Shrinking Ralph Perfect Read Online Free

found,’ Kyle shouted, flagging a windscreen wiper above his head. He whipped it down on the bonnet of the van. Two wood pigeons fled up Midfield Crescent, clapping their wings as if applauding the shot.
    Jack Bilt drew back the cuff of his jacket. On his arm was the strangest-looking gadget that Ralph had ever seen. It had a wrist band, like a watch, but in place ofthe watch face was some kind of keypad and what appeared to be two diamond-shaped control knobs, flickering red and green beside a silver dial.
    ‘Go,’ said Jack. He twisted one diamond. Knocker sped across the road like a furry bullet.
    Ralph had never seen a movement like it. There was something very odd about the way the dog ran, something unbalanced. And the noise it made: knockity, knockity, knockity, knock.
    Dazza was the first to spot the disability. ‘What’s this?’ he howled, doubling up in laughter as Knocker skidded to a kerb-side stop. ‘Izzat the best you can do ? A miniature mutt with a WOODEN LEG?’
    Knocker barked and barked. But it didn’t seem to Ralph that he was barking at the gang. The dog’s nose was almost touching the pavement. A few bright rays of sparkling light seemed to spill from the bleeper on his collar. Then something amazing happened: all the Salter gang started to yelp.
    ‘Ow!’ cried Luke. ‘Something’s bit me foot!’
    ‘What?’ said Dazza. Then he was scrabbling off his bike, screaming that he’d had an electric shock. Jemima said her heels were on fire. Callum, on his knees, clutching at his ankle, said the wooden-legged dog must have acid in its spit.
    Kyle Salter called them ‘ninnies’. He raced towards Knocker with his best boot forward. He was going to have to sort it, as usual, he said. Where dogs and Kyle Salter were concerned, ‘sorting’ equalled a good hard kicking. Ralph closed his eyes as the bully closed in. Knocker barked once. Kyle swung his foot and…
    How he got into the hedge of Number 22, nobody could say. One second he was taking aim on the pavement, about to tuck Knocker into the corner of an imaginary goal, next he was looping back through the air. Double pike with twist. Up. Back. Hedge. Crunch.
    ‘Oh my goodness,’ cried Annie, throwing her hands to her face in horror.
    ‘Is it dead?’ asked Ralph, opening one eye. To his utter amazement he saw Knocker sitting calmly on the pavement. But where was Kyle?
    ‘W-why did that boy dive into that hedge?’ Annie twittered.
    ‘Most odd,’ said Jack, lowering the cuff of his jacket again.
    ‘Dive?’ said Ralph. ‘No one dives into a hedge. ’ But apparently they did. He rubbed his eyes twice to make absolutely sure. Kyle Salter was in a hedge – upsidedown with his head and chest buried and his legs sticking out like a TV aerial. Ralph winced as the members of the Salter gang struggled to drag their leader out. Kyle emerged, looking as if he’d been – well, pulled out of a hedge, backwards. His arms and face were badly scratched. His T-shirt hung in strips from his shoulders. Not surprisingly, he was a little dazed.
    ‘What ’appened?’ he groaned. He spat a laurel leaf into the air.
    ‘Dunno,’ said Luke.
    ‘It wuz the dog,’ said Jem.
    ‘It’s a devil dog,’ said Callum. ‘I’m getting out of it.’
    Knocker bared his teeth at the Salter gang and growled. They backed away like puzzled sheep. Devil dog, someone whispered as they left. Knocker reached back and licked his wooden leg.
    ‘Wow…’ breathed Ralph.
    Jack drew in his lips and gave a ‘here boy’ whistle. Knocker advanced to the kerb, looked right then left, and knocked sedately back across the road.
    ‘Well,’ gasped Annie. She was stunned but uplifted. (Ralph was just stunned.) ‘Your little chap certainly showed them a thing or two. But whatever happened to his poor back leg?’
    Jack wiggled his tie. ‘Dreadful business. Industrialaccident. Let’s just say the erm…digit is still in the erm…body of the machine.’
    ‘Oh,’ squeaked