TREASURE of the STARS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21802, 6 June 1936, Page 7 (Supplement)

TREASURE of the STARS

* WHAT HAS HAPPENED

Peter, Bill, and Bumps Murray, together with their Aunt Matilda and their friend Twopence, hide in a rocketaeroplane to escape from an old sailer, Pop-Eye, who is searching for their father’s invention. Peter releases the machinery of the rocket, and it shoots into the air. Eventually they land on what seems to be a strange planet.

CHAPTER 5 We Meet Friends Slowly, our machine came to the ground. Our eyes were almost popping out of our heads, and I am sure that there was not one of us whose heart did not go pit-a-pat. In fact, it was extraordinary that we could hear anything else. I know that Peter s heart, for instance, had risen right into his throat, and settled quite comfortably there, while Bumps said afterwards that hers had fallen right down into her stomach, and beat hard in the wrong place. It was Aunt Matilda who first spoke. “Why,” she said. “It must belt looks just like our world.” It was our world, and it wasn’t our world, if you know what I mean. We had landed on a strip of beach that was shut in by high sandhills. The little waves were as blue and as sparkling as any we had known on our holidays at the seaside, and the sands were as golden and inviting. The same old. sun shone as brilliantly as ever, and the same sky was like a blue vault overhead. It seemed that it must be our earth. Yet we could not forget the strange houses, the strange hills, the foreboding that had swept over us on first sight of the land. One by one we clambered out. I must say we looked a sorry crew. Even Aunt Matilda seemed a bit rakish with her hat on one side of her head, and her dress crumpled. As for the girls—well, anyway we won’t Say too much. And, Bumps needn’t say that I looked like a half-price suit on a quarterprice day, because I didn’t. “The first thing to do,” said Two* pence, gathering some driftwood, "is to make a fire and have a hot cup of tea.” It seemed just like an ordinary picnic then. We soon had a fire going, and as the billy sung cheerily, and we gathered round the flames, we began to feel more cheerful. After all, it was a lark. There were not many who had had such an adventure.- • Suddenly Bill jumped up:

“Grilled fish,” he cried. You just had to sing to those fish, and they came. Believe me, or believe me not. Bill caught two just by wading in the sea, and making a kind of net of his stockings. They were what we needed, and we all began to feel much more cheerful and hopeful about the future. It was when we were raiding a big tree that grew in a little grove at one end of the beach that we saw them first. That tree was a kind of a plum, but if you can imagine a fruit a cross between a plum and a peach, with just a touch of the apple, and a first cousin of a pumpkin, you will realise what the fruit was like. Delicious it was, juicy and rich. I ate three, and was beginning a fourth when Twopence gave a little squeal of joy. “Look!” *he cried. “Children!” They were evidently coming down to the sea to bathe, two girls and two boys, all just about our size. At first, we were so overjoyed to see them that we ran out laughing and cheering. This was our good old earth after all. It was only when we grew nearer that we realised that they were like no children that we had ever seen; even in pictures we had met no such girls and boys. They were beautiful. I tell you, I felt just a lump of half-baked dough, and I saw Bumps and Twopence gaze at each other. Suddenly we knew that we were very dirty and untidy, and that we needed a bathe and a general brush-up. Twopence was the first to speak. She smiled in a friendly way, and 1 must say that, even if Twopence has a mouth that is just a little outsize, it is a good one for smiling. “Hullo,” said Twopence. “Who are you?”

We did so hope that, in spite of their strange appearance, they would talk English. Then our fears would be dispersed. They might even be French or Germans, they didn’t look like Chinese or South Sea Islanders. They certainly did not resemble anyone or anything we had ever heard of or seen.

The boys were dressed in long tunics, sky-blue in colour; and the girls wore little short pants and shirts. The funny thing was that the girls looked like boys, and the boys like girls. We soon got used to this, however, and there was stranger to come. “Howmucrauch” (that’s how it sounded), said one of the girls, smiling in just as friendly a way as Twopence. That was something comforting, anyway. They liked us at first sight. But though we talked, and they talked, no one of us could get any farther. At last one of the boys pointed to out machine, which stood, like a great bird, motionless on the beach. “Jum! Jum! Jum!” he said, or it sounded like that. “Rocket aeroplane!” repeated Bumps, slowly. “Rock-et-aer-o-planc” said the girl. A light broke over her face. She pointed to herself. “Teja!” she said. Then to the other girl. “Amber!” That was homely at anyrate. We knew “Amber.” The two boys were “Lila” and “Tum-tum.” That last was inclined to make Bill laugh, but we soon shut him up. In turn we told our names, and just then Aunt Matilda joined Us. Bumps pointed to her. “Aunt Mat-ilda,” she said. “And who might your friends be, my dears?” asked Aunt Matilda, in her kind voice. •

“Meja! Amber) Lila and Tum-tum” said Twopence, and Aunt Matilda nearly expired on the spot One of the girls—Amber it was —was pointing over the sand-hills

now. It was plain that she wanted us to come with her. It was over the tops of these hills that we could see the roofs of the houses that had

looked io strange. It was cMRSI however, thatMeJa, and Turn-turn were friendly, m friendly, that Aunt Matilda aoifti|..'< her head. 1 "You go with them, dean* afil"* said. “Itl emit here.** ‘Til stay with you. Aunt Matilijp ...5 volunteered Bumps. She’s a Imp -~i. little soul. Bumps, and I could she didn’t want to leave Aqnt Itte tilda all by herself on the beach. $ j| might be lonely. At last we set off— Meja, Aadflb ;ja Tum-tum, Twopence, Peter and Tum-tum 'Was rather a joCbr gW'I&H about my own age I should say. slid down , a sand-hill just as IVW used to dp at home, and signed a T|j. us to follow him. - laughing, wa followed. ■ ' . It was then that I made the iW. -"-II, ‘ tering discovery of to-day. Aal _SS; went down the hills my handa into the sand, and to stop ■; turned an involuntary aocaaniMK t Righting myself I caught sight the sand sticking to my hgWßii could not believe my ere*. 9. seemed impossible, till 1 aaaw.pfjfe whisper from Bill: _ “Whew!” said Bill, "Whew! B ° ld ' JUST WHAT "'JR DID THE CHILDREN FIND OVER THE SANDHILLS? FRIENDS OR 7 FOES?