The Adventures of Tintin Read Online Free PDF Page B

you want?” Tintin asked.
    “Look, the game is up!” Barnaby said. “He’s gonna be back!”
    Tintin was about to ask who “he” was, but Barnaby kept talking, his tone urgent even though he was making an effort to keep his voice down. “Now, I knew he wanted those boats, but I swear to God I never thought he’d kill anyone over it.”
    “Kill? Who?” Tintin asked. “Who are you talking about?”
    “I’m trying to tell you that your life is in danger!” Barnaby said. He looked back toward the street as Tintin came closer to the door.
    “Answer me!” Tintin said. “Who—?”
    Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three gunshots sounded from the street and three holes punched through the door as Tintin threw himself to the floor and Snowy jumped halfway up the stairs in a single bound. The last bullet split the chain, and the door opened as Barnaby fell in, the front of his shirt already red with blood. His hat fell off, and Tintin picked it up.
    “Mrs. Finch!” Tintin shouted. “A man’s been shot on our doorstep!”
    “Not again . . .” Mrs. Finch complained. She went on, but Tintin had no time to listen. If someone had been shot on the doorstep before, it had happened before he lived there.
    “Call an ambulance!” he cried. He ran into the street and saw a blue car pulling away. Snowy charged past him and ran after the car. “No, Snowy!” Tintin commanded. Snowy stopped on the sidewalk and barked furiously.
    Tintin couldn’t chase the car on foot, and he had not gotten a look at its license plate. He ran back to Barnaby, who was slipping into unconsciousness. “Barnaby!” Tintin said, kneeling next to him. Barnaby clutched a newspaper. He was poking at it with one finger, but he slowly let it go as Tintin approached. “Can you hear me? Can you—”
    He saw the newspaper as it fell to the stoop, and his eyes widened. A siren sounded in the distance, growing closer. Mrs. Finch had called the ambulance. The police would arrive soon as well. But at that moment, Tintin’s eyes were glued to the newspaper. He picked it up carefully and started thinking about what to do when the police arrived.
    Beside him, Barnaby moaned. His eyes fluttered, and he said something that sounded like “Boo.”
    “Steady on, Barnaby,” Tintin said. “You’re going to be fine.”
    Snowy whined and barked. The sirens drew closer. Mrs. Finch poked her head out the door. “A man shot on the doorstep,” she said disapprovingly. “That’s not the kind of house I want to run, Mr. Tintin.”
    “I understand, Mrs. Finch,” Tintin said. “I can see to things from here. You don’t want your cocoa getting cold.”
    She left him alone with the babbling Barnaby, who was waving his arms trying to stop Snowy from licking his face. “I guess you’re going to be all right, Barnaby,” Tintin said, “if you’ve got enough strength to worry about Snowy here. Easy, Snowy.”
    “Boo,” Barnaby said, and passed out.

    Bright and early the next morning, Tintin was talking to the police. The local police had come and gone, yielding the investigation to Interpol detectives Thompson and Thomson, who knew Tintin from a number of previous adventures. At first they had been suspicious of Tintin because he always seemed to turn up when unusual crimes were being committed and strange adventures were afoot. Over time, however, they had come to trust him and now they were his staunch allies.
    At the moment, Thompson and Thomson were looking around at the mess in Tintin’s apartment. He had stayed up half the night trying to put things in order, but it was a big job and he wasn’t done yet. “The victim’s name was Barnaby Dawes,” Thomson said. It was difficult to tell the two men apart, but Tintin knew he was Thomson because his mustache curled outward at the tips, unlike Thompson’s, which was straight.
    “He was one of the top agents with Interpol,” Thompson added. “But we don’t have a clue what he was working on.”
    “Quite right,”