Pip and the Twilight Seekers

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Book: Read Pip and the Twilight Seekers for Free Online
Authors: Chris Mould
you, Mister DeGale,” Jarvis shouted as he left in high spirits. “Room for a few more, Captain Dooley.” He grinned. This was the best night he had had in a long while.
    The next brought problems: a young girl with too much fight in her. A kicker and a screamer. Guards approached through the darkness. “Do you need help, Mister Jarvis?”
    She was biting and pulling at Jarvis’s hair and tearing his cloak. “Let me go! Let me go!”
    The guards jumped from their horses but the snow was making it hard underfoot and somehow the girl slipped through their hands, her parents shouting after her, “Run Shira, run!”
    “You’ll hang for this!” called Jarvis to her parents. “After her!” he instructed the guards. But she was lost in the maze of alleyways.
    Forced into a bad frame of mind, Jarvis decided he would take the children he had and return later. “Plenty of time,” he told himself. Three in one night was a good catch considering he hadn’t caught one in such a long time. He was determined to outdo Roach and return with much more than he had managed.
    And that would have been the end of his night’s searching but for a small diversion.
    “Where oh where are those children from the tavern?” he said to himself, scratching away at his chin and sneering all around him.
    “Three little birds at Mister Floyd’s!” croaked the old wooden soldier.
    “Oh, really!” said Jarvis as a surprised smile cut across his face. “Why didn’t you tell me, my wooden friend?”
    “Captain Dooley should be seen and not heard. Only speak when spoken to. There’s a good boy.”
    Jarvis looked down at him. He really was an odd little fellow, even for someone from a place as strange as Hangman’s hollow. He diverted the steer of the carriage in the opposite direction.
    “Then we shall call there on the way home. It would be nice to catch up with our friend Percival Floyd after so long,” he said as his evil grin gave way to his crooked teeth.
    It was the very sound of those carriage wheels that woke Pip, Toad and Frankie. All three of them had come to know that noise only too well. Its distinct, rumbling, rattling, loose-in-its-frame trundle had made them sit upright in their resting places. Pip had to rub his eyes. What on earth had brought Jarvis to the door?
    “Is it him?” said Frankie. “You don’t even have to tell me,” said Toad. “I know that sound too well.”

    “Floyd must be in league with him,” said Pip. “He must have said something. Somehow sent him a message.” He was rubbing at the window to clear the frost and take a clearer view.
    “No, definitely not,” said Toad. “Floyd is a true friend to my father. He has been for a lifetime. Something else brings him here.”
    “Look,” said Pip, “in the back of the carriage. There are children.” And they craned their necks to get a view of what stood beneath the cottage window.
    “You’re right. But I can see something far worse than that,” said Toad. “I hope I’m wrong.”
    “What is it?” gasped the others.
    “It’s Captain Dooley,” announced Toad. “Jarvis is wearing him at his waist.”
    And for the first time, they saw a brief glimpse of Captain Dooley and discovered that he was in the possession of Jarvis. Nothing could be more dangerous. Nothing could put them at more risk and harm than this. How on earth had he discovered the old wooden soldier?
    A huge crash came from below as Jarvis made his entry. The door buckled open, taking Floyd by complete surprise as he lay snoozing in his chair.
    “Bring them to me,” snarled Jarvis. “Bring them all.” He was still gasping from the effort of his dramatic entry.
    “But, I … I …” stuttered Floyd, unable to find the words.
    From upstairs, only muffled shouts were heard. The children panicked, picking up their things.
    “There’s no one here. Only me,” insisted Floyd, but then Jarvis’s eyes fell upon the four empty bowls in the hearth and without saying

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