Borribles Go For Broke, The Read Online Free PDF

said. ‘Come in my room ’ere, and have a cuppa, bring that friend of yours too, if he is a friend.’
    In his room Vulge sat everyone down and brought out a teapot and a packet of tea. Then he switched on an electric kettle. ‘I always keep it full,’ he explained, ‘I drinks a lot of tea.’
    Chalotte looked round the room. It was like most other Borrible rooms she’d seen, including her own. The window was covered with an old blanket, there was one bare electric light bulb, a mattress, a few orange boxes for cupboards and a couple of small barrels, upended, to sit on.
    Vulge squatted by the kettle and waited for it to boil.
    ‘This is Twilight,’ said Sydney.
    ‘A good name,’ said Vulge.
    ‘If it hadn’t been for Twilight,’ explained Chalotte, ‘I’d ’ave been clipped by now.’ She told the story of her rescue and Sydney’s arrival.
    Vulge squinted at the Bangladeshi. ‘Anyone who saves a friend of mine is a friend of mine,’ he said. Then the kettle boiled and he made the tea, pouring it, when ready, into four jam jars, stirring in the sugar with a knife. He limped across the room to distribute them.
    ‘How’s the leg?’ asked Chalotte.
    ‘Better than nothing,’ said Vulge, and he touched the old wound and grinned. ‘I don’t have too much trouble getting about. I can still run though I looks like a three-legged dog when I do. Still, I stays out of bother. I don’t want no more adventures, that Rumble hunt was enough.’ Vulge suddenly screwed up his face and a look of suspicion came into his eyes. ‘You’re a long way from home, Sydney, what you up to?’
    ‘Tell him,’ said Chalotte.
    Sydney took the scrap of paper from her pocket and handed it to Vulge. ‘What do you think of that?’ she asked.
    Vulge read the message aloud. ‘“Sam is still alive. Last seen in Fulham. Needs help. Signed, A Borrible.”’ He handed the paper back and was silent for a moment or two. His face darkened. ‘It could be a trap,’ he said at last.
    ‘A trap!’ said Sydney.
    Vulge took a slurp from his jam jar. ‘Have you heard of the SBG yet,’ he said, ‘and Inspector Sussworth?’
    Chalotte nodded. ‘The Woollie who caught me yesterday said something about him. They’re trying to catch all of us.’
    ‘They always are,’ said Twilight.
    ‘Yes,’ said Vulge, ‘but this is different. The law got very upset when they found Dewdrop and Erbie, especially when they found ’em dead. They got this Sussworth to form the Special Borrible Group, mainly to find out who killed Dewdrop but also to catch as many Borribles as they could, clip their ears and turn them back into normal kids. They know all about us, got a book of our proverbs, captured a few Borribles and made them talk. They drive about London all the time, day and night, in blue Transit vans with dark windows. If they see a catapult or a woollen hat or a kid near a house like this one, they’re out of their van in a second and it’s down the nick and never seen again.’
    ‘We know all that,’ said Sydney. ‘What’s that got to do with this note?’
    ‘Like so,’ said Vulge. ‘If this Sussworth knows about Dewdrop and Erbie then the chances are he knows about the battle of Rumbledom. He might even know that Sam helped us, so all he has to
do is drop a few notes like this one about and, if he knows how Borrible messages are passed from hand to hand, then he knows a message like this stands a fair chance of getting to someone who’d actually been on the Rumble hunt. Now if that person were daft enough to go looking for Sam in Fulham, and if Sussworth caught that person, then the SBG would be pretty sure they’d caught someone who’d had something to do with the Southfields murders, wouldn’t they?’ And Vulge leant back, wagged his head and supped his tea with the air of a Borrible who could read the mind of a policeman from a distance of half a hemisphere.
    Sydney’s face creased with disappointment and Chalotte felt sad