The Tale of the Mad Gorgon Part 8
Those who follow the episodes and come closest to the truth stand to win some devilish fine prizes, including classic editions of Robert Louis Stevenson’sTreasure Island and Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers.
How to enter:
1) Read the 9 episodes of “The Tale of the Mad Gorgon”. (See the schedule of links on the Grey Cells Press website.)
2) Solve the puzzles along the way.
3) Email your solutions via the contact form.
There will also be opportunities to win a digital copy of Greenwood Tree via Twitter, so follow @CaptainRedheart to keep up. (Information on these opportunities will also be posted via @GreyCellsPress as well, if you prefer tweets without grog and parrots in them!). Also, look for odd scraps and bits and pieces from the Captain’s Logbook at Bagshott Manor.
After this episode you will all have one week to come up with your guesses as to whodunnit,howdunnit and how to find the treasure ….
Good luck !”
The Tale of the Mad Gorgon Part 8
‘Knocked on the head with a lump of old masonry from the building, has the blood on it, whoever did it tossed it to one side. Must have been in a hurry. Then dragged Mr Nunctious into the folly. I shall put constables on guard duty about the house, and I must insist that nobody leave the house on any pretext without informing me or the constable.’ Inspector Lovell was in no very happy frame of mind; another corpse, this time of the hapless William, and two missing men: neither James Derelict nor Horatio Hubble had been seen since the previous evening, which would mean a search party; his gloom was hardly alleviated by Julia mentioning the chalk marks.
‘Might I make a telephone call?’ she asked.
‘Yes, you might, but no further excursions into the garden – unless accompanied by a constable.’
Captain Thursby was surprised and not a little intrigued to be rung up again on a question of navigation: ‘Sounds like a latitude measurement; but one would need to know from where they were standing in the first place…what was that? Yes, I suppose I could… no, don’t worry, I’ll bring my own.’
Later in the day, an elderly vehicle came crawling up the drive, to deliver a naval looking man, clasping one sextant in one hand. He was shown up to the gallery under the supervision of a constable to where Julia was waiting for him under Captain Redheart’s portrait. The constable stood by, as they looked at the painting and made notes. Inspector Lovell wasn’t taking any chances.
Julia brought out a mirror from her pocket and held it up to the painting.
‘Yes. Yes, I think I see –‘ she said, quite excited. ‘Are you ready?’
‘All hands on deck – fire away.’
‘S,E,3,5,N,W,1,5,…’ she began.
‘Hold hard there, m’lad – N, W?’
‘Yes, and then 1, 5, … and next …’ Julia squinted at the mirror a while, then her face cleared:
‘a,n,d,s,o,u,n,d,e,r,…’ She looked a little taken aback. ‘That doesn’t make a lot of sense. But perhaps once we’ve done the first part …’
That same afternoon, as the sun was setting, the Folly received more visitors: Julia, the elderly mariner still holding his sextant, and the now inseparable constable.
‘Now, as I was saying, ‘explained the Captain, ‘we would probably need to wait until sunset to take a shot, as we call it; that is, if we go on the premise that the sunset in the painting is a definite reference to the time of day. If we try it now, it will be out by a matter of degrees, which could make a serious difference to your calculations.’
‘The doctor said he had been dead at least since the previous evening, so that could tie in.’
So if we take a shot from the Folly, with the Mad Gorgon behind us…’ the Captain raised the sextant to his eye and squinted at the house.
‘Points to the Gallery.’
‘Oh. Are you sure?’
‘You may look for yourself – keep it steady – there.’
‘Yes, I see what you mean.’ Julia tried not to sound disappointed – or to feel too foolish.
‘He seems to be leading us round in circles.’ She looked at her notes again.‘Oh, but wait – SE35 and NW15 …surely N stands for north?
‘Most certainly – and W for west …and I would suggest that the numbers stand for paces.’
Under the constable’s now bulging gaze, Julia and the Captain proceeded to step, in quasi-tango-like gait, across the remains of the lawn, nearly taking a tumble near some more uprooted flowerbeds. The constable followed at respectfully protective distance, his walk unconsciously mirroring theirs until one might have been forgiven for imagining an impromptu Lobster’s Quadrille had been in progress.
The procession was brought to a full halt at the door of the Clock Tower. It was locked. ‘Well, of course, I suppose it would be.’ Julia stood back and gazed up at the clock face which had not changed the time in roughly a hundred years. A shadow appeared.
‘And perhaps you would like to explain what you want with the Clock Tower? ‘ enquired Inspector Lovell amiably behind them.
‘I was reminded when looking at the engraving copied from one of Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks – he wrote in a code of his own, quite simple really, but requiring a mirror to read it.’
Lovell raised an eyebrow.
‘He wrote upside down and back to front. I wondered, what if Redheart had done the same thing? So I tried reading the lettering with a mirror. The ’s’ is in fact an ‘a’, ‘n’ is ‘u’ and vice-versa, and so on – and the squiggly thing that looks like an f – is in fact an old-fashioned ‘s’. The sentence then plainly reads ‘And so under’. I think Abigail had just tried that out herself, when the murderer caught up with her.’
‘Rather careless of them to leave the mirror behind.’
‘I don’t think they imagined anyone else would make the connection; we didn’t –she was always looking in the mirror at herself, or to put more make-up on. So it wouldn’t occur to anyone that she had any other purpose.’
‘But that still leaves us with only ‘And so under’ – under what? And this sextant …’
‘That is where Captain Thursby comes in.’ Julia turned to the captain.
‘Yes, now, according to how he is holding the sextant in the painting, he is actually about to take a shot, or measurement – and because there is a sunset as well, that suggests the time of day to take the shot. Now, he also included the Folly in the painting –‘
‘A
nd using the measurements and compass points Miss Warren so, ah, intelligently extracted from the portrait,’ continued the Captain, ‘I was able to take a shot, and with the Folly directly behind us – that is, the figurehead, we found ourselves at the Clock Tower. ‘
‘‘But the Clock Tower is empty.’
‘And so under, Inspector Lovell,’ explained Julia.’ That was the final instruction left in the painting : ‘And so under’.
Inspector Lovell looked increasingly worried as Julia outlined her theory. ‘I do hope you haven’t shared your thoughts with anyone in the household, ‘ he said once she had finished. ‘That really might not be safe.’
‘I do think though that if any more gruesome demises are to be avoided, we had better make straight for the Clock Tower soon – as soon as possible; I really think there may be something unpleasant about to occur,’ relied Julia earnestly. ‘How many men have you available?’
Inspector Lovell gave her a long, considering look.
