Secret Army Read Online Free PDF Page B

buildings and told the boys to be careful not to slip as they walked up the icy front path and through the unlocked front door of the house. After shutting the door behind herself, McAfferty sat at the bottom of the stairs and began unlacing her shoes as the boys stamped feet and rubbed their hands to get warm.
    ‘Oh, me feet are killing me,’ McAfferty sighed, before shouting out. ‘Anybody home?’
    The shout caused a skinny-legged boy to bolt out from a conservatory at the back of the house. He wore baggy white shorts and a blue-and-white striped rugby shirt that was much too big for him.
    ‘Keep the noise down,’ the boy said anxiously. ‘Mrs Henderson’s asleep. She’s got one of her headaches and she’s in a mood.’
    ‘Oh we don’t want to upset Mrs Henderson, do we, Paul?’ McAfferty smiled.
    Paul looked at the two new arrivals. ‘Mrs Henderson’s a bit moody,’ he explained, as he pointed up at the ceiling toward the bedroom directly above.
    ‘You seem to be running nicely,’ McAfferty noted. ‘Is your ankle better?’
    Paul shifted uncomfortably. ‘It’s mostly better,’ he stuttered. ‘But I still get twinges and that.’
    McAfferty aimed her hand at the two new arrivals and made a formal introduction. ‘Paul, I’d like you to meet our new potential recruit, Troy LeConte, and his younger brother, Mason. Troy, Mason, this is Paul Clarke, one of our more reluctant trainees.’
    Paul smirked guiltily at McAfferty’s description, as he shook Troy and Mason’s hands. ‘Good to meet you,’ he said politely.
    ‘Paul, I’m going to make Troy and Mason something hot to eat. Perhaps while I’m cooking you could take them across to the school building and introduce them to the others?’
    Paul pointed back towards the conservatory he’d emerged from a few moments earlier. ‘I’ve got to finish feeding for Mrs Henderson first. I’m halfway through and I don’t want to get it mixed up.’
    ‘Ahh,’ McAfferty smiled. ‘OK then, why don’t you introduce Troy and Mason to our eight-legged residents, then you can take them across to meet the gang after they’ve eaten?’
    ‘What are you making?’ Paul asked. ‘I’m pretty famished myself.’
    ‘I’ll look in the cupboard,’ McAfferty said. ‘I’ll do something quick. Mushrooms on toast, or bacon. Do you boys like bacon?’
    Troy nodded eagerly. ‘We haven’t eaten since our dinner last night.’
    ‘Need feeding up then.’ McAfferty grinned. ‘And how Paul can eat so much and stay so skinny I’ll never know.’
    As McAfferty headed into the kitchen Troy and Mason followed Paul down the hallway and into a ramshackle conservatory at the back of the house. A pair of paraffin heaters filled the space with a sweet smell and kept the temperature close to thirty-five centigrade.
    Along the walls lay glass cages. Mason approached and got a fright as he saw a huge hairy-legged spider sitting on the sawdust floor beneath a rotting tree stump.
    ‘Wow!’ Mason gasped. ‘What are these things?’
    ‘Tarantulas mostly,’ Paul explained. ‘That’s Mavis, a cobalt blue. You see how the legs and body are bluish and reflect the light?’
    ‘Can you take him out?’ Troy asked.
    ‘Her,’ Paul corrected, as he shook his head. ‘The males are smaller and quite dull-looking. You wouldn’t want to handle Mavis. Some spiders only look scary, but cobalt blues are mad. She’ll go crazy for no reason. Her poison isn’t deadly but her fangs are a third of an inch long.’
    ‘Where’s the biggest one?’ Mason asked as he moved along the cages, closely followed by Troy.
    ‘The goliath at the bottom is biggest,’ Paul explained. ‘But she hides inside her piece of pipe all the time. Mrs Henderson traps dormice in the fields and gives her one every two or three days.’
    ‘Why are they here?’ Troy asked.
    ‘Mrs Henderson worked in the insect house at London Zoo,’ Paul explained. ‘When the war started they were told to kill all the