Jim Morgan and the King of Thieves by James Matlack Raney

Author:James Matlack Raney [Raney, James Matlack]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dreamfarer
Published: 2012-09-27T17:00:00+00:00

TWENTY–ONE

hen Jim and Lacey finally crawled through the hole and into the cellar, they found the forlorn Brothers Ratt huddled around the makeshift stove, faces buried in their hands. Jim and Lacey plopped down beside them in the fire’s warmth, but for the longest time none of the children said anything at all, until George finally spoke, almost too quietly to hear.

“What did you say, George?” Lacey asked.

“He lied to us,” George whispered a bit louder. Even in the flickering light of the coal Jim saw his friend’s chin quiver, his voice thick and trembling. “He lied to us.” After that, George would speak no more about that or anything else. Of course Paul and Peter, being as loyal to George as best brothers always should be, followed suit, and the Brothers Ratt sat the whole night by the stove saying hardly a word to anyone at all.

When Jim awoke the next morning, he hoped that perhaps a good night’s sleep had cured his friends of their disappointment and that all would return to normal, but this was not to be. The night before had been London’s coldest in recent memory, the snow having fallen through the night into the morning. The burlap bags the Ratts used as beds were about as soft as rocks when it was icy outside, and being half-frozen to death in the morning was enough to put anyone in a horrible mood, which is exactly what it did to the Ratts.

Instead of quietly moping about, they immediately set in on one another over the most trivial matters.

“That’s my hat, Paul!”

“George, quit hogging all the space by the stove!”

“Peter, did you just blow your nose into this rag? Because that’s my shirt, you git!”

Jim mostly kept quiet during these arguments, because they weren’t the same lighthearted fare he had come to expect from the brothers. When they shouted at one another, they meant it, and when they fell to blows, they hit hard as they could. Jim wasn’t sure why, but it made his stomach churn and tighten up in little knots to watch them behave this way. Lacey, of course, tried to help, but Jim thought she only made things worse.

“Boys, boys, stop this nonsense this instant! What’s come over you, really?” Lacey said late in the afternoon after the Ratts’ latest row.

“Oh, yes mother, we’ll just pretend there ain’t a problem in the world,” George said, a nasty pout on his face. “What would you have us do next? Bath time? That would be perfect ‘cause then I could freeze my ears shut so I could go five seconds without hearin’ your nagging voice!”

Lacey shut her mouth, only a slight whisper of a breath escaping her lips. Jim knew immediately from the surprised look in his eyes that George wished he could take those cruel words back. But he was so inexplicably miserable that he refused to apologize. Then Jim saw something he never expected to see in a hundred years. Lacey, the toughest girl he’d ever met, began to cry.

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