The Amazing Airship Adventure (3 page)

Chapter 5: Nolan and the Mysterious Stranger

Jimmy and Emma raced along Baker Street as fast as their legs could carry them. They had to get to Nolan, to find out what he knew of the airship and the Mad Bomber.

“Slow down a little, Jimmy,” Emma called after her brother. She was having a hard time keeping up with him, as they zig-zagged along the sidewalk.

“I can't!” he called back. “I don't want Mom making me do school work until midnight! Anyway, we're here.”

The youth stopped at a bustling intersection full of traffic. It was the entrance to the London Underground Railway. Horse drawn carriages lined the road, waiting to pick up passengers. Business men in suits and ties walked about in a hurry. Some of them headed down, underground, to catch a train, and others came up from a train that had arrived. Standing at the entrance to the Baker Street Underground Station was Nolan - a young, grimy looking boy, standing on a wooden crate and yelling “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! King and Queen of Spain to visit London!”

The twins approached Nolan the newsboy; his greasy blond hair stuck out at odd angles, and his shirt and pants had multiple patches to hold them together. A gentleman approached the boy, gave him a few pence, and took a copy of the paper.

“Thank you, sir,” Nolan said, and then he turned and saw Jimmy and Emma. “Hey, it's the MacDougall twins. Boy, have I got news for you.”

“You have news about the airship?” Emma asked.

“Sure, sure,” Nolan continued. “I got to make this fast though. These papers don't sell themselves,” Nolan added, pointing to a stack of fifty newspapers at his feet.

Jimmy reached into his pocket and handed Nolan over a few pence. “Thank you, muchly,” Nolan said, pocketing the coins and handing Jimmy a copy of the
Times
.

“Anyway, so I was meeting some of the boys yesterday, in front of the office of the
Daily Times Gazette,
because Henry, one of us newsboys, had come down with a bad cold. He was so sick, he couldn't sell his papers. We, the boys and I, were meeting to divide up his papers and add them to our piles. If someone's out sick, we sell their papers for them, so they don't lose their money for the day. You can't eat if you don't have food, I always say.”

“What does this have to do with the mad bomber?” Jimmy asked. He was getting nervous. They only had six hours left to solve the case before the mad bomber would strike again.

“I'm getting to that. Let me tell the story,” Nolan said. “Anyway, as we are standing out front, this strange man kicks open the door of the newspaper office and storms out. He yells back, ‘I'll show you a real story! You'll see just how real my story is tonight!' And, he starts to march away. Then, he sees me and the boys, and comes straight at us. I thought he was gonna yell at us, too. Instead, he comes right up to me and says, ‘You there! Give me one of those papers!'

“He snatches one out of my hand, looks at the headline, and says ‘Bah! You think this is news. Just wait till tomorrow, then all of London will know real news!' Then, he wandered off into a cab and took off down the street.”

“Did you get a good look at him?” Emma asked. She thought this sounded just like the mad bomber.

“Course I did,” Nolan said proudly. “But the guy was real funny looking, like he didn't want anyone to know who he was. He wore a long, black overcoat,
pince-nez glasses
[2]
, but with the lens darkened, so I couldn't make out his eye color…Oh yes! And a deerstalker hat, with the flaps down, to cover his ears.”

“That doesn't tell us too much,” Jimmy said.

“Let me finish,” Nolan went on. “He had a sharp nose, well-trimmed dark beard and mustache, and the coach he went off in, it had initials on the side. In big writing were the letters S.H.

“S.H.!” the twins shouted together.

“That's what I said, and that's what I meant,” Nolan concluded, and he leaped back on top of his crate. “Anyway, I got to get back to work. Hope that helps you and all.”

“One last thing, Nolan,” Jimmy added. “Who was the stranger yelling at, in the newspaper office? We need to ask that man some questions.”

“Good luck with that,” Jimmy stated. “That was Old Man Withers, the news editor. He doesn't speak to anyone who doesn't have a story, and even if you did, he doesn't ever talk to children. In fact, he hates kids!”

“That's okay, Nolan. Thank you for the information,” Emma said.

As she and Jimmy walked away, they heard Nolan begin calling out, “Extra! Extra!” again, and selling his papers.

“What do you think?” Jimmy asked his sister.

“It's not much,” Emma conceded, “but it is a start. I think we need to split up. Jimmy, you need to talk with Old Man Withers and find out what the mad bomber said to him. Also, we need to know why he didn't print a story about the airship. Why was the story left out of all the papers?”

“Got it,” Jimmy agreed.

“And I'll go see if I can find our friend Steven the cab driver. We need to find that cab with the initials S.H. on its side. That might be the clue to solving this case.”

“I agree, but I'm a little worried about those letters and the deerstalker hat.”

Emma frowned and nodded. They were both worried..but it couldn't be true, could it? With the deerstalker hat and the initials S.H..Could the mad bomber be..
Sherlock Holmes!

Chapter 6: Jimmy in Disguise

Jimmy looked up at the towering building before him.
Will this work?
he wondered.
Do I look like an adult? What if Old Man Withers sees through my disguise?

It had taken Jimmy a good hour to prepare, and he straightened his neck tie, adjusted his
monocle
[3]
, and made sure his top hat wouldn't fall off his head. With the help of makeup, and his spare dress up kit that was kept hidden with Sally the seamstress, Jimmy had transformed himself from a child to a full adult. Emma had always called Jimmy the master of disguise, and this was the part of detective work Jimmy loved best. In the past, Jimmy had gone undercover as a circus clown, a street performer, and even once as a blind Frenchman. Every time, he had successfully fooled people; one time, he'd even tricked his mother into thinking he was a young beggar, and she put a penny in his cup when he knocked at their door.

Now, as he entered the office of the
Daily Times Gazette
and approached the desk of Mr. Withers, he wondered if Old Man Withers would be the first person to see through one of his disguises. Nolan had said Mr. Withers hated kids. What if he could hear something in Jimmy's voice or see a piece of the costume that wasn't perfect? What if he yelled and chased Jimmy out onto the street? Jimmy shuddered as he found himself standing in front of Mr. Withers's desk.

“Excuse me, but are you Mr. Withers?” Jimmy asked the elderly white haired man, who was editing a news story.

Mr. Withers adjusted his spectacles, crossed out a few words on the paper before him, and then responded in a gruff voice, without looking up, “I am, and I am busy at the moment.”

“But, I have a story I believe will be of interest to you. One that so many people will read, it could sell a million newspapers!” Jimmy said in as deep a voice as he could manage.

Mr. Withers looked up at the person before him and frowned.
Oh no!
Jimmy thought.
He sees through my disguise!
But instead of tossing Jimmy out onto the street, the old man gave a grin, revealing a mouth with many missing teeth.

It was not a boy that Mr. Withers saw before him, but a London gentleman. Jimmy was wearing a top hat and an overcoat. A fake mustache was glued below his nose, and a monocle was held in his right eye. Jimmy looked like a millionaire.

“Now, what story would that be?” asked Mr. Withers kindly.

Jimmy paused for a moment. Then, he realized his disguise had worked. He said to Mr. Withers, “Why, yesterday I saw a most extraordinary sight. There was a giant barrel shaped object that…”

“BAH!! Not another one!” Mr. Withers snapped at Jimmy. “You fell for that airship hoax.”

“Hoax?” Jimmy asked surprised.

“Sure, it's a scam, a fake, people do them all the time. They create fake news stories, to try and trick the public and the newspapers. Another fellow told me the same story yesterday. He's probably the one who faked the whole thing. Trust me, it's nothing but a candle stick tied to a balloon in the sky. That's all you saw,” Mr. Withers concluded, and then he turned back to editing the news. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy.”

Jimmy couldn't believe it. The newspapers were not printing the story of the airship because no one thought it was real!

“You said another man brought you the story yesterday. Can you describe him for me? If he faked this airship, then I have some rough words for him!” Jimmy said, trying to sound tough.

“Not much to describe,” Mr. Withers answered, and he gave the same description as Nolan, of the mysterious stranger. “Listen, don't let it upset you. These hoax stories come in all the time. You know, one time in America, they even printed a story about bat people living on the moon!”

Jimmy thanked Mr. Withers for his time. He left the news office feeling disappointed. He hadn't gotten any useful information out of Mr. Withers. The twins now only had three hours to find the mad bomber and help Sherlock Holmes..unless Sherlock Holmes was the mad bomber. But how could Sherlock Holmes be the bomber? Jimmy and Emma were with him when the airship attacked. It was impossible, yet Sherlock Holmes could often perform the impossible. But if Sherlock Holmes was behind it all, then this must be some kind of test for Jimmy and Emma. Sherlock Holmes would never hurt anyone. Was this a test? Jimmy found himself with many questions and no answers.

Just as Jimmy made it to the street in front of the newspaper office, a hansom cab pulled up in front of him. It was Steven the cab driver with Emma. She quickly opened the door to the carriage. “Get in!” she called out to Jimmy.

“What's the hurry?” Jimmy asked, as Emma yanked him into the cab, and Steven made the cab jolt into the busy London streets.

“Look!” Emma called and pointed ahead of them. Quickly moving along the street in front of them was a reddish colored wagon, pulled along by two galloping horses.

As the carriage barreled around a corner, Jimmy made out two distinct letters on its side..
S.H!