Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Read Online Free PDF Page B

take off through the water. The only hope is that the lightship will realize
    the trouble we're in and send their rescue boat for us. But that'll mean leaving poor CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG marooned out here alone, and she'll gradually be covered by the sea. During the night, she may easily be washed off the sands into deep water and we'll lose her for ever!"
    They all sat there gloomily as the water glugged around them and the fog thickened and there was no sign of a rescue boat. They suddenly realized that they might all be drowned out there in the middle of the English Channel.
    All this while, CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG'S engine had been running steadily on, but very soon, any minute now, the level of the sea would be up to her electric generator; there would be the blinding blue flash of a short circuit and the engine would go dead.
    Suddenly, amongst the many dials and buttons and levers on the dashboard, a violet light began to blink urgently, showing the words "TURN THE KNOB." And quickly, although Commander Pott didn't know the secret of every one of the row upon row of gadgets on the dashboard, he turned the knob under the violet light, and from underneath the car there came a soft grinding of cogwheels and a curious lifting and shifting of the chassis so that the whole family peered out over the sides to see what was happening.
    And do you know what? I bet you can't guess! All four wheels, pointing fore and aft as all car wheels do, had turned and had now flattened out like a hovercraft! Being an inventor, Commander Pott realized what this meant and what the result would be, so he pressed slowly on the accelerator and, just as the waves came up level with the floorboards, all foyer wheels began to turn like propellers. There was a jerk and CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG began to move through the water, just like a motorboat, with the four wheels whizzing round and round propelling her forward.
    Well, that was all very fine, but she was a heavy car with four people in her and the only way to keep from sinking was to go so fast that they were almost skimming over the surface. So Commander Pott trod the accelerator into the floorboards, there was a great whirl of spray from the four wheels, and CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG fairly sped across the surface of the sea, kicking up a big bow wave like a speedboat.
    Commander Pott had quite a tricky time dodging the masts of the sunken wrecks on the Goodwin Sands, weaving in and out of the tall, rusty iron spikes as if they were involved in some kind of watery maze—but a dangerous one— because if Commander Pott hadn't whirled the wheel this way and that they would have ended up as just another Goodwin wreck. The fog swirled around them, the foghorn from the lightship gave its huge double hoot every two minutes and it really was pretty dangerous and spooky.
    To tell the truth, Mimsie and Jeremy and Jemima held their breath and clutched tight to the armrests, expecting any moment to hear a grinding crash and find themselves swimming for dear life. But, somehow, Commander Pott and CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG between them managed to dodge all the obstacles and soon they were in clear water and swooshing along through the fog.
    They had all let out a great "POUFF!" of relief when Jeremy, who had a good sense of direction, said, "But Daddy, aren't we pointing the wrong way? There's the boot of the Goodwin Lightship foghorn coming from down on the right. Oughtn't we to sail toward her and then on past her toward Dover?"
    Commander Pott said sternly, "You mustn't say 'down to the right.' We're all sailors now. You must say 'to starboard'—that's naval language for 'right.' And at sea 'left' is 'port.'" He twirled the wheel to the left so that CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG swirled to the left. "Now we're going to port." He turned the wheel to the right. "Now we're going to starboard. Quite easy to remember. 'Port' and 'left' have fewer letters ih them than 'right' and 'starboard.' "
    "Well, yes," said