The Aeroplane of Adventure

©2009 David Marlor

This novel is based on the characters created by Enid Bylton in the Adventure Series. In this regard, it is the ninth adventure and follows The River of Adventure.

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Chapter 4: Flight to Adventure

"Bill is not on board," repeated Jack in a whisper.

Philip gasped in astonishment. "Golly. Are you sure, Jack? It is dark up here."

"I'm sure, Philip. I could see them clearly by the glow of the dials. They're definitely not Bill or Mike. They weren't speaking English either – it sound Germanic or eastern European. What are we going to do? I don't believe this. We can't be in the wrong plane?"

"No, no we're not," whispered Philip suddenly. "No, we're definitely in the right plane, but if Bill's not flying, then the aeroplane's been stolen or hijacked or something."

Jack groaned. "We've got to stop these night flights, they never work out. Shall we wake the girls and tell them the news?"

"Should we tell the men we're here and that they'd better take us back?" asked Philip, not certain what to do.

"I don't think so. I didn't like the look of them. They looked tough, somehow. Should we wake the girls, Tufty? I think we should because we're going to have to be very quiet. And I don't want Lucy-Ann running up there to fling her arms around Bill when she wakes up."

"Yes, we'd better wake them and make plans. At least we're experts at this sort of thing," said Philip with a wry groan. "Can't we ever have a normal holiday and whatever will mother say? This will be the last time she lets us go flying with Bill."

Philip and Jack woke Lucy-Ann and Dinah and told them the bad news. Lucy-Ann looked like she was ready to cry. She stayed close to Jack and huddled under the blankets. It wasn't very nice to be high up in the air with bad guys controlling the aeroplane.

"What are we going to do?" asked Dinah. She had to talk loudly so that the three children could hear her above the roar of the engines. It was no good whispering, unless she wanted to whisper into each person's ear in turn.

"Well," said Philip considering. "I don't think they will come back here. It's a bit too tight for a grown-up to get past that crate, but I suppose they could squeeze by if they had to. It was a tight fit for us. And there are tons of rugs back here."

Lucy-Ann grabbed Philip's arm and pointed to the back of the plane. "What's that?" she asked. Philip looked to where she pointed and saw the letters WC glowing in a light green.

"That's the toilet," said Philip. "Use it if you have to, but don't make too much noise."

"I don't need it," said Lucy-Ann. "What are you doing, Jack?"

Jack had crept to the side of the crate. He came back, looking a little shaky. " I say, that's the only WC on this aeroplane."

"So what?" asked Dinah. "We can use it if we want to."

"That's not my point," said Jack. "What if those men have to use it, and they squeeze by the crate? They'll surely find us. And then what?"

The children were all silent as they let this sink in. What would they do if one of the men suddenly decided they needed to use the WC. "Why," thought Lucy-Ann, "they might tip us out of the plane."

"What about the crate?" said Dinah suddenly. "Couldn't we hide in it? Look, there's a hasp on this side."

"Come on," said Jack, "let's see if we can hide in here." Jack and Philip managed to undo the hasp. Inside the crate were pillows, blankets and some canned foods.

"You know," said Philip, "we could pull out some of the rugs, blankets and canned food and put them under those rugs piled at the back. The men would never know that they weren't there before. I think there's enough room inside for us all to fit, although it will be a bit tight."

They set to work at once, and soon had hollowed out enough room inside the crate to fit all four of them and Kiki.

"I think," said Jack, "that we should sleep in the crate and that one of us should keep watch at the side of the crate. If we see one of the men move, we can get into the crate quickly and close the hasp. It really would be most uncomfortable to close it unless we had to."

The others voted this a good plan. Lucy-Ann, Dinah, Philip and Kiki made themselves as comfortable as possible inside the crate.

"At least we've got lots of food," said Dinah.

Jack took first watch alongside the crate. He lay near the back and kept a careful watch on the curtain covering the cockpit entrance. If it moved, he would give the signal. Jack wondered what Bill was doing now. He must have been very worried when he saw his aeroplane take off without him. Surely he must be searching for them by now. Maybe they could trace this plane. Jack remembered Bill telling him that all aeroplanes had a unique signature that radar could trace. Although Bill said it could be turned off. The men probably had turned it off if they had stolen the plane.

Jack also wondered where they were going. He fished out his small pocket compass and looked at it. It looked like they were heading south, in the opposite direction than Bill had filed a flight plan for. He looked at the luminous hands on his watch and saw that they'd been flying for over an hour now. How long could this plane go before it ran out of fuel?

He felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Philip, coming to relieve him of his watch. "My turn, Freckles. You get some sleep."

Jack nodded and let Philip take over. It was about an hour later, as Philip felt his eyes starting to close, when he suddenly saw a movement at the curtain. Philip quickly crawled back and shook Jack. "Come on, Freckles, into the crate."

Jack and Philip quickly crawled into the crate and pulled the hasp closed. Philip has some twine and managed to tie the door closed so it wouldn't come open. The girls were now awake and they all held their breath as they could feel the man pushing his way down the side of the crate. He cursed as he tried to squeeze by it. "Stupid crate. Why would anyone want to carry this about? What a waste of space," grumbled the man in a bad temper. Then he said something in another language that the children didn't understand.

Kiki tried to mimic it under her breath. Jack reached into her cage and tapped her on the beak. "Quiet," he hissed. Kiki mumbled something about Jack and then put her head under her wing.

The crate shook a little as the man pushed his way past. "I really should just dump this overboard," he grumbled. The shaking stopped and they could hear him make his way to the WC at the back of the plane.

A few minutes later they heard him returning. Suddenly there was an exclamation. The children held their breath. What had he found? Surely they hadn't left anything to show they were there?

They soon knew what he'd found though. They felt the crate shake as he pushed his way back to the front, and they could hear him shouting to the other man in English. "Hey, Heinrich! There's tons of food on this plane. The owner stocks it all at the back. Are you hungry?" Then he lapsed into a foreign language. The shaking stopped and the children let out a collective sigh.

"Wow," said Jack at last. "That was close. Thanks to Philip, we weren't caught. Goodness knows what they would have done if they'd found us. I didn't like the sound of them, did you'?" Nobody did. Even the few grumbled words they'd heard sounded sinister.

"Can't we eat?" asked Lucy-Ann. "I'm getting really hungry. And do we have to stay in this crate?"

"I think we should," said Jack. "But we could open the hasp and let some air in. One of us should listen out for the men and close it if they come back here again."

The children decided that Dinah would take the next watch. All of the children were wide awake now. Lucy-Ann pulled out some cans of tongue and tins of peaches and a tin of shortbread biscuits from behind her. Philip had a small tin opener on his Swiss pocket knife. The children ate the food in silence. Lucy-Ann thought it was the strangest meal they'd ever eaten. Sitting in a crate, high above the earth heading to goodness knows where. Jack give Kiki some of the peaches. Then Philip found a bottle of water and they washed down their meal with that.

"I feel much better," said Dinah, as she listened and watched carefully for any sign of one of the men coming to the back of the plane. "Can anybody think of what we should do? I keep thinking and thinking, and the only plan I can come up with is to try to get help when we land. Surely we must be landing soon?"

As she said that, the children all heard the engine tone drop a note and felt the plane starting to drop.

"We're going down," said Jack in delight. "We must be landing soon." The aeroplane continued to drop. Slowly at first, then more steeply. So steep that the children had to hold on to stop them from sliding down the crate.

"It's lucky this crate is well and truly tied down," said Philip to Jack, "otherwise we'd slide down the aeroplane." The aeroplane twisted around a few steep turns.

"We're just descending to land," said Philip, seeing Lucy-Ann's scared face. The plane levelled and then dropped onto the ground with a bump and a squeal from the tyres. The engine noise grew loud as the plane braked fast, throwing the children to the front of the crate again. Then there came a bumping as they taxied. Finally the engines shut down, leaving a ringing in the children's ears. It felt funny to be on the ground again. But where in the world were they?

Continues tomorrow...

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