Danny Dempsey and the Unlikely Alliance by Denis Byrne Read Free Book Online Page A

heard movements behind him, warning him that someone was heading his way.
    Danny, realising that he was now conversing with the empty air, promptly sealed his lips and turned around. The immense figure of Superintendent Clifford was staring at him quizzically. Of course, Danny immediately realised that the animals, with their heightened senses, had heard the Superintendent approaching long before he had. He tried to act nonchalantly, but found it difficult not to laugh outright when he saw the manner in which the Superintendent was dressed. He looked like a particularly tall, well-built chicken, whose bright yellow legs extended all the way down from his thighs to his toecaps.
    â€˜Giving a speech, Danny? Eh?’ the Superintendent asked casually, then glanced at his watch meaningfully. ‘I thought you’d got lost.’
    â€˜Just clearing my throat in the clearing, Super,’ Danny said, striving for something witty to say, wondering how much of the one-sided conversation the Superintendent had heard, then realising that even if he had, he wouldn’t have understood a word of the Animal-Speak, anyway. ‘I’m not that late, am I?’
    â€˜No more than the usual twenty minutes or so. You do get carried away sometimes.’
    â€˜But only sometimes, Super,’ Danny reminded him. ‘You wouldn’thave recruited me if I was unreliable all the time, would you?’
    â€˜Point taken, Danny, point taken,’ the Superintendent agreed. ‘And I’m going to have to rely on you even more now. Your special, er, services will be called on a lot for this case. Top secret. Even my own staff haven’t been told anything about it yet, though I’m thinking strongly of getting Harrington involved in this one. He’d raw, but he’s got splendid potential.’ He glanced in the direction of an oak tree as though he had a particular interest in it, then said, ‘What do you say we get down to business, Danny? I’ve a lot to fill you in on.’
    â€˜That would be super, Super.’
    The Superintendent smiled in spite of himself. ‘You just can’t resist an opening, can you? Eh? And I’d have appreciated it if you’d have let me know Charlie would be here before you would.’
    â€˜So he arrived on schedule, did he?’
    â€˜Lucky I haven’t a weak heart,’ the Superintendent said. ‘What was it you ordered him to transform into before he flew over my head like that and emptied half the water out of the pool? He was going so fast all I saw was a blur.’
    â€˜Golden eagle, Super,’ Danny said simply. ‘And he loved every minute of it. I let him come most of the way on the handlebars of my bike.’
    The Superintendent groaned. ‘I hope no one saw him. I don’t want another - ’.
    â€˜Don’t worry,’ Danny grinned. ‘The few farmers we passed probably thought he was stuffed. The way he was holding himself, all proud and haughty, staring straight ahead, not moving a muscle, I’m sure they were telling themselves he couldn’t possibly be alive.’
    â€˜Well, he is now, prowling around in that pool and scaring anything that’s down there within an inch of their lives. I don’t suppose many of them have come across an alligator in this country before.’
    â€˜I should hope not. I told him to change back to himself as soon as he went underwater, and I also ordered him that on no account was he to eat anything that might happen to stray into the pool. Just swim around and enjoy himself until I arrived.’
    â€˜He’s doing that, all right,’ the Superintendent said. ‘At first I wasn’t sure what it was, but I might have guessed. After a while, he let me know he was there. Stuck his snout a couple of inches above the water and winked at me before he disappeared again. After another while, all that came up was a periscope, pointing in my direction. He was