Still William Read Online Free PDF Page A

seen—’
    Miss Milton gave a still more piercing scream.
    ‘Slanderers,’ she shrieked, ‘vampires . . . ’
    She advanced upon them quivering with rage.
    ‘I’m so sorry,’ gasped Mrs Brown retreating precipitately. ‘Quite a mistake . . . a misunderstanding . . .’
    ‘Liars . . . hypocrites . . . snakes in the grass!’ screamed Miss Milton, still advancing.
    Mrs Brown and Henri’s godmother fled trembling to the road. Miss Milton’s screams still rent the air. There, two curious sights met their eyes. The General and Mr Graham Graham were
making their exits from the two end houses in unconventional fashion. Mr Graham Graham fell down the steps and rolled down the garden path to the road. An infuriated Mr Buck watched his
departure.
    ‘I’ll teach you to come and insult respectable people,’ shouted Mr Buck. ‘Drunkard indeed! And I’ve been Secretary of the Temperance Society for forty years.
You’re drunk, let me tell you—’
    Mr Graham Graham, still sitting in the road, put on his hat.
    ‘I’m not drunk,’ he said with dignity.
    ‘I’ll have the law on you,’ shouted Mr Buck. ‘It’s libel, that’s what it is—’
    Mr Graham Graham gathered his collar ends and tried to find his stud.
    ‘I merely repeat what I’ve heard,’ he said.
    Mr Buck slammed the door and Mr Graham Graham staggered to his feet.
    Then he stood open-mouthed, his eyes fixed on the other end house. The stout figure of the General could be seen emerging from a small first-floor window and making a slow and ungraceful descent
down a drainpipe. It was noticed that he had no hat and that his knees were very dusty. Once on the ground he ran wildly across the garden into the road, almost charging the little group who were
watching him. With pale, horror-struck faces the four of them gazed at each other.
    ‘Henri told me—’ all four began simultaneously, then stopped.
    ‘D-do come and have some tea,’ said Mrs Brown hysterically.
    William was leading his Outlaws quietly round from the front gate to the back of the house, passing the drawing-room window on tiptoe. Suddenly William stopped dead, gazing
with interest into the drawing-room. The expected tea party was not there. Only Henri, still eating sugar cakes, was there. William put his head through the open window.
    ‘I say,’ he said in a hoarse whisper, ‘they been an’ gone?’
    ‘Oh, yes,’ smiled Henri, ‘they been an’ gone – righto.’
    ‘Come on!’ said William to his followers.
    They crept into the hall and then guiltily into the drawing-room. William looked at the plates of dainty food with widening eyes.
    ‘Shu’ly,’ he remarked plaintively, ‘ ’f they’ve been an’ gone they can’t mind us jus’ finishin’ up what they’ve left. Shu’ly .’
    William made this statement less at the dictates of truth than at the dictates of an empty stomach.
    ‘Jus’ – jus’ look out of the window, Ongry,’ he said, ‘an’ tell us if anyone comes.’
    Henri obligingly took up his position at the window and the Outlaws gave themselves up wholeheartedly to the task of ‘finishing up’.
    They finished up the buttered scones and they finished up the bread and butter and they finished up the sandwiches and they finished up the biscuits and they finished up the small cakes and they
finished up the two large cakes.
    ‘I’m jus’ a bit tired of this ole Jasmine Villas game,’ said William, his mouth full of sugar cake. ‘I votes we go back to Pirates an’ Red Injuns
tomorrow.’
    The Outlaws, who were still busy, agreed with grunts.
    ‘I think—’ began Douglas, but just then Henri at the window ejaculated shrilly, ‘Oh, ze ’oly aunt.’
    The Outlaws hastily joined him. Four people were coming down the road. The General – could it be the General (the drain pipe had been very dirty)? – Mr Graham Graham, his
collar open, his tie awry, Henri’s godmother with her hat on one side, and Mrs Brown, her usual look of placid