003:1/2 The adventures of James Bond Jr.

dragonsky

I just found this article, and I think there's no thread for this book so I decided to start one. Have you read it ? What did you think of it ? Some say that Arthur Calder-Marshall wrote this book but I guess it's not 100% confirmed yet.


http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70751/no-one-knows-who-wrote-james-bond-novel

Darius

Hmmm... interesting.

I pains me to admit that this one passed under the radar, although this book is still readily available used, although it's now long out of print.

The mystery of the author's true identity is what intrigues me the most though. It's possible, indeed highly likely, that IFP are remaining tight-lipped about this for legal reasons, which suggests that if the real author were to be revealed, it would trigger litigation for breach of contract, assuming the real author was contracted to another publisher at the time of publication. If this is the case, then the real author is likely to be a major bankable "name" writer of the time, especially since the secret remains carefully guarded until this very day. This means then that this author's work is still likely under copyright.

I suppose the only way to gain clues here is to buy a copy of this book and read it. The game's afoot! ;)

007InVT

Good thread.

There is a rumour that John Pearson wrote it but I think that's unlikely. Why it's STILL so hush hush is mystery, since no one really cares except for a few of us probably.

ClarkDevlin

It was not known who wrote The Adventures of James Bond Junior 003½, although many authors had been named as possibilities including Roald Dahl and Kingsley Amis. Amis was usually seen as unlikely since a year later he released Colonel Sun under the pseudonym Robert Markham, however, unlike R. D. Mascott, Amis's authoring of Colonel Sun was never a secret. Amis's writing style was also not similar to Mascott. Roald Dahl on the other hand did share some similarities specifically with one book he wrote in 1975, Danny, the Champion of the World. In 1967, Roald Dahl completed the screenplay for You Only Live Twice for Eon Productions, the same year The Adventures of James Bond Junior 003½ was published. Although there was evidence to suggest Dahl may have written 003½, there was equally as much evidence to suggest he had not.

Several authorities attributed the novel to Arthur Calder-Marshall. Calder-Marshall had written a number of similar books especially in style and his descriptions of characters and environments in his books The Magic of My Youth (1951) and The Scarlet Boy (1961). It had also been suggested that the initials R. D. are a play on the name Arthur, which is typically shortened to Artie.

Several years ago, the now defunct 007Forever.com website made a detailed case for the claim that Arthur Calder-Marshall was indeed the author behind the R.D. Mascott pseudonym. This incredibly detailed analysis focused greatly on the writing style, and compared specific paragraphs from "003½: The Adventures Of James Bond Junior" to several of Calder-Marshall’s novels which were published at roughly around the same time.

As reported at Her Majesty’s Secret Servant, the identity of Mascott was kept a secret for decades until it was confirmed by his executors to be Arthur Calder-Marshall (August 19, 1908 – April 17, 1992).

Taken from Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_James_Bond_Junior_003½#The_author

RichardTheBruce

Interesting stuff, @dragonsky.

RichardTheBruce

Possessing a copy of the Random House US edition, I can begin comment.



The opening passages.

003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior, R.D. Mascott, 1968. (1966)

003½
THE ADVENTURES OF JAMES BOND JUNIOR

It's not easy to be the nephew of someone as famous as James
"007" Bond.

The younger James Bond has played "secret agent" so often
that his friends think it's just another game when he says there's
something going on at a nearby estate.

But James wonders why the new owner has sealed off the
grounds with barbed wire and vicious dogs. Is he just a mad
millionaire? Or is there method in his madness?

With the help of an unlikely ally, a grubby, shop-lifting girl
named Sheelagh, James undertakes a daring adventure in which
he displays the same courage and resourcefulness that made his
uncle famous.

So I'm absorbing the set-up of this James Bond as the son of Captain (David) Bond, he's an only child living with mother and father, but with frequent moves kind of isolating him over time. And apparently dealing with the family association as nephew of James Bond the VERY well-known secret agent, the wink-wink-nudge-nudge--he can't live up to HIS reputation. But apparently will try.

CHAPTER 1
The Reason Why Not
Dar es Salaam

...
"Tell me, what's it like, James, being overshadowed by 007?"
Mrs. Frame asked. "And why ever did that father of yours call
you James, knowing the trouble it'd cause you?"

James told her that he'd never met James Bond. His parents
never saw him--he was always on some mission or other.

"But I wrote to him once. You know, as man to man. I thought,
well, we had something in common."

"And...?"

"He sent me a sheath knife. But he didn't really say much--
not like he understood, I mean."

Some interesting stuff in Chapter 1 obviously for a younger audience.
But am I supposed to have "dirty thoughts" for "a grubby, shop-lifting girl" I'm left wondering.

Gerard

The french edition :



And yes, I have it, having bought it in 1973 or so. Funny thing, the man who did the cover and the interior illustrations was Maurice Paulin, who, among other things, did the same for a young readers spy series (for the same publisher) called Langelot. More details here :

coolfrenchcomics.com/langelot.htm

As for the Sheath knife, I guess it would be that model, Bond being british and all :

RichardTheBruce

That's an awesome image @Gerard, I did a quick search for more of a throwing knife but settled for something else obviously. Yours is on the mark.

Gerard

An interior colour illustration, showing James Jr. And Sheelagh :

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 2
The Girl behind the Fence

[James on his way to the Merck cottage.]
...
Where the Windlehurst footpath joined the bridle path there
was no undergrowth, except for some weeds growing close to the
wire fence. Through these weeds, James saw someone in the
pasture, close to the wire. As he walked quietly down, he saw
that it was a girl.

She was kneeling down, half-turned from him. The pattern of
her cotton dress was so faded it was indistinguishable. Her straw-
berry colored hair looked as if it hadn't been washed, combed or
brushed for ages. He could not see what he was bent over, but
from the way her shoulders shook and the strange noises she
made she seemed to be crying.

The girl did not hear his approach and James got close enough
to see that she was staring at something brown and furry, round
which blue bottles were buzzing, angry at being disturbed.

James knelt down, not two yards away. She took no more
notice of him than of the blue bottles. Tears ran down her
freckled, grubby face, leaving clean streaks. Every so often she
sobbed. She was only a kid, but she was beautiful in a wild way.

As he did not want to scare her by speaking, James willed
her to turn and see him.

Suddenly she looked round. She had long, light lashes, like a
cow's. But her green-yellow eyes were like a cat's. For a moment
James thought that she was scared. Then her eyes blazed. Her muscles
tautened, as if, like a crouching panther, she might suddenly
leap.

Needless to say James is humbled (or should be) by her reaction to their meeting. And the chapter touches on death and danger.

Unknown to me, the British term "blue bottles" for bluebottle fly or bottlebee.
Maybe Richard Chopping's real world inspiration for his cover art.

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 3
The Silent Guardians

...
There was no mention of dogs, no need of it. As James stopped
opposite the gate, an Alsation ran out from the farmyard like a
bull trotting into the bullring. He looked round and then, seeing
James, he bounded barking toward him. Close behind came an
Alsation bitch, trying to make up for slowness by baring even
louder.

Despite the protection of the barricade, James stepped back-
ward. They were magnificent beasts. There was such a ferocity in
the baring of their teeth that they seemed spoiling to get at him,
and such power in their bodes that James thought they could
clear the barricade if they wanted. He had to reassure himself
that they were guard dogs, trained not to go out and attack but
to stand and defend.

I took notice of the author using an opportunity to introduce the word "bitch" into his book for young adults. In another passage I'm surprised by something sometimes taken as a phallic symbol, can't guess the intent here. Maybe I'm overly sensitive on these points.

dragonsky

Thanks for sharing parts of the books here, really appraciate it

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 4
When is a Public
Footpath Private?

..................................................At the back there was a map
of the estate. The Windlehurst footpath was marked as public
and the path on the other side of Breakneck Lane leading to
Underfold was also marked as public, but the middle bit crossing
the Hazeley Hall Estate was not. So Mr. Merck was legally within
his rights to block the path from Lower Farm to Breakneck Lane.
Perhaps, thought James, that was why Mr. Merck had bought
Hazeley Hall. It gave him a large estate from which the public
could be barred. He now understood the silence of the two men.
He had made a fool of himself. He put back the catalogue.

The only way to get to Mr. Merck was to go right up his
front drive. Should he bicycle there or what?

Just then Nobby Scales drove up in his mail truck. Nobby's
delivery round took him along the Windlehurst road, down
Breakneck Lane right past the entrance to Hazeley Hall, and
then over the river to Marsham.

James opened the window.

"Hey, Nobby!" he shouted. "Give me a lift!"

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 5
The Occupier, Hazeley Hall

.................Nobby Scales was a very knowing character.
There seemed no job he hadn't had before becoming a
mailman. As a result of this wide experience, he had a fund of
inner secrets.

"Of course, knowin' it from the inside..." was a favourite
beginning to his sentences, or "Strictly confidential..."

"There are things I could tell you," he would go on, nodding
his head and either winking or laying his index finger on the
side of his nose, "what would make your 'air stand on end, they
would."

What what these things were, he never specified.

"Cor," he would say when pressed for details, "if you seen
what I seen! You wouldn't credit it. You just wouldn't credit it!"

Being a mailman suited him no end, especially the postcards.

"That card what the Commander got from Ma Sales. You
shoulda seen that card, you reely should. Strike a light! Wonder
it didn't burn the post bag." His voice sunk to a whisper. "All
in code, of course. They say 'e'd retired!" He shook his head.
"Once in Naval Intelligence, always in Naval Intelligence! All
the world knows that."

Short of spoilers hopefully, there is surprising violence in this chapter. And what I thought was misrepresented on the book covers is shown to be accurate after all. Plus of course it's hard being a civil servant.

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 6
The Shoplifter

..........................In Marsham change is more noticeable than
in a town--who has a new car, a new hat, a new shop front.
Even the people you don't know to speak to, you know by sight.
And in three months they can alter astonishingly, James thought.

There was time to kill before he could meet Squirrel and the
Pride, so James wandered around the village. He went into Wool-
worth's to buy a quarter-pound of assorted sweets. At the candy
counter, he immediately saw the tow-haired girl from Lower
Farm. She was standing next to a large woman who was order-
ing several different kinds of sweets. The woman had a loaded
shopping basket over her arm.

A stranger would have thought that the girl was the large
woman's daughter, waiting patiently for her mother to finish.
James, standing on the side, could see the girl's hand creep up
between the shopping basket and the body of the large woman.
It went up quietly and was as quietly withdrawn. Then the girl
moved away, as if she was interested in something else.

To make some sense of the story, I'll start with very brief descriptions of the chapters then keep up with the rest. Spoilers, obviously.

Chapter 1: The Reason Why Not Dar es Salaam
James resists a family outing to Dar es Salaam--he has his own agenda and business to take care of. To recover belongings from Hazeley Hall, where Mrs. Frame allowed him access to a one-room cottage. Some observations on 007 and the family relationship.

Chapter 2: The Girl Behind the Fence
James on his own is surprised that his access to the cottage is blocked by a sign that warns "KEEP OUT--DANGER FIERCE DOGS". The owner Mr. Merck isn't so accessible. James comes across a blond girl and death--she's crying over a dead (Alsation) puppy. He's first sorry, then is compelled to deny being responsible for the death.

Chapter 3: The Silent Guardians
Another footpath access to Lower Farm is blocked by wire and warning signs. Alsatians roam the grounds--fierce guard dogs, trained to stand and defend rather than attack rationalizes James. Two odd men stand in the distance, the blond girl appears. James shouts an appeal to them and the girl, it's not answered. She eats a banana. A red-haired woman pulls her away and inside. James is outraged by what he sees as public rights of access being violated.

Chapter 4: When is a Private Footpath Public
James shares the details with Mrs. Raggles, leaving out the dead puppy and the girl. A more adult conversation for him, he's frustrated but recognizes Mr. Merck is within his rights to buy up land like Hazeley Hall and deny access. But he wants his belongings and hitches a ride on Nobby Scales' mail truck.

Chapter 5: The Occupier, Hazeley Hall
Actions evolve that place James in the vehicle entering Hazeley Hall. He's witness to a ferocious Doberman pinscher on a chain, and this part of the mail run is described as a gauntlet. Following a contentious interaction with Mr. Merck, Nobby snaps and shockingly runs down the chained dog with his truck. The frantic mood continues after their hasty exit, James is sickened by the death. He's ready to support Nobby and go to the police, Nobby refuses that help.

Chapter 6: The Shoplifter
At Woolworth's James observes the blond girl Sheelagh shoplifting, her interests include sweets and draw-rin' stuff. He offers better drawing materials when he retrieves them from Hazeley Hall. She's doubtful.

James refers to Sheelagh as:

"The bog-rose! ... A favorite flower of mine.
But sooner to flower than the cultivated varieties."

Andromeda polifolia Marsh Andromeda, Bog rosemary

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 7
The Pride of Lions

..........................The Pride of Lions had been James' idea
during his last year at Marsham Primary. He had been encour-
aged by Alfie Maws, the landlord of the Lion and the Unicorn,
whose son Bobbie was in the same class. Alfie Maws had con-
verted the stables at the public house into a sort of gym and
game room. But most of the activities of the Pride had been
centered on the ammunition dump on the grounds of Hazeley
Hall, with the permission of Mrs. Frame. That was why James
wanted to see Squirrel Joram, who became King of the Pride
after James went away to prep school and the others moved into
the Secondary Modern. The Pride must resent the fencing-in of
Hazeley Hall as much as he did--perhaps more.

...
"So where are we?" Bill Asher said. "Back where we started."

"You don't know judo," James said.

"For crying out loud!" Squirrel raised a laugh.

James waited for the laugh to end. "I've been learning it. The
principal's easy. You don't go against. You go with."

"What d'you go with with with?" Squirrel asked. And there was
another laugh, but the Lions were excited at the exchange.

"The guard dogs."

James told them about Nobby Scales's killing the Doberman
pinscher. "I think there's only the two Alsatians tonight," he
said. "They won't have had the time to get another guard dog. Just
two guard dogs for the whole of Hazeley. One of them may be
chained, in place of the Doberman pinscher."

"Or they'll padlock the front gate and leave both dogs loose,"
Squirrel said. Squirrel was a sharp second-in-command."

"That's right Squirrel," James said. "We've got to find out.
But the point is, these dogs bark. They bark like mad."

"So what?" asked Charlie North.

"We were talking of being a nuisance," James said. "Ringing
someone's doorbell and running away--that could be against
the law. But making somebody's dog bark! That's judo. You don't
trespass. You're just there. They make their own nuisance. And
if they're scared of somebody getting in..."

There was a murmur of appreciation. "Keep 'em up all night.
String 'em up and down the wire."

"Operation Barker!" Squirrel said. "It's an idea. But, golly,
can we do it?"

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 8
Operation Barker

...
James' party and Squirrel's set off together at dusk. Jon Long
was waiting for them where their ways parted. he came to meet
them as they hove into the night. He looked perplexed. "It's jolly
queer," he said. "I done like you told. But it didn't work out."

He had presented himself at the at the barricade and had rattled on
the wire with a stick. But there was no barking. Just this one dog
came loping over. But he didn't bark. He stood watching Jon and
when Jon put his hand on the barbed wire, he growled and
showed his teeth. Jon walked along the wire fence and the Alsa-
tian followed him silently, stopping when he stopped, moving on
again when he moved.

Once Jon put his hand up and grasped the wire as if he was
going to climb up it. Immediately the Alsatian sprang for the
wire and nearly had Jon's fingers.

There were no lights downstairs at the farmhouse. But there
was one light in an upstairs room. Jon blew his whistle several
times, but no one came. At last the curtain in the lighted room
was drawn. A girl looked out. (Jon didn't say what girl, but
Jimmy was sure that it was Sheelagh.) She didn't call out and
Jon did not blow the whistle again. There didn't seem any point.

"Well," Squirrel said, "there's no one there--only the girl. And
the dog won't bark. So bang goes Operation Barker!"

The others looked at James.

James didn't care about Operation Barker. It was a pretty silly
idea to begin with. He'd thought of it just as an exercise to get
the Lions used to working together as a team, so that they'd be
ready when "the balloon went up." He looked at the other
five--or rather, four, because at that moment Jon Long said, "I
must be pushing," and made off back to Marsham. James didn't
dare to take them into his confidence. They'd just laugh and tell
him to stop playing 007.

"No," he said. "Operation Barker is more important than ever!"

Next:

CHAPTER 9
Combined Operations

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 9
Combined Operations

...
Bobbie Maws said nothing, but Bill Asher said, "Aren't you
taking this rather seriously, Jim?"

"It's either something or nothing," James said. "If it's some-
thing, it's serious, dangerous. If it isn't it's a waste of time. But
either way it's not a game."

He walked on without the other two.

After a few moments of muttering, they followed him. But
when they reached the bottom of the hill, where the ditch broad-
ened into a sort of a boggy swamp, the lights of a car appeared
reflect round the corner of the crest.

"Down!" shouted James, throwing himself face down in the
bog. It was too much for Bobbie Maws and Bill Asher. They
turned and started walking back toward Marsham.

About ten yards away, they stood in the road, trying to
thumb a lift from the downcoming car.

Looking up, James could see that it was Sir Cuthbert's Jaguar.
The Commander might have stopped to give James a life (if
his clothes hadn't been sopping). But he didn't stop for the
sons of a tavernkeeper and a pharmacist. He raised his head-
lights and sounded the horn. As the Jaguar swept by without
dropping speed, James saw there was a woman beside the Com-
mander, not Lady Conningtower, but a blond womand, much
younger, who was leaning forward and laughing.

Bobby and Bill jumped back onto the verge, swearing with
fright.

James stood up. the front of his shirt and trousers were
dripping wet.

"Come home, Jim," Bill said, "you can't go on like that.
You're not 007 you know."

James does go on in the dark. Reaching a barbed wire fence, he sights two men in a truck by the point of light appearing with each drag on their cigarettes. Hazeley Lodge is in view.

A second military truck arrives, the first joins it. He sees Miss Hubbard's Ford Anglia come and go. A black Humber automobile appears at the exit.

...
He could have sworn it was the bearded face of the
ginger Negro, under a dark, peaked cap.

As it turned the corner, the Humber's lights leapt full on;
and from the dome in the centre of the roof flashed the blue
winking eye of the police!

Next:

CHAPTER 10
The Wrath of Mrs. Raggles

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 10
The Wrath of Mrs. Raggles

...
But a furious Mrs. Raggles pounced on him the moment he
came in. "Yes, I know you telephoned earlier, but that's no
excuse," she said, "not for being this late!"

She held him away from her, looking at his torn and sopping
clothes, his face and hands deliberately smeared with mud for
camouflage. "If I'd known what I'd let meself in for, I never
would've promised I'd do for you. And never again. Get up
them stairs, James Bond, and wash yer face and 'ands, and put
yer pyjams on."

If he hadn't felt so exhausted, James would have protested.
But Mrs. Raggles had been building up her fury all evening.
"You nearly had me ringing the police," she shouted upstairs.
"Wait till your Dad and Mum hear about this. You'll get a
paddle-bum. Good mind to give it you meself."

"You just try!" he snapped.

"I would an' all, if you was mine."

"Well I'm not!" He turned and shouted down the stairs.
"I'm nobody's. I'm MINE!"

As he washed himself under the shower, James thought about
the words that had just sprung out of his mouth: "I'm mine."
As the shower freshened him, he realize that this was what
happened when you grew up, you became yours, nobody else's.
So did your problems.

...
Mrs. Raggles was not impressed. Had James told her too
much or hand't he told her enough? Or was she frightened of
anything which had to do with Them? James felt her disap-
proval build up, like an abscess beneath a tooth. It burst as he
finished the tart. She plucked the empty plate away from him.
"Well, that's quite enough of that!" she said. "An' the sooner
you get to bed the better, me lad."

"But Mrs. Raggles, you don't see..."

"I see only too well," she said. "You've got that uncle of
yours on the brain. Your Mum warned me. And I'm not going
to have any of that 007 nonsense in this house, not while I'm
responsible." She tossed her head. "That I won't!" She did it so
vigorously that spoon and fork fell from the plate.

James makes an awkward phone call to the Commander, but Lady Conningtower picks up. He'll have to talk to the Commander the next day, about seeing him in the Jaguar. (What he didn't share: Sir Cuthbert was accompanied by a young blonde woman.)





Next:

CHAPTER 11
Treed

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 11
Treed

...
He heard when they reached the fallen oak, because of the
Alsatian's barking. The dog had found James' scent and came
running down the side of the field, his barking growing louder
and louder until he stopped beneath the standing oak. There
he stopped, alternately barking and trying to leap up the tree.

James's heart beat so hard that he was afraid the girl would
hear it down below. Then Sheelagh started calling, "Jimmy!
Jimmy!" Her voice was pleading, not a bit like a key snitcher's.
James climbed quietly down until he could see her face turned
upward. She spoke to the Alsation and he stopped barking and
went and sat on his haunches away from the tree.

"What you doin'?" Sheelagh asked. "Come on down! Don't
say yer skeered?"

"Wouldn't you be," James asked, "if I had that dog?" But
he felt silly, seeing the Alsatian so obediently tame.

Sheelagh stroked the dog's head. "It's Satan," she said. "He
won't hurt you, if I sez so." She knelt by the dog, pointing up
the tree at James. "Satan!" she said. "Friend! Friend!"

So James continues his plan to get to the cottage and retrieve his possessions.




Next:

CHAPTER 12
Not Quite a Boy,
Not Yet a Man

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 12
Not Quite a Boy,
Not Yet a Man

...
James went to the cottage and opened it. He thought what a
pity he should meet a girl who'd be fun to play with, just when
there were more important things to do.

He took out his large box of colored pencils. It was a folly to
give her all, and pettiness not to. He would be foolish, he de-
cided, not petty. He selected three sizes of brushes, half a dozen
poster paints, an HH and a BB pencil, a big used sketching pad.
That was the lot.

Then he thought better. Sheelagh would prefer a completely
new sketching pad half the size of a big one partly used. He
did them all up in brown paper and sealed the package with
tape. And with a felt-tip pen he wrote NOT TO BE OPENED TILL
LATER. He was not going to have her looking over his gift and
haggling with him about whether the drawing things were what
she really wanted.

"But what'll I do when you're gorn, Jimmy?" she said forlornly.

"Draw, girl, draw!" he said. "I want to see what you've done
when I come back."

And though he had never intended this, as he said these words
he realized that he had an opportunity to use Sheelagh to spy
on her own people.

No, said part of James that he was still a child, No. But the
other part of James said, Yes. And why not?

Next:

CHAPTER 13
Mrs. Raggles Gives a Blessing

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 13
Mrs. Raggles Gives a Blessing

"I'd beat the daylights out of you, if you was
my boy," said Mrs. Raggles, "which mind you you're not, so I
won't. But just you look at that clock. Twenty past ten! You go
out mushrooming and you don't even find no mushrooms! It's
not fair to me, Jimmy. What're you up to?"

James could tell Mrs. Raggles what he was up to. He wasn't
certain himself. "I don't want breakfast anyway," he said,
though he was ravenous. "So don't bother."

If he had asked for breakfast, Mrs. Raggles would have told
him he was too late. As it was, she hurried off to cook up an
enormous meal, which she could insist on his eating. James
wished that Sheelagh was as predictable as Mrs. Raggles.

The half-folded Daily Clarion was lying on the table. The one
banner headline in huge capitals was a single word:

ROBBERY

...
£2 M GOLD GRAB
JEWEL GANG STRIKES AGAIN?

...
"Don't you see Jimmy, you can't do nothing on your own,"
Mrs. Raggles said. "It's not for you or me. It's for Them." She
was very serious. Though James did not have Mrs. Raggles' be-
lief in "Them," he couldn't see at the moment what he or the
Pride could do. He looked crestfallen. And he was not playacting.
He felt it.

"If you make some sandwiches, I could take the bike," he sug-
gested. "Maybe go for a swim in the lake. See what Squirrel's
doing."

Mrs. Raggles made a hopeless gesture with her hands. "I've
given me word to your Dad and Mum," she said. "What'll they
say?... They'd never forgive me... I'd never forgive meself
if anything happened.

He had learned that, as far as grownups were concerned--
apart, of course, from the paid tormentors of the young like
schoolmasters--to be a schoolboy is to wear a cloak of invisibility.
Nothing he thinks or does can matter to adults.

James helped Mrs. Raggles make the sandwiches and fill a
thermos with iced lemonade. "We might make a long day of
it," he said, "but you're not to fuss, see!"

When he went to the door, Mrs. Raggles, having seen every-
thing packed in his saddlebag, suddenly took hold of his head
in her hands. "You're a proper little devil, Jimmy," she said
and kissed him on the forehead. "Bless you and keep you out of
trouble."

If anyone had been looking, James would have blushed with
shame. But as it was, the kiss and the blessing lightened his
heart as he cycled away.

Next:

CHAPTER 14
Young Fool, Old Fools

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 14
Young Fool, Old Fools

...

He could see Sir Cuthbert's boredom building up. James's
story wasn't a simple one. It was built up from a number of
little things, none very significant in itself, but, in James's
mind, very suspicious when taken together. They seemed not to
penetrate Sir Cuthbert's mind. The Commander licked his lips
and put his hand into his jacket pocket and felt the half-bottle
of gin.

It wasn't until James was floundering in the middle of his
story that he saw he was asking the impossible of the Com-
mander. Sir Cuthbert wanted to cover up his lie about the Naval
Reunion dinner. If he rang up Sergeant Daintree or the Criminal
Investigation Department, there was a strong chance that it
would be discovered that he hadn't been to any Naval Reunion.
James came to a stop in the middle of the sentence.

Sir Cuthbert leaned over and opened the door for him. "Nice
of you to put in the picture, laddie," he said. "I'd suggest
this is your big chance to get in touch with Uncle James. Just up
007's street, eh?"

Jimmy got out. He was a fool to ever have thought old
Conningtower would be willing to help. He closed the door.

"Or," added Sir Cuthbert through the window, "he might
advise you not to be a silly little boy."

Rage made James tremble. "Thank you for your advice, sir,"
he said. "I'll tell my father how helpful you've been." He turned
and walked across the road, for the moment anxious only not
to let Sir Cuthbert see how wounded he felt.

When he looked around, the Commander was replacing the
top on the bottle of gin.

Next:

CHAPTER 15
Caught like a Rabbit

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 15
Caught like a Rabbit

...
The truck was a one-ton Bedford. But it wasn't like the ones he
had seen the night before. There was no camouflage for one thing,
and, for another, the tarpaulin hood was newer. At the wheel was
the dark man in the black jump suit, and sitting beside him was
Mr. Merck. They were engrossed in what they were doing. But
the Alsatian bitch running behind the Bedford wasn't. When she
came to where James had crossed the carriage way, she stopped,
sniffed, and then barged to call the attention of the men in the
truck. But the engine made too much noise for them to hear.
They drove on.

...
He could hear the dog's indecision. The Alsation couldn't
climb. She didn't want to leave the tree. But her barking did not
recall the men in the truck.

From the different barks James could hear how she ran off
toward the truck to try to attract attention and then ran back
again. If the dog could have cut herself in half, she would have
done so.

"Oh God!" James prayed. "Help me!"

But the answer to the prayer made his heart sink. The tone of
the dog's voice changed to an excited greeting. She had at last
attracted notice. She was coming happily to the foot of the tree.
It was only a matter of minutes before someone climbed up to
him. And then what on earth could he say?

Next:

CHAPTER 16
Sheelagh's Boy Friend

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 16
Sheelagh's Boy Friend

The bitch fell silent. There was nothing
meaningful in the confusion of sounds: a threshing machine in
Undercote Park, a car shifting to a lower gear going up Break-
neck lane, pigeons mating in a nearby tree.

Then from below came a pleased whine.

Someone was climbing. James couldn't see who it was. The
leaves were too thick. In a sencs, he was out of this world--not
the way a Viscount was, but weighing 112 pounds he could climb
beyond the reach of heavy men like Mr. Merck or the chap in the
jump suit. The jockey might try to climb up, but if he did,
James would kick his stupid face in.

...
He had his 007 sheath knife. He hadn't used it except for cut-
ting the bracken camouflage. But now he had his fingers on its
hilt. He would show it, he thought, but not use it.

Then he shoved it back in its sheath. He had been crazy to
think of brandishing it. The only way to get out of this mess was
to be Sheelagh's boy friend with pockets full of things like bubble gum.

All of a sudden, his fears seemed foolish--because it was Shee-
lagh who was climbing up. She looked at him and laughed.
"Hello."

James was so glad to see that grubby, snubby, beautiful, green-
eyed face again , he almost said, "Oh, Sheelagh, I could kiss you!"
But instead he gave her a slangy greeting. He said, "Witcher,
snubby."

...

"Donal! Zat is enough now, Donal!" Mr. Merck's voice was
high, but it carried command. He came up behind Donal and
pushed him aside as if he was a gate. He towered over Shelagh.
"Who is zis boy. Vot's he doing here?"

"I told you to speak to no strangers," Donal snarled from
behind Mr. Merck. "I'll give yer such a tannin'."

"Jimmy's a friend o' mine," Sheelagh barked back. "E's no
stranger. 'E's my friend, see?"

James looked up at Mr. Merck. He was more dangerous than
a dozen Donals. And he wasn't stupid. "I'm sorry, sir," James
said. "Didn't I ought to be here, sir? I didn't know you were
doing anything secret."

"Secret?" Mr. Merck was caught. If their activities weren't
secret, why were they acting so strangely? If they were secret,
what was it they were hiding? "Vere you come from?" He was
puzzled by James's accent.

Next:

CHAPTER 17
Aunt Mo

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 17
Aunt Mo

As they came into the Lower Farm yard,
Sheelagh squeezed James's hand more firmly. She nodded towards
the back door. Auntie Mo, the red-headed slattern, shirt sleeves
rolled up, was sitting on a backless kitchen chair in front of a
zinc washtub. With her left hand she held a white chicken be-
tween her legs, and with her right she plucked the feathers
sharply and dropped them into the tub. Her head was bent and
she was engrossed.

Sheelagh pointed to the stable on the far side of the yard and
put a finger to her lips. Together they tiptoed towards the stable,
leaving as much distance as possible between them and Auntie
Mo. Jimmy watched her skilled movements. She did not tear
the skin. But she was so savage that she seemed to get pleasure
from exposing the flesh beneath the feathers. Like Mr. Merck
and Donal she was remorseless, James thought. Whatever she did,
she would never say sorry, because she'd done it on purpose, or
wouldn't admit it even it it was a mistake.

He knelt on the worm-eaten boards, while Sheelagh sat on
the pail, turning her drawings round for him to see them.
"Nobody ever done that for me," she said.

"What?"

"Knelt and let me sit," she said. Nobody ever treated me,
like...like somebody."

James felt embarrassed. He had no words to say even to him-
self what Sheelagh was like. His mother and father would have
been appalled by her. Yet Sheelagh was something more precious
than they could ever have. He looked at the drawings.

They were crude, but they had vigor. She could catch a like-
ness. He recognized Auntie Mo immediately, though not what
she was doing. "It's good," he said. "Gosh, I wish I could draw like that!"

James didn't have to counterfeit admiration. Which was just
as well, because he felt that drawing mattered to Sheelagh more
than anything else. If he hadn't genuinely liked her drawings,
they would have stopped being friends.

...
Suddenly the air was rent with the cry of "SHEELAGH!
SHEELAGH! It was Auntie Mo again.

They stayed very quiet and then, at a gesture from Sheelagh
they crept to the cobwebbed window. Auntie Mo was down
in the yard, ludicrously holding the unplucked chicken in her
hand, looking this way and that as she shouted, "SHEELAGH!"

Sheelagh gripped James's hand. Her fingers were sticky. She
started to laugh, very quietly but getting louder.

"What is it? Why does she want you?"

Sheelagh shook her head. She didn't know. "Don't she look silly?"

Next:

CHAPTER 18
Whose Secret Cottage?

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 18
Whose Secret Cottage?

...
D'you like it?" Sheelagh was interested in what she'd drawn,
not when.

"Not so good as Aunt Mo," James said. "What else you got?"

She showed him a number of sketches which didn't interest
him as a detective. On the coloring and composition of these he
passed critical judgment. Then he came to the last. He had to
restrain himself from gasping. It was a portrait, left profile as
James had seen her the night before, of the woman who had
been sitting beside Mr. Cuthbert in the Jaguar. "Oh!" he said.

...
"You got no more right to them things than what I 'ave,"
Sheelagh said. "An' you know it."

"But . . ." he thought of his books, his apparatus, his tools, all
his radio equipment, "you don't know what to do with it. You're
dotty, Sheelagh. You wouldn't be interested in most of it."

She flicked the picture of the Commander's girl over to him as
a gift and, as he released her wrist, she walked over to the cob-
webbed window. "I wouldn't want all of it," she said. "I'd give
you some back. Just so you teach me to use the rest." She
turned. "That's fair, ain't it?"

What made it unbearable was that Sheelagh was smiling at
him. It seemed to her the most natural thing in the world.

"But Sheelagh!" James said. "Sheelagh!"

"Um?"

"He went over to her. "I thought you liked me." He took her
head in his hands and stroked her tousled hair.

"Course I like you," she said. She put her arms round him
and kissed him on the lips. Her breath smelt of raw onions.
"That's why I said you could teach me them things."

It wasn't the way any books James had read described first
love. But this was the way it was with him. Sheelagh was the
most awful, artful and delightful girl he'd ever met.

...Auntie Mo and Paddie were out in the yard, Paddie cursing
to high heaven. Sheelagh squeezed James's hand as she ran back
to meet the onslaught.

James tried the handle of the front door. The door was bolted
top and bottom. He tugged at the rusty nails. They groaned as
they shot back. But still the door wouldn't open. The lock had
been turned and there was no key.

He could hear Sheelagh shouting in the yard, giving as good
as she took from Paddie and Auntie Mo. But she wouldn't keep
them at bay for long.

He ran into the front room. He slipped the catch of the
window, banged the window up and went out feet first. As he did
so, he felt a pain in one calf.

He did not realize until he glanced over his shoulder what
had him by the leg was a guard dog.

Next:

CHAPTER 19
Fight with a Lion

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 19
Fight with a Lion

James did not try to wrench his leg away.
The dog was Satan. His teeth did not pierce the skin, but held
him firmly in a gentle vice. "Satan!" he whispered. "Good dog,
Satan." He bent down and stroked his head.

Satan recognized him and let go. James closed the win-
dow and patted the dog. Then he walked slowly down the front
path and turned into the cover of the hedge.

...The woman who had been in Sir Cuthbert's car, for
example, was also Mr. Merck's girl. Did that mean that there
was any connection between the Commander and Mr. Merck?
If there was, Sir Cuthbert would warn Mr. Merck against James
and he would no longer be able to get away with being Sheelagh's
little friend. But what did the sketch of the woman which James
had in his pocket prove? Only that Sheelagh had seen her. The
woman might have nothing to do with the job. Mr. Merck and
the rest were busy on.

Squirrel looked at him curiously. There had been something
odd going on ever since James sat down, but he'd been too
tired to take any notice of it. "No!" Squirrel said.

"What did they say?"

"They said you was still playing James Bond like when we
were in Primary," Squirrel said. "Only now you were worse than
ever. That's why we went to Swinnyhurst."

James had forgotten the sort of boy he had been the year before.
But it was true that he had played 007 most elaborately. It was
why he had been the leader of the Lions, because he had such
invention. He had made their games excitingly real. "But don't
you understand, Squirrel, that this is the real thing?" James said.
"This is the crime of the century. Right here at Hazeley. The
bullion's hid there. I know it."

...Squirrel got up from the tree trunk. He looked down at
James. "You come along to the Pride yesterday and you took
over and you want this an' that, makin' me look a proper
muggins. What d'you want now, James Bond Junior?"

"Nothing," James said. "I can get you in there. You can't. That
girl whose puppy you poisoned. . ."

"Who said I . . . ?"

"You did, didn't you?" James looked at him accusingly.

James got up. He had won a fight, but lost a friend. He
looked down at Squirrel. He wanted to say, "I'm sorry, too."
But he couldn't.

He turned and began to run up the path towards Monkshill.
He was alone. He would always be alone.

Next:

CHAPTER 20
Mrs. Raggles Makes Sense

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 20
Mrs. Raggles Makes Sense

...
Mrs. Raggles was cooking liver, bacon, potatoes, and cauli-
flower. She looked up from the frying pan. "Don't tell me
you've been to Swinnyhurst," she said, ":because I knows you
haven't."

...
It's easy," James said. "There's a girl there called Sheelagh,
younger than me. She handles the dogs. She introduced me as
her friend. So there wasn't any trouble. And that wire fence...
it's just for show... it doesn't go all the way round. Most
places it's just the old broken-down stuff Mrs. Flame had.

Mrs. Raggles shooed him away. "Tell me over supper," she
said. "And put some water on the table, there's a duck."

...
"They said to keep out of the way," James said. "They were
shifting something in the Bedford truck. They were jolly sus-
picious, so I kept out of the way. But they're doing something in
the ammunition dump we used to play in. They were hiding
something. And I think it's bullion!"

...
He opened the window, climbed out and untied the knapsack.
Back in the living room he loaded the camera with a roll of infra-
red film, which his father had bought for photographing badgers
at night...

Then he climbed out the window and pushed it to, slung
the knapsack over his should and walked quietly down the
drive, keeping to the shadow of the evergreens. Clouds had risen
and the stars were hidden. It was very dark.

Next:

CHAPTER 21
The Trap

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 21
The Trap

...
With infinite care he undid the straps of the knapsack and took
out the camera. The stud holding the leather lens-guard was
stiff. The snap of its release made the dog turn his head sharply.

...He had not relaized how loud the click of the shutter could be.
The dog turned at once.

The dog lept over the camouflage net in a single bound. As
it landed, the chain snapped.

James jumped up. "Satan! Cerbie!" he called, low urgent, "it's
only me! Cerbie! Satan!"

With a deep growl the beast came at him, like a bull in the
arena.

James switched on the flashlight. It was a Doberman pinscher,
fangs bared. ""Help!" James screamed. "Help!" To be caught by a
human enemy like Mr. Merck would be better than being torn
apart by this brute...

Next:

CHAPTER 22
In Trouble up to the Neck

RichardTheBruce

CHAPTER 22
In Trouble up to the Neck

...
The beast was straining to get at him, snarling. But he couldn't
move. His right hind-leg was gripped in the jaws of an iron man-
trap., at which he kept trying to snap. The teeth of the trap had
bitten through the flesh to the bone but, as James slithered away
from the beaten track, afraid that where there was one man-
trap there might be more, he felt no pity for the beast. If the
teeth cut through the leg, the Doberman pinscher would
come at him on three legs and hold him till the men arrived, if it
did nothing worse.

...
Mr. Merck picked up James's flashlight, looked at it, switched
it of and put it in his pocket. The Doberman pinscher began to
howl. He had expected help from the two men, but one had run
off and the other was doing nothing to released him.

The dog went mad with pain and fear, and Mr. Merck seemed
to go mad with fear, too. He fired and fired and fired.

There was a silencer fitted to the pistol, so the only sound was
a sort of "plonk". But this madness of Mr. Merck's gave James
the chance to get up and hobble away between the trees. The
stick took most of the weight from his left foot and James made
about twenty yards before Mr. Merck stopped firing.

"Paddie!" Mr. Merck shoutet. "Schnell!! Dummkpf! Schell!"

Through the trees ahead, James could see the gleam of the
lake. He hobbled towards it. The lake was bounded by Hazely
land on all sides. But if he could reach it, he could throw the
dogs off the scent. Already he could hear the sounds of dogs and
men.

Next:

CHAPTER 23
Mrs. Raggles in Action