The Little Tales of Smethers by Lord Dunsany

Author:Lord Dunsany
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1952-10-14T14:00:00+00:00

That’s how I felt that morning, and all that day; and the next day, and the day after. I knew something was after me. I told Bob that morning that the fat man had found out where I lived.

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Bob. “He’s got to prove it.”

“He’s got that boy as a witness,” I said, “and probably lots of others.”

“Not he,” said Bob very airily.

But I don’t know how he felt.

“Anyway, I’ll never go there again,” I said. “So, if by any lucky chance he hasn’t got any absolute proof yet, he’ll never get any more.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Bob.

And an awful fear came all over me that Bob would make me go back. Because, if we ever went there again, we hadn’t a chance. I could see that. And Bob isn’t the kind of chap you can disobey, when he says a thing.

Well, the days went on going by, and I was afraid of my own shadow. And they noticed that there was something wrong, at home. But I said it was some work that was worrying me, some lines that I had to learn, and that I couldn’t remember. And my father said, “That’s right. Keep at it.” And my mother said I’d remember them all right. And neither knew the awful thing that was threatening Bob and I. And they tell us at our school that that isn’t grammar. But I can tell you I had much too much to think about, that week, to have any time to bother about grammar, even if it was worth bothering about. And of course they didn’t know about us being pirates. Well, Saturday came at last, and Bob called me over to him that morning. I think he must have seen something too, for he said, “You may be right about those sleuths. It may be a coincidence about the fat man passing your house; but I don’t believe much in coincidences, and we may be up against it.”

“Then you’ll never go back to the main,” I said, as we all called the Round Pond now.

But Bob was silent. I didn’t know what he was going to do, and he wouldn’t say.

And that afternoon he said to me, “We’re going back to the main.”

“We’ll all be hanged,” I said.

“Oh, no we shan’t,” said Bob.

“Prison, then,” I said, “anyway.”

“No,” he said. “You may be right about them suspecting us, but what I’m going to do is to go back there with my ship, and no torpedo-tubes on her. And we’ll sail her right across. Then, if they suspect our ship of being a pirate, they’ll seize her and see their suspicions are groundless. How can they charge us with sinking ships with torpedoes, when ours is quite unarmed?”

It seemed a good idea, and I felt much better; for I feared that Bob would take me and Algernon to the main and sink another ship, and we’d all go to prison that Sunday.

“And we’ll bring the luncheon-basket too,” says Bob.

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