The Monster Within Read Free Page B

far now,’ Toby said.
    They skirted down another narrow alley until a man appeared at the far end.
    ‘Look what we got here,’ he said. Unshaven and filthy, he had a flat nose as if he’d
been in too many fights. ‘Some toff kids wanting to give me some money.’
    Jack looked behind. Two other men, one with a white, cloudy eye, and the other with
a black beard, now blocked the alley entrance.
    It’s the men from the train!
    ‘Stay between us,’ Jack said to Toby.
    ‘There’s an easy way,’ Black Beard said. ‘And a hard way.’
    ‘We’re not giving you a penny,’ Scarlet said.
    ‘Then we’re gonna do this the hard way.’

CHAPTER FOUR
    Flat Nose laughed as Scarlet squared up to him.
    ‘This girly thinks she can fight. She—’
    He got no further as Scarlet slammed a fist into his stomach, followed by an uppercut
to his nose. Grunting, he fell in a heap.
    Jack snatched up a piece of pipe from the ground and waved it at the other two men.
    ‘Just give us yer money, kid,’ Cloudy Eye said. ‘And no-one gets hurt.’
    Without waiting for a reply, he swung a fist. Jack ducked, slamming the pipe into
his knee. The man cried out and Jack punched his good eye, knocking him out.
    This only left Black Beard. He swung, clipping Jack across the side of his head,
and the blow made Jack see stars.
    ‘That’s enough!’
    The voice came from behind Scar Face, who glanced back, and Jack saw his opportunity,
kicking straight up into the man’s groin. Scar Face slumped, choking, hatred in his
eyes.
    ‘I said that’s enough!’ It was an old woman, wizened and tiny like a witch. She cracked
a walking stick against the wall. ‘When Granny Diamond speaks, you listen!’
    Cursing over their shoulders, the three men hobbled away. The woman called Granny
Diamond peered closely at Jack and Scarlet, then her eyes focused on Toby.
    ‘You’re Sally’s boy, aint ya?’ she said.
    ‘Toby.’
    ‘Why’re you with these toffs? You in trouble, boy?’
    ‘No, Granny.’ Toby looked around, fearfully. ‘I brought ‘em here because of the monster.’
    ‘How’re they going to help?’
    Scarlet cut in. ‘Ma’am, we work with Mr Ignatius Doyle, the detective,’ she said.
‘Toby asked us to come and investigate.’
    ‘I see.’ She regarded them, the lines in her face deepening. ‘You best come to Granny’s
home and we’ll talk. It’s not safe for foreigners in these parts.’
    Jack was about to point out they were English, but then understood what she meant:
they were foreign to this part of London.
    Granny led them out of the alley and to a door under a set of rickety stairs. A faded
sign on the building read Pete’s Papers and General Supplies . Inside was a single
cramped room, jammed full with a bed, chest of drawers and a bench. A deck of cards
sat on the drawers.
    Granny was very short, little more than five feet tall, with wispy grey hair. She
wore half-a-dozen layers of torn clothing; none of it seemed to match. Her hands
were gnarled with rheumatism, her fingernails long. She pointed to the bench and
they sat on it.
    ‘So Toby’s told you about the monster,’ she said.
    ‘You know about it?’ Jack said.
    ‘I know everything that happens here,’ Granny Diamond chuckled. ‘A few in these parts
have seen it at night. They say it comes out at the witching hour when the moon be
dark.’
    ‘The witching hour?’
    ‘Three in the morning.’
    ‘And where does it come from?’ Scarlet asked.
    ‘From under the streets.’
    Jack and Scarlet exchanged glances. Under the streets could only mean the sewer system.
They had been into the sewers once before and it was a claustrophobic place. The
London sewers ran for miles beneath the city, draining out into the Thames, and to
the sea. They were dangerous and ancient tunnels. While most of it had been modernised
in recent years, some sections had not been visited for decades. It was rumoured
that people had become lost in them and were never seen again.
    ‘Have