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Dunno's Adventures

by Nikolai Nosov

Translated by Margaret Wettlin
freebooksforkids.net
Illustrated by Viktor & Kira Grigorievs

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Chapter Eighteen
IN KITE TOWN

As you have heard, Kite Town stands on the bank of a river. No trees grow there, and so the streets are not so pretty as in Greenville. But there are almost as many flowers as in Flower Town, and the houses are very attractive. The roofs have steeples on them which are topped by weather-cocks or toy windmills that turn round and round when the wind blows. Many of the windmills have rattles attached to them that make a loud noise when the arms of the windmills turn. The sky over the town is always filled with paper kites, for the flying of kites is the favourite sport of those who live in Kite Town. That is why it is called Kite Town. Attached to the kites are noise-makers of very simple construction. They consist of long pieces of ordinary paper tied to the tails. When the wind blows, these papers snap and rustle and crackle in a very unpleasant way. What with the rattles on the windmills and the papers on the kites, the town is very noisy.

The windows of all the houses are supplied with lattice-work shutters. These shutters are closed whenever the boys play soccer in the streets. Soccer is another one of their favourite sports, and these improved lattice-work windows have the advantage of letting in light without letting in balls. For some strange reason balls always fly towards windows instead of where they ought to fly.

When the car reached the end of the main street, it turned into a side-street and stopped in front of a wooden gateway. The top of the gateway was decorated with a glass ball which gave a lovely upside-down reflection of all the houses and fences, as well as of the car that had just stopped in front of it.

The owner of the car (who, by the way, was named Pretzel) got out and went up to the gate. On pressing a little button in the wall the gate opened noiselessly.

"Come in and meet Taps," said Pretzel to Bendum and Twistum. "I think you'll find him interesting."

The three friends entered the courtyard and walked over to the house which stood to the left of the gate. When they had climbed a few stone steps, Pretzel pressed another button. The door of the house opened as noiselessly as the gate had, and our friends found themselves inside an odd room. There was not a thing in it — not a stick of furniture but a hammock hanging against the far wall. Inside the hammock lay a boy-Mite in a pair of blue overalls with his hands in his pockets and his legs crossed.

"Still sleeping, Taps?" said Pretzel. "High time to get up."

"I'm not sleeping. I'm thinking," said Taps, looking round at his visitors.
"Meet my friends Bendum and Twistum. They're tinkers, and they need a soldering-iron."

"Glad to meet you. Sit down," said Taps.

This was rather a surprising thing to hear him say, for there was nothing to sit on. At that moment Taps pushed a button in the wall and instantly three folding seats dropped out of the opposite wall.

Bendum and Twistum sat down.

"Have you noticed I do everything with buttons?" asked Taps. "One button opens the door, another lets down seats, and if you would like table — here...."

And he pressed another button. A table-top dropped down, almost hitting Bendum on the head.

"Very convenient, don't you think?" said Taps.

"Marvellous," said Bendum, glancing cautiously about to see that nothing else was about to fall on him.

"Everything mechanized," boasted Taps.

"The only drawback is that the seats are against the wall," said Pretzel.

"Quite right," said the inventor. "I've been racking my brains to think of a way to move the chairs about."

"Wouldn't using ordinary chairs be the best way?" suggested Twistum.

"That's it! A brilliant idea!" exclaimed Taps happily. "I must invent some plain, ordinary chairs. The most brilliant ideas are always the most simple. I can see that you,.too, are interested in mechanics, aren't you?"

"Yes, we both are," said Twistum.

"So you're in need of a soldering-iron, are you?"

Taps rushed another button, and to everyone's astonishment the hammock began to sink slowly. Down, down it went until Taps was lying on the floor.

"When you get out of an ordinary hammock, you're always in danger of catching your foot in it and falling on your nose," explained Taps as he got up. "My mechanized hammock removes all danger of that. You are gently let down on the floor, from which you get up on your own two feet. In just the same way, when you wish to get into the hammock you first lie down on the floor, then push the button, which causes the hammock to rise to the desired height."

As he talked, Taps walked up and down, pushing buttons that let down tables, chairs and shelves and opened closets and cupboards.

The last button he pushed opened a trap-door in the floor that dropped him down into the cellar. A minute later his voice was heard calling from out in the courtyard:

"Come here, friends!"

The three went out.

"This is my garage," he said as he led Bendum and Twistum towards a stone building with a wide metal door.

He pushed a button and the door rose like a stage curtain. Inside the garage they saw a queer car with wheels all over it.

"That's my 8-wheeled steam-car with pistachio cooling," he explained. "It has four upper wheels and four lower wheels. Ordinarily it runs on the lower wheels. The upper ones are just in case it turns over. All eight wheels are attached at an angle so that the car can run not only right-side-up and up-side-down, but on each of its two sides as well. This reduces the danger of accidents."

Taps got in the car and demonstrated how it ran right-side-up and upside-down on both sides.

"Instead of the usual tank," he went on when the demonstration was over, "it has a boiler in which the soda-water is heated. The steam from this soda-water increases the pressure on the pistons, making the wheels go round faster than in ordinary cars. Behind this boiler is a freezer for making the pistachio ice-cream used for cooling the cylinders. The melted ice-cream is piped into a tank as oil for the engine. The car has four speeds: first, second, third, and fourth, besides which it can run sidewise or in reverse. In the back of the car there is a machine for washing clothes. The laundry can be done while the car is running at any of the four speeds. When it is standing still it can chop wood, mix clay, make bricks, and peel potatoes."

When the friends had gazed their fill they went into Taps' workshop, which was littered with everything under the sun: old bicycles, broken tricycles, parts of scooters, wagons, tops, and other things. For a long time Taps searched for the soldering-iron without finding it. Suddenly he clapped his hand to his head and exclaimed:

"Goodness gracious, what a dunce I am! I left my soldering-iron at Slick's. You'll have to go there for it."

"That's nothing. I'll run them over in the car," said Pretzel.

"Who's Slick?" asked Bendum when the three friends had taken leave of Taps and were going through the gate.

"An author," said Pretzel.

"Not really!" exclaimed Twistum. "What luck! I've always wanted to meet a live author."

"Here's your chance. He really is an interesting chap," said Pretzel as he climbed into the car.

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