“Ow!” shouted Ed. “Get your dog off!”
Sam ran forward.
“Pull, Biscuit!” he shouted. “Pull as hard as you can.”
Biscuit responded, and tugged ferociously on the pirate’s leg. For a moment it looked as if he would just not have the strength to do it, but then, quite slowly, Ed toppled over and landed with a crash on the deck. This gave Sam his chance. Seizing a coil of rope, he wrapped it round the dazed pirate and rolled him over and over, until he was completely tied up. Only then did Biscuit let go of Ed’s leg.
Lucy and Hermione ran up to see that the hapless Ed was firmly secured. They were both experts in knots and they made quite sure that whatever Ed did, he would not be able to free himself.
Then they all looked at one another and smiled. The first stage of the plan had worked very well. They were very pleased with this, of course, but they all knew that a major test lay ahead.
9
Sailing Homewards
Turning the ship round was not easy. With a sailing ship, you can’t just turn the wheel and leave it at that – you have to allow the sails to fill with wind, and that is a fairly tricky piece of work. It is also quite dangerous. If you turn the wrong way, the ship can go right over on its side and capsize, and that’s the end of the voyage.
Lucy took the wheel to begin with, while Hermione and Sam busied themselves with the sails. They had to prepare all the ropes and scurry up masts to make sure that the sails were all ready. Then, when Lucy gave the order, they had to pull hard on several ropes to bring the billowing sails under control.
When everything was ready, Lucy shouted out, “Ready about!” and everybody sprang into action. For a few moments the great ship seemed to lose speed as she turned into the wind, then, when the wind caught the sails again, everything began to tilt in an alarming way.
“Pull away!” Lucy shouted. “Haul in the sails!”
Sam and Hermione tugged and pulled for all their worth. At first it seemed as if they were getting nowhere, and the ship leaned further and further over. A few small waves came over the deck now, and lapped at their feet, but they did not let up. Slowly the sails came under control and the ship began to right itself.
“Well done!” shouted Lucy above the wind. “Now let’s keep her like that.”
They made good progress. There was a fresh wind behind them and the ship cut through the waves like a dolphin. Now that the sails were in the right position, Sam and Hermione had less to do, and they could sit on the deck, watching the blue ocean go by. Biscuit enjoyed the open air; he had been fed up with hiding in the cabin, and he was very happy to sit up on the prow, feeling the salt spray on his whiskers again.
Ed, of course, stayed exactly where he was, safely tied up on the deck, and in the galley the remaining pirates floundered hopelessly in their mounds of popcorn. Tommy had eaten quite a bit of it while he was trapped, and now had a well-deserved stomach ache. The others just passed their time in moaning and arguing about whose fault the whole thing was. Bert blamed Stinger, and Stinger blamed Bert, saying that he was not quite so clever as he had thought he was. Mrs Bert blamed both of them, and Bill thought it could all be put down to Mrs Bert’s allowing the children to use the galley in the first place.
“And now we’ll all be going to jail,” moaned Bert. “That’s a terrible end to a great career in piracy!”
“And I hear the food’s not very good in jail,” said Tommy. “Dry bread and things like that.”
“Better than Mrs Bert’s potatoes,” said Bill. “I could never stand those potatoes, to tell the truth.”
“You ate enough of them!” shouted Mrs Bert, pushing a heap of popcorn away from her face. “You never turned down second helpings.”
And so it went on: moan, moan, bicker, bicker.
They sailed all afternoon and into the night. There was a bright moon out, and the children were perfectly able to see where they were going. Lucy handed over the helm to Hermione, and she in turn handed it over to Sam. So they all took turns in keeping the ship on course, all the way until morning.
By Lucy’s calculations, they were now not too far away from the place where the pirates had first seized them. Sam was sent up to the crow’s nest, the little basket up at the top of the highest mast, where he could sit and keep a lookout.
If he saw anything, he would shout out to the deck below and the ship could change course.
Sam’s shout came about two hours after breakfast, which was some rather old ship’s biscuit that they’d found in the hold. Lucy was at the helm and Hermione sitting on the deck below. They both heard Sam’s call, though, and looked up to see he was pointing.
“There she is!” shouted Sam. “I’m sure it’s the popcorn ship.”
Lucy swung the wheel round and Hermione and Sam adjusted the sails. There was a better wind in that direction, and the ship shot forward like a rocket. Soon they were close enough to confirm that it was indeed the popcorn ship, and a few minutes after that they lowered the sails and glided slowly up to the drifting ship. Biscuit, seeing his master’s boat, was almost hysterical with excitement, and it was as much as the children could do to stop him from jumping overboard and swimming the last little distance. Then at last they were there, and they gently nudged up to the popcorn boat and tied their ship to its side.
Captain Foster was very tired, and very thirsty. “Quick,” he said weakly, as they untied the rope around his chair. “Get me some lemonade from the cupboard.”
He drank and drank, and then ate the ship’s biscuit that they had saved for him.
“My goodness, I’m glad to see you,” he said. “I had almost given up hope.”
As the Captain recovered, they told him what had happened and revealed that the pirates were all safely tied or locked up on the ship next door.
“Well done,” said Captain Foster. “Now all we have to do is to sail back to the island and tell them that all is well.”
The last leg of the journey was not difficult. Hermione went on board the popcorn ship and Lucy and Sam stayed on the pirate ship. Biscuit, of course, stayed with his master, and kept a very close eye on him.
They sailed through the afternoon, and into the night. During the night, Lucy and Hermione flashed messages through the darkness to one another. This was very useful, as in this way Captain Foster was able to tell Lucy what to do.
“Captain Foster says you should pull your foresail in a bit,” flashed Hermione.
“Aye, aye!” Lucy flashed back.
And then, when they were nearing the island harbour, and it was still dark, Hermione was able to flash the detailed instructions on how to make their way through the tricky channels that marked the harbour entrance.
Flash, flash, she signalled, which meant, “Go a little bit to starboard.”
Or, Double flash, flash, flash, half-flash, which meant, “Captain Foster says you should look out for rocks on the port side.”
Lucy made no mistakes, and when she finally brought the pirate ship safely into the harbour, Captain Foster and Hermione let out a great cheer from the popcorn ship. Then they tied up their boats, and stepped out on to dry land.
“We’re home,” said Lucy. “I can hardly believe it, but we’ve made it.”
That morning, the news of what had happened spread round the island within minutes of sunrise. It also spread to the smaller islands, and soon people were flocking across by boat to see the captured pirate ship.
The children were terribly tired, but they were determined not to go to sleep just yet, and so they stayed down at the harbour to give their statements to the island policeman and to watch the pirates being arrested.
The pirates made a sorry spectacle. All of them, except for Ed, were covered in bits of popcorn and looked thoroughly miserable. The island policeman looked at them sternly, wrote their names in his notebook, and then put handcuffs on them to prevent them from running away.
“What will happen to them now?” Lucy asked Captain Foster.
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“They’ll go to jail,” said the Captain. “And they’ll stay there until Christmas. Then, if they promise to give up piracy and take an honest job somewhere, they may be allowed to go free.”
*
And I’m happy to say, that is what they did. Every single one of them, including the dreadful Stinger, became very sorry for what they had done, and all of them got honest jobs and became decent citizens. Bert was given a job as captain of a pirate ship in a theme park (not a real pirate ship, of course), and Mrs Bert took a job making hot dogs for the visitors. Bill, Ed, Charlie and Tommy all got jobs in Hollywood as actors in pirate films, and indeed they became quite famous for this. But they never forgot their promise to be good, and in fact they gave quite a lot of money to build a home for old sailors.
And as for Stinger, well nobody thought he would ever succeed in keeping an honest job for long, but he did. He became a shark scarer at a famous beach. Whenever a shark was sighted getting too close to the swimmers, Stinger would go out in his little boat and then jump into the sea near the shark. At the sight of the dreadful Stinger, with his frightening face and his mean look, the shark would usually turn tail and flee. It was a job that suited Stinger perfectly, as he was always happy when snarling, and snarling at sharks is as snarly a job as anyone can imagine. Of course it was possible that one day he might meet a shark who wasn’t frightened of him, but then that’s another story, and no job can be perfect in all respects.
But what about the Popcorn Islands? Well, life there returned to normal, and Captain Foster continued to carry the popcorn off to market and the islanders continued to grow it. There was one change, though. At the trial of the pirates, which took place on a much bigger, more important island, the judge declared that under the law of piracy, a pirate ship belonged to the person who captured it!
“So,” said the judge, “I now declare that the pirate ship currently lying in the harbour of the Popcorn Islands is the property for all time, and forever hereafter and theretofore, and all the rest, of those three brave children, namely, to wit, those herewith described.”
Judges have a very grand way of speaking, and what he really meant to say was that the pirate ship now belonged to Lucy, Hermione and Sam.
They were delighted by this, and they spent a great deal of their spare time polishing the decks and making sure that everything was in good order. Then, when visitors arrived, which they did from time to time, they were given a marvellous tour of the islands by the three children on their pirate ship. And when he had his holidays, which he now always spent on the Popcorn Islands, Captain Foster would give sailing courses in the pirate ship for all the local children.
These were great fun. At the end of each day – after a busy sail in the great ship – the children would sit on the deck with Captain Foster, and Biscuit of course, and drink lemonade. Then popcorn would be served – crisp, delicious Popcorn Island popcorn – of which no one ever gets tired. And as the sun would sink over the horizon into the sea, Captain Foster and the children would often chat about their adventure with the popcorn pirates, and agree that it would make a wonderful story, if somebody ever cared to write it all down …
THE BUBBLEGUM TREE
1
In the Bubblegum Works
Have you ever visited a bubblegum factory? No? Neither had Billy, even though there was one right on the edge of his town. There it stood – the Better Bubblegum Works – with its tall chimney and its two very grand gates, both painted bubblegum pink.
This factory was run by a man called Mr Walter Alliwallah Pravindar Gopal, usually just called Mr Gopal, or even Walter. Mr Gopal was a well-known man in the town, and very popular with everybody. As he walked down the street, people would say, “Good morning, Mr Gopal. Fine day, isn’t it?”
Mr Gopal would beam at them in a very friendly manner and say, “Excellent day! Oh, yes it is! Very fine indeed!” And as often as not, he would reach into his pocket and offer them a stick of Gopal’s Best Pink Bubblegum, wonderfully fresh from the factory. People liked this.
Billy and his sister, Nicola, always greeted Mr Gopal very politely, and were usually rewarded with a stick or two of bubblegum. They thought Mr Gopal was quite the friendliest person they had ever met and were both very proud that he had chosen their town in which to build his famous factory.
Then, one day, Billy saw Mr Gopal walking down the street, shaking his head and looking rather sad.
“Good morning, Mr Gopal,” said Billy. “It’s a nice day, isn’t it?”
Mr Gopal looked at Billy sadly. “I am sorry to say, Billy,” he began, “that even if it’s a nice day, I’m not enjoying it at all. Dear me!”
Billy was astonished. Nobody had ever known Mr Gopal to look sad. There must be something very seriously the matter.
“Is there something wrong at the factory?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Mr Gopal, shaking his head again. “There is something very wrong at the factory, and if you come along with me I shall show you exactly what it is.”
Billy was excited to be going into the bubblegum factory, even if Mr Gopal seemed in such a sad mood. As he accompanied Mr Gopal through the front door, he smelled the wonderful smell of bubblegum – a smell like no other smell. It was a pink sort of smell – a smell that seemed to get bigger as you smelled it and then burst, just like the popping of a bubble.
“This way,” said Mr Gopal. “We shall go to my office.”
Billy followed Mr Gopal past the great bubblegum-making machines, all humming and whirring away in a most energetic fashion. It was all very interesting to see, but Billy was worried and could not enjoy himself as much as he would have liked.
Mr Gopal showed Billy into his office and sat him down on a chair.
“Here,” he said, taking a piece of bubblegum from a tray on his desk. “This is a piece of bubblegum, is it not?”
“Yes,” said Billy, looking at the stick of Gopal’s Best.
“I’d like you to unwrap it,” said Mr Gopal, passing the stick to Billy. “Then pop it in your mouth and chew hard.”
Billy was rather puzzled, but did as he was told. He slipped the pink stick out of its silver paper and put it into his mouth. Then he began to chew. It tasted fine, and the smell – well, that was exactly the same as it always was.
“Now,” said Mr Gopal. “I’d like you to blow a bubble. Just an ordinary bubble.”
Billy moved the gum around his mouth, getting it to just the right place for blowing a bubble. Then he blew.
He blew hard. Then he blew again. A moment or two later a small bit of gum popped out of his mouth, and a tiny, almost invisible bubble appeared. Then it burst – with a little pop, like a frog’s hiccup – and was gone.
Billy sucked the gum back in. “I’ll try again,” he said. “That wasn’t very good.”
“Oh dear,” said Mr Gopal, wringing his hands. “It won’t make any difference. You can try and try again, it’ll be the same. You won’t do any better than that.”
Mr Gopal was right. Try as he might, Billy could not blow a proper bubble. There was something very badly wrong with the gum.
“It’s hopeless,” said Mr Gopal. “The gum just isn’t the same as it used to be.”
“But what’s gone wrong?” asked Billy, dropping the useless bubblegum into the bin. “Why won’t it work?”
“It’s a very strange story,” said Mr Gopal. “Would you like me to tell you all about it?”
“Yes,” said Billy, feeling very sorry for the dejected bubblegum manufacturer. “Maybe I can help.”
So Mr Gopal told Billy about what had happened. And it was indeed a very strange tale – stranger than anything Billy had heard before.
2
A Very Strange Story
I got the recipe for my bubblegum from my father,” began Mr Gopal. “He was a very famous bubblegum manufacturer in his time – even more famous than I am. He lived in India, in a town called Bombay, which is a marvellous, exciting place, I can
tell you.
“He had a big bubblegum factory where he used to make a bubblegum called Bombay Best Bubbly. His business was a great success, but I’m sorry to say that one day a terrible fire burned the whole factory down – right to the ground. Nobody knew how it started, but it destroyed all my father’s property and he lost just about everything he had in this life. It even burned my father’s moustache off. It had been a wonderful moustache; now it was just a tiny, scorched line.
“So from being a rich man, my father became a poor man. Fortunately, there were one or two possessions which he kept away from the factory, at home. These included an old black money box with two thousand rupees in it, and a small black book which he always hid under his pillow. That was about all.
“I remember the day after the fire, when my father came back to the house and called me into the front room. He stood there, with his sad moustache, and his eyes all watering from the smoke.
“‘I am an old man,’ he said. ‘And I want to say something very important to you. You are my only child, Walter Alliwallah Pravindar Gopal, and you are all I am going to leave behind in the world. So I just want to say this to you. Remember that a Gopal is always a brave man – always – and there is nothing he is scared to do. Your grandfather, Sikrit Pal Praviwallah Gopal, was not even frightened of tigers and fought one with his bare hands when it attacked him. He bit its tail so hard that the tiger jumped off his back and retreated into the jungle. That isn’t at all unusual for a Gopal. That is how a Gopal behaves.
“‘The second thing I want to say to you is this. Now that I am a poor man, I cannot leave you great riches on this earth. All I have is this box of a few rupees and this book. Use the rupees to go off and make your fortune, and use what is in the book to start a great bubblegum factory again. Remember that the Gopals have always been bubblegum people.’
“And with that my father gave me the box and the book. Then he reached out and touched me lightly on the head, went into his room, and put on a simple white robe. After that, he said goodbye to me, shook my hand, and walked out of the house.