The Boggart and the Monster by Susan Cooper Read Free Book Online Page A

around the campsite. But nobody was stirring nearby: only a tall blond couple on the other side of the field, busily folding up their tent.
    Jessup pulled on his sneakers and a second sweater, and prepared to tiptoe to Emily’s small round tent and make hideous plesiosaur noises outside. But a movement caught his eye, and he looked up. He froze.
    The water bucket, from which they had filled kettle and washbowls last night, had been left empty outside Mr. Maconochie’s tent. Suddenly now it rose into the air, and began moving briskly across the campground toward the standpipe from which all campers drew their water. Suspended about eighteen inches from the ground, it made a beeline for the faucet: an impossible sight, an empty bucket, flying. And Jessup saw that to reach the standpipe, it would have to pass the two blond campers folding up their tent.
    Appalled, he opened his mouth to yell after the invisible Boggart, but promptly shut it again. If thecampers heard him shout, they would look up — and see the flying bucket. Jessup took off across the field, running as fast as he could — not directly after the Boggart, but in a wide curve that would take him to the other side of the campers’ field of vision. Tommy watched him in astonishment.
    Jessup came tearing across the grass to the two strangers, and skidded to a halt, smiling a big false smile at them.
“Can I help?”
he said brightly.
    They stared at him blankly: two very large young people, a man and a woman, with pale skin and hair so fair it was almost white. They wore shorts and boots, and fuzzy Fair Isle sweaters.
“Excuse?”
said the young man politely.
    â€œUh — I wondered if I could help you pack,”
Jessup said. Over the young woman’s shoulder he saw the bucket float merrily past on its way to the standpipe. He smiled even wider, gazing up into her puzzled blue eyes.
“Help?”
he said, beaming idiotically. He noticed that the tent was now neatly folded, waiting to go into one of their two bulging backpacks. Everything else was clearly already packed. Still desperately smiling, Jessup seized the tent, and tried to stuff it into the backpack.
    â€œ
Nein, nein!
”
said the young man indignantly. He ripped the tent out of Jessup’s hands and turned to two sturdy bicycles which, Jessup now saw, were waiting beside the hedge. Their panniers were laden, but in one pannier there was still a neat tent-sized space. The young man fitted in the tent, and gave Jessup a wary, unsmiling nod.
    â€œAh,”
Jessup said weakly. In the background he saw the bucket descend to the ground underneath the standpipe. The faucet turned, in the Boggart’s invisible fingers, and water began to gush loudly down. As the two blond heads began to turn, Jessup let out a shrill cackling laugh. The heads snapped back in alarm, and the young woman shot her partner a quick look and swung her backpack up onto her shoulders. The man did the same, and Jessup gave his backpack a helpful push. Over his shoulder he could see that Tommy had come running up to the standpipe, so that the bucket no longer seemed to be self-propelled.
    â€œ
Danke schon,
”
said the blonde young woman to Jessup, retreating nervously to her bicycle.
“Dank you very moch.”
    The young man ducked his head stiffly in Jessup’s direction, and the two of them climbed rapidly onto their bicycles and rode away, bumping uncomfortably over the grass. Jessup saw them looking uncertainly back at him from the gate of the field, as he crossed to join Tommy and the bucket.
    â€œBoggart,”
Tommy was saying reprovingly to the air in the general region of the bucket,
“we all have a great time with your tricks, but they’re not such a good idea with strangers around.”
    From somewhere in the field close by them, a strange, creaky voice spoke; the same husky, whispering voice that they had heard in the library of Castle