, with a squeal of laughter. ‘Good shot, Binkie! Good night, all—hope you have a very pleasant meeting!’

And off went the two wicked girls, very pleased indeed with their evening’s work. To be One Up on the Secret Seven was wonderful. Oh what a tale to tell their giggling friends!