Re: PP day by day


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Posted by Ed Kiser on October 23, 2005 at 19:41:25 from 152.163.100.6 user Kisered.

In Reply to: PM day by day posted by andyb on October 23, 2005 at 12:41:12:

Here is another DAY BY DAY summary of a book: PIGEON POST.

Gee, Now you don't have to read the book...

Ed Kiser, South Florida
=====================================
Day 1
Roger and Titty arrive by train, letting loose a pigeon to
announce their arrival at the train station. Nancy and Mrs.
Blackett meet them in Rattletrap to bring their luggage,
while Peggy in the Amazon, with the D's showing off their
sailing skills, having gotten the Pigeon, sail across to Rio
and pick up Roger and Titty. They checked at the station
for "Timothy", but it had not arrived yet. They guessed it
was an armadillo, so had prepared a hutch for it in Captain
Flint's study. They encounter a stranger, who they call
"Squashy Hat," peering over the fence, then abruptly
leaving. They spend the night in their camp of tents there
in the Beckfoot lawn.

Day 2
They trek to Kanchenjunga to meet with Slater Bob inside a
long dark mine, where he describes a young man's success in
discovering gold on the fells just before he went away to
war, never to return. Slater Bob says the young man found
gold, but it was well away to the South, on High Topps,
which is quite some distance from Beckfoot. They warn
Slater Bob not to disclose any information to Squashy Hat,
whom they saw pausing on some rocks just outside the mine
when they went it. They went back down the mountain to
Beckfoot, realizing that the present camp on the Beckfoot
lawn is nowhere near enough to High Topps to be of any value
for prospecting, so Nancy proposes moving the camp to High
Topps. Mrs. Blackett is not at all liking the idea of them
being so far away, with her unable to be in contact.
Finally, it was resolved that if everybody agreed to do what
Susan says, and, if they send a pigeon with a "we're OK"
report every day, and, (major point here) if Dick can make
the pigeons ring the bell to announce their arrival, then
Mrs. Blackette will let them move to High Topps. Mrs.
Blackett joined them at the camp for supper, where much
planning was made for tomorrow.

Day 3
Nancy, John, and Susan started out early to explore the
proposed camp site on High Topps, check out the availability
of water in the beck there, and to make arrangements for
Milk at Atkinson's. Peggy, Dorothea, Roger, and Titty made
a trip to Rio to get hammers, electric torches, a ball of
string, and goggles, as well as other supplies of food items
on a list made out by Mrs. Blackett. Dick worked on the
pigeon-operated bell. Timothy's hutch completed in Captain
Flint's study. First pigeon back from the pioneers
indicated that they could not get milk from Atkinson's as
that is where Squashy Hat had made his home base. Next
pigeon caused a very loud bell, causing Cook to drop a tray
of dishes. When the pioneers returned, reporting dry beck,
had the alternate plan of staying at Mrs. Tyson's.

Day 4
The tents were struck, everything packed on two dromedaries
(bicycles) and an old handcart. Excess baggage went in
Rattletrap, when Mrs. Blackett drove up to conver with Mrs.
Tyson to finalize camping arrangements. They made their
trek with the handcart and dromedaries to Tyson's. Dropping
their gear there, they went up to High Topps. They saw
Squashy Hat already prospecting with compass and maybe a
map. They stopped by "Camp Might Have Been," an old camp
place used by the charcoal burners years ago, but with no
water, not usable for their purposes. Back at Tyson's, they
set up camp in her orchard, with supper served by Mrs.
Tyson in her house. They were not allowed to cook at all,
but were made to take their meals with the Tyson's. They
are greatly disappointed, as this cuts into their desired
schedule to get to High Topps and do some serious
prospecting. They called the camp in the orchard: "Pretty
Awful."

Day 5
They were irritated by the delay in getting started the next
morning, having to have breakfast at Tyson's and then wait
until she fixed sandwiches to take for their lunch like it
was a picnic. But Mrs. Tyson was so afraid of starting
fires that she did not let Susan make her fire to do their
own cooking. Finally getting to High Topps, they formed a
line to comb the territory, looking for likely old workings
to explore. They sent off Sappho during their lunch picnic
of sandwiches. Then they spotted Squashy Hat, and "fended
him off" by popping up in front of him, but appearing not to
notice him, after which he left the area and went up to
higher ground where they could hear him tapping with a
hammer. They did little prospecting with him up there where
he could see them. Finally he went home, but by then it was
time for them to return to Tyson's for supper, an hour after
Mrs. Tyson had it ready and waiting for them.

Day 6
Mrs. Blackett came early, returning Sappho, but complaining
the pigeon had awakened them at 5 in the morning (they sent
him off at noon the day before.) Mrs. Tyson complained to
Mrs. Blackett about their coming in for the evening meal an
hour late. Back on the Topps, they split, half prospecting,
the other half scouting for Squashy Hat. The scouts used
two flag semaphore to send single letter codes to report on
the location of Squashy Hat. They saw him climbing up high
on Grey Screes, where he painted a white circle on the cliff
face. Wanting to wait until he went back home, they were
again late for supper, with Mrs. Tyson's fussing. Dick had
been looking at some rushes at camp "Might Have Been", and
thought their presence indicated there was water there
somewhere, maybe could be found by dowsing with a forked
stick. In the last hour before dark, they experimented with
"water divining" to see if one of them had the skill. Using
Tyson's pump as a known area where water was, they took
turns trying out a forked hazel stick. Nobody got any
results, until Titty tried, and the stick twisted out of her
hand. It upset her, so she ran crying up into the wood. It
became an unmentionable subject, so as not to upset her
again.

Day 7
Nancy took off early in the morning to the camp "Might Have
Been", cut a forked stick, and desperately tried to find
water in the area, even though she had had no luck with it
around Tyson's pump. Not able to make it work, she tossed
the forked stick away. Although nobody said anything about
it, Titty felt she had failed by being afraid of the
dowsing, as if it was all her fault they could not camp at
camp "Might Have Been." Scouting and prospecting was
somewhat half hearted. Squashy Hat got up on the Screes
without being seen and painted another white circle.
Everybody feeling very discouraged, especially Titty, as if
their failure was all her fault. The one bright event was
they were in time for supper back at Tyson's. Even though
it was near dark, Titty slipped out and went back up to the
camp site near High Topps, found Nancy's forked stick, and
this time had the nerve to stay with it as the stick bent
down and leaped from her hands at a site that hopefully had
water. She reported back at the tents, with much
celebration of the others, reported her success. The
prospectors were filled now with enthusiasm, now that Titty
had overcome her fears and had found a likely site.

Day 8
No prospecting today. With spades and a crowbar, they began
digging at the well-site Titty had found. Dorothea and
Titty went to scout Atkinson's. They saw Squashy Hat leave
but was walking down the road, not to High Topps. He was
seen coming back home, walking tiredly, back up that road.
The well was a success, with a set of rock steps down to the
water, which would clear if the mud was allowed to settle.
Group very excited now, and in good spirits. Message by
Pigeon asked Mrs. Blackett to come up and negotiate with
Mrs. Tyson that they were to shift camp up to the new site
by High Topps. It was a hard working day, digging the well,
but a happy one. They got back to Tyson's in time for
supper, to help get her in a good mood to receive the news
they were shifting camp in the morning. No prospecting
today, with the work on digging the well.

Day 9
The camp was struck first thing, even before breakfast,
loaded onto the handcart for the trek to the new site. Mrs.
Tyson very negative, not believing any water was there, and
very afraid of fires. They got their tents moved to the new
site before Mrs. Blackett came to talk to Mrs. Tyson.
Mrs. Blackett went to the new camp site and was very
pleased to see how things were done, and especially to see
Titty's Well. While up there, they spotted a fire just
starting on the shoulder of the road where some tourists had
stopped for a picnic. John and Nancy dashed down and
stomped out the fire before it really got a good start.
They stayed to finish setting up camp, while Mrs. Blackett
went back to Mrs. Tyson to tell her it was all right. They
made some fire brooms to stack nearby to be handy for
emergencies. No prospecting this day of moving camp. Mrs.
Tyson's sandwiches were ok for lunch, but Susan was able to
use her new fireplace and get a fire started in it to boil a
kettle. Robin Tyson came up with the milk, and to see about
the well for himself. They discovered that Squashy Hat had
painted a third white circle on the high cliff. A simple
supper of pemmican was greatly appreciated, with their own
tea from water from their own well - freedom from Mrs.
Tyson's schedule.

Day 10
Contrary to great intentions, they slept late in their new
camp. After a quick breakfast, Nancy, John, and Dick went
up the cliff to investigate those white painted circles made
by Squashy Hat. They were puzzled by these marks, finding
only a wide crack filled with what looked like rusty dirt.
While checking out those paint spots, they almost ran into
Squashy Hat, because they had failed to watch their scouts
that were signalling like crazy trying to tell them that he
was on his way up the cliffs. They resumed their combing
the Topps, prospecting, and Squashy Hat painted a fourth
circle on the cliff. It was such a relief to know they did
not have to quit early to rush down to Mrs. Tyson's for
supper, but could stay prospecting until it got too dark to
be effective, as they could have Susan's supper whenever
they wanted it.

Day 11
Scouts report Squashy has gone down the road again, so they
have the Topps to themselves. No scouts needed, so all were
available for prospecting. Still somewhat boring process.
Even the scouting had been somewhat fun. Discouraging to
see on the map just how much of High Topps there was left to
be covered by their prospecting. Roger was so bored he
invented a game of seeing if he could sneak from one end of
the prospecting line to the other without being spotted. He
slid into a gully and dropped right in front of a small
opening, which he ducked into just before someone looked
over the edge and would have seen him. He began banging on
the wall, and a chunk flaked off that had something glinting
in his torch light. The rest of the prospectors were having
a very unproductive, discouraging day, roaming across the
Topps. They did not notice Roger was missing until time to
head back to camp, and discovered after each picked up their
knapsack, that Roger's was unclaimed. They were rather
upset, with him being missing, until he saunters into the
camp and proudly presents the chunks of rock, glittering
with gold. What had been a very boring, dispairing day, had
turned out with triumphant success.

Day 12
Roger, with teasing slowness, led them to the place where he
found the gold. They staked their claim in the center of
the gulch, not so close as to identify where the entrance to
the mine itself was, as it was quite hidden behind its
curtain of heather. The elders went back to the camp to
bring the crushing mill and a frying pan in which to pan the
gold dust, and a lantern to light up the mine, and a bucket
of water for the panning, and a chisel borrowed from the
Tyson's. Mining began in earnest, with John chiseling the
vein inside the cave, and an assortment of sweating laborers
working the pounding crushing mill. It was a tiring day,
but productive, with the chiseling, and the pounding of the
crusher, and the jiggling of the pan of water to produce
such a tiny pinch of colored grains of metal. Squashy added
another painted circle to the cliff. They suddenly noticed
that his paint marks were all in a line, and that line led
directly to their mine. John and Roger took their sleeping
bags and spend the night in the gulch, so the mine would not
be left unguarded.

Day 13
Roger and John woke up in the gulch; there had been no
visitors. More chiseling, crushing, and panning. Late in
the morning, the scouts saw Squashy Hat, but not going to
the Screes where his paint marks were, but heading across
Link Scar towards Kanchenjunga, where they assumed, he would
be talking with Slater Bob.

The three younger ones, now not needed for scouting, decided
to go diamond-mining, except for Titty, who went back to
camp to write a letter to her mom. Susan's dinner nearly
ready, she sent Titty to go fetch the other three younger
ones, so they could help carry dinner to the gulch to feed
the miners.

The diamond-hunters were a bit bored with looking into small
caves they had been in before, resting near the far end of
the Topps, when suddenly they saw Squashy Hat appear nearby,
apparently having popped out of a hole in the mountain.
Since he had just come out, they figured it was OK for them
to go in and explore a bit. It gave them their first chance
at using Titty's ball of string, which they tied to a clump
of heather at the entrance, so they could find their way
back out.

Titty, sent to find them, saw them near Link Scar, then
suddenly disappear. She went closer and found the clump of
heather, jerking with the string that went into the cave.
She followed it, shouting for them to come back out, that
Susan was ready for dinner. The rotting supports fell
behind her, blocking that exit, so they had to go all the
way thru, coming out at Slater Bob's.

There they found out that Slater Bob and Squashy Hat had
been talking, so they figured Slater Bob was in cahoots with
the enemy, so was not to be trusted with any info regarding
their find in the Gulch. They had to walk up over the top
of the mountain to get back to the Topps. The elders had
been looking for them, and were rather upset at their not
being where they are supposed to be.

Back at camp, had a rather late dinner, gone cold, discussed
Slater Bob. Dashed to the mine, to find it as they left it,
but found a matchbox that probably came from Squashy Hat,
indicating that he had been in the gulch, but had not seen
the mine. They knew now that they must make that gold ingot
by themselves without trusting Slater Bob. They scouted
Atkinson's to find where Squashy was, and saw he had some of
their chunks of quartz with gold flecks in it on his table
where he was studying them.

Plans were made to prepare to make the gold nugget. They
needed to make charcoal. They needed the bellows at
Beckfoot to help make the blast furnace hot. They needed a
crucible and a blow pipe.

Day 14
Peggy, Titty, and Dick rode the two dromedaries to Beckfoot
to pick up the needed equipment. Peggy, to "steal" the
bellows, Dick to check out Captain Flint's study for a
crucible. They fixed up the decorations for the armadillo
hutch. They rowed across the lake to Rio to buy supplies
Mrs. Blackett listed, and batteries for their torches, and
a blowpipe for Dick. He was surprised to find Squashy Hat
also buying a blowpipe. They had to push their loaded
dromedaries back to the camp, where they found the others
preparing wood for the charcoal burning.

Day 15
While others got more wood for the charcoal burning, Dick
experimented with a speck of gold dust and his blowpipe, but
found the results strange; the gold turned into a black blob
that broke into black dust - not the gold ingot they had
expected. Not sure why, maybe charcoal dust contaminated
it.

Squashy Hat was seen, so scouts went out to watch where he
goes. He had gone across the Topps to Ling Scar, to the
cave the others had almost been trapped in, and went in, but
a few minutes later, came back out, having found the way now
blocked. He was forced to take the long way, and struck out
walking over the top, apparently to meet with Slater Bob.

Back in camp, they prepared clumps of turf, to be used to
cover the charcoal pile which was built ready to light.
Around three o'clock, they lit the fire, and after some
frantic placing of wet clods to suppress the smoke, the
charcoal pie began to cook. At bedtime, the younger ones
went to bed, but the elder four had to work shifts, so
someone would be ready to put dirt clots on the charcoal
pile, a dirty job, but someone had to do it.

Day 16
The able-seamen woke early next morning, just in time to put
more dirt clods on the woodpile that was beginning to let
some flame flick through, as the elders did not make it thru
the night, falling asleep.

With a collection of stones, Dick constructed the furnace.
The Dorothea-Roger scouting team reported Squashy at work on
the Topps, so they went to the gulch. Dorothea came dashing
back, shouting that Squashy had tried to jump, as he had
looked into the gulch and saw her there reading aloud, then
turned and went home to Atkinson's.

They took down the charcoal pie, and started feeding
charcoal chunks into the furnace, where Dick had placed the
crucible with the gold dust in it. Pumping the bellows to
keep the furnace fire HOT was actually harder than the
crushing and panning had been.

Mrs. Tyson showed up, angry at the FIRE, for the danger it
presented in such dry weather, saying they must leave for
home tomorrow, that she cannot have fires like this going.
It was to be an all-nighter, to keep that furnace hot, in
spite of Mrs. Tyson's objections, and the charcoal smudged
faces.

Day 17
It had been a long, tiring night, working the bellows,
feeding more charcoal into the top of the furnace, maybe a
brief nap here and there. The plan was to keep the fire
going all day, just to make sure.

Suddenly, the bellows split and failed. The fire
immediately started dying down. With no way to keep the
fire going, people started lying down, very tired, and
drowsing off. Peggy, back with washed face and the morning
milk, came back to the camp, and had to wake everybody back
up again. They let the furnace cool a bit more, then
started pulling the stones off from the top, only to find
that the crucible with the gold ingot in it had disappeared,
with only broken fragments found in the ashes at the very
bottom, but with no sign of any gold anywhere, much to the
dismay of all, especially Dick.

In their misery, someone raised the question as to whether
it was gold after all. The elders had to go back to the
mine to crush and pan just a bit more, while the younger
ones got some sleep, having stayed up all night, so Dick can
take the sample to Captain Flint's study in Beckfoot and do
an AQUA REGIA test, since "Gold dissolves in AQUA REGIA."
The ingot was lost, but just to prove they had found gold,
that was what was really important to have done by the time
Captain Flint returns from his trip.

Dick got his sample of gold dust, and using one of the
dromedaries, set off to Beckfoot to make the test. The
other three younger ones were asleep, back at the camp, with
Sappho, the only remaining pigeon. The elders were to go
back to the mine for more crushing and panning to try to
have a bit more gold to show Captain Flint when he came
home, expected any day now.

Squashy Hat was at work up high over the Topps, doing his
own scouting, investigating the LINE that his spots of paint
were indicating.

No one saw the car of picnickers on the shoulder of the
Dundale road, leaving the area, with a thin wisp of smoke
curling up from the grass where they had been.

The smell of smoke woke up Titty, and she woke up the other
two. They saw the fire and saw they could not get to the
Gulch and warn the others. The three A.B. had to save the
camp themselves, so they started striking the tents. Let
Sappho fly herself to safety. As an after thought, Titty
thought to stick a note on Sappho before he flew, warning of
the fire. "FIRE HELP QUICK."

The cleared earth where they had gotten clods for the
charcoal fire would help stop the fire there. They got
water from the well and started wetting down a line to help
them hold that position. Roger brought up the fire brooms.
The well finally went dry, and they were desperately beating
it back with the fire brooms.

Meanwhile, back in the Gulch, the elders, having sent Dick
off with his sample, were very tired, and did not feel like
any more crushing and panning, but back into the relative
darkness of the mine, they started dropping off to sleep.

Finally, Peggy awakened to the crackling sound of the fire,
and roused the others. They found Squashy Hat asleep in the
middle of the Gulch, so Nancy nudged him with a foot to wake
him rather than let him burn. They tried to get back to the
camp, but the fire was between them. Squashy Hat joined
them as they dashed about looking for a way out, but by now,
the Gulch was surrounded. Nothing else could they do, so
they all, including Squashy Hat, went into the mine as the
fire roared by just outside.

After the fire passed, they came out into a smokey, hot,
burned land. They had to get to the camp where the younger
ones were. Squashy Hat was with them now, leaping over
smoking clumps of heather. They saw the three young ones
desperately fighting the fire with their brooms. All
together, including Squashy, turned to fight the fires.

Meanwhile, Dick, safe at Beckfoot, got the news that their
parents, the Callums, would be at Dixon's farm the day after
tomorrow, and Mrs. Walker and Bridget would also be coming
directly to Beckfoot. Mrs. Blackett insisted on Dick's
having dinner, in spite of his wanting to make the AQUA
REGIA test for gold, and being so very sleepy. Dick
repeated the blow pipe test on a bit of gold in a piece of
charcoal, but again it became a black blob that turned to
powder. He made the AQUA REGIA. The tiny bit of gold dust
dissolved in the AQUA REGIA - Dick was pleased. Gold after
all.

Then the surprise - Captain Flint walked in, asked what he
was doing, and explained that the test did not prove gold,
but the AQUA REGIA was about the ONLY thing that would
dissolve gold, and that that acid would dissolve almost
anything. Disappointment again - not gold. Captain Flint
looked at a bit of the gold dust Dick still had left over,
and said they looked like copper pyrites. Dick told him of
their efforts for the past two weeks, the blast furnace, the
broken crucible, and that they were doing it all for Captain
Flint. He examined some quartz with the flecks of metal and
said it looked like a very rich vein of copper, and was very
excited about its discovery. Captain Flint laughed when he
saw the hutch they had built for Timothy, who had never
arrived.

Then the pigeon bell rang, with the message "FIRE HELP
QUICK". Captain Flint saw the message, dashed outside to
take a look, saw the grey cloud far away over the Topps,
back inside, called Col. Jolys, head of the fire fighters
brigade with the news. The three of them hopped into
Rattletrap with the bicycle in the back seat, and they took
off to Tyson's, then up the path towards the camp.

In the camp, the three young ones were bravely fighting the
fire, but realized that it looked like a losing battle, when
out of the smoke leaped Squashy Hat who grabbed Roger's
firebroom and went to work. Behind him ran the four elders,
who immediately took inventory to be sure everyone was here
and OK, then they too set to work on the fire. Then from
the Atkinson's farm came three men that knew Squashy Hat and
went to work there with him. From Tyson's came Robin and
the farm hand, then Mrs. Tyson, raging with anger at them
for setting this fire, and without waiting for any reply,
went off to join the fight.

Then Captain Flint showed up, counted heads, spotted Squashy
Hat, and shouted "TIMOTHY!" which completely surprised the
prospectors. Dick came up, all apologetic about it not
being gold, but copper, followed by Mrs. Blackett, who also
counted heads, then grabbed Roger's firebroom (that's twice
someone took his, first Timothy, now her). Mrs. Tyson
spoke with Mrs. Blackett, repeating that she blamed the
fire on the prospector's camp, when they heard the hunting
horns of Col. Jolys' firefighters coming towards them.
Mrs. Blackett told Mrs. Tyson they had called by telephone
from Beckfoot as soon as they got the pigeon message about
the fire, sent from the prospector's camp.

With help from the firefighters, by evening, the fire was
defeated. Mrs. Tyson realized her mistake, and apologized
to the prospectors, thanked them for their help and the help
of that pigeon, without whom it would have been a whole
different outcome, and made it plain to them and to Mrs.
Blackett that they were welcome, any time, to stay and camp
in the area.

The expedition turned out to be a success, since Captain
Flint was pleased with the discovery of copper. He and
Timothy wanted to get Slater Bob over to work with them in
the new copper mine, in cooperation of course with the
S.A.D.M.C (Swallows, Amazons, and D's Mining Company) who by
their discovery had first claim to it all. Now Captain
Flint would not be galavanting all over during the holidays
but would be available for walking the plank on the
houseboat and other fun activities.




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