Silas and the Winterbottoms Read online

  Working above them, Dr Mangrove quickly set the modulator to the Ready position. He entered a ten-digit code and a red button rose from beneath the metallic panel. It glistened under the overhead lights. Dr Mangrove took one final look over his creation before activating it. In a split second the nuclear generator came to life, triggering the feeder pumps linking the two chambers. The copper test tubes began to spin and the golden elixir snaked its way through the narrow pipe.

  The timer began counting back.

  1 min 59 sec

  Almost immediately Milo felt an intense pressure in his brain as the chamber filled with a sweet-smelling gas – it intensified with each passing second until the boy feared his head was about to crack open. Then the air around him began to vibrate, his skin tingling. A pulling sensation gripped his flesh – it felt as if a thousand molecules were tunnelling deep under his skin and then bursting out again, taking with them his very life force.

  He began to cry out.

  1 min 48 sec

  The thick pipes pulsated violently, preparing to carry between them the delicate fragments of two souls. Dr Mangrove’s tiny eyes shone. It was working!

  1 min 40 sec

  The pounding of footsteps shook the doctor from his moment of glory. Someone was coming! Lurching towards the laboratory door he slammed it shut but a powerful push from outside thrust the door open again, sending Dr Mangrove tumbling to the ground.

  Isabella and Adele burst into the room gasping for breath – they had raced down dozens of identical tunnels in their desperate search for the laboratory.

  They heard the deep whirl emanating from the two chambers.

  The soul transference was already under way!

  ‘Milo!’ cried Adele, running to the chamber and peering inside. She let out a horrified scream as she watched her cousin’s small body jolt and twitch as if he were being hit with an electric charge.

  ‘How do we stop this?’ she yelled at Dr Mangrove. ‘Tell us how to stop it!’

  ‘It cannot be stopped. Once the process has begun it is irreversible,’ said Dr Mangrove, smoothing down his clothes. He grinned at the girls. ‘You are too late to save the day.’

  ‘Tell us how to shut it down, fathead!’ barked Isabella, stomping down hard on the ancient doctor’s foot.

  Dr Mangrove doubled over in agony. ‘No!’ he spat.

  Searching for an Off switch, Adele noticed the counter on the control panel.

  1 min 21 sec

  ‘We’re running out of time!’ she cried.

  Isabella and Adele studied the mass of buttons and gauges and pulsating pipes connecting the two chambers. They punched a host of buttons at random. Nothing worked.

  1 min 12 sec

  ‘There’s only one thing we can do,’ said Adele in utter desperation. ‘We have to break it open! Quickly, Isabella – when I count to three push as hard as you can!’

  Isabella nodded with grim determination, pressing her hands against the glass chamber.

  1 min 04 sec

  ‘One, two, THREE!’ yelled Adele.

  With every ounce of strength they possessed, the girls pushed against the chamber. It tilted a fraction but quickly fell back into place.

  ‘You will not succeed!’ mocked Dr Mangrove, grimacing as he stumbled towards the Winterbottoms. ‘The chamber is far too heavy for a pair of little girls.’

  A mixture of anger and desperation rushed through Adele and she lunged at the doctor, kicking him in the shins with all her might. Like a wounded animal Dr Mangrove howled, falling to the ground.

  ‘We can do this,’ she said fiercely, returning to the chamber. ‘Milo needs us.’

  With gritted teeth and trembling arms the girls threw their entire bodies into the task. The chamber’s base began to lift from the ground.

  ‘Harder!’ yelled Adele.

  They pushed harder and the chamber lifted from the floor again – higher, this time. Ignoring the pain they pushed harder still. The chamber began to tilt, the weight of the massive machine lurching away from them.

  It was tipping!

  ‘NOOOOOOOO!!’ cried Dr Mangrove, stumbling towards the chamber.

  Milo’s glass tomb plunged, tearing one of the connecting pipes from Silas’s chamber as it toppled to the ground. The glass hatch smashed into a thousand fragments. A roar, like a jet engine, exploded from the generator and a thick wall of smoke billowed out.

  Dr Mangrove slumped to the ground with a look of utter defeat and covered his face.

  Moving quickly, Adele and Isabella released Milo from the restraints and pulled his limp body from the wreckage. The shattered glass had caused several cuts to his face and neck and his skin was covered in a film of sticky resin. He lay on the ground, unmoving.

  ‘Milo!’ shouted Isabella. ‘Milo, wake up! Oh, Cousin, what if we were too late?’

  ‘We’re not too late!’ said Adele. She grabbed Milo’s shoulders and began to shake him. ‘Milo! Milo, can you hear me?’

  Slowly the boy’s eyes began to flicker, his dry lips parting as a low groan came from his mouth.

  ‘He’s moving!’ shouted Isabella. ‘I told you he would be fine!’

  Carefully the girls helped Milo sit up. His eyes opened a little and he looked around at the smoking wreckage of the laboratory.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said softly, his voice hoarse. ‘You saved my life – both of you.’

  ‘Well of course we did,’ said Isabella. ‘It was very dangerous work but we are cousins, after all.’

  Adele looked at Milo carefully. ‘Do you still feel like you?’ She couldn’t help but wonder – had any of Uncle Silas’s soul been transferred into Milo before the chamber was destroyed?

  Milo considered the question for a moment.

  ‘Well . . .’ he said eventually. ‘I think I’m still me. It’s hard to know for sure.’

  ‘Do you have any sudden urge to steal someone’s body?’ said Isabella matter-of-factly. ‘Or feed two perfectly wonderful girls to a pack of hungry alligators?’

  ‘No,’ said Milo with a grin. ‘None at all.’

  ‘It’s settled then,’ said Isabella. ‘You are not possessed.’

  But Adele was not so easily convinced.

  ‘That night,’ she said carefully, watching Milo, ‘when I snuck in through your bedroom window. Do you remember the first thing I said after I climbed down off the windowsill?’

  Milo did not answer immediately. He looked at his cousin gravely, shaking his head. ‘No,’ he said softly. ‘You didn’t climb off the windowsill, I grabbed your arm and pulled you down. Remember?’

  ‘Yes!’ cried Adele, the relief bringing a wide smile to her face.

  ‘So,’ said Milo, grinning back at her, ‘did I pass the test?’

  ‘It’s official,’ declared Adele. ‘You are not Uncle Silas.’

  Milo’s smile slipped away as he looked over at the remaining chamber where his uncle lay – the generator was still whirling and the remaining pump flailed around like a serpent, spewing the elixir gas into the air.

  ‘Is he . . . dead?’ asked Milo.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Adele. She gulped. ‘There’s only one way to find out.’

  With the help of his cousins, Milo got to his feet and together they crossed to the chamber. They looked down through the hatch. Silas’s eyes were closed, his thin body motionless.

  ‘Looks dead to me,’ said Isabella.

  ‘I think you’re right,’ said Adele.

  Just then Silas’s eyes sprung open. They were as black and vibrant as ever, rippling with fury. His bony hands thrust against the hatch, pushing violently on the glass.

  The children recoiled, their screams filling the room.

  ‘I told you he was alive!’ cried Isabella.

  Lunging forward, Silas pressed his face to the chamber’s wall and peered out at the children, his ghostly face fuelled with rage, his teeth bared like the fangs of a wolf. Milo reached for the flailing pipe still connected to the chamber. As
he did a pair of hands clamped around his neck, throwing him against the wall. Milo tumbled to the ground, his head thumping against the wall. Dazed, the boy looked up and saw Dr Mangrove standing over the chamber, his hands spread across the glass.

  ‘All is well, old friend,’ he said. ‘I will have you out in no time.’

  The doctor worked rapidly, pressing buttons and turning gauges. ‘The transference was working,’ he said tensely, stealing glances at Silas. ‘Your soul was shifting! Do not worry, I can rebuild the other chamber in a matter of days and then we can try again.’

  ‘Excuse me, Doctor?’ said Isabella.

  Furiously Dr Mangrove looked around, and as he did two things happened: Isabella delivered a spectacular kick to the doctor’s already battered shin and then Adele and Milo bolted from behind, ramming into him like two bulls. The waxy old monster bellowed as he flew towards the floor, tumbling in a heap.

  ‘Look!’ cried Adele.

  The hatch was opening! Adele began to furiously push the buttons, any buttons, trying to shut the hatch. Nothing seemed to work. She coughed as the gases spewing from the pipe rose towards her. A pair of bony claws slammed against the glass and Silas released a violent hiss. She screamed.

  ‘We have to close it!’ shouted Isabella, desperately trying to push down on the hatch.

  Steam began to escape from the chamber as it slowly opened.

  Milo reached again for the pipe which was flailing about under the chamber. Acting on instinct, he pushed it into the empty valve, looping the poisonous gases back into the hatch.

  ‘Stand back!’ shouted Milo, pulling his cousins away.

  Immediately the chamber filled with thick plumes of yellow smoke. It began to shake, pallid fumes whirling around Silas, churning with increasing ferocity. The thick glass panels started to crack.

  ‘It’s going to explode!’ shouted Isabella.

  As the children looked on, their uncle’s body was lifted by the whirlwind, and began to spin rapidly in the frenetic churn. The master of Sommerset’s shallow cry was swallowed up in a torrent, his body a blur as the yellow smoke frosted the cracked glass walls.

  Just as quickly the generator stopped, the chamber’s violent shaking coming to an abrupt end. In front of the massive computer terminal Dr Mangrove had cut the power source.

  Pushing the children aside he rushed at the chamber, releasing the hatch. Plumes of pungent yellow smoke filled the room. As it cleared, Dr Mangrove leaned forward to peer inside.

  ‘Silas!’ he cried.

  The children gathered around the chamber. In the place where their uncle had been was a mound of fine chalky powder. It was difficult to believe at first, that the almighty Silas Winterbottom could be rendered a pile of dust.

  ‘He has been incinerated,’ said the doctor softly.

  A loud moan from the corner of the room diverted the children’s attention.

  ‘Mrs Hammer!’ shouted Milo as he glimpsed the caged housekeeper for the first time. Struggling, Milo and Isabella tried to dislodge the bars but it was no use. A rather groggy Mrs Hammer directed Adele to the hidden switch beside the door and the iron cage dropped swiftly back into the floor.

  ‘Oh, Milo,’ cried Mrs Hammer. ‘Thank goodness you’re all right!’

  ‘I’m fine, Mrs Hammer,’ said Milo, squeezing her hand. ‘And thank you for trying to save me. You are very brave!’

  ‘Oh, nonsense,’ laughed Mrs Hammer.

  Suddenly Adele gave a shout.

  Dr Mangrove was nowhere to be seen. He had fled the laboratory, disappearing down the labyrinth of tunnels. On a hunch Milo hopped over to the smoking ruins of his uncle’s chamber and looked inside. A chill raced up his spine.

  The powdery remains of Uncle Silas had vanished.

  THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF SILAS WINTERBOTTOM

  The Winterbottoms sat in the conservatory of Sommerset House waiting for Whitlam to arrive. As soft sunlight splashed across the black-and-white chequered floor, each member of the family sat quietly, still haunted by the events of the past few days.

  Silas was dead. He had lured the children to Sommerset with a wicked plan to steal a soul and now he was dead. Milo’s body still ached from his time in the Soul Chamber but as he sat close to his grandfather he felt better than he had in weeks. The maestro had jumped on a plane the minute he found out what had happened to his grandson and he had not left the boy’s side since.

  There had been no sign of Dr Mangrove since his escape from the basement. The police seemed to believe that he had been eaten by Silas’s alligators – his shredded coat was found near a tunnel leading directly into the swamp and there was blood on it.

  The doctor was not the only person to disappear from Sommerset – Bingle had fled in the dead of night and noone had heard from him since.

  When Whitlam finally entered the conservatory he was forced to step over Thorn, who was lying across the doorway. He was quickly followed by Mrs Hammer, who was carrying a jug of lemonade and a freshly baked pie.

  ‘Oh, Cousin, this is it,’ whispered Isabella, tapping Adele’s hand. ‘We are about to become very rich . . . very, very rich!’

  Adele frowned. ‘Us? Are you crazy? Uncle Silas has left everything to Milo – that’s the whole reason he wanted to steal his body, remember?’

  ‘Well, I know that,’ said Isabella crossly. ‘But don’t you see? Milo won’t want any part of the estate – especially after what Uncle Silas did. And that means Sommerset will go to us!’

  ‘What makes you think that?’ said Adele.

  ‘It’s simple really,’ declared Isabella. ‘Milo knows how much we both love Sommerset. And let us not forget – we saved the poor orphan’s life. He will feel it is his duty to hand Uncle Silas’s fortune over to us. Just you wait and see!’

  Adjusting his spectacles, Whitlam shuffled to the front of the room and stood before a bank of large windows overlooking the rose gardens.

  ‘Well, children, you have certainly had a holiday to remember, haven’t you?’ he said, winking at Milo, who gave the lawyer a smile in return. ‘On a serious note, I feel nothing but regret for my role in bringing you to Sommerset. If I had known what Silas was up to . . . well, I would have stopped him myself! You showed great courage – all of you – in standing up to him and stopping his diabolical scheme. Congratulations all around, I say!’

  As Mrs Hammer, Rosemary and the maestro applauded enthusiastically, Whitlam pulled a large envelope from inside his coat. ‘Now then, let us get down to business. Silas’s will.’ He sighed heavily. ‘In fact, your uncle’s wishes are very simple really, and however objectionable I might find some of its contents, his will is perfectly legal and therefore I am obliged to enforce it.’

  The whole room watched expectantly as Whitlam broke the seal and opened the will. He cleared his throat.

  ‘Now then . . . the great bulk of Silas Winterbottom’s estate, including Sommerset and all other assets and money, has been left to Milo Winterbottom.’

  All eyes fell upon Sommerset’s new heir.

  ‘Congratulations, Milo,’ said Rosemary warmly.

  ‘Thank you,’ said Milo, shaking his head. ‘But I don’t want it.’

  ‘My boy,’ said the maestro, looking at his grandson tenderly, ‘you should take some time to think about it, yes? This is a great thing you are giving up.’

  ‘I have thought about it, Maestro,’ explained Milo. ‘I don’t want Sommerset – I never did. The truth is . . .’ He turned to face his cousins. ‘I want Adele and Isabella to have it. After what they did for me, it’s the least I can do.’

  Isabella jumped to her feet and flew at Milo, hugging him brutally.

  ‘Oh, Cousin, you are too kind! Thank you, thank you! What a sweet little orphan you turned out to be!’

  Still sitting quietly in her chair, Adele felt fresh tears slide down her freckled cheeks. She caught Milo’s eye and mouthed the words Thank you, Milo.

  After all that they had been through together it
was all she needed to say.

  ‘Who’d have thought it? Sommerset has two heirs!’ said Rosemary, as she guzzled a slice of freshly baked peach pie.

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ said Whitlam gravely. ‘The terms of Silas’s will state that if Milo refuses the estate then Silas’s fortune will become the property of . . . Dr Mikal Mangrove.’

  Gasps were heard around the conservatory.

  ‘What?’ hollered Isabella. ‘You’re kidding me, right?’

  ‘I’m afraid not,’ he answered. ‘And that is not the worst of it. In the event that Milo does not choose to become the next heir of Sommerset, several other clauses in the will come into effect. The first is that two hundred thousand dollars will be paid to Adele’s mother, Prudence Winterbottom – on the condition that Adele is sent to Ratchet’s House until her eighteenth birthday.’

  ‘Ratchet’s House!’ shouted Adele. She tried to get up but her legs turned to jelly. She fell back into her chair. Silas had taken her greatest fear and brought it to life.

  ‘There is more,’ continued Whitlam sombrely. ‘The second clause concerns Miss Isabella. Your uncle kept a detailed dossier of your activities in London over the past year.’ The old lawyer paused awkwardly. ‘I refer to the theft of valuable objects from the homes of your school friends. This dossier is to be delivered to the London police authorities. I have no doubt that there is enough evidence in there to have both you and your father locked away for a very long time. I am sorry.’

  Isabella tried to remain as calm as possible but naturally it did not work.

  ‘This is an outrage!’ she cried. ‘A travesty! Why, if Uncle Silas wasn’t already dead I’d kill the old bag of bones all over again!’

  ‘I knew my brother was a swine but this is inhuman!’ said Rosemary, passing out tissues to Adele and Isabella. ‘Now, Whitlam, am I right in assuming that if Milo does become Sommerset’s new heir, then none of these awful clauses will be acted on?’

  Whitlam nodded. ‘That’s right.’ He smiled sadly at Milo, who looked completely dazed by the turn of events. ‘Your uncle was prepared to do whatever it took to persuade you.’

  The boy was trapped. Even in death Silas was controlling them. What choice did he have but to accept the mantle of Sommerset’s new heir? He could hardly believe he was thinking such a thing! But if he didn’t, what would become of Adele and Isabella? Not to mention Dr Mangrove. If that evil genius was still alive he must never gain access to Sommerset. Who knew what diabolical inventions he could build with Silas’s fortune?