The Great Fire Dogs by Megan Rix

Author:Megan Rix
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141365329
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-06-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Saturday night and early Sunday morning

George started his search where Tiger Lily and Woofer had last been seen but once he came to London Bridge he had no idea which way they’d gone. Could Woofer have remembered the way to Gran’s house from the palace? She’d always been kind to the little dog when she’d been alive. Maybe, just maybe, he’d taken Tiger Lily there for safety.

It was worth a try.

‘Come on,’ he said to Teeth and Claws, and they ran after him as he raced down the streets towards Gran’s house.

George swallowed hard as he went up Fish Street Hill followed by the dogs. Claws gulped down a tasty fishtail he found lying on the ground. Teeth swallowed a discarded fish head.

‘Oysters, fresh oysters.’

‘Trout to buy, trout to buy …’

Teeth and Claws looked over at the fish sellers as they called out their wares but George barely heard their cries. All he could think about was finding Woofer and Tiger Lily.

‘This way,’ he said to the dogs as he turned into Black Raven Alley.

Teeth and Claws looked up at the raggedy cat on the roof and her tail twitched as she stared back at them.

George was now in front of Gran’s door and he steeled himself to open it and go back inside. But before he could lift the latch her neighbour’s door opened.

‘Come to see what the old lady left?’ Jed asked him.

George had met Jed a couple of times before but he’d never been very keen on the man.

Jed looked at Teeth and Claws but they didn’t go up to him for a stroke and kept close to George.

‘Have you seen two dogs in the alley?’ George asked. ‘One is a terrier and the other a spaniel.’ He didn’t trust Gran’s neighbour enough to tell him that Tiger Lily was the king’s dog.

‘What if I have?’ Jed said.

‘Have you?’ George asked, his heart lifting.

‘Depends. What’d there be in it for me?’

Now George was stumped. He didn’t have anything to give the man. All he had in his pocket was Woofer and Tiger Lily’s rope toy.

‘Nothing.’

‘Well then I’ve seen nothing.’

But George knew that he had seen something by the way he spoke. He thought quickly as Jed started to close the door.

‘You’d have the palace’s gratitude.’

Jed stopped closing the door. ‘How much gratitude?’

George didn’t know and he couldn’t keep on lying so he said, ‘The king would be very grateful.’

‘Well then – two dogs were here. One of them a spaniel, the other a lot like those two you have there. Short-legged and long-bodied. You make sure you tell the king I helped you and would like to see some gratitude in my hand.’

‘Where are they now?’ George asked.

‘Ran off,’ Jed told him, and he pointed in the direction Tiger Lily and Woofer had gone, back towards London Bridge where George had just come from.

‘Thank you,’ George said as he hurried out of the alley and back along Fish Street Hill and down Thames Street with Teeth and Claws at his heels.

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