"Blyton, Enid - Adv 05 - Mountain of Adventure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blyton Enid)

"Good night! It will be a lovely day again tomorrow! You just see!" called back Philip, who thought himself a good weather forecaster.

But he was wrong. When they awoke the next morning, they looked out on a completely different world!





Chapter 9

A DIFFERENT WORLD



LUCY-ANN awoke first. She was cold. She snuggled down into her sleeping-bag, and then opened her eyes. She stared out of the open tent-flap, expecting to see the green mountainside, and the distant mountains towering up into the sky.

But they weren't there! Instead, a white mist swirled past the tent-flap, some of it putting thin cold fingers into the tent itself.

There was nothing to see at all except the mist. The mountains had gone, the trees by the camp were blotted out, even the donkeys couldn't be seen.

"What's happened?" said Lucy-Ann, astonished. "Golly! It's a thick mist come up!"

She awoke Dinah and the girls peered out in dismay at the misty mountainside. Now and again a tiny bit of view could be seen as the mist thinned a little — but it grew thick again at once.

"It's a cloud," said Dinah. "You know how we see clouds resting on mountain-tops — well, this is one. It's resting on us! It's like a thick fog we can't see through. Blow!"

The boys woke up then and the girls could hear their dismayed voices. They called to them.

"Jack! Philip! Isn't this sickening! We can't see a thing!"

"It may clear when we've had breakfast," said Philip cheerfully, appearing out of the mist with Snowy at his heels. "Gosh, it's chilly! I'm going to put on a warm jersey."

David also appeared, looking very doleful. He swung his arm out towards the valley and poured out a torrent of Welsh.

"He's quite excited about it, isn't he?" said Jack. "I wish I could follow him when he talks like that. I just don't understand a word."

They decided to have breakfast in one of the tents because the mist made everything damp and chilly. David preferred to stay outside. Dinah didn't want to come into the tent because of Sally, and only agreed to if she were allowed to sit in the doorway, ready to escape if the slow-worm appeared.

It was not so cheerful a meal as usual. The children missed the magnificent view they had been used to, and were afraid that David wouldn't take them on their way that day. But the mist cleared a little in an hour's time, and David seemed quite willing to go.

They loaded up the donkeys, mounted and set off down the track. They could see some way ahead of them now, for the sun was rising higher, and trying to dissolve the mist with its heat.

"It'll be all right," said Jack. "I almost caught sight of the sun then!"

But the mist came down again and it was only just possible to see the donkey in front.

"I feel as if I ought to hold your donkey's tail, in case you disappear in the mist!" shouted Jack to Dinah. "You know — like elephants do in circuses when they come into the ring all holding on to one another's tails!"

The mist thickened very much, and the little company stopped to discuss what to do. It was difficult to get anything intelligible out of David, who seemed suddenly to have forgotten any English words he knew.