“Nicolas is right, father, we have been tricked,” said Peter.

CHAPTER 1The African Beads 7CHAPTER 2Matthew has an Adventure 16CHAPTER 3Simba, the Lion 27CHAPTER 4Peter’s Uncles 37CHAPTER 5What Sarah Saw 47CHAPTER 6Wanjui Asks For Proof 56CHAPTER 7The Uncles’ Farm 63

CHAPTER 8The Lion Again 69

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 9All About Beads 77

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. . . a large wooden dish full of colored beads.

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CHAPTER 1

The African Beads

Sarah Kippernickker was playing withstrings of African beads. Mummy Kipper-nickker had once lived in East Africa andstill had many African ornaments aroundthe house. On the corner of the fireplacehearth there was a large wooden dish full ofcolored beads in long strings, and Sarahhad brought them outside and was playingwith them on the lawn.

The beads were made of dried berriesor seeds, even some small stones, and theywere very lovely to look at. Sarah Kipper-nickker liked to wear them around herneck. But today she was sitting outside withthem, in the sunshine.

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Jonathan Kippernickker came overto where she was sitting.

“What are you doing?” he asked.“Nothing,” she replied.“You’re not supposed to bring those

outside, Sarah,” said Jonathan Kipper-nickker.

Sarah didn’t answer. “Jonathan,” shesaid, “look at that one. It’s like one of thered berries on our bush.” She pointed toa large red bead and Jonathan looked atit. “Maybe we could play with the beads,”she said, “would you like to?”

But Jonathan Kippernickker was notinterested in playing with beads. The sunwas very bright and while it was half pasttwo in the afternoon and he was bored,he was still not much interested in beads.

“What good are beads?” he said.“They’re pretty,” said Sarah, “and you

can wear them round your neck, and youcan wear them on your arms, or yourwrists, and even your ankles,” she said.

“Ankles!” said Jonathan.“Yes,” she went on, “and you can

hang things from them.”

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“Why would you want to hangthings from your ankles?” asked JonathanKippernickker.

“No.” said Sarah, “Round your neck.You wear beads round your neck andhang things from them.”

“Boys don’t wear beads,” saidJonathan, and he sat down on the grass.

“Yes they do,” said NicolasKippernickker, walking towards them.“Some do. I’ve seen pictures, and so haveyou, Jonathan.”

Jonathan remembered he’d just reada book which showed a picture of an oldman wearing a necklace with a cross hang-ing on it.

“You could wear a necklace,Jonathan,” said Sarah Kippernickker.

“Why?” said Jonathan. “Why would Iwant to?”

“You could keep the Adventure Keyon the necklace,” she said.

Now Jonathan Kippernickker hadquite forgotten about the Adventure Key.This was a key they had found in an oldbox Jonathan had dug up. Later they

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found it opened a trapdoor discoveredhidden under their garden vines. Therewas a flight of stairs leading down and acorridor with lots of doors, and whenthey finally went through one of thedoors, they’d had an advenure.

Jonathan had been hoping to giveadventures a rest, since the last ones hadbeen a trial, for him anyway, he thought.But he remembered that Nicolas now hadthe Adventure Key. “Nicolas has the Ad-venture Key,” he said.

“But it would be a good way to keepit safe,” said Sarah.

“It’s safe now,” said Nicolas, “it’s stillin my pocket. Here! Look,” and hebrought out a large silver key whichseemed to flash in the sunlight.

“Look at that,” said Jonathan, point-ing to the side of the house, where a brightspot of light was dancing up and down onthe wall. “It’s the key reflecting the sun-light, like a mirror.”

Nicolas moved the key slowly andthe spot of light moved about the wall andonto the glass patio doors. Then it shone

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on Matthew who was trying to open themat the other side. Matthew managed toopen them and came out into the sun-shine. He was wearing four or five stringsof colored beads around his neck.

“Matthew,” said Jonathan, “you’llget into trouble bringing beads outside,”

“Sarah has beads,” said MatthewKippernickker.

“She’s older than you,” saidJonathan, weakly.

“Timothy has too,” said Matthew.And they looked across the grass to

where Timothy was asleep in his chair. Hehad a string of blue beads around his neck.

“Sarah,” said Nicolas Kippernickker,going across to Timothy and taking thebeads off him gently in case he woke up.“He could swallow them.”

“He wouldn’t swallow all of them, ona string,” said Jonathan.”Hang the key onthem. He’d never swallow the key aswell.”

So Nicolas unfastened the string ofbeads, slipped the key onto the string,and clipped the beads together again.

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“There,” he said, “But we’ll keepthem away from Timothy,” and hedropped the beads and the key overMatthew’s head. “You can carry it fortoday,” said Nicolas, and Matthewbeamed with pleasure.

“Good. I have the key today,” he saidsmiling, and he looked at it carefully for amoment, then ran off up the garden. Heran towards the vines which covered theground with wide and thick green leavesat the top of their garden near the golfcourse.

“He’s gone to look for the trapdoor,”said Nicolas.

“It’s no good!” shouted Jonathan.“There’s no keyhole anymore, Mat-

thew,” shouted Nicolas Kippernickker,“there hasn’t been one for weeks.”

Nicolas was quite right.After the adventure of Prince Rupert’s

Birthday, there had never been a day whenthe little wooden trap door could beopened, because there was never a keyholeto put the key in. When a keyhole ap-peared, they could then open the trap-

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“You can carry it for today,” said Nicholas . . .

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door with their key, go down the stairsand have an adventure. But for weeksthere had been no sign of a keyhole.Nicolas and Sarah went to look everymorning and every evening, because theyloved adventures, but Jonathan wasn’treally bothered because he wasn’t sure hewanted any more adventures anyway. Healways seemed to be the one who got intotrouble.

Sarah brought some more beads outof her dress pocket.

“Sarah!” said Jonathan Kippernickker,“you’ll be grounded if Mum sees you’ve gotall her beads.”

“I haven’t got them all,” said Sarah,“there’s lots left in the dish,” and she put asecond string of bright yellow beadsaround her neck. They glowed in the sun-shine like large grains of corn. Then shebrought out another string of beads. Thesewere a dull blue colour and looked nicewith the yellow beads. “Do you want toplay with them, Jonathan, with me?” sheasked.

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“No,” said Jonathan. “I wonder- “But they never found out what

Jonathan was wondering, because justthen there was a loud bang, and they alljumped. It was a sound they had heardbefore. It was the sound of somethingclosing suddenly, like a trapdoor closing.

It was the sound of their adventuretrapdoor closing!

“Matthew!!” shouted Nicolas turningand running up the garden towards thevine leaves.

But Matthew was nowhere to be seen.