Buying Some Gloves - Chapter Preview

(洋販ラダーシリーズ)
By Niimi Nankichi

Theseus and the Minotaur - Chapter Preview

(Penguin Longman Active Reading)
By Ken Beatty

A King's Sword

'You have two fathers, Theseus,' his mother said. 'You are the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and the son of King Aegeus.'

Theseus lived with his mother in Troezen, in Greece. He was a clever, happy young man, but he did not know his father.
One day, his mother said to him, 'Come into the garden, Theseus. Do you see that big rock? Can you move it, my son?'
Theseus was strong He moved the rock and looked under it. There was a sword - a king's sword!
'This is the sword of King Aegeus,' his mother said. 'And now it is yours.'
Theseus looked at her, and then at the sword. 'Mine?' he said. 'Why is it mine?'
'You have two fathers, Theseus,' his mother said. 'You are the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and the son of King Aegeus. King Aegeus lives in Athens. Go to him now. It is time.'
That night, Theseus said goodbye to his mother.
'I am going to walk to my father's home,' he said to her.
'But it is a long and difficult walk,' his mother said.
'I am strong,' Theseus said. 'You know that, Mother. Don't cry for me.'
Theseus walked for ten days. There were many bad men on the road. But he fought them - and he killed them. Then he came to Athens, to the home of King Aegeus.
But Aegeus had a new wife, Medea, and she had a son too. She was angry about Theseus.
'He is your father's first son,' she said to her son. 'You are going to be king after your father - not him.'
She wanted to kill Theseus. But Aegeus watched her and he stopped her.
The king talked to Theseus. 'You moved the rock and you have my sword,' he said. 'You are my son.'

Crime Story Collection - Chapter Preview

(Penguin Longman Active Reading)
By Sara Paretsky

Three is a Lucky Number
Margery Allingham

This was the difficult bit. The discovery of the body must be made, but not too soon.

At five o'clock on a September afternoon Ronald Torbay was making preparations for his third murder. He was being very careful. He realized that murdering people becomes more dangerous if you do it often.
He was in the bathroom of the house he had recently rented. For a moment he paused to look in the mirror. The face that looked back at him was thin, middle-aged, and pale. Dark hair, a high forehead and well-shaped blue eyes. Only the mouth was unusual - narrow and quite straight. Even Ronald Torbay did not like his own mouth.
A sound in the kitchen below worried him. Was Edyth coming up to have her bath before he had prepared it for her? No, it was all right; she was going out of the back door. From the window he saw her disappearing round the side of the house into the small garden. It was exactly like all the other gardens in the long street. He didn't like here to be alone there. She was a shy person, but now new people had moved into the house next door, and there was a danger of some silly woman making friends with her. He didn't want that just now.