Rotten Luck! Read Online Free PDF Page B

cwiminal!” said the sheriff. He puffed up his chest and paused for dramatic effect. “He is the Ghost of Gwimwood!”
    The stunned crowd stared at my master. The sheriff chuckled smugly and twiddled his moustache. And thensomeone broke the silence.
    “Hooray for the Ghost! ’E’s the friend of the poor!”
    Then the whole crowd erupted.
    “Good old Sir Percy!”
    “We love you, Sir Percy!”
    “Our hero!”
    “SILENCE!” shrieked the sheriff. “Any more cheewing and I’ll put your taxes up!”
    “The king won’t let you!” called a voice at the back of the crowd. Everyone looked to see who had spoken. Standing on a cart was a short peasant. He was wearing a hood pulled down over his eyes so I couldn’t see his face, but I was sure there was something familiar about his voice.
    “Insolent peasant!” the sheriff bawled. “Guards, awwest that man!”
    Quick as a flash, the peasant jumped down from the cart and disappeared into the crowd.
    “I am sure the king will let me do whatever I please when he knows I’ve caught the Ghost!” the sheriff went on. “He’ll be so thwilled he’ll offer me anything I want as a weward. And do you know what I’ll ask for? A nice little bunch of executions . Starting with the Ghost and his gang! Heh, heh, heh!” he laughed madly. “Lurk, fetch His Majesty at once!”
    “’E ain’t ’ere, mister,” said the girl with the apples. “’E’s gone out huntin’ again!”
    “Too bad,” said the sheriff, though he didn’t look unhappy. “I’ll have to have the executions without him. But while we get evewything weady I know exactly what to do with the pwisoners. Lurk, lock them in the stocks!”
    Without further ado we were marched to the side of the square where the town stocks stood. Nothing unusual about that – every town has a set or two for folks who get into trouble with the law. But Fleecingham had about ten sets. And most of them looked new.
    The sheriff’s men untied us, and then Lurk clapped us in the stocks one by one.
    “Why so many stocks?” I asked when itwas my turn.
    “Sheriff’s orders,” grunted Lurk, unlocking a padlock with one of a large bunch of keys at his waist. “He likes to make an example of them that won’t pay their taxes. Now stick yer head and hands in there.”
    He clapped the stocks over my neck and wrists, padlocked it shut and moved on to Lanky Jack.
    “The last sheriff never shut anyone in the stocks,” said Maud, once Lurk had finished. “He said it was humiliating. Good man, Sir Edward was.”
    “Really?” I said, surprised. “I thought he was a traitor?”
    “No!” said Maud. “Sir Edward was one of the king’s most loyal knights!”
    “But what about the letter that showed he was plotting to overthrow the king?” I said.
    “Probably a forgery,” said Jack.
    I was still puzzled.
    “But if Sir Edward was such a good bloke, who would do such a mean thing?”
    “We has our suspicions,” said Jack. “Sir Edward’s deputy was an earl. That’s even posher than a knight. We reckon he were jealous and wanted Sir Edward’s job for himself.”
    “We reckon the deputy forged the letter,” said Maud. “We can’t prove itbut it certainly worked. Once Sir Edward had fled, the deputy got his job.”
    I gasped. “So Sir Edward’s deputy was the sheriff!”
    “That’s right,” said Jack. “Earl Crawleigh de Creepes himself.”
    Just then, the sheriff stepped forward to address the crowd. While Lurk had been locking us up, the sheriff had been ordering his men about. A couple of them had scuttled off into the market and now returned with bowls of eggs and several baskets of rotten vegetables.
    “People of Fleecingham, feel fwee to hurl as many mouldy cabbages and wotten eggs as you like at the pwisoners!In the meantime I’ve got to sort out a little bit of chopping , heh, heh!”
    With a mad cackle the sheriff stomped off into the castle, leaving Lurk and a few guards to keep an eye on us.
    I watched