Читать книгу The Rubadub Mystery - Enid blyton - Страница 3

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“Snubby!” called a cross voice. “SNUBBY! Didn’t I tell you to tie Loony up?”

Snubby came flying downstairs to his aunt. “Oh, Aunt Susan, I did! Has he got loose again? Oh, I say—did he make all that mess in the hall?”

The black spaniel sat in the middle of a few sheets of torn-up newspaper, his tongue hanging out. He looked exactly as if he was grinning.

“That’s your uncle’s morning newspaper,” said his aunt. “He hasn’t even read it yet. Snubby, you know that we’re very rushed trying to get everything done before we leave to-day. I really can not have Loony rushing about loose.”

“I’ll shut Loony into my room, Mother,” said Diana, coming up. “And I’ll lock the door and put the key in my pocket. Then Loony will be safe.”

“Well, nothing else in your room will be safe!” said Mrs. Lynton. “Do what you like with him—but keep him out of my way this morning! We shall never get off this afternoon, your father and I.”

The Lyntons were going to America for a few weeks. The three children and Loony the dog were going off to the sea with Miss Pepper, Mrs. Lynton’s old governess. She often had charge of them when the Lyntons had to go away.

Snubby had only arrived the day before, having spent the first week of the holidays with some other cousins. He had no parents and spent his time staying with various relations—but of them all he much preferred the Lyntons. He was very fond of his Aunt Susan, and admired and respected his Uncle Richard. His uncle, however, neither admired nor respected Snubby.

“I consider that boy to be the world’s worst nuisance,” was his continual description of poor Snubby.

Loony was led upstairs by a firm Diana. Sardine the cat was waiting for him at a turn of the stairs and leapt at him. He sprang back, almost pulling Diana down the stairs, and she squealed.

“This house is a mad-house,” said her father, at the top of the stairs. “Where’s Miss Pepper? Can’t she take you all into some quiet corner till we’ve gone? America will seem a place of utter peace and quiet after this. Really, when you children come back from school, it’s ...”

“Oh, Daddy—you always say that,” said Diana, hauling Loony up by his lead. “You know you’ll miss us when you go. Daddy, I wish you’d take us with you to America.”

“Not on your life!” said her father, horrified. “You’d probably all fall overboard, to start with—and Snubby would spend his time down in the engine-room with Roger ...”

“Oh, I say, sir—should I be allowed to?” called Snubby. “That would be smashing.”

“Where do you get those awful words from?” said his uncle. “Can’t you talk Queen’s English?”

“I bet the Queen says ‘smashing’ sometimes,” argued Snubby. “I bet she ...”

“Move aside and let me pass,” said his uncle impatiently. “What with Diana and the dog on the stairs, and now you—and is that Sardine I see waiting for me to fall over her as usual—this is a real mad-house.”

“Richard dear—do come down and help me with the labelling,” called Mrs. Lynton. “We’ll go into the study and shut the door and the windows, and see if we can’t keep out all the riff-raff!”

“Gosh—fancy Aunt Susan calling us riff-raff,” said Snubby indignantly. “Hey, Aunt Susan ...”

A door slammed down below. Snubby gave it up. He helped to push the reluctant Loony along the landing to Diana’s bedroom.

Miss Pepper was there, pulling clothes out of drawers and cupboards. The children were to go off to the seaside the next day, and Miss Pepper was trying to do a little sorting and packing in between helping Mrs. Lynton.

“Hallo, Miss Pepper,” said Snubby, as if he hadn’t seen her for a month. He gave her a sudden squeeze round the waist. She gasped.

“Don’t, Snubby! Why so affectionate all of a sudden? What is it you want out of me now?”

“Nothing,” said Snubby, looking hurt. “I just felt sort of thrilled—holidays, you know—no more work for ages—going off to the sea to-morrow. What’s the place we’re going to, Miss Pepper? Nobody’s told me anything yet.”

Roger came marching in, his arms full of swim-suits. “Here you are, Miss Pepper,” he said, putting them down on the bed. “I’ve found three swim-suits each. Is that enough?”

“Good gracious yes,” said Miss Pepper. “Oh, don’t let Loony get hold of them. Snubby, take him away.”

“He’s supposed to be locked up here in Diana’s bedroom,” said Snubby.

“Well, he can’t be,” said Miss Pepper decidedly. “I’m doing a lot of sorting out in here and I don’t intend to be locked in with Loony or any other mad dog either.”

“He’s not mad,” said Snubby. “Are you, Loony?”

Loony promptly lay down on his back and pedalled his feet in the air, looking sideways for Snubby’s admiring remarks.

“Bicycle away,” said Miss Pepper to Loony. “Stay there on your back and pedal for the rest of the morning. That will suit me nicely.”

“Nobody’s told me yet where we’re going to-morrow,” said Snubby plaintively.

“Well, you only came yesterday,” said Roger. “And considering that you spent practically the whole evening describing the cricket match you played in last Saturday, and told us about every run you didn’t get, and how many sweaters the umpire wore, and what you’d do if you were chosen for the Test team, and ...”

“That’s not funny,” said Snubby. “Miss Pepper, do tell me about to-morrow.”

“Well, we start off early, and we catch the train to Woodlingham, and we change there, and we catch another train, a slow one, to Rockypool, and then we get a taxi to Rubadub,” said Miss Pepper. “There—now you know, so stop asking me.”

“Rubadub! I don’t believe it! There’s not a place called Rubadub!” exclaimed Snubby disbelievingly.

“There is,” said Diana. “It’s marked on the map. I think it’s a super name. I love thinking I’m going to stay at Rubadub. Miss Pepper used to stay there when she was small—didn’t you, Miss Pepper?”

“Yes,” said Miss Pepper, emptying another drawer. “Diana, sort these out and put them over there. Yes, I often stayed there. It was the funniest little seaside village you ever could imagine then. Only a few shops, no pier, no promenade, a few cottages—and the old inn. You’ll never guess what it was called!”

“Rubadub Inn?” said Roger.

“No. It was called Three Men in a Tub!” said Miss Pepper “You know the old rhyme—‘Rubadub-dub, Three men in a tub.’ Goodness knows why the inn should have been named that, but it was—and still is. Actually Rubadub village was called that because of a strange whirlpool place set between some queer-shaped rocks. One is like a scrubbing-board, and down below it the water boils and swirls and bubbles....”

“As if it were in a wash-tub, I suppose!” said Diana. “Rubadub, See how we scrub ...”

“That’s right,” said Miss Pepper. “The whirlpool is called Rubadub Pool, and so the village got its name, I suppose.”

“It sounds jolly good,” said Snubby approvingly. “I like the sound of all this, I must say. An inn called Three Men in a Tub, and a whirlpool called Rubadub Pool—I say, do we stay at the inn, Miss Pepper?”

“We do,” said Miss Pepper. “I stayed there as a child and it was very comfortable. My niece stayed there last year and she sent such good accounts of it that when your mother suggested somewhere for you all these holidays, I thought of Rubadub.”

“It’ll be nice to stay in a dear little old-fashioned seaside village,” said Diana. “No pier, no promenade, no ...”

“Oh yes, there’s a pier now and a promenade, and plenty of things going on,” said Miss Pepper briskly. “And there’s an enormous Secret Harbour built there, too, round beyond Rubadub Pool—where new submarines are tried out. Oh, Rubadub is no longer a tiny, sleepy village!”

“I say! A Secret Harbour!” said Snubby, thrilled. “I should like to go over that.”

“I said ‘Secret’ ” said Miss Pepper. “ ‘Top Secret’ too, Snubby. So well guarded that no one, not even an inquisitive lad like you, could possibly get near it. So get that out of your head.”

There came a call from downstairs. “Miss Pepper! Can you come? There are a few things I want you to do.”

“Coming, Mrs. Lynton!” called Miss Pepper, and hurried out of the room. Loony immediately jumped up to go with her and leapt after her, quite forgetting he was tied to the bed-rail by his lead. He almost choked himself.

“It all sounds super,” said Snubby, comforting poor Loony. “I’m sorry Aunt Susan’s not coming, though. But I don’t mind if Uncle Richard doesn’t. Sooner or later I always seem to get a whacking from him.”

“You got two, last hols,” said Diana. “One for letting Loony chew up his best slippers, and one for cheeking him.”

“Don’t remind me,” said Snubby. “I have to think twice now before I say anything to Uncle Richard in case he might think I am cheeking him. It’s an awful nuisance.”

“It’s a jolly good thing,” said Roger. “You want keeping down, young Snubby. And while you’re about it, you can think twice before you cheek me, too. Oh, blow you, Loony—how did you get those swim-suits off the bed?”

A loud sound rang through the house, and the three children and Loony gave cries of joy. “The gong! I thought it was never going!”

“Race you downstairs! Come on, Loony!”

And down went an avalanche at top speed. Mr. Lynton groaned. “How pleased I shall be to see the coast of quiet, peaceful America. This house is Bedlam—never a moment’s peace anywhere!”