Chapter Ten

Sid, the paper–boy, was most amazed to find himself yanked quickly through the front door by Julian. He was even more amazed to find his very lurid check cap snatched off his head, and his bag of papers torn from his shoulder.

‘’Ere!’ he said feebly. ‘What you doing?’

‘It’s all right, Sid,’ said Julian, holding him firmly. ‘Just a joke. We’ve got a little treat in store for you.’

Sid didn’t like jokes of this sort. He struggled, but soon gave it up. Julian was big and strong and very determined. Sid turned and watched Dick stride out with his bright check cap sideways on his head, and his paper–bag over his shoulder. He gasped when he saw Dick leap on the bicycle that he, Sid, had left by the gate, and go sailing off up the lane on it.

‘What’s he doing?’ he asked Julian, amazed. ‘Funny sort of joke this.’

‘I know. Hope you don’t mind,’ said Julian, leading him firmly into the sitting–room.

‘Somebody betted him he wouldn’t deliver the papers, maybe?’ said Sid. ‘So he’s taken the bet on?’

‘You’re clever, you are, Sid,’ said Julian, and Sid beamed all over his round, simple face.

‘Well, I hope he’ll deliver them all right,’ he said. ‘Anyway, there’s only two more, up at the farm. Yours is the last house but one that I go to. When’s he coming back?’

‘Soon,’ said Julian. ‘Will you stay and have supper with us, Sid?’

Sid’s eyes nearly fell out of his head. ‘Supper with you folks?’ he said. ‘Coo! That’d be a rare treat!’

‘All right. You sit and look at these books,’ said Julian, giving him two or three story books belonging to Anne. ‘I’ll just go and tell our cook to make a specially nice supper for you.’

Sid was all at sea about this unexpected treat, but quite willing to accept a free meal and sit down. He sat beaming on the couch, turning over the pages of a fairy–story book. Coo! What would his mother say when she heard he’d had supper at Kirrin Cottage? She wouldn’t half be surprised, thought Sid.

And now Julian had to tackle Joan, and get her to join in their little plot. He went into the kitchen and shut the door. He looked so grave that Joan was startled.

‘What’s the matter?’ she said.

Julian told her. He told her about the kidnapping of George, and the strange note. He gave it to her to read. She sat down, her knees beginning to shake.

‘It’s the kind of thing you read in the papers, Master Julian,’ she said, in rather a shaky voice. ‘But it’s queer when it happens to you! I don’t like it—that’s flat, I don’t.’

‘Nor do we,’ said Julian, and went on to tell Joan all they had arranged to do. She smiled a watery smile when he told her how Dick had gone off as the paper–boy in order to watch who took the notebook that night, and described how surprised Sid was.

‘That Sid!’ she said. ‘We’ll never hear the last of it, down in the village—him being invited here to supper. He’s simple, that boy, but there’s no harm in him.’

‘I’ll get him a fine supper, don’t you worry. And I’ll come and sit with you tonight in the lighted room—we’ll play a card game, see? One that Sid knows—he’s never got much beyond Snap and Happy Families.’

‘That’s a very good idea,’ said Julian, who had been wondering how in the world they could amuse Sid all the evening. ‘We’ll play Snap—and let him win!’

Sid was quite overcome at his wonderful evening. First there was what he called a ‘smasher of a supper,’ with ham and eggs and chip potatoes followed by jam tarts and a big chocolate mould, of which Sid ate about three–quarters.

‘I’m partial to chocolate mould,’ he explained to Anne. ‘Joan knows that—she knows I’m partial to anything in the chocolate line. She’s friendly with my Mum, so she knows. The things I’m partial to I like very much, see?’

Anne giggled and agreed. She was enjoying Sid, although she was very worried and anxious. But Sid was so comical. He didn’t mean to be. He was just enjoying himself hugely, and he said so every other minute.

In fact, he was really a very nice guest to have. It wasn’t everybody who could welcome everything with so much gusto and say how wonderful it was half a dozen times on end.

He went out to the kitchen after supper and offered to wash up for Joan. ‘I always do it for Mum,’ he said. ‘I won’t break a thing.’ So he did the washing up and Anne did the drying. Julian thought it was a good thing to give her as much to do as possible, to stop her worrying.

Sid looked a bit taken–aback when he was asked to play games later on. ‘Well—I dunno,’ he said. ‘I’m not much good at games. I did try to learn draughts, but all that jumping over one another got me muddled. If I want to jump over things I’ll play leap–frog and do the thing properly.’

‘Well—we did think of playing Snap,’ said Julian, and Sid brightened up at once.

‘Snap! That’s right up my street!’ he said. And so it was. His habit of shouting snap and collecting all the cards at the same moment as his shout, led to his winning quite a lot of games. He was delighted.

‘This is a smasher of an evening,’ he kept saying. ‘Don’t know when I’ve enjoyed myself so much. Wonder how that brother of yours is getting on—hope he brings my bike back all right.’

‘Oh, he will,’ said Julian, dealing out the cards for the sixth game of Snap. They were all in the lighted sitting–room now, sitting round a table in the window—Julian, Joan, Anne and Sid. Anyone watching would see them clearly—and would certainly not guess that Sid, the fourth one, was the paper–boy and not Dick.

At eleven o’clock Julian left to put the parcel that Anne had carefully wrapped up under the stone at the bottom of the garden. She had found a big notebook she thought would do, one that didn’t seem at all important, and had wrapped it in paper and tied it with string. Julian had slipped a note inside.

He slipped down the garden and shone his torch on the crazy paving there. When he came to the last stone he found that it had been loosened. He lifted it up easily and put the parcel into a hollow that seemed to have been prepared ready for it. He took a cautious look round, wondering if Dick was hidden anywhere about, but could see no one.

He was back in the lighted sitting–room in under two minutes, yelling ‘Snap’ with the others. He played stupidly, partly because he wanted the delighted Sid to win and partly because he was wondering about Dick. Was he all right?

An outbreak of owls hooting loudly made them all jump. Julian glanced at Joan and Anne, and they nodded. They guessed that it was the signal to tell them that the parcel had been found and collected. Now they could get rid of Sid, and wait for Dick.

Joan disappeared and came back with cups of chocolate and some buns. Sid’s eyes gleamed. Talk about an evening!

Another hour was spent in eating and drinking and hearing Sid relate details of all the most exciting games of Snap he had ever played. He then went on to talk of Happy Families and seemed inclined to stay a bit longer and have a game at that.

‘Your Mum will be getting worried about you,’ said Julian, looking at the clock. ‘It’s very late.’

‘Where’s my bike?’ said Sid, realizing with sorrow that his ‘smasher of an evening’ was now over. ‘Hasn’t that brother of yours come back yet? Well, you tell him to leave it at my house in time for my paper–round tomorrow morning. And my cap, too. That’s my Special Cap, that is. I’m very partial to that cap—it’s a bit of a smasher.’

‘It certainly is,’ agreed Julian, who was now feeling very tired. ‘Now listen, Sid. It’s very late, and there may be bad folks about. If anyone speaks to you, run for your life, and don’t stop till you get home.’

‘Coo,’ said Sid, his eyes nearly falling out of his head. ‘Yes, I’ll run all right.’

He shook hands solemnly with each of them and departed. He whistled loudly to keep his spirits up. The village policeman came unexpectedly round a corner on rubber soles and made him jump.

‘Now then, young Sid,’ said the policeman, sternly. ‘What you doing out this time of night?’

Sid didn’t wait to answer. He fled and when he got home there was his bicycle by the front gate, complete with checked cap and paper–bag. ‘That was a bit of all right!’ thought Sid.

He glanced in disappointment at the dark windows of his house. Mum was in bed and asleep. Now he would have to wait till morning to tell her of his most remarkable evening.

And now, what had happened to Dick? He had shot out of the house and sailed away on Sid’s bicycle, with Sid’s dazzling cap on his head. He thought he saw a movement in the hedge nearby and guessed someone was hidden there, watching. He deliberately slowed down, got off his bicycle and pretended to do something to the wheel. Let the watcher see his bag of papers and be deceived into thinking he was without any doubt the paper–boy.

He rode to the farm and delivered the two papers there, then down to the village where he left Sid’s things outside his house. Then he went into the cinema for a long while—until it was dark and he could safely creep back to Kirrin Cottage.

He set off at last, going a very roundabout way indeed. He came to the back of Kirrin garden. Where should he hide? Was anyone already hidden there? If so, the game was up—and he’d be caught, too!