The Curse of the Smugglers' Treasure by Paul O'Grady

Author:Paul O'Grady [O’Grady, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-09-09T17:00:00+00:00

In Dungeness, however, the sun certainly wasn’t shining on Wych Way. It was so well hidden behind the power station that the sun hardly got near it, and consequently the house was shrouded in a permanent shadowy gloom.

‘This makes fascinating reading,’ Demonica said as she slurped her mug of tea and studied the book that she had found. ‘Especially the stuff about the buried treasure and, more importantly, the secret to getting my hands on it,’ she added greedily.

‘Your hands on it?’ Dennis asked, raising his eyebrows. ‘What happened to our hands?’

‘I meant our hands,’ Demonica replied, even though she didn’t, for if there was any treasure to be found, then it was all going to be hers, right down to the very last teeny-weeny diamond. She had absolutely no intention of sharing the treasure with her brother, although she knew she might need his help in obtaining it, so for now she intended to keep Dennis on her side.

‘Of course we’ll share the treasure, brother darling,’ she assured him with a sickly smile. ‘Split right down the middle, fifty-fifty, but you’ll have to help me.’

‘Well, I ain’t digging.’ Dennis snorted grumpily. ‘If there’s digging to be done, we’ll have to nick one of those mechanical digger things from a building site.’

‘Which, of course, wouldn’t draw any attention to us at all,’ Demonica pointed out. ‘And besides, according to this book there isn’t any digging required. All it involves is a spell.’

When Dennis heard this, he couldn’t help laughing. ‘A spell?’ he spluttered. ‘Oh, come on, Demonica, aren’t you a bit old for witches and wizards? That kind of stuff belongs in a kids’ book.’

‘Well, Old Molly Maggot was obviously a witch,’ a red-faced Demonica said, defending herself. ‘She was notorious in these parts. And if she wasn’t a witch then why would she have this spell book? And why would she have hidden it? Answer that, smarty-pants.’

Dennis shook his head in disbelief. ‘She was probably just some old woman who lived on her own, minding her own business until they wanted to pull her house down, and so she said she was a witch and would curse the builders if they came near, to scare them off.’

This was quite a reasonable speech for Dennis, and it took Demonica by surprise.

‘No, there’s more to it than that. Why else would she have so many broomsticks in the cupboard?’

‘Maybe she liked cleaning,’ Dennis replied. ‘Some people do, you know. Can you think of another reason?’

‘To fly on, you idiot,’ she hissed. ‘There’s a recipe in here for flying ointment. Apparently you rub it on the broom, chant a few spells and then the broom will fly. I’ve just got to find the right herbs to make the potion.’

Dennis stared at her open-mouthed. ‘I’ve heard it all now. Flying broomsticks?’ he exclaimed. ‘Well, if this Molly Maggot was such a hotshot witch, why didn’t she just cast a few spells, get the treasure and fly out of this hellhole? What stopped her? Tell me that, Miss Smarty-Knickers.

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