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thoughtfully. Poor old

Uncle Victor was getting on in years and it was appalling that he should have to suffer this

wretched yuppie in his house just to keep the peace with Aunt Brenda. Downstairs Timothy had

turned the television on loudly.
    'That's too much,' Henry muttered and went down to turn it down a bit. He found Timothy

helping himself to a tin of Victor's Perth Special tobacco. 'You know he has that specially made

up for him,' Henry said.
    'Yes, but he won't notice it. He's past it, you know. I mean I feel sorry for him,' Timothy

said. 'He used to be a lot of fun, or some people say so, but he seems bloody sour and old to me.

You going to have some?'
    'I don't think so,' said Henry, but he took the tin all the same. And for the next hour he

watched the television and listened to Timothy's maudlin conversation. By the time he went up to

his room Henry Gould had formed some very definite opinions, the nicest of which he would have

hesitated to express in words.
    When he came down in the morning he found his uncle up and making himself some toast and

coffee.
    'I thought I'd be up and about before he deigns to favour us with his presence,' Victor said.

'I must say he left a hell of a mess in the other room and it looks as though he nearly finished

the whisky. Let's hope it keeps him dead to the world for a bit. I thought we might take

ourselves off for a walk along the coastal path and have lunch at the Riverside Inn.'
    Henry looked out of the window at the fresh summer day. He and Uncle Victor were going to have

a good time after all. After breakfast they set off, but just before they left Henry went up to

his room, brought the tin of Old Perth Special Mixture down, and put it by the television set.

The scheme he had in mind might not work, but if it did it would be Timothy Bright's own

fault.

Chapter 4
    It was late afternoon when Henry and Uncle Victor returned to Pud End for tea. They found

Timothy Bright slumped in front of the television. The remains of his brunch were still on the

kitchen table and he had evidently helped himself to a tin of genuine Beluga caviar he had found

in the larder. He was not, however, in an apologetic or even grateful mood. 'Where have you

been?' he asked almost truculently. 'I've been here on my own all day.'
    Henry intervened before his uncle could explode. 'As a matter of fact we've been for a rather

long walk. Along the cliffs,' he said.
    Timothy missed the implication. 'You might have woken me. I could have done with a walk,' he

said.
    'You were dead to the world when I looked in at you this morning or I would have done,' Henry

continued. 'Anyway you wouldn't have liked it much. Very windy and gusty.'
    In the kitchen Victor was clearing up. 'Thank you for the tact,' he said when Henry came

through. 'Almost certainly saved me from a murder charge. I know I'm at the age when one starts

complaining about declining standards and so on but that young man really does convince me that

things aren't what they used to be. A short better still a long spell of hard labour would surely

do him a world of good. More to the point, it would certainly do the world some good.'
    'I shouldn't be at all surprised if that's what he gets, Uncle Victor,' Henry said quietly as

he began to wash the plates up. 'He's certainly up to something a bit shady.'
    'Is he indeed?' said Victor with a touch more optimism. 'May one enquire how you know?'
    'I sat up with the idiot last night, and listened to all his drunken boasting. He didn't tell

me what the game is, but he was fairly definite about being on to a quote good thing unquote, and

in my experience that nearly always means something on the wrong side of the law.'
    'How very interesting. You know, I should rather enjoy it if the police arrested him here. It

would give me something to deter the rest of the Bright family from ever visiting us again.'
    'On the other hand it would give Aunt Brenda