by Terry Nation
Grisby brought up more books, giving her the extra height she needed. She pushed open the skylight. A breath of cool air wafted in. The tower of books wobbled dangerously as she pulled herself through the window and out onto a steeply sloping roof.
She peered down into the library. “Come on,” she called to the others.
Captain ‘K’ was first up, and Rebecca helped him scramble out onto the roof beside her. Kovak was about half-way up and Grisby had just started to climb, when the library door burst open and the mouth and its servants rushed in.
The mouth roared with anger and started to pull the books from the bottom of the pile. As Kovak safely reached the skylight, the literary tower swayed sickeningly.
“Come on!” shouted Rebecca to Grisby, who was now about half-way up.
Grisby doubled his speed, but books started to tumble around him. As he reached the top, the whole edifice teetered and tottered. He stretched for the window ledge and missed it.
“Jump,” shouted Rebecca.
Grisby jumped.
The fingers of one hand closed on the window ledge. The books fell in a great avalanche, leaving Grisby hanging high above the ground. His friends dragged him out onto the roof.
Below, the mouth and its servants struggled from under the fallen books.
“After them,” screamed the mouth.
The friends slithered down the roof like toboggans on an icy hill. They shot off the edge and sailed through the air. There was an enormous splash as the four of them hit the waters of a large, deep pool.
Rebecca felt herself sinking, then slowly she started to rise. As her head broke the surface, she began to swim to the nearby bank. Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’ were not far behind her.
Without a word, they scrambled out of the water and started to run.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
They ran and ran and ran. They ran up steep hills and through narrow valleys, until they could run no more.
They threw themselves down into the shelter of a circle of boulders. There was no sign of anyone following them. For the moment, they were safe.
It was now almost night and the four friends decided to stay where they were until morning. Grisby opened the map and they looked at the next clue.
“BEWARE NOT TO FALL INTO BAD HABITS, IT’S EASIER THAN YOU KNOW.
IF YOU DON’T LAUGH AT THE SWARDLEWARDLE CREATURES, YOU’VE NOT MUCH FURTHER TO GO.”
None of them could make any sense of the riddle. “We’ll think about it in the morning,” Rebecca said.
Captain ‘K’ took a small sewing kit from his pocket and began to darn a hole in the knee of his tights with blue wool. In the growing darkness he found it difficult to see what he was doing.
Grisby gave a yawn and lay on his back with his legs straight up in the air, saying it was the only way he could bring relief to his aching feet.
Kovak searched carefully amongst his disguises until he found what he wanted. A pair of spectacles with two wide-open eyes painted on them. “If anybody comes along they’ll think I’m awake,” he explained.
Then, instantly, he fell asleep and began to snore loudly.
Grisby snored back.
Captain ‘K’ finished his darning, curled up into a ball and added his own shrill whistle to the snoring chorus.
For some reason Rebecca still felt wide awake. Careful to make no sound, she got to her feet and tip-toed past her sleeping friends. Kovak’s glasses had slipped down his nose so that he now seemed to have four eyes. One pair closed and one pair open.
Rebecca stepped out of the circle of boulders. Away to her right she saw the glint of moonlight on a narrow, rippling stream. She decided she wanted a drink.
In this mysterious world, all the raspberries grew on the tops of high mountains where no-one could pick them. Then, when the snow fell, they were frozen—which is why the tips of the mountains were coloured red. When the thaw came in the Spring, the icy raspberry juice flowed down the mountains in rivers and streams.
Rebecca gulped down some of the cool, delicious juice. As she glanced up, she saw a gleam of lights. She wondered if she should go back and wake the others. “No,” she decided. “They need their sleep. I’ll investigate first. If it’s anything interesting, I’ll come back and tell them.”
She jumped over the stream and cautiously approached the circle of light.
It was a camp. In the centre was a tent with the letters ‘N.S.F.T.F.O.B.H.’ painted on it. Sitting outside the tent were two of the nicest looking people Rebecca had ever seen. A sweet old lady who looked like a Fairy Godmother, and a jolly old man with red cheeks and twinkly eyes.
Rebecca shifted her position to get a better look. The old lady spotted her. She gave a warm smile and beckoned.
“Don’t stand out there in the dark. Come on over and make yourself comfortable,” she called invitingly.
Rebecca advanced shyly. Lots of pretty, cuddly animals ran towards her and danced around her feet, making squeaky, welcoming noises.
“Come and sit down here next to me,” said the old man.
He dug in his coat pocket and brought out a big paper bag.
“Have a sweet,” he said.
Rebecca hesitated. She had always been told never to take sweets from strangers. She wasn’t even allowed them at home because they were so bad for her teeth.
“Go on,” insisted the old man. “One little sweet can’t do you any harm.”
“I suppose one is alright,” Rebecca thought. She took it and thanked him.
“No need to say ‘thank you’,” chuckled the old lady.
One of the furry animals jumped up onto Rebecca’s lap. It was like a tiny ball of fluff.
“Bite your nails for you, Miss?” it squeaked.
The old man smiled and lifted the animal off. “You must excuse him. He’s very young and hasn’t learned properly yet.”
“You’re out very late,” said the old lady. “Won’t you be in trouble when you get home?”
Before Rebecca could reply, the old man said, “Well, if you are, just say that you had to visit a sick friend. It’s much easier to tell a little white lie than to get into trouble.”
“Little white lie,” thought Rebecca. “Sounds more like a great big black one.” But she didn’t say anything.
The old man smiled to himself.
“I was thinking about when I was a boy,” he said. “The thing I hated most was cleaning my teeth. So what I used to do was just put a bit of toothpaste on my tongue. That way it smelled as if I’d actually brushed them. It fooled everybody.”
The old couple roared with laughter.
The fluffy ball nuzzled at Rebecca’s ankles again. “Bite your nails, Miss?”
“Biting nails is a very bad habit,” Rebecca said.
“BAD HABIT!” The words flashed like a neon sign inside her head. That’s what the map had said: ‘Beware not to fall into bad habits, it’s easier than you know’.
All the things the old couple had mentioned were bad habits, and falling into them was easy and comfortable.
Rebecca was suddenly very frightened. She jumped to her feet.
“You’re the Bad Habits,” she exclaimed.
The smiles on the faces of the old couple disappeared. They suddenly looked ugly and frightening.
The animals changed too. They no longer appeared to be fluffy bundles, but more like nasty creepy things.
The old man grabbed Rebecca’s arm and held her firmly.
“Pity you found out,” shrilled the old woman, with the voice of a cackling witch. “All bad habits come from here.” She pointed at the letters painted on the tent. “They stand for the ‘National Society for the Furtherance of Bad Habits’. We’re like missionaries. We train our little friends here to whisper into the ears of sleeping children. Cheat. Tell lies. Suck your thumb. Be a sneak. Don’t clean your teeth. Steal.”
“Bite your nails,” squeaked the little voice.
Rebecca jerked her arm free and ran.
The voices shrieked after her. “Lie. Steal. Cheat. That’s the easy way.”
Rebecca didn’t slow down until she was back with her friends. As she ran into the circle of boulders, she tripped over Kovak’s outstretched legs and fell forward, grazing her knee.
“Owww,” she yelped.
The sound startled Captain ‘K’ and he leaped to his feet.
“Kerpow!…Splatt!…Zowie!” he yelled, thinking they were under attack. He took a pace forward and instantly fell flat on his face.
He got up. “Katchoww!” he said, and fell down again.
“What is it?” asked Grisby.
“My legs,” said Captain ‘K’. “They’re paralysed. I can’t walk.”
“Does it hurt?” Rebecca asked.
“No,” said the Captain bravely. “There’s no pain, but my legs are useless.”
He gave a courageous little smile and his voice trembled as he spoke.
“You mustn’t worry about me,” he said. “Leave me and go on with the mission. I will only be a burden to you.”
Grisby gave a deep sob. “That’s bravery,” he said. “That’s courage.”
The Captain put a comforting hand on Grisby’s shoulder.
“Goodbye, old friend. I’ll go proud in the knowledge that my comrades have carried on the fight against tyranny and oppression that I, in my small way, began. I shall be with you in spirit, knowing that my life is a small price to pay for the victory that you will win.”
Rebecca glanced at the Captain’s legs. She made a little sound, a sort of choking noise in her throat.
“Don’t cry, child,” said the Captain softly. “Be brave.”
Rebecca turned to Grisby, hardly able to speak. “Lend me your penknife,” she said.
Grisby handed it to her. “Are you going to operate?” he asked nervously.
“In a way,” said Rebecca.
Captain ‘K’ sat up in swift alarm.
“You’re not going to use that dirty old penknife on me?” his voice trembled.
“Now you just have to be brave,” choked Rebecca.
“Just grit your teeth. It shouldn’t hurt much.”
She poised the blade over the Captain’s knees. Grisby turned his head, not daring to look. Captain ‘K’ was ready to faint.
Rebecca made a quick sawing motion with the knife.
“There,” she said. “Now try and walk.”
With Grisby’s help, the Captain got to his feet.
“Go on,” said Rebecca. “Walk.”
The Captain took a cautious pace. Then another. And another. His face started to glow with delight. In a moment he was dancing and running in small circles, shouting, “I’m cured, I’m cured.”
Rebecca could contain herself no longer. She exploded into gales of laughter. Through her giggles she managed to gasp, “You’d darned the legs of your tights together.”
They all settled down and talked for a little while. Rebecca told them about the Bad Habits. By the time she’d finished it was beginning to get light.
Rebecca wakened Kovak who had slept through all the noise and excitement. He looked around grumpily, yawned, and complained that he’d not had a wink of sleep all night.
They were just about to set out, when Rebecca felt something move in the pocket of her frock.
She looked down to see two tiny heads peeping over the edge of the pocket. The heads had big, round, innocent eyes and long, flat, square-ended beaks. They were baby Splinter Birds.
The two eggs had hatched out with the warmth of her body.
Rebecca had never been so pleased and excited about anything in her life. These were the only two Splinter Birds in the whole of this special world.
Grisby, Kovak and the Captain were just as excited. They stroked the birds, made silly noises, and generally fussed over them. Rebecca gently lifted the birds from her pocket and let them sit on her shoulder. “I wonder what they eat?” she said.
Kovak checked through his bird book. “Berries and seeds,” he read.
They started to search amongst the brambles, and in a little while each of them had collected a handful of Splinter Bird food.
Grisby put his hand under the birds’ beaks. “Come on,” he cooed. “Brekkywekky. Eaty Weaty.”
The birds looked puzzled and ignored the berries.
“That’s no good,” Rebecca said. “They don’t know how to eat yet. They would expect their mother to bring them things in her beak and pop them into their mouths.”
Captain ‘K’ thought for a minute. Then he carefully placed a berry between his lips, flapped his arms wildly, and ran in circles. Then he swooped and lowered his face towards the fledglings. A little beak opened and took the berry from his lips.
The Captain was rewarded with a little “cheep cheep” of thanks.
“It works,” he said elatedly.
Kovak and Grisby tried it, and again the birds gobbled down the berries.
And so they set out. As they walked, the three men swept and swirled around Rebecca, flapping their arms and carrying berries in their mouths, pretending to be mother birds. Kovak slipped into his bird disguise and looked rather like an old ostrich that had lost half its feathers.
Rebecca did her best not to laugh. She didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but they really did look very funny.
They covered many miles that morning, climbing slowly towards the top of a high ridge and wondering what they would see on the other side.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
But there were three people who already knew what lay beyond the ridge—Mister Glister, Lurk and Cringer. The GHOSTS had brought them to their main camp alongside the great lake.
The two servants lay shaking with fear at Mister Glister’s feet.
“We’ll never get out of here alive,” whimpered Lurk.
“They’ll kill us for sure,” whined Cringer.
“Be silent,” Mister Glister snarled. “I’m trying to concentrate. Nature has endowed me with all the finest qualities a man can have. I am a splendid liar, a marvellous cheat and a magnificent bully. I have made myself rich and powerful by being vicious and cruel. Surely a man with all these superb qualities can think of a way out of this!”
He thought hard.
* * *
Rebecca sat down gratefully. Her legs were aching from the long, hard climb. For the last mile the going had become more difficult. Clumps of briars with sharp, savage thorns grew in great profusion. In places vast bushes had grown across the trail, forcing them to make wide detours.
Now they had reached a small clearing a few hundred yards from the top of the ridge, only to find their way completely barred by the high bushes. They stretched away in both directions as far as the eye could see—like a high wall of barbed wire.
The needle-sharp thorns had scratched their hands and faces, torn and jagged their clothes. Captain ‘K’s’ tights were a mass of ladders.
“We’ll never get through that,” said Grisby, staring at the tangle that confronted them.
The Splinter Birds flapped their tiny wings and managed to fly up onto Rebecca’s head. Then they fluttered down to her shoulder. They had spent most of the afternoon learning to fly and by now had become quite good at it.
“Let’s look at the map again,” said Rebecca.
They spread it out and Kovak read: “If you don’t laugh at the Swardlewardle creatures, you’ve not much further to go.” He looked around. “I wonder what a Swardlewardle is?”
The bushes around them started to snap and crackle as something moved through them. The four friends leaped into a tight huddle, clutching at one another.
Rebecca pointed a shaking finger. “Look!”
Deep inside the bushes was a single yellow eye that stared unblinkingly at them. A few yards to the right another eye appeared, gleaming like the headlight of a motor bike. Yet another eye glinted off to their left.
“Swardlewardles!” gulped Grisby.
The bushes quaked and shook as the creatures, se
emingly oblivious to the sharp thorns, pushed their way towards the frightened group.
The first of the Swardlewardles waddled out of the bushes, leaving behind it a narrow tunnel that marked its path. Its companions crunched into the open and stood glaring maliciously.
They were strange looking creatures. The single yellow eye was situated in the centre of a broad forehead. Below it was a nose or snout that contained three nostrils, and below that was a mouth that had so many teeth it resembled the keyboard of a piano. The bulky body and the long tail were covered with gleaming silver scales, hard and metallic looking. It was this armour-plating that protected them from the thorns.
A dozen or more Swardlewardles had now emerged. They stood in a loose circle surrounding the friends. The largest of them shuffled forward. It only had short legs, but there were hundreds of them. It opened its mouth and gave a sinister, gurgling roar. A cloud of bluey white smoke belched from its trio of nostrils.
The other Swardlewardles followed the example of their leader, filling the air with their steamy breath. The cloud wafted around the group.
“They’ve got us trapped,” muttered Captain ‘K’, and then surprisingly, he gave a little giggle.
“We’ll never get past them,” said Grisby, and started to chuckle loudly.
Rebecca was extremely frightened, but she couldn’t stop herself tittering with laughter.
The Swardlewardles all breathed out together and the vapour swirled around the friends like a heavy mist.
“Ha ha ha ha ha,” Grisby chuckled. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”
And despite the fact he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself, his laughter grew to a crescendo.
Captain ‘K’ giggled uncontrollably. Kovak guffawed and Rebecca shook with laughter. The more the Swardlewardles breathed out, the louder the four friends laughed. The mountainside rang with their shrieks.
“Ha ha ho ho he he ha ha ho ho hee hee hee haa haa hoo aggh aggh aggh ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ha ha he he he ho ho ha ha ha ha ag ag ha ho he he tee hee ho ha he ag ag ah ah ah ah ha ha ha he he ho ho ho ha ha ha ha ha ha aggh.”
