William The Outlaw Read Online Free Page B

commented Douglas patronisingly, ‘faster’n what you’d think to look at her.’
    ‘What’ll we do now? said Henry.
    Dusk was falling, and ahead of them loomed the evil hour of bedtime which they were ever ready to postpone.
    ‘I tell you what,’ said William, his freckled face suddenly alight, ‘let’s go ’n see how he’s gettin’ on – you know, him what we saw
ridin’ up in the cab. We c’n go an’ watch him through his window. It’s quite dark.’
    They watched him in petrified amazement. They watched him as, dressed in a black dressing-gown and a black skull-cap, he pottered about, laying out test tubes and pestles and
mortars and crucibles and curious-looking instruments and bottles of strangely coloured liquids. Eyes and mouths opened still further when little Mr Galileo Simpkins brought in his skeleton and set
it up with tender care and pride in its corner.
    They crept away through the darkness in a stricken silence and did not speak till they reached the road. Then: ‘ Crumbs! ’ said William, in a hoarse whisper. ‘What is he? What’s he doin ’?’
    ‘I think he’s a sort of Bolsh’vist goin’ to blow up all the world,’ said Douglas with a burst of inspiration.
    ‘An’ a dead body an’ all,’ said Ginger, deeply awed by the memory of what they had seen.
    ‘P’rhaps he’s just doin’ ordinary chemistry,’ suggested Henry mildly.
    This suggestion was indignantly scouted by the Outlaws.
    ‘’ Course it’s not jus’ ordin’ry chemistry,’ said William, ‘not with all that set-out.’
    ‘Dead bodies an’ all,’ murmured Ginger again in a sepulchral voice.
    ‘An’ dressed all funny,’ said William, ‘an’ queer sorts of things all over the place. ’Sides, what’d he be doin’ ordin’ry chemistry for , anyway? He’s too old to be goin’ in for exams.’
    This was felt to be unanswerable.
    ‘What I think is—’ began William, but he never got as far as what he thought.
    A plaintive voice came through the dusk – the voice of William’s sister Ethel.
    ‘William! Mother says it’s long past your bedtime and will you come in and she says—’
    The Outlaws crept off through the dusk.
    The next day Joan came back from a visit to an aunt.
    Joan was the only female member of the Outlaws. Though she did not accompany them on their more dangerous and manly exploits she was their unfailing confidante and sympathiser and could be
always counted on to side with them against a hostile and unsympathetic world. She was small and dark and very pretty and she considered William the greatest hero the world has ever known.
    She joined them the first morning of her return and they told her without any undue modesty of their exploits during her absence – of their heroic flights from irate farmers, of their
miraculous creation of motor boats and aeroplanes (they omitted any reference to the over-officious law of gravity), of their glorious culinary operations (they omitted the sequel), their Herculean
contest with the wasps, their tightrope walking performance, their (partial) mastery over the brute creation as represented by Etheldrida, their glorious feats of stone throwing and arrow
shooting.
    ‘An’ no one what’s run after us has caught us – not once,’ ended William proudly and added, ‘I bet we c’n run faster’n anyone else in the
world.’
    Joan smiled upon him fondly. She firmly believed that William could do anything in the world better than any one else in it.
    ‘And what are you going to do today?’ she said with interest.
    That , the expressions of the Outlaws gave her to understand, was the question. The Outlaws had no idea what they were going to do today. They were obviously ready for any suggestion from
the gentleman who, moralists inform us, specialises in providing occupation for the unoccupied.
    ‘Let’s make another motor boat,’ said Henry feebly, but his suggestion was treated with well-deserved contempt. The Outlaws were not in