The Injured Deer: Laura McNaughty Adventures, #3

By Simon Dudley

THE INJURED DEER is the third book in the Laura McNaughty Adventures series where we find Laura busy trying to help an injured deer she saw in Stokey's woods, and the grumpy Harbour Master has come to Laura's attention for being cruel to the sea birds living in and around the harbour.

 

Welcome to the Laura McNaughty Adventures. The stories are suitable for all age groups, from kids of all levels, to teens and adults too. It's just good family reading. The books can be read in any order as the stories stand alone.

 

Laura McBean lives in the middle cottage of three with her brother Johnny and her mum on the edge of Stokey's Woods. Laura was quite a mischievous girl when she was growing up, and that is how she got the nickname of Laura McNaughty. She doesn't get into as much mischief now because she is that little bit older, but if she finds out that someone has been cruel to animals then that person, whoever he or she maybe, will have Laura and her friends to contend with.

 

Simon Dudley's, beautifully written and charmingly portrayed, children's book series is a pleasure to read. The lost and nearly forgotten years of 1950's childhood can be experienced within these pages as the author cleverly immerses you into their world. This is a real treat for any reader, young or old, who fancies a bit of time travel back to when kids could literally be kids.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon Dudley
• Release date: May 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393300090

Book preview

The Injured Deer

By

Simon Dudley

THE INJURED DEER is the third in the series of the Laura McNaughty Adventures where we find Laura busy trying to help an injured deer she saw in Stokey's woods, and the grumpy Harbour Master has come to Laura's attention for being cruel to the sea birds living in and around the harbour.

Laura lives in the middle cottage of three with her brother Johnny and her mum on the edge of Stokey's Woods. Laura was quite a mischievous girl when she was growing up, and that is how she got the nickname of Laura McNaughty. She doesn't get into as much mischief now because she is that little bit older, but if she finds out that someone has been cruel to animals then that person, whoever he or she maybe, will have Laura and her friends to contend with.

Books in the series:

Laura’s Revenge

Strangers In The Woods

The Injured Deer

Windy Corner

Fun in the Harbour

Copyright © 2015 Michael J Holland

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author.

Email:

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THE INJURED DEER is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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1

It was Laura's turn to dive down to the bottom of the harbour and tie a rope to Paul's rowing boat. Janice had tried, but she just couldn't get down deep enough. She began to feel frightened when she got down to about ten feet and came rushing back to the surface gasping for air.

I can't get down. I get too scared, she panted, as she swam back to the Harbour Master's steps to be helped out of the water by her friends.

Johnny and Paul had managed to get down a bit deeper than Janice, but they too, couldn't find the courage to descend the last few feet into the murky water where the light couldn't reach.

They were trying to attach a rope to Paul's rowing boat which was sitting on the bottom of the harbour in about twenty feet of water. The boat was Paul's birthday present, and it sank on its maiden voyage with his two friends, Johnny and Charley, on board.

The harbour master had told Paul not to try and bring it back to the surface because it would be too dangerous for kids to go down that deep. But Paul wanted his boat back, and his friends were determined to help him no matter what the grumpy Harbour Master said.

Laura and her friends didn't like the Harbour Master that much because he was always cruel to the seabirds that made their home around the harbour. He would chase and throw pebbles at them and wouldn't think twice about giving them a good kick if he could get close enough. But his favourite trick was to put scraps down for the gulls, and then pelt them with beach pebbles when they landed to eat the food.

Laura, who is a crack shot with a catapult, gave him a taste of his own medicine when she hid behind a pile of lobster pots on the harbour wall and bounced a few pebbles of her own off his backside not long after she first saw him mistreat the gulls. She couldn't help herself and burst out laughing at the expression on his face, but luckily for her, he tripped and fell over a pile of junk as he charged over to see where the laughter was coming from.

Laura adjusted her swimming goggles and began taking deep breaths. She took five big gulps of air and then dived down to the bottom of the harbour. The heavy rope slowed her progress as she dragged it downwards, but she knew that she wasn't too far from the bottom when the water suddenly got colder and a lot darker.

The outline of Paul's boat appeared through the smoky darkness as she dived deeper, and she was soon on the sandy bottom scattering crabs and small flat fish in all directions as she swam over towards the boat. Her lungs were near to bursting as she tied the rope to the front of the boat where Paul told her she would find a metal ring, and then she swam furiously back to the surface and drank in as much fresh air as she could.

All done, she said, as she pulled herself out of the water onto the bottom step amid cheers and clapping from her friends.

You all right, sis? asked Johnny. You're shaking all over.

There was a conger eel down there curled up in the front of the boat. I didn't realise what it was at first because everything was happening so quickly. Its eyes were huge.

Its teeth are even bigger, laughed Johnny, giving his sister a playful nudge.

As they were tying the rope to a winch on the harbour wall, the village clock chimed, and the church bells began ringing telling everyone that the Sunday morning service would be starting soon.

We've got about forty minutes to winch the boat up to the surface before the Harbour Master comes out of church, said Paul. Come on, two on each handle.

The rowing boat wouldn't budge at first, but slowly it began to move off the seabed as the four of them turned the winch's big handles. Fifteen minutes later the front of Paul's boat was poking its nose out of the water like an inquisitive seal.

Don't forget to put the break on the winch. We don't want to do that again, said Laura, from the bottom of the steps. She and Janice went back into the water to attach a big float to the boat to stop it sinking again. Luckily for Paul, Janice's dad was a fisherman and she had borrowed the float from his fishing boat which was moored nearby in the harbour.

"Eh! What are you lot