The Fangs of the Dragon Read Online Free PDF

a range of about three miles, at most.
How about the bus? Or a taxi?’
    ‘Too slow,’ I said. ‘We need to get there now !’
    Charlie slid to the shed floor with a bump. ‘That’s it, then,’ he said mournfully. ‘It’s gone. Rippa’s won.’
    Ed let out a yelp of anger and panic. I looked around quickly. There had to be something we could do. There had to be some way to fix that car.
    And as I looked around at the contents of my shed, an idea struck me. There was something here that had been giving me no end of trouble, but which might, just, make a temporary seal for the
car’s radiator.
    Think back . . .

 
    ‘This!’ I cried, snatching up the reel of super-tough heavy-duty repair tape with which I’d been trying to fix my Thinking Chair. Guaranteed 100% Bonding
Power! it says!’
    Ed took the reel from me. ‘Brilliant,’ he said.
    The three of us raced out to the car. Ed hurriedly refilled the car’s radiator from the plastic bottle of water he was carrying around in the boot, and taped up the leak.
    ‘So, Saxby,’ said Charlie quietly. ‘How exactly did Rippa steal the comic?’
    Ed jumped into the driving seat. ‘Yeh!’ he cried, ‘I want to know that too!’
    ‘I’ll explain on the way,’ I said. ‘Now move !’
    We buckled up as Ed shifted the car into reverse and it lurched around in a semicircle. With tyres screeching like a fast getaway in a movie, the car bounded for the main road.
    ‘Well?’ said Ed, as he drove round a sharp bend and headed for the sliproad that joined on to the motorway.
    ‘Well,’ I said, watching the grass verge zip past at a frightening speed, and wishing I hadn’t been quite so insistent on getting there as fast as possible, ‘the thing
is, what I didn’t realise for ages is that there were two thefts here, not one.’
    ‘Two?’ said Ed, manoeuvring the car on to the motorway and revving up to a needle’s width below the speed limit.
    ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘The first happened because the thief saw a chance and took it. The second was carefully planned. OK, let’s consider the second one first. Ed, do you have
a firm hold of that steering wheel?’
    ‘Yes, why?’ said Ed.
    ‘Because I’ve got to tell you that the second crime was done by Charlie.’
    ‘What?’ yelled Ed. He whizzed the car into the fast lane and we all swung from side to side. Charlie buried his face in his hands.
    ‘Charlie Foster, you thieving little pipsqueak, I’ll —’ cried Ed.
    ‘Pack it in!’ I cried. ‘You just concentrate on driving! Yes, Charlie did it, but hear me out. He didn’t intend any harm. He only wanted to borrow the comic for a while.
Am I right, Charlie?’
    ‘Yes,’ mumbled Charlie from behind his hands. ‘I’m sorry, Ed, really. I wish I’d never even heard of that comic.’
    ‘You’ll wish you’d never heard of me!’ cried Ed. ‘Did you give my comic to Rippa? Is that it?’
    ‘No!’ cried Charlie.
    ‘I told you, Charlie’s was the second crime,’ I said. ‘It happened like this. Some time ago, you banned Charlie from your entire collection. Now, naturally, Charlie felt
a bit miffed by that. After all, the incident with the jam was an accident. Right, Charlie?’
    ‘Right,’ mumbled Charlie from behind his hands.
    ‘But, naturally, he was very curious to see The Tomb of Death . Your pride and joy. The most valuable collector’s item he was ever likely to set eyes on. But it was locked away
in the safe.
    ‘Now, Charlie here is a brighter spark than you give him credit for. He might not have known the combination to the safe, but he could work it out. He realised that you and your dad would
have set the combination to something memorable. A significant date, a phone number . . . Right, Charlie?’
    ‘Mum’s birthday,’ mumbled Charlie.
    Ed glanced at Charlie a couple of times in his rear-view mirror. ‘How did you know that?’
    ‘He didn’t, at first,’ I said. ‘Over several days, when nobody was about, he tried