Rebecca's World: Journey to the Forbidden Planet
Author: Terry Nation
Date: 1975-01-02 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Childrens; Fiction; Science Fiction; Middle Grade
Description: Rebecca's world is a marvellously gripping (and frequently comic) adventure story, with a memorable cast of characters. A story that will be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
Publisher: Red Fox

Teaser

REBECCA’S WORLD

Rebecca is mysteriously transported to a distant planet as she looks at it through her father’s astral telescope. There she makes friends with three very bizarre characters: Grisby, who has the most painful feet in the universe; Captain ‘K’, a reluctant and bespectacled superman; and Kovak, an unemployed spy known as the man of a thousand faces—all of them embarrassingly alike. She meets the sinister and smooth-talking Mister Glister, and his two henchmen, Lurk and Cringer. And she comes face to face with the evil GHOSTS who control the planet. Rebecca’s new friends tell her about the legend of the GHOST tree and its strange power over the GHOSTS. They explain that if the tree could be found the GHOSTS could be banished forever. The only trouble is the tree is located somewhere in the heart of the Forbidden Lands—a dark and mysterious region filled with weird creatures and hidden perils—where no one has ever dared to venture. Much against their better judgement Rebecca persuades her three companions to go there with her. Their exciting journey, with its dramatic climax, is the story of Rebecca’s World.

Terry Nation, who is one of the most experienced and successful writers of popular television drama, has skilfully transferred his talent from the screen to the printed page. Rebecca’s World is a marvellously gripping (and frequently comic) adventure story, with a memorable cast of characters. A story that will be enjoyed by children and adults alike.

Copyright

Published by G. Whizzard Publications Ltd.
in association with André Deutsch Ltd. 1975
105 Great Russell Street, London WC1.

© 1975 R.M.N. and J.S.N. Trust

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the Publisher.

Printed by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd,
Aylesbury, Bucks, England

ISBN 0 903387 06 9

G. WHIZZARD ANDRE DEUTSCH

Dedication

This is for Kate. Bert and Sue.
Tom and Nora. It’s for Joel, but
most particularly it’s for Beck.

CONTENTS

First Author’s Note
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14 / Chapter 15 / Chapter 16 / Chapter 17 / Chapter 18 / Chapter 19 / Chapter 20 / Chapter 21 / Chapter 22
Last Author’s Note

First Author’s Note

You can see Rebecca’s World. It’s the first bright star of evening. And if you stare at it long enough, then close your eyes and think about it very hard, you can make it your world too.

CHAPTER ONE

Rebecca lived in a big house in the country. At least it seemed like a big house to her, but then she was quite small, so perhaps it wasn’t all that large.

It was the eleventh day of the school holidays and she was bored. Bored. Bored. Bored.

She had mooned and moped around the house all day, getting under everybody’s feet, until finally her mother said in a tense, tight voice: “Go upstairs and play in your room.”

Rebecca walked mournfully along the landing. She closed her eyes and stretched her arms out in front of her, wondering how far she could go before she ran into something.

There was a muffled crash.

Rebecca opened one eye and saw that she had knocked over a vase of flowers from the window sill. It had broken and the water was soaking into the carpet.

“It’s not fair,” she thought miserably. “I bet I’ll get blamed for that.”

She closed her eyes again and moved on blindly, walking over the flowers. This time she managed to go quite a long way without touching anything. She took a sneaky peep and found she was standing outside the closed door of her father’s study.

She knocked. There was no answer.

She opened the door and went in. There was a huge window at one end of the room. Standing alongside it was her father’s brand new astral telescope. Rebecca had been strictly told that on no account was she to touch it.

So she went across and touched it.

The telescope swung easily under her hand and tilted upwards at the already darkening sky.

Rebecca stared out through the window. There was only one star to be seen. It was a very long way off, blue white and twinkling.

“I bet the people who live on that star aren’t bored,” she thought. “I bet they’re always doing exciting things and having adventures.”

She wondered if she would be able to see what they were doing if she looked through the telescope. She put her eye close to the lens thing that you look into and turned the knob to focus it—the way she had seen her father do.

Suddenly there was the star looking bigger and brighter, although still far away. There was no sign of any people. As she stared, Rebecca wondered more and more about things that happened on the star. She wished that she could go there and find out. Just a little visit. Not for long.

Then a very strange thing occurred. Rebecca had the oddest feeling that somebody on the star was looking at her. She couldn’t say why. It was just a feeling. But if they were, and were looking at her through the wide end of her father’s telescope, then she would appear to be very tiny. Rebecca knew that if you look down the wrong end of a telescope everything seems much smaller.

And then another peculiar thing happened. Rebecca began to feel smaller. And as she did, the star appeared to become larger. It became so large that it filled the whole telescope. The glare almost blinded her.

Rebecca shut her eyes, but the brightness was still there. And all the time the star continued to grow, until she felt she need only reach out her hand to touch it.

She put out her hand.

There was a whirling curling swirling furling hurling feeling. Rebecca was spinning. The bright white light of the star seemed to dazzle inside her head. There was a high-pitched buzz that made her ears ring.

And then, as suddenly as it had all started, it was over. The brightness inside her head and outside her eyes grew dimmer. The sound faded away.

Rebecca still felt a little dizzy and opened her eyes quickly to stop herself falling over. She looked around. And this was the most curious thing of all.

She was in a place she had never seen before in her life.

CHAPTER TWO

It was a room, but unlike any room she had ever seen before.

It was round. Totally round. Round in all directions. In fact it was like being inside a ball. A very big ball. There was no way of telling which was the floor and which were the walls and where the ceiling was.

Rebecca stared. There was a door in what should have been the ceiling and some windows in what could have been the floor, and sitting half-way up what might have been a wall was a man.

All around the man were strange machines and instruments. They had lots of flashing lights and made whirring noises, and looked a bit like the things Rebecca had seen on television science fiction programmes. The man looked extremely angry. He pushed buttons and pulled knobs and turned dials, and the instruments gave off crackling noises and puffs of smoke. Finally, the man pulled one great big switch and all the instruments and lights seemed to die.

The man turned to stare at Rebecca. It was quite obvious that he wasn’t pleased with her.

“Wretched child,” he said, in a voice that sounded like chalk scraping on a blackboard. “Horrid…nasty…wicked…interfering child.”

He got up from his chair and walked down the wall towards her.

“That’s clever,” Rebecca thought. “I wonder how he does that.”

He halted just in front of her and Rebecca was surprised to see that he was much shorter than her. A tiny man and extremely ugly. He had sprouty hair that seemed to grow in several colours, a nose that was a bit like a chicken’s beak and a mouth like Poisson, who was Rebecca’s goldfish.

He wore a white coat of the kind that men in chemist shops wear, but it was much too long for him and he seemed in danger of tripping over it. He stared at Rebecca through spectacles that looked as if they had been made from the bottom of milk bottles.

“Ooooohhhhhh…I hate children,” he said in a spiteful voice. “Especially those who ruin my experiments and are taller than me.”

“I’m sorry I’m taller than you,” said Rebecca, “but I can’t help it. I’ll kneel down if it will make you feel any happier.”

So saying, she dropped to her knees and looked him full in the face. She tried to smile. She had often found that a smile was quite helpful when people were cross with her.

“As for ruining your experiment,” she said, “I don’t see how I could have. I’ve only just arrived…as far as I can tell.”

“Of course you’ve only just arrived,” the little man snapped. “You repellent, loathsome horror. You travelled along my transmitter beam and you had no right to! The beam is supposed to send people to other planets. Not bring them here.”

He struck his forehead with his clenched fist in a gesture that was supposed to convey extreme frustration. But he did it too hard, and winced with pain.

Rebecca got the feeling that the smile wasn’t doing much good, but she kept it on anyway.

“Well I’m sorry,” she said.

“That’s all very well,” shrieked the little man, “but I can’t send you back. The beam is all topsy turvy. It may take me weeks…months…years to get it right. Do you think I’d keep an odious…abominable…impudent child here for a moment longer than I had to?”

The first little chill of fear ran up Rebecca’s back like a mouse. “Do you mean I can’t go home?” she asked nervously.

“That’s exactly what I mean. You’re stuck here!”

Rebecca thought she was going to cry. It’s all very well to go somewhere for a visit, but not at all nice when you can’t go home. The little man made a strange noise. It was like cellophane being crumpled up. He was laughing. He was laughing at her.

“Hahahahaha…” went his crinkling laugh. “You’re going to cry. There’s nothing I like more than a really unhappy child. The sadder you are the funnier it gets.”

Rebecca tried very hard to stop crying, but two big tears rolled down her cheeks. At the sight of them, the little man clutched his stomach and doubled over with laughter. He fell on the ground and kicked his legs in the air, and laughed and laughed and laughed.

The laughter began to affect her. The little man rolling on the floor, shrieking with mirth, did look very comical. Rebecca started with a little smirk that turned into a smile and then into a chuckle, and a moment later the tears had stopped and she was giggling helplessly.

The man saw she was happy again and stopped laughing. He looked angry.

“Just like a child,” he shouted. “The moment I start to enjoy myself you go and spoil it by being cheerful. I’m going to work day and night to get my transmitter beam working properly, and the moment it is I’m going to send you back where you came from.”

“That will be fine for me,” Rebecca said, in the same sort of brisk voice that her mother used when she was making a complaint in a shop.

The little man ran back up the wall to his instruments and began to work with a screwdriver. He was still muttering about how he hated children, especially when they were happy, and even more especially when they were both happy and taller than him. It was only then Rebecca remembered she was still on her knees.

She stood up. The man gave her a cold stare.

“Well you can’t hang around here,” he said. “Come back in a week and see how I’m getting on.”

Rebecca glanced up at the door in what should have been the ceiling.

“How do I get out?” she asked. She looked a bit miserable again.

The little man chuckled as he saw her face sadden. “Walk up to the door, you preposterous, pitiful person,” he yelled delightedly.

“Well,” thought Rebecca, “here goes.”

She started forward, and to her delight and astonishment found she was able to walk up the side of the room with no trouble at all. She was so pleased by this discovery that she walked straight up onto what should have been the ceiling, right past the door and back down the other side. The odd thing was that even when she was walking across the top of the room, she didn’t feel upside down.

“This is a very peculiar world,” she thought to herself, as she started up towards the door again. When she reached it this time, she opened it and stepped outside.

And then very much wished she hadn’t.

CHAPTER THREE

It was very spooky.

A thick fog wrapped her in its cloudy billows. And the silence was so silent that it seemed to echo all around her. Rebecca blinked her eyes quickly to be certain she was seeing properly. She was.

The fog was pink. Pink fog.

“It’s like being inside a ball of candy floss,” she thought.

She stretched an arm out in front of her and lost sight of it. She pulled it back quickly and was relieved to see her hand still attached. She groped her way forward for a pace or two. And then she heard the noise. A low sort of groaning, moaning sound that was really quite scary. And the worst thing about it was that it was coming closer.

Then she heard the footsteps. Shuffling, scuffling, slow footsteps. Rebecca strained to penetrate the candy floss fog, but could see nothing. The eerie sounds were coming closer.

Rebecca decided that even though the little man in the round room was not very nice, being inside with him was better than being outside on her own. She turned around and started for the door. But it wasn’t there. At least if it was, she couldn’t see it.

She took a few blind steps to the right. And then to the left. And then a few paces backwards, until finally she didn’t know which way she was going. And all the time the moaning sound and the shuffling footsteps came nearer.

The creature, whatever it was, seemed very near now. The fog distorted the sound so much that it seemed to be coming from all around her.

“I’ll be brave,” thought Rebecca. Then instantly changed her mind and started to run.

She set out with the speed of a galloping racehorse, but had not taken more than three strides when she crashed into something large and soft and green. She hit it with such force that she bounced backwards, tripped over, and sat down hard. The large, soft, green thing gave a great bellow of pain.

Rebecca scrambled to her feet ready to dash off again, when the fog cleared a little and she had a chance to get a look at the ‘creature’. It wasn’t nearly so frightening as she had imagined.

On the ground in front of her was the most miserable man she had ever seen. His mouth turned down at the corners, his forehead wrinkled in a frown and his eyes seemed on the verge of tears. His voice was the saddest she had ever heard.

“Why can’t you look where you’re going?”

There was no anger in the voice. It was full of sorrow and self-pity.

“I’m very sorry,” said Rebecca. “I was running away from you.”

“Mmmmm,” said the man. “People do. They say I depress them.”

He limped a bit closer, groaning and grunting with every shuffling step. He was wearing a raggy, shaggy, green fur coat with a matching hat.

“I like your coat,” said Rebecca, hoping a compliment would cheer him up.

“Thank you,” he said. “It’s past its best though. It was brown when I got it, but it’s got a bit mildewed. It’s the fog that does it.” He took another step forward, wincing as he did.

“Is there something wrong with your feet?” asked Rebecca.

“Something wrong with my feet?” he echoed. “You may well ask. You may well ask if there’s something wrong with my feet.”

“Alright,” said Rebecca. “Is there something wrong with your feet?”

The man pointed an accusing finger towards his feet.

“Those feet,” he said, “are the most painful feet in the entire universe. Concentrated into those two extremities is a massive quantity of pure undiluted agony.” He talked about his feet as though they belonged to somebody else.

“Those feet,” he went on, “are the sorest pair of throbbers in the entire history of feet. Would you like to see them?”

“No thank you,” answered Rebecca. “It’s very kind of you to offer though.”

The man seemed more cheerful now he was talking about his feet.

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “I only look at them myself when I’m forced to. Between them,” he said, looking down at his boots, “they have every foot ailment known to science. Corns. Callouses. Varookas. Bunions. Fallen arches. Gout. Ingrowing and outgrowing toe nails. And some things the doctors haven’t found names for yet. Yes. They’re throbbers. Real little throbbers. By the way. My name is Grisby.”

They shook hands.

“I’m Rebecca or Becky, or sometimes just Beck. Whichever you prefer.” She quite liked Grisby. He wasn’t very cheerful but at least he was friendly.

“Going anywhere special?” asked Grisby.

“Nowhere in particular,” Rebecca answered.

“Oh good. That’s where I’m going too. I’ll limp along with you.”

And they started to walk. At least, Rebecca walked. Grisby just hobbled, grimacing with every step.

The candy floss fog was clearing now. They were in what seemed to be a park, with neat flower beds and gravel paths.

In the distance was what Rebecca supposed was a town, although the buildings were unlike any she had ever seen. All sweeping curves and gentle arcs and graceful spirals. They looked as if they were made from glass.

Then Rebecca noticed something else. There were no trees. Not one. She stared around in a full circle. There wasn’t a tree in sight.

She was just going to ask Grisby about this when the silence was broken by the most dreadful shrieking screech Rebecca had ever heard. It rose to an ear piercing peak, then faded for a moment, only to build up again still louder.

Grisby stopped dead in his tracks. His hands began to shake and his face went deathly pale. Even his fur coat seemed to go a shade lighter. His whole body trembled.

“What is it?” asked Rebecca nervously.

Grisby could hardly speak he seemed so frightened. Finally he managed to croak out: “The GHOST warning. Come on. Run for your life!”

CHAPTER FOUR

Grisby exploded into action. He started to run at a speed that astonished Rebecca. From the back he looked like a great, green, grizzly bear. He seemed to have forgotten about his feet completely. They were moving so fast that they vanished into a blur.

Rebecca sped after him. She managed to draw alongside.

“What are we running away from?” she gasped.

“The GHOSTS,” panted Grisby. “Horrible evil monsters. If they catch us they’ll take us away and do wicked things to us!”

He managed a nervous glance over his shoulder and gave a little gurgle.

“Here they come!” he said. And though it seemed impossible, he doubled his speed, travelling now like a flash of green lightning.

Rebecca turned to see what had so frightened Grisby.

Coming along the path behind them were…‘things’. There was no other word to describe them. One moment they looked as though they were made from grey jelly, the next they seemed to be billows of oily smoke. You could almost see right through them.

Their shape changed as they moved. First they were toweringly tall, then slinkingly short. Thin, then fat. They seemed to have neither arms nor legs, but despite that they were moving at great speed.

Rebecca wasn’t sure whether she imagined it, but she thought she saw gaping red mouths and huge, sharp teeth. What she didn’t imagine was that these were the most frightening things she had ever seen. They looked like shapeless pieces of a nightmare that had escaped into day.

Rebecca didn’t stare for a moment longer than was necessary. Her legs moved so fast she couldn’t feel her feet touching the ground. She and Grisby were running neck and neck, and both were so breathless and frightened that they couldn’t speak.

They were approaching a point where another path crossed the one along which they were running. As they reached it, Grisby put out his right arm, then made a skidding turn to the left. Rebecca was so confused by this that she went on for several yards before she could stop and change direction. By which time Grisby had put a fair distance between them.

The GHOSTS were now catching up. The little mouse called fear was not only running up and down Rebecca’s spine, it was also crawling across her scalp and making her hair stand on end.

Grisby seemed to be heading for a group of wooden buildings some distance ahead. Rebecca could see many other people running in the same direction. All fleeing in terror at the approach of the GHOSTS.

As she drew closer, she could see that the other fugitives were running into a doorway in the centre of the largest wooden building. By the time Rebecca was close enough to see the place properly, everybody had vanished inside. Only she and Grisby were left running towards it.

Then Grisby reached the doorway, and he too disappeared.

Rebecca was alone now. The gaping black entrance was about ten yards ahead. She allowed herself a sigh of relief. She was nearly safe.

She was within one stride of the opening when, with frightening suddenness, the two great doors slammed shut in her face. She smashed into them with the force of a cannon ball, but was too scared to feel hurt. She banged on the door with her clenched fist.

“Let me in. Please let me in,” she yelled at the top of her voice. “Please…please, Grisby. Let me in.” But the doors stayed firmly closed.

Desperately, she turned around. The GHOSTS were less than a hundred yards away. They had spread out in a long line and were advancing slowly towards her. They were making a sort of hissing sound like ten million angry snakes. As they moved, they gave off a slithery noise.

They came closer and closer.

Rebecca looked swiftly to the right. There was nothing. To the left she saw there was a narrow opening between two of the buildings. She ran towards it, noticing there were no windows or openings of any kind in the wooden walls.

She darted into the gap and found herself in a narrow alleyway, flanked on each side by tall timber walls. Her footsteps echoed and clattered as she ran.

Behind her the first GHOST darkened the entrance. It oozed forward to follow her and the others slithered along behind it. They were moving quickly now. Rebecca reached the end of the alley where it made a sharp right-hand turn. She hurried along the new section. Then stopped in horror.

A high blank wall barred her way. It was a dead end. Rebecca clawed at the wall trying to find a handhold so she could climb to the safety of the roof. It was impossible.

She heard a sound behind her and spun around. There was a GHOST at the corner. It gave a loud hiss, and she saw several more of the creatures crowd up behind it.

They started to slither towards her.

CHAPTER FIVE

Rebecca pressed her back against the end wall of the alley and wished that the ground or sky or the wall would open up and swallow her. But they didn’t.

The GHOSTS edged closer. She could hear their heavy, eager breathing. By now there seemed to be a whole family of fear mice scampering all over her body. The GHOSTS, who thrived on fear, sensed Rebecca’s terror. They seemed to crackle with laughter, knowing their victim could not escape. Rebecca put her hands over her eyes and peeped through her fingers. There was only one thing left to do.

SCREAM!

She felt the scream start somewhere deep down in her body. It travelled up through her chest, along her throat, and had nearly reached her mouth, when she heard a sound. The scream halted and lurked behind her teeth not knowing if it should come out or not. The sound came again. From above her.

“Zarrrooo!…Thwak!…Bamo!” the voice said. “Fear not, small, innocent, trembling child. Captain ‘K’ will save you!”

Rebecca stared up the high walls to the edge of the roof. Perched there was the figure of a man. He was dressed all in red. She had no time to catch more than a glimpse of him before he launched himself off the roof and dived headlong towards her, his little red cloak floating out behind him.

He hit the ground just in front of Rebecca with a sound like a jelly falling from a great height. He gave a moan of pain and said: “Splattt!” Then, with a few achey groans, he got to his feet, shook himself, and turned to face the GHOSTS.

From his belt he pulled what looked like a stick. It was not much thicker than a finger and half as long as his arm. He waved it around like a sword.

The GHOSTS stopped in their tracks and made angry hissing noises. The man in red moved towards them, waving the stick and jabbing it at the GHOSTS. As he advanced, he shouted: “Pow!…Zapp!…Zonk!…Kerchowww!”

To Rebecca’s delight the GHOSTS started to back away. Slowly at first, but then as panic gripped them, faster and faster. The man jabbed his stick at the nearest GHOST. There was a loud, wet, popping sound and it vanished like a soap bubble. The remaining GHOSTS turned and fled.

The scarlet figure followed them up to the corner and watched until all the GHOSTS had disappeared. Then he turned and started back to where Rebecca was standing.

She had her first chance to take a good look at him. He wore black boots and red tights. He had a long-sleeved ‘T’ shirt in the same colour red, and on his head was what looked like a tight-fitting Balaclava helmet. Over his eyes was a red mask, and over that a pair of spectacles.

He would have looked quite smart except that all the clothes seemed to be about three sizes too large for him. The tights and ‘T’ shirt were wrinkled and baggy. There were a few darns here and there which had been made with wool that didn’t exactly match. The bit of his face that Rebecca could see underneath the mask seemed quite nice and friendly.

He smiled at Rebecca.

“Once more the forces of evil have been vanquished,” he announced. His voice was a bit high and pipey.

“You saved me from goodness knows what,” said Rebecca. “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” said the man in red. “It is my sworn duty to champion the weak and the oppressed. To protect the innocent and fight for all that is good and decent.”

With a rather grand gesture he pushed the stick back into his belt, missed his aim slightly and tore a little hole in his tights. He tutted, wetted his finger, and dabbed it on the hole so the tights wouldn’t ladder. Rebecca remembered her manners.

“My name is Rebecca,” she said. “How do you do?” They shook hands.

“I,” said the man, “am the foerless fee…I mean the fearless foe…of all that is wicked. I have dedicated my titanic strength to the leeing of this frand…I mean the freeing of this land…from the tyranny of the GHOSTS.”

“What’s your name?” Rebecca asked.

The man in red smiled a modest little smile. “People call me Captain ‘K’,” he said.

“You say people call you Captain ‘K’,” Rebecca said, “but what’s your real name?”

He looked a bit shifty and embarrassed. “You’ll laugh if I tell you,” he said.

“No I won’t,” promised Rebecca.

“Well you mustn’t tell anybody,” said Captain ‘K’, “but my real name is…Kitty.”

Rebecca giggled.

“I knew you’d do that,” he said mournfully. “Everybody does. It’s very hard to be a hero with a name like Kitty.”

He looked very miserable. Rebecca tried to cheer him up.

“You don’t look like a Kitty,” she said. “Let’s pretend you didn’t tell me your name. I’ll always call you Captain ‘K’.”

The mouth beneath the red mask spread into a beaming smile that revealed two large front teeth with a gap between them. He straightened his rather rounded shoulders, jutted his slightly receding chin and stuck out his less than ample chest. He took Rebecca’s hand.

“Come along, friend,” he said. “Let’s tell the people in the GHOST shelter that the danger is past.”

Rebecca felt very proud that he’d called her his friend.

CHAPTER SIX

Captain ‘K’ knocked on the door of the GHOST shelter and called that the raid was over. Soon the people were streaming out and returning to their homes in the glass city.

Rebecca noticed that standing by the door of the shelter was a man who collected money from everybody as they came past. He was wearing the most spectacular suit she had ever seen. Every inch of it was covered with precious stones. They glittered and gleamed and dazzled. When he caught the light you could hardly look at him. There was sparkling jewellery on his wrists and fingers and around his neck. He looked like a firework going off.

When she was able to see beyond the dazzle, Rebecca observed that he was very handsome. Gleaming white teeth. Suntanned skin. Beautifully styled hair with flecks of silver. But what was nicest about his face was that it seemed so happy. His eyes twinkled with laughter and he smiled all the time.

Rebecca nudged Captain ‘K’. “Who is that?”

The Captain twisted his mouth into what he thought was a sneer.

“That,” he said, “is Mister Glister. A cruel, wicked and heartless monster. He exploits the peak and the woor…I mean the weak and the poor. He is an all round bad egg. He is my avowed enemy.”

Rebecca couldn’t believe her ears. Mister Glister looked such a nice man.

The last two people to leave the shelter were Grisby and another man, who wore a long, black overcoat and a false moustache. It was obviously a false moustache, because every time he spoke it slipped down on one side and had to be pressed back into place. Grisby and the other man gave Mister Glister some money, then all three walked across to where Rebecca and Captain ‘K’ were standing.

Rebecca blinked in the blinding light of Mister Glister’s suit. When he spoke his voice was as soft and smooth and sweet as blackcurrant cordial.

“Hello, Kitty.” Captain ‘K’ writhed uncomfortably at the mention of his name. “How is the do-gooding business?”

Mister Glister pointed to the little piece of stick in Captain ‘K’s’ belt. “I’m still willing to buy your GHOST stick from you. Just name your price.”

Captain ‘K’ put a protective hand on the stick. “I’ll never sell this,” he said, trying to make his voice sound very deep and heroic. “It will never leave my side until your power is broken forever.”

Mister Glister didn’t seem in the least put out.

“Tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “I’ll give you your weight in diamonds, throw in a ton or so of gold, and just for good measure a bucket of assorted rubies and pearls. Emeralds too if you like.”

Rebecca’s mouth fell open. All that for a little piece of stick?

Captain ‘K’ shook his head so violently that his spectacles fell off. Mister Glister shrugged.

“OK, pal…have it your way.”

Then Mister Glister looked at Rebecca and gave her one of his dazzling smiles. “I’ve not seen you before, young lady. Come to tea this afternoon and tell me about yourself. About four o’clock.”

“Thank you,” said Rebecca. “I’d like that very much. In fact I’m quite hungry.”

Mister Glister nodded, smiled again and turned to walk away towards the city. He looked like a very slow shooting star.

Grisby introduced the man with the false moustache. “This is Kovak,” he said.

Rebecca shook hands with him. The little jerking motion made the moustache fall right off. He picked it up quickly and pressed it back on a little lopsidedly.

“Why do you wear that?” asked Rebecca.

“I’m a spy,” said Kovak in a secretive whisper, looking around to make sure he was not overheard. “I’m known as the master of disguise…the man of a thousand faces.”

“All of them embarrassingly alike,” added Captain ‘K’ softly.

Kovak ignored the interruption. “Watch this,” he said.

He turned his back, made a quick movement with his hands across his face, ruffled his hair, and then turned around to face Rebecca again.

“What about that?” he asked proudly.

He was wearing a black eye patch, a big red celluloid nose and a ginger wig. But there was no mistaking that it was Kovak.

“Very good,” said Rebecca doubtfully.

Kovak smiled modestly.

“Everybody says that. Sometimes,” he went on, “I even fool myself. Only yesterday the ’phone rang. I picked it up and somebody asked for me. I looked in the mirror, didn’t recognise myself and told them I was out.”

“That’s very interesting,” said Rebecca. “Who do you spy for?”

Kovak shuffled his feet a little uneasily. “To tell you the truth,” he said, “I’m unemployed at the moment. You don’t happen to know anybody who wants a spy do you?”

Rebecca said she didn’t.

Captain ‘K’ suggested that they all walk into town, and they set out. Grisby limping and moaning about his painful feet. Kovak changing his appearance all the time with a variety of false noses, wigs, beards and moustaches. And Captain ‘K’ striking dramatic gestures and muttering things like “Pow!…Zapp!…Zerunccch!”

Rebecca looked at her new friends. Things certainly were not dull on this new world of hers, but the people were a bit odd.

CHAPTER SEVEN

The city of glass was quite the most beautiful and fantastic place Rebecca had ever seen. The glass was made in rainbow colours. The buildings spired into the sky, and arched and dived and flowed. It was as though a vast display of fountains had been frozen into still life.

Rebecca’s new friends pointed out all the places of interest. What didn’t need pointing out was that almost every shop and building had Mister Glister’s name outside. He seemed to own everything.

After they had walked around the city, they made their way to a paved garden in the centre and sat on a bench. Once again Rebecca noticed the total absence of trees.

She mentioned it to her companions. Immediately, Captain ‘K’ looked as though he was about to cry. Grisby looked more miserable than ever. And Kovak, who was in the middle of changing noses, was so surprised that he plonked the new nose in the middle of his forehead, which made him look like a unicorn.

They pulled themselves together and told Rebecca the story. Captain ‘K’ began.

“Years and years ago,” he said, “this planet was virtually one great forest. A forest of the most beautiful trees you ever saw. They were tall and graceful. Their leaves had a thousand colours and glittered like humming birds, and at night they glowed with warm, gentle light. The scent from their blossoms…”

Captain ‘K’ couldn’t find the words to describe it. Indeed at the memory of the trees, his voice choked and tears started to run down his mask. Grisby took up the story.

“Then the Glister family discovered how to make glass,” he said.

“I don’t see the connection,” said Rebecca.

“Well,” went on Grisby, “they needed great furnaces to melt the special minerals and the only way they could keep them fired was with wood from the trees. Everybody wanted things made from glass. I tell you, when I was a lad and my feet were young, this land rang with the sound of axe and saw. Day and night. It wasn’t long before nearly all the trees were gone and this city had taken the place of the forests.”

Grisby sniffed a bit and rubbed his left foot. Kovak chipped in.

“Our fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers, and even the fathers before them, had always called them GHOST trees. Nobody knew why. Of course, when we found out why it was too late.”

“Found out what?” asked Rebecca. She was fascinated by the story.

Captain ‘K’ took over again. “We found out,” he explained, “that the scent from the trees, in fact everything about the trees, was what kept the GHOSTS away. When they were nearly all cut down the GHOSTS had nothing to keep them back, and they invaded.”

Captain ‘K’ looked around nervously to make sure there were none about.

“They’re horrible,” shuddered Grisby. “They kidnap people and turn them into GHOSTS too.”

Rebecca gave a little shiver of fright and thought how lucky she had been that Captain ‘K’ had rescued her in the nick of time.

Kovak went on with the story.

“The Glister family saw another chance of making a fortune. They had the last remaining trees cut down and sawn into planks. Then they built the GHOST shelters. People are safe inside the walls made of GHOST wood. Of course, there’s only young Mister Glister left now. He owns everything…everything and everybody really. He charges us to go into the GHOST shelter and then he charges double to let us out.”

Kovak shook his head sadly and the curly wig he was wearing slipped over his eyes. Grisby pointed to the piece of stick in Captain ‘K’s’ belt.

“Apart from the GHOST shelters,” he said, “that’s the last remaining piece of GHOST wood in this world.”

“That’s why the GHOSTS were so frightened when you attacked them with it,” said Rebecca brightly. Captain ‘K’ nodded.

“It’s not much,” he said, fondly stroking the stick, “but it’s all I’ve got. But I can’t be everywhere at once.”

“That’s terrible,” said Rebecca. “Isn’t there anything anyone can do?”

The three men shook their heads in rhythm.

“The GHOSTS get stronger and Mister Glister gets richer. But even he daren’t walk about when there’s a GHOST raid,” Captain ‘K’ said. “That’s why he’d pay almost anything to buy my stick.”

They all sank into a depressed silence for a moment. Grisby looked across at Kovak. “Tell her the legend,” he said.

Kovak removed a large red beard that was getting in his mouth.

“There’s an old story,” he said, “that somewhere, on an island in the middle of a lake, grows the last remaining GHOST tree on this world. The GHOSTS are supposed to know where it is. Of course, they can’t get near it to destroy it, because if they touch it they dissolve. So instead they keep a ring of guards around it day and night.”

Captain ‘K’ nodded. “If it did exist, and we could find it,” he said, “we could make enough GHOST swords to protect ourselves. And then we’d be safe.”

“Doesn’t anybody have any idea where the tree might be?” asked Rebecca.

Grisby nodded. “They do say Mister Glister’s got a map.”

“Then why hasn’t he gone to find the tree?” demanded Rebecca.

“Well, they do say it’s written in the form of a riddle,” said Grisby. “A code that he can’t understand. They do say he keeps the map in a big glass case in his house. Every night he sits there looking at it, trying to understand it. That’s what they say anyway. Oooooooohhhhhhcccch!”

They all looked at Grisby whose face was contorted in pain.

“Sorry about that,” he grimaced. “My bunion gave me a little jab. Always does at tea-time. Better than a watch my bunion is.”

From somewhere across the city came the pure ringing sound of a glass bell. It struck four times. Rebecca jumped to her feet.

“Goodness,” she said. “Four o’clock. I’m due at Mister Glister’s for tea.”

Captain ‘K’ pointed to the most magnificent of all the glass buildings. “You’ve not far to go,” he said. “That’s the Glister Palace.”

But Rebecca hardly heard him. She gave an excited grin.

“What if I get a chance to see the map,” she said. “I could memorize what it says and perhaps we could work out what it means!”

Captain ‘K’ looked less than enthusiastic.

“In the first place, we don’t know for sure that it exists,” he said. “And in the third place, even if you did get a glance at it you’d never be able to remember everything it said.”

Rebecca looked at the Captain. Puzzled.

“What happened to the second place?” she asked.

“Mmmm?” he said vaguely. “Oh…Oh well, I was never very good at counting.”

Rebecca had another idea. She turned to Kovak. “You’re a spy,” she said.

“Of course,” he said proudly. “My name is in the Yellow Pages under ‘Spies’.”

“Then you must have a camera. Spies always do.”

“Naturally I have a camera,” said Kovak. “I have all the latest modern equipment.”

He started to search his many pockets. He carried an incredible assortment of things. Bits of disguises, old nails, tubes of glue, string, part of a knife, a deaf aid, hundreds of scraps of paper, and much, much more. Finally he found what he was seeking.

“Why is it when you want something it’s always in the last pocket you look in?” he said crossly.

“It’s the last pocket because when you’ve found what you want you don’t look in any more,” said Rebecca with annoying smugness.

Kovak handed her the camera. It wasn’t a bit like the miniature spy cameras she had seen on television. It was a large, black box, very scratched and battered. He quickly showed her how it worked.

“Alright,” said Rebecca. “If I see the map I’ll try and take a picture of it. You wait here for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“You be careful,” said Captain ‘K’.

“It could be dangerous,” said Kovak.

“Don’t take any chances,” added Grisby.

Rebecca gave them a wave and hurried across to the front door of the splendid Glister Palace. She was excited now and a bit nervous. She tucked the camera out of sight, took a deep breath, and reached up for the door knocker.

CHAPTER EIGHT

There was the sound of a key turning in a lock. Then the noise of a bolt sliding back. Another key turned and three more bolts were drawn. There was a rattle of chain, then seven more keys were turned. Nine more bolts were pulled, more chains rattled and more keys released more locks.

Finally the door swung open.

Two men stood behind it. One was quite tall and rather fat. The other one wasn’t. It was the tall man who spoke.

“Good afternoon, Madam.” His voice was gurgley as though the back of his throat was full of water. “Be so good as to step inside. Mister Glister is expecting Madam.”

It was rather nice to be called Madam, thought Rebecca. It made her feel slightly French.

She smiled politely and stepped forward into a hallway of breathtaking magnificence. The floors, walls and ceilings were of mirrored glass; so no matter in which direction Rebecca looked, she saw herself reflected. There seemed to be thousands of her. From the ceiling hung what appeared to be hundreds of gleaming chandeliers. They twinkled and tinkled in the slight breeze from the open front door. Ornaments and furnishings encrusted with precious stones added still more lustre to the hallway.

“Golly!” said Rebecca in awe. Then unable to think of anything else she said it again. “Golly!” It was like being in the centre of a huge diamond.

The fat man, whose name was Lurk, bowed slightly and in his throaty voice said, “If Madam would be kind enough to follow us, Mister Glister awaits.”

Rebecca nodded. Cringer, which was the name of the man who wasn’t tall and fat, added, “The house is filled with all kinds of burglar alarms. One step in the wrong direction will set them off. So please, walk only where we walk and do only as we do.”

Cringer turned and started across the hall. Lurk followed, keeping in step and so close behind him that they might have been Siamese twins. Rebecca tagged on at the rear.

Their progress across the hall was like a complicated ballet. They took five steps forward and then one back. They made a little hopping step to the right and then a skip and jump to the left. They leaped over invisible rays and ducked under electronic beams. They weaved and woved and zigged and zagged like three blind mice teetering along a tangled tight rope.

It seemed to take ages to reach the other side of the hall. Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief when, finally, Cringer opened a door and ushered her through.

Mister Glister greeted Rebecca with a smile that glittered more dazzlingly than the hall of mirrors. He had changed his clothes since their first meeting and now wore a suit of pale blue with sapphires embroidered on the lapels. They talked for a few moments of this and that, then Mister Glister led Rebecca across to the tea-table.

It was laid with a banquet, a feast, a mountain of mouth-watering magnificence. It stretched through the alphabet from apricots to zabaglioni. All of Rebecca’s favourites were there. And yet, despite her hunger, Rebecca’s attention had been taken by something else that excited her even more than the food.

Standing in one corner was a glass case. And in it a map. The map that charted the route to the last GHOST tree in Rebecca’s World.

CHAPTER NINE

In the paved garden outside Glister Palace, Captain ‘K’ and Kovak paced nervously back and forth. Grisby sat on the bench staring mournfully at his feet. They were taking it in turn to twitch, a sure sign that Grisby was worried.

“What’s the time?” asked Captain ‘K’.

Kovak looked at his wrist watch. “July the twentieth,” he answered. “It only tells the date,” he went on apologetically. “The hands fell off.”

Grisby glanced across at Glister Palace and spoke the question that was in all their minds. “I wonder if she’s alright?”

Captain ‘K’ gave a smile that he didn’t really mean, trying to reassure them. “Of course she’s alright,” he said. And then, unthinkingly, asked Kovak again what time it was.

“August the eighth,” said Kovak. “I’m never sure whether time passes quickly or whether there’s something wrong with my watch,” he added.

“Well, if she’s not out of there by October the thirty-first, we’re going in to get her,” said Captain ‘K’ determinedly. Grisby’s feet started to twitch still faster.

As it happened, Rebecca was fine. She was doing her very best to sample everything on the tea-table, and all of it tasted as good as it looked. In an effort not to make Mister Glister suspicious, she carefully avoided looking towards the glass map case; but already a plan was beginning to form in her mind.

Mister Glister refilled Rebecca’s teacup, and then went on telling her about himself.

“You see,” he said, with a sad little smile, “people misunderstand me. They think I’m cruel and miserly. They think I take their money and keep them poor because I hate them. It’s just not true. I love poor people. Poor people make me feel rich, and when I feel rich love gushes out of me like a fountain. So it’s my duty to make everybody poor, so they can all share my love.”

Mister Glister paused, his eyes moist with tears. Then, with a little sob in his voice, he went on. “I have a dream,” he said. “Call me silly and sentimental if you will, but one day I hope that everybody in this world will be penniless, hungry and in rags. With poverty on that scale I could love them all!”

He threw his arms open in a wide gesture as though to embrace millions. Unfortunately, one of his hands crashed into a three-tier chocolate cake and brought it crashing down into the trifle. Mister Glister seemed unconcerned. He licked the chocolate off his knuckles. He smiled his sad smile again.

“I’ve dedicated my life to making people poor,” he said. “But it’s not easy.” He rubbed his hand across his eyes to wipe away a tear, leaving a streak of chocolate across his cheek.

Rebecca had listened with only half an ear to Mister Glister’s views on life. She was sure that everything he said was quite sincere, but wasn’t certain that being loved by Mister Glister was adequate compensation for being hungry and dressed in rags. However, her attention had been mainly on perfecting her plan, and now she was sure she was ready to act.

She pretended to reach across the table for another piece of cake. Then with a little jerk of her elbow, she knocked her teacup off its saucer. The hot tea flooded down onto Mister Glister’s trousers. He gave a shriek of pain and leaped three or four feet into the air. Rebecca was profuse in her apologies and quickly found a napkin to try and dry him off, but the brown tea stain spread across the powder blue of his trousers.

Under the circumstances Mister Glister remained remarkably polite. He muttered something about ‘accidents will happen’. Then, saying he was going to change, he excused himself and left the room.

The moment the door closed, Rebecca moved swiftly to the glass case. She tried to remember Kovak’s instructions on how to use the camera. The catch that held it closed wouldn’t open. She pulled it and prised it and pressed it, but it stayed closed. She gave a nervous look towards the door as the precious seconds slipped past.

Rebecca gave the camera a hard bang on the floor. The catch clicked open. She put the viewfinder to her eye and focused on the map. She was just about to press the shutter when the lens fell off. It rolled across the floor and under the table.

She dived after it with the speed of a frightened rabbit going into its burrow. After a frantic search she found it, and hurriedly twisted it back on to the front of the camera. Again she pointed the camera at the map; then released the shutter. She took one picture, then another.

Then she heard footsteps approaching the door. Quick as a flash she raced back to her chair, just as Mister Glister entered the room. Rebecca did her best to assume an expression of great innocence.

“Oh, that’s a very nice suit,” she said. Mister Glister was wearing trousers and jacket made of pink silk, with a check pattern formed by rubies.

He sat beside her and cut her another slice of cake. Rebecca gave him a sidelong glance. He was staring at her rather strangely. His eyes unblinking. And he wasn’t smiling. His look made her decidedly nervous.

*   *   *

“What’s the time?” Captain ‘K’ asked Kovak for the twentieth time.

“October the fifth,” he answered.

“Getting close to zero hour,” said the Captain. “Now, has anybody got a hairpin?”

Grisby looked at him. “This is no time to worry about your hair,” he said.

Captain ‘K’ gave him a cold look. “I need it to pick the lock on the front door,” he said icily.

“No need for that,” said Kovak. “I have a skeleton key somewhere.”

He started to search his pockets. In the seventh pocket he located something that he took out and held in the palm of his hand. He stared at it in horror. A noisy gulp came from the back of his throat.

Captain ‘K’ glanced at the small yellow cylinder. “What’s that?”

Kovak gave a still louder gulp.

“It’s the film. I forgot to load it. Rebecca’s using an empty camera!”

CHAPTER TEN

Rebecca noticed that Lurk and Cringer had entered the room and were standing near the door. “They must be waiting to clear the table,” she thought. She pushed her plate aside and stood up.

Mister Glister was still staring at her, his face very serious.

“Thank you for a lovely tea,” said Rebecca. “I’ve very much enjoyed talking to you and I hope we meet again. Now it’s getting late and I must be going.”

She gave her very nicest ‘thank you’ smile and moved across to the door. Lurk and Cringer stood like a barricade in front of it.

“Excuse me,” Rebecca said. They didn’t move.

Mister Glister rose slowly from his chair.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay here for a little while,” he said. His voice sounded very sinister. “You see, your friend Captain ‘K’ has something that I very much want.”

“His GHOST stick,” Rebecca said instantly.

“Exactly,” leered Mister Glister. “He won’t sell it to me no matter how much I offer him. Now I think he might give it to me. Not to put too fine a point on it, you have just been kidnapped. The ransom, the price for your release, is the GHOST stick. Captain ‘K’ is a sentimental fool and will have no hesitation in handing it over in exchange for you.”

He snapped his fingers at Lurk and Cringer.

“Take her to the dungeons,” he ordered.

Lurk grabbed at Rebecca’s arm, but she pulled away from him swiftly and started to run. Lurk and Cringer darted after her. Mister Glister tried to intercept her, but she dodged past him and dived under the table. The three men followed her.

Rebecca came out from under the table like an express train coming out of a tunnel. She snatched up a huge, cream sponge cake. As Lurk’s face appeared from beneath the table-cloth, she hurled it at his head. It made a very satisfying ‘thloppp’ noise.

Cringer was out next and dived at Rebecca. She neatly side stepped and he crashed against the wall. Mister Glister moved up behind her. He tried to hold her arms, but she slipped free, scooped up an enormous jelly trifle and tipped it over his head.

Rebecca backed away to the far end of the room, trying to edge towards the door. Before she could reach it, Lurk got to it and turned the key. Mister Glister wiping the jelly from his face moved cautiously towards her. Cringer advanced from another direction. Lurk closed in behind.

Mister Glister made a sudden dash forward. His foot landed in the slippery mess of the cream cake and he skidded forward as if on skis. He slithered uncontrollably across the room and crashed violently into the glass map case. It shattered into a million pieces.

Rebecca started to run around the table again, Lurk and Cringer in hot pursuit. As she ran, she caught the corner of the tablecloth in her hand and heaved with all her might. The mountain of food started to topple. Not able to halt their mad dash, Cringer and Lurk ran into an avalanche of cakes and trifles, jellies and blancmanges.

But for all her efforts, Rebecca could do no more than slow down her pursuers. Finally, all three of them had recovered enough to drive her into a corner from which there was no escape. Lurk and Cringer took her by the arms and marched her towards the door. Lurk unlocked it.

“To the dungeon,” shrieked Mister Glister, dripping with jelly trifle.

“Kerpow!!…Zammie!!…Whammo!!”

The door opened to reveal Captain ‘K’, and behind him, Kovak and Grisby.

“Charge!” shouted Grisby, then looked down at his feet. “You heard what I said,” he told them. “Charge.” Obediently, the feet started to move slowly forward.

Kovak was wearing the mask of a Japanese Samurai warrior and looked very fierce indeed. Of course, everybody knew it was only Kovak, so nobody was frightened.

Captain ‘K’ pulled Rebecca free from Cringer’s grasp and hurried her out into the hallway. Kovak, Cringer, Grisby, Lurk and Mister Glister followed them.

Captain ‘K’ was crossing the hall in the same zig-zag manner as Rebecca had entered, avoiding all the burglar alarms.

“Why are we doing this?” shouted Rebecca to Captain ‘K’.

“We have to or we’ll set off the alarms,” he answered.

“It’s too late now,” said Rebecca. “What does it matter?”

Captain ‘K’ pondered for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right,” he said, and instantly made a bee-line for the front door.

The others followed. Bells, sirens, hooters, horns and buzzers exploded into sound. The noise was deafening.

“Switch it off,” shrieked Mister Glister. Lurk and Cringer dashed to the cupboard where the alarms were housed and threw the switch. Silence returned.

The only noise now was the hissing fury of Mister Glister’s anger. With his two servants he stalked to the front door and peered out. They stared left and right, but there was no sign of the fugitives.

Mister Glister grabbed Lurk and Cringer’s heads and banged them together very hard.

“Thank you, Sir,” said Cringer humbly.

“I am very, very angry,” said Mister Glister, almost spitting the words. “I will never rest until I have my revenge. Prepare an expedition at once. That child Rebecca will pay for this!”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

After their escape from Glister Palace the adventurers ran and ran and ran. Spurred on by panic and fear, they raced out of the Glass City and into the country beyond.

After three or four miles of their headlong helter-skelter flight, steam began to spurt from the sides of Grisby’s boots. Rebecca was afraid they might burst into flames at any moment.

Without a pause, Captain ‘K’ and Kovak took up positions on either side of Grisby. They each cupped a hand under his elbows and lifted him so that his feet no longer touched the ground. His legs continued as though they were running, but the puffs of steam from his boots began to subside.

They ran on until the road they were following became a rough, overgrown track, winding its way through clumps of thorny bushes and huge boulders. Rebecca glanced quickly over her shoulder. There was no sign of anyone pursuing them. She called to the others. “It’s alright. We can stop now.”

They all sank to the ground, gasping and wheezing.

Rebecca recovered first. She gave a grin and took the camera strap from around her neck.

“Well,” she said, “I managed it. I took some photographs of the map.” She handed the camera to Kovak. “Can you develop the pictures?” she asked.

Kovak looked distinctly shifty. Captain ‘K’ looked away and stared vaguely into space, whistling tunelessly.

“Well, can you develop the film or do we have to take it to the chemists?” demanded Rebecca.

“Tell her,” said Captain ‘K’.

Kovak cleared his throat. His voice was a whisper.

“What did you say?” asked Rebecca, straining to hear.

“A little oversight,” Kovak said. “Could happen to anyone.”

Captain ‘K’ interjected. “What he’s trying to tell you is that he forgot to put the film in the camera.”

The news hit Rebecca like a bucket of icy water. All that trouble, all that danger for nothing. She was both angry and sad at the same time.

“Well, that’s that,” she thought. “We’ll never get another chance to see the map. We’ll never find the GHOST tree now.”

Throughout all this Grisby had stayed silent. Finally he said: “I’ve got something for you.”

He dug deep into the pocket of his green fur coat and handed Rebecca a piece of folded paper.

She opened it quickly, and gave a gasp of pleasure. It was the map.

“How did you get it?” Rebecca demanded excitedly.

“I saw it lying amongst all the broken glass in Glister Palace,” he said simply. “I thought it might come in handy.”

Captain ‘K’ and Kovak were just as excited as Rebecca. They took it in turns to shake hands with Grisby and pat him on the back. And though Grisby kept muttering, “It was nothing,” he was obviously highly flattered.

When they could find no more words of praise, they spread the map out on the ground and stared at it. Disappointment began to drift over them like a thickening sea fog. It wasn’t like a real map at all. Just some verses and little drawings. They all looked at one another.

“I don’t understand it,” said Rebecca.

“Neither do we,” said the other three in one voice.

“Then we’re no better off than when we started,” Rebecca said dismally.

*   *   *

At Glister Palace, Lurk was gathering the equipment for the expedition. Cringer was clearing up the mess in the dining room under the angry, watchful eyes of Mister Glister. Suddenly, as he swept the broken glass into a dustpan, he realized that the map was missing. He mentioned it to Mister Glister.

Mister Glister’s body went rigid with horror. The colour drained from his face and the precious stones on his suit seemed to lose their lustre. He began to tremble. His teeth chattered.

“T…t…they mmmust have t…taken it,” he gabbled. “If they e…e…ever d…d…decipher its secret I’m r…ruined!”

He took a tiny jewelled box from his pocket and from it selected two pills. He gulped them down. His colour began to return and his terror turned slowly into rage. He snatched up a sweeping brush and swiped Cringer over the head with it.

“Thank you, Sir,” winced Cringer.

“Ready or not, we’re going,” screamed Mister Glister. “The hunt for Rebecca starts now!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“I think,” said Rebecca, “that this is one of those treasure maps that you have to solve a bit at a time.”

The others looked at her blankly.

“What I mean,” she explained, “is that you solve the first clue and go to the place it tells you. When you get there, you’ll see or find something that will help you solve the next clue.”

They all gathered around the map again with renewed interest. Rebecca read the first clue aloud:

“GO TO THE NEST OF THE SPLINTER BIRD,

CLIMB TO ITS EYRIE ON HIGH.

LOOK THROUGH THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE,

FIND THE FEATHER WELL HIDDEN CLOSE BY.”

“What’s a Splinter Bird?” asked Rebecca.

“What was a Splinter Bird,” said Kovak. “They’re extinct. Died out completely when the forests were cut down. There’s a drawing of them somewhere in my bird book.” He started to search through his pockets.

“Lovely little birds they were,” said Grisby. “Sort of purple colour. They had beaks shaped like tweezers. If you ever got a splinter in your finger, all you’d do was shout ‘Splinter Bird’, and one of them would fly down and pull the splinter out.”

Kovak found his tattered bird book and thumbed through the pages until he found a colour picture. Rebecca thought it was the prettiest bird she had ever seen. Alongside the picture it said: ‘The Splinter Bird nests on high rocks to the north of our city, in the mountainous region of the Forbidden Lands.’

At the mention of ‘Forbidden Lands’, Captain ‘K’s’ eyes rolled in terror. Grisby seemed to freeze, and Kovak’s imitation teeth fell out.

Rebecca stared at her friends. “What’s the matter?”

“The Forbidden Lands,” murmured Captain ‘K’. “It’s a terribly dangerous place. Full of fears and terrors. Nobody ever goes there.”

“Well,” said Rebecca, getting to her feet, “we’re going there. It’s the only way to find the last GHOST tree.” She sounded very determined.

All three men started to talk at once, making excuses as to why they couldn’t or shouldn’t go. Rebecca stamped her foot and told them to be quiet.

“I’m ashamed of you all,” she said. “Captain ‘K’, you’re supposed to be a hero, and heroes aren’t afraid of anything!”

“Well, I’m a different sort of hero,” he said meekly. “I’m afraid of practically everything.”

Kovak muttered that he was sure somebody would need a spy soon, so he had to stay close to town. Grisby was convinced that even if he wanted to go, his feet wouldn’t let him.

“In that case, I’ll go on my own,” said Rebecca. “Which way are the Forbidden Lands?”

Kovak pointed a shaking finger towards the mountains.

Rebecca gave them a curt nod. “Goodbye,” she said, and set off.

The three men stood silently watching her go, seeing her grow smaller and smaller, until she finally vanished over the brow of a hill.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

One by one, the four suns of Rebecca’s World lowered themselves out of sight behind the mountains. The green shadows of night grew longer. In the fading light the rocks took on menacing shapes. A cold wind had begun to stir the bushes and they seemed to mutter and whisper as Rebecca walked past.

The ground was rising steeply now as she drew nearer the mountains, and the track was so overgrown that it was hard to follow. Sharp, spiteful brambles snatched at her frock.

She looked back, hoping that her three friends might have changed their minds and followed her. The trail was empty.

Rebecca felt very small, very frightened, and very alone.

She pushed forward through a clump of thick brambles and found her path blocked by a large stone. There were letters carved on it. She rubbed some moss away and read:

HALT! STOP! DESIST! CEASE!

A few yards further on was a second carved stone. On this one it said:

KEEP OUT! DANGER! PERIL!

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

THE ‘FORBIDDEN LANDS’ START HERE!

Rebecca moved on to be confronted by a third stone. This one read:

WELL—DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU!

She sat down and rested her back against the stone, suddenly feeling very tired.

“Whatever happens,” she thought, “I mustn’t close my eyes. I must stay awake and…” Before she could finish the thought she was asleep.

A pebble clattered. A dry bramble crackled. Rebecca wakened as if she had been jabbed with a pin. Her eyes wide, she stared around not daring to move. For a moment there was silence. Then came another sound.

A footstep!

Rebecca crouched still deeper into the shadows, trying to make herself invisible.

Another footstep!

Closer this time. The bushes nearby rustled and shivered as something moved through them, coming towards her. And then she saw it.

A vague outline in the green darkness. Something huge with three heads. It seemed to tower above her and then, to her astonishment, split into three separate parts. The scream Rebecca was about to give changed into a great, gasping giggle of relief. It was Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’.

They shuffled uncomfortably, looking very sheepish and ashamed of themselves. Grisby gave an awkward smile.

“We…er…we had a little talk,” he said.

Kovak took over. “We decided we were being a bit…”

“Cowardly,” said Captain ‘K’, finishing the speech.

They talked for a little while, and then Grisby yawned. In a moment they were all yawning. Rebecca mentioned it was rather cold. At once, Grisby peeled off his shaggy, green fur coat. She was amazed to see that he was wearing another fur coat underneath it.

“Never know when you’ll need an extra fur coat,” said Grisby, handing her the top one. “I’ve got two more under this.”

Rebecca snuggled into the huge coat until only the tip of her nose was showing. “Don’t you get hot wearing all those coats?” she asked.

“Very,” said Grisby.

They shuffled and shifted until they were comfortable, and in a very few minutes they were all fast asleep.

*   *   *

A few miles back down the trail, Mister Glister had set up camp for the night. Lurk and Cringer had covered the ground with soft, silken rugs, and on them had erected a tent woven from gold thread. Inside, Mister Glister slept on a billowing, cloud-soft bed, covered by an electric blanket.

The blanket was linked by a cable to a strange contraption outside, which looked rather like a bicycle without wheels. This was the thing that made the electricity. In the saddle sat Cringer, pedalling so fast his legs were a blur. He puffed and gasped, but dared not rest. Mister Glister became very angry if the temperature of his blanket varied, even by only one degree.

Nearby, Lurk worked at an ironing board, pressing Mister Glister’s clothes. At the same time, he ran back and forth to stoke the fire that heated the water for Mister Glister’s morning bath. He was also preparing a seven course breakfast and cleaning the shoes.

Mister Glister slipped further under his warm blanket, muttering in his sleep.

“Rebecca’s to blame,” he mumbled. “It’s her fault I’m having to rough it. The hardship. The privation. The suffering. I’ll make her regret the misery she’s brought me.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Morning. The moon, exhausted by its long journey across the sky, lowered itself gratefully behind one horizon. From the opposite horizon the four suns rose swiftly like happy balloons. But long before their bright light had chased all the shadows back into hiding, the four adventurers were on the march.

They moved quickly along the trail that led to the Forbidden Lands. Ahead of them was the towering wall of mountains, dark and menacing. Kovak screwed up his eyes and stared.

“There’s an opening,” he said. “Over to the right a bit. A sort of canyon.” They changed direction and went towards it.

Grisby seemed quite cheerful as they marched along. He explained that he liked getting up early, because if he woke up before his feet and moved very quietly, they would stay asleep for a few more hours and cause him no pain.

Captain ‘K’ strode proudly at the head of the party. His tiny shoulders thrown back, his puny chest thrust forward, his eyes darting this way and that for any hint of danger. Like a swordsman, he slashed at the bushes with his GHOST stick. “Kerplatt!…Shazzam!…Splatt and triple splatt!”

“He really does look like a hero now,” thought Rebecca. “He’s like a sort of savage butterfly.”

They had almost reached the entrance to the canyon when Captain ‘K’ halted sharply. He stared ahead, listening intently. Then, turning around so quickly and nervously that he fell over, he whispered, “Cunder gover! I mean under cover! Quickly!”

They all dived into the shelter of a dense bush. A moment later a group of GHOSTS came slithering and sliding down the trail. They passed so close that Rebecca felt their ice-cold clamminess sweep over her. She heard their hissing whispers.

Then they were gone. Captain ‘K’ made them stay in hiding for a few more minutes until he was certain it was safe, then they moved back onto the trail.

*   *   *

Unknown to the travellers, Lurk and Cringer watched their progress through powerful binoculars. They had only one pair between them, so they lay with their heads close together and looked down one lens each, the strap draped about both their necks.

Mister Glister, wearing a simple safari kaftan studded with blue white diamonds, stepped out of the tent. He moved up behind his servants. “Can you see them?” he asked.

“They’re just entering the canyon,” Lurk answered.

Mister Glister moved languidly to where Lurk and Cringer lay. He reached down and took the glasses from them. As he raised them, the cord around the necks of the two men tightened and brought their heads together with a stunning thump. Both suppressed their cries of pain, knowing that their master was not fond of sudden noises in the morning.

Mister Glister stared through the binoculars.

“Yes, I see them,” he said. “I’ll change into something more suitable and we’ll strike camp immediately.”

He dropped the binoculars. They landed with a loud crash on the heads of his servants.

“Much obliged,” said Cringer.

“Most grateful,” said Lurk.

Two hours later they were ready to move. Mister Glister now wore an emerald embroidered hunting-jacket, with white riding breeches and boots stitched in gold. The camp had been packed into a number of huge bags. Lurk and Cringer were bent nearly double under the enormous load. Apart from the camping equipment, there was Mister Glister’s ‘expedition wardrobe’ of some twenty different outfits.

Mister Glister looked around with satisfaction. “Always best to travel light on a mission like this,” he said.

He turned and strode off towards the mountains. Cringer and Lurk, groaning beneath their colossal loads, followed at the trot.

Rebecca and her friends had already progressed far into the canyon. Captain ‘K’ stared nervously at the towering walls that seemed to press in on either side of them. He didn’t like it here. When anyone spoke their voices echoed back at them. Even the silence seemed to have an echo.

The nervous mood had affected Kovak and Grisby too. Kovak had not changed his disguise for a good half hour, and Grisby had not once mentioned his feet.

“Do you think it’s much further?” asked the Captain, trying to conceal the tremble in his voice.

“How should I know? I don’t even know where we’re going,” Rebecca answered rather rattily.

She was feeling rather frightened as well, but didn’t want the others to know it. She tried to calm herself.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” she apologised. “Perhaps we’ll all feel better if we have a little rest.”

She pointed to a spot where there was a deep, cool, dark pool in a basin of rock. They sat beside it. Rebecca cupped her hand and gulped down some water. As the ripples settled, she caught sight of a reflection. “Oh dear,” she said softly.

It was not the sight of her own reflection that caused her to speak. There was another image in the mirrored surface of the pool.

She spun around quickly and stared up at the top of the high cliff behind her. Standing at the very edge was a tall, strange figure. It wore a ragged robe that trailed down to the ground. Over its head was a hood that hid its face. Rebecca felt grateful for that. She was certain that if she could see the face, she would be even more frightened.

The creature raised its arms. Its robes spread out like the wings of a bat. Then it gave a cry that was one of the most terrifying sounds Rebecca had ever heard. A cry that was a mixture of a scream and a hideous, cackling laugh.

It was obvious that Captain ‘K’ heard the sound too, because he almost toppled into the pool. Kovak, who had just put a very large set of false teeth into his mouth, also heard it. As he turned and looked at the creature, the teeth chattered with terror, leaped right out of his mouth and, still chattering, ran across the ground and hid beneath a rock.

Grisby tore his gaze from the figure and turned to look at the cliff top behind them. Unable to speak, he nudged Rebecca and pointed. There were twenty more of the creatures on that side of the canyon. As one, they all started to make the scream-laugh sound. The shrieks echoed off the cliff walls and seemed to magnify until the air was filled with their hideous cacophony.

Rebecca put her hands over her ears, but could not keep the awful noise out of her head. “What are they?” she shouted.

Captain ‘K’ tried to speak, but no sound came. He tried again. “Scarepeople,” he croaked.

More Scarepeople were appearing. They lined the cliff tops on both sides of the canyon, their arms flapping their black robes menacingly.

“I have a plan,” said Rebecca. They all looked at her gratefully.

“What is it?” asked Grisby.

“Run!” said Rebecca.

She turned and started to run still deeper into the canyon. Her friends followed.

On the clifftops, the Scarepeople seemed to become very angry. They had failed to frighten the strangers out of the valley. They waved their arms wildly until their robes flapped like wings. The scream-laughs became louder and more horrible.

Then, one of them took a step right to the edge of the cliff and dived forward into space. Rebecca saw his jump from the corner of her eye and was certain that he would crash onto the rocks far below. Instead, he spread out his robes and floated down in a wide circle. Other Scarepeople followed him, and in a moment the air seemed filled with great, swooping, black shapes. One of them soared past Rebecca, its shrieking scream-laugh driving into her head like a violent pain.

She glanced behind her. Many of the Scarepeople had landed now and were sweeping along the floor of the canyon like a huge, black wave.

Captain ‘K’ looked around desperately. Without slowing down for even an instant, he pointed to one side of the canyon. “That way,” he yelled, and changed direction.

They all followed him towards the narrow mouth of a cave in the cliffside. The opening was high but extremely thin, and Rebecca wasn’t certain they would be able to squeeze through it.

Grisby was the first to get there. He tried to push into the gap, but his bulky fur coats made him wider than the opening. He pressed forward harder, grunting and gasping, and managed another inch or two.

“Come on, come on,” wailed Kovak, glancing over his shoulder at the advancing Scarepeople.

“Give him a shove,” said Rebecca.

Kovak put his shoulder against Grisby’s back as if he was pushing a car. Rebecca and Captain ‘K’ added their weight and Grisby was squeezed a little further into the gap. Then he stuck fast.

“Climb over his head and pull from the other side,” Rebecca ordered Kovak.

Kovak nodded and started to scramble up onto Grisby’s back. There was just enough room above his head to clamber through into the cave. He reached Grisby’s shoulders and stood on his head. Then both feet slipped, scraping against Grisby’s ears.

“Yyyyyyyyyyyyyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhh.”

Grisby’s cry of pain was so loud and violent that, for a moment, even the Scarepeople were frightened.

“That’s all I needed,” moaned Grisby in agony. “It’s not enough to have the most painful feet in the universe. Now I’ve got the most painful ears.”

Kovak wriggled and struggled and finally was able to lower himself into the cave. He took a firm grasp on the front of Grisby’s fur coat and looked for something else to grip with his other hand. Grisby’s nose was the only thing handy. Kovak grabbed it firmly.

“Right. Push,” he yelled.

In the same instant, he began to pull. Grisby gave a series of moans and groans like a man with a terrible cold in the nose.

On the other side, Rebecca and Captain ‘K’ took a few paces back, then charged at Grisby as though they were trying to break down a door.

The combined effort of pushing and pulling succeeded. Grisby shot forward with a loud ‘POP’.

Kovak fell backwards, winded, as the famous feet galloped over him into the cave. He sat up, shaking his head groggily.

Meanwhile, at the cave mouth, Rebecca and the Captain were desperately pulling loose stones from the wall in an attempt to block the entrance. Two of the Scarepeople rushed at the opening. Captain ‘K’ hurled a rock at them. Of course he missed completely, but it was enough to make the Scarepeople more cautious. Rebecca tugged at a particularly big stone. It scraped and grated and moved a fraction. Captain ‘K’ prised at it with his GHOST stick as the Scarepeople attacked again.

The stone stuck for a moment longer and then came free, landing neatly on Captain ‘K’s’ big toe. Rebecca saw the tears well up in his eyes and his mouth opened as though to howl. But if he did howl nobody heard him, because suddenly there was a deep, groaning rumble and the roof and walls started to collapse.

Rebecca grabbed the Captain’s hand and dragged him deeper into the cave, just in time to avoid the landslide of rubble and stone that completely blocked the entrance. Almost blinded by the dust, they staggered back down the tunnel.

It took the adventurers a little while to pull themselves together after their ordeal. But eventually they got on the move again, following the cave through the mountains until they saw a gleam of light. A minute later they stepped into the open.

Rebecca blinked several times at the view that met their eyes. They were at the edge of a small, circular valley. At its very centre was a great, towering rock. Like some gigantic pencil stuck upright in the sand, it soared into the sky. Its tip was hidden for a moment in a passing cloud.

Just below the topmost point was a narrow, jagged hole that went right through the rock. It made them all dizzy just looking up at it.

“It looks like something out of a giant’s sewing box,” said Grisby.

Rebecca gave a yelp of excitement that startled everyone.

“That’s it!” she gabbled. “Grisby, you’re a genius.”

“Yes, I suppose I am,” he said. Then, his face puzzled, he added, “But if I’m a genius, why don’t I know what I’m talking about?”

“You’ve solved the first clue,” Rebecca said. “Remember? ‘Go to the nest of the Splinter Bird, climb to its eyrie on high, look through the Eye of the Needle’…The Needle…” She pointed at the rock. “That’s the Needle! You gave me the idea when you said ‘giant’s sewing box’.”

They all stared up.

“Now we’re really getting somewhere,” Rebecca said. “All we have to do is climb to the top.”

She heard a dull thump and turned to look. All three of them had fainted.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lurk reported back to Mister Glister, telling him about the Scarepeople’s attack on Rebecca. He explained that Cringer was trying to clear an opening into the cave through which the fugitives had disappeared.

“We’ll go to help him at once,” said Mister Glister decisively.

“It’s a long, hard trail, Sir,” said Lurk, hoping Mister Glister would allow him a few minutes rest. “Difficult, rough ground. Very exhausting.”

“Yes,” said Mister Glister. “A journey like that must be very tiring.”

Lurk nodded agreement and was about to sit down and relax, when Mister Glister added, “So you’d better carry me.”

He jumped lithely onto Lurk’s back, jabbed him with his heels, and they trotted away up the canyon.

*   *   *

The climb up the towering needle of rock had been less difficult than Rebecca had expected. There were plenty of wide ledges and good handholds.

Rebecca scrambled up onto a roomy rock shelf and reached down to help her friends. She calculated they must have climbed to the half-way point. The ground looked a long way off. She tilted her head back to look up at the peak, but it was lost from sight in a swirl of darkening clouds.

“Have you noticed the little holes in the rock all the way up?” asked Grisby. “They’re full of dry grass and moss. I think Splinter Birds used to nest in them.”

“That’s even more proof we’re on the right track,” said Rebecca. “The riddle said, ‘Go to the nest of the Splinter Bird’.”

She turned to look at the rockface. One of the holes was just above her head. She reached up and put her hand inside. The nest was soft and warm.

Rebecca’s fingers touched something in the moss at the bottom of the nest. Two smooth, round objects. Carefully, she lifted them out and held them in the palm of her hand.

“Splinter Bird eggs,” said Kovak.

They were a lovely, golden green colour that glistened and glowed like the eyes of a cat.

“They’re beautiful,” whispered Rebecca.

“Sad,” said Grisby. “Just left in the nest all those years ago.”

“Would it be alright if I kept them?” Rebecca asked.

“Don’t see why not,” replied Captain ‘K’. “They’ll never hatch out now.”

Rebecca took some of the moss from the nest and wrapped it around the eggs, then she put them carefully in her pocket.

A large drop of water appeared on the tip of Kovak’s nose. It had started to rain. The dark clouds seemed to be crawling down the great pinnacle towards them. The wind, which had grown stronger, was tugging at their clothes. The sky had become very black, blotting out the suns.

“We’d better start climbing again,” said Rebecca. “If we hurry, we’ll be able to shelter in the big hole at the top. The Eye of the Needle.”

They climbed swiftly, with Rebecca leading, seeking out handholds and toe-grips. Hard driven by the wind, the rain beat against them, soaking into their clothes. The rockface became more slippery and dangerous. There was now hail amongst the rain, peppering them like pellets from an airgun.

A sudden blazing white flash of lightning seared the sky, followed by a roar of thunder that made the rock vibrate. Rebecca hung on so tightly that her knuckles showed white. Again the lightning flashed, and in its brief glare she saw that the rock ahead of her was worn as smooth as glass. The only foothold it offered was a tiny jutting ledge two or three inches wide.

She edged onto it, keeping her body pressed close against the smooth wall. Her toes groped for a firm footing as she inched along. The hail and rain was a lashing whip around her. Her right foot cautiously felt out the next step. She put her weight on it.

The rock crumbled and Rebecca lurched forward. In a panic her fingers scratched to find a handhold, but there was none. She felt her stomach knot with terror as she slowly tilted outward. Falling. Backwards.

There was nothing she could do to save herself. Through her mind flashed a vision of the terrible jagged rocks far below.

An arm locked around her shoulders, halting her fall. Then very slowly it pulled her back against the rockface. The arm was Grisby’s. His fur coats soaked with rain, he looked like a very bedraggled Spaniel.

“It’s alright,” he shouted, against the roar of the wind and rain. “You’re safe now. Just put your foot out and find another toe-hold.”

Rebecca stretched her foot beyond the broken section of the ledge. It settled on something solid. Grisby steadied her, and with one swift movement she stepped across the gap.

A few yards further along, the ledge began to widen and the going became easier. The last part of the climb took about an hour, but finally Rebecca crawled into the shelter of the great hole. The others quickly followed her, and soon all four of them were huddled together in the Eye of the Needle.

*   *   *

From the shelter of the cave at the foot of Needle Rock, Mister Glister watched through his binoculars as Rebecca and her friends made their perilous climb. He was very disappointed that none of them fell.

“Never mind, Sir,” said Cringer, hoping to cheer him up. “We’ve got them trapped now. They can’t stay up there forever. All we’ve got to do is sit here and wait.”

“Precisely,” said Mister Glister, rubbing his hands. “There is no possible way they can escape.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Slowly the storm began to abate. The clouds drifted away and the four suns appeared again to warm the wet and weary travellers.

Grisby was difficult to see: he was enveloped in a small cloud of steam as his coats dried out. Kovak had produced several sheets of blotting paper from his never ending pockets and was mopping himself dry. And Captain ‘K’ was doing his best to wring out his tights without actually taking them off.

Rebecca tried to remember the words of the riddle. “What was it again? ‘Look through the Eye of the Needle, find the Feather Well hidden close by’.”

She stood up and looked around. The mountains and countryside spread out below were a splendid sight. From this towering viewpoint she could see for miles and miles, but nowhere was there a Feather Well. And what was a Feather Well anyway?

Rebecca turned and crossed to the other side of the opening. She was so intent on looking at the view, she didn’t see a wide hole right in the middle of the needle’s eye.

She tripped and pitched forward. Her arms flapped wildly. She gave a cry, then toppled helplessly into the deep, dark hole.

She was falling. Head over heels and heels over head. Down, down, down through the hollow centre of the great Needle Rock. Rebecca braced herself for the crash she knew must come. But it didn’t.

Instead she seemed to dive headlong into something soft. Something that was slowing her down.

She opened her eyes. She was falling through feathers. Beautiful, downy, soft, purple feathers.

“Of course,” thought Rebecca. “The Feather Well.” She’d found it.

There was a gentle bump and the falling feeling ended. She had landed.

Rebecca put her hands in front of her and ‘swam’ through the feathers. After only a few strokes, she stepped out into a vast underground cavern.

It was enormous. Bigger than the inside of a cathedral. The walls and distant ceiling were covered with what looked like vast, flowing sheets of gleaming, white silk. There were great curtains of it, draped and swagged, pleated and tucked. The floor was carpeted with the material.

It was as though a hundred dress makers had unrolled a thousand bales, ready to make a million bridal gowns, and then just left them lying carelessly on the ground.

Rebecca gazed in wonder. She reached out a hand and touched the nearest drape, then pulled it back quickly. It was sticky. A few fine strands of the silk clung to her fingers. She swiftly rubbed them off.

The cavern was lit by what appeared to be millions of tiny, blue lights set in the high ceiling. On the far side, across the silken sea, was a door.

Suddenly Rebecca heard a sound behind her. It came from the opening to the Feather Well. The sound was a long way off, but coming closer.

“OOOOOOOoooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh.”

It ended sharply with a thump.

An instant later there was a second thump. And then a third.

The feathers in the opening swirled into a blizzard, and out of them reeled Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’. They didn’t seem in the least surprised to see Rebecca.

After they had exchanged greetings and brushed off the feathers, Kovak suggested it was time to look at the map again. They spread it out on the ground and knelt beside it. Rebecca traced her finger across the route.

“We’ve been to the Eye of the Needle…come down the Feather Well…now the next bit is here.” She read the clue:

“CROSS THE CAVE OF THE SILKIES, IT TAKES COURAGE FOR THIS AS YOU’LL SEE.

SEEK OUT THE TONGUE TWISTER MONSTER, PASS HIM AND YOU’RE NEARER THE TREE.”

“Well, this must be the cave of the Silkies,” said Rebecca, pointing across the cavern. “But I can’t see why it takes courage to cross it.”

“Looks safe enough,” admitted Captain ‘K’.

“Bet it will hurt my feet,” Grisby said.

“Why?” asked Kovak.

“Everything does,” he said philosophically.

They moved forward onto the silky carpet. The sticky strands of silk clung to their shoes and ankles, and with every step it became harder to lift their legs.

Halfway across the great cavern, Kovak sat down for a moment to peel some of the accumulated threads from his shoes. He pulled away the worst of it and then tried to stand up, but couldn’t. He was firmly stuck by the seat of his trousers. He used his hands to try and push himself up, and immediately they too were meshed in the threads.

Rebecca and Captain ‘K’ each took one of his arms and heaved. Kovak came free with the sound of a sticky plaster being ripped off.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Fast.”

But before they could move, they were startled by a whirring sound from above. They looked up. The millions of tiny, blue lights were moving.

Suddenly, two of them swished past Rebecca’s face. They weren’t lights at all. They were eyes. The eyes of small bat-like creatures. The Silkies. The whirring sound was the noise of their fluttering wings.

Within seconds the air was filled with them. They swooped and dived and flapped around the travellers’ heads. Rebecca threw her arms over her face.

“Run!” shouted Grisby.

But running was impossible.

Behind each of the Silkies trailed an endless thread of sticky gossamer. As they flew among the stumbling, terrified group, they wound the thread around them like a web. Around their arms and legs. Through their hair. Over their eyes. The web grew thicker and stronger as strand joined strand, spinning itself into strings, twisting itself into ropes, weaving itself into sheets.

Rebecca clawed the cobwebs from her face and saw that, like herself, her friends were blanketed by the mesh. Captain ‘K’ and Grisby blindly blundered into one another, and were immediately locked together by the strands.

Kovak, using all his strength, pulled an arm free and ripped some of the sheeting away, desperately trying to reach a hand into his pocket. Rebecca forced herself towards him. She managed to rip some of the veiling off Kovak, giving him a chance to find what he wanted.

He pulled his hand from his pocket, his fingers clutching a box of wax matches.

“Strike one!” he yelled at Rebecca.

Already the matchbox was becoming covered with the threads. Kovak forced the box open, and with her free hand Rebecca groped for a match. Several spilled onto the floor, but at last she managed to light one.

At once, the thread around her hands sizzled and shrivelled away. There was no flame or smoke, the web simply disappeared.

Kovak tore himself free and struck a second match. This seemed to terrify the Silkies who fluttered high into the air, where they waited like a great cloud, ready to swoop again.

Rebecca and Kovak moved to the swaying white bundle that was Grisby and Captain ‘K’. The great cocoon fell away at the touch of the flame. Kovak threw a lighted match onto the ground ahead of them, melting a clear path. They started to run.

Staying close to the roof of the cavern, the swarming Silkies followed them. Kovak kept striking matches and tossing them in front of him. They had now nearly reached the door, and safety.

Kovak felt in the box for another match. There was only one left.

The Silkies seemed to sense that it was again safe to attack. They swooped.

“It’s the last match,” screamed Kovak. “Give me something to light!”

Captain ‘K’ hesitated, but only for a second. He tugged his GHOST stick from his belt.

“Light it,” he shouted.

Rebecca felt a surge of panic.

“You can’t burn the GHOST stick,” she said.

“Light it,” said the Captain forcefully. “It’s our only chance.”

Kovak struck the match and put the flame to the end of the GHOST stick. The GHOST wood was as dry as tinder and caught immediately. The Silkies retreated towards the roof.

Swirling the flame in front of him, Captain ‘K’ led his friends to the huge, iron door.

Grisby tried to pull it open. It didn’t move. Kovak went to help him.

“Hurry,” shouted the Captain.

He held on to the stick until the flame was scorching his finger tips, then he dropped it. Instantly, the Silkies swept down again.

But now they were too late. The door had been forced open just wide enough to allow the friends to squeeze through. Captain ‘K’ waited until they were all inside, then followed them. Grisby pulled the door shut.

The four friends staggered forward and collapsed on to the floor.

Rebecca looked across at Captain ‘K’. Burning the GHOST stick was the greatest sacrifice he could have made. Mister Glister had offered him gold and diamonds for it. It was the only one in this whole world. The only weapon the GHOSTS feared, and now it was gone.

“I’m very sorry,” said Rebecca softly.

“It belonged to my father,” Captain ‘K’ said, staring at the floor.

“It saved our lives,” Grisby murmured.

Captain ‘K’ nodded. He seemed numb.

“Well, when we find the GHOST tree you’ll be able to cut another one,” Kovak said in an effort to cheer him up.

“I’m beginning to think we’ll never find it,” said Captain ‘K’ miserably.

They all lapsed into silence again.

Rebecca got to her feet. They were in a small, square room. One wall was made from rock and contained the door through which they had entered. The other three were of metal. Polished and shining.

“Well there’s nothing frightening about this room,” she thought gratefully.

And then she had a second thought. The only way out was through the door into the cavern of the Silkies!

She walked around the three smooth walls. There was no crack or gap or join. She edged to the corner where the smooth wall formed a right angle with the rock wall. Set into the polished surface was a small, red button—marked ‘PUSH’.

So Rebecca pushed it.

There was a ‘Sssssssshhhhhhhuuuuuuussssssshhhhhhhh’, and a smooth, rumbling sound. Two metal doors slid into sight, closing across the cavern wall. They clunked together. There was a whir of machinery, a slight lurch, and a falling sensation. Suddenly Rebecca realized where they were.

In a lift. And going down.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mister Glister remained camped at the foot of the great Needle Rock for a long time, waiting for Rebecca and her friends to descend.

He stood with his head thrown back staring up at the tip of the pinnacle hoping for some sight of them. The seconds became minutes and the minutes hours, and with every passing moment his temper worsened.

When finally it became clear that the fugitives had somehow escaped, he erupted into a volcano of rage. And what made it worse was that after all the time spent staring upward, the muscles in his neck had stiffened so that he couldn’t bend his head forward again.

Able to see nothing but the sky, he lurched around in a frenzy of wrath. He stamped his feet, tore down the tent, broke the china and kicked blindly at anything that came within range. Then, exhausted, he sat on the ground and cried. His head was tilted so far back that the tears ran into his hair.

Lurk and Cringer advanced on him cautiously. They looked down into his face.

“Nearly tea-time, Sir,” said Cringer. “Would you like me to drop some bread and jam into your mouth?”

Mister Glister stared up through brimming tears. “Just get my head straight,” he said in a voice that would frighten tigers.

Cringer cupped his hands beneath the back of Mister Glister’s head. From the front Lurk pressed hard against his Master’s shoulders. Both men pushed and pulled with all their might.

Mister Glister’s head shot forward with a crack. His scream of pain echoed around the valley like a mighty trumpet call.

On a distant hillside a misty muster of GHOSTS heard the cry. Like oily shadows, they changed direction and slithered towards Mister Glister’s camp. Silent as falling night, they spread in a circle around it. Then, like the tightening fingers of a hand, they closed in.

And when the hand opened, Lurk, Cringer and Mister Glister were prisoners of the GHOSTS.

*   *   *

The whirring sound slowed. The falling sensation ended. With a tiny shudder, the lift stopped.

The four friends stood in a tight huddle, staring nervously at the doors. They began to open.

Beyond was a perfectly circular opening. The entrance to a large pipe that stretched away as far as the eye could see.

“Looks safe enough,” said Kovak.

They stepped out of the lift. The doors hissed shut behind them. Rebecca felt a light breeze stir her hair.

The breeze became a wind. It grew more and more powerful, pulling them off balance and into the pipe. The mighty vacuum drew them faster and faster into the tube, until they were hurtling along at incredible speed.

“What’s happening?” Kovak yelled against the roar of the wind.

“I think we’re being sucked along the tube of a giant vacuum cleaner!” Rebecca shouted.

The great tube twisted and turned like the body of a snake as the four travellers were swept along on a cushion of air.

“Look out!” shouted Grisby.

But the warning was too late. Rebecca had only a glimpse of the black opening that marked the end of the tube before she was swept through it.

The vacuum switched off. Rebecca felt herself slowing down. She and Kovak collided with Captain ‘K’ and Grisby, and in a writhing tangle of arms and legs they stopped.

They were bundled together in what looked like the bottom of a giant plastic bag. There was a zipping sound and a large gap appeared in the side. Arms reached inside and grabbed at the dazed quartet. They were pulled out like fish from a net.

It took them a moment to gather their senses and realize they were surrounded by a group of very strange looking people. They were not particularly frightening. Just odd.

Rebecca noticed that they all had one thing in common. Their jaws and mouths were twisted into very strange shapes. Their lips were up on one side, and down on the other. Their chins seemed to point towards their shoulders.

One of them opened his mouth to speak. His tongue was curled like a corkscrew. His speech was difficult to understand.

“Crum rith wus,” he said.

“Did you say ‘Come with us’?” Rebecca inquired.

The man with the corkscrew tongue nodded. He led the way along a corridor to a heavy, black door, which he opened and ushered them through. As they stepped inside, the door was closed behind them. They heard the sound of keys turning and bolts being driven home.

They were in a great, gloomy library. The four vast walls were covered from floor to ceiling with books. None of them had ever seen so many books before.

Apart from the books, the room was empty. High in the centre of the ceiling was a small, dusty skylight. The glass was so crusted with grime that hardly any light penetrated into the room.

Rebecca gazed around the books in awed admiration. She liked books. “You could learn anything you wanted to know from all these books,” she breathed.

Immediately, Grisby started pulling books from the shelves and flipping through their pages.

“What are you looking for?” asked Kovak.

“A book that tells us how to get out of here,” said Grisby.

There was a sound from the door. A panel in its top half swung back. There were bars across the opening. Behind the bars was a face.

It smiled at them.

It was the largest mouth Rebecca had ever seen. So large she didn’t even notice the other features. The face seemed to be just one great, big mouth.

“Well, well, well,” said the mouth, forming its words with great care. “Always nice to welcome new slaves.”

“Slaves?” echoed Rebecca.

“Right,” answered the mouth. “If you don’t pass the tests, you stay here and work for me for the rest of your lives!”

Rebecca remembered the riddle on the map. “You’re the Tongue Twister Monster,” she exclaimed.

“Right again,” said the mouth, smiling still more broadly. “You might have noticed that the slaves who brought you here have some difficulty in speaking. That’s because they spend their lives trying to invent new tongue twisters that I won’t be able to say. They’ll never succeed of course.”

“Er…what is a tongue twister?” inquired Grisby nervously.

“A tongue twister is a group of words that is extremely difficult to say,” answered the mouth. “You have to repeat the words three times quickly. I’ll give you an example. You. The one in the baggy red suit. I’ll give you an easy one to start with. Say…‘Peggy Babcock’ three times quickly.”

Captain ‘K’ licked his lips and then rattled, “Peggy Babcock…Pebby Badcock…Peppy Cabdock.”

“Failed,” roared the mouth triumphantly. “Now, you in the fur coat,” it said. “Try…‘Sheep sleep sweetly in sheer silk sheets’.”

Grisby cleared his throat. He began. “Shweep sleet sleetly in sheer shilk sheeps…Sweep steet weetly in seer stilk sweets…Sheet sweep sleetly in sweer swilk sweets!”

Grisby grinned at his friends. “Not bad, eh? Said it perfectly.”

“Rubbish,” shouted the mouth.

“Well, perhaps I did make a little slip,” said Grisby.

Kovak was the next to try.

“Say…‘Pop the salt pot top on Poppy’,” ordered the mouth.

Kovak pursed his lips and tried to speak very precisely.

“Pop the salt pot top on Poppy.”

“Faster,” roared the mouth.

“Pop the salt pot pop on Potty…Pot the salt tot top on Totty.”

“Dreadful,” chuckled the mouth. “Now little girl, let’s see if we can find an easy one for you. Try…‘Red leather yellow leather’.”

Rebecca closed her eyes and concentrated. She formed the words very carefully before she spoke them.

“Red leather yellow leather…Red rether yellow rether…Red rether yerrow rether.”

“Not a hope,” smiled the mouth.

“Does that mean we’re your slaves?” Captain ‘K’ asked.

“No, no, no, no,” the mouth answered. “That was just a demonstration. You have to make up a tongue twister that I can’t say. If you do, I’ll let you go. But I warn you, I’m superb.”

“So would I be,” thought Rebecca, “with a mouth as big as yours.”

The adventurers huddled together in a tight group, trying to invent a tongue twister.

“No hurry,” said the mouth. “There are four of you so you get four chances.”

Rebecca stepped up to the bars in the door.

“Say…‘How the old bold bald owl howled’,” she said carefully.

“Easy peasy,” said the mouth. “How the old bold bald owl howled.” It said it three times without faltering. “One chance gone. Three left,” it added confidently.

“I’ve got one,” said Grisby. He chuckled excitedly. “Oh dear,” he said. “I can hardly say it slowly, never mind fast. This one will have you.”

He chuckled again, then flexed his lips and said haltingly, “Say…‘Green screen grim scream’.”

The mouth raced through the words with total precision. There was no trace of a mistake.

“Two down, two to go,” intoned the mouth.

The group had another conference. This time Captain ‘K’ had an idea.

“Say…‘Shall Sheila sell sea shells said the Seal’.”

Three times the mouth sped through the line without hesitation.

“Last chance,” it said menacingly.

“We need to find something really complicated,” whispered Rebecca.

“What’s the point? He’s too good for us,” said Grisby. “We’ll all end up with our tongues twisted like corkscrews.”

Then Rebecca thought of something. It was a trick they used to play on one another at school in a game called ‘Do as I do, Say as I say’. It just might work here.

She stepped up to the door.

“Now this is our last chance, so just let me be sure I’ve got the rules right,” she said. “You have to repeat whatever I say three times very quickly. Exactly what I say. Is that right?”

“Right,” snorted the mouth.

“Very well then,” said Rebecca. “Here we go. ‘Say…we wonder which witch washes watches for the thirty-three free thrush throttlers’.”

The lips of the mouth pursed and then began. “We wonder which witch washes…”

“Wrong!” Rebecca interrupted loudly. “You’ve got it wrong.”

The mouth curled into a snarl.

“I never get it wrong,” it snapped. “I’ll do it again even faster. We wonder which witch washes watches for…”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong!” cried Rebecca. “You were supposed to say exactly what I said. And what I said was ‘Say…we wonder which witch washes watches’. You didn’t say ‘SAY’ at the beginning. We’ve won!”

“Cheating,” roared the mouth. “That’s cheating!”

“No it’s not,” said Captain ‘K’ with great dignity. “You made the rules and Rebecca just happened to outsmart you.”

“We beat you,” said Kovak. “You promised you’d let us go.”

“Never,” pouted the mouth. “You cheated and I’m not playing anymore. You can stay locked in there for ever. So there!”

The panel in the top of the door slammed shut and they heard the mouth go muttering away down the hall. Grisby tried the door. It was well and truly locked. They were prisoners.

Rebecca wasted no time. She ran to a shelf and took down two huge volumes of a dictionary. She carried them to the middle of the floor.

“I know how to spell ‘HELP’ if that’s what you’re looking up,” Captain ‘K’ said.

Rebecca hurried back to the shelves and picked out some more books.

“Pick out the biggest books and bring them here,” she ordered.

Though puzzled, the others did as they were told. The pile of books grew swiftly. Rebecca positioned them into neat stacks, and within half an hour they had built a towering pyramid.

Kovak, panting slightly, handed up another armful of books to Rebecca. Balancing carefully, she placed the books like building bricks and clambered on top. Her outstretched fingers just touched the glass of the skylight.

Grisby brought up more books, giving her the extra height she needed. She pushed open the skylight. A breath of cool air wafted in. The tower of books wobbled dangerously as she pulled herself through the window and out onto a steeply sloping roof.

She peered down into the library. “Come on,” she called to the others.

Captain ‘K’ was first up, and Rebecca helped him scramble out onto the roof beside her. Kovak was about half-way up and Grisby had just started to climb, when the library door burst open and the mouth and its servants rushed in.

The mouth roared with anger and started to pull the books from the bottom of the pile. As Kovak safely reached the skylight, the literary tower swayed sickeningly.

“Come on!” shouted Rebecca to Grisby, who was now about half-way up.

Grisby doubled his speed, but books started to tumble around him. As he reached the top, the whole edifice teetered and tottered. He stretched for the window ledge and missed it.

“Jump,” shouted Rebecca.

Grisby jumped.

The fingers of one hand closed on the window ledge. The books fell in a great avalanche, leaving Grisby hanging high above the ground. His friends dragged him out onto the roof.

Below, the mouth and its servants struggled from under the fallen books.

“After them,” screamed the mouth.

The friends slithered down the roof like toboggans on an icy hill. They shot off the edge and sailed through the air. There was an enormous splash as the four of them hit the waters of a large, deep pool.

Rebecca felt herself sinking, then slowly she started to rise. As her head broke the surface, she began to swim to the nearby bank. Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’ were not far behind her.

Without a word, they scrambled out of the water and started to run.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

They ran and ran and ran. They ran up steep hills and through narrow valleys, until they could run no more.

They threw themselves down into the shelter of a circle of boulders. There was no sign of anyone following them. For the moment, they were safe.

It was now almost night and the four friends decided to stay where they were until morning. Grisby opened the map and they looked at the next clue.

“BEWARE NOT TO FALL INTO BAD HABITS, IT’S EASIER THAN YOU KNOW.

IF YOU DON’T LAUGH AT THE SWARDLEWARDLE CREATURES, YOU’VE NOT MUCH FURTHER TO GO.”

None of them could make any sense of the riddle. “We’ll think about it in the morning,” Rebecca said.

Captain ‘K’ took a small sewing kit from his pocket and began to darn a hole in the knee of his tights with blue wool. In the growing darkness he found it difficult to see what he was doing.

Grisby gave a yawn and lay on his back with his legs straight up in the air, saying it was the only way he could bring relief to his aching feet.

Kovak searched carefully amongst his disguises until he found what he wanted. A pair of spectacles with two wide-open eyes painted on them. “If anybody comes along they’ll think I’m awake,” he explained.

Then, instantly, he fell asleep and began to snore loudly.

Grisby snored back.

Captain ‘K’ finished his darning, curled up into a ball and added his own shrill whistle to the snoring chorus.

For some reason Rebecca still felt wide awake. Careful to make no sound, she got to her feet and tip-toed past her sleeping friends. Kovak’s glasses had slipped down his nose so that he now seemed to have four eyes. One pair closed and one pair open.

Rebecca stepped out of the circle of boulders. Away to her right she saw the glint of moonlight on a narrow, rippling stream. She decided she wanted a drink.

In this mysterious world, all the raspberries grew on the tops of high mountains where no-one could pick them. Then, when the snow fell, they were frozen—which is why the tips of the mountains were coloured red. When the thaw came in the Spring, the icy raspberry juice flowed down the mountains in rivers and streams.

Rebecca gulped down some of the cool, delicious juice. As she glanced up, she saw a gleam of lights. She wondered if she should go back and wake the others. “No,” she decided. “They need their sleep. I’ll investigate first. If it’s anything interesting, I’ll come back and tell them.”

She jumped over the stream and cautiously approached the circle of light.

It was a camp. In the centre was a tent with the letters ‘N.S.F.T.F.O.B.H.’ painted on it. Sitting outside the tent were two of the nicest looking people Rebecca had ever seen. A sweet old lady who looked like a Fairy Godmother, and a jolly old man with red cheeks and twinkly eyes.

Rebecca shifted her position to get a better look. The old lady spotted her. She gave a warm smile and beckoned.

“Don’t stand out there in the dark. Come on over and make yourself comfortable,” she called invitingly.

Rebecca advanced shyly. Lots of pretty, cuddly animals ran towards her and danced around her feet, making squeaky, welcoming noises.

“Come and sit down here next to me,” said the old man.

He dug in his coat pocket and brought out a big paper bag.

“Have a sweet,” he said.

Rebecca hesitated. She had always been told never to take sweets from strangers. She wasn’t even allowed them at home because they were so bad for her teeth.

“Go on,” insisted the old man. “One little sweet can’t do you any harm.”

“I suppose one is alright,” Rebecca thought. She took it and thanked him.

“No need to say ‘thank you’,” chuckled the old lady.

One of the furry animals jumped up onto Rebecca’s lap. It was like a tiny ball of fluff.

“Bite your nails for you, Miss?” it squeaked.

The old man smiled and lifted the animal off. “You must excuse him. He’s very young and hasn’t learned properly yet.”

“You’re out very late,” said the old lady. “Won’t you be in trouble when you get home?”

Before Rebecca could reply, the old man said, “Well, if you are, just say that you had to visit a sick friend. It’s much easier to tell a little white lie than to get into trouble.”

“Little white lie,” thought Rebecca. “Sounds more like a great big black one.” But she didn’t say anything.

The old man smiled to himself.

“I was thinking about when I was a boy,” he said. “The thing I hated most was cleaning my teeth. So what I used to do was just put a bit of toothpaste on my tongue. That way it smelled as if I’d actually brushed them. It fooled everybody.”

The old couple roared with laughter.

The fluffy ball nuzzled at Rebecca’s ankles again. “Bite your nails, Miss?”

“Biting nails is a very bad habit,” Rebecca said.

“BAD HABIT!” The words flashed like a neon sign inside her head. That’s what the map had said: ‘Beware not to fall into bad habits, it’s easier than you know’.

All the things the old couple had mentioned were bad habits, and falling into them was easy and comfortable.

Rebecca was suddenly very frightened. She jumped to her feet.

“You’re the Bad Habits,” she exclaimed.

The smiles on the faces of the old couple disappeared. They suddenly looked ugly and frightening.

The animals changed too. They no longer appeared to be fluffy bundles, but more like nasty creepy things.

The old man grabbed Rebecca’s arm and held her firmly.

“Pity you found out,” shrilled the old woman, with the voice of a cackling witch. “All bad habits come from here.” She pointed at the letters painted on the tent. “They stand for the ‘National Society for the Furtherance of Bad Habits’. We’re like missionaries. We train our little friends here to whisper into the ears of sleeping children. Cheat. Tell lies. Suck your thumb. Be a sneak. Don’t clean your teeth. Steal.”

“Bite your nails,” squeaked the little voice.

Rebecca jerked her arm free and ran. The voices shrieked after her. “Lie. Steal. Cheat. That’s the easy way.”

Rebecca didn’t slow down until she was back with her friends. As she ran into the circle of boulders, she tripped over Kovak’s outstretched legs and fell forward, grazing her knee.

“Owww,” she yelped.

The sound startled Captain ‘K’ and he leaped to his feet.

“Kerpow!…Splatt!…Zowie!” he yelled, thinking they were under attack. He took a pace forward and instantly fell flat on his face.

He got up. “Katchoww!” he said, and fell down again.

“What is it?” asked Grisby.

“My legs,” said Captain ‘K’. “They’re paralysed. I can’t walk.”

“Does it hurt?” Rebecca asked.

“No,” said the Captain bravely. “There’s no pain, but my legs are useless.”

He gave a courageous little smile and his voice trembled as he spoke.

“You mustn’t worry about me,” he said. “Leave me and go on with the mission. I will only be a burden to you.”

Grisby gave a deep sob. “That’s bravery,” he said. “That’s courage.”

The Captain put a comforting hand on Grisby’s shoulder.

“Goodbye, old friend. I’ll go proud in the knowledge that my comrades have carried on the fight against tyranny and oppression that I, in my small way, began. I shall be with you in spirit, knowing that my life is a small price to pay for the victory that you will win.”

Rebecca glanced at the Captain’s legs. She made a little sound, a sort of choking noise in her throat.

“Don’t cry, child,” said the Captain softly. “Be brave.”

Rebecca turned to Grisby, hardly able to speak. “Lend me your penknife,” she said.

Grisby handed it to her. “Are you going to operate?” he asked nervously.

“In a way,” said Rebecca.

Captain ‘K’ sat up in swift alarm.

“You’re not going to use that dirty old penknife on me?” his voice trembled.

“Now you just have to be brave,” choked Rebecca.

“Just grit your teeth. It shouldn’t hurt much.”

She poised the blade over the Captain’s knees. Grisby turned his head, not daring to look. Captain ‘K’ was ready to faint.

Rebecca made a quick sawing motion with the knife.

“There,” she said. “Now try and walk.”

With Grisby’s help, the Captain got to his feet.

“Go on,” said Rebecca. “Walk.”

The Captain took a cautious pace. Then another. And another. His face started to glow with delight. In a moment he was dancing and running in small circles, shouting, “I’m cured, I’m cured.”

Rebecca could contain herself no longer. She exploded into gales of laughter. Through her giggles she managed to gasp, “You’d darned the legs of your tights together.”

They all settled down and talked for a little while. Rebecca told them about the Bad Habits. By the time she’d finished it was beginning to get light.

Rebecca wakened Kovak who had slept through all the noise and excitement. He looked around grumpily, yawned, and complained that he’d not had a wink of sleep all night.

They were just about to set out, when Rebecca felt something move in the pocket of her frock.

She looked down to see two tiny heads peeping over the edge of the pocket. The heads had big, round, innocent eyes and long, flat, square-ended beaks. They were baby Splinter Birds.

The two eggs had hatched out with the warmth of her body.

Rebecca had never been so pleased and excited about anything in her life. These were the only two Splinter Birds in the whole of this special world.

Grisby, Kovak and the Captain were just as excited. They stroked the birds, made silly noises, and generally fussed over them. Rebecca gently lifted the birds from her pocket and let them sit on her shoulder. “I wonder what they eat?” she said.

Kovak checked through his bird book. “Berries and seeds,” he read.

They started to search amongst the brambles, and in a little while each of them had collected a handful of Splinter Bird food.

Grisby put his hand under the birds’ beaks. “Come on,” he cooed. “Brekkywekky. Eaty Weaty.”

The birds looked puzzled and ignored the berries.

“That’s no good,” Rebecca said. “They don’t know how to eat yet. They would expect their mother to bring them things in her beak and pop them into their mouths.”

Captain ‘K’ thought for a minute. Then he carefully placed a berry between his lips, flapped his arms wildly, and ran in circles. Then he swooped and lowered his face towards the fledglings. A little beak opened and took the berry from his lips.

The Captain was rewarded with a little “cheep cheep” of thanks.

“It works,” he said elatedly.

Kovak and Grisby tried it, and again the birds gobbled down the berries.

And so they set out. As they walked, the three men swept and swirled around Rebecca, flapping their arms and carrying berries in their mouths, pretending to be mother birds. Kovak slipped into his bird disguise and looked rather like an old ostrich that had lost half its feathers.

Rebecca did her best not to laugh. She didn’t want to hurt their feelings, but they really did look very funny.

They covered many miles that morning, climbing slowly towards the top of a high ridge and wondering what they would see on the other side.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

But there were three people who already knew what lay beyond the ridge—Mister Glister, Lurk and Cringer. The GHOSTS had brought them to their main camp alongside the great lake.

The two servants lay shaking with fear at Mister Glister’s feet.

“We’ll never get out of here alive,” whimpered Lurk.

“They’ll kill us for sure,” whined Cringer.

“Be silent,” Mister Glister snarled. “I’m trying to concentrate. Nature has endowed me with all the finest qualities a man can have. I am a splendid liar, a marvellous cheat and a magnificent bully. I have made myself rich and powerful by being vicious and cruel. Surely a man with all these superb qualities can think of a way out of this!”

He thought hard.

*   *   *

Rebecca sat down gratefully. Her legs were aching from the long, hard climb. For the last mile the going had become more difficult. Clumps of briars with sharp, savage thorns grew in great profusion. In places vast bushes had grown across the trail, forcing them to make wide detours.

Now they had reached a small clearing a few hundred yards from the top of the ridge, only to find their way completely barred by the high bushes. They stretched away in both directions as far as the eye could see—like a high wall of barbed wire.

The needle-sharp thorns had scratched their hands and faces, torn and jagged their clothes. Captain ‘K’s’ tights were a mass of ladders.

“We’ll never get through that,” said Grisby, staring at the tangle that confronted them.

The Splinter Birds flapped their tiny wings and managed to fly up onto Rebecca’s head. Then they fluttered down to her shoulder. They had spent most of the afternoon learning to fly and by now had become quite good at it.

“Let’s look at the map again,” said Rebecca.

They spread it out and Kovak read: “If you don’t laugh at the Swardlewardle creatures, you’ve not much further to go.” He looked around. “I wonder what a Swardlewardle is?”

The bushes around them started to snap and crackle as something moved through them. The four friends leaped into a tight huddle, clutching at one another.

Rebecca pointed a shaking finger. “Look!”

Deep inside the bushes was a single yellow eye that stared unblinkingly at them. A few yards to the right another eye appeared, gleaming like the headlight of a motor bike. Yet another eye glinted off to their left.

“Swardlewardles!” gulped Grisby.

The bushes quaked and shook as the creatures, seemingly oblivious to the sharp thorns, pushed their way towards the frightened group.

The first of the Swardlewardles waddled out of the bushes, leaving behind it a narrow tunnel that marked its path. Its companions crunched into the open and stood glaring maliciously.

They were strange looking creatures. The single yellow eye was situated in the centre of a broad forehead. Below it was a nose or snout that contained three nostrils, and below that was a mouth that had so many teeth it resembled the keyboard of a piano. The bulky body and the long tail were covered with gleaming silver scales, hard and metallic looking. It was this armour-plating that protected them from the thorns.

A dozen or more Swardlewardles had now emerged. They stood in a loose circle surrounding the friends. The largest of them shuffled forward. It only had short legs, but there were hundreds of them. It opened its mouth and gave a sinister, gurgling roar. A cloud of bluey white smoke belched from its trio of nostrils.

The other Swardlewardles followed the example of their leader, filling the air with their steamy breath. The cloud wafted around the group.

“They’ve got us trapped,” muttered Captain ‘K’, and then surprisingly, he gave a little giggle.

“We’ll never get past them,” said Grisby, and started to chuckle loudly.

Rebecca was extremely frightened, but she couldn’t stop herself tittering with laughter.

The Swardlewardles all breathed out together and the vapour swirled around the friends like a heavy mist.

“Ha ha ha ha ha,” Grisby chuckled. “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.”

And despite the fact he didn’t seem to be enjoying himself, his laughter grew to a crescendo.

Captain ‘K’ giggled uncontrollably. Kovak guffawed and Rebecca shook with laughter. The more the Swardlewardles breathed out, the louder the four friends laughed. The mountainside rang with their shrieks.

“Ha ha ho ho he he ha ha ho ho hee hee hee haa haa hoo aggh aggh aggh ha ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ha ha he he he ho ho ha ha ha ha ag ag ha ho he he tee hee ho ha he ag ag ah ah ah ah ha ha ha he he ho ho ho ha ha ha ha ha ha aggh.”

Their ribs ached and they gasped for breath as their bodies shook helplessly.

Between shrieks of laughter, Rebecca managed to gasp, “Ha ha he he he…they’re…ho ho ho…they’re breathing…ha ha ha ha ha…laughing gas.” Then she doubled up, holding her aching stomach.

“That’s how they catch their victims,” Kovak managed to giggle. “They make them helpless with laughter.”

As if to prove his point, he fell down and rolled about hysterically.

“Think of something serious,” laughed Rebecca, tears streaming down her face.

“A nice, old lady falling down and breaking her leg,” shouted Kovak.

They all laughed even louder.

“A steamroller running over my feet,” shrieked Grisby, and exploded with mirth.

It was no good. There was no thought serious enough to stop them laughing. By now they were almost exhausted. They rolled and twisted and writhed on the ground.

Rebecca took a deep breath and managed to gasp out between shrieks: “In there.” She pointed to one of the openings in the bushes made by the Swardlewardles.

Still laughing, she rolled towards the entrance and crawled inside on all fours. Grisby, Kovak and the Captain followed her. The slow moving Swardlewardles started forward to try and intercept them. But they weren’t quick enough.

Once inside the bushes, the friends scrambled along as fast as they could go. They were still bellowing with laughter. The Swardlewardle tunnels wandered in all directions like some huge maze. Rebecca thought, “As long as the tunnels go up hill, we must be moving in the right direction.”

At last Rebecca and her companions pushed their way out of the brambles and stepped into the open. They found themselves on the very crest of the ridge.

They stood perfectly still staring at the view that presented itself. The ground fell away in a gentle slope that was littered with huge rocks. At its base was a narrow strip of sand. Beyond the sand stretched a great, dark lake, as smooth and polished as patent leather. A hundred yards from the shore was a small, almost flat, island. And growing at the very centre of the island was the object that held their awed attention.

A tree.

A tall and stately tree—its fine tracery of branches spreading broad and high and covered with leaves that glowed in a thousand colours.

“The GHOST tree,” breathed Rebecca.

They had found what they had been searching for all this time. The very last GHOST tree in Rebecca’s World.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The friends said very little as they clambered down towards the shore. They were lost in the beauty of the tree. Even the normally chirpy Splinter Birds remained silent.

It was Grisby who noticed it first. He stopped dead in his tracks and pointed.

“Look.”

For a moment Rebecca saw nothing, then there was a movement. A GHOST flitted between two rocks near where the water lapped the island’s beach. Then a second GHOST slithered across the sand. A third oozed into sight. And then Rebecca realised there were hundreds of them, forming an almost unbroken line around the island.

“It’s the GHOST guard,” whispered Captain ‘K’. “They stay on the edge of the island because they daren’t go near the tree. But they make sure nobody else does either.”

“How do you get past a solid wall of GHOSTS?” asked Kovak miserably.

Rebecca did her best to sound cheerful.

“Somehow we’ve managed to get through all the other dangers,” she said. “We’ll think of a way of getting through this.” But her voice sounded a good deal more confident than she felt.

“Down,” hissed Captain ‘K’ urgently.

They all crouched quickly amongst the rocks, hardly daring to breathe. There was an oily, slithering sound and a patrol of GHOSTS floated past, only a few yards away from their hiding-place. Unsuspecting, the GHOSTS moved on, heading for their main camp.

When they had gone, the four friends, careful to make no noise, picked their way through the rocks until they reached the edge of the lake. From here the stretch of water that separated them from the island looked much wider.

“Even if I had my rubber ring, I’d never be able to swim that far,” thought Rebecca. “And even if I could, the GHOSTS would catch me the moment I landed.”

For the first time she felt utterly defeated. Dusk was falling and the dark surface of the lake looked black and menacing. A cool wind made Rebecca shudder.

They moved back from the water’s edge to the shelter of some rocks and sat in miserable silence, staring across at the glowing beauty of the GHOST tree. Now, even though it was so near, it seemed further away than when they had begun their journey.

Darkness drew around them like a velvet cloak. The Splinter Birds nuzzled against Rebecca’s cheek and dropped off to sleep. “Think!” she said to herself.

And so she thought. She thought of this plan and that plan and then another plan, but none of them worked. She glanced around the dejected faces of her companions. It was obvious that none of them had found a workable plan either.

Rebecca stood up and walked slowly down to the edge of the water. She stared across at the GHOST tree. Hardly conscious of what she was doing, she turned and walked along the sand, lost in her thoughts. She halted at the low headland of rocks that marked the end of the beach.

She was about to turn and go back when she heard a voice. It came from the other side of the headland. It was muffled and she couldn’t make out the words, but there was something about the voice she recognised.

Quickly and quietly, she scrambled up the rocks until she could look down into the next bay. What she saw made her shrink into the shadows.

It was the GHOSTS main camp. And there, right in the centre, stood Mister Glister and his two servants. It was his voice that Rebecca had recognised. He looked very frightened, but was doing his best to remain calm. Lurk and Cringer shook with terror.

Rebecca cautiously edged a little closer. As she watched, a GHOST, larger and more frightening than any she had seen, seemed to suddenly materialize in front of Mister Glister. It billowed and swayed in a terrifying manner. For a moment she thought Mister Glister was going to faint. His face turned pale beneath his tan. Then, with an effort, he pulled himself together.

“I have a plan,” he said.

The GHOSTS hissed like a nest of snakes.

“I know that none of you can go near the tree. If you should just so much as touch it, it will destroy you.”

The GHOSTS seemed to become even angrier. Mister Glister raised his voice slightly.

“And yet you must always keep it guarded. If Captain ‘K’ could ever reach the tree, he could make enough GHOST wood weapons to drive you from this world forever.”

Mister Glister’s confidence seemed to grow. He had the full attention of the GHOSTS and he knew it.

“I have reasons of my own for wanting the tree destroyed.”

“You certainly have,” thought Rebecca. “If the GHOSTS are driven from this planet all your power and wealth will vanish.”

“Here is my proposition,” went on Mister Glister. “You will release the three of us. In return, my servants and I will cross to the island first thing in the morning and chop down the GHOST tree. We will saw it into logs and burn it until nothing but ashes remain. You GHOSTS need never fear anything again. You will rule this world completely. Forever.”

Rebecca felt numb with fear. She could see no way of stopping Mister Glister’s plan.

The GHOST leader gave its answer.

“It is agreed,” it hissed. “You will begin as soon as the first sun rises.”

Rebecca slipped silently from her hiding-place, her only thought to hurry back to the others and tell them the terrible news. She ran swiftly along the beach, staying in the shadows of the rocks, the sound of her footsteps muffled in the sand. She had covered about half the distance to their hiding-place, when she saw something moving ahead of her.

She slipped silently into a dark gap between two rocks. A patrol of GHOSTS was approaching. Rebecca strained her eyes against the darkness. The patrol came closer. Then she saw something that almost made her cry out.

The GHOSTS were escorting three prisoners. Even in the black of night there was no mistaking them. Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’. They shuffled past Rebecca’s hiding-place, the GHOSTS prodding and pushing them towards their main camp. There was nothing she could do to help them.

She watched, her eyes blurred with tears, until they were out of sight. And then she really cried. Deep, gulping sobs that she couldn’t stop. She felt so lost and alone and helpless.

The Splinter Birds pushed their heads against her cheek as though to try and comfort her. Her tears splashed down onto their beaks. “In three or four hours it will be light,” she thought. “Then the tree will be cut and burned. And there is nothing I can do to stop it.”

And then it came.

The IDEA.

It burst like a starshell inside her head. A marvellous, incredible, brilliant IDEA.

Her tears stopped and her face took on a determined look. What had to be done, had to be done quickly. If she worked fast, there would be just enough time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The first of the suns peeped carefully over the horizon, decided it was safe to continue, then beckoned its three brothers to follow it into the sky. The sunbeams shafted down through a haze of light, misty rain, turning the sky into a whirl of rainbows.

Rebecca was sleeping in the shelter of an overhanging rock. Beside her lay the Splinter Birds. Flat on their backs, legs stuck straight up in the air, they resembled feathered Grisbys. All three of them seemed totally exhausted.

The sound of cutting axes did nothing to disturb their sleep. Only when there was a loud creak and groan, coming across the water like a cry of pain, did they stir.

Rebecca sat up and rubbed her eyes. She saw the lovely GHOST tree slowly topple and crash to the ground.

She stared through the gentle rain across to the island. She could see Mister Glister gathering some of the smaller branches and piling them into a heap. A thin streamer of smoke climbed from the twigs.

Lurk and Cringer worked with saws, slicing the tree into logs and tossing them onto the fire. Soon, the funeral pyre of the GHOST tree was a blazing inferno. A circle of black smoke hung above it like a wreath.

On the sand beside Rebecca lay a roughly made bag that she had fashioned from the underskirt of her frock. Just what the bag contained could not be seen, but it bulged heavily.

Rebecca scooped out two handfuls of the contents and emptied them into her pocket. Then, finding a small, sharp stone, she pierced a tiny hole in the bottom of the bag. This done she gently woke up the two Splinter Birds.

They stretched their wings and yawned their tweezer beaks.

“Time we began,” said Rebecca. “You know what to do.”

Captain ‘K’, Grisby and Kovak stared through the bars of their cave cell, looking at the orange glow of fire from the island. Mister Glister was being careful to pick up every last twig and feed it into the flames. Lurk and Cringer were even sweeping up the sawdust and leaves to make certain that no trace of the GHOST tree would be left.

All hope had gone. They were defeated. Utterly. A pile of glowing ashes was all that remained of their dream. The GHOSTS had won.

So shocked and horrified had they been at the destruction of the tree, they had given no thought to their own position. But they were soon reminded of their peril. The door of the cell was flung open and jubilant GHOSTS, hissing with triumph, ushered them out. They were hustled across the sand and made to stand before the GHOST leader.

“What are they going to do to us?” whispered Grisby.

“Nothing very nice,” said Kovak.

“One good thing. They didn’t get Rebecca,” said Captain ‘K’. “Well,” he went on. “We mustn’t let them see we’re afraid. Even if we are.”

The three friends stood erect. Heads held proudly.

“Bow,” hissed the GHOST leader.

The other GHOSTS took up the cry. “Bow.” “Bow.” “Bow.”

The three remained unmoving, which seemed to drive the GHOST leader into a frenzy.

“Bow!” it shrieked. “We are the victors! The supreme power of this planet!”

“Oh no you’re not,” said a little voice.

The GHOSTS fell silent and slowly turned to stare. Standing on the highest rock of the small headland was Rebecca. She looked nervous, but very determined.

For a moment the GHOSTS seemed stunned by her daring. As they watched, she clambered down the rock onto the sand and began to advance towards them.

“Go back, Rebecca! Run for your life!” shouted Grisby.

Kovak and Captain ‘K’ added their warnings, but their voices were drowned by the angry hiss of the swarming GHOSTS.

A wave of them started towards Rebecca. But instead of turning to run, she stood her ground. She felt in her pocket and took a handful of something from it. She scattered it on the damp, sandy soil in front of her.

Immediately, tiny hair-like roots appeared and burrowed into the ground. Wavering green shoots began to poke upwards. With bewildering speed the shoots sprouted small branches, and on them minute leaves began to form.

The GHOSTS stopped dead, frightened by the miniature forest that was springing up before their eyes. One of them, braver than the rest, slithered forward and tried to pull out one of the plants. There was a ‘plop’ and a ‘hiss’, and the GHOST vanished.

The other GHOSTS started to retreat.

Rebecca threw another handful of seeds. They fell amongst the crowding GHOSTS and instantly started to sprout.

“You’re finished,” Rebecca shouted. “These are GHOST tree seeds. They grow to full size in one day. By tomorrow morning this planet will be covered in great forests of GHOST trees.”

She pointed up at the sky. High above were the two Splinter Birds, their wings flapping furiously. Held between them in their beaks was the bag made from Rebecca’s petticoat. From the tiny hole in the bottom floated a steady trickle of seed.

The birds made off over the mountains in the direction of the Glass City, sowing the seeds that would grow into vast forests.

The GHOSTS fled. In their wild panic to escape some of them trod on the growing seedlings, and immediately exploded and disappeared.

Rebecca threw another handful of seed to speed them on their way. In what seemed no more than a flicker of the eye, they were gone. The four friends were alone on the beach.

They raced to one another and embraced. Everybody spoke at once. They laughed and cried with joy.

Exhausted by the excitement, they all sat on the ground in the shade of the growing GHOST trees. Rebecca told them what had happened.

“I knew there was no way of getting onto the island or stopping them cutting down the tree,” she said. “And then I remembered what Kovak told me about the GHOST tree seeds. They grow in lovely silver balls like the things you hang on Christmas trees. Just before it was dark I noticed the tree was covered with them.”

“But how did you collect them?” asked Grisby.

“I didn’t,” she answered. “The Splinter Birds did. They flew back and forth to the island all night. In the dark the GHOSTS couldn’t see them picking the seed pods. The birds brought the pods back to me, and I cracked them open and emptied the seeds into the bag I’d made.”

“That’s marvellous,” said Captain ‘K’, kissing her.

“Terrific,” said Grisby, hugging her.

“Fantastic,” said Kovak, giving her a hug and a kiss.

Rebecca said modestly that the Splinter Birds should get all the praise, but she was secretly glad that they went on telling her how clever she had been.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

They journeyed back to the city by another route, walking through sweet smelling forests of GHOST trees. The Splinter Birds had flown back to meet them, and now, as the group neared the city, they sat proudly on Grisby’s head.

Cheering crowds lined the roadway, giving them the sort of welcome that heroes deserve. Captain ‘K’s’ suit was tattered and torn, but somehow he seemed to fill it much better now.

Grisby had taken an entirely new attitude towards his feet. He was now their master. If one of them dared offer him the slightest twinge of pain, he kicked it with the other.

Kovak, elated by the tumultuous welcome, changed disguises faster than ever. Wigs, noses, ears, spectacles, teeth and beards came and went so fast that he looked like a crowd.

Rebecca glanced at his final disguise. “That’s very good,” she said. “You look very handsome.”

Kovak seemed startled. “I’m not wearing a disguise at the moment,” he said.

The adventurers were fêted with a great party. There was singing and dancing in the streets, and then everybody surged out to the park and tore down Mister Glister’s GHOST shelters. They would never be needed again.

Away from the bright glare and excitement stood three shadowy figures. Mister Glister, Lurk and Cringer. Still damp after swimming from the island, they miserably watched the revels.

Mister Glister stared savagely at the ‘For Sale’ notice that hung on the door of Glister Palace.

The government which he had once controlled had confiscated all his property and goods. Now he owned only what he stood up in.

Out of pure habit and bad temper he banged Lurk and Cringer’s heads together. He was astonished to feel a stinging cuff around the ear and a dizzying thump on the top of his head. Lurk and Cringer had struck him back!

“You’d better get used to the idea,” said Cringer.

“You work for us now,” added Lurk. And they both gave him a sharp kick.

And though he hated it, Mister Glister smiled and said, “Thank you, Gentlemen. Most kind of you, Sirs. Very grateful.”

*   *   *

Rebecca pushed open the door of the laboratory and stepped inside cautiously. Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’ followed her. They looked around in wonder at the round room.

The little man glanced up from his desk.

“Ah, there you are, you horrid little beast. I’ve been expecting you.”

He walked down the wall towards them.

“I think I have perfected the transmission beam that will return you from whence you came. And good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Now come along. No time to waste, you nasty child.”

He directed Rebecca to step into the centre of a large, metal hoop. It hovered in mid-air without support of any kind.

“I want to say goodbye to my friends,” Rebecca said.

“No time for that, you gruesome little worm,” the man snapped. “Get inside.”

He gave Rebecca a shove. He pressed some buttons, and machinery began to whirr. A special counter started to tick off the seconds.

Ten…Nine…Eight…

“Are you sure it will work?” called Rebecca.

“Not at all sure. I’ve not had time to test it.”

Seven…Six…

“Goodbye, Rebecca,” called Grisby, Kovak and Captain ‘K’.

They raised their arms to wave.

Five…four…

Rebecca began to cry. It was sad leaving her friends. She waved.

Three…Two…

They all stared. Rebecca seemed to be fading. Becoming invisible.

One…Zero.

There was a puff of smoke. Rebecca had completely disappeared.

“Will she be home by now?” asked Grisby sadly.

The little man shrugged. “Who can say,” he replied. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

There was a whirling curling swirling furling hurling feeling. Rebecca’s head was spinning. Then it was over. She staggered a bit, feeling rather dizzy. She opened her eyes quickly and looked around…and then she started to smile.

Last Author’s Note

Rebecca hopes that one day she’ll meet her three friends again. And, as you know, if you wish for something hard enough…It’s bound to come true.

Rebecca

Grisby

Captain ‘K’

Kovak

about the Authors

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TERRY NATION is the creator of the world famous Daleks, the arch enemy of television’s Doctor Who. Born in South Wales, he started his professional career as a stand-up comedian. However, although audiences liked his jokes, they didn’t much like the way he told them; so he became a scriptwriter instead. In all, he wrote more than 200 radio shows for some of Britain’s leading comics, including Harry Worth, Eric Sykes and Frankie Howerd, before turning to television. The change of medium brought about a change of style, and before long Terry Nation had become one of this country’s most prolific writers of television drama. Among his long list of credits are the internationally successful series, ‘The Saint,’ ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Persuaders’ and the recent BBC Television series, ‘Survivors’—based on his novel of the same name. He has also written and produced a number of feature films.

Terry Nation lives with his wife and two young children in the country. Rebecca’s World is his first full length children’s book.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

LARRY LEARMONTH is a new illustrator of outstanding talent. Although he has illustrated a variety of children’s subjects including posters, Rebecca’s World is his first children’s book. His work, which includes a number of brilliant portrait studies, has appeared in magazines throughout the world.

Table of Contents

- Teaser
- Maze
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- First Author’s Note
- CHAPTER ONE
- CHAPTER TWO
- CHAPTER THREE
- CHAPTER FOUR
- CHAPTER FIVE
- CHAPTER SIX
- CHAPTER SEVEN
- CHAPTER EIGHT
- CHAPTER NINE
- CHAPTER TEN
- CHAPTER ELEVEN
- CHAPTER TWELVE
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
- CHAPTER NINETEEN
- CHAPTER TWENTY
- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
- Last Author’s Note
- about the Authors