The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon - West Nick - Страница 24

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“He’d better not try any tricks on us,” the other grumbled. “Or I’ll crown him with one of those bars.”

“Yeah, sure,” the first one said. “Well, that’s the chance we’re taking. For a million bucks, it’s worth it!

Jupe and Bob stared into the darkness of the tiny compartment. One million dollars? They wondered if they had heard correctly.

The men walked away and climbed the ladder. The hatch opened, and fell back into place with a clanging sound.

Jupe tapped Bob’s shoulder. “Let’s see what they’re up to,” he whispered.

Stealthily, they opened the cupboard door.

They had taken only a few steps when they halted abruptly. A man was speaking, his voice hoarse and rasping, his words interrupted by spasms of coughing.

“Hurry it up,” he said. “I’ve taken care of the night watchman with some knockout drops. He’ll be out for a few hours. We should have the three hundred bars out of there before he wakes up.”

Bob nudged Jupe. “You were right. It’s Arthur Shelby. I recognize his voice and his cough.”

“That’s the second mystery solved,” Jupe whispered. “The mystery of the coughing dragon. Only one remains.”

“You mean this one — what they’re doing here?” Bob asked.

“The mystery of the three hundred bars,” Jupe replied. “Three hundred bars of what?”

He tapped Bob’s shoulder and moved along the dimly-lit aisle of the dragon again. Then, carefully mounting the narrow steps, he raised the hatch with his hands and peeped out.

His mouth gaped open. He was looking at a concrete wall alongside the dragon. A large hole had been drilled in it — a hole big enough for men to walk through. A man emerged from it carrying something in his arms and leaning back to balance the weight.

“Hey! This stuff weighs a ton,” he complained.

“Sure,” Shelby answered. “Why do you think you Morgans were hired — just because you have a handy boat? What this job needed was a lot of muscle power. The kind you used drilling our way into the vault. You and your brother were hired to take care of that and the loading from here to your boat.”

“Sure,” the man grunted. “I ain’t complaining. How much does each one of these things weigh?”

“About seventy pounds,” Shelby replied. “Just stack them alongside the dragon. When we’ve got the three hundred out of there, we’ll load up the dragon and head for sea.”

The husky Morgan brother put his load down and turned back to the hole in the wall. His brother came out, leaning back and breathing heavily.

“Okay, Jack,” he grunted. “Three less to go now.” He set his bars down as Shelby directed and returned to the wall and disappeared inside. Jupiter lowered the hatch.

“Mr. Shelby said each bar weighed about seventy pounds,” he whispered. “The Morgan brothers were talking about a million dollars. I think I know what those bars are. Gold!”

“Gold?” Bob exclaimed. “Where’s it coming from?”

“The large standard gold brick or bullion bar the government makes,” Jupe said, “is seventy pounds! The smaller standard gold bar weighs twenty pounds and is worth nine thousand, six hundred dollars alone! Shelby and the Morgan brothers appear to be robbing a Federal Reserve Bank!”

“Whiskers!” Bob exclaimed softly. “How much is one of those seventy pound bars worth?”

Jupe frowned, and calculated swiftly. “Approximately four hundred and eighty dollars a pound… times seventy… or — ” Jupe whistled softly “ — over thirty thousand dollars! Thirty-three thousand, six hundred dollars, to be exact!”

“Wow!” Bob exclaimed again. “And Shelby said they were taking three hundred bars!”

“I make that amount to be ten million, eighty thousand dollars,” Jupe calculated. “quite a haul.”

“That makes us witnesses to a pretty important bank robbery,” Bob whispered. “We’d better get out of here, if we want to stay alive!”

Jupe agreed, his voice husky with excitement. “The question is how — Mr. Shelby is too close to the dragon!”

He walked forward slowly, thinking. Then suddenly he darted to the head of the dragon.

Bob was right behind him, wondering if Jupe had found a new place for them to hide.

Jupe stopped so abruptly, Bob bumped into him. “Sorry,” Bob murmured, “I didn’t expect — ”

His companion raised a warning finger to his lips. He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

“Hold tight!” Jupe whispered fiercely. “They’ve left the ignition key in!”

Bob’s jaw gaped. “You mean — you’re going to drive it — away? Can you drive it? How will you see? There’s no windscreen.”

Jupe shrugged. “It’s worth a try. I’m sure this runs like an ordinary car, and I know how a car works. There’s a foot clutch, brake, gearshift, accelerator. And it’ll be on the tracks to the end of the tunnel,”

He dropped to the small seat. “Here goes,” Jupe called, and turned the ignition key.

The engine whined shrilly.

It whined again. Then it coughed and stopped. “It coughed, Jupe!” Bob exclaimed. “Then it wasn’t Shelby coughing.”

Jupe nodded, biting his lip. “It stalled,” he said bitterly. He turned the key again, holding it hard in the lock.

The engine whined once more. Suddenly it caught with a loud roar.

Jupe sighed, relieved. He pulled the gearshift into first and slowly eased his foot off the pedal.

The dragon bucked forward in one convulsive leap. Then it coughed and stopped. The engine was quiet.

“Stalled again!” Jupe cried bitterly. “It’s the clutch that — ”

Then he and Bob whirled. Something heavy was banging on the side of the dragon. They heard something fall against it with a loud thud. Then they heard something more ominous.

The hatch was opening.

“We should have locked it!” Bob whispered.

Jupe nodded, his eyes frightened. “I know. I’m sorry — I wasn’t thinking.”

Pete trembled. He braced himself against the cave wall, the heavy torch held tightly in his hand. He might get one of the furry animals, he knew, but there were too many of them to fight.

Mr. Carter was too big and strong for him, too, even without his deadly shotgun.

Luckily he was down now, fallen under the swift charge of the animals. Pete watched horrified as they went at him. Then he blinked.

There was no attack. The animals leaped over the prostrate Carter and bolted through the gap provided by the opening of the big planks.

Pete sat up, puzzled. He whirled at another eerie moan. Another small beast had entered the cave, its eyes blazing. Before Pete could move, it had leaped over his outstretched legs. It swerved round the fallen man, and ran after the others through the plank opening.

Pete didn’t hesitate. Carter didn’t appear hurt, only unconscious. He would be wakening soon, with his surly temper and his even more frightening shotgun.

Jupe had given Pete orders to stay, with his projector ready. But he had not ordered him to stay alone and get shot. Maybe there was another way he could help.

He dived for the opening, pushed his projector ahead, and crawled forward. He pulled himself through, then paused to listen. He heard Mr. Carter groan.

There was no time now to fiddle with the rock Jupe and Bob had wedged into place. Pete leaped to his feet, grabbed his machine and awkwardly ran forward.

Ahead of him, in the light of his torch, he suddenly saw an opening in the huge grey wall. Instinctively, he darted through.

As he did he heard a strange rustling sound. It was coming from behind him. He whirled, and a chill ran down his spine.

The wall was closing behind him!

His half-hearted leap to retreat failed. The open sides of the walls clicked together.

Another strange sound made him jump. He looked round and his eyes widened. Ahead of him stretched a long, wide tunnel. And far down it, coming straight for him, was a large grotesque shape he recognized. Its yellow eyes blazed wildly. Its mouth opened.

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