The Silk Thief Read Online Free PDF Page A

pocket, lit it and dripped wax onto the dining table, and stuck the candle in it. Then he carefully slid his sea bag off his shoulder, set it on the old chaise, and loosened the ties.
    ‘Come on, out you come,’ he said.
    Clifford exited the sea bag head first, sneezed and shook herself violently. Her left ear was inside out. Walter folded it the right way.
    ‘Now, what were you wanting for supper? Sausage, cheese or a nice bit of pork pie?’
    On Tuesday morning the Sydney Gazette reported in rather lurid detail — macabre circumstances , abandoned graveyard , frenzied stabbing , blood-drenched clothing , blind, staring eyes — the discovery of Furniss’s body, together with a statement from two witnesses who had come forward to report seeing a boy and a dog in the vicinity of the old burial ground. There had been no accompanying illustration of the allegedly encountered boy (or dog), so clearly the witnesses had not got a good look, but still, the sighting was a worry. Also, an anonymous benefactor was offering a reward of fifteen pounds to anyone able to provide reliable and accurate information leading to the apprehension of the murderer or murderers.
    Friday convinced Elizabeth Hislop to give her Thursday night off, but only in exchange for a full explanation of what Harrie and Walter had been doing in her room in the small hours of Monday morning.
    Elizabeth was appalled — not at Friday’s description of Furniss’s grisly demise, but at the abuse he’d meted out to Walter on the Isla two years earlier, which had ultimately driven the boy to claim such a bloody revenge.
    ‘Serves the bugger right,’ she said. ‘The author of his own fate. Still, that poor lad. To think what he must have endured.’
    ‘I know,’ Friday agreed. ‘I don’t blame him for sticking the bastard.’
    ‘He’ll hang if he’s caught.’
    ‘He won’t be. He’s sailing this Thursday for England. Which is why I’d like the time off, to say goodbye.’
    Elizabeth checked the roster. ‘I’ll swap you with Hazel. She won’t mind.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Friday said gratefully, and somewhat guiltily, given that Mrs H was unwittingly hiding Walter in her cellar.
    On Thursday she knocked off work just on dark, skilfully inducing her cully to finish his session fifteen minutes early and wondering whether Leo had collected Walter yet. She’d better get a move on herself if she wasn’t to miss him before he boarded. She changed into her street clothes and made her way down Argyle Street, turned right onto George and headed south until she came to King’s Wharf adjacent to the Commissariat Stores. The ship — Friday didn’t know what sort it was: she only knew about sailors, not what they sailed on — swarmed with crew as supplies were loaded on and packed away, and the wharf itself was crowded with lumpers scurrying about hefting last-minute crates and barrels and boxes. The light had vanished from the sky now, revealing a cheese-coloured crescent of moon, and great flares burnt along the wharf, illuminating sweating faces and turning ordinary men into ghouls.
    She found Sarah and Harrie lurking at the base of the towering Stores buildings.
    ‘Where’re Leo and Walter?’ she asked.
    ‘We saw Leo a few minutes ago,’ Harrie said. ‘He’s got Walter out of sight somewhere, in case the police are watching the wharf.’ She glanced around nervously, peering into the shadows. ‘What if they are watching? What if they’re hiding, waiting to grab him? Though I can’t see anyone, can you?’
    ‘You’re not supposed to,’ Sarah said. ‘That’s the point.’
    Friday calmly surveyed the Stores, the darkened street and the shoreline. ‘I can’t see anyone, either. Surely they couldn’t keep an eye on all the wharves? There aren’t enough of them, for a start.’
    ‘Probably not, but Leo’s right. It’s better to be safe,’ Sarah said.
    They observed in silence as a pair of watermen rowed out into the cove, trailing a