Free The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones Page A

heavily and slowly as they could. The Ogre clicked their light switch, muttered a little when the light would not come on, and went across the landing to see what Malcolm was doing. Whatever he saw there seemed to satisfy him, for he went heavily away downstairs.
    Caspar waited until his bedroom door shut. Then he got up again and put on his pyjamas, closed the window and dug the light bulb out of his coat pocket. When he had succeeded in putting it back in its socket, he discovered, considerably to his surprise, that Johnny was asleep. Casper felt fairly sleepy himself, but he knew he could not possibly go to sleep without a word at least ofapology and thanks to Douglas. So he went out and sat on the landing to wait for him.
    He was nine-tenths asleep, with his forehead on his knees, when he heard his mother’s voice on the landing below. “Douglas,” she was saying. “Douglas, please won’t you come out?” Caspar could tell she was just outside the bathroom door. After she had called again several times, he heard Douglas’s voice. He could not hear what Douglas said, but it sounded like a gruff refusal. “Oh, come on, Douglas,” Sally said. “How would it be if I made you some cocoa?” There was a further mutter from Douglas. It sounded less gruff. Caspar was glad. He knew that if it had been him in the bathroom, he would have wanted cocoa, and comfort too.
    But before Sally could speak again, Caspar heard the voice of the Ogre. “Sally, for heaven’s sake come back to bed. I’ll deal with the stupid little fool.” And then he heard the Ogre’s fist pound on the bathroom door. “Douglas,” said the Ogre, “come on out of there and stop behaving like a spoilt baby. If you don’t come out this instant, it’ll be the worse for you when you do.”
    “Look, Jack—” said Sally.
    “Shut up,” said the Ogre. “Did you hear me, Douglas?”
    “Yes, I heard you,” said the muffled, sulky voice of Douglas. The bolt clicked. Caspar heard the door open.
    “Now get to bed,” said the Ogre savagely. “I’ve had about enough of you.”
    Douglas came swiftly upstairs. Caspar, rather nervously stood up. Douglas stopped when he saw him.
    “I wanted to say sorry,” Caspar whispered.
    But Douglas was in no mood for apologies. “You wait!” he said, in a furious low rumble. “I owe you for this. You just wait!”

CHAPTER SIX
    A lthough Malcolm was his own size again the next morning, everyone, not surprisingly, was torpid and tired. Johnny staggered from his bed and went to school without really waking up. Both Caspar and Malcolm arrived late and had to stand publicly at the back of Assembly. Douglas left the house when the Ogre and Sally did, which meant that he must have been late also, but since he went to the Senior School, no one knew what had happened. Gwinny fared best because the Ogre, seeing she was going to be late, took her down to Juniors in his car.
    After school, Johnny as usual managed to get home first. He pelted up to their room and there, in spite of asudden overwhelming desire to roll on his bed and go to sleep, he doggedly sorted through the crowded and disorderly chemistry box until he had found the two tubes marked Parv. pulv . and Magn. pulv . His idea was to tape them together with sticky tape and then stick a label on them saying DANGER. But once he had them in his hand, it occurred to him to experiment. After all, he had the antidote ready.
    Caspar also sped home, with an understandable desire to be out of sight when Douglas arrived. He reached the door of their room to see Johnny holding the tube to his nose and sniffing raucously. Johnny, hearing him, looked up guiltily.
    “I’m only experimenting,” he said to Caspar’s accusing face. “And I think Malcolm was lying. That was my third sniff.”
    Since the damage seemed to be done, Caspar could only wait. They waited tensely, expecting Johnny to become a Johnny-shaped speck any moment. But nothing happened. In five minutes,