The Ship of Adventure Read online

  Enid Blyton, who died in 1968, is one of the most successful children’s authors of all time. She wrote over seven hundred books, which have been translated into more than forty languages and have sold more than 400 million copies around the world. Enid Blyton’s stories of magic, adventure and friendship continue to enchant children the world over. Enid Blyton’s beloved works include The Famous Five, Malory Towers, The Faraway Tree and the Adventure series.

  Titles in the Adventure series:

  1. The Island of Adventure

  2. The Castle of Adventure

  3. The Valley of Adventure

  4. The Sea of Adventure

  5. The Mountain of Adventure

  6. The Ship of Adventure

  7. The Circus of Adventure

  8. The River of Adventure

  First published 1950 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  This edition published 2007 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  This electronic edition published 2010 by Macmillan Children’s Books

  a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

  Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR

  Basingstoke and Oxford

  Associated companies throughout the world

  www.panmacmillan.com

  ISBN 978-0-330-52070-6 in Adobe Reader format

  ISBN 978-0-330-52069-0 in Adobe Digital Editions format

  ISBN 978-0-330-52071-3 in Mobipocket format

  Text copyright © 1950 Enid Blyton Limited. All rights reserved. Enid Blyton’s signature mark is a trademark of Enid Blyton Limited (a Chorion company). All rights reserved.

  You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases

  Contents

  1.

  A grand holiday plan

  2.

  On the Viking Star

  3.

  Everyone settles in

  4.

  Philip collects a pet

  5.

  Lucian arrives

  6.

  The tale of Andra’s treasure

  7.

  Lucian is very helpful

  8.

  The ship in the bottle

  9.

  The secret of the Ship of Adventure

  10.

  Hiding places

  11.

  Lucian in trouble

  12.

  The second piece of the map

  13.

  Goodbye, Mr Eppy!

  14.

  Things begin to happen!

  15.

  Bill hears the tale

  16.

  Bill makes a few enquiries

  17.

  To Thamis at last!

  18.

  A few surprises

  19.

  All kinds of shocks

  20.

  Exploring the treasure route

  21.

  Kiki is very tiresome

  22.

  Mr Eppy again

  23.

  Treasure – and trickery!

  24.

  Prisoners!

  25.

  What happened in the night

  26.

  Next morning

  27.

  Unexpected visitors

  28.

  Escape!

  29.

  Happy ending after all!

  1

  A grand holiday plan

  ‘Mother’s got something up her sleeve,’ said Philip Mannering. ‘I know she has. She’s gone all mysterious.’

  ‘Yes,’ said his sister, Dinah. ‘And whenever I ask what we’re going to do these hols she just says “Wait and see!” As if we were about ten years old!’

  ‘Where’s Jack?’ said Philip. ‘We’ll see if he knows what’s up with Mother.’

  ‘He’s gone out with Lucy-Ann,’ said Dinah. ‘Ah – I can hear old Kiki screeching. They’re coming!’

  Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent came in together, looking very much alike with their red hair, green eyes and dozens of freckles. Jack grinned.

  ‘Hallo! You ought to have been with us just now. A dog barked at Kiki, and she sat on a fence and mewed like a cat at him. You never saw such a surprised dog in your life!’

  ‘He put his tail down and ran for his life,’ said Lucy-Ann, scratching Kiki on the head. The parrot began to mew again, knowing that the children were talking about her. Then she hissed and spat like an angry cat. The children laughed.

  ‘If you’d done that to the dog he’d have died of astonishment,’ said Jack. ‘Good old Kiki. Nobody can be dull when you’re about.’

  Kiki began to sway herself from side to side, and made a crooning noise. Then she went off into one of her tremendous cackles.

  ‘Now you’re showing off,’ said Philip. ‘Don’t let’s take any notice of her. She’ll get noisy and Mother will come rushing in.’

  ‘That reminds me – what’s Mother gone all mysterious about?’ said Dinah. ‘Lucy-Ann, haven’t you noticed it?’

  ‘Well – Aunt Alison does act rather as if she’s got something up her sleeve,’ said Lucy-Ann, considering the matter. ‘Rather like she does before somebody’s birthday. I think she’s got a plan for the summer holidays.’

  Jack groaned. ‘Blow! I’ve got a perfectly good plan too. Simply wizard. I’d better get mine in before Aunt Allie gets hers.’

  ‘What’s yours?’ asked Dinah, with interest. Jack always had wonderful plans, though not many of them came to anything.

  ‘Well – I thought we could all go off together on our bikes, taking a tent with us – and camp out in a different place each night,’ said Jack. ‘It would be super.’

  The others looked at him scornfully. ‘You suggested that last hols and the hols before,’ said Dinah. ‘Mother said “No” then, and she’s not likely to say “Yes” now. It is a good plan, going off absolutely on our own like that – but ever since we’ve had so many adventures Mother simply won’t hear of it.’

  ‘Couldn’t your mother come with us?’ suggested Lucy-Ann hopefully.

  ‘Now you’re being silly,’ said Dinah. ‘Mother’s a dear – but grown-ups are so frightfully particular about things. We’d have to put our macs on at the first spot of rain, and coats if the sun went in, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t each have to have an umbrella strapped to our bike-handles.’

  The others laughed. ‘I suppose it wouldn’t do to ask Aunt Allie too, then,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘What a pity!’

  ‘What a pity, what a pity,’ agreed Kiki at once. ‘Wipe your feet and shut the door, where’s your hanky, naughty boy!’

  ‘Kiki’s got the idea, all right!’ said Philip. ‘That’s the kind of thing that even the nicest grown-ups say, isn’t it, Kiki, old bird?’

  ‘Bill isn’t like that,’ said Lucy-Ann at once. ‘Bill’s fine.’

  Everyone agreed at once. Bill Cunningham, or Bill Smugs as he had first called himself to them, was their very firm friend, and had shared all their adventures with them. Sometimes they had dragged him into them, and sometimes it was the other way round – he had got into one and they had followed. It really d
id seem, sometimes, as Mrs Mannering said, that adventures cropped up wherever Bill and the children were.

  ‘I had an idea for these hols too,’ said Philip. ‘I thought it would be pretty good fun to camp down by the river, and look for otters. I’ve never had an otter for a pet. Lovely things they are. I thought—’

  ‘You would think of a thing like that,’ said Dinah, half crossly. ‘Just because you’re mad on all kinds of creatures from fleas to – to . . .’

  ‘Elephants,’ said Jack obligingly.

  ‘From fleas to elephants, you think everyone else is,’ said Dinah. ‘What a frightful holiday – looking for wet, slimy otters – and having them in the tent at night, I suppose – and all kinds of other horrible things too.’

  ‘Shut up, Dinah,’ said Philip. ‘Otters aren’t horrible. They’re lovely. You should just see them swimming under the water. And by the way, I’m not mad on fleas. Or mosquitoes. Or horse-flies. I think they’re interesting, but you can’t say I’ve ever had things like that for pets.’

  ‘What about those earwigs you had once – that escaped out of the silly cage you made for them? Ugh! And that stag beetle that did tricks? And that—’

  ‘Oh, gosh! Now we’re off!’ said Jack, seeing one of the familiar quarrels breaking out between Philip and hotheaded Dinah. ‘I suppose we’re going to listen to a long list of Philip’s pets now! Anyway, here comes Aunt Allie. We can ask her what she thinks of our holiday ideas. Get yours in first, Philip.’

  Mrs Mannering came in, with a booklet in her hand. She smiled round at the four children, and Kiki put up her crest in delighted welcome.

  ‘Wipe your feet and shut the door,’ she said, in a friendly tone. ‘One, two, three, GO!’ She made a noise like a pistol shot after the word ‘go’, and Mrs Mannering jumped in fright.

  ‘It’s all right, Mother – she keeps doing that ever since she came to our school sports, and heard the starter yelling to us, and letting off his pistol,’ grinned Philip. ‘Once she made the pistol-shot noise just when we were all in a line, ready to start – and off we went long before time! You should have heard her cackle. Bad bird!’

  ‘Naughty Polly, poor Polly, what a pity, what a pity,’ said Kiki. Jack tapped her on the beak.

  ‘Be quiet. Parrots should be seen and not heard. Aunt Allie, we’ve just been talking about holiday plans. I thought it would be a super idea if you’d let us all go off on our bikes – ride where we liked and camp out each night. I know you’ve said we couldn’t when I asked you before, but—’

  ‘I say “No” again,’ said Mrs Mannering very firmly.

  ‘Well, Mother, could we go off to the river and camp there, because I want to find out more about the otters?’ said Philip, not taking any notice of Dinah’s scowl. ‘You see—’

  ‘No, Philip,’ said his mother, just as firmly as before. ‘And you know why I won’t let you go on expeditions like that. I should have thought you would have given up asking me by now.’

  ‘But why won’t you let us go?’ wailed Lucy-Ann. ‘We shall be quite safe.’

  ‘Now, Lucy-Ann, you know perfectly well that as soon as I let you four out of my sight when holidays come, you immediately – yes, immediately – fall into the most frightful adventures imaginable.’ Mrs Mannering sounded quite fierce. ‘And I am quite determined that these holidays you are not going off any where on your own, so it’s just no good your asking me.’

  ‘But, Mother, that’s just silly,’ said Philip in dismay. ‘You speak as if we go out looking for adventures. We don’t. And I ask you – what possible adventure could we fall into if we just went down to the river to camp? Why, you could come and see us for yourself every evening if you wanted to.’

  ‘Yes – and the very first evening I came I should find you all spirited away somewhere, and mixed up with robbers and spies or rogues of some kind,’ said his mother. ‘Think of some of your holidays – first you get lost down an old copper mine on a deserted island, then another time you get shut up in the dungeons of an old castle, mixed up with spies—’

  ‘Oooh yes – and another time we got into the wrong aeroplane and were whisked off to the Valley of Adventure,’ said Lucy-Ann, remembering. ‘That was when we found all those amazing stolen statues hidden in caves – how their eyes gleamed when we saw them! I thought they were alive, but they weren’t.’

  ‘And the next time we went off with Bill to the bird-islands,’ said Jack. ‘That was grand. We had two tame puffins – do you remember, Philip?’

  ‘Huffin and Puffin,’ put in Kiki at once.

  ‘Quite right, old bird,’ said Philip. ‘Huffin and Puffin they were. I loved them.’

  ‘You may have gone to look for birds – but you found a whole nest of rogues,’ said his mother. ‘Gun-runners! Terribly dangerous.’

  ‘Well, Mother, what about last summer hols?’ said Dinah. ‘You nearly got caught up in that adventure!’

  ‘Horrible!’ said Mrs Mannering with a shiver. ‘That awful mountain with its weird secrets – and the mad King of the Mountain – you nearly didn’t escape from there. No – I tell you quite definitely that you can never again go off anywhere by yourselves. I’m always coming with you!’

  There was a silence at this. All four children were very fond of Mrs Mannering – but they did like being on their own for some part of each holidays.

  ‘Well – Aunt Allie – suppose Bill came with us – wouldn’t that be all right?’ asked Lucy-Ann. ‘I do always feel safe with Bill.’

  ‘Bill can’t be trusted to keep out of adventures either,’ said Mrs Mannering. ‘He’s grand, I know, and I’d trust him more than anyone else in the world. But when you and he get together there’s just no knowing what will happen. So, these holidays, I’ve made a very safe plan – and dear old Bill isn’t in it, so perhaps we shall keep away from danger and extraordinary happenings.’

  ‘What’s your plan, Mother?’ said Dinah nervously. ‘Don’t say we’re going to a seaside hotel or anything like that. They’d never take Kiki.’

  ‘I’m taking you all for a cruise on a big ship,’ said Mrs Mannering, and she smiled. ‘I know you’ll like that. It’s tremendous fun. We shall call at all sorts of places, and see all kinds of strange and exciting things. And I shall have you under my eye, in one place all the time – the ship will be our home for some time, and if we get off at various ports we shall all go in a party together. There won’t be a chance of any strange adventure.’

  The four children looked at one another. Kiki watched them. Philip spoke first.

  ‘It does sound rather exciting, Mother! Yes, it really does. We’ve never been on a really big ship before. Of course, I shall miss having any animals . . .’

  ‘Oh, Philip – surely you can go without your everlasting menagerie of creatures!’ cried Dinah. ‘I must say it’ll be a great relief to me to know you haven’t got mice somewhere about you, or lizards, or slow-worms! Mother, it sounds super, I think. Thanks awfully for thinking up something so exciting.’

  ‘Yes – it sounds smashing,’ said Jack. ‘We’ll see no end of birds I’ve never seen before.’

  ‘Jack’s happy so long as he’s somewhere that will provide him with birds,’ said Lucy-Ann with a laugh. ‘What with Philip with his craze for all kinds of creatures, and Jack with his passion for birds, it’s a good thing we two girls haven’t got crazes for anything as well. Aunt Allie, it’s a wizard plan of yours. When do we go?’

  ‘Next week,’ said Mrs Mannering. ‘That will give us plenty of time to get our things ready and packed. It will be very warm on the cruise, so we must get plenty of thin clothes to wear. White’s the best thing – it doesn’t hold the heat so much. And you must all have sun-hats the whole time, so don’t begin to moan about wearing hats.’

  ‘Isn’t Bill coming?’ asked Philip.

  ‘No,’ said his mother firmly. ‘I feel rather mean about it, because he’s just finished the job he’s on, and he wants a holiday. But this time he’s not coming w
ith us. I want a nice peaceful holiday with no adventure at all.’

  ‘Poor Bill,’ said Lucy-Ann. ‘Still – I daresay he’ll be glad to have a holiday without us, for a change. I say – it’s going to be fun, isn’t it?’

  ‘Fun!’ said Kiki, joining in, and letting off a screech of excitement. ‘Fun, fun, fun!’

  2

  On the Viking Star

  It certainly was fun getting everything ready – buying flimsy clothes and enormous hats, masses of films for the cameras, guidebooks and maps. It was to be quite a long cruise, and the ship was to go to Portugal, Madeira, French Morocco, Spain, Italy and the Aegean Islands. What a wonderful trip!

  At last everything was ready. The trunks were packed and strapped. The tickets had arrived. Passports had been got, and everyone had screamed in dismay to see how hideous they looked in their passport photographs.

  Kiki screamed too, just for company. She loved screeching and screaming, but she wasn’t encouraged in this, so it was a fine change to scream when everyone was doing the same.

  ‘Shut up, Kiki,’ said Jack, pushing her off his shoulder. ‘Fancy screaming right in my ear like that! It’s enough to make me stone deaf. Aunt Allie, will Kiki want a passport?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Mrs Mannering. ‘I’m not even sure she will be allowed to go with us.’

  Jack stared at her in the greatest dismay. ‘But – I can’t go if Kiki doesn’t . I couldn’t leave her behind. She’d be miserable.’

  ‘Well, I’ll write and ask if you can take her,’ said Mrs Mannering. ‘But if the answer is no, you are not to make a fuss, Jack. I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to arrange this trip, and I can’t have you upsetting it just because of Kiki. I can’t imagine that she will be allowed to go – I’m sure passengers would object to a noisy bird like that.’

 
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