CHAPTER ONE
Bursting through the gates the cart swung round in the road and, driven by Lizzie, made straight towards a flower seller on the pavement. She managed to steer the horses round but not before the flower seller had thrown herself out of the way. Professor Wagstaff nearly fell off the back, only his long, strong fingers kept him in place. He peered behind to see if any were giving chase. The road was not too busy and so she cracked the whip and forced the horses on.
Lizzie was a good driver but she was being reckless, she was still scared and exhilarated at her escape. The Professor could see this and tried to calm her down, “Not so fast Lizzie, no one’s following,” but as he said it he looked behind again to make sure.
Her face was still tense, lips bunched up in concentration, her knuckles showing white through the tightly held reins. We must warn Bruce and the others.
“Lizzie,” called Ichabod, “did you hear me?”
She did but the voice was quieter than the one in her head. As she got to the end of the road she had to pull up, a slow cart was in the road she was turning into. “Come on, come on!”
At that Wagstaff scrambled over the junk on the cart and touched her arm, “Lizzie.”
She stared daggers at him but then her face softened, “We must warn them,” she looked imploringly at him.
“Yes we must, but please, leave some of the flower sellers standing.”
She looked hurt, smiled then turned the cart into the next road and overtook the slowly moving rag and bone man. But now they were being followed. The fire cart that had been in the factory turned out through the gate manned by at least five of the workers. She looked behind then handed the Professor her electric pistol. Again she slapped the reins and sped up to the next corner.
Wagstaff turned around and tried to hold his arm straight to let off a shot. The fire cart was still round the corner so he waited, but even once it had turned the corner it was still too far away. “Keep it up Lizzie.”
Whenever the fire cart came within distance Ichabod fired at them. The first few shots hit the cart itself and also one of the men who was knocked unconscious. One of the horses was stung by a charge and became jittery. Because the pursuers had no ranged weapons they kept their distance from Lizzie’s cart until she got up to the club.
Jonathan was there, as always, on the door. He looked a little put out when the cart pulled up on his front and started to wave them on.
“Jonathan, it’s me!” she exclaimed as she pulled on the reins.
“Miss McBean is it? Well you still can’t park here, and you have use the side door if you want to come in.”
“National emergency Jonathan,” she explained as she jumped off the cart and towards the stairs, “we are being followed by an unsavoury crowd.”
Though he was holding his hands out to bar the way he looked to where they had come from and saw the approaching fire cart. “A national emergency with firemen?”
She passed him by and went in to see William on the desk. Jonathan called to the desk clerk, “Ring the police Will.”
Lizzie instead mounted the stairs while Ichabod stood in the doorway with Jonathan and tried to hold them off. When she got into the club room she saw Paul Phoenix and Anil Kati playing cards, Good, both soldiers. “Paul, Anil, we have a situation downstairs, arm yourselves.”
They both looked stunned, then Paul dropped his hand and went for the weapons cupboard. “Will my sword do?” asked Anil as he placed his hand upon the table.
“Yes, be quick,” she sighed as she grabbed a decorative mace from the wall and started down the stairs again.
When she looked over the railing she saw William, Ichabod and Jonathan attacking the men trying to get through the door with umbrellas and walking sticks. Suddenly a piece of wood came through the window and one of the men started climbing through when Lizzie, who had just beaten Anil down the stairs, bashed him back out again with the mace.
Lizzie saw the stun pistol on the floor and grabbed for it. The cartridge had become detached and was near the overturned umbrella stand. As she loaded the cartridge into the pistol Paul took a shot from the middle step and missed, though when talking about it later he said that it was supposed to be a warning round.
There was an explosion near the window, one of them had set a gas street lamp on fire. A local policeman saw the ruckus and blew his whistle.
The gang quickly got on to the fire cart and began to drive away. One of them threw a piece of pipe at the copper and hit him on the shoulder.
Lizzie and the others came out to see if the policeman was all right. His pride and his shoulder were a little bruised.
“So what’s this all about Lizzie?” asked Paul, “You vanish for months then get chased by firemen?”
She looked at him, smiled, then started to explain as they walked back into the club.