Page 19 - Billy the Cat and Katie

Much to their surprise the scene that greeted them was not what they'd expected, in fact it was
not what anyone had expected. The door slammed shut behind them and two men with pistols
pushed them forwards into the centre of the stone room. The men were stealing the Crown
Jewels, something that hadn't happened since the time of Colonel Thomas Blood in 1671. The
man whose job it was to care for the jewels had been tied up and gagged and it looked as
though he'd been hit over the head as there was blood on his face. The children huddled
together around Miss Nuttall but very soon she realised that not all of the children were there.
Looking upwards she could see the glass skylights above and silently wished that someone
would come to save them all. William and Kathleen had been at the back of the queue climbing
the stairs and looking at the paintings and displays when they heard the door slam shut just
ahead of them. Carefully and quietly climbing the few remaining stairs they could
hear men's voices coming from behind the huge steel door. "Look 'ere, don't you make a sound
or else the old bloke gets it! OK? So just you keep quiet and everythin' will be fine, orright?"
Another voice could be heard in the background but it was very quiet, although William and
Kathleen could just make out the man saying "Hurry up, we've only got five minutes before
anyone notices he's not clocked in downstairs. Get the loot in the bags quickly."

William and Kathleen wasted no time and ran down to the next landing, opened their rucksacks
and pulled out their catsuits and helmets. "This could be tricky" William whispered, putting on
his helmet "As we'll be missed by Miss Nuttall. We'll have to make up an excuse
that's believable." Kathleen nodded in agreement and pulled on her own helmet. Rucksacks
thrown over their shoulders Billy the Cat and Katie jumped out of the window onto the wall
that ran across the courtyard and throwing their lasso ropes upwards to catch the railings at the
top of the tower they climbed upwards. A party of tourists was walking below when suddenly
they saw two figures dressed in black scaling the side of the wall. They started yelling and
taking photographs as Billy the Cat and Katie leaped onto the roof of the jewel house.
Beefeaters rushed from everywhere towards the tower whilst one of the warders telephoned
Scotland Yard to report the incident.

Looking out of the windows to the scene below Max shouted over to Harry "For God's sake lets
go" and they fled through the door on the opposite side of the room down the stone spiral
staircase towards the yard at the rear of the tower. Just at that moment Billy and Katie crashed
through the glass skylight into the jewel house room, landing of the floor at the feet of the
stunned teacher and her children. Katie ran to untie the man who'd been attacked by the
robber. "Which way did they go?" Billy pleaded as the group all pointed towards the other
door, all too shocked and amazed to say anything at all. Seeing that the man appeared to be
just a little shaken Katie called Miss Nuttall over. "Here, you take care of him, we've got robbers
to catch" and just as quickly as they'd arrived Billy and Katie raced after the escaping men. Miss
Nuttall wiped the blood away from the poor man's forehead with her handkerchief as the
children suddenly burst into life. "That was Billy the Cat and Katie! We saw Billy the Cat and
Katie!" they all shouted and cheered. They were still shouting and cheering when the
Beefeaters unlocked the main door and hurried in. They were startled to hear about what had
happened and their colleague wasted no time in describing how he'd been overpowered by the