Jennings and His Friends

by Antony Buckeridge

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Margaret Wilkins helps the boys again

  Soon Margaret and her brother heard footsteps in the corridor and then a knock at the door. "Come in!" called Mr Wilkins, and two boys with very sad faces came into the room.

  "Please, sir, we've come to report you, sir."

  "Yes, of course! Come in, Jennings and Darbishire. Well, well! You... you've met my sister, I think," Mr Wilkins looked at Margaret and smiled.

  But the boys did not dare to look up- they were still looking at their shoes.

  "I think you've come about that detention class that we had this afternoon," said Mr Wilkins and smiled again.

  "We are very sorry we were absent, sir," said Jennings at last, "and for all we said, too, sir."

  "Well, never mind! I'm also sorry you missed it! We learned a lot."

  The two boys could not believe their ears. What was the matter with Mr Wilkins? They did not know how to explain their story to him, but he did not want any explanation and greeted them like film stars. No, they just could not believe it!

  "I think the best thing will be if you come and see me before you go to bed and we'll do some of these sums together, shall we?"

  "Yes, sir... certainly, sir. Thank you very much, sir," Darbishire said quickly.

  "But... is that all, sir?" asked Jennings.

  "Yes, that's all. Oh, yes, have something to eat before you go," said Mr Wilkins.

  He smiled again and took the plate of cakes from the table. If he had to be decent, he decided to be really decent.

  Cakes again! That was too much for Jennings and Darbishire.

  "Oh, no, thank you very much, sir," said Jennings.

  "Well, boy,- have a cake when I tell you to."

  "But, sir, I can't, sir."

  "Nonsense!" said Mr Wilkins. "Boys can always eat cakes. I remember when I was a boy - well, never mind,- have a cake!"

  Margaret decided to help them.

  "I think they've had enough doughnuts and cakes for one afternoon," she said.

  Mr Wilkins put the plate back on the table.

  "By the way, Jennings, I was going to help you with your wall newspaper, wasn't I?"

  "Yes, you were, Miss Wilkins. But after I said, I thought - I mean - I didn't think..."

  "But I'll be only too happy to help you. What can I tell you about my brother that will be interesting to you and your readers?"

  Mr Wilkins looked at hi& sister in alarm.

  "I say, Margaret, be fair! You promised..."

  "Don't interrupt, dear, I'm trying to think... Oh, yes! Some years ago my brother..."

  "Margaret... I... I... Don't do it..."

  No, no, he couldn't believe that his own sister whom he loved so much, could let him down.

  "Well, some years ago, Jennings, when my brother was at the University, he rowed in the Cambridge crew that won the Boat Race three times."

  "Did he really!" exclaimed Darbishire.

  What wonderful news!" exclaimed linings. "May I shake hands with you, sir?"

  "Why didn't you tell us before, sir? You • not so unfamous as we thought, sir." Darbishire's eyes were shining behind his speckles.

  "You'll be the hero of the school when the Form Three Times comes out," shouted Jennings.

  "I'm sure you don't want to write in your newspaper about unimportant things like this," said Mr Wilkins.

  "Oh, but it's just the thing we want for our newspaper. And I want to take a photo "I you and put it in the next issue of the I arm Three Times: Mr L. P. Wilkins, a member of the famous Cambridge crew." And then he suddenly asked, "What does L. P. stand for? We really must put your full name, don't you think, sir?"

  At once Margaret saved the situation.

  "All the members of the Cambridge crew knew my brother by his initials, Jennings, So it will be quite correct to write about him in the wall newspaper as L. P. Wilkins."

  The happy boys said good-bye and left the room. But a moment later Jennings was back.

  "Please, Miss Wilkins, I quite forgot to tell you about that ten shillings. Venables doesn't want to pay, because he says that he was going to spend only half of the money. But if you don't mind, Darbishire and I can send you sixpence every week for twenty weeks

  "That's all right, Jennings, you can forget about it.

  "Oh, but really, we can't let you..." Margaret stood up from her chair.

  "You may know, Jennings, that the Wilkins family can be very severe. So if you don't stop talking nonsense about that ten shillings, I shall become a fire-breathing dragon of the must frantic type."

  "Yes, Miss Wilkins... Thank you, Miss Wilkins," said Jennings, and leaving the room closed the door.

  * * *

  "What happened when you reported to Old Wilkie?" Venables asked Jennings and Darbishire at breakfast on Sunday morning.

  "He helped us to do the sums before the dormitory bell last night," answered Jennings.

  "Yes, but before that-what punishment did he give you?"

  "Well, he was going to make us eat cakes, but we didn't want to, and he let us go."

  Venables was surprised, and Jennings and Darbishire were happy-After breakfast they sat down at a table in a corner of a common room. They decided to finish the second issue of the Form Three Times and hang it on the notice-board on Monday.

  The first story was about Mr Wilkins, of course.

  "When I talked to him last night he told me that he and another student used to get up early and practise every morning," said Darbishire.

  "Maybe we'll begin our story with this. Something like: When Mr Wilkins was young he used to have a row with somebody before breakfast."

  Jennings wrote it down, looked at it and said, "We can't say that, Darbi. You may say row [rou] and row [rau]. And if you say row [rau] it will mean..."

  "I see", interrupted Darbishire, "and not surprised - he could have a row [rau] every morning - I know Old Wilkie. But maybe it will be better to say that when he had a row [rou] he always used a boat, so the boys will understand."

  "Well, of course he had a row in a boat- where else?"

  They tried many ways to make the meaning clear, but they decided to cross it out, and, wrote that Mr Wilkins was a famous sportsman.

  Then they came to Mr Carter's age. "Have you worked out that sum about Mr Carter's age?" asked Darbishire.

  "I asked Mr Carter to tell me that sum again, but couldn't work it out with x's and y's; so I used a's and b's."

  "And what's the answer?"

  "Well, maybe I made a mistake somewhere, but my answer is: he must be a hundred-and-six next birthday. It shows that you can't believe all that grown-ups say."

  "You are right, Jen," agreed Darbishire. "You can never tell what they are going to do next. Look at Old Wilkie last Saturday. You can't explain his behaviour, can you?"

  "No, I can't," said Jennings.

  Jennings and Darbishire finished writing their newspaper just as the dinner bell rang.

  They took their stories to Mr Carter who corrected and typed them, and on Monday morning the next issue of the Form Three Times was hanging on the notice-board in the common room.

  After that Mr Wilkins had to write more than twenty autographs that morning. Then he shut himself in his room and did not answer the door.

  For three days he did not look at the notice-board in the common room, but on the evening of the fourth day, after the boys were in bed, Mr Carter saw him tiptoeing from the common room.

  "Well, Wilkins, what do you think of your life-story?" asked Mr Carter.

  "Silly little boys!" answered Mr Wilkins. "If only they showed as much interest in their algebra as they have in the Boat Race. Silly little boys!"

  But Mr Carter could see that Mr Wilkins was really happy.

  Next day the Headmaster visited the common room and looked through the Form Three Times. After that he had a short talk with Mr Carter and left the common room. Jennings and Darbishire ran up to Mr Carter.

  "Sir, ple
ase, sir, what did he say?"

  "Yes, sir, did he like it, sir?"

  "I think so," Mr Carter answered. "He told me that such hobbies keep you out of mischief."

  "It's very nice of him to say so," said Jennings.

  Mr Carter smiled.

  "What's the matter, sir? Have I said something funny?" asked Jennings.

  "No, no," said Mr Carter. "I was thinking, of your Form Three Times which kept you out of mischief."

  "What do you mean, sir?" asked Darbishire.

  Mr Carter thought for a moment. Then he said:

  "Well, during the last weeks I've noticed some strange things: smoke in the dark room, fish in a chimney which happened after you had come back from the harbour with a parcel of fish and I put two and two together and understood what it all meant. Then I remember, also, a sudden interest in Latin textbooks. I'm not quite sure what was behind it all, but I know that when we organized a textbook inspection not all the boys of Form Three were happy."

  "Yes, sir... I'm very sorry, sir," said Jennings. "I didn't know you knew all that, sir."

  "Don't look so sad, boys," said Mr Carter. "I think the Form Three Times is a very good wall newspaper. And what's more - I think it has kept you out of even worse mischief!"

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jennings' new hobby

  If hobbies keep the children out of mischief, as Mr Pemberton said, it was riot so with Jennings.

  His next hobby (after the wall newspaper) was home-made telephone. The idea came to him before school one Monday when he was I looking for his exercise-book in his desk.

  "You know what, Darbi," he said to his friend. "If we had a telephone here I could ring up and ask him if he has got it in the staff room."

  "Who has got what in the staff room?" asked Darbishire. It was not always easy to understand what Jennings meant.

  "My English exercise-book: I can't find it anywhere in my desk. I think Mr Carter took it at the end of the lesson yesterday afternoon."

  "I don't see what you are worrying about," said Darbishire. "If you think Mr Carter has got your English exercise-book, why don't you go and ask him?"

  "That's what I shall have to do. I only said that if we had a telephone here I could ring Mr Carter up and ask him, and now I'll have to go there myself."

  "You must be crazy, Jen, if you think that the Headmaster could let us have a telephone in the classroom."

  "I don't mean a real telephone. I mean a home-made telephone," explained Jennings. "I read an article in a magazine last holidays that told you all about it. It's so easy, really. You need two coffee tins. Then join them together with a long piece of string."

  "And then what?"

  "Well, that's all. You talk into one of the tins and somebody else listens with the help of the other tin."

  Darbishire did not believe it. "It will never work in a million years," he said.

  "It will," answered Jennings. "The article said so. The sound waves go along the string and make the bottom of the coffee tin vibrate."

  "Still we can't do it."

  "But why?"

  "We haven't got any coffee tins."

  "But they don't have to be coffee tins! We can use any old tins."

  "Oh, that's not so bad," agreed Darbishire. "Atkinson has a syrup tin."

  "That's good."

  "I don't think you will hear much through it," said Darbishire. "You see, it's still half-full of syrup. Of course we can wait till he has eaten it..."

  "Well, we can't wait. If I have a good idea, I must begin at once. There must be hundreds of empty tins near the school.

  Oh, I know! Mr Carter always has round tobacco tins. I'm sure he will give us some empty ones. Let's go to the staff room and ask him."

  "It's a pity you haven't got the telephone already," said Darbishire. "Then you could ring Mr Carter from here."

  Jennings looked at him. "That's what I said some moments ago, and you said that I was crazy. Well, now I think you are crazy, because if we had a telephone here already, we wouldn't need to ask Mr Carter for tobacco tins."

  "No, I didn't mean that. I thought you wanted to ask him about your English exercise-book."

  "Oh, that!" said Jennings. He quickly went out of the classroom and along the corridor. Darbishire followed him. When they turned a corner they nearly collided with Binns and Blotwell, the youngest boys in the school.

  "Why are you hurrying?" asked Blotwell

  "We are going to ask Mr Carter for some empty tins," answered Darbishire.

  "Empty tins of what?" asked Binns.

  "You are crazy," said Jennings. "What are empty tins usually full of?"

  "Nothing."

  "Well, now you see," said Jennings and hurried to the staff room.

  When they came in Mr Carter was preparing his lesson for the afternoon.

  "Sir, please, sir, have you any empty tobacco tins that you can give me, please, sir?"

  "A lot. What do you want them for?"

  "I have a wonderful idea, sir. I'll tell you about it if you like, sir."

  Mr Carter listened, and then said, "All right, Jennings, I'll give you some tins. But I'll tell you that I don't like your idea very much. I am sure you can spend your free time on something much more useful."

  "But it is useful, sir. It's a new idea," you see..."

  "New! It's as old as the hills."

  "Well, it's new to us, sir. And I think the teachers will be very happy, really. You see, we shan't make so much noise in the common room as we usually do, because we shall whisper into our tins instead of shouting across the room, sir."

  "That's good. But why do you have to whisper?" asked Mr Carter. "Will it not work if you just speak?"

  "Oh, yes, sir, it will work, but we shall have to whisper because the boy to whom we were speaking could hear us without his earphone, sir."

  Mr Carter smiled to himself when he opened the cupboard door and looked for empty tobacco tins. He was sure that the whole idea was nonsense. But at the same time he decided not to argue, because he was sure it was useless to argue with Jennings and Darbishire now. So he gave them two empty tobacco tins and the boys were happy.

  "Very decent of Mr Carter, wasn't it?" Darbishire said when he followed his friend into the corridor and closed the staff room door.

  There was no time to begin their work, because the bell for afternoon school rang when the boys came back to their classroom. But after the lessons that evening they hurried to the common room and began to work. Some other third form boys gathered round and watched them.

  Jennings and Darbishire made little holes in the tins, put a piece of string through them and secured each end with a knot.

  "The most wonderful thing the world has ever known!" said Jennings loudly.

  "I'm sure it doesn't work," said Atkinson. "Where are the batteries? Where is the electricity?"

  "It doesn't need anything like batteries or electricity," said Darbishire. "Jennings says that the sound waves go along the string and make the tin vibrate."

  "Look, I'll show you," said Jennings.

  He gave one of the tins to Darbishire and went to the common room door with the other tin in his hand.

  "I'll go out of the room. You speak first, Darbi, and I'll answer," said Jennings and hurried out of the room.

  He put his ear to the tin. Time passed but he did not hear anything.

  The door opened and Temple's head appeared.

  "Darbi wants to know if you are ready," I he said.

  "Of course, I'm ready," answered Jennings.

  After some time he heard some noise in the earphone. "Awah buss oojah barn."

  These were the words that Jennings heard. But what did they mean? After some moments his ear got used to the sounds and he heard: "...five elevens are fifty-five and five twelves are sixty..." It was Darbishire's voice! Jennings was happy. "Well, Jen, you can speak now."

  Jennings put his earphone to his mouth and thought for a moment. "What shall I say?

  We
ll, I shall be a space pilot, the first man on the Moon."

  "Hallo, Earth!.. Hallo, Earth! Moon calling Earth. This is Space Pilot Jennings speaking from the Moon. Do you hear me?.. Do you hear me?" And he put the earphone to his ear again.

  "Yes, I hear you," he heard Darbishire's voice...

  The teacher on duty that evening was Mr Wilkins. When he walked along the corridor he saw Jennings at the door of the common room. Mr Wilkins noticed that the boy was talking to himself. Of course strange things sometimes happened at Linbury Court Boarding School; but when he saw Jennings speaking into a tin, he decided that he must ask for an explanation.

  "Why are you talking to yourself, Jennings?" asked Mr Wilkins. ? "Oh, I am not, sir," the boy answered. "I am talking to somebody down on the Earth, sir - I mean somebody in the common room."

  Mr Wilkins looked at the closed door.

  "I spoke over the space telephone, sir," explained Jennings, "from the Moon, sir. You can hear their answer if you listen through this earphone, sir."

  But Mr Wilkins did not want to know 'about the life on the Earth.

  "Another of your hobbies!" he said. "I can never understand why you silly little boys spend your free time on such silly things. Well, what I mean Jennings, is this. If this hobby leads you into trouble, as it did last time, I'll - I'll... Well, it had better not lead to trouble, that's all."

  Mr Wilkins left, and Jennings went into the common room where he and Darbishire repeated their tests. The tests showed that their home-made telephone could send messages any distance up to about ten yards. So they went to bed quite happily.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jennings writes his name on his eraser

  The next morning Jennings and Darbishire spent every moment of their free time with ears or mouths in a tobacco tin. They talked about the weather or asked about each other's health. At last they were tired of their homemade telephone.

  "You know, Darbi, we have to think of something else that we can do with our homemade telephone," said Jennings. "It's silly to say 'How are you?' and 'I'm all right. How are you?' again and again."

  "Yes, I see what you mean," answered Darbishire. "But it's very difficult to know what else to say after the first half an hour."