Free The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman Page B

glow floated in the fog. The prince burst into squawks and bellows.
    "Who's there? Let go! Take your hands off me, you insolent rascal!"
    There came a rough, booming reply. "Well, what we got here?" The glowing lantern swayed. "A noisy brat on a fine beast of a horse."
    Jemmy edged closer. A cutthroat! he thought.
    Like a snake striking, a ghostly hand darted through the fog and clutched his arm. A second cutthroat! Jemmy looked up and barely made out a long, bony face with hollow cheeks and a nose like a meat cleaver.
    "I got another, Billy!" cackled the second man, shoving Jemmy forward.



CHAPTER 5
Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater
    Billy pulled Prince Brat from the saddle and threw him into Jemmy.
    Raising the lantern, the man held it close enough that Jemmy could feel the heat of the flame. Billy was a big man, he saw, big and raw as a skinned ox. And he smelled like a ton of garlic.
    "Not much of a catch—two sparrows," said Billy. "But ain't they trimmed up in fancy rags, Cutwater?"
    "Ain't they!" echoed the rattleboned man.
    "Got any gold in your pockets, lads?"
    "No business of yours!" snapped the prince.
    "Ah, but so help me, it
is
my business," Billy said with a thunderclap of laughter. "Don't you know who
I
am?"
    "A clod and a ruffian," declared the prince.
    "Worse'n that!" corrected the big man. "Ain't you never heard of Hold-Your-Nose Billy?"
    "Famous, he is," put in Cutwater. "Put to song, is Billy."
    Jemmy thought he remembered. Hadn't he heard ballad sellers fling that name about the streets? The exploits of Hold-Your-Nose Something-or-other in verses by the yard? "The highwayman, are you?"
    "The same."
    "The murderer?"
    "Only in the line of duty," Hold-Your-Nose Billy chuckled. "So you won't mind if we take your horse and empty your pockets."
    "Not a copper between us," said Jemmy. A prince didn't carry money, for he had no use for it, and Jemmy's accounts were kept on the books.
    "What's in the basket?" piped up Cutwater.
    "Hands off, villain!" snapped Prince Brat. "Don't you know who I am?"
    Jemmy gave the prince a sudden jab of his elbow to keep his mouth shut. Not a word!
    But the heir to the throne raised himself to his full height. "Bow to your prince!"
    Fog swirled around the lantern. "Bow to what?" asked Cutwater.
    "I am Prince Horace!"
    "And I'm the Grand Turnip of China!" Cutwater snickered.
    "Dim-witted villains!" shouted the prince. "I command you to turn us loose. Or Papa will hang the pair of you in chains!"
    Hold your trap! Jemmy thought. Don't you have a thimbleful of brains? A prince would make a fine catch for these rogues. "Me friend's muddle-headed," he declared. "His paw's nothing but a rat-catcher. But don't he put on airs, though!"
    "Got enough lip for two sets of teeth," chortled the big highwayman. "Cutwater, take the lantern and fetch the horse."
    "What do you reckon's in the basket, Billy?"
    "Plenty of time to find out."
    The lantern floated off. The evil-smelling Billy clutched each boy hard by the ear.
    "Stir your legs. Walk! And don't let me catch you on our turf again. Do I make myself clear?"
    "Clear as window glass," said Jemmy with a sigh of relief. "If you'd be kind enough to point us toward the river, I'd be ever so much obliged."
    "Billy!" came a shout from Cutwater. "They ain't just common sparrows. Have a look at this saddle."
    Hold-Your-Nose Billy hung on to the boys' ears. At the horse's side, Cutwater was holding the lantern close to the saddle.
    "Skin me alive!" declared the big man in awe. "That's the king's own crest."
    "We stole it, horse and saddle!" Jemmy put in desperately.
    "Bosh!" retorted Prince Brat scornfully. "Didn't I tell you who I was? Bow low, you fools, and be off!"
    But the two men neither bowed nor fled. Hold-Your-Nose Billy threw a bushy-eyed glance at his fellow outlaw.
    "Cutwater, what do you reckon a genuine prince on the hoof is worth?"
    "His weight in gold at least, Billy."



CHAPTER 6
In which the plot thickens
    Wisps of fog clung like