Mudpoo and the Fungus Mystery (4 page)

“It's called Riverina Bluebell,” said Grot, “and I really liked it.”

“Yeah but we delivered hundreds of bunches to weddings,” muttered Pong.

“They said it was called Paterson's curse,” snarled Bones, “and they all wanted their money back!”

“Yeah well I reckon it was a stroke of luck we met that Fungus McPhee fellow. He said he had an old gold mine in Bethanga and if we shut up about it he would allow us to help him out with a special job,” mumbled Snot.

“As long as we get some GOLD!”
whispered Pong fiercely and the others nodded eagerly in agreement.

“Well I reckon these toxic chemicals will be handy for something, it'll be just like the old days,” snarled Bones.

The truck's cabin was very hot and dusty and the pirates were tired from their long trip. They arrived at Bethanga just in the nick of time. Right out front of the Bethanga General Store the radiator exploded, leaving a gurgling trail of steam and smoke going in all directions.

“Can I help you gentlemen?” asked Richard the storekeeper, politely.

“Yeah, we'd like a box of carrots and a mechanic,” jeered Bones, who was in a really bad mood.

“What are the carrots for?” asked Snot.

“You'll see,” replied Bones grumpily.

“And directions to the old GOLD mine please,”
said a tired Grot, absentmindedly. The others glared, giving him three icy stares.

“Shut up you idiot, it's supposed to be a secret,” hissed Bones.

“Well, it's right up there on the top of the hill, just follow the road around to the lookout and keep going. No one has been up there for years,” replied Richard, surprised. “Here are your carrots.”

Mick, the local mechanic (who could fix just about anything), arrived and scratched his head. “I haven't seen an old truck like this since I was an apprentice!” he said in disbelief.

Bones complained that the radiator was broken and the engine was running a bit rough.

“Lucky for you, I've got a special fuel mix that should see you right,” Mick boasted, as he added a bit to their fuel tank. Then he fixed up the leaky radiator with some special goo that was his own secret recipe.

“That should keep the old girl running for a bit longer,” he grinned.

The pirates squeezed back into their truck and drove it up the hill towards the old gold mine. It coughed and spluttered and no matter what the pirates tried, it was making an awful racket.

“Look at all the rabbits,” said Grot. The rabbits scurried out of the way, just missing the heavy, rumbling wheels of the truck as it struggled up the hill. The sun was setting, but none of the pirates noticed how beautiful it looked.

There were rabbits everywhere.

When they arrived at Fungus McPhee's camp, there was no sign of him. The mine was padlocked and his equipment was neatly packed away. The pirates stumbled from the truck and lit the campfire, chatting excitedly about how much money they'd make from this adventure.

They would have to wait for Fungus McPhee to show up. Sooner or later, they would find out about his evil plan. A large brown bottle of pirate's rum was passed around, which soon had them in very good spirits.

“I've got our own plan,” said Bones,
“I think I know how we can catch all these rabbits and make us some extra money.”

“How?” asked three excited pirate voices.

“Poison,” whispered Bones, “toxic poison and we've got a truck load!”

“We can kill all the rabbits and sell their skins,”
roared the pirates.

“MWUAHA, HA, HAAA!” roared the horrible crew; it was just like old times.

Hooty the boobook owl had heard everything. He knew he had to warn someone urgently, before it was all too late!

C
aptain Pete awoke and leapt out of bed, very excited. All night he'd been dreaming about his new invention. He raced into the kitchen to join Mudpoo and Harry for breakfast.

“Owls hoot in the key of B-Flat and rabbits are scared of owls. So, if I record some music in B-Flat and play it to the rabbits, they'll be scared and move away!” said Captain Pete excitedly.

Harry and Mudpoo were busily chomping on their toast, they looked impressed.

“Logical thinking,” he declared. “I'll call my good friend Liz, she can play the fiddle and I'll play the guitar and we will record something in B-Flat!”

“What about the ‘Heel and Toe Polka'?” suggested Mudpoo.

“Great idea, the ‘Heel and Toe Polka' in B-Flat it is.
If that doesn't scare the rabbits away, nothing will!” replied Captain Pete, thoughtfully munching on his Vegemite toast.

After breakfast, Captain Pete phoned Liz, who said she'd be glad to help and would bring her fiddle over straight away.

Liz arrived beaming, looking bright and cheery, carrying her wonderful fiddle. “Hello everyone!” She hugged Mudpoo and Harry and smiled at Captain Pete.

“Right, let's get cracking,” said Captain Pete, as he set up the kitchen with equipment to record the ‘Heel and Toe Polka'. It was tricky playing it in B-Flat, Mudpoo and Harry didn't look too impressed.

“It doesn't sound that good,” agonised Mudpoo and Harry nodded in agreement. They snuck out the back door and away from the wailing music.

“It's so bad, maybe it'll work?” suggested Harry, hopefully.

Harry and Mudpoo visited Gus
(the talking Kombi van)
, who was parked under a gum tree at the top of the garden.

“I can help,” suggested Gus,
“you can attach the speakers to me and hide inside.
Then I'll park myself in the paddock where most of the rabbits are,” he said enthusiastically.

“Good idea,” replied Mudpoo and Harry together, “this will be a great experiment.”

“And it's environmentally friendly,” added Gus with a grin.

Captain Pete and Liz agreed that Gus would be a great help.

“Let's have fruit salad for lunch,” said Liz, who loved eating healthy food.

After lunch Gus drove them all to a spot in the paddock where everyone thought the most rabbits might appear.

Over near a corrugated water tank, under the big old gum tree, they set up six of Captain Pete's best and loudest speakers.

“Let's hide inside Gus and turn the music on!” shouted Captain Pete, excitedly.

They waited and watched and watched and waited. Then they heard a ‘thump, thump, thump, thump, thumperty, thump, thump, thump, thump' on the roof of Gus.

“What is that sound?” asked Captain Pete, looking perturbed.

“Hmmm,” said Liz, “I think it's the sound of rabbits dancing the
‘Heel and Toe Polka'
on Gus' roof!”

“What!?” shouted Captain Pete, looking sadly confused, “. . . they're dancing?”

Mudpoo and Harry peered out of Gus' window. They could see hundreds of rabbits dancing to the ‘Heel and Toe Polka'. It was an incredible sight.

“Gosh, they love the music,”
whispered Harry.

“They'll probably invite more friends to join them,” suggested Mudpoo, “we'd better turn the music off.”

Captain Pete, Liz, Harry and Mudpoo left the happy rabbits still joyfully bouncing about dancing (even though the music was off) and walked back to the house.

They all stopped by the dam to admire the wise, old wedge-tailed eagle who was sitting high on a limb of the dead gum tree.

“Eagles are birds of prey,” whispered Captain Pete, “they eat rabbits, but only enough to feed their families.”

“Aren't they beautiful,” beamed Liz.

“If only they could scare the rabbits away,” said Captain Pete, thoughtfully.

“Inland carpet pythons live on rabbits,” suggested Liz hopefully, “maybe we can find some of them to scare the rabbits away.”

“They're very rare around here these days, I haven't seen any for quite a while, it's almost as though they've suddenly just disappeared,” said Captain Pete.
“NO . . . I NEED TO COME UP WITH A NEW INVENTION!”