Saturday 17 September 2022

The Wizard's Dressing Gown

We had all been concerned over the sightings of Beaver and his gang at The Pleasure Palace. It was clear to me that, with so many valuable exhibits, the Museum would be a prime target for them. I instructed A.B.Fox, Brass and Goodman to act as night watchman and keep an eye out for the villains. The night, however, had passed quietly and we were just about to board our bus and set out on the next leg of our journey when Septimus Brigg, the curator, came rushing out, distraught and in a panic. One of the exhibits had disappeared. The Wizard's Dressing Gown was no longer in it's display case. A.B.Fox was perplexed. "I don't understand, we saw no one, Sir, and heard not a sound!" he said - clearly upset at the thought of his failure to prevent the theft. When I questioned Brigg about the lack of security alarms, given the value of the exhibits, he became quite defensive and rather rude. He tried to blame me - arguing that until, Fox discovered the means of access to the other floors, and, I opened the place up he had had no worries on such matters because nobody came to visit the place! Dumbfounded at his impudence I told him to aid Fox in anyway he could - on all the possible means of escape. The only one that seemed feasible was in the bucket via the aerial lift. Fox's keen eye soon spotted a pile of skewers on the floor of the bucket. That clinched it - it had to have been Hitmouse who was responsible. But why only steal one item? - what was so special about an old dressing gown? I questioned Brigg further on the item - where had it come from? It turned out that the dressing gown had been donated by Wizard Blenkinsop, so I set word to him to come immediately on a matter of Homeward Security. "Oh, yes the dressing gown." said the Wizard "Well, I had to find somewhere safe for it and where better than the secure environment of a museum of treasures. I knew that the artifacts would be well protected..." "But what is so special about an old dressing gown?" I interrupted him. "Why, it makes the wearer invisible and cloaks any sound they make, of course!" he replied. I could not believe it - the perfect tool for a bunch of brigands in the hands of Beaver and his gang. "Why," I asked the Wizard angrily "did you not think to warn Brigg of the powers of this exhibit?" "Well," retorted the Wizard "I did not want every Tom, Dick and Harry, to know of it's magical properties, did I! - that would have been most dangerous!" But, how then did Beaver know about the dressing gown? and what villainous deeds does he intend to perpetrate with it? I wondered aloud.

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