The Magnificent Six Ride Again

By Stenton Garvald

It looked as if Easter might be a complete washout this year, since Eric had to spend the holiday with his Uncle Hank instead of with his secret friends. But then Jo suggested that they might all spend Easter with Eric's Uncle Hank. Before they knew it the children were up to their necks in a new adventure with bandits, Indians, dynamite, some black people, a rattlesnake and miles and miles of genuine grit.
Hoorah!

'They hang out in Lurch Creek. That's a town about twenty miles to the west of here.'
'And how will we recognise them when we're there?' Jo asked, sensibly.
'One of them has a green eyepatch,' the old man explained. 'We call him One Eyed Jack.'
'Gosh!' Eric exclaimed. 'Has he only got one eye, then?'
'We don't rightly know,' the man said. 'But in living memory, no-one's ever seen his right eye. So it seems a fair assumption.'
'Yes well, let's not jump to conclusions,' Jack said. 'Perhaps that eye is just sensitive to sunlight.'
Welcome to the world of The Splendid Six.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asquith Publishing
• Release date: Nov 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909420212

Book preview

Stenton Garvald

THE MAGNIFICENT SIX RIDE AGAIN

An Adventure of the Splendid Six

THE MAGNIFICENT SIX RIDE AGAIN

Smashwords Edition

ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-909420-21-2

Copyright 2012 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 – Uncle Hank

Chapter Two – The Wild West

Chapter Three – Genuine Grit

Chapter Four – A Fistful of Rye

Chapter Five – Gunfight in Lurch Creek

Chapter Six – Jo’s Adventure

Chapter Seven – Running Water

Chapter Eight – The Firing Squad

Chapter Nine – Dances with Mexicans

Chapter Ten – Into the Sunset

Chapter One – Uncle Hank

Jo was in the greenhouse, watering her father’s tomato plants, when the message from Eric arrived. Jo always remembered what needed to be done, even dull things like tomatoes and when to water them. And so she often ended up doing those things. Secretly she believed her family’s day to day life would probably collapse if she were ever to leave. They just didn’t seem to be able to think straight.

Eric was another one who didn’t seem to be able to think straight, and his imaginary friend, Roy, was just as bad. They were two of her secret friends, the Splendid Six. She had met them last summer hols on the south coast [see Six Canoe To France], when they had broken an onion-smuggling ring together. Eric and Roy both seemed quite clever – but in a different way from other clever people she knew.

The other three of her secret friends were Sophie, who liked ponies and nurses and knew lots of skipping songs; Jack, who wasn’t terribly bright but was a decent sort; and Martin, who wasn’t as bright as Jack.

Because they all went to school in the same town, it was easy for them to secretly meet. And when they did, they often had adventures and mysteries. Last Christmas, they had exposed a gang of Santa Impersonators [see Six At Christmas] and then they had gone to the Moon together [see Six On The Moon].

She guessed that the message was from Eric because it was delivered by a long black arrow, which arched high through the air and over the garden wall. She knew that Eric had got a bow and arrow set last Christmas.

The arrow had a sucker on the front, and fixed itself to one of the panes of glass which made up the roof of the greenhouse. Jo rolled her wheelchair backwards so she could get a better look at it. She could see that there was a piece of paper sellotaped around the arrow – that would be the message.

Jo frowned up at the arrow: even if she had not been in a wheelchair, there would be no way she could have reached it. She couldn’t even throw things to dislodge the arrow, for fear of smashing the glass. After a few seconds, she took her mother’s clothes line and threw it up across the roof of the greenhouse. As she pulled the rope slowly back down, it hooked around the arrow and pulled it loose. It fell to the ground.

She picked up the arrow and pulled off the piece of paper: it was blank, with no writing on either side. If the message had been from Martin, Jo might have thought that he had simply forgotten to write the words. Since it was from Eric, it was probably written in invisible ink.

She fetched some lemon juice from the fridge, trying not to leave muddy wheeltracks on the kitchen floor, and rubbed it over the paper. Sure enough, a message slowly appeared:

Absp Gm (it read),

Njbsqb xmkb rm reb xetpxe sq qmml sq nmqqfijb. F Esub qmkb isa lbvq,

Bpfx.

The message was in code.

Either that, or Eric’s spelling was really bad.

She fetched a pad of writing paper and began to work on his code. Some of the words would be straightforward: Absp Gm would be Dear Jo, and Bpfx would be Eric. After that, it was easy to decode the rest:

Dear Jo,

Please come to the church as soon as possible. I have some bad news,

Eric.

Before setting out, Jo packed a few essentials in the space under her wheelchair: a torch, a first aid kit, some biscuits, a length of rope, matches, a small grappling hook and so on.

She knew the way to the church – it was where they often met in secret. The main advantages of the church were that it was fairly central, and it was normally deserted. The only person they ever met there was the old vicar, Reverend Thomas, who always left them alone after a while. He sometimes read to them from the Bible, and at other times he gave them cocoa and sat Sophie on his knee. Sophie didn’t like him much, because he smelled of stale biscuits.

Jo met Jack on the way, and he helped push her up the hill.

~ ~ ~

When they arrived, the others were already waiting outside the church. There was no sign of Reverend Thomas.

‘So, you all got my message,’ Eric said, when they were together.

‘Yes,’ they replied, except Martin who said ‘No.’

‘It was wrapped round the arrow,’ Eric explained.

‘I got the arrow.’ Martin showed it to the others: he had brought it with him.

‘But if you didn’t get the message,’ Jack asked, ‘then how did you know to come here?’

‘Well, I thought it must be from one of you: either that or the other children on the estate were firing things at me again. And if it was from one of you, then it was probably calling a secret meeting. And we always have secret meetings here.’

‘Gosh,’ Jack said. ‘Good thinking.’ Before deciphering the message, he had thought that it was probably some of the other boys in the boarding house having a bit of a lark. The arrow had flown through the dormitory window and stuck itself to his Flags of the World map, smack bang in the middle of Belgium.

‘Aren’t you going to ask me what’s up?’ Eric asked.

‘What’s up, Eric?’

‘A spot of