Four Wheeled Hero (5 page)

‘We need to get
closer to the house’, said Tommy as he surveyed the yard that stood
between the barn and the house.

It was fifty
metres of open space with only a low broken down wall of no more
than 250 mm high running down one side of the yard between them and
the house which gave the crooks a clear view of anyone coming in
that direction.

‘If only that
wall was a little higher we could hide behind it and make our way
across’, said Smithy.

Tommy looked at
the wall again and turned to face Smithy. ‘Get yourself one of
those short planks from over in the corner’, he said to Smithy. ‘I
have an idea how we can get across, follow me’.

Tommy made his
way out of the side door of the barn trying to control the legs as
best he could. Smithy with his plank followed a short distance
behind. Tommy led them to the back of the barn and along the back
wall of the adjoining outbuilding from which the broken wall was
attached. On reaching the start of the wall at the corner of the
building Tommy told his legs to go, leaving him sat once again in
his wheelchair. The wall looked even smaller now that they were
closer and Smithy started to shake his head.

‘We are never
going to get you and your chair passed this gap below that’, he
said. ‘I don’t think that even I could crawl below it all that
distance without showing my bum’, he added.

‘You won’t have
to’, said Tommy as he started to concentrate on the situation.
‘Just stand clear a minute.

No sooner had
he said it than Tommy’s wheelchair seemed to collapse onto the
ground. The handles started to stretch like a couple of railway
lines towards the far end of the wall. Little wheels started to
sprout along both handles like brussel sprouts. For his part Tommy
was now laid flat on his back with the seat and back of his
wheelchair forming a stiff board for him to lay down on.

‘Track stay’,
ordered Tommy as he looked up at his bewildered friend. ‘Well, are
you coming for a ride or aren’t you’, he asked.

‘You bet’, came
the answer as Smithy placed his board on the track and laid flat
upon it.

The two boys
zoomed off at an incredible speed, the track allowing them to keep
well below the level of the wall. Smithy was in front and was
enjoying every second of his ride as he headed for the far side of
the wall. It was at this point that he started to wonder how he was
going to stop, but before he could utter a word his board, with him
on it, left the end of the track and sailed through the air before
crashing Smithy head first into a large mole hill. Tommy on the
other hand had no such problems as his seat was firmly fixed to the
track which came to a smooth stop at the end.

Tommy tried for
all he was worth to muffle the bout of laughter that came over him
as his best mate removed his head out of the soft earth of the mole
hill with his face all streaked with a dark brown camouflage. For
his part Smithy sat there spitting out bits of dirt that had
entered his mouth during the forced landing. He shook his head to
release a shower of earth that had stuck to his hair. Tommy in the
meantime had stuffed his hanky in his mouth to stop him from
laughing so as to keep down the noise. He finally pulled himself
together to instruct the track to go, and he was immediately back
in his wheelchair.

‘Very funny’,
Smithy said in annoyance as he rejoined Tommy at the side of the
farm house.

The two boys
edged along the wall until they arrived at the only window on that
side of the house. The window was too high for them to reach so
Smithy suggested that Tommy brought back his legs to give him the
height they needed, but Tommy said no to this suggestion knowing
that he could not control them that well to do a delicate manoeuvre
such as this.

‘Stand on my
lap’, Tommy told Smithy. ‘I can take your weight and it should
allow you to see in’.

Smithy climbed
up onto Tommy’s lap and slowly raised himself up so as to be able
to look in through the window.

‘The rooms
empty’, Smithy said in a low voice. ‘There’s no furniture or
anything in the room and the doors shut so I can’t see any
further.

Smithy
carefully climbed back down.

‘It’s going to
be a bit dodgy going down the back of the building’, Smithy said.
‘If someone comes out they will catch you for sure’.

‘No they
won’t’, replied Tommy. ‘I have an idea’.

They moved back
towards the back of the farm house and stood peering around the
corner to see if anyone was around. Tommy sat concentrating once
again, and what appeared next took them both by surprise. A long
brass tube slightly bent and splayed open at one end appeared.
Stuck into the bent end was a large eye and at the other end was an
eyepiece much like a telescope.

‘Stay’, Tommy
commanded.

‘What’s that’,
asked Smithy.

‘its a
telescope’, Tommy replied.

‘Well that’s a
fat lot of good’, joked Smithy as he examined this strange object
whose eye winked at him. ‘It’s too short to reach any of the
windows’, he said.

As quick as the
words had left Smithy’s mouth then that telescope started to
stretch along the back of the farm house until it came upon the
first window, where it moved slowly over the window sill to peer in
through the window. Tommy placed the end of the telescope to his
eye and was presented with an excellent view of the inside of the
room.

‘Blimey that’s
good’, said Smithy. ‘Can I have a look’?

Tommy passed
the telescope to Smithy who’s only comment was ‘wow’. On its part
the telescope seeing no one in the room now started heading for the
next window on the ground floor, bending over the back door
like

a wiggly snake
until it reached its goal. Again it slowly moved in for a look.

‘There’s two
men in the room’, Smithy said. ‘I don’t recognise either of them’,
he added.

‘I wish we
could both see at the same time’, said Tommy, his hand outstretched
for Smithy to pass him the telescope.

Within an
instant of him saying that, the eye piece started to grow bigger
until it resemble the screen of a small television.

‘Great’, said
Smithy. ‘This is a wonderful bit of kit’.

The screen
showed the two men talking and Tommy identified the man with the
scar as being the one that had held him and his Mum prisoner. The
two men were standing over a piece of paper laid out on a table in
the middle of the room.

‘I wish we
could hear what they were saying’, said Tommy.

Again no sooner
had he said it than a bump appear on the top of the eye that was
peering through the window from which a second tube appeared on the
end of which was a large ear. The ear pushed itself against the
glass and instantly the two boys heard voices coming from the
viewer.

‘It’s just like
watching TV’, said Smithy.

They listened
as the men went over their plans of how they intended to escape
once they had the money from Tommy’s Dad’s bank, laughing and
joking as to how rich they would be. Tommy instructed the telescope
to look through the other two windows to try and find out where
they were holding Smithy’s Uncle Frank. All of the rooms were empty
so he told the telescope to go back to the room where the two men
were.

‘I wonder what
they have done with horrible Uncle Frank’, Smithy said. ‘With a bit
of luck they may have chucked him down the well’, he added.

‘What time is
the boss due back’, said the man with the scar.

‘Half eleven’,
replied the other.

‘Well it’s
nearly that now, so we had better tidy the place up a bit, you know
what he’s like’, the man with the scar said.

‘Did you hear
that’, Tommy said. ‘Their boss is coming soon so we’ll find out
who’s behind all this’.

It wasn’t long
before they heard the sound of a car coming down the drive and
stopping in the front of the farm house. Tommy sent Smithy to have
a look but the hedge was too high for him to get a good view and
before he could push his way through the hedge they had all gone
back inside the farm house. Smithy rushed back to rejoin Tommy to
find out who the mystery man was.

Chapter 4

The
Discovery

Smithy joined
Tommy just as the two men entered the back room.

‘The boss looks
pleased with himself’, the scar faced man said to the other.

‘You know the
boss’, said the other man. ‘He enjoys making other peoples lives a
misery’, he added.

‘You’ve got to
admire him’, the scar faced man said. After all he planned every
move down to the last detail. No one will ever find out who we are,
and we will be long gone before they find the bank manager’s
body.

Tommy froze on
hearing this comment.

‘They intend
killing my Dad’, he said, his voice not being able to hide his
upset.

‘No they
won’t’, said Smithy. ‘Not if we have anything to do with it, they
won’t’.

One of the men
left the room leaving the other to pour out a number of drinks. A
few minutes later a third man entered the room with the man who had
left a few minutes earlier who had his hand around the wrist of the
new man.

‘Its horrible
Uncle Frank’, Smithy blurted. ‘They must have been holding him
prisoner in one of the other rooms’.

Before Smithy
could say another word, the man holding horrible Uncle Frank’s
wrist raised his arm in to the air along with horrible Uncle
Frank’s.

‘Here’s to you
boss’, the scared faced man said as he handed him a drink.

‘What’, Smithy
said. ‘Horrible Uncle Frank’s the leader of the gang. I don’t
believe it. I..I.. Yes I do’, he’s just the type, horrible, big
headed, tight. You know he has never given me a penny all the time
I’ve known him’, Smithy went on angrily. ‘Let’s get the police and
have the lot arrested’.

‘No, we can’t
do that’, answered Tommy. ‘Well not until my Dad has been rescued.
If we reported it now he’d just deny it, and we haven’t any real
proof yet that involves him with the gang’, Tommy added.

‘I suppose your
right’, said Smithy. ‘It’s just when I think of all the times
he...’

Smithy was cut
off in mid-speech by what was taking place on the screen. Horrible
Uncle Frank had produced a new plan of the bank and had hung it on
the mirror so that everyone could see and so that he could play the
big boss with his pointer.

‘Now lets go
over this once again’, said horrible Uncle Frank. ‘Monday morning
we will take our bank manager over to his branch situated here’, he
said pointing with his stick. Ronny the Rat will stay outside in
the car with the engine running while the bank manager, myself and
Jimmy the Scar go inside Right’, he said like a Company Sergeant
Major. ‘When the security system switches off at 8am we go into the
vault and load up our bags with lots of lovely lolly. Ten minutes
later we leave the bank by the back door with the bank manager,
where you Ronny will be waiting with the get away car. We then head
back to our hideout at the .....’

Horrible Uncle
Frank’s last words were drowned out by Ronny the Rat’s coughing
fit, to Tommy and Smithy’s annoyance.

‘Could you make
out what he said’, asked Tommy.

‘No’, replied
Smithy. ‘Not a word’.

‘Right’, said
horrible Uncle Frank. ‘We’ll finish our drinks and we’ll head off
to keep our captive company. He must be getting hungry by now, I
know I am. We’ll stop off and get some fish and chips on the way’,
he added.

‘Did you hear
that’, Tommy said. ‘We’ll have to make our way back to the road
before they leave so that we can follow them.

Tommy told the
telescope to stop and it disappeared instantly. He then reproduced
the railway lines they had used before, but this time Smithy
decided to go second so that he had Tommy to stop him from flying
off again. Safely back across the gap to the outbuildings, Tommy
summoned his legs again and they made their way back towards the
woods. The legs hadn’t improved with age as they continued to
behave like those of someone drunk, first wobbling this way and
then that. By the time they reach the edge of the wood and the road
Tommy was feeling quite sea sick. He was glad to get back to his
wheelchair.

‘There no sign
of them yet’, Smithy said looking down the road towards the farm
entrance.

‘We had better
make sure that no one see’s us or they will know their games up’,
said Tommy. ‘I know lets go back down the road a little further to
the Lay-by. We can then bring back the ‘Dynocar’ and sit in it and
wait for them to appear. We can see the entrance from there so it
won’t be hard to follow them’.

They soon
arrived at the Lay-by and after taking a good look around, Tommy
concentrated once again on Smithy’s comic showing the ‘Dynocar’. It
reappeared as before but this time Tommy commanded it to stop so he
wouldn’t have to concentrate on the comic for the whole of their
journey. The two boys made themselves comfortable while they waited
for horrible Uncle Frank’s car.