Four Fires by Bryce Courtenay Read Free Book Online Page A

to you that any dog worth its salt will come to his master's rescue if they see him attacked? I put it to you, the signal wasn't a whistle from Mister Maloney, but simply the unprovoked and cowardly attack on him and his brother by you and your friends. That, I suggest, is what got the dogs going.'
    'No, sir, he hit me first!' Brent Middleton protests again.
    'Then I suggest there must have been some sort of provocation on your part, Mister Middleton? I asked you previously what you'd said to Mister Maloney and, on that occasion, you refrained from answering.
    Perhaps this time you'll tell me what it is you said to Mister Maloney?'
    'It was a joke, sir. We was only teasing him.'
    'A joke? What sort of a joke? It must have been a very strange joke to make a little bloke like Mister Maloney go berserk and run amok?
    Page 29

    What was this joke?' His voice grows suddenly stern, 'Come on, boy, let me hear it and no more bullshit!'
    'It was about his auntie, sir,' Brent Middleton's voice shakes, he is suddenly dead-scared.
    Sergeant Donovan jerks up straight and bangs the desk with his fist. 'What about his auntie? What did you say about his auntie?'
    Brent Middleton begins to sniff and now he's looking down at his shoes. 'About her escaping from the asylum without clothes and walking down King Street, sir. We was only muc -king about, sir, teasing him, sr.
    'Why you little shit!' Sergeant Donovan yells out, kicking back his chair and drawing to his full height so that his huge body seems to fill the whole room and spill out the door.
    Brent Middleton begins to shake and then to blubber and back away, 'I'm sorry, sir, I'm sorry, sir.' Some of the others also start to cry and there's a good deal of blubbering going on all around.
    'Right, all of you except for the two Maloney boys are under arrest.
    I'm arresting you for causing grievous bodily harm and for defamation!'
    He reaches down for his cap and jams it on his head. 'Follow me!' He turns to Bozo, then me, 'You two may as well come along as witnesses, see that justice is done.'
    Of course, we had no idea he was bluffing about arresting Middleton's mob and one of them, a boy named Bluey Taylor, wets his pants on the spot, piss running down his leg onto the floorboards.
    Sergeant Donovan takes three giant strides to the door and we shuffle after him as he makes a right turn into the headmaster's office where all the parents are waiting.
    It is a pretty crowded gathering but we all somehow fit in, the twelve of us, six parents, Mr Flint the headmaster, and the police sergeant. Most of the Middleton gang are now sniffing and getting themselves generally bet up, thinking they're going to be thrown into the clink with the key thrown away.
    Sergeant Donovan looks around until he spots Hamish Middleton.
    'Sir, your boy will now tell us all what happened to provoke this fight, which I must say was just a tad one-sided, with your bully-boy son and nine of his gutless mates against the two Maloney boys.' He turns to Brent Middleton, 'Step up, son, tell your father and the other parents here exactly what you said to Bozo Malone)'
    Brent Middleton bawls and chokes and gulps and by the time he's Page 30

    finished telling the truth of what happened there's two snot runs under his nose, his eyes are all puffed up and red, and his shoulders are shaking like he's having some sort of a fit.
    The decision is finally taken that each parent should punish his own child. Bozo and me, though, are let off scot-free, with Sergeant saying to one and all that we showed a lot of character and The headmaster didn't say anything, you know apologise for threatening to expel Bozo. Nancy called him right the first time, he'd rather stay thick as thieves with the right people in town than be seen apologising to a garbage collector.
    Nancy now tucks us, one on either side, under her arms and we walk out the school gates where she's got the Diamond T parked right in front of the school. We have to push her into