Matty and Bill for Keeps by Elizabeth Fensham Read Free Book Online

full flight of victory, after he’d ransacked a village. Nan, Mat and Bill clapped and cheered loudly. Uncle Len smiled and barked.
    â€˜Right,’ said Crispin. ‘What next?’
    â€˜The Athlon,’ said Mat. ‘You have to run backwards up the hill we’ve just walked down, but if you fall, then you fail.’
    â€˜Very well,’ said Crispin. ‘I’ll draw on the energy I’ve just gained from eating witchety grub protein and fly to the top. See you there.’
    With these parting words, Crispin started trotting backwards like a tough mountain pony – if mountain ponies moved backwards. His head swung from side to side as he carefully judged the lay of the land behind him. Because he was wearing his usual short shorts, long socks and sandals, you could see his bony knees pumping up and down like car pistons. The others watched, holding their breaths. There was one moment when Uncle Len, not understanding the seriousness of the situation, ran right behind Crispin and jumped away at the last moment. An even more perilous time was when Crispin’s foot hit a tree root. He stumbled, but didn’t fall. The onlookers called out, ‘Hooray!’ Up, up, up ran Crispin until he reached the flat area of the orchard. Mat and Bill ran to meet him.
    â€˜You did it!’ said Bill.
    â€˜One more test to go,’ said Mat.

The three friends and Uncle Len waited for Nan to reach them and then the group walked back to the house. Bill fetched Crispin a glass of water from the kitchen. ‘Sorry, mate,’ he said. ‘We have to head for the school straight away or we’ll run out of time.’
    â€˜Right,’ said Crispin before gulping down his water. ‘I just need my backpack.’
    â€˜What for?’
    â€˜Matty told me I could bring any equipment I wanted,’ said Crispin.
    â€˜What on earth have you got in there?’ asked Bill.
    â€˜You’ll have to wait and see,’ said Crispin with a smile.
    As the children walked along the road towards the school, Bill told Crispin about his own tests of courage and endurance. The snake story was a great comfort to Crispin, but the description of Freckles and his gang worried him. He’d come as prepared as he could, but victory would all be in finding the right position to accost Freckles and in the timing of his attack.
    Once around a bend in the main road, they could see the whole school in the one glance. The buildings, the oval and the play areas were nestled into a large flat area at the bottom of a long slope of tree-lined lawns and garden beds. And from here, Crispin saw the enemy.
    Freckles was also red-headed. Crispin recognised him immediately from the detailed description that Mat and Bill had given. But it wasn’t just his colouring and his huge size and height that made him stick out; it was the fact that Freckles was engaged in his favourite pastime – bullying. He was holding a basketball over the head of a young girl. She was leaping as high as she could to reach the ball. His three mates, holding their skateboards, had encircled the girl. She was pleading with them to give her ball back.
    Crispin went into action immediately. With his pack on his back, he slid from behind one tree to the next. Mat and Bill lowered themselves behind a tall pile of mulch and occasionally peeked out. Bill thought Crispin looked like a spy in a movie. He timed his moves from one tree to the next with precision, making sure all the while that Freckles and his gang were preoccupied.
    At the bottom of the slope, Crispin picked something off the ground and threw it like a grenade. It flew right over the heads of Freckles and his gang. At first Mat and Bill had thought Crispin had mis-aimed, but then they saw his clever plan. The missile had crashed to the ground and caused the enemy to look away. They even stopped tormenting the girl and went to investigate. ‘Cunning,’ muttered Bill