Free The Treasure of Mr Tipp by Margaret Ryan Page B

teacher! Miss Dodds! I have to go. I’ll be late for school again.” Then I raced down the ladder and jumped on my bike, waving to Mr Tipp as I did so.
    Mr Tipp and Bob waved back. “Come again, Jonny Smith, and I’ll show you some more of my inventions!”
    â€œI will!” I yelled. Then I pedalled like the wind, only stopping to hand in my bag to Mr Maini.
    â€œYou’ve been a long time today,” he said. “What kept you?”
    â€œTell you tomorrow. No time now,” I panted, and scooted off.

    The school playground was deserted when I got there, apart from a black-and-white collie, who couldn’t read the NO DOGS ALLOWED sign.
    I hurried to my classroom and tried to sneak in without anyone noticing, but Miss Dodds can hear a mouse sneeze, and anyway, the door creaks.
    â€œYou’re late again, Jonny Smith,” she frowned. “What fantastic excuse do you have this time?”
    The class looked up expectantly, and my friends, Sara and Surinder, rolled their eyes.
    â€œI was up on a roof garden watering the sand inside a scarobot’s wellies,” I said.
    Miss Dodds’ eyes narrowed. “Complete nonsense, as usual. You’ll stay inside at break and write out six reasons why lying is very, very bad,” she ordered.
    I sighed deeply. I’d had a feeling she wouldn’t believe me.

Chapter Three

    At break, I took a piece of paper and started to do my punishment exercise.
    SIX REASONS WHY LYING IS VERY, VERY BAD.
    I wrote down the heading then thought really hard. Number one was easy.
    1. LYING GETS YOU INTO TROUBLE. After that it got trickier.
    2. LYING GETS YOU INTO TROUBLE WITH YOUR TEACHER, EVEN IF YOU’RE NOT. (LYING, THAT IS.)
    3. LYING GETS YOU INTO TROUBLE WITH YOUR FRIENDS WHO THINK YOU’RE AN IDIOT, EVEN IF THEY REALISE LATER THAT YOU’RE TELLING THE TRUTH.
    After that it got trickier still.
    4. LYING IS VERY, VERY BAD BECAUSE TELLING THE TRUTH IS VERY, VERY GOOD, THOUGH MY DAD LIES WHEN MY MUM ASKS HIM IF HER BUM LOOKS BIG IN HER JEANS.
    It does.
    5. LYING IS VERY, VERY BAD, ESPECIALLY IF YOU GET FOUND OUT.
    After that I got really stuck so…
    6. I KNOW LYING IS VERY, VERY BAD, BUT THE TRUTH IS I CAN’T THINK OF ANOTHER REASON. SORRY.
    I left the piece of paper on Miss Dodds’ desk. I saw her reading it later and her face kind of twitched. I didn’t know whether that was good or bad, but I worked really hard for the rest of the day anyway.
    At least Sara and Surinder believed me. They hadn’t when I’d first told them about Captain Cross-eyed, the huge pirate thatlives at number 13, but that
was
a very strange story. And, once they’d met him, they realised I was telling the truth.
    Now Sara and Surinder were really keen to see what a scarobot looked like. So, after school, we all went to Weird Street. We stood at the gate of number 34 and a half and waved to Bob on the flat roof.
    â€œWow, that’s magic,” said Sara, when Bob waved back.
    I didn’t tell her that I thought Bob was programmed to wave every so often.
    â€œI like his patchwork suit,” said Surinder. “I wonder if Mr Tipp made that, too.”
    â€œMr Tipp sounds really cool. I’d like to meet him,” said Sara.
    â€œThen you can,” said a voice behind us, and Mr Tipp stopped his big three-wheeler bike at the side of the road.
    The three of us stared open-mouthed. The bike was painted every colour of therainbow and a trailer full of old junk was attached to it.
    â€œI’ve been seaching through skips and rescuing treasure,” beamed Mr Tipp. “You can help me unload it, if you like.”

    â€œI love your scarobot, Mr Tipp,” said Sara, staggering into the garden with a long plank of wood.
    â€œHave you invented lots of things?” gasped Surinder, clutching a box full of half-empty paint tins.
    â€œQuite a few,” smiled Mr Tipp. “I’m a bit busy right now, but