Lynne Reid Banks - The Indian in the Cupboard Complete Collection: (The Indian in the Cupboard; Return of the Indian; Secret of the Indian; the Mystery of the Cupboard; Key to the Indian)

Published by HarperCollins Childrens Books
a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,
7785 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith,
London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

The Indian in the Cupboard
first published in Great Britain by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd in 1981
First published by HarperCollins in 1988
Text Lynne Reid Banks 1981
Illustrations Piers Sanford 1999

Return of the Indian
first published in Great Britain by J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd in 1986
First published by HarperCollins in 1988
Text Lynne Reid Banks 1986
Illustrations Piers Sanford 1999

The Secret of the Indian
first published in Great Britain by Collins in 1989
Text Lynne Reid Banks 1989
Illustrations Piers Sanford 1999

The Mystery of the Cupboard
first published by Collins in 1993
Text Lynne Reid Banks 1993
Illustrations Piers Sanford 1993

The Key to the Indian
first published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd in 1998
Text Lynne Reid Banks 1998
Illustrations Piers Sanford 1998

Cover design HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Note from the author copyright 2000 Lynne Reid Banks

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 ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 e-books.

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this e-book has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBNs:
9780007379798
9780007384907
9780007530038
9780007382927
9780007529971

Ebook Edition DECEMBER 2014 ISBN: 9780008124243

Version: 2014-11-25

For Omri who else?

IT WAS NOT that Omri didnt appreciate Patricks 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 Omris bedroom and the garden. The compost heap was full of soldiers which, over several autumns, had been raked up with the leaves by Omris 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 theyd had about enough of them, at least for the moment, and that was why, when Patrick brought his present to school on Omris 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, hes fantastic, said Omri in only a slightly flattish voice. I havent got an Indian.

I know.

I havent got any cowboys either.

Nor have I. Thats why I couldnt play anything with him.

Omri opened his mouth to say, I wont be able to either, but, thinking that might hurt Patricks feelings, he said nothing, put the Indian in his pocket and forgot about it.

After school there was a family tea, and all the excitement of his presents from his parents and his two older brothers. He was given his dearest wish a skateboard complete with kick-board and cryptonic wheels from his mum and dad, and from his eldest brother, Adiel, a helmet. Gillon, his other brother, hadnt bought him anything because he had no money (his pocket-money had been stopped some time ago in connection with a very unfortunate accident involving their fathers bicycle). So when Gillons turn came to give Omri a present, Omri was very surprised when a large parcel was put before him, untidily wrapped in brown paper and string.

What is it?

Have a look. I found it in the alley.

The alley was a narrow passage that ran along the bottom of the garden where the dustbins stood. The three boys used to play there sometimes, and occasionally found treasures that other perhaps richer neighbours had thrown away. So Omri was quite excited as he tore off the paper.

Inside was a small white metal cupboard with a mirror in the door, the kind you see over the basin in old-fashioned bathrooms.

You might suppose Omri would once again be disappointed, because the cupboard was fairly plain and, except for a shelf, completely empty, but oddly enough he was very pleased with it. He loved cupboards of any sort because of the fun of keeping things in them. He was not a very tidy boy in general, but he did like arranging things in cupboards and drawers and then opening them later and finding them just as hed left them.

I do wish it locked, he said.

You might say thank you before you start complaining, said Gillon.

Its got a keyhole, said their mother. And Ive got a whole boxful of keys. Why dont you try the smaller ones and see if any of them fit?

Most of the keys were much too big, but there were half a dozen that were about the right size. All but one of these were very ordinary. The un-ordinary one was the most interesting key in the whole collection, small with a complicated lock-part and a fancy top. A narrow strip of red satin ribbon was looped through one of its curly openings. Omri saved that key to the last.

None of the others fitted, and at last he picked up the curly-topped key and carefully put it in the keyhole on the cupboard door, just below the knob. He did hope very much that it would turn, and regretted wasting his birthday-cake-cutting wish on something so silly (or rather, unlikely) as that he might pass his spelling test the next day, which it would take real magic to bring about as he hadnt even looked at the words since theyd been given out four days ago. Now he closed his eyes and unwished the test-pass and wished instead that this little twisty key would turn Gillons present into a secret cupboard.

The key turned smoothly in the lock. The door wouldnt open.

Hey! Mum! Ive found one!

Have you, darling? Which one? His mother came to look. Oh, that one! How very odd. That was the key to my grandmothers jewel-box, that she got from Florence. It was made of red leather and it fell to bits at last, but she kept the key and gave it to me. She was most terribly poor when she died, poor old sweetie, and kept crying because she had nothing to leave me, so in the end I said Id rather have this little key than all the jewels in the world. I threaded it on that bit of ribbon it was much longer then and hung it round my neck and told her Id always wear it and remember her. And I did for a long time. But then the ribbon broke and I nearly lost it.

You could have got a chain for it, said Omri.

She looked at him. Youre right, she said. I should have done just that. But I didnt. And now its your cupboard key. Please dont lose it, Omri, will you.