Banker's Draft

by Clive Mullis

Cornwallis snapped to attention.

  ‘Oh right, well thank the Gods fer that. You gonna drive?’

  ‘Hmmm,’ affirmed the driver.

  ‘That old git Kintersbury didn’t stay long, where’d he go?’

  ‘I overheard him saying he had to go to the bank; then him and Dumchuck were going to the Collider later, what a waste of money, eh? I could retire in luxury for just a fraction of what they charge for that thing.’

  ‘Probably getting the bank to pay for it. As long as it don’t come out of our money, eh?’

  Cornwallis couldn’t believe his luck, Dumchuck and Kintersbury, neatly wrapped.

  They dragged the coach out and then returned for the two horses. Cornwallis wracked his brain trying to think of a way to nobble the coach, as he knew that he and Rose had little chance of taken them on their own.

  He watched through the slats as they harnessed the horses to the coach and then they tied up the reins to a hook on the post. They then started laughing at some joke as they headed back inside the house.

  Cornwallis didn’t have much time. He jumped down and moved to the door and pulled out his knife, he checked to make sure they hadn’t come back and crept out. The horses looked at him suspiciously and backed off a bit as they saw the knife, but he patted one of them on the haunches and they settled back down. He then proceeded to cut the traces, leaving just a thread between the halves. The horses seemed to know what he planned to do and he could have sworn they were grinning. He dived back inside the stables just in time, as the gate opened and one of the men came back out. Cornwallis prayed that he wouldn’t notice the sabotage.

  Fluffy appeared again just as he began to climb up the ladder, he paused, and then took the couple of steps back down. ‘Go and tell Rose they’re trying to take Isabella to the warehouse on the docks. I’ve done my best to stop them, so if she sees two horses going hell-for-leather then I have, if she sees a coach still attached then I haven’t. Got that?’

  ‘Fer…!’ whined Fluffy. ‘Yer gonna wear me legs out.’

  He watched the cat disappear and then began to climb the ladder again. He got to his vantage point just at the right time as four men marched out of the door, pulling Isabella with them. They looked quickly as they got to the gate and then hurried to the coach. The man who’d come out first, flung open the door and the four pushed and pulled her in. Isabella didn’t make it easy for them as she fought like a tiger, kicking out and twisting this way and that. The door slammed shut and the driver climbed up to his seat and took a deep breath.

  Cornwallis crossed his fingers as the driver picked up the reins and then let off the handbrake; he adjusted himself a little to get comfortable and then snapped the reins, shouting ‘Gee, ah.’ The horses didn’t move, so he swore and snapped the reins again, still nothing happened so he fished down the side and came up with a whip. He tightened his grip and shouted at the same time as cracking the thing. The horses snorted, and then took off like a ferret after a rabbit.

  There were two problems for the driver. The first of which were Cornwallis’ doctoring of the traces, which had the effect of at first a slight movement of the coach, closely followed by a loud snap as the traces parted company, and hence a gentle roll forward a few feet before coming to a stop. The second problem was that the driver had looped the reins around his wrist which tightened into a knot the moment the horses took off. The drivers face contorted in pain as the reins gripped, and then he realised that he would shortly become airborne, only to stop being airborne at some point within the next few seconds, which would undoubtedly hurt; a lot. His mouth opened in a scream, but it shut off pretty quickly as the ground rushed up to meet him, which resulted in an oomph noise followed by a rasping sound, and then his mouth found the scream that he’d lost and he wailed in pain. The horses were enjoying themselves; they went from standing still to a gallop in just a few short yards, and by the time the driver had made contact with the ground they were going at full pelt. They hammered out of the yard and then turned into the street, sensing a freedom that they could only have dreamt about; the time had come to pay back all those whippings they’d got in the past. The driver’s ordeal lasted for just a few short seconds, for after the third long bounce he lapsed into unconsciousness as his head hit the ground. He had a moment’s lucidity before oblivion took over, and he wished he’d listened to his mother after all and had taken that job in the funeral parlour.

  Cornwallis grinned in satisfaction as the horseless coach ground to a halt. A head poked out of the window to see what had happened and spat an expletive. The first head dipped back inside and then another head appeared momentarily before it too disappeared. The door on the far side crashed open and all the occupants, including Isabella, poured out and hurried back to the house. None of them even thought about going after the hapless driver.

  Rose listened to Fluffy and watched the well-dressed distinguished man, who had just walked past her, knock at the house. The door opened, just as a noise diverted her attention. At first, she heard the thundering of hooves, before looking around and seeing the two horses come hammering down the Crescent and then turn into the street towards her. She then noticed a bundle of rags dragged behind before identifying it as a person as it sped past. Her gaze followed the tableau, and as she raised her eyes, she saw Frankie come hurrying around the corner. He had a group in tow, and from that group she saw two figures detach themselves and step into the street; one looked like Big George and the other looked like Chalkie from the docks. The horses took one look at the two bears and skidded abruptly to a stop, panting and snorting from their exertion. Rose dare not think what the facial expression of one of the horses would have been, because the driver, bouncing along behind them, was still in mid-air as the horses stopped, their tails high in the air. The momentum carried him through the air until his head entered a horse, just below the raised tail, and even from that distance, Rose could hear the squelch. The aim was perfect! The horse reared at the unwanted attention in its back passage and began to dance around in order to get rid of the obstacle. The drivers knees bounced on the ground, before at long last his head slipped out and the hapless driver’s ordeal came to an end. She couldn’t take her eyes away from the drama for a few moments, and when she finally managed to drag her eyes back up to the house, the man had disappeared inside.

  Frankie pulled up puffing from all his running. ‘What’s that all about?’ he asked, pointing at the driver lying unconscious on the ground.

  She explained it was probably one of the men holding Isabella.

  Frankie grinned evilly. ‘Well, he ain’t dead, unfortunately, but he’s definitely full of horse shit.’

  MacGillicudy turned up with a bunch of feelers in tow, including Dewdrop. He told them that he had a hurry-up wagon on its way and it should be there shortly. Gerald and a few of his heavies also made an appearance, because as he put it, “Someone had gone and shat on his turf, so he would go and have a shit on theirs.”

  Fluffy then rushed back to Cornwallis with the news of the man at the door and the arrival of Frankie with the additional man/bearpower, and what did he want them to do?

  It all began to happen now; Rose could hardly keep pace with events.

  *

  Mrs Fitchley opened the door and saw Bertram Radstock standing there with a smile on his face.

  ‘Oh, Mr Radstock. What, er, a surprise.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Fitchley, it’s me. I know I don’t as a rule come during the day, but I’ve had a particularly torrid time in the House, and the mistress did say to call anytime.’

  ‘Oh… er, yes, but…’

  Just then, she heard the thunder of the horses and saw the coach-less equines come haring out from behind. Her eyes widened for just a moment and then she pulled Radstock inside. Something had gone wrong. She hurriedly ushered Radstock into the parlour and closed the door behind her.

  ‘I don’t think it’s very convenient at the moment, Mr Radstock, the mistress is somewhat busy, I’
m afraid,’ she explained, agitatedly.

  ‘Oh, I don’t mind waiting, anticipation is half of it, you know,’ beamed back Radstock.

  ‘Right, erm… Just wait here a moment.’ A kerfuffle came from the hall and she whipped her head around at the noise, ‘I’ll just go and see…’

  She smiled thinly, yanked the door open, and quickly stepped into the hall. She took a moment for a breath then hurried through to the back door where the little entourage that should have been on the way to the docks stood around looking confused.

  ‘What happened?’ she barked.

  ‘Sommat went wrong wiv the ‘orses and coach,’ explained one of them. ‘It all broke. It weren’t our fault; it was Broddy, ‘e were meant to be driving.’

  Mrs Fitchley swore and then gathered her thoughts. ‘Upstairs, and take her with you. Keep your hands off her and make sure she doesn’t get away; and keep her quiet. Now off with you quick, I’ll deal with it all later.’

  The four of them dragged Isabella towards the stairs and then up, all trying to go upstairs at once, jamming it, like a cork in a bottle. Mrs Fitchley watched and then slowly shook her head as the jam cleared and they managed to disappear around the bend in the stairs. Without giving them another thought, she hurried to the back room and down the stairs to the basement, quickly tidying up after Isabella’s incarceration. When she’d done that, she rushed back up the stairs and then stood outside the parlour to get her breath back. She calmed herself and then opened the door.

  She smiled at Mr Radstock. ‘The Mistress has agreed to see you, but the price will be double as you have no appointment. I’m afraid she wants payment in advance today.’

  Radstock nodded agreement; he considered the money well spent. He counted it out and handed it over. ‘Thank you, Mrs Fitchley, I’m sure she’ll treat me that extra bit special, she does so like a willing customer.’ He waited a moment, hoping for a cup of tea and biscuits, but it seemed that today he would be disappointed, tea appeared off the menu.

  Mrs Fitchley ushered him out and down the corridor; she had a quick look upstairs and listened briefly, but it seemed as if they were at last doing as they were told. She showed Radstock into the back room and opened the door to the basement, smiled at him as she reminded him about the bottom step, and then shut the door. Radstock descended the stairs and went into his favourite room to wait.

  As normal, Radstock began without being told. He picked up a cloth and began to polish all the ornaments in the basement. It seemed quite a while later, when he had gone through nearly half of them, that the door opened and Miss Lena came in. She carried a particularly nasty looking three thronged leather punisher in one hand and a long whip in the other; Radstock felt his heart quicken.

  ‘You started before I told you again, Radstock.’ She cracked the long whip. ‘That means you will be punished. Everything off. Now,’ she ordered.

  Radstock obliged, feeling his excitement increase.

  *

  Cornwallis felt confident that they had more than enough assistance to deal with anything they would find in the house and to free Isabella unharmed. He decided a cordon of feelers outside the front of the house should prevent anyone from running away, while everyone else, including the bears, would go in through the back and then pass out to the feelers everyone they caught. MacGillicudy insisted on going in with the rest, and Dewdrop pleaded to go too. Rose, still feeling sorry for his embarrassment on the docks, persuaded Cornwallis to agree to Dewdrop’s request.

  Frankie, Rose, MacGillicudy and Dewdrop, plus two other feelers, stood in the yard waiting to go in the gate. Gerald and two of his men, Snuffler and Conk, along with Cornwallis, Fluffy and the two bears, waited too. Cornwallis told Big George and Chalkie to wait outside the back door, because they were far too big to go marauding through a house without getting in the way, and grab anyone they didn’t recognise. The rest of them were to go in and methodically search.

  MacGillicudy, Dewdrop and the two feelers were to do the ground floor, Gerald and his men to do the first floor. The top two floors were for himself, Rose, Frankie and Fluffy. He checked that everyone knew what they were doing and then grinned. He felt he should give a little speech to get them in the mood, but a look at all their faces told him that if he did they wouldn’t be responsible for their actions. He kicked open the back gate and they all went in.

  Something jogged Cornwallis’ memory as they went through in a rush, he stopped and spoke quickly to Big George and Chalkie and then carried on. Frankie kicked the back door open and they stormed in.

  George and Chalkie grinned at one another and then turned to the door of the privy. Cornwallis had remembered he had seen one man go in, but he hadn’t seen him come out again. George knocked politely on the door and received a reply.

  ‘Sod off, I ain’t finished yet.’

  Chalkie yanked on the door and pulled it open.

  The man inside sat comfortably with his trousers around his ankles reading the back page of the paper. He looked up and opened his mouth to issue a response to the intrusion when he abruptly changed his mind. Chalkie reached inside with his paw and flicked out his claws one by one. The man stared dumbstruck at the deadly talons as they each appeared in sequence. Chalkie issued a low growl and bared his teeth, then swiped down at the paper, shredding it in one fell swoop. Having already finished what he had gone in there to do and now just bided his time to finish the paper, the appearance of the two bears and the shredding of his paper had the remarkable effect of inducing another urge, which dissipated remarkable quickly as he fell forward in a faint. George craned his neck through the door and sighed in disappointment. Chalkie reached down, grabbed the man by the ankles, and dragged him outside, still with his trousers at half-mast.

  As the rest of them went in, a door in the corridor came open. A head appeared, but it took too long to compute what was going on. Dewdrop, closest to the head, held his trusty truncheon in his hand; whether a reflex or a reaction to his humiliation on the docks, he couldn’t have said, because where normally he would have turned tail and run, this time he didn’t. He raised the weapon and brought it crashing down on the top of the man’s head with a thwack sound, a grunt followed, and then the man collapsed. Cornwallis grinned and patted Dewdrop on the back before rushing up the stairs.

  Gerald and his men dived into the corridor on the first floor and began to kick open the doors one by one, while Cornwallis and Rose headed further up with Fluffy. A scream came from the first floor and Frankie stopped, a female scream, more than likely Isabella’s, so he yelled to Cornwallis that he intended staying there. Cornwallis called back his agreement and carried on up.

  They found the second floor empty as they quickly searched the rooms, then Fluffy ran up the next flight of stairs, closely followed by Rose. At the top, she began to peer into all the rooms before finding one that had an incumbent. She stopped, and stared, and the man inside smiled back.

  ‘Jack,’ she yelled down. ‘Jack, I think you should come up.’ She then noticed an arm on the sill of the window.

  Fluffy saw it too and leapt. His claws sprang out and he raked the arm, then sunk his teeth into the flesh and bit down hard; a yell came from outside and the arm was yanked away. Fluffy very nearly went with it, but just managed to jump down in time. Rose hurried over to the window and saw a man sliding down the drainpipe.

  ‘George,’ she yelled, and the big brown bear looked up.

  The man had got half way down when Rose yelled, and he made the mistake of twisting his head to look below, swallowing hard as he realised that two bears and an unconscious looking colleague awaited him. His choices were limited. He looked up as Rose looked down and she blessed him with a knowing smile, his chances of getting away were somewhere between nil and none. He decided to risk it and jumped. Chalkie still had the first man in his hand, and as the escapee jumped, he began to swing his arm. A polar bear is perhaps one of the strongest animals around, and the man in his hand felt as light as a feather,
so he swung hard. As the man landed he came head to head with his friend at a particularly rapid speed of knots, and the sickening crunch of head meeting head set Rose’s teeth on edge.

  Cornwallis dived into the room and abruptly stopped, sitting on the bed he saw a man they had been looking for — Roland Goup.

  A couple of floors down, Gerald and Frankie had found Isabella. They had also found two more men, one of whom pointed a crossbow at the door, while the other held a knife to Isabella’s throat.

  They backed off into the corridor and waited a moment before Gerald shook his head. ‘No point in waitin’. Let’s go get ‘em,’ he said, rubbing his hands.

  Frankie nodded. ‘I’ll take the one holding Isabella, you can have the other.’

  ‘Suits me,’ agreed Gerald. ‘I wonder if ‘e knows about me?’ He then stepped into the door frame and grinned at them. ‘Shall I introduce meself? My name is Gerald, an’ I come from the Brews. What do I call you, dead an’ deader perhaps?’

  They had obviously heard of the King of the Brews as they quickly looked at each other with a worried glance.

  ‘Well, my boys, are we going to do this the easy way, or are yer going to make it difficult? I’d like you to choose the difficult way because then I won’t feel guilty about what I’m about to do. Now tell me, which o’ you buggers went treading on my territory, eh?’

  Frankie stood behind Gerald, and Snuffler and Conk stood behind him. The two men failed to respond to Gerald’s polite enquiry, they just looked two very confused and scared individuals; they didn’t expect all this to happen.

  The crossbow wavered and wobbled a bit and then as Gerald stepped in, it fired. The bolt hurtled straight towards Gerald’s chest, but to the amazement of the firer, it went straight through and thudded into the wall.

  Gerald grinned.

  Frankie had only a moment to act as the man holding the knife dropped his jaw in astonishment. Gerald stepped further in as Frankie stepped towards the knife holder, just as the one holding the crossbow rushed at Gerald. He made a mistake in thinking he would just bowl him over, but instead found that going through Gerald was like wading through treacle. When he emerged from the other side he went straight into the arms of Snuffler and Conk, who gleefully dispensed instant justice. Frankie saw that his man was still open-mouthed; with the knife held against Isabella’s throat, but as the crossbow fired, the knife dropped a little and then fell away completely as he watched his friend dive straight through Gerald. Before he could recover, the man looked up, just as Frankie’s fist came towards his face.