🚀 go-pugleaf

CLOCKS OF DOOM

The story so far:
   Hiawatha discovers the island Minnehaha, moves to Hong Kong, writes
a book.  Later, Father Hennepin discovers that the island is the hiding
place of the famous Orrid Nast, an immense jewel.  He and his Indian
companion Suey hasten to London so that Father Hennepin can use the
geographical tomes in the British Museum to find the location of the
island.

   As Father Hennepin sat in a private cubicle in the British
Museum, poring over an oversized altas, Suey amused herself by
reading trashy paperbacks which she had smuggled in.
   "Drat!" he finally muttered in frustration.  "There's no mention
of a Minnehaha anywhere."
   "Minnehaha!" repeated Suey, surprised.  "Why Butch baby, you
should have told me that's what you were looking for.  I read about
Minnehaha yesterday."  Suey dug into her box of paperbacks and
pulled out a tattered copy of Haiwatha's "Fig Newtons and Small
Islands," flipped to page 364 and pointed to a spot towards the
bottom.  "There," she said.
   Father Hennepin read the part about Minnehaha.  "This is just a
paragraph!  Is this all there is?"  He flipped back to the index,
but there was no other mention of the island.  "It doesn't even say
where it is.  I guess we'll have to ask this Hiawatha character.
Come on."
   Never one to let the grass grow under his feet, Father Hennepin
grabbed Suey's wrist and hastened out of the museum, pausing only to
take the hat from a passing photographer.  People looked up from their
tables and glared at the pair as they clumped by.  One threw a
cast-iron bookend, which fortunately missed.
   In front of the muesum, Father Hennepin hailed a taxi.  "Hong
Kong," Father Hennepin told the driver as they piled into the back.
   In Hong Kong, Father Hennepin paid the taxi driver with gold which
he had obtained in South America, then consulted the 'phone book to
find Hiawatha.  Cleverly disguising himself as an encyclopaedia salesman,
he visited Haiwatha's home and managed to engage him in idle conversation.
When Hiawatha spoke of his visit to the island, Father Hennepin said
casually, "Ah yes, Minnehaha, right?  What did you say its latitude
and longitude were?"  When Hiawatha told him, he covertly jotted the
coordinates on the cuff of his shirt, concluded his negotiations (he sold
Hiawatha a set of "Encyclopaedia Brittanica") and left to hire a
junk.  But unbeknownst to him, as he left the house a sinister figure
slipped out of an alleyway and started to sneak along behind him!

NEXT: AN ALARMING ENCOUNTER

-- 

(___)						Andre Guirard
|_ _|						The Devil Himself
( v )						ihnp4!mmm!cipher
 \-/
  V