"I think that cocky little so-and-so is out of his mind," said Stonks. "All he's done is stir up trouble."
"I dunno so much," said Sydney. "Let's wait and see.
And so they waited, and they waited, and after what seemed a long while, but in reality was only ten minutes, they heard the "Hoo-haa, hoo-haa, hoo-haa," of a police siren and a patrol car skidded to a halt by the telephone box.
"Oh, lor—here comes the Woollies now," said Dodger wearily.
Two policemen threw themselves out of the car, ran down the landing-stage and tried the door to the little hut, but it was firmly locked. Then there was a hallooing and a whistling from the island and, looking up, the policemen saw the keeper jumping up and down and waving his arms and making an awful noise. He must have been quite cold because the Borribles could see that all the bottom half of him was darker than the top half, which meant he was still very wet.
The two policemen poked about in the boats for some oars, but they were all in the hut. The only oars available were in the boat that the keeper and Napoleon had used and that had drifted until it was now about ten yards from land. The policemen tried to hook it in with a long pole, but they couldn't quite reach. Another police car arrived with an Inspector in it and he took control and ordered one of his men to go out and get the boat. One of the constables took off his coat and waded into the lake, but the bottom shelved away fairly rapidly and by the time he got to the boat he was swimming. Spluttering and cursing his luck he got hold of the painter and pulled the boat to the jetty and a dry policeman got in and rowed to the island where it was the work of a minute to rescue the keeper. While the boat was returning to the shore the Head Keeper bowled up on his bicycle and stood joking with the police Inspector. They thought the episode was most hilarious and they threw back their heads and laughed and laughed. Water does that to some people.
Very soon the wet policeman and the damp keeper were together on the jetty and the Inspector sent them off in one of the cars. The Head Keeper unlocked the shed, put the oars away and locked up again. He stood talking and laughing some more with the Inspector, then they shook hands and the keeper got on his bike and pedalled back to his office, and the Inspector drove back to the police station on Lavender Hill.
It was all over. Everything was quiet and dusk began to come down over the Park. The deer, who lived behind the railings, had already disappeared into their wooden shelters. Only a few people were strolling about and all of those were making their way to the gates. Very soon now the bell would ring and Battersea Park would close for the night. The waiting and watching Borribles undid their packs, took out their greatcoats and squatted down, expecting they knew not what.
"I hardly see the point of that operation," said Sydney; she always spoke a little precisely like that. "The hut is locked and there are no oars outside. I think Napoleon has made a miscalculation somewhere."
Just at that moment there was a rustle in the bushes behind them and a very bedraggled Napoleon Boot ran up. He was panting and laughing so much that it looked like he might be sick. His hair was plastered down over his skull, his clothes were soaking and stuck to his body and his skin was steaming from the heat generated by his mad running across the Park. He fell to the ground and the sounds coming from him made his companions think that perhaps he was very ill. Knocker pulled the sodden Borrible over onto his back and peeled off the wet jacket. He then removed his own greatcoat and covered the shaking and shivering body with it.
"It looks bad," said Dodger.
"Man," cried Orococco, "we don't want a casualty before we starts."
The Borribles stood in a glum group, looking down at Napoleon. Knocker rubbed the hands and legs of the Wandsworth Borrible as hard as he could to aid the circulation. Gradually Napoleon got his breath and sat up. "Don't fuss," he said between gasps. "I'm all right, just a bit out of breath, and I can't stop laughing." And as if to prove it he started shaking and shivering again.
"There's nothing to laugh about," said Knocker sternly, relieved now that he knew that Napoleon Boot would survive. "We've wasted the whole afternoon and achieved nothing except for you to have a good giggle."
Napoleon groped into his wet clothes, there was a jangling noise and his hand reappeared clutching a massive bunch of keys.
"Look at that," he chortled. "What's that, eh? Scotch mist?"
There was a stunned silence, then Bingo asked, "Well, what is it?"
Napoleon rolled over and over with merriment. "It's the keys to the hut, of course," he spluttered when he had recovered sufficiently, "and to the whole bleedin' Park, I shouldn't wonder."
"How'd you do it?" asked Dodger. "Well," said Napoleon, "I went dashing up to the hut and pretended to cry my eyes out. 'It's my dog,' I said. 'It's my dog.' " He laughed again and the others began to laugh too. " 'He's swum over to the island,' says I, 'and he's such a little frightened lovely dog, he can't swim back.' 'That's all right,' says the keeper, 'soon get him, no trouble.' Then you saw what happened after. He goes and locks the door of the flaming hut so that was Plan A gone, in a trice. When we got near the island I pretends to get all excited about the dog, don't I? I jumps up and down and says there he is, there he is, and so I falls in—splash! Well, the keeper has kittens at that and leaps in to effect a rescue, as you might say. Well, that was the whole crux and point of Plan B. As he's carrying me back to the boat I lifts the keys out of his pocket. Well, he's all for bringing me back right away and never mind the dog. 'No, no,' says I. 'I'll get all hell beaten out of me at home.' Well, you saw the rest, I pinches the boat, gets on the blower to 'Old Bill' and tells them that Keeper 347 has been marooned on a desert island in the middle of Battersea Park while rescuing a dog. Then I takes off in the other direction. Now we've got the keys," and he jangled them in front of Knocker's face, "we can take boats when we like, and practise all night, like I said, Knocker, just like I said." And Napoleon rolled over and laughed so loudly that the others had to put a coat over his head to deaden the noise.
Knocker stood up and shook his head in admiration. The others did the same and they looked at each other in the deepening gloom and chuckled and felt confident.
As soon as they had eaten the rations they had brought with them the Borribles crept down to the hut on the lake where they had no difficulty in opening the door and stealing the oars they needed. They crowded together in one of the small metal craft and Napoleon rowed them out to the centre of the lake and they waited while the Wendle inspected the larger boats. They were fine long comfortable things, possessing four wide seats with cushions and lots of space for stowing gear fore and aft. But they were solid and heavy and would need scientific rowing.
Napoleon chose the best one and came back to report to Knocker. "Number Seventeen," he said, "been well looked after." As the group moved to embark he pulled Knocker aside, grasping his elbow. "I think the boat will be too heavy for just four to row," he said quietly. "There will have to be two of us on each oar. That means when it comes to the actual trip there will be no turn and turn about, we'll have to row all the time."
Knocker thought about it for a second. "You'll have to row by night and hide by day, and keep well away from police launches. They'll run you in, as soon as look at you. Won't take them half a second to suss a bunch of Borribles in a stolen pleasure boat."
But at that moment they didn't worry too much about the future. The novelty of boating occupied and amused them and even Knocker took a hand. Napoleon made them work very hard indeed, for they only had that night in which to learn the art of rowing. Napoleon sat in the stern and steered the boat with the two pieces of rope which were attached to each side of the rudder behind him. Dodger sat up front to make sure they didn't run into anything, though the moon had come up and it was easy to see far out over the silver water.
They sat two to an oar as Napoleon had suggested, for they would need a great deal of power when they were out on the River Thames. Not only would they have to contend with the tide but there would be waves washing outwards from passing barges and tugs, and there would always be the danger of collision. Napoleon gave them their positions in the boat and told them to keep them, except that he would take Knocker's place on the expedition because Knocker wouldn't be going.
"When we're on the river," Napoleon said, "there'll only be eight of us so there'll be no one on the rudder. That means we will have to steer by rowing; listen very carefully to my commands and act on them immediately. Anyone being a bit slow could get us run down, capsized, we could lose all our equipment and worse we could drown." And so Napoleon went on. He taught them the basic rowing commands; how to begin rowing, how to stop, how to feather the oars, and they learnt to pull steadily and hard without wasting too much of their energy. Next time they got into the boat they would be on the wide and thronged waterway of the Thames itself.