The Adventures of Stunt Boy and His Amazing Wonder Dog Blindfold by Lollie Barr

sneaking around the big top towards the front gate. Benny has amazing eyesight, so he saw Chesterley’s thugs first.
    â€˜Goons! Get down!’ he whispered and pulled me down behind a small pink car just as two of Chesterley’s henchmen passed.
    â€˜What’s he going to do with those kids?’ said a man with a voice made of ten million disgusting cigarettes and gravel cough lollies.
    â€˜Leave them to rot, probably,’ said the other one with a laugh. ‘Anyway, enough about those kids. Did you see that chick? Hot!’
    Once they passed, we sprinted as fast as we could towards the front of the circus to a flagpole, where a bright yellow flag with Chesterley’s Family Circus embossed in red flapped in the wind.
    â€˜We’re going to have to go up that pole,’ I whispered to Benny. ‘It’s the only option.’
    â€˜Great,’ said Benny, shaking his head.
    â€˜You can do it, Ben. Remember I taught you the Russian climbing technique,’ I said.
    Circus performers by their very nature are travellers, so we’ve always had guest artists from all over the world to train with us and share their skills. I learnt it from a guy called Uri from the Ukraine.
    â€˜I’ll go first and you keep watch. If you see anyone coming, let me know.’
    â€˜Great, Stunt, then I’ll get caught.’
    â€˜Make a sound like a frog if you see anyone coming. I’ll make a frog noise when I’m at the top to make sure the coast is clear for you,’ I said, as I scooted up the pole. The really difficult part was the jump from the flagpole to the flat narrow top ledge at the top of the gate. If it was hard for me, it was going to be super tricky for Benny. I made a frog sound and waited as Benny emerged out of the shadows.
    While it took me just one go, it took Benny six tries (it was actually eight, but I didn’t want to correct him later when he said he’d done it in six) to climb the pole, because he wasn’t a master at the Russian wrap technique. When he got to the top and saw the drop, his face totally dropped.
    â€˜Stunt Boy, what the hell?’ he asked. ‘How am I going to get to that ledge?’
    â€˜Just swing your legs out and then drop down,’ I offered.
    â€˜Are you nuts, Stunt? I’m in training for the State Championships!’ said Benny as he clung to the flagpole. ‘If I fall, I could break something!’
    Then the wail of a police siren sounded. It grew louder and louder until a police car skidded to a stop right in front of me and a beam of bright light shone into my eyes. If I didn’t have such excellent balance, I could have fallen off the wall. Benny was using all his strength to stay at the top of the pole.
    â€˜Police. Don’t move!’ came a voice from behind the light. ‘Put your hands above your head where I can see them.’
    I lifted my hands in the air in surrender. The light made my shadow look long and dark, as if I was a ten-foot-tall zombie monster, but I wasn’t, I was just a kid. I turned to see Benny raise his hands and then slither down the flagpole.
    â€˜Oh no,’ he said as he disappeared into the darkness.
    â€˜Okay, don’t move!’ said the policeman as he got closer. He was wearing big black shiny boots and a blue uniform. His badge glimmered in the light.
    â€˜They’ve been vandalising my property, and my staff and I have been assaulted,’ said Chesterley, blustering through the gate and holding Benny by his tracksuit top.
    Chesterley’s thugs eventually emerged with a ladder that they begrudgingly put up for me to get down.
    â€˜I’m in so much trouble,’ Benny whispered as we were reunited. ‘I might never be ungrounded in my entire life.’
    â€˜Hooligans! I want the full weight of the law brought down on them,’ said Chesterley. ‘I want them charged and put into a home for juvenile