< Den

Chapter 11 - The House Turns
Chapter 10 - The Empty Quarter
Chapter 9 - View from the Mountain
Chapter 8 - The Order of the Leap
Chapter 7 - Springing the Trap
Chapter 6 - Raspadero Revealed
Chapter 5 - The Shaman of the Forest
Chapter 4 - Rescue and a Promise
Chapter 3 - In the Doldrums
Chapter 2 - A Marcopolon Phrasebook
Chapter 1 - Welcome to Four Corner House

Four Corner House - our online story

This is a family tale for you to read together or alone. We will be putting up a chapter a week, each with its own cliff hanger at the end to entice you to come back for more.

Chapter 11 - The House Turns
Sally gulped. “Mr Leggs,” she stammered. “Likewise, I’m sure…We are very – very glad to see you…And looking so well!” she added, for there was something glowing, happy and healthful about the man she had last seen with a half-crazy look in his eye, hurrying away from one stolen fortune in the hope of finding another.
More >

Chapter 10 - The Empty Quarter
There was no wind, the dust stirred up by their feet soon covered their hands and faces, and when Tom clenched his jaw, he discovered from the crunching sound it made that sand had also got into his mouth and coated his teeth. “Yuck,” he said, and spat. “Now I know what it really means when they say, He gritted his teeth.”
More >

Chapter 9 - View from the Mountain
When the children had something serious to think about, there was only one place to go: up.
The sky through the Door at the top of the attic stairs was almost always a dazzling blue. The smooth grey stones and lush green grass of the mountain-side were soothing to the eye and the touch, while the only sounds were the cool breeze, the trickle of mountain streams, and the far-off tinkle of cow-bells as the shepherd-boys and girls led their flocks of goat and sheep to pasture. If they needed entertainment, they had the playful scramblings of the black and white marmots who lived among the rocks, and the stories of the hermit who sometimes came and sat with them around their campfire; but most of the time, they came to the mountain to concentrate on something.
More >

Chapter 8 - The Order of the Leap
By climbing onto the roof of the strongroom, Sally could see the whole crowd of goldfishers that had assembled before her. They were clearly expecting her to say something. “Guess what!” she called out. “Raspadero’s gone! Hooray! You don’t have to work for him anymore!”
The goldfishers looked at each other, shuffled around a bit, then looked back at Sally.
More >

Chapter 7 - Springing the Trap
Tom sped through the forest. His soft paws made hardly any noise as he bounded through the tangled undergrowth and over giant twisted roots. “If Jowls could see me now!” he thought, clearing a low branch in a single stride. Mr Leggs had just over an hour by way of head start; Tom did not think it would take very long to catch up to him; and sure enough, after twenty minutes of hard running, he saw the postman through the trees ahead, striding along the river bank with his bag slung over his shoulder and the tall walking-stick in his hand. Tom slowed to a trot and veered into the trees on the far side of the river. He wanted to keep Mr Leggs in sight without being seen himself.
More >

Chapter 6 - Raspadero Revealed
Tom, glancing up from time to time as he loped along the river-bed, could see Sally just ahead of him, swooping up and down to dodge the branches of the trees where they stretched out over the river. He was determined to get to the dam as quickly as possible, otherwise he might have given more attention to the extraordinary feeling of being a jaguar. He could see, smell, and hear things that he had never been able to distinguish before; best of all was the wonderful flowing power in his legs and the way he could keep his balance at the end of every leap and turn simply by twitching the tip of his tail a few degrees to right or left. 
More >

Chapter 5 - The Shaman of the Forest
With Friendship running fast before the wind and her rain-barrels full of fresh water once again, it was time for Sally and Tom to slip away back to Four Corner House. They said goodbye to Captain Bailfast, Phlegm, Rita and all the crew. Then they ducked through the Door and went upstairs to change out of their wet clothes. They had no time to lose.
More >

Chapter 4 - Rescue and a Promise
For the next three days the weather continued sunny and calm. Sally and Tom had divided up the bananas as best they could among the one hundred and forty men aboard, but the only reason people did not complain of hunger was because of the raging thirst, which was much much worse.
More >

Chapter 3 - In the Doldrums
It was the spring half-term, and the children had finished tidying their rooms, hanging out the laundry, hoovering the sitting-room, and doing all the other chores they had been assigned in record time, so that they could pay a visit to Captain Bailfast and his first mate Phlegm aboard the Hand of Friendship. They had decided to start the holiday by going through Ocean Door because, as Sally put it, there was nothing so bracing as your first gulp of sea air. This was always Sally’s choice; she loved the sea and was a nimble sailor.
More >

Chapter 2 - A Marcopolon Phrasebook
Four Corner House had been built by Sally and Tom’s grandfather, the well-known explorer Times Atlas, as a comfortable family home and an extremely convenient base for his expeditions. There were many tales of Grandfather Atlas, and he was still remembered in most of the places that the children liked to visit, but the story of Four Corner House itself was, of course, a secret.
More >

Chapter 1 - Welcome to Four Corner House
Number 4, Compass Drive, had all the appearance of an ordinary house in an ordinary street. Like many things that look ordinary, however, Number 4 was full of surprises.
More >