Читать книгу The Rockingdown Mystery - Enid blyton - Страница 8

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The next thing that happened was that Miss Pepper found a tutor for the three of them. They were helping Mrs. Round to clear away breakfast when he arrived. He knocked and rang, and Mrs. Round scurried to open the door.

“Gentleman to see Miss Pepper,” she announced to the children. “Name of King.”

Diana hurried to fetch Miss Pepper, who took Mr. King into the study and remained there with him for some time. Then she opened the door and called the three children.

“Mr. King, these are the three I told you about—they are cousins—this is Roger, this is Diana, this is Peter.”

Roger and Diana looked surprised to hear Snubby called Peter. They had quite forgotten that that was really his name. Mr. King grinned at them all. He was a stocky, well-built man about thirty-five or forty, with hair going a little grey, and a mouth that looked distinctly firm.

“They don’t look too bad,” he told Miss Pepper. She smiled.

“Appearances don’t always tell the truth,” she said. “Children, this is Mr. King. Subject to final arrangements, he is going to come and give you the coaching your parents want you to have.”

This wasn’t so good. The children’s smiles faded away. They looked more carefully at Mr. King. He looked back. Did they like him—or didn’t they? Snubby decided that he didn’t. Diana wasn’t sure. Roger felt that he might like him when he knew him better. Their hearts all sank when they thought of lessons morning after morning, just when they had got used to nice free days.

“Mr. King will start with you on Monday next,” said Miss Pepper.

“Can Loony be in the room too?” said Snubby.

Mr. King looked a little startled. “Er—who is Loony?” he asked, wondering if it was another child, not quite so bright as these appeared.

“My spaniel,” said Snubby, and at that moment Loony made one of his usual hurricane-like appearances. He came in at the door like a rocket, and hurled himself at everyone as if he hadn’t seen them for a year. He even rolled over Mr. King’s feet, too, before he realised that they were the feet of a stranger, and then he leapt to his own feet and growled.

“Oh—so this is Loony,” said Mr. King. “Well—I don’t see why he shouldn’t be in the room, if he doesn’t disturb us.”

Snubby immediately decided that he liked Mr. King very much after all. Miss Pepper spoke hurriedly.

“I shouldn’t make any rash promises if I were you,” she said, trying to give Mr. King a warning look. He saw it.

“Ah—yes—I won’t promise,” he said, and then as Loony tore at his shoe and got his shoelaces undone, he firmly added a few more words. “In fact, we’ll put Loony on trial first.”

“I wish Miranda could come too,” said Snubby. “She’s a monkey, Mr. King—really a pet!”

Mr. King thought it was time to go before he was asked to put a monkey on trial too.

He went, and Miss Pepper spoke to the three children.

“He has the most excellent testimonials, and I think he should be a very fine coach. You’ll begin on Monday—and if I hear of you misbehaving, Snubby, I shall put Loony into a kennel at night instead of letting him sleep in the house.”

This was a very alarming threat, and one that Miss Pepper was quite capable of carrying out. Snubby slept with Loony on his bed all night long, and the spaniel would be broken-hearted if he had to sleep anywhere else. Snubby didn’t dare to argue with Miss Pepper about this. He sneezed violently, and then sneezed twice more, fishing for his handkerchief with a most concerned expression. “Whoooosh-oo! Oh dear—I’m so sorry—Whhoooooooooo ...”

“Have you got a cold, Snubby?” said Miss Pepper. “I told you to take your coat yesterday evening.”

“No—no cold, Miss Pepper,” said Snubby, finding an extremely dirty handkerchief and sneezing into that. “Just—whooosh-oo—sorry—just a little pepper up my nose. Whooooooo ...”

Miss Pepper made an impatient noise and went out. Diana and Roger roared with laughter. Loony joined in the excitement and tore round the table six times without stopping.

“Racehorse trick being performed,” said Snubby, putting away his hanky. “All right, Loony—you’ve passed the winning-post about three times. Woa!”

“What shall we do to-day?” asked Diana, as she stacked up the breakfast dishes to take out to Mrs. Round.

“Let’s go and peep in at the old mansion,” said Roger. “Ask Mrs. Round if there’s any way of getting in. I’d just love to poke round it, and imagine what it was like in the old days.”

Mrs. Round didn’t know very much. “You keep away from it,” she said. “Folks do say that once a young fellow managed to get in there, and he couldn’t never get out again. That might happen to you too. There’s doors there that shut of themselves, yes, and lock themselves too. And there’s rooms there still full of furniture, left by the last owner—my, they’ll be full of moths and spiders! A queer, creepy place I wouldn’t go into, not if you paid me a thousand pounds!”

This sounded pleasantly eerie. The three children at once made up their minds to do a bit of snooping that very day. They would meet Barney and take him too.

So, when they heard Barney’s soft whistle they went out to see him. He had Miranda on his shoulder. She leapt into a tree and peered into a window nearby. Mrs. Round was in the room, sweeping. The monkey made a soft chattering noise.

Mrs. Round looked up, and was extremely astonished to see Miranda apparently about to jump in at the open window. She shut it at once, almost catching the monkey’s nose.

Mrs. Round stood at the window, shaking her fist at the surprised monkey. She called to Miss Pepper. “You come here, Miss, and see what those children have collected now!”

Miss Pepper hurried in, wondering what caterpillar or beetle or mouse Mrs. Round had found. She was always finding something in Roger’s bedroom. She was startled to see the monkey. Miranda disappeared down the tree.

“All I say is—if they starts bringing in monkeys I’m going,” said Mrs. Round. “Loony dogs I can put up with, beetles and such I can deal with—but monkeys, no. It’ll be elephants next, trampling up the stairs and down.”

Miss Pepper hurried downstairs to solve the monkey mystery. She saw Barney with the others; Miranda was on his shoulder. He nodded his head politely to her when the children introduced him. “Miss Pepper, this is Barnabas, and this is Miranda, his monkey. Isn’t she sweet?”

Miss Pepper wasn’t going to go so far as to say that. In her experience, monkeys were full of fleas and apt to bite people. She eyed Miranda mistrustfully.

“I’d rather you didn’t bring that animal indoors,” said Miss Pepper firmly. “Sweet or not, I’d rather she stayed outside.”

“Yes, certainly, Mam,” said Barney. “It isn’t everyone that likes monkeys.”

Miranda looked at Miss Pepper just as mournfully and pathetically as Loony sometimes looked at her. Oh dear—these animals! Why did they look at you like that? Miss Pepper ran to the kitchen, got a cucumber end and sliced it up. She ran out with the little slices on a plate.

“Monkeys like cucumber,” she said. “Here’s some for her. But please take her down the garden. Oh, do be careful Loony doesn’t chew her tail!”

Miranda’s tail hung down and Loony was eyeing it hopefully. It did look nice and chewy. He made a snap at it and Miranda gave a leap off Barney’s shoulder and sat on his head, chattering.

“Loony! If you dare to chew Miranda’s tail I’ll let her chew yours,” said Snubby. Loony promptly sat down on his as if he understood every word. Barney gave one of his uproarious laughs, and set everyone else laughing too. Even Mrs. Round opened the bedroom window and looked out to see what the joke was.

“Come on,” said Roger to Barney. “Let’s go down the garden. Oh, wait a bit. I say, Miss Pepper—Barney’s keen on reading Shakespeare’s plays. He’s read The Tempest and he wants me to lend him another. What would be a good one for him to read next?”

Miss Pepper was most surprised. What with his monkey, and his queer blue eyes, and now his liking for plays, this boy was puzzling. He looked quite a nice boy, and Miss Pepper wondered where he came from. She would have to ask Roger about him when he had gone.

“Well—he could try Midsummer Night’s Dream,” she said.

“Oh, yes—that’s a lovely play,” said Diana. “We did it once at school. I was Titania.”

They went down the garden to a tumbledown summer-house and sat there, with Loony on the floor trying to get another chew at Miranda’s tail, and Miranda first on Snubby’s shoulder and then Barney’s—always swinging her tail just a little out of Loony’s reach. She was very naughty. She took Diana’s hanky out of her pocket and produced a horrible sticky mass of toffee from Snubby’s shorts, which she proceeded to lick with great enjoyment before she threw the rest down to Loony.

“You’re not to eat it, Loony,” ordered Snubby. “You know what happened last time you ate toffee.”

“What happened?” asked Barney with interest.

“He got his top and bottom teeth stuck together,” said Snubby. “And he was in such a fright that he rushed straight out-of-doors and down the street and didn’t come back for hours, till the toffee had melted and gone. For a whole day after that he was scared. It’s the only day I’ve ever known him be really good from morning to night.”

“Miranda only licks it,” said Barney.

“She’s sensible,” said Diana. “Loony isn’t.”

“Let’s tell Barney what we want to do this morning,” said Roger. “Barney, we want to go and walk round that big old mansion whose chimneys you can just see from here. It’s empty now—nobody lives there—and there are all kinds of queer stories about it. We thought it would be fun to snoop round it.”

They all got up, Loony too, his tail wagging. Were they going for a walk? He didn’t like this sitting about. It was boring. They made their way through the overgrown paths, working their way steadily towards the old house.

“You almost have to hack your way through,” said Roger. “We’ll come to the drive soon—that’s fairly clear. Look—now you can see the house—enormous, isn’t it?”

It certainly was. Great chimneys stood up from the roof, scores of windows peered out dimly, half-covered with ivy and creeper, and there was an air of desolation and decay about the place.

“Come on,” said Roger. “We’ll explore—and I say—wouldn’t it be fun if we managed to get inside!”