Adventures of the Wishing-Chair (19 page)

The door opened. There stood a goblin with yellow eyes and great big pointed ears that stuck above the top of his head.

“Good morning, Big-Ears,” said Chinky. “We have come for that ring you picked up in our garden the other night.”

“W-w-w-what r-r-r-ring?” stammered the goblin, going pale with fright. “I d-d-d-didn’t see any ring.”

“Oh yes, you did,” said Chinky firmly. “And if you don’t give it back AT ONCE I’ll turn you into a wriggling worm.”

“No, no, no!” cried Big-Ears, falling to his knees. “Don’t do that. Yes—I did take the ring—but I have given it to the Snoogle, who lives in that castle over there.”

“Off to the Snoogle then!” shouted Chinky, and he jumped into the wishing-chair. The children followed— and up went the chair into the air. They were off to the Snoogle—whatever he might be!

THE wishing-chair was off to find the Snoogle! “If the Snoogle has your mother’s ring, we shall have to find some way of getting it back,” said Chinky. “I wonder who or what he is. I’ve never heard of him before.”

The chair flew on. Soon, in the distance, the three could see an enormous castle set on a hilltop. At the bottom, all round the foot, was a great moat full of water. A drawbridge stretched across the moat—but, even as the children looked at it, it was drawn up into the gateway on the castle side of the moat.

“There’s no way of getting in the Snoogle’s castle except by flying, that’s plain,” said Chinky. “Fly on to the roof, wishing-chair.”

The wishing-chair flew to the roof of the castle. It was turreted, and the chair flew over the turrets and down on to a flat part behind.

Sitting on the roof basking in the sunshine was the Snoogle.

The children stared at him in astonishment. He was the funniest-looking creature they had ever seen. He had the body of a dragon, the tail of a cat, always twirling and twisting—and the head of a yellow duck!

He was sitting in a deck-chair fast asleep. The wishing-chair flew down beside his chair, and the children stared at the Snoogle. They did not get out of the chair, because, really, they hardly liked the look of the Snoogle.

But Chinky jumped down and went to have a good stare at him.

“Snore-r-r-r-r-r!” went the sleeping Snoogle. “Snore-r-r-r-r-r!”

“Hie! Wake up, Snoogle!” shouted Chinky, and he gave the Snoogle a poke in the chest. The Snoogle woke up in a fright and quacked loudly.

“Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack!” He leapt to his two pairs of dragon feet and glared at Chinky.

“I’ve come to fetch the ring that Big-Ears the goblin gave you,” said Chinky boldly. “Will you get it, please?”

“You’d better get it yourself,” said the Snoogle sulkily.

“Where is it, then?” asked Chinky.

“Go down the stairs there, and walk down two hundred steps,” said Snoogle. “You will come to a bolted door. Unbolt it and walk in. You will see my bedroom there. In a big box on the mantelpiece you will find the ring. It was given to me by Big-Ears, and I think you should give me something in return for it.”

“You shall have nothing!” cried Chinky. “You knew quite well that Big-Ears should not have taken that ring from our garden. I believe you were just keeping it for him till people had forgotten it and had given up hunting for it. You are just as dishonest as Big-Ears!”

The Snoogle waved its cat-like tail to and fro in anger. It gave a few loud quacks, but Chinky only laughed. He didn’t seem a bit afraid of the Snoogle.

“I’ll go down and get the ring,” he said to the others. “Stay here.”

He ran down the steps—but no sooner had he disappeared down them than the Snoogle also went down— following softly behind Chinky!

“Oh! He’s gone to catch Chinky!” cried Mollie. “Shout, Peter, shout, and warn him!”

So Peter shouted with all his might—but Chinky was too far down the steps to hear. The Snoogle waited for him to unbolt the bedroom door—and then, when Chinky was safely inside looking for the box on the mantelpiece, he slammed the door and bolted it.

“Quack!” he cried, with a deep chuckle. “Now you are caught, you cheeky little pixie.”

Mollie and Peter were running down the steps, shouting to Chinky. They suddenly heard the sound of the bedroom door being slammed, and the bolts driven home.

“Stop, Mollie,” said Peter, clutching hold of her arm. “Chinky is caught. It’s no use us running straight into the Snoogle as he comes back. Slip into this room here, and perhaps he will go past us up to the roof again.”

They slipped into a nearby room. They hid behind the door—and as he passed, the Snoogle popped his head into the room and looked round it—but he did not see the two children squeezed tightly behind the door.

“Quack!” he said loudly, and went on up the steps.

Mollie and Peter slipped out of the room as soon as it was safe and ran to where Chinky was hammering on the inside of the bolted door in a furious rage. “Let me out, let me out!” he was shouting.

“Chinky, Chinky, hush!” said Peter. “We’ve come to get you out. We are just going to unbolt the door.”

The bolts were big and heavy. It took both Mollie and Peter to pull them back. They opened the door— and there was Chinky, looking as angry as could be.

“To think I should have been trapped so easily!” said Chinky, in a fury. “Anyway—I’ve got the ring! Look!”

He showed them a ring—and sure enough it was the very one their mother had lost! Mollie and Peter were so pleased.

“Now I’ll just go and tell that Snoogle what I think of him!” said Chinky fiercely. “
I’m
not afraid of any Snoogle—silly, duck-headed creature!”

“Oh, Chinky, do be careful,” said Mollie, half afraid. “We’ve got the ring. Can’t we just go quietly up to the roof, get into our chair, and go away? I’d much rather do that.”

“We’ll get into the chair and fly away all right,” said Chinky. “But I’m just going to tell the Snoogle a few things first.”

The children had never seen the little pixie look so angry. He marched up the steps and out on the roof. Mollie and Peter followed.

The Snoogle was looking all round for the two children, quacking angrily. He was surprised to see them coming up the steps—and even more surprised to see Chinky, whom he thought was safely bolted in the room below.

“Now, look here, Snoogle,” said Chinky boldly, walking right up to the surprised creature, “how
dare
you try to capture me like that? I am a pixie—yes, and a powerful one too. I can do spells that would frighten you. Shall I turn you into a black-beetle—or a tadpole— or a wasp without a sting?”

To the children’s surprise, the Snoogle looked very much frightened. He was such a big creature compared with Chinky—it seemed strange that he should be so scared of him.

“I’ve a good mind to fly off in our chair to the Pixie King and complain of you,” said Chinky. “Yes—I think that is just what I shall do! You will have your castle taken away from you then, for daring to interfere with a pixie.”

“No one can get me out of my castle,” said the Snoogle, in a quacking sort of voice. “I have a big moat round— and a drawbridge that I can keep drawn up for months on end. Do your worst, stupid little pixie!”

“Very well, then, I will!” said Chinky. “But just to go on with—take that, you silly Snoogle!”

Chinky took hold of the Snoogle’s waving tail and pulled it hard. Naughty Chinky! There was no need to do a thing like that. It made the Snoogle very angry indeed . . . but he did not dare to touch Chinky or the children, for he really was afraid of Chinky’s magic.

But the Snoogle was not afraid of the wishing-chair. He ran to it and stood by it. “You shall not fly off in your chair now!” he quacked loudly. “Aha! That will punish you.”

“Oh yes, we will!” shouted Chinky, and he ran to push the Snoogle away—but, oh dear, oh dear, whatever do you suppose the Snoogle did? With four hard pecks he pecked off the red wings of the poor wishing-chair! There they lay on the ground, four bunches of red feathers!

“Oh! You wicked creature!” shouted Mollie, in a rage. “You have spoilt our lovely, lovely wishing-chair! Oh, how could you do a thing like that! Oh, Chinky, why did you make the Snoogle angry? Look what he’s done!”

Mollie burst into tears. She couldn’t bear to see the wings of the wishing-chair on the ground, instead of flapping away merrily on its legs. Peter turned pale. He did not know how they would get home now.

Chinky was full of horror. He had not thought that such a thing would happen—but it was done now!

“Well, I think you’ll agree that you can’t fly away now,” said the Snoogle, with a grin. “Take your chair and go down into the kitchen. You can live there now. No one ever comes here—and you can’t get out—so we shall be nice company for one another!”

Chinky picked up the chair. The three of them walked down the steps very sorrowfully.

“We are in a pretty fix now!” said Peter gloomily. “I don’t know what we are going to do now that our wishing-chair can’t fly!”

THE children and Chinky carried the wishing-chair down to the Snoogle’s kitchen. This was a big bare stone place with a huge fire roaring in the grate.

Chinky stood the chair down on the stone floor and sat in it, looking very gloomy.

“I know it was my fault that the wishing-chair’s wings were pecked off,” he said to the others. “Don’t cry, Mollie. There must be some way of getting out of the Snoogle’s castle.”

“I’m not crying because I’m afraid we can’t escape,” said Mollie. “I’m crying because of the poor wishing-chair. Is this the end of all our flying adventures? It is horrid to think we may never go any more!”

“Don’t think about that,” said Chinky. “The first thing is—can we possibly get out of here? Where is the Snoogle, I wonder?”

“Here!” said the quacking voice of the duck-headed Snoogle, and he looked into the kitchen. “If you want any tea, there are cakes in the larder—and you might make some tea and put some cakes on a plate for me too.”

“I suppose we might as well do what he says,” said Peter. He went to the larder and looked inside. He saw a tin there with cakes printed on it. Inside there were some fine chocolate buns. The children put some on a plate for themselves and some on a plate for the Snoogle. Mollie put the kettle on the fire to boil. They all waited for the steam to come out—but nobody said a word. They were too unhappy.

When the kettle boiled Mollie made tea in two teapots. She took one teapot, cup and saucer, and plate of cakes to the Snoogle, who was sitting in the dining-room reading a newspaper. It was upside down, so Mollie didn’t think it was much use to him. But she was too polite to say so. She couldn’t help feeling, too, that it would be much better for all of them if they tried to be friendly with the Snoogle.

She put the tray down by the Snoogle and left him. He opened his great beak before she was out of the room and gobbled up one cake after another. Mollie thought he must be a very greedy creature.

She went back to the kitchen, and she and the others munched chocolate buns and drank hot tea, wondering gloomily what to do next.

“Perhaps we could swim across that moat,” said Mollie at last.

“We’ll look and see, when we can creep away for a few minutes,” said Peter.

“Listen,” said Chinky. “What’s that noise?”

They listened.

“Snore-r-r-r-r-r! Snore-r-r-r-r-r!” went the Snoogle in the dining-room. The three looked at one another.

“What about poking all round to see if there’s any way of escape now?” whispered Peter.

“Come on, then!” said Chinky. They all got up. They went to the kitchen door and opened it. It looked straight on to the moat. How wide and deep and cold it looked!

“Ooh!” said Mollie. “I’d never be able to swim across that, I’m sure. Nor would you, Peter!”

“And look!” said Chinky, pointing down into the water. “There are giant frogs there—they would bite us, I expect!”

Sure enough, as Mollie and Peter peered down into the water they saw the blunt snouts of many giant frogs. “Oooh!” said Mollie. “I’m not going to jump in there!”

“I say!” said Peter. “What about the drawbridge? Couldn’t we let that down ourselves and escape that way?”

“Of course!” said Chinky. “Come on. We’ll find it before the old Snoogle awakes.”