William and the Witch (Just William, Book 34) by Richmal Crompton

Author:Richmal Crompton [Crompton, Richmal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Published: 2018-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

Gently he took the St Louis paper-weight with green carpet ground (value £195) from her hand and put a shilling into it.

“Crikey!” said Arabella, hastily pocketing the coin. Then, afraid that her tone had betrayed her pleasure, added, “About time I got me rights, too!”

The other patrons crowded round, handing in their paper-weights, demanding their shillings in return, then scampering off to the roundabout, the swings, the Hidden Treasure, the Lucky Spin, the Aunt Sally . . .

William had till now watched proceedings in silent amazement, but gradually amazement was giving way to resentment.

“Here! what about me?” he burst out indignantly. “What about my hoop-la prizes? Every single time I put ’em out someone comes an’ pinches them. That ole Sir Julius sayin’ it was his stuff an’ I bet it wasn’t. An’ he’s goin’ to see our fathers about it an’ I bet they’ll believe him an’ not us.”

“I think you need have no apprehensions on that score,” said Inspector Durrant when he had heard William’s story. “I think you’ll find that Sir Julius will be only too willing to overlook any slight inconvenience you may have caused him.”

“Yes, but—” began William, then stopped.

Inspector Durrant and P.C. Higgs were already on their way to the police station.

But someone else was coming through the crowd.

It was Jameson Jameson.

He carried a brown suitcase.

Throwing a frowning glance at the empty hoop-la stall, he passed on to the hedge, addressing Archie over the top of it.

“I’ve come,” he said.

Archie raised a weary, bran-disfigured face and gave a start of surprise.

“I thought you were there all the time,” he said.

“Of course I wasn’t,” said Jameson curtly. “Surely you got my message. Why on earth didn’t you bring the prizes with you?”

“Didn’t I?” said Archie vaguely.

“No. I called at your cottage to see if there was any message and I found the case of prizes on your kitchen table.”

“Oh,” said Archie. He gave the subject a moment’s thought and added, “I suppose I must have left it there.”

“I see no other explanation,” said Jameson. “Well, I’ll get going.”

He returned to the hoopla stall. It was empty and unattended. After one glance at Jameson’s stern resolute face the Outlaws had decided to make their way as quickly as possible to the woods for the long postponed game of Cowboys and Indians.

The fête was over. The peace of evening had descended on the scene, showing the trampled grass and litter—ice-cream cartons, paper wrappings, banana skins and orange peel. Stall-holders were packing up the left-overs from their stalls. Workmen were dismantling roundabouts and swings.

Lady Forrester had managed to reach home in time for Ricky the Reckless. She had been persuaded with difficulty to stay to present the Vegetable Cup and even then her thoughts were so firmly fixed on Ricky that in place of the silver cup she had absently presented Lieutenant-Colonel Pomeroy with the half-eaten ice-cream cornet that Angelique had carelessly laid on the table in front of her. The mistake had been quickly rectified and now

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