Read Online The Baker Street Boys - The Case of the Stolen Sparklers by Anthony Read - Free Book Online

it out and spread two sheets on two chairs, one for himself and one for Sparrow, while Queenie went over to the pantry and came back carrying a large round pie in a dish. But as she put it down on the table, Mrs Ford let out a shriek.
    “No, no!” she cried. “Not that one. I baked that special for her ladyship’s birthday – it’s her favourite recipe. Put it back very careful on the top shelf and fetch another.”
    Queenie took the pie and exchanged it for a different one, which Mrs Ford cut open and served to Wiggins and Sparrow, who tucked in ravenously.
    “My goodness,” Mrs Ford exclaimed. “Don’t you lads get anything to eat at home?”
    “Not just lately,” said Wiggins. “We lost our cook.” And he gave Queenie a broad wink, which set her off giggling again.
    While the boys were making their way through the slices of pie, Mr Harper came into the kitchen. He was annoyed to find them sitting on his newspaper, but they smoothed out the crumpled sheets and gave it back to him only slightly dirty. Mr Harper said he supposed no harm had been done, and he paid them half a crown for clearing the blocked chimney.
    “Half a crown!” crowed Sparrow when they were back outside. “We won’t have to eat boiled cabbage tonight – we’ll be able to buy some proper food.”
    “Hold your horses,” Wiggins told him. “I don’t think that’d be right. We ain’t actually done nothing for it, have we?”
    “What we gonna do, then?”
    “Give it to Charlie. For lending us his barrow and his brushes. It’s only fair. I mean, he ain’t been able to earn nothing while we’ve had ’em, has he?”
    Sadly, Sparrow had to agree. And anyway, he
had
just eaten a very nice slice of pie…
    “He wasn’t poppin’ no jewels,” Beaver told the other Boys when he and Gertie returned to HQ later. “Only a cigarette case, for a couple of sovereigns.”
    “Blimey,” exclaimed Shiner. “He must be ’ard up. I wouldn’t go all that way for a couple of quid if I’d got a tiara worth thousands tucked away somewhere.”
    “Ah, but if he’s got it hid away, then he ain’t got the dosh for it yet, has he?” said Rosie.
    “That’s right,” said Sparrow, who was just leaving for the theatre. “He’d have to keep quiet and bide his time.”
    “’Cos if he started chuckin’ his cash around, when he didn’t have none before,” Beaver agreed, “then everybody’d want to know where he’d got it from, and if he couldn’t tell ’em, then they’d suspect him, but if he carried on as if he still hadn’t got no money, then nobody would suspect him and then—”
    “Right,” Wiggins interrupted him. “We get the picture. Good thinking, Beav. But we don’t know for sure that he done it, do we? What do you think, Polly?”
    Polly had been quietly listening to the Boys as she stood at the stove, stirring a big pot of vegetables. Left on her own all day and unable to go outside in case anybody saw her, she had kept herself busy dusting and cleaning and tidying until the others could hardly recognize HQ. Now she was cooking supper. It was mainly sprouts and swedes and a few potatoes, and it didn’t smell much better than last night’s cabbage. But at least it was food, and it was hot, and she was doing her best with it.
    “What do I think about what?” she asked.
    “Mr Gerald. D’you reckon he could’ve done it?”
    “Well, he was in the house, and his room’s next to her ladyship’s… He came runnin’ out when she screamed and he was there when she fainted.”
    “Fainted?”
    “Oh, yes. She was so upset she fainted clean away. Fell down on the floor, she did. Ooh, it was ever so dramatic, just like something on the stage.”
    “Was it, now?” Wiggins sat up straight, his eyes shining. “And her a famous actress,” he said thoughtfully.
    “You think she was puttin’ it on?” asked Rosie. “Like, she was actin’?”
    “Cor,” said Shiner. “You mean she pinched ’er own jewels?”
    “No,