Catscape Read Online Free Page A

and with a wellpractised twirl of the teaspoon, Murdo transferred a big glob of syrup from the tin to trickle on to his piece of sponge.
    Fergus found himself staring at the tin or, to be more precise, at the lid, which was now upside down on the table with the teaspoon beside it. A lever and a lid — it was so easy. He looked up at Murdo who was halfway through his pudding already.
    “I’ve got the answer to your question,” said Fergus.
    “What question?” said Murdo through a mouthful of syrupysponge.
    “You asked if I had any ideas,” said Fergus putting the lid back on the tin and then prising it off again with the end of the spoon. He tapped his DataBoy to show Murdo that the mystery of the manhole cover and the watches might be solved with some simple levering. Murdo’s eyes widened and he nodded quickly. Furiously spooning sponge pudding into his mouth he spoke through sticky teeth. “Eat up, we’ve got some calculations to do.”

3. Under Cover
    After just a few hours Fergus was getting the hang of the way that Murdo Fraser worked. It reminded him of last year’s Guy Fawkes Night. Fergus had looked at the fireworks at a neighbour’s bonfire party, and remembered liking the instructions — “light blue touch-paper and stand well back.” This seemed to be a similar instruction to give to anyone who was going to spend some time with Murdo. To activate him, you just had to put a small idea in his head and then get out of the way as he exploded into action, usually in different directions at the same time. Fergus concluded that “standing well back” might not be enough in Murdo’s case. The warning should probably read “dive for cover.” The mere suggestion of prising open the manhole cover had sent Murdo into a frenzy in the Incident Room. The problem with the Incident Room was that it wasn’t big enough for frenzies, or for anyone to “stand well back” in. To complicate matters, Jock got involved in Murdo’s bouts of activity, scrambling around under his feet and barking in what he thought was a helpful fashion.
    Murdo began by wanting to estimate the size and weight of the manhole cover. Fergus was prepared to take an educated guess, but that was not enough for Murdo. The process for him involved drawings, a measuring tape, a calculator, a set of kitchen scales, a number of heavy books and the lid of a casserole dish. Fergus didn’t think that Mrs. Fraser would have been too impressed with her kitchen equipment being used as a pretend manhole cover. If you added the fact that the boys were planning to have a look under the pavement of Comely Bank Avenue at night when they were supposed to be asleep, Fergus felt sure that Mr. Fraser would close the Incident Room downand sell it off in a flash.
     
    Fortunately, Mrs. Fraser remained oblivious to the boys’ activities and despite his complicated calculations Murdo reached the conclusion that the manhole cover was “probably quite heavy.”
    “Very useful, but what could we actually use to lift it up?” asked Fergus. With that Murdo was off again as Fergus continued to be an amused spectator. First there was a fruitless search in the garden shed before they moved on to the garage where Murdo’s dad had a workbench, with a variety of tools.
    “I’m not supposed to fiddle about with this stuff,” said Murdo beginning to fiddle about with the stuff. After weighing up various hammers, the largest screwdriver Fergus had ever seen, and drill bits of every length and thickness, Murdo went headfirst into a cupboard and began rummaging around with only his bottom and pudgy legs on show. A few minutes later there was a muffled, but enormous “Ah-ha!”
    He emerged red-faced, sweating and triumphantly clutching a crowbar. “This is what we’re after,” said Murdo. “I’ve never seen Dad use this so there’s no way he’ll miss it for a night.”
    Fergus and Murdo replaced all the other tools to cover their tracks and returned to the