spend it!" Richard was horrified. "It's for the scouts."
"But I'm not a scout. I can spend my half."
"But that's just as bad as ..." Richard broke off. He was staring over her head. Henrietta turned round to look.
"A window with no bars!"
"Right Hal. Right. Er. Pace it out to the corner. Then we pace it out inside to see what room it is."
"Forty-six forty-seven, that's it."
They were slap bang outside the ladies. And hovering just nearby was the toothy lady. She looked at them suspiciously.
"Just on our way." Richard grabbed Henrietta by the arm and dragged her away.
They stopped at the door and looked back. The woman was staring at them, her arms folded, teeth bared. They turned and made their way to the cycle shelter.
"What now?" asked Henrietta as they wearily unlocked their bikes. "We were so near."
Richard shrugged his shoulders. "Old buck teeth will stand on guard for hours. You can't go in there. What we need is a helpful female."
"And that's just what we haven't got. A helpful female." Henrietta opened her saddle bag. She looked inside and suddenly her whole attitude brightened. She looked up and beamed at him. "Or have we?!"
He looked around. There was nobody near them at all.
"What is a female," beamed Henrietta, "but someone in a skirt and blouse?" She took out the clothes she'd worn to leave the house that morning. "And you're just the same size as me."
"Hal!"
"Come on Rick."
"No. You put them on."
"No good. She's seen me hanging around there twice, she'd be bound to spot me. But she wouldn't recognise you."
"HAL!!! NO!!!"
"Just for five minutes."
"Not for five seconds."
"I'll give my share of the twenty dollars to the scouts."
"Definitely not!"
"Please."
"No, no, no, no, no. N, O spells NO! And that is final!"
And so it was that just a few minutes later a demure figure emerged from behind the dustbin shed. It wore a long flared skirt, a pink blouse, a headscarf and a terrified expression.
The coy young maiden stepped hesitantly into the factory building and re-emerged thirty seconds later moving at almost the speed of light.
"One word, just one word to Tee, and I'll murder you!" she hissed.
1.Chapter Seven
Screech ... screech ... screech ... screech.
Thomas put down the file, unclamped the vice and removed the key. He dipped it in a mug of water to cool it, then checked the outline against the soap mould.
"Perfect. Just perfect." He looked at Richard. "Good team eh? You measure them, I file them. We could get in anywhere."
He dried the key on an old rag. "Seriously, Rick, that was a pretty good idea you had. Corny, but good."
Richard took the key and held it up to the light. "Reckon it'll work?"
"Hope so. You say the key there was very old and worn?"
"Almost an antique."
Thomas shrugged. "Then the lock will probably be worn too. The fit shouldn't be critical."
"Let's hope so. No other way in. You nervous?"
"About tonight? No." Thomas shrugged. "Well ... well just a bit!"
"Me too. But don't tell Hal." Thomas put the file and other things away, then checked to see they hadn't left any mess lying around the garage.
"Okay," he said. "What's the plan for tonight?"
"Can you get out OK?"
"No problem. I've told Mum and Dad I'm staying over with you. They know we're busy on something - I told them it was a school project. And with all the uncles and aunts around the house they're glad to be rid of me."
"Yeah. Relations!" Richard gave the key back to Thomas. "Okay - plan of war. Let's go and consult Singapore's first lady scout."
It was getting dark by the time they arrived at Henrietta's house. As they opened the gate and walked up the path, a light came on over the front door. Presuming that Henrietta or her mother had seen them arrive, they waited for the door to open.
It remained closed, though, and after a while the light went off.
"Funny!" Richard moved towards the doorbell. As he did so, the light came on again. He paused and looked at the door expectantly, but nothing happened. A few seconds later, the light went off.
"What on earth?" Thomas moved back to see if there were lights on upstairs. Just then the porch light came on again.
"This is weird." He didn't wait to see if the light went off again, but pressed the doorbell hard.
A cheerful barking from inside the house was followed by a rattling of bolts and the door opened. Simpson recognised his old friends and greeted them in the usual doggy way.
"Hal! What's going on?" Richard fended off the beagle. "What were you up to?"
Henrietta looked puzzled. "Up to?"
"The light. It kept going on, then off. Every time we moved the light went on, then it went off again."
Mrs Lim appeared in the doorway. "Ah, it works then."
They looked blank.
"My burglar alarm system. Come on in." She led them into the sitting room. "I was so upset after my ring was stolen I got a burglar alarm system installed."
"But we didn't try to break in. We didn't even ring the doorbell."
"But the automatic light's part of it. It detects movement and puts the light on. The salesman told me it would make a burglar think someone had seen him and he'd run away." She laughed. "Never mind, how about some home-made ice cream? It's chocolate."
"The guys don't want ice cream, mum. We've got to discuss our, er, project."
Thomas and Richard looked at Henrietta as if she had taken leave of her senses. Of course they wanted ice cream! Mrs Lim understood perfectly and went off to the kitchen.
Henrietta glared at the boys. "We haven't got time."
"There's always time for ice cream," said Thomas. "Especially your mum's home-made."
"And chocolate is my favourite," added Richard.
"You'd better have a large bowl then," said Mrs Lim returning with a loaded tray. She spooned out the delicious concoction. In spite of her protestations of haste, Henrietta accepted a large bowl too. Simpson curled up on the rug next to his mistress. He knew that ice cream was totally banned. He also knew that Henrietta might let him lick the bowl later.
"Now, tell me," said her mum, when they were all spooning away like mad. "What's this mysterious project all about?"
The trio looked at each other in alarm. Three chocolate-coated mouths gaped. They hadn't been prepared for this.
"Er ..." said Thomas, "computers."
"Housing trends," Richard.
"Transport." Henrietta finished off, lamely.
"Well actually," Thomas was thinking quicker than the others, "it's about how computers ... er, how information technology will affect housing design and public transport." He looked up, pretty pleased at how plausible he'd sounded.
"Yes." Henrietta nodded, not quite so plausibly.
"This ice cream is really delicious, Mrs Lim." Richard tried to distract her from any further enquiries about the non-existent project.
"Well if you come up with a high tech way of finding out who stole my ring, I'll make you ice cream every day of the year. The police seem to be completely baffled." Mrs Lim stood up. "Anyway I've got to be moving. I'll be back in a couple of hours. Finish up the tub." As she left the room, three pairs of hands made a grab for the remaining ice cream.
Thomas was the first to put down his spoon. "So come on, action plan time."
Henrietta collected up the bowls and put them on the tray. "Well all we do is go to the factory, and see whatever there is to be seen."
"Yes, but we need to have a plan. We need torches for a start ..."
"And a camera in case we find a big clue," put in Henrietta. "It'll be dark!"
"My camera's got a flash."
"No! No flashes." Thomas was quite adamant.
"
Right, we take torches. No camera. What else?"
Richard thought about it hard. "A disguise?"
"No! Even if we dressed as ... as priests we'd still be in trouble if they caught us."
"Is it very dangerous?" Henrietta wanted to know.
"Not as long as we're careful." Thomas didn't really think so, but he wanted to reassure her. "Anyway, is that all? We've got keys, we've got - you did leave the window open, Hal?"
"Well, I ..."
"Did you or didn't you?"
She looked at Richard, trying not to laugh. "It's open all right, isn't it Rick?"
"Er yes. I ... um ... distinctly remember seeing it ajar as we left."
"What?" Thomas looked worried. "Then anyone passing by could have seen it. It might be locked by now."
"Well, when I say ajar, I mean not very much ajar. Just a little bit." Richard was beginning to go red in the face.
Henrietta grinned. "Go on, Rick, you might as well tell him."
"Tell him what?"
Richard looked at her in anguish.
"You know!" She smiled as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"No I don't!" he growled at her from between clenched teeth.
Thomas looked from one to the other in bewilderment. "What? We'll be here all night if you keep up this double act."
"Oh, just that we passed the window as we were on our way out and saw that it was a bit open and Rick pushed it closed so nobody else would spot it. Didn't you Rick?"
He grinned the weakest grin ever grinned. "Yes. Yes, that was it. Thank you Hal. Thank you for reminding me, that is." He stood up. "I've er ... I've got to go now."
He headed for the door. "What time shall we meet?"
Thomas stood up. "Er, why don't you and Hal meet me there about half-past one?"
"There?" Richard was beginning to recover from his near-unmasking as the frocked window unlocker. "What are you up to?"
"Haven't worked it all out