Читать книгу Three Cheers Secret Seven - Enid blyton - Страница 4

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Peter didn’t like Susie’s remark that they were not the Secret Seven at the moment, but the Exciting Eight. However, it wouldn’t do to make her cross by snapping at her just when they all wanted a favour from her.

‘Where’s this super plane?’ he asked.

‘Where’s this super food?’ said Susie at once. ‘We’ll have that first before we fly the plane.’

‘All right, all right. We meant to, anyhow,’ said Peter. ‘Where shall we have it? Over there under that tree.’

‘No. I tell you what we’ll do,’ said Jack. ‘Susie and I were going to fly the plane in the big field behind our house—so what about taking the food there and sitting on the grass? It’s a nice field.’

‘Yes. Jolly good idea,’ said Peter, and the others agreed. ‘Come on, Scamper, walkie-walk!’

‘Wuff!’ said Scamper, pleased, and acted like his name, scampering off at top speed to the front gate. He stopped and gazed suspiciously at something hidden under the hedge, and then barked again.

‘It’s all right, Scamper—it’s only my aeroplane,’ said Susie, proudly. The Seven stopped to admire it. It stood there under the hedge, the biggest toy aeroplane they had ever seen, gleaming silver-bright in the sun.

All the four boys thought the same thing. ‘Fancy that beautiful plane belonging to Susie—to a girl! What a dreadful waste!’ But none of them said that, knowing perfectly well that if they did, the annoying Susie would pick up the plane and march off with it all by herself.

‘Well—what do you think of it?’ asked Susie. ‘Better than a silly cowboy-suit, isn’t it?’

Jack went red and glared at his sister. ‘If I’d known that this was the kind of aeroplane our American cousin was going to send ...’ he began, angrily, but Peter stopped him.

‘Don’t go up in smoke, Jack,’ he said, anxious to keep the peace. ‘I bet your suit is super. But I say—what an aeroplane! It’s even got retractable landing wheels—look!’

‘Yes,’ said Susie, proudly. ‘In the leaflet about the plane, it says that the wheels go up into the body as soon as the plane starts flying—and are put out again automatically when it lands. I bet no boy in all the kingdom has a model aeroplane that does that.’

The Secret Seven felt sure she was right. Susie picked up the beautiful plane and went out of the front gate.

‘I’ll carry it for you,’ said Peter. ‘I’m sure it’s too heavy for you!’

Susie laughed in her usual annoying way. ‘What you really mean is that you’re longing to carry it yourself so that everyone we meet will think it’s yours and envy you!’ she said. ‘Ha—you’re going red! I know you boys. But the plane is mine and I’m doing the carrying, thank you.’

Nobody said any more. What a pity Jack had such a clever sister—you could never get the better of Susie! She always had a smart answer ready. The little procession set out down the road, Susie first with the plane, then the others straggling behind and Scamper last of all, sniffing into all the corners as usual.

They came to Jack’s house, went in at the side gate, and down to the bottom of the garden at the back. There they had to climb over a fence to get into the vast field that lay beyond.

‘Food first,’ said Susie, when they were all over, and Scamper had been lifted safely down to the ground.

‘What food have you brought?’ said Pam, who was beginning to feel annoyed with Susie.

‘None. I’ve brought the aeroplane,’ said Susie. ‘I hope you haven’t brought the miserable biscuits you bring to school to eat at break!’

‘Shut up, Susie,’ said Jack, uncomfortably. ‘We’ve got a jolly good feast. You can have a very fair share—and remember that it doesn’t cost you anything to be polite.’

The feast was certainly quite good—there were the biscuits, of course, some rock buns, pieces of gingerbread, an enormous bar of nut chocolate, jam-tarts, two bottles of lemonade, and a bag of toffees.

‘Give Scamper a toffee,’ said George. ‘That will keep him quiet for ages.’

But Scamper wanted a bit of everything—and got it too. He had only to lie down by any of the Seven and look at them beseechingly out of his great brown eyes to get anything he wanted! Even Susie gave him a titbit and patted him.

‘Now we’ll fly the plane,’ she said, when every crumb had been finished, and every drop of lemonade had been drunk. At once everyone stood up, excited. Jack took up the leaflet about the plane and studied it, while the other three boys tried to look over his shoulder.

‘It seems easy enough,’ said Jack. ‘To a boy, I mean,’ he added hastily. ‘Girls aren’t much good at reading complicated instructions.’

‘All I want is for you to show me what to do the first time and I’ll know forever afterwards,’ said Susie. ‘Now—what happens?’

‘Well—you turn this—that’s to make sure the wheels go back as soon as the plane is in the air,’ said Jack. ‘And you press this, look, Susie. And you wind up the key here—that’s the mechanism that winds the elastic bands up tightly so that they give the plane the energy to fly—and ...’

‘I don’t want all those explanations,’ said Susie, impatiently. ‘I just want to know how to fly the plane.’

Jack said no more, but pressed this and that, and wound the little key till it would wind no more. Then he held the beautiful plane high above his head and pressed a little button at the back.

‘Fly!’ he shouted, and threw the plane forward. It rose high into the air at once, with a loud, humming noise. It circled round beautifully, while the children watched it in delight. Then it rose high into the air and flew off across the field to the other side, for all the world like a real plane.

‘It will turn and circle back to us,’ said Jack. ‘That’s what the booklet said.’

But it didn’t! It kept straight on, flew over a high wall at the other side of the field—and disappeared completely!

‘Good gracious!’ said Jack, horrified. ‘It hasn’t come back. Now what are we to do?’