Explosive Adventures Read Online Free PDF Page B

looking forward to their unusual lunch.
    “Makes a change from your potatoes, Mrs Bert,” said Stinger.
    Mrs Bert glared at him angrily. “Nothing wrong with my potatoes, is there, Bert?”
    Bert smiled. “Nothing at all, my dear. But I must say that I does like a nice bit of popcorn now and then.”
    Lucy stepped forward and clapped her hands.
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” she began.
    “Oh, that’s a nice touch,” said Bert. “They shows proper respect for their betters, these kids. I think it was a pretty good bit of work we did when we stealed … I mean, when we invited these kids on board.”
    Lucy waited until he had finished. Then she continued. “To thank you for all your kindness to us, we have prepared a traditional Popcorn Island feast for you. All I have to do is to light the stove and then, in a few minutes you will have all the delicious popcorn you could possibly eat!”
    “Get on with it, then,” said Bert impatiently. “We’re all waiting.”
    Lucy stepped forward and lit the stove. Then the three children stood in the doorway and waited. The pirates all watched hungrily.
    “I hope it doesn’t take too long,” said Tommy. “I didn’t have a big breakfast this morning. I was saving myself for this.”
    “Excuse me,” said Mrs Bert. “I saw you eating like a horse. You had four fried eggs and eight slices of toast. I saw you, Tommy. You can’t fool me. Can you, Bert?”
    “No,” said Bert. “You can’t fool Mrs Bert. I’ve tried for years, but it’s never worked. You can’t fool her.”
    While the pirates were arguing, the children were waiting for the first sounds of popping. Suddenly Sam nudged Lucy, and Lucy in turn nudged Hermione.
    “It’s started,” Lucy whispered. “There it goes.”
    It is a special feature of popcorn from the Popcorn Islands that it explodes with a particularly loud pop. This started to happen all of a sudden, and the pirates let out whoops of delight. As some of the popped corn started to come to the surface, it was grabbed by eager hands and stuffed into eager mouths.
    “Oh, this is wonderful!” mumbled Tommy, as he put handfuls of popcorn into his mouth.
    This brought grunts of agreement from other popcorn-filled mouths. But now, as more popcorn exploded, something quite extraordinary happened. So much popcorn started to go off, popping and cracking like a hundred little fireworks, that it flowed over the edge of the tin tub. The pirates thought this was very exciting, and they got down on their hands and knees to scoop the popcorn off the floor. But they could not do it quickly enough. More popcorn went off, and still more after that. The galley was now beginning to fill up with popping popcorn, surrounding the pirates and completely hemming them in.
    “Help!” shouted Mrs Bert suddenly. “Stop this popcorn! It’s out of control!”
    Nobody heeded her cries. The children certainly did not. They had now closed the galley door and were standing out on the deck, looking in through the window at the pirates. It was an unequal struggle they witnessed. No matter how hard the pirates tried to stand up and get out of the galley, they were forced back into their seats by exploding popcorn. It was like trying to swim in honey – quite impossible.
    “It’s worked!” shouted Hermione. “They’re trapped!”
    It was now a simple matter for Lucy to turn the key in the galley door and lockthe pirates in. They could do nothing to stop her, and they shouted and waved their fists angrily as they realised their plight.

    “We’ll get you!” shouted Stinger, from the middle of the great mound of popcorn which had surrounded him. “It’ll be sharks for you!”
    “Well it’s popcorn for you!” shouted Sam in reply. “And it serves you right too!”

    It was one thing to trap all the pirates, but quite another to take control of the ship. They would now have to try to turn it round and sail right back, hoping to reachthe place where they had last seen