Free William the Good by Richmal Crompton Page B

just
said:
    ‘I saw this old man coming out of the Blue Boar this morning.’ And just as William lifted the flap and applied his ear to it, the other was replying:
    ‘ Honi soit qui mal y pense. ’
    William replaced the flap, crawled back to the hedge and wriggled through to the road.
    ‘They were talkin’ foreign langwidges,’ he said excitedly, ‘foreign langwidges wot I couldn’t under stand a word of—’
    The Archers cheered loudly. So stimulated were they by the prospect of adventure, that they would have been bitterly disappointed had William brought back any other report.
    ‘Well, we’ve gotta make plans ,’ said William, assuming a stern and thoughtful demeanour.
    ‘’Sno good rushin ’ at ’em, straight away. There’s more of them than what there is of us. We’ve found out – I’ve found out, I mean
– that they’re a foreign enemy. Well, we’ve gotter save the country from ’em. That’s what we’ve gotter do. But it’s no good rushin ’ at
’em before we’ve made plans. We’ve gotta make plans first. An’ we’ve gotter be cunnin ’ as well as brave ’cause there’s so many more of
them than what there is of us. We’ve gotter find out first who’s the head of ’em an’ we’ve gotter do it without – without arousin’ their
suspicions.’
    The Archers cheered again lustily.
    They would have cheered William now whatever he had said. The longed-for adventure had come. They were willing to trust themselves blindly and joyously to William’s sole leadership. Ginger
felt that William was having rather more than his fair share of the limelight.
    ‘I’ll find out who’s the head of ’em,’ he offered. ‘I bet it’s a dang’rous thing to do but I bet I do it all right.’
    The Archers cheered Ginger.
    ‘I bet it’s no more dang’rous than seein’ if they were talkin’ in foreign langwidges,’ challenged William.
    Ginger’s proud spirit had been assuaged by the Archers’ cheers. He felt that he could afford to be generous.
    ‘No, it’s just about the same,’ he conceded.
    He wriggled through the hole which had been left in the hedge by the passage of William’s solid body and began to creep very cautiously along the tents, peeping under each to see their
interior. At one he evidently made a discovery of a sensational nature. He turned round, made excited but incomprehensible signs to the Outlaws who were watching over the hedge, then began to crawl
back. He plunged through the hole and began at once.
    ‘I’ve found the head of ’em. He’s a big fat man with a red face an’ a white moustache an’ he’s sittin’ at a table lookin’ at a
map.’
    ‘Well, that proves it,’ said William equally excited, ‘that proves it. If he wasn’t foreign he wun’t need to be lookin’ at a map, would he? If
he was really English like what they pretend to be he wun’t need to be lookin’ at a map of England. He’d’ve done England at school in Geography.’
    The Archers agreed that the logic of this was unassailable.
    William continued:
    ‘Well, now that’s the first thing we’ve gotter do. We’ve gotter take his map off him. I said it was no use rushin ’ at ’em an’ we’d gotter
be cunnin’. Well, that’s the first cunnin’ thing we’ve gotter do. We’ve gotter take his map off him an’ then you see he won’t know what to do or where he
is or anythin’.’
    ‘Well,’ said Ginger hastily, ‘I’ve done enough findin’ out about who he is. I’m not goin’ to take his map off him.’
    ‘No,’ said William, ‘it’s time Douglas did something.’
    The Archers cheered this.
    It was well known that Douglas did not care to expose himself unnecessarily to danger. But Douglas received the suggestion with stoic courage. Despite his preference for a quiet life, Douglas
was no coward.
    ‘All right,’ he said resignedly, ‘jus’ tell me how to do it, an’ I’ll do it.’
    But the discussion was interrupted by the sight of the big