Enid Blyton (7 page)

He went up the
 
ladder, and the others sat down
 
at the botto
m waiting. They waited and they
 
waited. Why ever didn
’
t Moon-Face come?

VII

Jo and the other
s waited and waited, looking up
the ladder
every now and again. Bessie got
impatient and
wandered off to look at some of
the marvels.
Jo
called her back.

"Bessie! Don
’
t go wandering of
f by yourself, for
goodness
’
s
ake! We don
’
t want to lose
you
, as soon
as we find Connie. W
e
’
ll have a look at the Marvels
when Moon-Face brings Connie back."

"We
l
l, he
’
s such ages up the
l
adder," complained
Bessie. "I did want t
o go and see the Cat that Tells
Fortunes. He might
tell me how we are to get back home!"

"Back through Giantland, I suppose," said
Silky.

"I
wish
Moon-Face would come!" s
ighed Fanny,
looking up the
ladder for the twentieth time.
"What
is
he doin
g up there? Surely Connie can
’
t
have climbed very far!"

Moon-Face had gone up a good way. He
climbed steadily, looking up every now and again,
hoping to see C
onnie. At last he saw a pair of
feet, and he gave a yell.
"Connie! I
’
ve come to rescue you! It
’
s Moon-
Face coming up the ladder
!"

The feet didn
’
t m
ove. They were big feet, and it
suddenly struck M
oon-Face that they were too big
for Connie. He l
ooked above the feet, and saw a
goblin looking down at him.

"Oh!" said Moon-Face. "I thought you were
Connie. Let me pass, please."

"Can
’
t think why
there
’
s so much traffic on this
ladder today," s
aid the goblin, grumbling as he
sat to one side. He ha
d big feet, big hands, a big
head, and a very
small body, so he looked rather
queer. On his knees
he balanced a big tin of paint,
out of which stuck a paint-brush.

"What are
you
doing up here?" asked Moon-
Face. "Painting or something?"

"I
’
m the goblin painter who made that wall
Giant-Proof," said
the goblin. He pointed to where
the wall between Giantland and the Land of
Marvels shimmered and quivered like a heat-haze.

"But I got into trouble with Witch Wily, who
used to go an
d shop in Giantland. I splashed
some of my paint o
ver her, and that meant she was
Giant-Proof too.
No giant in Giantland could go
near her, so she couldn
’
t do any more shopping!"

"So she chased yo
u, I suppose, to put a spell on
you, and you rushed up the Ladder-That-Has-No-Top!" said
Moon-Face, sitting down beside
him to peer at hi
s paint. "Bad luck! Why doesn
’
t
she chase you up here?"

"She doesn
’
t l
ike climbing," said the goblin.
"But she
’
s waitin
g down there at the bottom, I
’
m
sure of it."

"She isn
’
t," said Moon-Face. "
I
’
ve just come
up, and there was
no witch down there. You go on
down now, a
nd see. I
’
m sure you can slip of
f and
escape."

"She said she
’
d
empty my Giant-
Proof paint all
over me if s
he caught me,” said the goblin,
dolefully.

"Well, leave it here with me," s
aid Moon-Face.
"I
’
ll bring it down
for you. Then, if the witch
is
at the bottom it
won
’
t matter, because you won
’
t
have your paint with you."

"Right!" said t
he goblin, cheering up. He tied
the handle of his pai
nt-tin to a rung of the ladder,
and began to go down. Moon-Face suddenly
remembered Co
nnie, and he called down to the
goblin.

"Hi! just a minu
te! Have you seen a little girl
go up the ladder?"

"Oh yes," said the goblin, stopping. "A dirty
little girl, very frightened. She was crying. She
pushed past me very rudely indeed. I didn
’
t like
her."

"Oh, that
’
s Connie all right," said Moon-Face,
and he began to climb up again. “I hope she
’
s not
gone too far up. She really is a nuisance."

He lost sight of the goblin. He went on climbing
up and up, and at last he heard a miserable voice
above him. It was Connie
’
s.

“
I can
’
t climb any farther! This ladder doesn
’
t
lead anywhere. I can
’
t climb down because that
imp will smack me. I shall have to stay here for
the rest of my life. Hoo—hoo—hoo!"

Connie sobbed, and two or three tears splashed
down on Moon-Face
’
s head. He rubbed them off.
Then h
e saw Connie
’
s feet above him.

"Hi, Connie
!
" he called.

Connie gave a shriek and almost fell off the
ladder. Moon-Face felt it wobbling. "Oh! Oh!
Who is it?" cried Connie, and began to climb
hurriedly up the ladder again, afraid that the imp
was after her.

This was too much for Moon-Face. Here he
had gone all the way to the Land of Marvels,
through Giantland, and up goodness knows
how many rungs of the
ladder
—and just as he
had found Connie she began climbing up and up
again. He caught firmly hold of one of her ankles.
She screamed.

"Let go! I shall bite you! Let go!"

"You come down," commanded Moon-Face.
"I
’
ve come to take you back home, you silly girl.
You
’
ve caused us all a lot of trouble. Come on
down! I
’
m Moon-Face."

Connie sat down on the ladder in the greatest
relief. She put her arms round Moon-Face as he
came up beside her, and hugged him.

"Moon-Face! I was never in my life so pleased
to see anyone. Tell me how you got here."

"No," said Moon-Face, wriggling away.
"There
’
s no time. The others are waiting and
waiting at the foot of the ladder. Come on down,
you silly girl!"

"But there
’
s an imp . . ." began Connie.

"No, there isn
’
t," said Moon-Face, beginning
to wonder how many other people there were
sitting on the ladder, afraid to go down because
they thought someone was watching for them at
the bottom. "There
’
s no imp and no witch and
no nothing. Only J
o, Bessie, Fanny, Silky and
Saucepan. Come on, do!"

He made Connie climb down below him. "Now,
if you don
’
t climb down pretty fast, I shall be
treading on your fingers!" he said, and that made
Connie squeal and climb down much more quickly
than she had meant to. Down and down they went,
down and down. And, at last, there they were
on the ground!

The others crowded round them. "Moon-Face!
W
e thought you were never coming
!"

"Connie! Are you all right?"

"An imp came hurrying down, but he wouldn
’
t
stop to tell us anything!"

"Moon-Face, what have you got in that tin?"

Moon-Face showed them the tin of Giant-Proof paint he had brought down with him. He
had untied it from the ladder when he came to
it. He told them about the imp.

Connie was longing to tell her adventures,
too. She told them at last.

"When I got here, into this land, I wandered
about a bit," she said. "And I came to the cat
that could tell fortunes, so I asked him to tell
me mine. And he told me all kinds of nasty things
he said would happen to me, so I smacked him
hard, and he hissed at me and ran away."

"You naughty girl!” said Silky.

"Well, he shouldn
’
t have said nasty things to
me," said Connie. "Then an imp, whose cat it
was,
came after me with a broom, and said he
would
swe
ep me up and put me into a dust-
bin.
Horrid creature
!"

The others laughed. They thought Connie deserved all she got. "So I suppose you shot up the
ladder to escape and didn
’
t dare to come down?"
said J
o.

"Yes," said Connie. "And I was so pleased to
see Moon-
Face. I don
’
t like this land. And I
don
’
t like the Faraway Tree either, or the
Enchanted Wood."

"Or me, or Bessie, or Fanny, or Silky, or Moon-Face,
or Saucepan, I suppose?" said J
o. "Pleasant
child, aren
’
t you? I feel that if I were an imp
I would certainly take a broom to you. Well,
what about going home? It
’
s getting late."

"Oh dear—have we got to go through Giantland again?" said Silky. "I didn
’
t much like those
enormous giants. I
’
m afraid
of their great big
feet."

"Yes, we
’
ve got to go through Giantland,"
said Moon-Face. "But I
’
ve got an idea. I
’
ll splash
you all with a few drops of Giant-Proof paint!
Then no giant can come near us. We
’
ll be like
that wall—
giant-proof!"

"Oh, what a good idea
!
" said Bessie. So Moon-Face quickly dabbed a few drops of paint on each
of them. The places he dabbed shone and
shimmered queerly, like the wall. The children
laughed.

"We look queer. Never mind
—
if it keeps the
gi
ants away from us, it will be fi
ne."

They made their way to the shining wall,
which disappeared as they walked through it,
and re-appeared again as soon as they were on
the other side. Then they began to walk cautiously
through Giantland, to find the top of the Bean-Stalk.

Many giants were out, taking an evening walk.
Some of them saw the children and exclaimed
in surprise. They knelt down to pick them up.

But they
couldn
’
t touch them! The Giant-
Proof
paint prevented
any giant from getting too near,
and no matter how they tried they couldn
’
t get
hold of any of the little company.

"This is jolly
good stuff, this paint," said J
o,
pleased. "It was a good idea of yours, Moon-Face."

"Look—
there
’
s the top of the Bean-Stalk," said
Silky, joyfully. "Now we shan
’
t be long!"

The giants followed them to the Bean-Stalk.
The children and the others climbed down as
quickly as they could, half afraid that the giants
might shake the Bean-
Stalk so that they would
fall off. But they didn
’
t. They just called rudely
down after them.

They got to the ground and sighed for joy.
"M
y goodness, we
’
re late
!" said J
o, looking at his
watch. "We must make for home at once.
Where
’
s
that train?"

Soon they were in the queer little train. They got
out a
t the Enchanted Wood, said good
bye to
Moon-
Face, Silky and Saucepan, and made their
way home. Connie was very tired.

"Well—I suppose you didn
’
t enjoy the party
v
ery much?" said J
o to Connie. "And what about
the Faraway Tree and the people there? Do you
believe in them now?"

"I suppose I shall have to," said Connie. "But
I didn
’
t like any of them much, except Moon-Face. I can
’
t bear Saucepan."

"He doesn
’
t seem to like you, either," said
Bessie. "Well
, Connie—you don
’
t need to come
with us again if you don
’
t want to. We can leave
you behind!"

But that didn
’
t please Connie! No—she meant
to go where the o
thers went.
She
wasn
’
t going to
be left out!