“ Look at them Mr Bentwhistle. They’re in love.”
“ Spot on young feller. I think, that they think they’re engaged to be married,” he laughed heartily.
“ Chuckles! You old smoothy,” Charlie said, to his unfocused hound.
“ Can’t stop love old boy. Keeps the world going round and round even for dogs. I must admit Charlie he has got good taste.”
Chuckles as if understanding him, jumped up and gave him the biggest, sloppiest lick ever.
“ Crawler,” laughed Charlie.
“ Come on Charlie lets take these two home. You should call around sometime with Chuckles. I’d like that, and I can see that Fiffi would just love it,” he said, extracting Fiffi from Chuckles.
“ Sure thing Mr Bentwhistle. We’d like that. I’ll bring my friend Chester. What about tomorrow?”
“ Lovely young feller, lovely, Toodle - pip see you tomorrow then.”
Charlie watched as old Mr Bentwhistle walked briskly off to his home. He liked the old man. Tom had told him that Mr Bentwhistle was a war hero and had been a Special Air Services soldier. Charlie liked how proud he always appeared to be.
As he thought about Mr Bentwhistle he knelt down and scratched Chuckles behind the ears, “ Fiffi and Chuckles? You devil you,” he laughed.
In the distance Charlie, or Mr Bentwhistle for that matter, didn’t notice a strange, scar-faced man hiding in the bushes taking a keen interest in the events that happened in the park.
Seven
The next day Charlie, Chester and Chuckles stopped by Mr Bentwhistle’s house after school as promised only to find a great commotion happening. Outside, sat a police car with its lights flashing. The police constable was consoling Mr Bentwhistle as the threesome approached.
Charlie said, “What happened Mr Bentwhistle?”
He looked to Charlie and replied with a pained expression, “ Someone stole Fiffi!”
“ What!”
“ Oh no!” cried Chester. “ When did this happen Mr B?"
“ This afternoon boys. Look come inside.” He gestured to the boys and Chuckles and spoke to the constable who was anxious to leave.
“ Thank you constable for your help. Please let me know as soon as you hear anything.”
“ Will do Mr Bentwhistle. Cheers.”
The constable left as the others went inside. They made their way to the kitchen where Mr Bentwhistle told the boys, and Chuckles what had happened, “ You wouldn’t believe it boys, and Chuckles. Sorry Chuckles,” he said, rubbing Chuckles behind his floppy ears. “About an hour ago I was pruning the geraniums in the front yard when a man in a Porky Pig mask jumped out of a dark transit van and simply took Fiffi. She didn’t even bark. It was all too quick. I couldn’t do anything. I ran after her but stupidly tripped over and hurt myself. The police have taken a plaster cast of a footprint but they don’t hold much hope. This is just awful boys. I’ve got to get her back.”
Chuckles plopped down at Mr Bentwhistle’s feet and nuzzled close.
Chester said, “ What can you do Mr B? There must be thousands of black transit vans.”
“ Yes that’s true but after I’ve calmed down I’ll think of something. These rotters don’t know who they’re dealing with. Special Sergeant Bentwhistle out of retirement I think,” he said, patting Chuckles. “ What do you think about that? Hey Chuckles!”
“ Wow,” said Charlie. “We can help Mr Bentwhistle. Chuckles too.”
“ Thanks boys but, I don’t know. Could get a bit rough. Now you’d better be off. I’ve got a lot to do.”
And with that statement the threesome left Mr Bentwhistle to ponder his tragic day and consider what he was going to do to find Fiffi. Charlie and Chester felt hopeless. Chuckles, was just confused.
Eight
Dave slammed the back door of the transit van and flopped down with Fiffi in his arms. Fiffi was whimpering, a scared little dog.
“ Keep a tight hold of it Dave. And get that stupid mask of ya face will ya. The cops will pull us over if they see that.”
“ Yeah boss. The cops will pull us over. I’ll take it off. Cute little puppy,” Dave extended his hand to Fiffi. “ Ouch! What was that for?”
“ What happened?” Scar called out over his shoulder as he swung the van onto the expressway.
“ It bit me,” replied Dave, sucking his finger.
“ Well what did you expect? What did I tell you to do?”
“ Take my mask off boss. I took my mask off already boss.”
“ Not that ya wally. What else did I tell ya to do? The pill. Remember!”
“ Oh yeah boss. Now I remember.”
Dave remembered the instructions. He put Fiffi in a dog basket and grabbed a small pink pill from his pocket. He crushed the pill in his fingers and sprinkled the contents into a small bowl of water that was doing its best to splash out of its bowl. He then repeated the procedure, but this time he rubbed the substance into a small doggy chew, which he put into Fiffi’s cage. Before long Fiffi couldn’t resist herself and had eaten the doggy chew, which were her favourites and had a slurp of water. Not too much later Fiffi was fast asleep.
“ Hey boss!” called Dave, from the back of the van. “ It’s worked. The sleeping pill worked.”
“ Knew it would. Saw the old guy give her the chews from the packet. Recognised them right away. Simple as taking candy from a baby.”
“ Have you taken candy from a baby boss? That’s not very nice you know. I like babies.”
“ Strike me pink Dave. Pull me leg off and call me hoppy! You’re a wally you really are. Look we’re nearly there. Just keep watching the pooch.”
It was night-time when the black van quietly pulled into the driveway of an old run down farmhouse on the outskirts of town. Scar parked the van in an old shed and Dave carried the dog basket and sleeping poodle into the house.
Nine
Chuckles was fast asleep in the backyard in the sun. Tom and Alice had both left for work after Charlie and Chester left for school. He played with the footy for a short time and sniffed about under the house. He liked sniffing around under the house. Last week he caught the scent of a blue tongue lizard, which had found a home among some old wooden boxes. He spotted the lizard easily, its head protruding from a chink in the box. Its blue tongue slipped out and flicked about sensing Chuckles’ presence. Its hissing was fierce.
After an initial standoff between Chuckles and the hissing lizard Chuckles decided to retreat to safer ground on the lawn. It wasn’t long before the sleek brown greyhound was fast asleep dreaming of dragon lizards, spiralling footballs and cute poodles. He was woken by the sound of someone or something scrambling about the back fence.
Voices drifted over the fence, and being a smart dog he didn’t bark, but slowly padded over next to the poo spot. And there he quietly sat and listened.
********
“ Struth Dave you weigh a ton. It’s about time you stopped eating all those burgers,” Scar complained, as he heaved Dave up Charlie’s back fence. He cupped Dave’s feet in his hands and balanced him precariously. “ Well what can you see?” whispered Scar.
“ Just a back yard. Nothing special,” he replied, in his loud squeaky voice. Scar staggered momentarily under Dave’s weight. “ Careful boss you’ll drop me.”
“ Shush ya wally. Do you want to scare the dog? Can you see it?”
“ Nope. I can see his kennel. Nice kennel.”
Chuckles sat quietly staring at the commotion above him. He stayed close to the fence so that the unsuspecting intruder couldn’t see him.
“ Sure you can’t see the dog,” whispered Scar.
Dave put both hands on the top of the fence and heaved a little more. Chuckles heard this and flattened himself tightly against the aluminium.
“ It’s as quiet as grandpa’s coffin,” Dave called.
“Which is more than can be said of you. Strike me pink you’re heavy Dave. Look the dog must be there somewhere. Let’s get you ov
er and then you can do your stuff. Ready,” Scar strained, as he was no longer able to support Dave.
Suddenly from out of Dave’s pocket came a ringing sound, “ Brrng, brrng! Brrng, brrng!” Dave grabbed for his pocket and let go of the fence. Scar couldn’t hold on any longer and Dave fell flat on top of him, as if a sack of potatoes had hit him.
“ Get off me!” hissed Scar.
“ Sorry boss. It’s not my fault the phone rang,” cried Dave.
“ Of course it’s your fault ya wally! I told you to turn it off. Well?”
“ Well what?”
“ Answer it before the whole town hears it!”
“ Answer what?”
“ The phone ya wally. Strike me pink!”
Dave removed the phone from his pocket. “ Oh mum! Yes mum. What mum? No mum. When mum? Yes mum. Who mum? Him mum! Yes mum. Why mum? Oh mum. Bye mum.”
“ Struth you’re a riveting conversationalist Dave,” Scar said, sarcastically.
“ Oh thanks boss. No-one’s ever said that to me before.
********
Chuckles still hadn’t moved from his concealed spot. From the corner of his eye he noticed the blue tongue lizard had slithered onto the warm grass and was licking the breeze.
Suddenly, “ Plop,” from over the fence landed a juicy piece of steak.
Chuckles saw it land with interest, but remained still and silent. The blue tongue did neither. It moved at a speed incredibly fast for its size and snaffled the tasty morsel in one gulp. It took one long look at Chuckles, swished its tail, hissed and slithered back into the safety of its under house world. Chuckles sat still.
“ Ready,” called Scar.
“ Ready,” replied Dave.
“ One, two, three,” and on three Scar hauled Dave over the fence with one almighty heave. Dave landed face first over the fence right in… the poo spot!
“ Oh yuck. What’s this stuff? It stinks,” called Dave, whose face was completely covered in Chuckles’ poo.
Chuckles quietly padded to sit right in front of Dave, who was slowly extracting himself from the poo spot. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tissue. A small card fell out and was squashed in the poo by his foot.
“ Well what can you see? “ called Scar from over the fence. “ Has it taken the bait?”
Dave was wiping his face and eyes,
“ Nothing, but…”
“ Woof, woof, woof!” Chuckles went into bark mode scaring the living daylights out of Dave.
Dave was stunned, “ Help Scar, help! It’s the dog. He’s got me. Help.”
Scar called out,” Run you fool.”
On command Dave ran and leapt the back fence like a frightened rabbit with Chuckles nipping at his heels.
********
“ Has the meat gone Dave?” asked Scar.
“ Looks like it boss,” he replied.
“ Good. Back over you go!” and on ‘go’ Scar heaved Dave over the fence, but this time away from the poo spot.
Dave surveyed the scene.“ He’s not here boss. Pass it over.”
Scar threw over a large hessian bag, but as Dave bent down to pick up the bag Chuckles sprinted out from his kennel and chomped into Dave’s backside with all of his might.
“ Ow! Ow! It bit me! Help help! It bit me on my bum!” screamed Dave, as he once again sprinted over the side fence with a giant tear in his trousers. He looked quite a sight with his bottom exposed, teeth marks clearly visible. He took a quick glance back to see Chuckles sitting up proudly with a patch of his trousers in his mouth.
Scar was not happy. He walked over to the van opened the sliding door and removed a dog basket.
“ Time for Plan B,” he said angrily.
Ten
Chuckles retreated under the house intently watching the back fence. What he wasn’t doing, was watching the side gate, as it was padlocked. The sight of Scar and Dave commando-striding into the backyard, followed a sound of metal snapping. Dave frog-rolled onto the grass and turned to face Scar in a karate position.
“ What are you doing?” called Scar, who was holding a large dog basket. “ He’s not an army dog!”
“ You better be careful boss. He’s mean,” replied Dave furtively, looking about the backyard for any signs of Chuckles.
Chuckles couldn’t wait any longer. He pounced out from under the house and went straight for Dave, who immediately legged it for the shed. “ I told you he was mean. Look out boss he’ll be after you next,” called Dave, as he took refuge in the shed.
But Scar was not flustered. He deliberately placed the basket down and slid the wire door to the side. Chuckles stopped dead. He could sense that Scar was not scared.
Chuckles couldn’t believe what he saw. Sitting shivering inside the basket, attached by a small chain from its collar was Fiffi. Fiffi looked pathetically helpless. Chuckles’ mood immediately changed. He sat and stared at Scar. Fiffi began to whimper and cry. Chuckles began to howl.
“ In!” commanded Scar to Chuckles. Chuckles howled in response. “ In!” commanded Scar again, more forcefully.
Chuckles seemed to know exactly what Scar wanted him to do. He slowly crept closer to the basket.
Scar pointed, “ In!”
Chuckles crawled submissively into the basket, and Fiffi stopped crying. Scar slammed the basket shut. Plan B had worked.
No one saw Scar and Dave leave the backyard, dog basket in tow. No one saw the black van quietly drive off, especially a very sleepy blue tongue lizard.
Eleven
Charlie and Chester raced each other to Charlie’s house from school. Chester always won. He was so fast! Charlie went to take the key for the padlocked side gate from his pocket, when he noticed that the gate was open and the padlock lay smashed on the ground.
“ The gate’s open Chester. What’s happened?” Charlie cried out as he ran into the backyard his thoughts immediately turning to Chuckles.
Chester followed, “ Chuckles, where are you? Chuckles!” But Chuckles was nowhere to be seen. “ Chuckles is missing Charlie!”
“ Chuckles! Chuckles!” called Charlie looking in his kennel, and under the house.
“ Hey Chester look here,” Charlie said as he spotted the blue tongue lizard over near the back step. He picked up the limp animal and incredibly could hear that it was asleep.
“ What you got there Charlie? Funny looking reptile,” Chester said as he looked closely at the lizard.
“ It’s a blue tongue Chester. It’s asleep. Look! There’s a piece of meat on the ground.”
Chester kneeled and inspected the meat, “ Maybe someone threw some bad meat over the fence and poor lizard here couldn’t help himself. The meat must have some sleepy stuff in it, hey Charlie?”
“ Could be Chester, but that means Chuckles may have been given some meat with sleeping powder or whatever it was as well. Maybe the same people who took Old Bentwhistle’s dog Fiffi.” Charlie was worried.
Chester was looking around the backyard and noticed the disturbed poo spot by the fence. He examined the spot closely and noticed a small dash of colour poking out of a squashed poo heap. He picked up a stick and pushed what was a small advertising card out from the dung heap.
“ Hey Chester this is really bad mate,” Charlie was becoming anxious. “ We’d better go looking for Chuckles before whoever took him gets too far away.”
But Chester didn’t reply, as he was fascinated with the small piece of card he was holding gingerly between his thumb and forefinger.
“ Hey Chester did you hear me?” said Charlie.
“ What? Yeah I heard. Look at this Charlie. It’s a business card for S and D Vine Ripened Tomato Farm, Vine Valley.”
“ Let me see,” Charlie carefully took the card. “ Yuck it’s covered with Chuckles’ doggy do! Maybe the thief dropped the card? What else can we find?”
The two boys looked around the poo spot more carefully. Charlie noticed the footprint in the poo and Chester spotted a large handpri
nt as well as Chuckles’ paw prints.
“ Looks like whoever broke in jumped over the fence here and fell smack into the poo spot!” laughed Charlie.
“ Serves them right. Hope they fell head first,” replied Chester. “ Hey I think you’re right friend, this is serious. We’d better get help.”
“ Yeah we need help fast from someone who knows.” Charlie stood, quietly thinking to himself, staring at the business card. “ I know. Mr Bentwhistle! He’ll be able to ring the police who helped him. And he’s an old soldier. What do you reckon?”
“ Good move Charlie. Let’s get going.”
“ I’ll just grab my phone to ring mum and Tom later. Mum says I can use it in an emergency.
“ Good one Charlie. This is an emergency.”
Charlie raced inside, grabbed the phone, and the two raced off to Mr Bentwhistle’s house.
Twelve
Mr Bentwhistle became very interested in what the two boys had to say as soon as they explained what had happened to Chuckles.
Charlie noticed that Mr Bentwhistle didn’t look quite as old as he had first thought. His eyes sparkled, he stood more upright and he paced up and down. He was far more impressive. The old soldier was back!
Mr Bentwhistle said, “ Look, we want Fiffi and Chuckles back as quickly as possible. Can’t have anything happen to them now can we. You two have come up with a great first clue. Now where’s that card?”
Charlie handed the business card over. Mr Bentwhistle read the card then went to his computer. He used Google Earth and downloaded S and D Vine Ripened Tomato Farm, Vine Valley.
“ I don’t think these crooks are the sharpest pin in the box boys. Look they’ve left an advertisement for their farm up on the web here. And by looking at this map it’s not too far from here. I reckon old Bess can manage that,” he smiled at Charlie and Chester.
“ Who’s Bess Mr Bentwhistle?” asked Chester.
“ Bess, my nineteen fifty - six Volkswagen beetle. I haven’t driven her for a while but I think we can engage her motor!”
“ Can you drive?” Charlie exclaimed, in a shocked voice.
“ Of course I can drive boy. What do think I am, an invalid?”