دزد

Chapter two

The Thief

Emil took off his school cap and said ‘good afternoon’ to the other people in the carriage.

He sat opposite a fat lady. She was only wearing one shoe, because her left shoe hurt her foot. She was sitting beside a man with a big nose.

‘Boys are not usually so polite,’ she said to the man.

As she talked, she moved her painful foot up and down.

Emil put his hand in his pocket. He wasn’t happy until he felt the little bag. He looked at the other people in the carriage. They didn’t look like thieves.

There was another woman sitting to the right of the man with the big nose. She was sewing, making a cap for a baby. At the window, next to Emil, a man with a black hat was reading a newspaper.

Suddenly the man put down his paper and took some sweets from his pocket.

‘Would you like one?’ he asked Emil.

‘Thank you very much,’ said Emil, taking one of the sweets. ‘My name’s Emil Fisher,’ he said.

The other people in the carriage smiled in a friendly way. The man lifted his hat and said: ‘My name’s Green.’

Then the fat lady asked Emil: ‘Does Mr Smith still own the cloth shop in Newton?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Emil. ‘Do you know him?’

‘Yes. I’m Mrs James from Greenfield. I hope he’s well. Can you tell him that?’

‘Yes, of course,’ replied Emil.

‘Are you going to the city?’ Mr Green asked Emil.

‘Yes. My grandmother’s meeting me at the East Station ticket office.’ He felt in his pocket. The paper money in the bag made a little noise. It was still there.

‘Do you know the city?’

‘No.’

‘Well, it will surprise you. Some of the houses there are 600 metres high. They tie the roofs to the sky. Then the houses don’t move in the wind.

And what do you do if you want to get to another part of the city quickly? Do you know?’

‘No,’ Emil answered, thinking, ‘This is a strange man!’

‘You’re put in a box at the post office, and then you travel by post. And if you have no money, you can get fifty pounds from a bank. But you have to leave your head there.’

‘Is your head at the bank?’ the man with the big nose said. ‘Stop telling the boy stupid stories.’

The two men began to shout. Fat Mrs James stopped moving her foot, and the other woman stopped sewing.

Emil was happy, because the strange man couldn’t talk to him now. He took out his food and began to eat his bread and butter.

Then the train stopped at a big station. The two ladies and the man with the big nose got out. Mrs James was almost too late because she couldn’t get her shoe on.

‘Tell Mr Smith what I said,’ she called to Emil as she left the train.

Now Emil and the man with the black hat were alone. Emil wasn’t very pleased about this. He didn’t want to be with a strange man who gave away sweets. A man who told silly stories.

Emil wanted to feel the money again, but not in front of the other man. Then the train started again. Emil went to the washroom at the end of the carriage. He took the little bag out of his pocket and counted the money.

It was still there, but how could he make it safer? Then he remembered: there was a pin in his jacket. He took out the pin and pushed it through the bag, the paper money and the cloth of his inside pocket. The money was safe now.

Emil went back to the carriage. Mr Green was asleep. Emil was glad - now he didn’t have to talk to him. He looked out of the window.

He enjoyed watching the trees, the fields and the houses. Mr Green continued sleeping. Sometimes he made little noises. Emil watched him. Why did he always keep his hat on? Emil noticed his long face and thin ears.

Suddenly Emil jumped with surprise. ‘I nearly went to sleep, I mustn’t do that,’ he told himself. He didn’t like being alone with Mr Green.

Emil wanted more people in the carriage, but nobody came. He kicked his foot to stay awake. He sometimes did this at school in history lessons.

For a short time, this helped him. He thought about his cousin, Polly. What did she look like now? It was two years since he last saw her. He couldn’t remember her face very well.

Some minutes later, he nearly fell off his seat. ‘Have I been asleep?’ he thought. He kicked his foot again. Then he counted the flies on the window.

He counted them from the bottom to the top, he counted them from the top to the bottom, and then he counted them again.

First there were twenty-four, then there were twenty-three. ‘Why does the number change?’ Emil asked himself. Then he fell asleep.

When Emil woke up, he was lying on the floor of the carriage. The train was moving. He remembered his dream. It was a bad dream.

The policeman from Newton was running after him. He caught him and took him to the stone judge. The judge was alive and said: ‘Emil Fisher, you painted my nose, so you must go to prison.’

Slowly Emil began to remember. Of course, he was going to the city. Did he fall asleep, like the man in the black hat.?

But the man wasn’t there. Emil was alone in the carriage. He sat up. His knees were shaking. He got up from the floor. His clothes were dirty, so he cleaned them quickly with his hands. Then he felt in his inside pocket.

The money wasn’t there!

Emil felt a sharp pain and pulled his hand from his pocket. There was blood on his finger from the pin, but there was no little bag there.

Emil began to cry.

Of course, he was not crying about the blood. He was crying about the money. His mother worked so hard, and now there was no money for his grandmother or for his visit to the city.

‘I’ve been careless, and a thief has stolen my money. Now what can I do?’ he thought.

‘How can I get off the train and say to my grandmother: “Here I am, but I have no money for you. And you must give me the money for my ticket back to Newton.” I can’t stay in the city. I can’t go home again.’

There was an alarm above the window at one end of the carriage.

Emil thought, ‘If I ring the alarm, the train will stop. A railway guard will come to the carriage. He’ll ask: “What’s happened? What’s the matter?’’ And I’ll say: “Someone’s stolen my money.”

“Why didn’t you look after it?” he’ll answer. “What’s your name? Where do you live? You stopped the train. Now your family will have to pay twenty-five pounds.”’

In fast trains there is a corridor that you can walk along. It takes you to the place where the guard sits. Then you can report a crime. But Emil was in a slow train. There is no corridor on slow trains. You must wait until the train stops at the next station.

‘What’s the time?’ Emil thought. The train began to pass large houses with bright gardens, and tall buildings with dirty windows. The train was moving more slowly now.

Emil knew what to do. ‘At the next station I must call the railway guard and tell him everything. The railway company will tell the police. But then I’ll have problems with the police,’ he thought, remembering his dream.

‘They’ll ask the Newton police about me.’ He imagined the Newton police chief’s report: Emil Fisher of Newton is not a good boy. He paints the noses of statues. I do not believe that his money was stolen.

Perhaps he was careless and lost it. But he probably hid it because he wanted to use it for himself. Emil Fisher is the thief. We must put him in prison.

Emil thought about the report and was afraid. No, he couldn’t tell the police.

He took his case down and put on his cap. Then he put the pin back in his jacket and got ready.

The train stopped. Emil looked out of the window and saw a sign on a wall. It said: WEST STATION. The doors were opened and people got out of the carriages. Friends were waiting to meet them.

Suddenly he saw a black hat in the crowd. It was some metres away. Was it the thief? Perhaps he stole Emil’s money but didn’t leave the train. Perhaps he just moved to another carriage while the train was at one of the stations.

Emil got out quickly.

Then he remembered the flowers. He put down his case and jumped back into the carriage. He got out again with the flowers and picked up his case. Then he ran as fast as he could towards the gate.

‘Where was the black hat? There it was. Or was it a different hat?’ Emil’s case was heavy. He wanted to put it down and leave it. ‘But someone will steal it,’ he thought.

At last he got through the crowd. He was now closer to the black hat.

Was it the thief? No.

There was another one. No, that man was too short.

Emil ran in and out of the crowd.

There! There was Mr Green, the thief. He was passing through the gate and he seemed to be in a great hurry.

‘I’ll get you’ thought Emil angrily.

He gave his ticket to the railway man, put his case in his other hand and, with the flowers under his right arm, ran after the black hat.

‘It’s now or never’ he thought.