Amanda said something to the Removal Firm. One of them, a male with very dark eyes, answered her. Then he looked at Alex very sternly, and said something to the two who held him. Alex’s arms were released. He rubbed the circulation back into them. They had gripped him very hard. Amanda continued to speak with the leader of the Removal Firm and there followed a lot of pointing and gesturing in the direction of the region where the Organist had his Music Makers.
‘It seems,’ said Amanda, turning to Alex at last, ‘the Organist has fled. The Removal Firm came here looking for you because they sensed that the attic was in great danger. They believe a disaster is about to occur and of course they blamed you, the newest incomer. But when they got here the Organist saw them. He panicked and ran. Oh, Alex, I’m sorry.’ She regarded him through the eyeholes of her mask. ‘If I doubted you before, I’m inclined to believe you now. The Organist would never run away and abandon this place if he wasn’t guilty of something very bad.’
‘Who said he’s gone?’
‘They did.’ Amanda nodded towards the Removal Firm, who stood like a solid wall before Alex. ‘They came past his camp. When he saw them approaching he ran like a scared rafter rat. He won’t get very far. They’ll catch up with him, sooner rather than later. But they’re very concerned about the possibility of this bomb. Are you sure, Alex? Are you certain?’
‘Of course I’m not,’ Alex answered. ‘It was just a theory. But torch batteries and a watch? It’s got to be more than some firework banger. We’ve got to find it, Amanda, before it goes off. You know him best. Where would he be likely to plant it?’
The bits of Amanda’s face that weren’t covered by the mask went very, very pale.
‘I don’t know,’ she whispered. ‘In one of the pianos? Perhaps he’s trying to blow up my defences?’
‘Well, we’d best start searching. Who knows how powerful he’s made that bomb? I bet he doesn’t even know himself. If he’s good at music, he’s probably lousy at science. Tell these twerps they’d be better off helping us than beating me up, if that’s what they’re going to do.’
Amanda spoke rapidly in that creaking voice. To give them their due the Removal Firm went into action with alacrity. All six ran with Alex and Amanda to the line of pianos and began lifting lids and looking inside. Once they had exhausted the pianos they tried other places, peering in dark corners, looking in odd shoe boxes, tipping out crates, lifting the lids of trunks. There were so many places the Organist could have hidden his bomb.
Bundles of clothes were turned over, the underside of card tables were inspected, rattan chairs were frisked. The Removal Firm went to the village and questioned those who had assisted the Organist in his battles, but the villagers insisted they knew nothing more about the firework than had already been divulged to Amanda by the boy.
Amanda thought about her boat and ran to the quay to go over it, but the bomb was not on board.
‘Where? Where? Where?’ she cried. ‘We must find it.’
Once, while they were all searching, something returned to irritate Alex: that little melody that had been haunting him. He couldn’t pin it down though. It was like the faint sound of some insect in the air. It hummed on the edge of his reasoning, but he could never quite decide whether he could actually hear it or not. Then he forgot about it, deciding that seeking the bomb was the most important thing. Other less worrying things could wait for a more tranquil time, when he could think more clearly.
The others were sitting in a circle not a great distance away from Amanda’s collection of watches. Alex looked round at them. There were six bald-headed wrestlers in khaki dustcoats and, in stark contrast, a girl festooned with coloured ribbons and feathers. They all looked very tired. Was he leading them on a wild-goose chase? They didn’t seem to think so, or they would have scorned his theory and dragged him away to his fate.
The Removal Firm, he had to admit, worked like Trojans. They battled tirelessly with piles of junk and heaps of rubbish, sorting through them with never a creak. Finally they seemed to have exhausted every possibility and even Alex was beginning to think the whole