The Underground City by Anne Forbes Read Free Book Online Page A

Murdo said on one occasion when the ghosts had worn themselves to a frazzle trying to scare them, “the worst they seem to be able to do is push us around and try to freeze us solid! We’ll wear more clothes tomorrow and ignore the rest. We can’t see them and if that’s the best they can do then we can put up with it! I’m not going to let them beat us. Just think of all the lovely lolly that’s in the bank! We’ll be millionaires ! Now won’t it be worth it, Wullie — going through all this and getting rich? You don’t get millions for nothing, you know! You’ve got to suffer, one way or another. Nothing in this world is free!”
    Wullie agreed with this sentiment wholeheartedly but it was with many a fearful glance into the darkness that he continued to shift vast piles of rubble while Murdo, heaving thick sacks of the stuff down another passage, got rid of it.
    At this stage, the ghosts would probably have given up trying to get rid of Murdo and Wullie but it so happened that their prime concern wasn’t really whether or not the Bank of Scotland was reduced to insolvency.
    None of the ghosts ever mentioned them but they were all aware of the other inhabitants of the Underground City. Theghosts of the Plague People! For the cellars that held them were dangerously close to where Wullie was so enthusiastically wielding his pick, and this was the real reason that the ghosts swept frantically along the tunnels every night. They were petrified that the Plague People might escape and bring the Black Death back to the streets of Edinburgh!

7. Ali Baba
    Neil hurried home that afternoon, anxious to tell Clara what had happened at Mary King’s Close. Graham had made such a fuss that it had taken them ages to walk all the way back down the High Street to the school. By the time they reached the gates, they’d found the playground empty and the janitor , Mr MacGregor, waiting for them.
    “Right,” Miss Mackenzie said, “straight to the classroom and get your bags. We’re a bit late but Miss Alison will still be there when you go up.”
    “Thought you were never coming,” MacGregor said dourly as Miss Mackenzie shepherded them through the playground towards the school door.
    “Ocht, that Graham Flint’s been playing me up all the way back,” she said, watching as a cowed Graham, surrounded by anxious friends, made for the classroom. “Swears he was pushed by a ghost in Mary King’s Close!”
    MacGregor laughed, not a thing he did often. Even Miss Mackenzie grinned but she shook her head, nevertheless. “The thing is, though, that the tour guide happened to be looking at him when he hit the wall and he told me later that … well,
he
says that
no one
pushed him!”
    MacGregor’s eyes sharpened. “Aye, weel! You never know,” he said thoughtfully. “There’ve been rumours that it’s haunted ever since it opened.”
    Neil hurried up with his bag slung over his shoulder.
    “Has Clara gone home on her own, Mr MacGregor?” he asked. “I thought she might have waited for me.”
    “The lassie said she had a lot of homework, Neil. She’ll be home by this time.”
    “Thanks,” Neil grinned. “Bye, Miss Mackenzie!”
    “He looks all right now,” Miss Mackenzie said, her eyes following Neil as he made his way down the High Street towards Holyrood Palace, “but
he
was another one that was as white as a sheet in that Close. And to tell you the truth,” she said, meeting MacGregor’s eyes, “I didn’t feel at all happy down there myself!”

    Neil pulled the hood of his anorak over his head as it started to rain but as he came near his house, he almost ran the last few yards, for Sir James’s car was parked outside the door and that meant news of the pantomime.
    “It’s on!” Clara said, rushing into the hall when she heard him open the door. “
Ali Baba’s
on, Neil! Isn’t that fab-u-lous!”
    “Great!” Neil replied, going into the living room.
    “I see you’ve heard the news,” Sir James