‘You look like you’ve wet yourself, Giles,’ said Laura, and she and Lesley fell about laughing.
‘Come on!’ Jake urged from the other side of the bank. Think of a way to give these babies a proper drink.’
Kelly was peeling her sodden shoes and socks off.
‘Hey, why don’t we just paddle across?’ she said. ‘I’m sure it’s shallow enough.’
‘Not allowed,’ said Jake, and he picked up a log and threw it in the stream. ‘See that log? It’s really a crocodile. You paddle, he’ll come along and enjoy a leg sandwich.’
‘Well, it’s easier without shoes and socks on anyway,’ said Kelly, having another go across the drainpipe.
She ran to show how easy it was.
She slipped and fell in again.
‘Whoops,’ said Kelly, clambering up the bank. ‘Slightly easier.’ She shook herself like a wet dog and then dug Theresa out of her pocket and gave her a squeeze too. ‘We’re not too keen on this swimming lark, are we, Theresa?’
‘This is stupid,’ said Laura. ‘It’s too difficult, Jake. It’s all right for you. You can jump across.’
‘I bet I could jump across,’ said Giles. ‘Look. Watch me.’
He took several giant steps backwards, revved up, hurtled forward, leapt into space and soared over the stream. He staggered a bit when he landed in the mud at the other side, but he’d made it. He punched the air triumphantly, thrilled with himself.
‘But you haven’t got your bucket,’ said Kelly.
The Cheetahs were watching. Their tallest boy tried leaping the stream with his bucket. He made it to the other side. But most of the water sprayed out of his bucket as he leapt. Lots of the others had a go. Without success.
‘They’re s-o-o-o-o-o thirsty these baby big cats,’ said Jake. ‘Try harder!’
‘We are jolly well trying,’ said Kelly.
‘Think of a way of giving them their drink,’ said Jake.
‘Well, we’ve all tried to get across,’ said Kelly. ‘Apart from Biscuits and Tim.’ She looked at us hopefully.
‘You’ve got to be joking!’ Giles called from the other side of the stream. ‘If Fatso stands on the drainpipe, he’ll bust it in two.’
‘I’ll bust you in two in a minute, Piles,’ said Biscuits.
‘Tim?’ said Kelly.
‘There’s even less point asking him,’ said Giles.
I was thinking. It was like a puzzle game. We were all trying to do it the hard way. There had to be an easy way . . .
I suddenly had an idea. Though I wasn’t sure if it would be allowed.
‘Well,’ I started.
But they were all watching one of the Lion girls who had balanced her way right along the drainpipe. She was almost at the end. But then she suddenly wobbled – and went.
‘Oooh!’ said everyone.
‘See. No-one can do it, Jake,’ said Laura, getting cross.
Jake just laughed at her.
‘Did you have an idea, Tim?’ he called.
‘He won’t be able to do it,’ said Laura. ‘He fell over just on the field.’
‘You try walking the drainpipe, Laura, I’m sure you could do it,’ said Lesley.
‘If you can get the bucket three quarters of the way over then I can reach across and get it,’ said Giles.
‘But you don’t have to do it that way,’ I said.
‘You shut up, Tim,’ Giles shouted.
I’d suddenly had enough of being shouted at. And I really did have a good idea.
‘No, you shut up, Giles,’ I yelled. ‘Pick your end of the drainpipe up and stick it in the baby tiger’s mouth.’
Giles stared at me, going, ‘You what?’
But Jake jumped up and down and gave me the thumbs-up sign. I’d cracked it!
‘Kelly and Biscuits, you hold the drainpipe this end,’ I said, telling them what to do. ‘Laura and Lesley, pass me the buckets. Look!’
It was so simple. We didn’t have to walk across the stream on the drainpipes. They were hollow inside, like giant straws. We could empty the water down the drainpipe right into the Baby Tiger bin.
And that’s exactly what we did.
‘Well done, Tim!’ Jake shouted.
‘Oh, Tim! Brilliant!’ said Kelly, giving me a hug. ‘You’re so clever.’
‘Super-Tim,’ said Biscuits.
‘Why didn’t we think of it,’ said Laura.
‘Look, everyone’s copying us now!’ said Lesley.
‘But we’ve won!’ said Giles, capering about. ‘We’re first to fill the bin – and we’ve got it nearly full to the top too. We’ve won! Hurray for Tim!’
All the Tigers jumped up and down and cheered. Cheering me. And I jumped up and down and cheered me too!
Chapter Six
TIME IS A funny thing. If you listen to a clock it goes tick tick tick. It doesn’t go tick-tick-tick-tick-tick sometimes and t-i-c-k t-i-c-k t-i-c-k other times. And yet the first two days of my adventure holiday went so s-l-o-w-l-y that years and years seemed to go by. But the last two days went whizz-whizz-whizz.
You’ll never guess which team ended up the over-all winners! We did. The Tigers. Kelly and Giles and Laura and Lesley and Biscuits and me.
We got clapped and cheered by everyone and then Sally and Jake gave us all a prize. We had to put our hands in this big box. I felt something furry. We all did. We scrabbled around until we’d all got a handful and then we pulled them out the box. Six toy tigers, baby ones, with big eyes and smiley mouths and soft paddy-paws.
We all laughed and mucked about, making them roar. My tiger is a bit fatter than the others. He seems stuffed to bursting. I’ve called him Biscuits.
The real Biscuits should rename himself Sausages. He ate fourteen and a half sausages at the Camp Cook-Out. (The half was mine. I dropped it in the grass and it got a bit muddy but Biscuits couldn’t bear to waste it.) He also ate two burgers and five chicken wings, washed down with three cans of cola. My friend Biscuits has a Mega-Superior Stomach.
He’s got a good loud voice too. We all had a Giant Roar competition between the Lions, the Tigers, the Panthers and the Cheetahs.
‘Right, us Tigers, let’s hear you. ROAR!’ Giles yelled, conducting us.
He roared until he was red in the face, but he’d been shouting so much bossing us about that he didn’t have much voice left. Laura and Lesley had high voices that weren’t loud enough. I wasn’t much use either. I tried and tried, but my roars came out small and squeaky. Kelly did much better. She was squashed up beside me and when she opened her mouth and let rip I had to put my hands over my ears. But Biscuits did better. He threw back his head and bellowed from the pit of his magnificent stomach.
We won the Giant Roar competition too. I’m SO glad I’m a Tiger and not a Lion or a Panther or a Cheetah.
Giles and Biscuits and I stayed awake ever so late, swopping jokes and acting daft. Jake had to come and tell us off three times. But he didn’t get really cross. I do like Jake. I do like Biscuits.
I even almost liked Giles that last night. And when we were quiet at last and snuggled up to go to sleep it didn’t matter that I didn’t have Walter Bear. I had little Biscuits Tiger to cuddle instead.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacqueline Wilson is an extremely well-known and hugely popular author who served as Children’s Laureate from 2005-7. She has been awarded a number of prestigious awards, including the British Children’s Book of the Year and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award (for The Illustrated Mum), the Smarties Prize and the Children’s Book Award (for Double Act, for which she was also highly commended for the Carnegie Medal). In 2002 Jacqueline was given an OBE for services to literacy in schools and in 2008 she was appointed a Dame. She has sold over thirty-five million books and was the author most borrowed from British libraries in the last decade.
Also by Jacqueline Wilson
There are oodles of incredible Jacqueline Wilson books to enjoy!
The Dinosaur’s Packed
Lunch
The Monster Story-Teller
The Cat Mummy
Lizzie Zipmouth
Sleepovers
Bad Girls
The Bed and Breakfast Star
Best Friends
Big Day Out
Buried Alive!
Candyfloss
Clean Break
Cliffhanger
Cookie
The Dare Game
The Diamond Girls
Double Act
Emerald Star
Glubbslyme
Hetty Feather
The Illustrated Mum
Jacky Daydream
Lily Alone
Little Darlings
Lola Rose
The Longest Whale Song
The Lottie Project
Midnight
The Mum-Minder
Sapphire Battersea
Secrets
Starring Tracy Beaker
The Story of Tracy Beaker
The Suitcase Kid
Vicky Angel
The Worry Website
The Worst Thing About My Sister
FOR OLDER READERS:
Dustbin Baby
Girls In Love
Girls In Tears
Girls Out Late
Girls Under Pressure
Kiss
Love Lessons
My Secret Diary
My Sister Jodie
‘A brilliant young writer of wit and subtlety whose stories are never patronising and are often complex and many-layered’
THE TIMES
‘Jacqueline Wilson has a rare gift for writing lightly and amusingly about emotional issues’
BOOKSELLER
‘Wilson writes like a child, and children instantly recognize them-selves in her characters. The tone of voice is faultless, her stories are about the problems many children face, and her plots work with classic simplicity . . . a subtle art is concealed by artlessness and some might call that genius’
DAILY TELEGRAPH
CLIFFHANGER
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 04594 8
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital, an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2012
Text Copyright © Jacqueline Wilson 1995
Illustrations copyright © Nick Sharratt 1995
First Published in Great Britain
Yearling 9780440868552 2009
The right of Jacqueline Wilson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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