Free The Bomber Balloon by Terry Deary Page A

streamingbehind her, and her mouth open and panting. Millie loved running.
    The houses had heavy curtains at the windows but there was still a glow in the streets. Enough for her to race along the roads without falling.
    She dodged around the lampposts and the pillar-boxes and into Church Road. She knew what was coming and giggled as she gasped and ran. There, on the doorstep of number 17, Mac the dog was waiting. A sandy-coloured dog with a tattered ear. A mongrel with a bad temper and a yap like a broken hinge.
    Mac heard Millie’s slapping soles before she turned the corner and a growl grew in his throat. When he saw the running girl his little black teddy-bear eyes glowed like coals. He leapt forward, yapping madly and snapping at her flying heels.
    â€˜Can’t catch me!’ she screamed. That wasn’t true. But Mac wanted to warn her off, not bite her. She knew that when she reached the end of his road he would stop.
    Millie turned the corner and backed down Mersea Road, panting and giggling. That was how she walked into the man who was solid as a bear.
    And that was when Millie screamed.

Chapter 2
Buttons and bombs
    â€˜Now then, now, then, now then,’ the man growled. He was almost invisible in the darkness in his uniform of midnight blue. All Millie could see was his pale moon-face and the silver buttons on his jacket.
    â€˜Good evening, Constable Smith,’ Millie said.
    â€˜Young Millie Watson, isn’t it?’
    â€˜Yes, Constable.’

    â€˜Do you realise you have put the whole of Essex in danger, young lady?’ he said fiercely.
    â€˜Me?’ she squeaked. ‘How?’
    â€˜Shush,’ he hissed. ‘Look over there, towards Mersea Island. What can you see?’
    Fingers of yellow-white light criss-crossed the sky. There were orange flashes sparkling round. ‘Ooooh! It’s like Bonfire Night,’ Millie said. ‘Like before the war.’
    Constable Smith sighed. ‘The lights are searchlights over the Thames – forty or fifty miles away. The flashes are the anti-aircraft shells exploding. Mark my words, there are Zeppelins about tonight. You know what a Zeppelin is?’

    Millie nodded. ‘They are large frames of wood or metal as long as our street. Theyare covered with canvas and filled with gas lamps. They are so light they can carry twenty thousand men and fifty thousand bombs.’
    Constable Smith coughed. ‘Not quite that many, but enough to make a big hole in your house. And do you know how they will find your house?’
    â€˜No, Constable Smith.’
    â€˜They will find it because they will fly over the town, they will switch off their engines, and they will hear every sound. They will hear that dog barking and say, “Aha! Where there’s dogs, there’s people”. And they’ll drop a bomb.’
    â€˜On Mac the dog? That’s not fair.’
    â€˜And it will all be your fault for making him bark. See? Now, have you heard of DORA?’ the policeman asked.
    â€˜The Defence Of the Rum Act.’

    â€˜Realm,’ the constable said.
    â€˜The rules we have to stick to. If we don’t, my dad will send you to prison.’
    â€˜Your dad?’
    â€˜He’s joining the Royal Defence Army. They will arrest people because you policemen are too busy,’ she said proudly. ‘What are you busy doing?’
    â€˜Making sure people stick to DORA rules, of course. Making sure there’s nobody hanging around under a railway bridge.’
    â€˜We haven’t got a railway bridge in this village,’ Millie said.
    â€˜No… no, but if we
had
, I’d arrest you for hanging around under it. You could be a spy planning to blow it up.’
    â€˜A spy?
    â€˜There’s lots of them about. That’s why DORA says no one can send a letter with invisible ink, and no one can fly a kite.’
    â€˜I haven’t got a kite,’ Millie sighed.
    â€˜If you had a kite