Free Colin and the Magic Bookmark by Merv Lambert

munching motions and dribbles of saliva seemed to drip from them. Its huge legs looked soft and furry and seemed to stretch halfway across the pyramid’s floor. For a spider it was gigantic, almost as tall as Colin, and it seemed to be standing over and guarding a pile of stones that gave off a weird green glow. It twitched menacingly. It looked as if it couldn’t quite decide whether Diana and Colin were tasty prey and was just beginning to saunter towards them, when the bookmark throbbed in Colin’s pocket. Sammy barked and dashed forward. His sharp little teeth sank into one of the spider’s legs. It wasn’t used to being challenged. Other creatures were always afraid of it, weren’t they? It was very scared and didn’t like this at all. It scuttled away. Sammy opened his mouth to bark again and tumbled to the floor. Barking angrily, he watched until the spider disappeared into a crack in the wall. Colin was very proud of Sammy. He ran to pick him up and gave him a hug. The little dog licked his face.
    Â 
    Meanwhile Diana had stooped to pick up some of the small green stones that the spider had obviously been guarding.
    â€œThey look like emeralds,” she said, handing one to Colin, who examined it carefully. It had what looked like a monkey’s face engraved on it.
    â€œYes, they do,” he agreed.
    His cousin suddenly put her finger to her lips for him to be quiet. “Listen!” she whispered. “I can hear someone outside.”
    Colin slipped the emerald into his top pocket next to the bookmark.
    Diana had moved away from the gemstones. “Quick!” she hissed. “Take this rope and swing over to that ledge.”
    â€œWhy?” asked Colin.
    â€œBecause it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to do in this sort of adventure.”
    Neither of them was surprised to find a rope conveniently hanging down from a dark corner. Diana explained that it happened all the time.
    â€œOh,” said Colin, “like when your Dad frayed the rope that let down the portcullis over the crocodile pool by rubbing his false teeth against it?”
    â€œYeah. Absolutely. Maybe. Something like that.” Diana knew instinctively that that particular move was required at that point in the game, as Colin took hold of the rope with both hands and swung lithely across the chamber to land on a ledge opposite.
    Â 
    Diana was just about to tell him to swing the rope back across to her, when their attention was drawn to a sudden noise. A fast rolling barrel came rushing out of a dark passageway and crashed to the floor below. Moans came from the wreck, which was lit by the shaft of sunlight, and then Dimbo-Dimbo stumbled into sight.
    â€œOoh! Aargh! Ow!” he howled. “I have failed! Master will kill me!”
    â€œWhy?” asked Colin swinging back down from the ledge.
    â€œYou must be the guardians of the treasure. Arth Kirbi told me to capture you by rolling down the slope and sticking to you with the special glue that he put on the barrel. He will be here any minute.” He looked round nervously as if expecting his leader to explode furiously out of the darkness any second.
    Diana stayed calm. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We can save you and your friends.
    Listen. If we stand next to you, we can pretend you have caught us, but run, when I tell you to.”
    â€œPerhaps he will come close enough for us to capture him, ” explained Colin to Dimbo-Dimbo, who was looking puzzled.
    â€œOh, all right,” he said.
    â€œShush!” hissed Diana. “I think I can hear him coming.”
    Immediately the two children went and stood next to Dimbo-Dimbo, being careful not to touch the remains of the barrel. They were just in time. Colin snatched up Sammy and gripped him firmly.
    â€œAha!” roared Arth Kirbi triumphantly, striding up to them with a nasty, gleeful smile on his face. “You did it, Dimbo-Dimbo,”