Prologue
Chapter 1: Cookie of Consolation
Chapter 2: Sam
Chapter 3: Who Stole the Cookie?
Chapter 4: Tradam’s Warning
Chapter 5: The Yellow House Again
Chapter 6: Treffellem Tagge
Chapter 7: Ambushed
Chapter 8: The EPA Chase
Chapter 9: The Ghostly Chapter
Chapter 10: The Frigid Urchin
Chapter 11: The New New Chapter
Chapter 12: The Things That Happened (At Last)
Chapter 13: The Evening Hornet
Chapter 14: The Breaking of the Orange Ball
When at last Pumpkin held the newspaper in his hands, he couldn’t bear to look at it.
“Twenty-three cents,” he wailed. “I’m broke! For life!”
Heedless, Rosy grabbed the paper from him and scanned the page with a practiced, rapid eye.
“Twenty-three cents!” moaned Pumpkin again.
“Why, look!” exclaimed Rosy, suddenly. “It says here that Semmes went missing and foul play is suspected. And here there’s a small note written beneath in red, ‘He’s in. Tell the secretary of WAS L-1 to prepare extra cells for the GOA.’”
Rosy paused in stunned silence. “He uses the newspaper to communicate with his particular mafia, because he knows nobody reads anything but the headlines! Did you newspapers make the headlines really big for the same reason that a baby-book does?” she added inquiringly.
Pumpkin frowned and thought. “Because it’s easier?”
“No!” Rosy exclaimed triumphantly, “To put the babies – and the newspaper readers, which pretty much amounts to the same thing – at their ease.”
“How was that pertinent?” asked Pumpkin, his demeanor changing suddenly. “I’m done with things that are not pertinent! All this time we have been fooling around, running down every rabbit trail – well, I for one, shall run the gamut no more,” Pumpkin concluded heroically.
“What’s the gamut?” asked Rosy, looking up at him wide-eyed, as she threw the newspaper into a nearby trash can.
“It’s – nay, my new philosophy of only doing what is strictly necessary forbids my telling you,” replied Pumpkin graciously.
“Oh, cocky!” cried Rosy, angrily, walking away towards the ascension line. “You may be done with everything but the case, but you’ll find the case is done with you if you’re not careful!” she added, stumbling blindly into the elevator and slamming it in his face.
Pumpkin made a grab for his sunglasses and turned around. “Just as I planned,” he whispered, rubbing his hands eagerly under his breath. “It’s all going exactly according to plan. They’ll walk right into my trap!”
To be continued…
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Eleven Worlds 