Spring-heeled Jack and the President's Ring

Chapter 19 ~ Magnetron's Masquerade

"It was a most gratifying demonstration of cleverness triumphing over mere brute might.  My contentment was short-lived, however."

General Southwick was unconscious, having been toppled by the well-meaning Anders, and the general's men, alerted by the sound of breaking glass, were approaching.  Then I had an idea!

I bade Cerebelli and Satyros enter through the broken window and begin searching for the Luftigel plans.  Anders's task was to redeem himself by retrieving President Grant's ring from Southwick and securing the General himself to a sturdy baluster at the bottom of an ornately carved walnut staircase.  I picked up Southwick's moustache and gathered the remainder of his butler costume from the closet, hastily bedecking myself therewith.

The drunken sentries pounded upon the front door.  I answered, crying "After them!" and pointing toward a distant thicket of trees.  To my relief, they took me for Southwick and scurried off at my command.  I returned to the drawing room and spoke through the window to a series of frazzled sergeants, dispatching each of them in their turn to various parcels of land having nothing whatsoever in common save for their comfortable remoteness from the Luftigel.

It was a most gratifying demonstration of cleverness triumphing over mere brute might.  My contentment was short-lived, however.

Cerebelli made a frightful commotion in his search for the Luftigel plans, but the whereabouts of Satyros were quite the mystery until I heard a shrill cry emanating from one of many bedchambers upstairs.  General Southwick had evidently been entertaining a young lady when I arrived, and the terrified mistress had been startled by the sudden appearance of a caped intruder inside the locked room.

Her shrieks reversed the futile courses of four to five score soldiers, redirecting them back toward the manor house.  Our time was growing short.  Cerebelli joined me presently in the drawing room, carrying—not the Luftigel plans—but a four-foot tall, brightly painted African tribal mask.  Anders cringed at the sight of it and resumed his attempts at removing the ring from Southwick's finger.  Satyros appeared in the doorway and said simply, "Let's go!"

Anders displayed a distressed expression and protested with a feeble "but..." Before he could elaborate, a series of small explosions cracked and puffed at the rear of the house.  "No time for deliberation," urged Satyros.  "Let's go!"

"But the ring!" said Anders.  "I can't get it off.  It's too tight"