The Borribles - Larrabeiti Michael - Страница 30

It was a cold and clear night and a ground frost made their footsteps crunch loudly as they walked over the stiff white grass. They did not speak but there was not one of them who did not yearn at that moment for the crowded and friendly streets of his Borough. After a walk of about a mile Orococco stopped and the Adventurers gathered in a circle. The Borrible from Tooting could not resist a joke even then. "Why, friends," he laughed, "we looks like a Black and White Minstrel Show."

"Get on with it," snapped Stonks, who like everybody else was very tense and eager to begin.

"Okay, Mr Bones," said Orococco, "you see that mound beginning to rise a little, over there, against the sky? That's the Bunker, only it looks like a hill. There's a couple of saplings and a few bushes to the right; they screens the Great Door. If we climbs the hill and walks over it in a straight line, we'll come to the exit hole of the ventilation network, and on in a straight line from that, 'bout half a mile, is the back door, smaller, not so well made. Don't stamp your feet when you're on the hill, you'll wake up all the rats in Rumbledom if you do."

"Right then," said Stonks, "I get off here. My target's just the other side of that door."

"With a hundred thousand friends," added Napoleon, sardonically.

"Kind of odds that keep a Borrible alert," answered Stonks, not to be put down even by a friendly jest . . . and you never knew with a Wendle.

"Who do you want to go with you?" asked Knocker. "We must get on, we've got to be out by dawn."

"Torreycanyon, if he'll come," said Stonks turning to his friend.

" 'Course I will," said Torreycanyon in answer and he began to creep quietly away. "We'll give you ten minutes, then we go in."

The remainder went on, moving at a jogging trot up the side of the hill that rose over the Bunker. Sure enough, at the top, hidden by thick gorse bushes, was the main outlet for the air conditioning system of the whole Bunker city. It was covered by a large iron grille, solid and heavy, painted green to camouflage its appearance. Orococco said, "There she is. Now, who's coming with me to the other door? I can recommend it, very frail and only five hundred and fifty Rumbles guarding it. Any offers?"

Bingo sprang up. "Battersea and Tooting together," he cried, "what a team! I'll pick you up by the legs, you old Totter, and bash them to smithereens with your head bone."

Orococco turned to Knocker." Give us five minutes," he said, "and by the time you've got the kettle boiled for tea we'll be in there with you," and he and Bingo ran off.

There were six of them left round the vent now; Chalotte, Sydney, Adolf, Napoleon, Vulge and Knocker himself. They squatted and waited.

"Friends," said Vulge after a while, "those five minutes have gone into eternity. Shall we dance?"

Napoleon forced his knife under the edge of the ventilation grille and pushed it in as far as it would go. Then he exerted all his strength and levered and twisted; the grille shifted in its sockets just a little.

"It's coming," said Sydney, and shoved a stone into the gap so that the grille could not fall back into its grooves. Adolf and Knocker seized the edge of it and pulled together to upend the square of heavy iron before lowering it to the ground. Chalotte bent over the dark aperture and peered in. "It looks a long way down," she said.

Napoleon risked a quick beam of light from his torch. The ventilation shaft dropped vertically for about ten feet then turned a right-angled corner.

"There's only one way to find out where it goes," said Vulge, "and that's to go."

They had all brought a length of strong rope with them, wound round their waists, and Vulge took his and tied it firmly to the foot of a nearby growth of gorse.

"I'll go first," he said. "I'll give you the whistle if it looks all right." He tested the rope and looked closely at the faces of his fellow Adventurers. " 'Ere we go—and don't let's get caught."

And he slipped over the edge and was gone. One moment he had been standing there smiling and wagging his head, the next nothing was to be seen but a section of tightened rope. A minute later the rope became slack and they heard the familiar Borrible whistle.

"I'll go next," cried Chalotte excitedly, and she took the cord firmly between her hands and stepped backwards into space, walking casually down the side of the shaft.

"Verdammt," said Adolf, nudging Knocker, "she is very good that girl."

Napoleon decided that Sydney should follow Chalotte and then he himself would go down. To Knocker and Adolf he simply said, "You two come afterwards, and remember the Adventure has really come to its climax now. You are not to interfere with any of us unless we ask. This is our Adventure, see."

Adolf watched the Wendle slither down the rope, leaving him and Knocker standing alone on the windy hill. "He doesn't like you very much, you know," he said to Knocker. "He thinks you are up to something."

Knocker grinned and whispered to the German, "I am up to something, mate, and you're going to be up to it with me. As for Napoleon it's in his nature to be suspicious, Wendles always are."

"Ho ho," hooted Adolf, "never mind all that. Something is what I like to be up to. Let's hurry."

Stonks and Torreycanyon sneaked through the gorse bushes on their bellies and approached the Great Door with caution. A premature alarm would alert the defences and change the task of the Borrible attackers from a difficult to an impossible one. The grass and bushes were damp with the threat of the coming dew and soon the two attackers and their clothes were drenched.

"We'll soon dry off when we get inside," said Torreycanyon. "I'll use my Rumble as a towel."

"It's funny in a way, isn't it?" said Stonks. He stopped crawling and faced his companion. "Going after a bloke with the same name. It's like going after yourself. I mean, the names we've got aren't our names, they're really theirs, and when we've eliminated them, why then the names will be ours for ever, and the Adventure we've had, even if we've been killed, can never be taken away."

"It'll be taken away if we're all killed and nobody gets back to tell the story. If it's never written down, then it's gone for ever, have you thought of that?"

"Yeah, maybe Knocker shouldn't have come this far. He can't be Historian if he's captured or killed."

Torreycanyon held Stonks by the arm for a moment. "Ah," he said, "but if he hadn't have come this far he would have had no story to tell."

About ten yards from the door they stopped side by side and checked their watches.

"Another five minutes."

"Look at that door," said Stonks, with respect in his voice, "im-bloody-pregnable." It was true. Although not large, for Rumbles are about the same size as Borribles, it was stoutly built in oak, with iron bars reinforcing it. Its hinges were massive and heavy, designed to withstand a great deal of battering. By the time it was vanquished, that door, all the Rumbles in Rumbledom could be behind it.

"This is the time for guile," said Torreycanyon wisely, "but what kind of guile, I do not know."

Stonks looked at his watch. "Come on," he said, "I have an idea. Let's unwind our ropes."

Stonks joined the two pieces of cord together, then crouching, he made for the trees that grew a short distance from the Bunker door. Torreycanyon followed.

At the foot of a stout sapling Stonks said, "You're going to climb this tree, so as it'll bend down with your weight. Here's the rope, tie the middle of it round the top of the tree and drop both ends down. Got it?"

"Yeah," said Torreycanyon, " 'course I got it," and he scrambled up the tree which drooped more and more as he climbed higher.

The tree swooped and bobbed as Torreycanyon tied the rope to the slim trunk and threw the loose ends to Stonks, whose shape he could make out only dimly in the darkness below. Then Torreycanyon felt himself drawn nearer and nearer to the ground, as the strongest of the Borribles pulled on the rope until the topmost twigs of the tree touched the grass.

"Stay where you are, Torrey," said Stonks breathlessly, "keep your weight on while I tie it down to this root over here."

It took Stonks but a moment to secure the sapling and when he had finished he allowed Torreycanyon to step from his perch.

"Whatever it is you're going to do, Stonksie, you'd better do it now, because the others are going in at this very moment."

As Torreycanyon said this someone stirred behind the Great Door. Stonks winked at his companion and took up the spare piece of rope that dangled from the tree-top. He went over to the Great Door, knocked and then spoke up firmly in a Rumble voice. "Sowwy to twouble you, old bean, but I've something splendid here and I thought you might like it, I mean it could do wonders for your weputation. Come on, Stonks, open up there's a good sort."

There was a second's hesitation on the far side of the door and then Stonks and Torreycanyon heard the bolts being slid and a key being turned in the massive lock.

"Torrey," whispered Stonks, "when I tip you the wink, do that rope," and Stonks stood behind the door as it swung slowly open.

Then Stonks the Borrible spoke to Stonks the Rumble, both of them the strongest of their tribe.

"I wealise you're vewy stwong, Stonksie, but even I don't think you can keep hold of this," and the Borrible put the rope's end around the door and thrust it into the greedy hand of the Rumble. "Hang on," said the Borrible, "wemember we Wumbles never let go," and he made a gesture to Torreycanyon who severed the restraining cord with one sweep of his knife. The sapling was released and it sprang upright with enormous power and speed, dragging the short end of rope with it. The Rumble door-keeper at the end of the rope, true to his breeding and upbringing, held on tightly and shot through the doorway like the first Rumble rocket to the moon, knocking the Great Door open with such force that it would have killed Stonks had he not jumped away from the danger.