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 8: The treehouse

Philip climbed a little higher up the tree and came to a broad platform that someone at sometime had built. When he climbed onto it, he could see it was more than a platform, for part of it was closed off. Philip realised that he had found an old treehouse. And it was quite large. He trod carefully on the old planks of wood, for some of the worn out ones might break under his weight. Still they seemed quite strong. He looked in the doorway and saw that the treehouse wound around the large trunk of the tree. The tree's broad leaves hid it from view.

"Golly," thought Philip, "what a wonderful hiding place. There's heaps of room up here. I'd better tell the others." Philip climbed back down and joined a worried and impatient Lucy-Ann. She exclaimed in amazement at the mynah bird perched on his shoulder. It drew back in fright when it saw Lucy-Ann. Philip put his hand on Lucy-Ann's shoulder and the mynah bird soon allowed her to stroke its feathers.

"What a beautiful bird," said Lucy-Ann. "I wonder what Kiki's going to say?"

"Say 'hello Lucy-Ann'," said Philip to the mynah bird. "Say 'hello Lucy-Ann, hello Lucy-Ann'."

The mynah cocked its head on one side and looked at Lucy-Ann. "Hello Lucy-Ann," it said in a voice just like Philip's.

Lucy-Ann giggled. "Oh, Philip, two talking birds. This is too funny."

"Come on Lucy-Ann, let's get back to the others, I've got something to tell you."

They pushed their way back through the leaves and emerged in the bright sunshine. The others were awake and missing them by now. Dinah and Jack had woken up startled to find Philip and Lucy-Ann gone. They had just started to search, when Dinah spotted them near the big tree.

"There they are," said Dinah pointing. "And what has Philip got on his shoulder?"

"Kiki, I expect," said Jack, looking around for his parrot.

They ran down and met Lucy-Ann and Philip. Philip introduced them to the mynah bird.

"Hello Lucy-Ann," it said to them both. They laughed.

"Gosh Philip, it sounds just like you." said Dinah.

Lucy-Ann giggled again. The mynah bird imitated Lucy-Ann's giggle.

"And now it sounds just like Lucy-Ann." said Jack in awe. He'd read about mynah birds, but had never seen one up close.

Just then, Kiki flew down to join them. "Open your book at page six," she announced as she settled on Jack's shoulder. She'd caught sight of the mynah bird and stared at it out of the side of her eyes. The mynah stared back.

"Ding dong." said Kiki. "Ding dong, ding dong well."

The mynah imitated Kiki. "Ding dong," it said, "ding dong."

"Help! Help!" yelled Kiki. "Help, Help. Call the police! She ended by making a noise like aeroplane in trouble.

The children laughed. Kiki, pleased with the attention, jumped from one foot to the other on Jack's shoulder. She cleared her throat. Jack knew she was going to begin her express train engine imitation. She usually did it when she wanted to intimidate somebody or show off.

"Kiki," said Jack hastily, "say how do you do."

"How do you do," said Kiki to the mynah bird.

"Hello Lucy-Ann?" said the mynah bird in Philip's voice. Then it added, "How do you do," in Jack's voice.

"What shall we call the mynah," asked Philip.

"Morris Minor," said Kiki, suddenly remembering the car. "Morris mynah." The children laughed.

"All right," said Philip to Kiki. "You win. Morris it is."

"Philip, you said you had something to tell us," said Lucy-Ann.

"Oh, right," said Philip remembering. "I almost forgot. Listen. I've made an amazing discovery."

"What?" asked the others.

"You know when I went to rescue Morris from that huge tree that over hangs the upper pool. Well, I've found an old treehouse."

The other children, excited to hear this, wanted to go and see it right away.

"Well, we'll need some rope." said Philip.

Jack picked up some of the rope they'd brought with them and they made their way down the cliff to the trunk of the huge tree. Philip showed them the hollow trunk.

"I'll go first and secure the rope." said Philip as he wound the rope around his waist. "Then you can pull yourself up with the rope and your feet on the footholds in the bark. Jack. Can you give me a leg up? The first bit's the hardest."

Philip was soon up the tree and had secured the rope by tying it around a large branch of the tree. He called down to Jack. "Okay, it's secure and I've tested it. Send up Lucy-Ann."

Lucy-Ann climbed up inside the hollow trunk with only a little difficulty, then Dinah and then Jack.

When they were all on the branch, the mynah bird and Kiki too, Philip pointed up and said, "We go up here now. Follow me." They climbed behind Philip going from branch to branch as it wound around the tree. They came to the platform and exclaimed in surprise.

"Why, this is wonderful."

"Look at all the room."

"I say, is that a house in the tree?"

They explored the treehouse. It had two rooms on the same level as the deck. The rooms were a curious shape as they wrapped around the tree trunk. Jack found a ladder in the second room and it led up to a smaller room above with a window looking out at the green leaves of the tree.

"We can make a bedroom for the boys and one for the girls," said Lucy-Ann, pleased. "This room that lets out on the deck could be our sitting room."

Jack called down from the upper room. "I say, I've found another ladder going up. I'm going to see where it goes." The others climbed up to the upper room just in time to see Jack disappear up a small ladder built out of driftwood and branches and tied together with some kind of vines. They were the kind of vines the children had seen on lots of trees on this island.

Jack climbed up and up and soon came out on a small deck wrapped around the trunk of the tree near the top. He stood up and found he could part the leaves and see for miles. Down below he could see part of the pool and waterfall. To his left was the large hill they had come over the other day. And all around was the beautiful island. "This is perfect," thought the boy. "It's a great lookout for enemies." He climbed back down and reported to the others.

Then Dinah made a discovery. "I say, look at this." She pointed to a large branch, along which was a narrow walkway complete with a rough broken wooden railing. Philip followed it along the branch, disappearing into the leaves. The others followed him. At the end was a small platform. Philip crouched down.

"What is it?" asked Jack, looking at what Philip was holding.

"It looks like an old ladder made out of vines and driftwood," said Philip. He uncurled it carefully for there was not much room on the platform. The vines were securely attached to a large branch just above the branch they were all standing on. Jack pulled on the vines.

"It seems quite secure, though it must have been here ages," said Jack. "Let's uncoil it and see where it goes."

The children took some time but managed to get the vine ladder uncoiled. Jack then pushed it over the side of the platform and they watched it slither down.

"Do you think it's safe?" asked Dinah doubtfully.

"Oh, I think so," said Jack. "Vines are quite strong and they don't rot like rope. I'm going to try it out and see where we end up."

"Jack," called Philip anxiously, "check the rungs before you put your full weight on them, they might be rotten."

Jack nodded. He tested the first rung and then put his full weight on it, careful to avoid the middle of the rung. Then he did the same with the next one. Jack went down and down slowly. Once he came to a rung that was rotten and called it out to Philip. In all there were seven rotten rungs. He soon emerged from the cover of the tree's leaves and with delight realised the ladder led down to the rocky ledge running around the upper hot pool as the children had named it. What a wonderful find.

He climbed back up, counting the rungs and carefully avoiding the rotten ones.

"I say, it leads directly to the hot pool."

"No!" said Dinah in delight. "That's wonderful. It'll save a lot of time scrambling about on the rocks and climbing up inside the tree trunk."

"Jack! Let's get the rope and haul our suitcases and duffel bags up from here," said Philip. "I was worried about getting them up inside that tree trunk. I assume we're making this our new home." The others nodded. What could be better!

They decided that the girls would go down the ladder and wait for the boys to drop the down. Then they would tie the suitcases and duffel bags one at a time to the rope and the boys would haul them up. Dinah went first, loudly counting the rungs. When she was about to step on a bad one, the boys yelled a warning to her. They did the same for Lucy-Ann.

The children had soon carried their things up into the tree and had settled in. Jack used a couple of old shirts, and with Dinah's help sewed them together to make a kind of bag. Philip tied the 'bag' to the end of the rope. The girls piled it full of soft moss and heather and the boys hauled it up. After a day's hard work, they had made the treehouse into a home.

Lucy-Ann arranged their food in a small space built under the main floor of the treehouse It was cool and dark, a perfect little larder.

Dinah and the boys arranged the moss and heather in the two bedrooms and then laid out their blankets.

"We'll be cosy and warm tonight," said Dinah in a pleased voice. The only thing they couldn't do was light a fire in the treehouse as they were afraid of setting the whole thing on fire.

"Better not," said Philip. "We can always light a fire down near the pool. Come on, I'm going for a swim." They made their way down the ladder and were soon splashing and laughing in the cold seawater lagoon. Then they moved to the hot pool – and how they shrieked when the cold waterfall tumbled over them!

Continues tomorrow...

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