Anna, Where Are You? - Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver 20 by Anna Where Are You-3S(v1)(html)

Author:Anna, Where Are You-3S(v1)(html) [Anna, Where Are You-3S(v1)(html)]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER XXII

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The papers carried heavy headlines next day--Another Bank Robbery--Double Murder At Ledlington. Miss Silver came down to find Mrs. Craddock trying to stop the children talking about it. She was not having any great success, and at Miss Silver's appearance Maurice rushed at her, waving a newspaper and demanding in his loudest voice,

"Did you hear the shooting? Your bus must have got in just about the right time! The bank manager was shot, and one of his clerks! Were you near the bank? Did you hear anything? I wish I had! I wish I'd gone into Ledlington with you, because if I had I was going to buy marbles, and the marbles shop is right opposite the bank, so I should have heard the shooting and I might have seen the man who did it! This paper calls him the Bandaged Bandit! He had his head all done up in bandages!"

"My dear Maurice!"

"He did! All over his head so you couldn't see what he was like! I call that a wizard idea--don't you? Miss Silver, if I'd seen him I'd have had to try and stop him, wouldn't I? I could have kicked him on the shins, couldn't I, and dodged behind the car if he tried to shoot?"

"I would have kicked him too!" said Benjy at his shrillest. "I would have kicked him like this!" He aimed a violent kick at the table leg, hurt his foot, and started to roar.

Maurice went on without taking breath.

"There was a car with a girl in it! Beautiful Blonde is what they call her! She drove him away! Beautiful Blonde and Bandaged Bandit--that's what it says! And they got right away! But the police have got a Clue! Look--it's all here!"

Miss Silver removed the newspaper from his grasp and turned a critical eye upon his nails.

"My dear Maurice, what have you been doing to get so dirty before breakfast? Please go and wash. No, Benjy, it wasn't the table's fault, it was yours. You kicked it--it didn't kick you."

The tears stopped rolling down Benjy's scarlet face. His chin quivered and he began to laugh.

"Wouldn't it be funny if it had kicked me! Wouldn't it be funny if all the tables and chairs began to fight and kick! Wouldn't it be funny if that big old chair was to get up and kick Mrs. Masters!"

Jennifer had not spoken. She had her shut-in look. Now she pounced on Benjy and shook him.

"It wouldn't be funny at all--it would be horrible!"

Mrs. Craddock said in a distressed voice, "Children--children--please--"

And then the door opened and Peveril Craddock came in.

A sudden silence fell. Maurice stopped half way through a sentence, and Benjy in the middle of a roar. Jennifer let go of him and backed away until she came to her place at the table. When she reached it she pulled the chair out with a jerk and sat down. The boys scrambled for their places and began to eat the porridge which had been cooling.

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