Jasper and the Green Marvel Read Online Free PDF

and together they went into the hallway, where she stopped in front of a painting.
    ‘There, Professor Orchid,’ she said. ‘That’s the Green Marvel for you.’
    The painting was a life-size portrait of a pretty woman with curly dark red hair, not unlike the colour of the fox, piled on top of her head. She had pale skin and a beautiful straight nose. Her flowing gown was made of dark blue silk and she carried a fan made of soft feathers. Did Jasper notice any of this? I doubt it, which is odd, because usually he was very fond of looking at pretty girls. But the only thing that interested him in this painting was the necklace that the young woman was wearing.
    It was a truly extraordinary necklace made of emeralds: radiant deep green stones. There were square jewels and some were cut into the shapeof a pear and these hung from the necklace itself. ‘Do you see that enormous rectangular stone right in the middle, Professor? It’s believed to be the biggest emerald ever found.’
    Yes, Jasper saw it and he could well believe that what Mrs Haverford-Snuffley said was true. Even he couldn’t imagine a bigger emerald. He stood there looking at the painting with his mouth hanging open, overcome with terrible feelings of greed and desire. So this was the Green Marvel.
    Jasper wanted it.
    ‘Where is it now?’ he said when he was at last able to speak again.
    ‘That’s the problem, nobody knows. It belonged to Georgiana Haverford-Snuffley, the girl in the painting. She was the daughter of Theophilus Haverford-Snuffley. He was very fond of pictures and it was he who had the Haverford-Snuffley Angel painted more than two hundred years ago – but that’s a whole other story.’
    ‘Indeed,’ said Jasper, who knew more than enough about the Haverford-Snuffley Angel.
    ‘The story goes,’ she continued, ‘that the Green Marvel is hidden somewhere here in the Hall. When I was little I remember hearing it said that it was hidden in the kitchen, but that can’t be true, or I’m sure Mrs Knuttmegg would have come across it long before now. Nobody knows for sure, maybe it’s gone for good. Maybe it was stolen or simply lost. But, who knows, Professor, you might even find it when you’re out digging.’ For a moment Jasper was tempted to run outside and grab his shovel, and to dig and dig and dig.
    ‘I’m joking, of course, it’s highly unlikely that that will happen. But the story is quite persistent that it was hidden here and has never been found. If only I knew where it was! Then my little foxy-woxy and all his friends could live happily ever after, couldn’t you, my love? I’d take care of you.’
    And you would too, you mad old cabbageof a lulu, Jasper thought angrily. You’d use it to help a bunch of mangy, good-for-nothing animals.
    In that moment his mind was quite made up. He decided that he wasn’t going to leave, no matter how much he hated the food and the work. He would stay in Haverford-Snuffley Hall, he would find the Green Marvel and he would keep it for himself!
    But what Jasper didn’t realise was that, deep in his pocket, the two rats had woken up and were listening with great interest to every word that was said.

11 Two Surprises for Rags and Bags
    That very night, Rags and Bags set out to look for the Green Marvel in the kitchen, but things didn’t go at all according to plan. To begin with, they got into the dumb-waiter again, but when it descended and the doors opened they found to their surprise that they were in the drawing room instead of the kitchen.
    They hopped out and looked around. It wasn’t where they wanted to be, but everything in the house was still new to them and therefore fascinating. There was an armchair beside thefire, and on the table beside it was a book and some knitting, with the needles stuck into the ball of wool. ‘This must be where Mrs Haverford-Snuffley sits in the evening,’ Bags said.
    They climbed up on to the table to have a better look at everything, and