Читать книгу Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine - Jay Williams - Страница 5

CHAPTER ONE

Something from the Sky

Two boys and a pretty girl, wearing swimming suits and with towels around their necks, stood in the shade of the woods. The blazing August sunlight was filtered and broken by the leaves which hung limp and dusty overhead.

“Gee, it’s dry,” said Irene Miller, shaking her glossy, brown pony-tail out of the way. “If we don’t get some rain pretty soon, there’ll be nothing left of the whole countryside.”

The taller of the two boys, Joe Pearson, thin and dark, with a perpetually gloomy expression, glanced past her. “Oh-oh,” he said. “Danny’s got that look on his face again. Whenever he looks like that, it means trouble.”

Red-haired Danny Dunn was staring into space. His blue eyes were glazed, and there was a strange smile on his freckled face.

Joe went up close to him. “Danny!” he said. “Snap out of it. The last time you got that look on your face, you tried to make a jet plane out of a fire extinguisher.”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Danny replied, in a faraway voice.

“Yes, it worked,” said Irene. “And it went right through Mr. Winkle’s living-room window and wrecked his television set.”

Danny shook himself. “This idea is nothing like that one,” he said, grinning at his friends. “I was just thinking of a way to prevent forest fires in dry weather. We could pipe water into hollow trees and rig up an automatic sprinkling system that would go into action as soon as a fire started.”

Joe grunted. “Where would you get the water from? We’ve been having a drought—remember?”

“Don’t bother him with details,” said Irene. “He just makes up theories.”

Danny ran his fingers through his hair. “Trees store water in their roots,” he said. “We could get it from there, maybe.”

“Well, okay,” mumbled Joe, beginning to walk on. “Just as long as you don’t take it from the swimming hole. In this heat, that’s all I’ve got to comfort me. And we haven’t had a swim in days.”

Danny and Irene followed him along the path. Irene said, “Gee, Danny, maybe your idea would work. Why don’t you talk it over with Professor Bullfinch?”

Danny’s mother, whose husband had died when the boy was very young, was housekeeper for Professor Euclid Bullfinch, a noted physicist and inventor. A great affection had grown up between the boy and the kindly, quiet scientist, almost like that of father and son, and Professor Bullfinch had taught Danny a great deal about science.

“Well, I don’t know,” Danny replied. “I hate to bother him these days. He’s been working on a new type of power transmitter, and he’s been in the laboratory fifteen hours a day.”

The trees ended at the edge of a clearing. In its center was a small, round pond, on the banks of which the young people had built a bench and a rough diving board.

Joe dropped his towel. “Wow!” he yelled. “Last one in is a rotten egg!”

He dashed forward. He ran out on the diving board and leaped into the pond.

“That’s funny,” said Danny. “Did you hear that?”

“You mean that plopping sound?” Irene said.

“Exactly.”

“What about it?”

“No splash,” said Danny.

He and Irene stared at each other. Then they ran to the edge of the pond. As they reached it, Joe stood up. There was no water in the pond at all, only soft, sticky mud which covered all the front of him. He wiped his face and glared up at Dan.

“You did it!” he howled. “You and your water pipes in trees.”

He stumbled to the side, and Danny and Irene helped him climb out.

“Don’t be silly, Joe,” said Irene. “The water has just evaporated. It’s the heat, and the lack of rain.”

Joe looked ruefully down at himself. “Oh, gosh,” he said. “Mom will be wild.”

“Why? You couldn’t help it,” Danny said. “And maybe she can plant things on you.”

“It’s no joke. You know about the water rationing—everybody’s supposed to save water. So I promised I wouldn’t get dirty.”

The other two looked serious. Then Danny said, “I’ve got it! We’re not far from the reservoir. We can go home that way.”

“But swimming’s not allowed in the reservoir,” Joe protested.

“Who said anything about swimming?” Danny said. “We can dip up a handful of water and wash you off.”

“It’ll take more than a handful,” said Joe, wiping feebly at his chest.

“Well, say half a dozen, then.”

“But, Danny,” Irene protested, “would that be right—taking water from the public reservoir?”

“Why not? The reservoir belongs to the whole town, and we’re part of the town, aren’t we? And I’ll tell you what,” Danny added. “Just to make it fair—when I get home, I won’t wash before dinner. That’ll save whatever water we use for Joe. There’s no sacrifice I wouldn’t make for my friend.”

“Yeah,” said Joe gloomily. “Thanks.”

The reservoir was near the town line, about half a mile through the woods. When they came out on the sloping banks, planted with tall pine trees in regular rows, they could see how low the water was: the rocky island in the center stuck far above the surface, and all around the shore the line of the usual water level was clear and dark, like the ring around a bathtub.

Danny led his friends to a sloping shelf of rock that thrust out into the water. “We can dip up a little from here,” he said.

“Good!” Irene exclaimed. “It’s sunny right here, so the water we’ll use would have evaporated anyhow.” And she winked at Dan.

But Joe took her seriously. “Say, that’s a great idea,” he said. “Now you can wash after all, Danny.”

Danny did not reply. He was staring upward, shading his eyes with one arm.

“Look at that,” he said.

The other two followed his gaze. Something was shining in the sky, something silvery like a half-moon tipped upside down.

“It’s a parachute,” Danny said, after a moment.

“A paratrooper?” Irene suggested. “No, it’s too small.”

“Maybe it’s a paratrooper from a flying saucer,” said Joe. “Let’s go home.”

“Oh, wait a minute,” said Danny. “It could be the nose cone of a missile, or—or something interesting like that.”

“Interesting missiles give me goose pimples,” grumbled Joe. Nevertheless, he waited.

Lower and lower the thing floated. Now they could see clearly that it was, indeed, a small pale-blue parachute with a box of some sort attached to it.

Suddenly Danny said, “Maybe it’s a bomb.” Joe and Irene drew nearer to him. The thing was dropping straight into the reservoir.

“Watch out! ” Danny said nervously. “It may blow up when it hits.”

Before they could move, the box touched the water and the parachute slowly folded about it like a crumpled sail.