The next day, the kids visit Kemare
Head and speculate about the signs they're trying to uncover,
while Great Uncle Merry goes fishing (to distract their opponents).
Unfortunately, while the Withers' yacht follows Merry, Polly Withers
has apparently stayed behind. She and Bill the Bad Bicyclist
interrupt the kids' outdoor brainstorming session, full of polite
small talk which ends with an abrupt demand to know if the kids
“found a map”. They dissemble, though not very well (Barney
apparently put a few skill points into bluff, but the others made
untrained checks and rolled poorly to boot).
Alone again, they start thinking about yesterday's conversation with Merry,
and the view of Kemare Head from the other headland; Barney remembers
the shadow of one of the standing stones being note-worthy. They
climb up to the stones and start working out where the shadows point,
debating the possibility of the grail being buried under one of them,
or that the stones point the way to the next clue. The age of the
stones makes them rule out the grail being there (though it's a
better idea than the earlier one that the grail was in the Grey House
itself), and Barney notes that the headland is “over sea”, so the
next step is to find the “under stone” bit.
Around this time, Polly and Bill
reappear, see the kids with the manuscript, and demand a
look. Simon actually does something useful, in grabbing up the
manuscript and running away with it; Bill attempts to follow him.
Somehow, I just know Miss Withers will get the Drew children's
parents involved now, probably by mentioning how rude they were, and
suggesting that they have something not-rightfully-theirs, perhaps
lost by the Withers (in which case, it'll be interesting to see how
the kids get out of the situation without being forced to hand over the
manuscript). At least, if I were evil and maintaining friendly
social interaction, I'd give it a try.
Barney and Jane go for help (ie, Great
Uncle Merry). Meanwhile, there's a dramatic chase scene (on foot)
through the outskirts of Trewissick, but Simon gets a little lost and
ends up near the church instead of the safety of the Grey House. He
cleverly manages to hide before Bill can catch him, only to see Bill
meet a man dressed in black, who appears to be yet another
confederate, though the snippet of conversation Simon overhears doesn't
reveal anything we didn't already know.
He waits until the coast is clear, then
starts for Trewissick. Surprise! Bill and the man in black
(inconceivable!) are actually not that far away. They start to chase
Simon again as he makes his way towards the village. He's exhausted
and out of ideas, and worried that any passer-by he might approach
for help will side with the strange man chasing him rather than
helping.
Fortunately, the car Simon nearly runs
into at the cross roads is being driven by Great Uncle Merry. They
drive off, and the chapter ends.
I'm not sure how I feel about this
chapter. The kids' work on the manuscript puzzle feels
very...non-concrete. They have almost nothing to go on, so it all
feels like guesswork, with no real way to check if they're on the
right course or not. The actual developments here seem to be the enemy
breaking cover (though we already established that the Withers, and
by extension, Bill, are on the opposing side), and the escalation of
aggression as shown in the chase: not a lot happens,
per se, but it feels like the stakes just rose and time just got
shorter, because the kids were being personally confronted.
The
other thing that felt weird was in the original discussion: this time
it's Barney and Simon coming up with all the ideas (at least where
the dialogue is clearly attributed), while Jane gets to scold and be
“petulant”. She gets in a good point that something which has
stayed hidden for 900 years (if it's indeed still hidden) is likely
buried, but she's not given many good lines in this chapter—even
the idea of going for Merry when Simon is being pursued comes from
Barney.
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