Selby Snaps Read Online Free PDF

white one.
    For a moment there was silence as Chip lay back on the ground, panting. But then there came a loud buzz followed by a whirring noise. Chip sat up straight. The wheels in the bomb mechanism turned and a pin moved down towards a piece of metal.
    ‘It’s the firing pin!’ Selby screamed. ‘Run for your life! It’s going to explode!’
    Captain ‘Chip’ Halloway quickly pulled a wooden pencil from his pocket and thrust it in between the pin and the metal. The wheels stopped. The bomb didn’t explode. Selby breathed a sigh of relief.
    ‘Chip, what’s happening?! Did you cut the wire?! Do you hear me?! Pick up the phone!’ the major yelled.
    Chip reached over and picked up the phone. He was smiling.
    ‘Mission accomplished,’ he said. ‘Now which one of you chaps is going to buy me a drink?’
    A cheer went up from behind the sandbags.
    Selby was just remembering this when another plane swooped down over the Trifles’ house.
    ‘Did you see Selby jump?’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘I do believe these war games are frightening him, poor possum.’
    ‘Frighten, schmighten,’ Selby thought. ‘War games don’t scare this old trooper. In fact I’m sooooo not frightened that I think I’ll go out and see how the war’s coming along.’
    With this Selby made his way out through the hole in the back of the garage. It was rainy anddamp but soon he was dashing along beside a speeding tank with explosions all around him.
    ‘This is so much fun!’ Selby said, as a soldier stopped to pat him. ‘Oh, I’d love to be in the army.’
    Selby spent the day watching soldiers shoot other soldiers with squirts of paint and aeroplanes drop flour bombs. Anyone who got covered in flour had to lie on the ground and pretend they were dead.
    Finally, Selby had turned for home when he saw a group of soldiers lying in a trench. On the other side of a hill was a soldier scooping dirt away from the side of an unexploded bomb.
    ‘Oh, great!’ Selby thought. ‘It’s just like in
Bomb Brigade!
I’ve got to watch this.’
    Selby crept up close and lay watching the soldier next to the bomb. Instead of a telephone, he wore headphones with a mouthpiece that curved out in front of his mouth.
    ‘Hey, Sarge!’ he called out. ‘Talk me through this, okay? I’m scared!’
    Selby snickered to himself.
    ‘Scared,’ he thought. ‘I’m not scared one little bit. I’ve seen the real thing — well the
movie
version of the real thing.’
    ‘What’s the serial number on the bomb, Dwayne?’
    Selby could just hear the voice from Dwayne’s headphones.
    ‘It says AA24356 dash B,’ Dwayne answered, taking out the screws on a metal panel and removing it to see the mechanism inside.
    ‘Hey, that looks like the one in
Bomb Brigade,’
Selby thought. ‘It must be an old one they use for practice.’
    ‘Okay, got it here.’
    ‘Do you see any wires in there?’
    ‘Just two — a black one and a white one.’
    ‘Well-ah-maybe cut the black one.’
    ‘I’d cut the white one,’ Selby thought. ‘But, hey, that’s just me. Do what you want. This is sooooo much fun. I reckon he’s going to get it wrong. But what does it matter — it’s only a game.’
    A plane swooped down overhead.
    ‘Crikey! I wish they wouldn’t do that!’ the soldier muttered. ‘I’m nervous enough as it is.’
    ‘What was that, Dwayne?’
    ‘Never mind. If I cut the black wire, then what?’
    ‘The
white
wire,’ Selby thought again.
    ‘We’re not sure, Dwayne.’
    ‘Come on you guys!’ Dwayne yelled. ‘What do you mean, you’re not sure?!’
    ‘The plan is all ripped. It’s old because it’s an old bomb. Nobody knew there were still live bombs left anywhere till the rain uncovered this one.’
    Selby looked up. It was just starting to rain again. Suddenly those last words sank in.
    ‘A
real
bomb?’ he thought. ‘Is that possible? Oh, no! This must be one of the bombs from the old bomb factory. I’m getting out of here!’
    Selby was about to