Four Wheeled Hero (7 page)

‘Help’, Smithy
called to his mate as the crook made a final lunge in his
direction, managing to grasp the zip opener toggle on the holdall
on Smithy’s back.

The crook held
on with an iron grip which made the zip open. Had the crook known
what was in the holdall he may have had second thoughts about his
action, for out of the bag sprang ‘Tiger’, Smithy’s cat. Boy was he
mad. He launched himself at the crook and landed full spread eagle
on his face. To ensure he didn’t fall off ‘Tiger’ buried his claws
deep into the crooks neck which caused the crook to squeal out loud
in pain while at the same time sending him off balance staggering
backwards. Tommy seeing the situation acted quickly.

‘Duck’, he
shouted to Smithy.

Smithy was just
in time to see the baseball bat go flying over his head to hit the
crook a painful blow to the stomach, sending him flying backward
and over the top of the rail which ran along the walkway. It was
five metres to the factory floor below and seeing this ‘Tiger’ jump
from the man and landed on a pile of pallets a short distance from
the machine that put the two spring parts together. Scarface wasn’t
so lucky. He landed with a thud on the lower part of the spring set
in the machine, knocking him unconscious.

No sooner had
he landed than the machine set in motion and the arm swung over to
place the upper part of the spring into place. Trapped in this
network of wire and springs the unconscious crook was lifted with
the rest of the spring mattress and placed on the conveyor for its
journey to the ‘Stuffing Department’.

By now ‘Tiger’
had got over his shock and was curled up on the pallets out of view
and fast asleep. Tommy and Smithy looked over the walkway and
watched until the crook and his mattress disappeared into the
‘Stuffing Department’.

‘That was
close’, said Smithy still feeling a little shaky after his
ordeal.

We need to be
more careful’, replied Tommy. ‘We were lucky that time’.

No sooner had
Tommy said it than the second crook, Ronny the Rat, came around the
corner.

‘What the hell
are you doing here’, he shouted in an angry voice as he started to
approach the boys along the corridor. They stood frozen once again
for a few seconds before Smithy managed to speak.

‘Do something’,
he pleaded with Tommy as the crook got nearer.

Tommy’s mind
was in a whirl for a moment before he could gather his thoughts.
‘Look out of the way’, he told Smithy.

Smithy stood
back expecting the large boxing glove or even the baseball bat.
Instead a very large tube of toothpaste with the words ‘GOLDEN
WHITE’ written on the side appeared.

‘What’s that’,
asked Smithy with a tinge of terror in his voice.

‘I.. I.. I
don’t know’, Tommy replied wondering how he managed to get it so
wrong.

On his part
Smithy could see that the crook would have his hands on them if
they did nothing, so he launched himself at the tube, landing dead
centre. A great blob of toothpaste shot from the tube to hit the
crook a full frontal, covering him from head to foot. He was now
sliding towards the boys on a slide made of toothpaste until Tommy,
that is, let fly with the boxing glove. The glove hit him smack
under the chin sending him flying over the rail to join his mate
down below.

Unfortunately,
for ‘Tiger’ the crook landed straight on top of him, scaring the
living daylights out of him. His only defence for being woken
so

unexpectedly
was to go into attack mode immediately, so he dug his claws into
the first thing he came into contact with, which just happened to
be poor old Ronny the Rats bottom. The pain he felt had the
immediate effect as he shot off the pallets to land with a thump on
the spring machine just as the top half was about to be lowered.
Within minutes he had joined Jimmy the Scar on his travels neatly
tucked up in his own steel spun straight jacket.

Tommy and
Smithy looked on panting with exhaustion, and stood there a few
minutes before they started to make their next move. As far as
‘Tiger’ was concerned he had had enough excitement to last him for
weeks, so he jumped down from the pallets and made his way through
the doors into the ‘Stuffing Department’. Seeing the stairs he
decide to go and find a nice little spot in a cosy office were he
could sleep undisturbed. He started to climb the stairs just as
horrible Uncle Frank came to investigate the noise.

Horrible Uncle
Frank started to run down the walkway calling for his two comrades
in crime just as ‘Tiger’ stepped out onto the walkway directly into
the path of horrible Uncle Frank. Seeing that he was about to be
kicked by a swinging foot, Tiger took the only option available to
him. With talons fully flexed he grabbed a hold on horrible Uncle
Frank’s leg burying his claws in up to the hilt. Horrible Uncle
Frank let out one almighty yell as the pain hit home, which made
him lift one leg completely off the ground to try and fend off this
wild cat.

Tommy and
Smithy came quickly to the walkway to see horrible Uncle Frank come
flying towards them completely out of control and fell head first
at their feet. Tommy and Smithy stood back as the now screaming
Uncle came toward them in a fit of rage, temporarily forgetting the
pain from the cat bound around his leg.

‘You…You’, he
said unable to control his temper. ‘I’ve always hated you and your
family. If it’s the last thing I do I will destroy you all’.

His face was
red and bulging, his eyes bloodshot and he’d gained a twitch on his
left cheek.

‘Come here you
little pieces of scum’, he screamed. ‘I want to crush you in my
arms personally’.

The boys were
scared to death at the sight before them, but Tommy came to his
senses just in time.

‘Bat and
Glove’, he commanded.

The bat shot
out catching horrible Uncle Frank a fearsome blow in the stomach
which was followed by an even more powerful blow by the glove at it
landed an uppercut to the chin. The blow was so hard that horrible
Uncle Frank was knocked clean out of his shoes to go sailing over
the rail to the floor below.

Tommy and
Smithy raced for the rail just in time to see horrible Uncle Frank
hung out to dry in his very own spring vest. As for ‘Tiger’ he was
nowhere to be seen. He had had enough of this and was now fast
asleep on a pile of old stuffing in the corner of the room.

Chapter 6

To The Hero’s
Return

Now that the
crooks had been taken care of Tommy was desperate to try and find
his father, so the two boys headed in the direction of the office
from which the crooks had emerged. On reaching it Smithy opened the
door slowly and quietly just in case there were any surprises
waiting for them. With the door open just a little Smithy stuck his
head in to take a look around.

‘There’s no one
here’, he said opening the door wider to allow Tommy to enter.

‘He must be
here’, pleaded Tommy getting a little worried for the safety of his
Dad.

No sooner had
he said it than the boys heard a sound coming from behind a door at
the back of the room. The boys moved slowly over and Tommy placed
his ear to the door.

‘There’s
someone in there’, he whispered so as not to be overheard by
whoever was behind the door. ‘We had better open it to find out who
it is’, Tommy added as he slowly turned the handle.

The door swung
open and there in the middle of the room was Tommy’s Dad bound hand
and foot and tied to a chair. He had tape over his eyes preventing
him from seeing his kidnappers so he could not identify anyone at a
later date. Tommy and Smithy looked on speechless their hearts
jumping with joy at seeing Tommy’s Dad.

‘Who’s there’,
said Tommy’s Dad. ‘Come on I know there’s someone there’, he
added.

Smithy was
about to move forward when Tommy suddenly grabbed his arm while at
the same time putting his finger to his lips to indicate that

Smithy should
not say a word. Tommy then took hold of the door handle and closed
the door.

‘What are you
doing’, Smithy asked in a low voice. ‘I thought we came here to
rescue your Dad, so let’s go and set him free’.

‘We can’t’,
Tommy replied in a whisper. ‘If we do that we’ll have to explain
everything, how we got here, how we overcame the crooks etc.

‘Your right’,
said Smithy now looking a little disappointed at not being able to
play the big hero.

‘We will have
to hide outside the building and call the police to take care of
the crooks and release my Dad’, Tommy said just as disappointed as
Smithy.

The boys headed
back along the walkway heading for the stairs. Looking down into
the ‘Stuffing Department’ they were just in time to see the crooks
heading into the ‘COVERING ROOM’. The machines had done a good job
of stuffing the crooks mattresses as they were now tightly jammed
into their wire prisons with stuffing sticking out of every part of
their clothing including their mouths.

Tommy recalled
his legs and the boys were soon out of the building and out through
the wire fence which Tommy welded back together. Moving around to
the front of the factory Tommy and Smithy took up positions across
the road hidden in a shrubby before Smithy pulled out his Mum’s
mobile phone and dialled 999.

‘Police, Fire
Brigade or Ambulance’, asked the operator.

‘Police’, said
Smithy in as grown up voice as he could manage.

‘Braodacre
Police here, how can we help you’, said the voice on the other end
of the phone.

‘I think
there’s a robbery going on at Goodnight Mattresses on the Broadacre
Industrial Estate’, Smithy said finding it difficult to continue
speaking in such a low voice. ‘I’ve heard screams coming from
inside which sounded like someone was being murdered’, he added to
make them give the call a little more priority.

‘Can I take a
few details about yourself’, the Policeman asked.

‘No you jolly
well can’t’, replied Smithy. ‘I don’t wish my name to be known in
case they try and murder me in my bed for reporting them’, he added
just before pressing the button that would cut their
communication.

Five minutes
later all hell broke loose as police cars with sirens blazing came
in all directions to squeal to a halt in front of the factory
gates. In no time at all the police had cut through the chain on
the gates and they were spreading all over the outside of the
building. Tommy and Smithy watched in wonderment as this real life
police action was played out in front of them.

After a couple
of minutes of trying to gain lawful access, the police knocked down
the front door of the building and went swarming in. Inside the
police were astounded to see the factory in full production with
not a soul in sight. They were still scratching their heads when
three unusual mattresses came wobbling along the conveyor track
towards them.

‘Look at that’,
a policeman said rubbing his eyes in disbelief. ‘Well I never’.

The mattresses
they were now looking at had arms and legs sticking through them
with a head protruding from the top with its mouth still
overflowing with stuffing. The machines had done a wonderful job of
accommodating the crooks, and they had even put a pretty boarder
around each of the protruding parts.

‘Well don’t
that take the carrot’, said one of the policemen just before there
was a shout from the walkway.

‘You’d better
come up here Sarge, we’ve found a guy tied to a chair’, said
another of the searching policemen.

Tommy’s Dad was
finally discovered and released to tell his story of the events of
the past two days. Of course he had no idea as to how all of the
crooks finished up in such a pickle, the only other person who
could throw any light on the subject was ‘Tiger’ who had yet again
been disturbed from his sleep and had wandered down to see what all
the fuss was about.

By now the
police had released the three crooks from their wire prisons and
were about to be taken out to the awaiting police cars for a trip
to jail. As the sergeant stood talking to Tommy’s Dad one of the
young policemen came over to them.

‘There’s
something strange here Sarge’, he said. ‘When we released the
crooks we noticed that they were all covered in scratches like
those you’d get from a cat, and they were all mumbling about not
letting the little devil near them again’.

No sooner had
he said it than ‘Tiger’ appeared making his way over to Tommy’s
Dad.

‘Well I’ll be
blowed’, Tommy’s Dad said. ‘It’s the Smiths cat Tiger, they live
just down the road from me’.

The policeman
scooped ‘Tiger into his arms and took him outside with Tommy’s Dad
for a trip to the Police Station to make a statement. After waiting
so long Tommy and Smithy nearly jumped with joy at seeing Tommy’s
Dad appear at the doorway of the factory, safe at last, before
getting into one of the police cars and driving off.

The boys felt
so happy they started singing and shouting and Smithy did one or
two tumbles just for good measure.