The Indian in the Cupboard. Lynne Banks Reid

      

      

       Copyright

      First published in Great Britain by J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd 1981

      First published by HarperCollins 1988

      This edition published by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016

      HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

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      London SE1 9GF

      The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Text copyright © Lynne Reid Banks 1981

      Cover illustration © Pascal Campion 2016

      Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers, Ltd 2016

      Illustrations copyright © Piers Sanford 1999

      Note from the author copyright © 2000 Lynne Reid Banks

      Lynne Reid Banks and Piers Sanford assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work.

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, 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 hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780007309955

      Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780007379798

      Version: 2016-04-16

       For Omri – who else?

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

       Dedication

Chapter One – Birthday Presents

Chapter Two – The Door is Shut

Chapter Three – Thirty Scalps

Chapter Four – The Great Outdoors

       Chapter Five – Tommy

       Chapter Six – The Chief is Dead, Long Live the Chief

       Chapter Seven – Uninvited Brothers

       Chapter Eight – Cowboy!

       Chapter Nine – Shooting Match

       Chapter Ten – Breakfast Truce

       Chapter Eleven – School

       Chapter Twelve – Trouble with Authority

       Chapter Thirteen – Art and Accusation

       Chapter Fourteen – The Fateful Arrow

       Chapter Fifteen – Underfloor Adventure

       Chapter Sixteen – Brothers

       More than a story

       About the Author

       Also by Lynne Reid Banks

       About the Publisher

       Chapter One

       BIRTHDAY PRESENTS

      IT WAS NOT that Omri didn’t appreciate Patrick’s birthday present to him. Far from it. He was really very grateful – sort of. It was, without a doubt, very kind of Patrick to give Omri anything at all, let alone a secondhand plastic Red Indian which he himself had finished with.

      The trouble was, though, that Omri was getting a little fed up with small plastic figures, of which he had loads. Biscuit-tinsful, probably three or four if they were all put away at the same time, which they never were because most of the time they were scattered about in the bathroom, the loft, the kitchen, the breakfast-room, not to mention Omri’s bedroom and the garden. The compost heap was full of soldiers which, over several autumns, had been raked up with the leaves by Omri’s mother, who was rather careless about such things.

      Omri and Patrick had spent many hours together playing with their joint collections of plastic toys. But now they’d had about enough of them, at least for the moment, and that was why, when Patrick brought his present to school on Omri’s birthday, Omri was disappointed. He tried not to show it, but he was.

      “Do you really like him?” asked Patrick as Omri stood silently with the Indian in his hand.

      “Yes, he’s fantastic,” said Omri in only a slightly flattish voice. “I haven’t got an Indian.”

      “I know.”

      “I haven’t got any cowboys either.”

      “Nor have I. That’s why I couldn’t play anything with him.”