Enid Blyton: The Ship of Adventure (Adventure #6)





Chapter 1

A GRAND HOLIDAY PLAN



"MOTHER'S got something up her sleeve," said Philip Mannering. "I know she has. She's gone all mysterious."

"Yes," said his sister, Dinah. "And whenever I ask what we're going to do this summer holidays she just says 'Wait and see!' As if we were about ten years old!"

"Where's Jack?" said Philip. "We'll see if he knows what's up with Mother."

"He's gone out with Lucy-Ann," said Dinah. "Ah — I can hear old Kiki screeching. They're coming!"

Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent came in together, looking very much alike with their red hair, green eyes and dozens of freckles. Jack grinned.

"Hallo! You ought to have been with us just now. A dog barked at Kiki, and she sat on a fence and mewed like a cat at him. You never saw such a surprised dog in your life!"

"He put his tail down and ran for his life," said Lucy-Ann, scratching Kiki on the head. The parrot began to mew again, knowing that the children were talking about her. Then she hissed and spat like an angry cat. The children laughed.

"If you'd done that to the dog he'd have died of astonishment," said Jack. "Good old Kiki. Nobody can be dull when you're about."

Kiki began to sway herself from side to side, and made a crooning noise. Then she went off into one of her tremendous cackles.

"Now you're showing off," said Philip. "Don't let's take any notice of her. She'll get noisy and Mother will come rushing in."

"That reminds me — what's Mother gone all mysterious about?" said Dinah. "Lucy-Ann, haven't you noticed it?"

"Well — Aunt Alison does act rather as if she's got something up her sleeve," said Lucy-Ann, considering the matter. "Rather like she does before somebody's birthday. I think she's got a plan for the summer holidays."

Jack groaned. "Blow! I've got a perfectly good plan too. Simply wizard. I'd better get mine in before Aunt Allie gets her."

"What's yours?" asked Dinah, with interest. Jack always had wonderful plans, though not many of them came to anything.

"Well — I thought we could all go off together on our bikes, taking a tent with us — and camp out in a different place each night," said Jack. "It would be super."

The others looked at him scornfully. "You suggested that last hols and the hols before," said Dinah. "Mother said no then, and she's not likely to say yes now. It is a good plan, going off absolutely on our own like that — but ever since we've had so many adventures Mother simply won't hear of it."

"Couldn't your mother come with us?" suggested Lucy-Ann hopefully.

"Now you're being silly," said Dinah. "Mother's a dear — but grown-ups are so frightfully particular about things. We'd have to put our macks on at the first spot of rain, and coats if the sun went in, and I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't each have to have an umbrella strapped to our bike-handles."

The others laughed. "I suppose it wouldn't do to ask Aunt Allie too, then," said Lucy-Ann. "What a pity!"

"What a pity, what a pity," agreed Kiki at once. "Wipe your feet and shut the door, where's your hanky, naughty boy!"

"Kiki's got the idea all right!" said Philip. "That's the kind of thing that even the nicest grown-ups say, isn't it, Kiki, old bird?"

"Bill isn't like that," said Lucy-Ann at once. "Bill's fine."

Everyone agreed at once. Bill Cunningham, or Bill Smugs as he had first called himself to them, was their very firm friend, and had shared all their adventures with them. Sometimes they had dragged him into them, and sometimes it was the other way round — he had got into one and they had followed. It really did seem sometimes, as Mrs. Mannering said, that adventures cropped up wherever Bill and the children were.

"I had an idea for these hols too," said Philip. "I thought it would be pretty good fun to camp down by the river, and look for otters. I've never had an otter for a pet. Lovely things they are. I thought . . ."

"You would think of a thing like that," said Dinah, half crossly. "Just because you're mad on all kinds of creatures from fleas to — to . . ."

"Elephants," said Jack obligingly.

"From fleas to elephants, you think everyone else is," said Dinah. "What a frightful holiday — looking for wet, slimy otters — and having them in the tent at night, I suppose — and all kinds of other horrible things too."

"Shut up, Dinah," said Philip. "Otters aren't horrible. They're lovely. You should just see them swimming under the water. And by the way, I'm not mad on fleas. Or mosquitoes. Or horse-flies. I think they're interesting, but you can't say I've ever had things like that for pets."