The Doldrums and the Helmsley Curse

The Doldrums and the Helmsley Curse
Nicholas Gannon

Archer B. Hemsley and friends are back and yearning for adventure in this second beautifully told, stunningly-illustrated story from author-illustrator Nicholas Gannon.After two years, Archer B. Helmsley’s famous explorer grandparents are finally coming home. They had been missing – abandoned on an iceberg – and Archer and his best friends, Adélaïde L. Belmont and Oliver Grub led an adventurous mission to rescue them.Archer is overjoyed by his grandparents’ return. However, he seems to be the only one . . . Rumours begin to surface that Archer’s grandparents weren’t abandoned after all. People are claiming that they made it all up. Well, Archer knows those rumours are false, and with the help of his best friends and new neighbour, Kana, he is going to prove it. Off the foursome set, into a snowstorm and beyond, to restore his grandparents’ reputation.

This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

THE DOLDRUMS AND THE HELMSLEY CURSE. Text and illustrations copyright © 2017 by Nicholas Gannon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

ISBN 9780008149437 (hardcover)

EPub Edition © October 2017 ISBN 9780008149451

Version: 2017-10-23

To Patrick and Gannon,

and Staple Guns and Dump Trucks

CONTENTS

Cover (#uee9f9353-3810-5a6e-91e9-514297d3dc67)

Title Page (#ub9c42a57-9390-5311-9116-eb20cf407a5f)

Copyright (#u3bd6a2da-568c-54f3-b9ee-18b96464d939)

Dedication (#u47890994-52be-5785-8181-ab4c437e09a6)

PROLOGUE: Snowflakes and Rumors

PART ONE: AN ICEBERG IN ROSEWOOD

CHAPTER ONE: Raven Wood

CHAPTER TWO: An Odd Farewell

CHAPTER THREE: Years of Wonder

CHAPTER FOUR: The Center of a Maze

CHAPTER FIVE: The Greenhorn and His Father

CHAPTER SIX: Bite by Bite and Piece by Piece

PART TWO: JUST AND UNJUST DESSERTS

CHAPTER SEVEN: Murder Is Kind of Serious

CHAPTER EIGHT: Crooked Eustace Mullfort

CHAPTER NINE: Concerning Glubs and Misras

CHAPTER TEN: Over the Garden Wall

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Fearing Disappearing

CHAPTER TWELVE: The Budding Botanist

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Good King Oliver

PART THREE: THE STORM

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Helmsley House Disappears

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Into a Poisonous Dream

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: A Long Journey Home

About the Author

Credits

About the Publisher

♦ SNOWFLAKES AND RUMORS (#ud0e1fc92-607b-5cde-bad6-245e1f65b69a) ♦

The city of Rosewood was humming with rumors. They swirled every which way, across snowy rooftops and down narrow streets.

“How is it possible? It’s been two years!”

They were exchanged in shops along Howling Bloom Street and slurped in Belmont Café.

“Are you saying you think we’ve been duped?”

“What would they have eaten?”

They were laughed about in student rooms at the Willow Academy and gulped in handfuls at DuttonLick’s sweetshop.

“Weren’t there penguins on the iceberg?”

“You think they survived by eating penguins?”

It was a blizzard of rumors. They piled as high as the snow. There were hundreds of answers to one single question:

ROSEWOOD CHRONICLE

HOW DID RALPH AND RACHEL HELMSLEY