Six Drill for Oil

By Stenton Garvald

When Sophie didn't get a place on her school trip to Paris, her only option was to solve a mystery (ideally one that was baffling the police) and become famous. But were Martians really drilling for zinc off the coast... ?
As far as Eric was concerned, things would be much more straightforward if they simply poisoned one of the other girls.
Hoorah!

'What do you think happened to him?' Sophie asked.
'He probably drowned, judging from the way he's lying face-down in the water,' Jack said.
'I'm not sure,' Eric said.
'Why not?' Jack asked.
'Well, what about that knife?' Eric pointed to a large black-handled knife, embedded in the man's back.
'What about it?' Martin asked.
'I think he was murdered,' Eric said.
'Murdered!' Jack exclaimed. 'How exciting!'
'I'll go and keep Roy company,' Martin volunteered. Eric's imaginary friend would be getting bored and lonely. Also, Martin didn't like the idea of being so close to a murder victim: soon people would be looking for someone to blame.

A sixth curious and surreal romp through the world of The Splendid Six.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asquith Publishing
• Release date: Nov 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909420229

Book preview

Stenton Garvald

SIX DRILL FOR OIL

An Adventure of the Splendid Six

SIX DRILL FOR OIL

Smashwords Edition

ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-909420-22-9

Copyright 2013 Stenton Garvald.

All rights reserved.

Published by Asquith Publishing

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal use only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book, then please purchase additional copies. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please visit Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the efforts of the author.

Table of Contents

Chapter One –The Problem Of Cynthia

Chapter Two – The Mystery Begins

Chapter Three – Exploring

Chapter Four – All At Sea Again

Chapter Five – The Oil-Rig

Chapter Six – Rudolf To The Rescue

Chapter Seven – Plans and Scones

Chapter Eight – Discovery on the Beach

Chapter Nine – The Distillery

Chapter Ten – Inspector Crumble

Chapter One – The Problem Of Cynthia

Martin didn’t have many friends at school, so he always walked back home alone. It wasn’t that he smelled bad, had spots, liked flowers, or any of the other normal reasons boys victimise other boys. No, it was just because the other boys thought he was snobbish and rather stupid.

Sometimes younger children would throw stones at him, but not today. Maybe they had run out of stones: Martin hoped so – he’d spent most of the last few evenings scouring the route he normally took and removing any projectile-sized stones. He now had three large sacks full at home and had no idea what he was going to do with them.

One day, Martin knew, he would be able to show the other children that he wasn’t stupid at all. He would show them that he had proper friends, and that being clever or common just wasn’t important. He thought back to his adventure of four weeks ago, during the Easter break [see The Magnificent Six Ride Again]. How jealous the other boys would be, if they knew the fun he had had.

‘Have a good day, love?’ his mother asked.

‘Yes, mummy,’ he smiled.

‘Well, you’d better get changed. Tea’s almost ready.’

‘Yes, mummy.’

~ ~ ~

That evening, after he had watched some television and pretended to do his homework, Martin went to his bedroom to play with his pet terrapin, Rudolf. Rudolf was negotiating the last see-saw of the obstacle course when Martin heard a quiet hiss from the window.

‘Martin?’

He ignored it.

‘Martin, are you there?’ the voice asked. It was definitely the window.

Odd that, Martin thought. This had been his room for two years and the window hadn’t said a word in all that time. Perhaps it was shy. Perhaps it had been waiting for him to make the first move.

‘Well?’ it persisted: it had a girl’s voice, which Martin thought sounded familiar, even though they had never talked before.

‘Yes, it’s me,’ he admitted.

‘Well why didn’t you answer the first time?’ the voice asked.

‘I was surprised,’ he explained. ‘I didn’t think windows were able to talk.’

‘Don’t be silly, Martin. It’s me. Outside, in the garden.’

Martin walked over to the window and looked out, but there was no-one in sight. Perhaps it was one of the garden gnomes.

‘Down here,’ the voice said.

Martin looked down and saw Jo in her wheelchair.

‘Hullo, Jo. What’s up?’

‘It’s Sophie. She’s in a bit of a sticky situation and has asked for our help. Can you sneak out?’

‘Rather,’ Martin nodded enthusiastically. Jo and Sophie were two of his secret friends, and he would do anything to help them – particularly if the alternative was algebra homework. ‘What about the others?’ he asked.

‘We’re meeting up – I was sent to get you.’

‘Oh, super!’ Martin was looking forward to seeing the others: Jack, Sophie, Eric and Roy. He wouldn’t actually be able to see Roy, the sixth member of the group, because Roy was Eric’s imaginary friend. Secretly, Martin thought that Roy sounded rather common. It was probably a good thing that the others couldn’t see him – he probably had spots, or wore a football top which claimed he was someone he wasn’t. Yes, Roy sounded like the sort who would have sports channels.

Still, sometimes Martin thought that Roy was the one he got on best with: the only one he didn’t seem to argue with.

‘Are you coming?’ Jo prompted.

‘Yes, sorry.’ Martin realised he had been day-dreaming. ‘I’ll be right out.’ He scooped his terrapin up in one hand and put it in his pocket, where it would stay warm. Then he checked that he had his front door key with him, and climbed out of the window. It was a good thing that his bedroom was on the ground floor.

‘Where are we meeting?’ he asked Jo.

‘At the church. Jack’s collecting Eric and Roy.’

‘Gosh.’ Martin was excited. Although all six of them lived in the same town they didn’t see each other very often, because they went to different schools. Jack and Sophie went to local private schools, one for boys and one for girls: they weren’t supposed to play with other children. Jo went to a special school with other people in wheelchairs. Eric didn’t go to a proper school, because his father paid for a private tutor. And as far as Martin could tell, Roy didn’t go to any kind of school.

Martin went to the local comprehensive, which he didn’t like. He longed for the day when he would be old enough to hang around street corners instead: perhaps at eleven or twelve.

The church was their normal meeting place, since it was normally deserted. When Martin and Jo arrived, Jack, Eric and Roy were already waiting.

‘Jolly good,’ Jack said. ‘Now we’re all here.’

‘Well, what’s up?’ Martin asked.

‘It’s a note from Sophie,’ Jack explained. He read from a piece of pink paper: ‘I’m in a bit of a sticky situation. Please help. I’ll be at the library at eight o’clock.’ The library was close to the centre of town: fairly central, but much closer to where Sophie stayed than the church was.

‘It’s about quarter to eight, now,’ Eric checked his watch.

‘Then let’s go.’

The boys took turns pushing Jo, except Roy, and it didn’t take them long to reach the library.

‘Look,’ Eric pointed. ‘There she is.’ Sophie was standing on the steps