Explosive Adventures Read Online Free PDF

another. Greed: they could hardly resist the thought of a popcorn feast. And laziness: somebody else would be doing it for them.
    “Well, I must say you children isn’t too bad,” said Bert. “Why don’t you do that little thing for us. What do you say, men?”
    The other pirates all nodded their agreement.
    “Shall we do it for lunch tomorrow?” asked Lucy. “If you wouldn’t mind giving us the morning off work, we’ll get everything ready.”
    “Naturally,” said Bert. “It’s all in a good cause, of course. But you’ll have to work twice as hard in the afternoon, mind you.”
    Lucy left them to the rest of their dinner and went back to the others.
    “It’s working,” she said. “They fell for it. Now all we have to do is get everything ready tomorrow morning.”
    That night, as they lay in their hammocks – or on the galley floor, as the case may be – each of them thought of what was planned for the next day. It was a very daring plan, which might just work. Of course, if it didn’t work … Well, that didn’t bear thinking about.
    The next morning Tommy accompanied the girls down into the hold of the pirate ship to get supplies of popcorn for the lunch.
    “We’ll need a whole sack,” said Lucy, pointing to a particularly large sack of popcorn on top of all the others.
    Tommy was a bit unsure, but his natural greed soon overcame his doubts.
    “I suppose that’s all right,” he said, as he lifted the sack down on his broad shoulders and began to carry it to the galley. “I must say I can’t wait to taste some of this stuff. I hope it’s as good as you say it is, otherwise we shall all be very cross indeed and we may be tempted to throw you to the sharks.”
    Sam was waiting for them in the galley. They had it to themselves that morning, as Mrs Bert saw no reason to cook if therewas going to be a popcorn feast for lunch. So the children did not even have to whisper as they made their preparations, and they were even able to bring Biscuit out of his hiding place to give him a chance to stretch his legs around the galley.
    The first thing that they had to do was to move the cooking stove into the middle of the galley. This was not difficult, as the stove was on wheels, which could be locked into position once it was in the right place. Then, when the stove was ready, Sam and Lucy went off to the bathroom and carried back the large tin bath which the pirates used to wash in. Thiswas given a good scrubbing and placed on top of the stove.
    “Now all we have to do is to pour in the oil,” said Lucy. “And then we can put the popcorn in.”
    The children went to the galley cupboard and took out several large bottles of cooking oil. These were poured into the tin bath, where they made a greasy, golden pool.
    “Now,” said Lucy. “Let’s pour in the popcorn.”
    There’s a very large amount of popcorn in a popcorn sack, and when they had finished, the tin bath was filled to the very brim with raw popcorn.
    Lucy stood back and inspected their work. “I think we’re ready,” she said. “Let’s put Biscuit back in the cabin and then we can sit down and wait until lunchtime.”
    There was only an hour or so to go before lunch, but it seemed to thechildren that the minutes were dragging by terribly slowly. Then, at last, the hands of the galley clock pointed to twelve o’clock and they knew that it was too late to back out.

8
    A Lot of Popcorn
    The pirates did not need to be reminded of the treat in store for them. At precisely twelve o’clock Tommy was at the galley door, where his eyes fell hungrily on the large tub of unpopped popcorn.
    “Oh my goodness!” he cried, rubbinghis stomach in anticipation. “This looks very interesting!”
    The others arrived shortly afterwards. Mrs Bert was the last to sit down, as she had some difficulty finding her teeth. But at last they were found in one of the frying pans and everybody was ready. They were all in a very good mood and were clearly