Mr Majeika and the Ghost Train

by Humphrey Carpenter

it nastily in Jody’s face. Melanie started to cry louder than ever.

  ‘Don’t worry, Melanie,’ said Jody, ‘it’s only a toy out of a cereal packet. But we’re wasting our time with Hamish. Let’s go back to school, and see if Mr Majeika and everyone else has managed to get back by another way.’

  Jody and Melanie walked back to school, and by the time they got there, it was half way through the lunch break. Mr Potter was standing anxiously at the gate, looking at his watch. ‘Ah, there you are at last,’ he said. ‘We were keeping dinner for you, but the food is getting cold.’

  ‘Isn’t the rest of Class Three back yet, Mr Potter?’ asked Jody. Mr Potter shook his head. ‘That’s very worrying,’ said Jody. She was going to tell Mr Potter what had happened, then she began to think what he might do about it. He’d call the police, and they would search Adventure Galaxy and ask Hamish lots of questions, and probably they wouldn’t discover anything at all. The police weren’t going to believe that a wicked, magical witch had spirited away an entire class of children and their teacher. Jody decided to say nothing to Mr Potter. She would have to be a detective herself.

  ‘I expect they’ve all got held up in one of the queues for the rides at Adventure Galaxy,’ she said to Mr Potter. ‘I’ll leave Melanie here, so she can have her dinner, and I’ll go back and tell them all to hurry up.’ Without stopping to ask Mr Potter if this was all right, Jody hurried off again, leaving Melanie to have her lunch.

  When she got back to Adventure Galaxy, she saw Hamish sitting at a table outside one of the refreshment stalls,

  drinking a large coke. He seemed to be rather cross, and kept looking at his watch. Jody crept up and hid herself behind a large rubbish bin that was next to Hamish’s chair.

  ‘Well, if it isn’t my Star Pupil,’ she hissed loudly in a voice that was meant to sound like Wilhelmina Worlock.

  Hamish jumped with surprise, then looked all around him. ‘About time too,’ he said. ‘I’ve been waiting for you for ages. Where are you? I can’t see you.’

  ‘I’ve decided to be invisible, my little Star Pupil,’ hissed Jody in the Wilhelmina voice. Miss Worlock had called Hamish her Star Pupil when she first came to St Barty’s and tried to take over the school. He was the only person there horrid enough for her to like. ‘Yes, I’m invisible, because I’m not here at all. I’m somewhere else – with them.’

  ‘What are you doing with them?’ said Hamish eagerly. ‘Are you putting spiders down their clothes, and making ghosts jump out at them, and frightening them so their hair turns white?’

  ‘Much horrider things than that, my Star Pupil,’ hissed Jody. ‘Aren’t you going to come and see?’

  ‘Of course I am,’ said Hamish crossly. ‘You said in your letter that I could come and watch you being horrid to them. And I’ve been waiting here for more than an hour.’

  ‘Come along, then,’ hissed Jody. ‘I’ll see you shortly. Bye-bye!’

  ‘But where do I go?’ asked Hamish angrily. ‘How do I get to where you’ve taken them?’

  This was what Jody had wanted to find out: whether Hamish knew where the Ghost Train had gone. As he didn’t, she would have to start looking for it herself.

  She crept away from Hamish, and went back to where the Ghost Train had been standing. This time she saw something she hadn’t noticed before. In the middle of the open space, flat in the ground, was an iron manhole cover. On it were stamped the letters ‘W.W.’.

  The manhole cover had a handle, but when Jody tried to lift it, it was far too heavy. She hurried back to the café, where Hamish was finishing his coke. Jody decided not to pretend to be Wilhelmina again. She went straight up to Hamish and said: ‘I know where the Ghost Train has gone. Come and see.’

  Hamish looked very cross, but he followed her, and when they got to the manhole cover, he said: ‘Why didn’t the silly old bag tell me?’

  ‘So, you do admit you were in the plot with Wilhelmina!’ said Jody. ‘Help me lift it.’

  ‘No way,’ said Hamish.

  ‘In that case,’ said Jody, ‘you’ll never get down there and see what’s going on. If we try together we can do it.’

  Hamish grumbled, but he helped Jody to try to lift it, and after a moment they

  managed to move the manhole cover. It opened to show a sinister-looking staircase winding down into the darkness. A distant roaring noise could be heard.

  ‘Come on,’ said Jody. ‘We’re going down.’

  Hamish looked thoroughly frightened, but when Jody started down the stairs, he followed her.

  4. Where the weather comes from

  ‘Hamish has jumped off!’ called Thomas to Mr Majeika, as the Ghost Train started to move. ‘He’s up to some trick!’

  It was too late for Mr Majeika to do anything. The train had begun to whizz round and round in a circle, at a tremendous speed, as if it was being sucked into a whirlpool. A moment later, that was exactly what happened – it disappeared with a whoosh, through a hole which had suddenly opened up in the ground.

  Everything went very black, and Thomas and Pete wondered if they would ever see daylight again. They were travelling at a tremendous speed. ‘This is even faster than the Giant Catapult,’ called out Pete, but Thomas was feeling too sick to say anything.

  Suddenly the train slowed down, and it began to get light again. Soon, they were travelling at an ordinary speed through grey misty countryside. The railway line on which they were running was overhung with trees which brushed

  damp branches against them as they passed.

  ‘It’s not like any Ghost Train I’ve ever been on,’ called Thomas. ‘Where do you think we are, Mr Majeika?’

  Mr Majeika scratched his head. ‘I’m not sure,’ he said, ‘but I think I’ve been here before, about four hundred years ago, when I was quite a young wizard. It’s gradually coming back to me.’

  Suddenly the train stopped, in the middle of nowhere. ‘Let me think!’ said Mr Majeika excitedly. ‘Yes, this is the Ghost Station!’ He muttered some words, and alongside the line the ghostly shape of a railway station began to appear.

  There were ghostly people on the platform too. Thomas and Pete could recognize several people from history, including Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and several sad-looking men and women who were carrying their heads underneath their arms. When they saw the train, they tried to climb aboard.

  ‘The nine fifty is late again,’ grumbled Julius Caesar. ‘I haven’t got to the office on time any day this week.’

  ‘And it’s completely full,’ said Napoleon crossly, peering at the seats where Thomas and Pete were sitting. ‘It’s quite unfair to us season-ticket holders.’

  ‘We are not amused,’ said a woman whom Thomas recognized as Queen Victoria. ‘Shove over, do.’

  ‘Where are you all trying to get to?’ asked Pete.

  ‘We can make some room for them, Mr Majeika,’ said Thomas. ‘There’s space for one of them on each of the seats.’

  ‘Don’t do that, for goodness sake,’ said Mr Majeika anxiously. ‘Don’t even talk to

  them. If you have anything to do with a ghost for more than just a few moments, you’ll turn into a ghost yourself. Ah, that’s better, the train is moving again.’

  They rolled off along the track, leaving the famous ghosts shouting angrily. Thomas even thought he saw Queen Victoria running down the line after them, waving an umbrella. Mr Majeika hurriedly said another spell, and the ghosts and their station vanished again.

  ‘Poor things,’ said Pandora Green, who was sitting next to Mr Majeika. ‘I hope another train turns up, so they can catch it.’

  ‘It won’t’ said Mr Majeika. ‘They’re always on that platform, waiting and waiting. Mind you, most of them kept other people waiting when they were alive, so perhaps it serves them right. Now, we seem to be arriving somewhere.’

  ‘And the weather’s getting worse,’ said Pete, because it had begun to rain heavily – and also, which was odd, to snow and hail at the same time.


  ‘Yes, but it’s quite sunny too,’ said Pandora, pointing at a big patch of sunlight to the left of the train. ‘And look, there’s a rainbow.’

  ‘And lightning too,’ said Thomas. ‘How very strange.’

  ‘Not at all,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘I know where we are. This is the Weather Factory.’

  ‘The what, Mr Majeika?’ they all asked him.

  ‘The place where the weather is made. Why are you all staring? It has to be made somewhere, doesn’t it?’ The train came to a halt, and Mr Majeika got out. ‘Come on, everyone, let’s go and see who’s running the Weather Factory these days.’

  The Weather Factory was a big tall building, built of something grey that looked like solid cloud. All kinds of pipes and turrets, and funnels and nozzles were sticking out of it, and from these

  were coming the rain, snow, hail, lightning and rainbows that they had seen. A large door had a stern notice on it: WEATHER WORKERS ONLY. WELLINGTON BOOTS MUST BE WORN.

  ‘In we go,’ said Mr Majeika cheerily.

  ‘But we haven’t got any wellies,’ said Pandora.

  ‘That’s easy,’ said Mr Majeika, shutting his eyes and waving his arms. In a moment, all of Class Three found their shoes had turned into lovely new shiny wellington boots.

  Inside the Weather Factory, there was a great deal of noise – a roaring and hissing, and banging and fizzling – and it was quite some time before Class Three could see who was working all the machines, on account of all the clouds and other kinds of weather that were filling the air. At last, they spotted a very old man with a long white beard, who was rushing about from one machine to another, looking dreadfully cross and fed up. He was staring at a piece of paper in his hand. ‘Now, let me see,’ he muttered, ‘it says snow for Scotland

  here, but I haven’t got any snow left – it’s all been used up in Iceland – so it’ll have to be hailstones.’ He hurried over to a machine and pulled a handle. There was a loud bang which made him jump. ‘Bother,’ he said, ‘wrong lever. That means thunder in Paris, which wasn’t what they were expecting at all. I shall be in trouble again!’ At this moment he saw Mr Majeika and Class Three. His face lit up at once, and he smiled the broadest of smiles.

  ‘Ah!’ he cried. ‘How wonderful! Someone to take over from me at last. And lots and lots of you, so you’ll manage the job easily.’

  ‘I’m afraid we haven’t come to do your job,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘We’re here because we were brought by a Ghost Train that got out of control. But we’d like to have a look around.’

  ‘What’s that piece of paper?’ asked Pandora.

  ‘It’s the weather forecasts for the whole world,’ said the weather man. ‘You know how, in the newspaper and on television, it tells you what the weather’s going to be? Well, they send me a copy, and then I have to make sure it’s exactly what they’ve forecast. Only I’m so busy I often make a mistake,’ he ended gloomily.

  ‘Which is why the forecasts are often wrong,’ said Thomas. ‘I understand now. But how did you come to be a weather man? What were you before?’

  ‘I was once a schoolmaster,’ said the weather man, wiping a tired hand across his forehead. ‘I was foolish enough to answer an advertisement for this job. Teaching was hard work, but this is worse. I really don’t think I can go on much longer.’

  ‘Don’t worry, dearie, you won’t have to, tee hee!’ cackled a voice that Class Three all knew horribly well. It was, of course, Wilhelmina Worlock.

  She had stuck her head round the door of the Weather Factory. ‘Hello, Wilhelmina,’ said Mr Majeika wearily. ‘So, what are you up to this time?’

  ‘Perfectly simple,’ snarled Miss Worlock. ‘Our friend here, the weather man, can go back to being a silly teacher. And you lot are taking over his job – for ever and ever and ever! You can say goodbye to St blooming Barty’s School, and your cosy little homes. You won’t be seeing them again!’

  5. Poor old Dennis

  ‘Hamish Bigmore, you’re a coward,’ Jody called out. She had walked down about a hundred steps into the darkness. Hamish was a long way behind her, coming down the staircase very slowly.

  ‘No I’m n-n-not,’ came Hamish’s voice. ‘B-b-but I’ve left something b-b-behind. I need to go back.’

  ‘The only thing you’ve left behind is your courage,’ called Jody. ‘Come on!’

  The roaring noise was getting louder. By the time Jody had gone down fifty more steps, it became deafening. Suddenly the staircase ended, and Jody found herself out in daylight – at least there was some sort of light, though she couldn’t see the sun, and guessed that she must be in some huge underground cave, which was somehow lit from above. In front of her was a large cage. And in the cage was an enormous dragon.

  Jody knew it was a dragon, because it was red and scaly, and it had an enormous tail and huge wings. But its wings were feebly crumpled up, and looked as if they hadn’t been used for a long time. Its eyes were shut, and there

  was no fire, just a little steam and smoke coming out of its nostrils. It was roaring sadly to itself in its sleep.

  Jody watched it for a moment, but from as close as this the roaring was deafening, and, without thinking what she was doing, Jody rattled the bars of the cage and shouted: ‘Oh, do shut up!’

  The dragon jumped, opened both its eyes, and stared at her. Jody felt terrified that it would spring to the bars of the cage and scorch her with its fire, but instead it looked ashamed of itself, and went on lying where it was. ‘Sorry, Madam,’ it said in a humble tone of voice. ‘Dennis didn’t mean to disturb you, really he didn’t. Please don’t get cross with poor old Dennis.’ Then it looked at her more carefully. ‘Wait a moment,’ it said, ‘Dennis thinks this isn’t Madam at all. It’s someone else. Who has

  come down the staircase to look at poor old Dennis through the bars of his cage?’

  ‘My name is Jody,’ said Jody, ‘and I’m looking for the rest of my class from school, and our teacher, Mr Majeika.’

  ‘Majeika?’ said the dragon in a thoughtful voice. ‘Dennis is sure he’s heard that name somewhere before. He thinks there was once a wizard called Majeika, who got into trouble, and was sent away, or maybe locked up in a cage, like poor old Dennis.’

  ‘That’s the one!’ said Jody. ‘They made him become a teacher. Have you seen him, and have you seen a Ghost Train go past?’

  ‘Dennis thinks there was a train went whizzing by a few hundred years ago. Or maybe it was five minutes. Dennis has been shut in this cage so long that he gets confused. Poor old Dennis.’

  ‘Oh, do stop saying that,’ complained Jody, ‘and help me find Mr Majeika and the others. At least,’ she added rather doubtfully, ‘do help me if you’re a good dragon. If you’re a bad one, I’d rather not have anything to do with you.’

  The dragon thought for a few moments. ‘Dennis used to be a good dragon, when he had his freedom. He never burnt farmers’ crops, and he only used to singe the beards of really wicked wizards. He once tried to singe the beard of a horrid witch called Wilhelmina Worlock, but she didn’t have a beard, and he set her hat on fire instead, which made her so cross, she shut him in this cage. Poor old Dennis.’ At this, the dragon started to cry.

  Jody thought about this. ‘Was Miss Worlock strong enough to do that?’ she asked. ‘You’re a very big dragon. Surely she couldn’t overpower you?’

  At this, the dragon sobbed even louder. ‘Dennis was silly. He’d forgotten to stoke up with coal that day. He’d gone out in the morning, after only having two tiny lumps for breakfast, and it soon burnt up, and his fire went out. And when a dragon’s fire goes out, any old wizard or witch can put spells on him, and lock him up in a horrid cage, like Madam did to Dennis after he’d set her hat on fire. Poor old Dennis.’

  ‘It’s her you call Madam?’ Jody asked. ‘Because she’s your boss now?’

  The dragon nodded. ‘If Dennis calls her Madam, she might like him more, and maybe let him out one day, in a few hundred years’ time. That’s wha
t Madam says. But Dennis doesn’t really think she will. Poor old Dennis.’ He was now weeping buckets.

  ‘Supposing I found you some coal,’ said Jody. ‘Would that cheer you up?’

  The dragon’s eyes popped open wide, and he stopped crying. ‘Would that cheer Dennis up? That would do wonders for him. Even a couple of lumps of coal, and Dennis would be able to fly again, a little.’

  ‘And magic himself – I mean, yourself – out of the cage?’ asked Jody. ‘And find Miss Worlock, and stop her doing harm to Mr Majeika and all my friends?’

  The dragon nodded. ‘Dennis thinks he could easily do that. But where would she find the coal? Dennis doesn’t know where they keep the coal down here.’

  Jody thought about this. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘coal-mines are underground, and we’re underground, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one.’

  At this moment, she heard steps behind her. Hamish was coming out of the entrance to the staircase. He still looked very nervous. ‘I t-t-tried to go up again,’ he said, ‘but the manhole cover had been p-p-put on again, and I couldn’t m-m-move it.’ Suddenly he saw Dennis. ‘What’s that?’ he shrieked.

  ‘Dennis the Dragon,’ said Jody. ‘Dennis, meet Hamish Bigmore.’

  Dennis took a look at Hamish. ‘Dennis doesn’t think the Hamish looks very nice,’ he said. ‘Dennis thinks the Hamish is the sort of creature that would poke a nasty stick in Dennis’s eye when he was asleep. Poor old Dennis.’

  ‘You bet I would,’ said Hamish. ‘What a horrid mangy old thing you are. I’m glad someone’s shut you in a cage.’

  Dennis tried to roar angrily at Hamish, but all that would come out was a sort of gasp. ‘Poor old Dennis,’ muttered the dragon to itself for the umpteenth time, and started to cry again.

  ‘Oh, stop it, you two,’ said Jody.

  ‘Dennis, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and Hamish, have some sense. If we can find some coal to get the dragon’s fire going, he’ll be the most powerful creature you’ve ever seen.’