Читать книгу The Rat-a-Tat Mystery - Enid blyton - Страница 3

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“How long do these Christmas holidays last?” said Mr. Lynton, putting his newspaper down as a loud crash came from upstairs. “I sometimes think I’m living in a madhouse—what are those children doing upstairs? Are they practising high jumps or something?”

“I expect it’s Snubby as usual,” said Mrs. Lynton. “He’s supposed to be making his bed. Oh, dear—there he goes again!”

She went to the door and called up the stairs. “Snubby—what in the world are you doing? You are making your uncle very angry.”

“Oh—sorry!” shouted back Snubby. “I was only moving things round a bit—and the dressing-table fell over. I forgot you were underneath. Hey, look out—Loony’s coming down the stairs, and he’s a bit mad this morning.”

A black spaniel came hurtling down the stairs at top speed and Mrs. Lynton hurriedly got out of the way. Loony slid all the way along the hall and in at the sitting-room door almost to Mr. Lynton’s feet. He was most surprised to receive a smart slap on the head from Mr. Lynton’s folded newspaper. He shot out of the door almost as fast as he had come in.

“What a house!” groaned Mr. Lynton, as his wife came back. “As soon as Snubby arrives peace and quiet vanish. He makes Diana and Roger three times as bad, too—as for that dog Loony, he’s even more of a lunatic than usual.”

“Never mind, dear—after all, Christmas only comes once a year,” said Mrs. Lynton. “And poor old Snubby must have somewhere to go in the holidays—you forget he has no father or mother.”

“Well, I wish he wasn’t my nephew,” said Mr. Lynton. “And WHY must we have his dog Loony every time we have Snubby?”

“Oh, Richard—you know Snubby wouldn’t come here if we didn’t have Loony—he adores Loony,” said his wife.

“Ha!” said Mr. Lynton, opening his newspaper again. “So Snubby won’t go anywhere without Loony—well, tell him next holidays we won’t have that dog here—then perhaps Snubby won’t inflict himself on us!”

“Oh, you don’t really mean that, dear,” said Mrs. Lynton. “Snubby just gets on your nerves when you’re home for a few days. You’ll be back at the office soon.”

Upstairs Snubby was sitting on his unmade bed, talking to his cousins, Diana and Roger, and fondling Loony’s long silky ears. They had come to see what the terrific crashes were.

“You’ll get into a row with Dad,” said Roger. “You never will remember that your room is over the sitting-room. Whatever do you want to go and lug the furniture about for?”

“Well, I didn’t really mean to move it,” said Snubby. “But a sixpence went under the chest-of-drawers, and when I moved it out I thought it would look better where the dressing-table is, but the beastly thing went over with a crash.”

“You’re going to get a whacking from Dad pretty soon,” said Diana. “I heard him say you were working up for one. You really are an ass, Snubby. Dad goes back to the office soon. Why can’t you behave till then?”

“I do behave!” said Snubby indignantly. “Anyway, who spilt the coffee all over the breakfast-table this morning? Not me!”

Roger and Diana stared at their red-haired freckle-faced cousin, and he stared back at them out of his green eyes. They were both fond of the irrepressible Snubby, but, really, he could be very irritating at times. Diana gave an impatient exclamation.

“Well, I don’t wonder Dad gets tired of you, Snubby! You and Loony rush about the house like a hurricane—and WHY can’t you teach Loony to stop taking shoes and brushes from people’s bedrooms? Did you know he’s taken Dad’s clothes-brush this morning? Goodness knows how he got it off the dressing-table.”

“Oh, golly! Has he really?” said Snubby, getting off the bed in a hurry. “There’ll be another explosion from Uncle Richard when he discovers that. I’ll go and find it.”

Christmas had been a mad and merry time in the Lynton’s house. All the children had come home from school in high spirits, looking forward to plenty of good food, presents and jollifications. Snubby had been a little subdued at first, because he was afraid that his school report might be even worse than usual, and his uncle and aunt had been pleasantly surprised to find him most polite and helpful.

But this wore off after a few days, and Snubby had now become his usual riotous, ridiculous self, aided in every way by his black spaniel, Loony. His uncle had quickly become very tired of him, especially since Snubby had forgotten to turn off the tap in the bathroom and flooded the floor. If it hadn’t been Christmas time Snubby would certainly have got a first-class whacking!

All the same, everyone had enjoyed Christmas, though the children wished there had been snow.

“It doesn’t seem like Christmas without snow,” complained Snubby.

“Oh, we’ll get plenty as soon as Christmas is gone,” said Mrs. Lynton. “We always do. Then you can go out the whole day long, and snowball and toboggan and skate—and I shall be rid of you for a little while!”

But there had been no snow yet, only a drizzling rain that kept the children indoors for most of the time, much to Mr. Lynton’s annoyance. “Why must they always talk at the tops of their voices?” he said, in exasperation. “And is there any need to have the radio on so loudly? And will someone tell that dog Loony that if I fall over him again he can go and live out of doors in the shed?”

But it wasn’t really any good telling Loony things like that. If he wanted to sit down and scratch himself, he sat down, no matter whether someone was coming along to trip over him or not. Even Snubby couldn’t make him stop. Loony just looked up with his melting spaniel eyes, thumped his little tail, and then went on scratching.

“I don’t know why you scratch!” said Snubby, in exasperation. “Pretending you’ve got fleas! You know you haven’t, Loony. Oh, get up, do!”

One rainy morning Diana was mooning about, getting in her busy mother’s way. “Oh, Diana, dear—do get something to do!” said Mrs. Lynton. “Have you done all your morning jobs—made your bed, dusted your room, done the——”

“Yes, Mother—everything,” said Diana. “I really have. Do you want me to help you?”

“Well, will you take down all the Christmas cards?” said her mother. “It’s time they were down. Stack them neatly in a big cardboard box, so that we can send them to Aunt Lucy—she makes scrap-books of them for children in hospital.”

“Right!” said Diana. “Oh, there’s Snubby with his mouth-organ. Mother, doesn’t he play it well?”

“No, he doesn’t,” said her mother. “He makes a simply horrible noise with it. Let him do the cards with you, then perhaps he’ll put it down and forget it. I really do believe your father will go mad if Snubby wanders round the house playing his mouth-organ.”

“Snubby, come and help with the Christmas cards,” called Diana. “Look out, Mother—Loony’s coming down the stairs.”

“Christmas cards? What do you mean?” said Snubby, coming into the room. “Oh—take them down? Right oh! It’s always fun to look at them again. Let’s put all the funny ones into a pile.”

He and Diana were soon happily taking down the gay cards. They read each one and laughed at the funny ones, stacking them all neatly into a box.

“Oh, here’s the one Barney sent us!” said Diana. “Look—isn’t it marvellous! Just like old Barney too.”

She held up a big card, on the front of which was a picture of a fair ground. Drawn neatly in one corner was a boy with a monkey on his shoulder.

“Barney’s drawn himself and Miranda on the card,” said Diana. “Snubby, I wonder how he enjoyed Christmas-time with his family for the very first time in his life!”

Roger came into the room just then, and took up Barney’s card too. “Good old Barney!” he said. “I wish we could see him these hols. I say—wasn’t it MARVELLOUS how he found his father—and discovered that he had a whole family of his own?”

“Yes,” said Diana, remembering. “He spent all his life in a circus with his mother, and thought his father was dead. And when his mother died, she told him his father was still alive, and he must find him....”

“And he went out to seek for his father, and hunted everywhere,” said Roger. “And do you remember how at last he met him—last hols, it was, at Rubadub, that dear little seaside place where we were holidaying—and what an awfully nice man he was, exactly like Barney ...”

“Oh, yes,” said Diana, remembering it all clearly. “And then dear old Barney discovered that he hadn’t only a father, but a grandfather and grandmother and an uncle and aunts....”

“And cousins!” finished Snubby. “Gosh, what a wonderful Christmas Barney must have had. I bet he’s forgotten all about us now!”

“I bet he hasn’t!” said Diana at once. “I say—I’ve got a smashing idea! Let’s ask Mother if we can have Barney to stay for a few days! Then we’ll hear all his news.”

“And we’ll see Miranda, his pet monkey, again,” said Snubby, thrilled. “Do you hear that, Loony? We’ll see Miranda!”

“Come on—let’s go and ask Mother this very minute!” said Diana, and flew out of the room. “Mother! Mother! Where are you?”