Enid Blyton by MR. PINK-WHISTLE INTERFERES Read Free Book Online

lived. Mr. Pink-Whistle looked over the hedge.
    He could hear a boy whistling in one of the rooms upstairs. That must be Big Jim. Pink-Whistle muttered a few strange words to himself—and in a trice he had disappeared! He was still there, of course, but nobody could see him except any of the fairy-folk.
    Pink-Whistle went round the back way. The kitchen door was open, and he slipped inside. The cook was there, doing some washing up, but she didn't see Pink-Whistle, of course. He went into the hall and up the stairs, frightening the cat who had no idea that anybody was there—and yet she could hear footsteps!
    Big Jim was in his bedroom, putting six big beautiful glass marbles away in their box. He was very proud indeed of those marbles. They were the nicest in the town, and all the boys at Jim's school loved them and wished they were theirs. But Jim was not going to give any away! Not he!
    "Are you the bad boy that burst Susie's balloon?" asked Pink-Whistle in a deep voice just near to Big Jim's ear. The boy nearly jumped out of his skin.
    "Oooooh!" he said in a fright, looking all round. But, of course, he could see no one at all.
    "Did you hear what I SAID?" boomed Pink-Whistle. "I said, 'Are you the bad boy that burst Susie's balloon?' '
    "I—I—I—did burst a b-b-b-b-balloon," stammered Big Jim in a fright. "It was an accident."
    "That's not the TRUTH!" said Pink-Whistle angrily. "You did it on purpose."
    "Who are you?" asked Big Jim. "And where are you? I can't see anybody. I'm frightened."
    "Good!" said Pink-Whistle. "Very good. You deserve to be frightened. Now—I'm going to make blue balloons out of something belonging to you! What have you got to give me?"
    "Nothing," said Big Jim. "I haven't any balloons—or anything in the least like balloons."
    "What were those things you were putting into a box?" asked Pink-Whistle, and he opened the lid of the marble box. Inside lay the greeny-bluey-yellow glass marbles, winking and blinking in their box. "Ah—marbles! These will do nicely. You shall give me these,"
    "Indeed I shan't!" said Big Jim, snatching the box away as it rose into the air, lifted by Pink-Whistle's invisible hand. "Nobody shall have those. They are my own special best marbles, the finest in the town! Put them down!"
    Well, Pink-Whistle was not going to be spoken to like that! He rapped his hand smartly on to Jim's, and the boy gave a yell and dropped the box of marbles. They rolled all over the floor.

    JIM BLEW ON THE MARBLE AND A VERY STRANGE THING HAPPENED.
    "Pick them up and give them to me, " ordered Pink-Whistle. Jim wouldn't. He just stood there, sulking to see his precious marbles scattered over the floor. And then suddenly an invisible hand did to him what he had often done to smaller boys and girls. His hair was sharply pulled!
    "Ow!" said Big Jim. "Don't! Oh, if only I could get hold of you! Wouldn't I pull your hair!"
    "Pick up those marbles!" ordered Pink-Whistle again, and his voice was so cold and angry that Big Jim found himself bending down and picking them all up. He put them back into the box,
    Pink-Whistle, still invisible, took a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew a little circle oh the floor. He put one of the marbles into it.
    Then he muttered some words that sounded rather queer and frightening to Jim, and emptied a little blue powder over the big glass marble.
    "Now, blow hard on your marble until I tell you to stop," com-manded Pink-Whistle. "Go on. Kneel down and blow. Quick!"
    Big Jim was so afraid of having his hair pulled again that he did as he was told. He knelt down and blew on the marble—and a very strange and peculiar thing happened! It began to blow up, just as a balloon does when breath is blown into it! It changed from a round glass marble with yellow and green streaks in it, to a fine big yellow-green balloon. Marvellous!
    "Oooh, that's funny," said Big Jim. "My glass marble has changed into a balloon. I shall like taking that about with me."
    "It's not