Curly and Tubs and the Galloping Rot

By Kim Montgomery

Brothers, Curly and Tubs, own a set of encyclopaedias, ‘The World of Knowledge’. An accident, involving spilt tea, threatens to damage volume 5, Nature. The Council, guardians of The World of Knowledge, decide the damage would be too great if they wait until the boys realise what has happened, and transport them from Reader World into The Land of Nature, to do battle with The Galloping Rot

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kim Montgomery
• Release date: Jan 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452312187

Kim Montgomery

An Englishman exiled in Scotland. Married to Irene. Interests include cooking, gardening, and curling. There is a sequel to Curly and Tubs and the Galloping Rot, so let there be overwhelming public demand for it to appear on Smashwords.

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Curly and Tubs and the Galloping Rot

Kim Montgomery

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2003 Kim Montgomery

This book is available in print at AuthorHouse

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Chapter 1

Highwayman’s Hitches and Sneaking-up

Sometimes, Tubs wished he never had a brother. This was one of those times. Tied to an apple tree, and nobody around to release him. How could he have been so stupid?

Curly had come home from his Cubs’ meeting the previous evening, excited about a new knot that he had learned to tie.

It’s the one the cowboys use to tie up their horses outside the saloon. The horse can pull on his end as hard as he likes, and it won’t come undone. But when the cowboy comes rushing out after shooting up the bar, he pulls the other end, and the knot comes undone, and he can get away quickly. I’ll show you tomorrow.

And he kept his promise. The next morning, with a piece of rope from the shed, Curly demonstrated the highwayman’s hitch. He tied the rope around one of the low branches of the apple tree, and asked Tubs to pull on one of the ends. No matter how hard he pulled, the rope stayed firmly tied to the branch. Then Curly gave him the other end, and, with a gentle tug, the knot came undone.

Tie it again, said Tubs. Let me see how it’s done.

So Curly tied the rope to the branch again, slowly this time, so Tubs could see how the knot was made. Then Tubs had a go, and, after a couple of tries, he too could tie a highwayman’s hitch.

Right, said Curly. Let’s pretend we’re horses. I’ll go first.

He tied a slipknot at one end of the rope, making a lasso. Then he put his arms around the trunk of the tree, and brought his hands together as if he was saying a prayer.

See, my hands are the horse’s head, and my thumbs are his ears. Now, put the lasso round my wrists, and tie the other end of the rope to that branch. Make the rope quite taut, so I can’t wriggle out of the noose.

Tubs tied the other end of the rope in a highwayman’s hitch, and put the loose end between Curly’s hands. His brother then began to make neighing sounds and pulling on the rope, like a horse that did not want to be tied up.

Bang, bang, he shouted next. I’m getting me the heck outa Dodge.

Then, with the loose end of the rope between his finger-tips, he pulled the highwayman’s hitch undone, released himself from the noose, and galloped off across the garden, pretend guns a-blazing.

Now it’s your turn, said Curly, when he returned to the apple tree.

Tubs quickly put his arms around the trunk. This was a good game, and he had some ideas of his own for the scene he was going to act out. He reckoned that he was better at neighing than Curly, and he thought his brother’s cowboy accent was rubbish. Curly put the lasso over Tubs wrists, tied the highwayman’s hitch on the branch, and handed back the loose end.

Tubs immediately began what was indeed a better imitation of a horse, embellishing it with some fierce foot scraping, and kicking up a cloud of dust from the dry earth around the tree. Having demonstrated his better horsemanship, he moved on to his cowboy impression.

Yer lousy varmits, he shouted. I’ve had me enough of this one-horse town. I’m off back to the camp to have me a mess o’ beans.

He tugged on the end of the rope, and nothing happened.

Hey, it won’t come undone.

Oops! said Curly, and walked off down the garden.

Come back, cried Tubs. Untie me.

But Curly kept on walking away. The garden was large, with many trees and bushes, and he soon disappeared out of sight. Tubs continued shouting and pleading for his brother to untie him, but there was no reply. He tried, once more, pulling on the rope, but it was firmly tied, and there was no way he could wriggle his hands out of the noose.

Great, he thought. I could be here for ages.

Mum was at the shops. Dad was at work. There seemed no hope of rescue, unless his brother relented, and undid the rope.

Unless Curly Shirley unties me, said Tubs to himself. Unless Curly Girly unties me.

Tubs occupied himself with finding rhyming words for his brother.

Curly Burly, Curly Twirly, Curly Wurly…

That last one was a mistake, because that made him think of food, and how hungry he was. He switched to Curly’s real name.

Valerie Gallery, Valerie…...

He could not think of any more.

What a stupid name. Nothing rhymes with it.

Both boys had nicknames, and both were very glad they did. Their real Christian names might just have been acceptable if it wasn’t for the fact that they also had the rather unusual surname of Golightly.

Curly’s name was down to Mum. She had decided, as a little girl, that her first child, boy or girl, would be called Valerie. When his hair began to grow as a mass of brown curls, Dad took to calling him Curly, and, despite Mum’s disapproval, the nickname stuck.

In Tubs’ case, it was Dad who was to blame. A keen football fan, he wanted to call his second son after his favourite player. It might have been considered that, even if your name is Beckham Golightly, a nickname of Tubs was a little unkind. However, he was not called that because he was overweight, but rather because his brother was so thin. On bath nights, when they had been in the bath together, and it was time to get out, Mum would say Okay Tubs, you first, and, just as with Curly, the name had stayed.

Mum said that Curly would make a good mop. Tubs would have liked to wipe the kitchen floor with his brother for leaving him tied to the tree. He laughed out loud at the thought of Curly upside-down, being used as a mop, and his laughter attracted the attention of Robbie Bobtail, their pet rabbit.

Robbie was in his hutch, against the side of the shed, opposite Tubs’ tree. When he heard Tubs laugh, he stood up on his hind legs, with his front paws resting on the wire mesh of his hutch door. He looked across at Tubs, his nose twitching as it always did.

Hey, Robbie, shouted Tubs. You can get me out of this. Chew your way through the floor of your hutch. Then come over here, and climb this tree. Then you can chew through this rope, and set me free.

Robbie stared at