The Angry Planet Read Online Free

porridge
before, and it was wonderful—then herrings dipped in oatmeal and fried, and
then hot oatcakes with masses of fresh butter and real heather honey.
    That first day we didn’t do very much but just lounge
about Uncle Steve’s garden, though in the evening we did do a little exploring
in the woods, and Uncle Steve introduced us to an old gamekeeper with a beard
and lots of bright colored fish-hooks stuck all over his hat (which had a peak
at the front and back, just like the hat that Sherlock Holmes used to wear, and
flaps that went over your ears when it was cold, though when it wasn’t cold you
folded them up and they were buttoned on the top). This old man, whose name was
McIntosh, promised he would take us out fishing and rabbit shooting and all
sorts of things like that. He had a real beauty of a double-barreled gun under
his armpit—or rather his oxter, as he and Mrs. Duthie called it—and two
wonderful dogs named Lass and Luath.

    McIntosh, the gamekeeper
     
    The next day was a Sunday, and in the morning we went
into Pitlochry to Church in the little pony trap. In the afternoon we all went
for a walk, and Uncle Steve took us to a big house which he said belonged to a
great friend of his. This was Dr. McGillivray. We liked him very much indeed
from the first go-off. On our way to see him Uncle Steve had told us that he
was not a Doctor because he went around attending to sick people, or anything
like that, but because he had studied Philosophy. So we thought, you see, that
he would be old and have a long beard, and would be absent-minded and all that
sort of thing. But he wasn’t—he was really quite young, and was great fun.
There were all sorts of gadgets in his house, and Mike and I had a wonderful
time. There was an old Wimhurst machine and we made sparks jump on to our
fingers—oh, a good two or three inches long, they were—and a little electric
shocking coil that we persuaded Jacky to try, and then we switched on the
current suddenly and sent her jumping right across the room (it was perfectly
harmless, of course—in fact, Doctor Mac said that a mild shock like that was
very good for you).
    After tea in the Doctor’s study (which was full of
hundreds and hundreds of books), Uncle Steve said that he and Doctor Mac had
something very important to discuss. So they went through to a different part
of the house which they called the laboratory, and we were given permission to
go out into the grounds for a stroll.
    Well, it was now we got our first impression that our
holiday was going to be exciting, and that there was something mysterious and
well worth finding out about going on between Doctor Mac and Uncle Steve.
    At the back of the Doctor’s house, just beyond the
part they called the laboratory, there was a little wood, or copse, of fir
trees. We were strolling here “quite joco,” as Mrs. Duthie would say, when
suddenly the trees stopped, and there in front of us was an enormous high
wooden enclosure—a sort of palisade, like the one in Treasure Island, only much much bigger. It was as high as a good-sized house, and at least two
hundred feet square (Mike paced it out, and each side was 110 paces, and we
always used to reckon one of Mike’s measuring steps as a little over two feet).
    “Hullo, what’s this?” said Mike.
    “It’s some sort of house,” said Jacky.
    “House my foot,” I chimed in. “Whoever built a house
that size? Besides, it hasn’t any roof—and where are the windows?”
    “Well, they might be going to add a roof—you never
know,” said Jacky sulkily. “And maybe it’s a special new type of house without
windows. They’re up to all sort of experiments these days.”
    While we were arguing like this, young Mike was
searching all over the palisade for some gap or knot-hole to peer through. He
now gave a cry to indicate he had found one.
    “I say, just come and have a look at this,” he yelled.
“What on earth do you suppose it can be?”
    We went over