Gabriel and the Phantom Sleepers. Jenny Nimmo

house and one of his cousins picked up the receiver – the youngest, by the sound of it. When Gabriel asked to speak to his mother the little voice chirped, ‘Your mum is having a crisis!’

      ‘Crisis?’ Gabriel said hoarsely. ‘What d’you mean crisis?’

      ‘It’s bad,’ said the squeaky voice.

      Gabriel’s stomach lurched. ‘I want to speak to my mum, Annie!’

      ‘I’m Alice.’ She sounded offended.

      ‘Well, Alice, PLEASE can you get –’

      The receiver must have been snatched out of Alice’s hand, because, to Gabriel’s great relief, his mother said, ‘Gabriel, love, are you all right?’

      ‘Yes, yes. I got here, Mum. Why are you having a crisis?’

      ‘Oh, Gabriel, it’s dreadful. We’ve only just heard about poor Albert. They rang us from the hospital. And you went all that way alone.’ Mrs Silk spoke very fast, on she went, and Gabriel could only stand there, listening to his mother’s jerky sentences in bewilderment. ‘Oh, Gabriel, love, are you all right? And the – you-know-what? Dad is so concerned. He’s already in Belgium, but he wants to get back as soon as he can.’

      Gabriel shook his head and turned a frowning face to Sadie and his uncle.

      ‘Gabe, what’s wrong?’ Sadie jumped up and came over to him.

      Mrs Silk was still rattling on, and Gabriel had to speak over her to say, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mum. Albert was on the train.’

      This brought Mrs Silk to a dramatic halt. Gabriel heard a gasp, then silence. His troubled face brought his uncle to the phone. Taking the receiver from Gabriel, he said, ‘What’s up, Kate?’

      More bubbling chatter from Mrs Silk. Gabriel and Sadie retreated to the table and sat down, but even at a distance Gabriel could hear the hysteria in his mother’s voice. At length, his uncle said, ‘That’s dreadful. A vicious attack, you say? Let us know if anything . . . you know. Yes, Gabriel is quite safe.’

      There was another burst of sound from the phone, and Mr Silk said, ‘Calm down, Kate. We have the cloak. If this false Albert tried to take it, he didn’t succeed. Yes, yes. Goodbye, Kate.

      ‘Bad news,’ Mr Silk told the children. ‘The real Albert Blackstaff was found in the toilets at Euston Station. Unconscious, his hands tied, in a stall locked from the inside. So you were accompanied by an imposter, Gabriel.’

      ‘He’s not going to die, is he, the real Albert?’ cried Sadie.

      ‘No, no,’ said her father, ‘and the cloak is safe, so . . .’ He attempted a smile. ‘It is safe, isn’t it, Gabriel?’

      Gabriel stared grimly at his uncle. ‘No, it’s not safe,’ he said. He ran up to his room and lifted the cloak into his arms. It looked so familiar, so very like the one he knew, and yet, now, when he held it, the velvet gave him nothing, no warmth, no comfort. This cloak was cold and heavy, as though it had been made by someone without a heart. Holding it as far from his body as he could, he went back to the kitchen. ‘It’s the wrong one,’ he said. ‘I knew it.’

      ‘Looks like the cloak I remember,’ said his uncle.

      ‘Well, someone has made another one, just like the original. Someone who knew exactly what it looked like.’ Gabriel tried not to sound panicky, but he couldn’t stop his voice from rising like the whine of an anguished dog. ‘The false Albert must have swapped the cloaks while I was getting tea. And then he got off the train.’ Gabriel threw the loathsome garment on the floor and sank into a chair.

      They all stared at the cloak, twinkling deceptively, even in shadow. Mr Silk picked it up. ‘If this isn’t the real thing, someone’s done an incredible job.’

      Gabriel shook his head, and went on shaking it, until Sadie told him it might fall off.

      ‘I lost it,’ Gabriel said dismally. ‘The king’s cloak. What happens now, Uncle Jack? I mean, you’re from the family of Keepers, too.’

      Gabriel’s uncle looked worried, and it was Sadie who said they would just have to find the cloak, wouldn’t they. ‘Where did the false Albert leave the train?’ she asked.

      Gabriel screwed up his eyes, trying to remember. But he hadn’t noticed the name of the station, only that it had been the last stop before they got off at Humbledown.

      ‘Hmm,’ Sadie said thoughtfully. ‘The one before Humbledown is Howgrave. That doesn’t help much, I suppose. It’s a big town. So he could be anywhere by now.’ She glanced at her father. He looked utterly downcast.