Chapter 4
Just Settled In
I knew from the moment the doorbell chimed the challenge was before us. It had been far too long since Watson and I partook in a mystery. I was not at all surprised to hear Watson tell Mrs. Rodenthurst he would look into the mysterious disappearances of the men of Leedscrack. No sooner did Mrs. Rodenthurst depart than we did the same.
I chose the Balhomey coupe. 6 litre with the V8 engine. four-hundred and-twenty-five horses under the hood. Leedscrack was a good distance away but I had us there in under an hour.
Leedscrack. Never was there a place of more wretched scum and villainy. Like so many other small villages and towns, Leedscrack was far enough away from the city that many a fugitive migrated there.
The Sugar and Plum appeared quaint enough from the outside. Watson and I were given the usual once-over by the regulars, a crop of aristocratic rodents playing Cup the Critter on their table. Their server saw us and invited us into the tavern.
"Don't be shy, gents," she said assuredly. "Welcome to the Sugar and Plum, where visions of fantasy dance in your heads!"
The rowdy rodents cheered. One finished his pint of cider and in one fell swoop, brought the empty glass down upon the critter scurrying around the table. His compatriots cheered.
"Looks like Alfie's got the next round!"
This generated much laughter.
I headed up to the bar thinking Watson was behind me.
I was wrong. He had wandered over to the table to witness the game up close.
"What is the purpose of your game, gentlemen?"
Being familiar with the game from my infantry days, I knew what Watson was about to get himself into if he attempted to join in for a round.
"Well, sir," a ferret said. "Each man here has a hermit critter on the table. When someone yells, 'Go!', we see who can finish his drink the quickest and snatch a hermit crotter. Whoever's hermit critter he catches has to buy the round."
"That sounds like a rollicking good time. Where do I procure a hermit crotter?"
"Ask Otis there behind the bar,"
Watson turned to the bar where I stood about to pay for our beverages. A cuppa for him and a spiced milk for me.
"Bixley! I say, Bixley! Ask the proprietor for a hermit critter."
For those unfamiliar with the hermit critter, it's a small species found primarily on prairies. Like the bee, the prairie critter, also known as the hermit critter for its tendency to live alone, helps pollinate crops.
I turned to the barkeep. "And one hermit critter."
He lifted a long, thin slab of slate and quickly caught a hermit critter with one of his tentacles. The barkeep then stretched across the room and deposited the creature onto the table.
"I call that one Robby," the barkeep told me.
I carried our drinks over to the group.
The party laughed when I handed Watson his drink.
"You can't play Cup the Critter with a teacup," said one of the players.
Watson appeared confused. "Why not?"
"The cup is too small to hold a hermit critter!"
"I'll play, Watson," I said. "My glass is--"
"Quite all right, Bixley. If I lose, I lose and that means these gentlemen win."
"You'll go broke playing these blokes," Kitty Server said.
"Let's make it interesting then," Watson said. "Each time I lose, whichever one of you has caught my hermit critter must agree to answer a question."
"We could be here all night, Kitty! Tell Otis to start pouring!"
The players cheered.
"All right, gentlemen," Watson said. One. Two. Three. Go!"
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