PM day by day


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Posted by Jock reposting Ed Kiser on October 23, 2005 at 13:21:44 from 81.79.209.48 user Jock.

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

Ed's post is still available on the "Most Recent Messages" page. I am re-posting it as it seems to have been swept up inadvertantly during Ian's spring cleaning.

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message 19332 - 10/22/05
From: Ed Kiser, subject: day by day - Picts and Martyrs

Andy mentioned about somebody doing a "day by day" for these books. It so happens I had tried to work out something on that order for the book of PM, and so will share it with you here. Is this the sort of thing, Andy, that you had in mind?

Ed Kiser, South Florida
==============================
PICTS AND MARTYRS
Summary of the Events of Each Day

DAY ONE
Dick and Dorothea arrive by train to spend two weeks at Beckfoot. Mrs. Blackette is ill, so is away with Captain Flint on a health rest cruise.

They see Timothy (previously known as "Squashy Hat" in PP) and make plans for Dick to help him in some chemical analyses of the ore taken from their copper mine they discovered in PP.

The Amazon's Great Aunt finds out that Nancy and Peggy are alone with just Cook, and telegrams them to verify such a astounding situation. Nancy tries to reassure the G.A. that all is just fine.

They set up the D's as house guests in Beckfoot, with Death Heads on large papers over their beds, with a telescope for Dick to use at night.

DAY TWO
G.A. sends letter, announcing she will come and take over. Have to get the D's out. They transfer to the Dogs' Home. Have to sweep out a lot of firewood someone left in the place. With a bit of practice, the D's manage how to get into a hammock.

The G.A. arrives at Beckfoot, and the Amazons start their party frock style of being "good" to please the G.A.

They find signs that the hut has been being used. A greased saw, a pocket knife, a dammed pool in the beck suitable for washing dishes.

Cook makes a quick visit to check things out, leaves apple pie.

With knapsacks for pillows, they sleep their first night in their own hut.

DAY THREE
No milk, therefore no cornflakes and no tea, but did have boiled eggs with bread & butter & marmalade. Somewhat horrified that the eggs boiled for four instead of three minutes, and thus were called "steel-boiled". Finished breakfast with the Beckfoot apple pie.

A bit of a scare: Postman had letter for D's and took it to Beckfoot. G.A. said "not known". They told the Postman to use a hole in the stone fence by the road at the end of the path to the Dogs' Home as mailbox.

Another scare: Timothy, not knowing the D's were hiding out, got flagged off, so he ducked out of sight but not before spotted by the G.A. as a suspecious character. He went on to the mine.

Ate beef roll, finished the apple pie.

Peggy in white frock dashed up with the milk and the news that they have to stop the Doctor from blurting out about the D's. Reluctantly, the Doctor said he would not say anything about the D's being near by to the G.A.

Seems like more and more people are being brought into the secret, which makes it that much harder to keep it one.

Nancy & Peggy got free for a while, and cut a harbor in Octopus Lagoon for the Scarab.

D's put pigeons in Timothy's boat to be used to send messages.

Tin of Steak and Kidney Pudding for supper.

DAY FOUR
Jacky shows up at the Dogs' Home. It is his stuff they have been finding. He brings the milk. Talking with Jacky resulted in five minute eggs. He showed them his frying pan hidden in the rocks of the fireplace. Cornflakes, 5 minute eggs, bread and marmalade, and tea made breakfast. Jacky becomes yet another person to be in on the secret existance of the Picts.

D's looking from the top of the promentory down on the Beckfoot lawn see Nancy's "NO GO" message, as she starts mowing the lawn with the G.A. watching. Their planned trip to Rio to pick up Scarab must be delayed until tomorrow.

D's went up the stream and ran into Jacky who showed them how to "guddle" trout to catch them. He also showed them how to clean and gut the fish. Dot cooked fried fish for their supper.

DAY FIVE
Jacky delivered a RABBIT along with the morning milk.

Finished the fish (cold) for breakfast left over from last night.

Postman performed as agreed, and delivered a letter to their hole in the wall "mailbox".

D's somewhat daunted by the prospect of cooking a rabbit, especially as to how to get the skin off.

Dick reading Knight's "Sailing" waiting for word from Beckfoot.

Amazons finally escaped that afternoon and rowed the D's to Rio in the Amazon to pick up Scarab from the boatbuilders. They were alarmed when the boatbuilder said he almost brought the boat across yesterday.

The Amazons rigged the rudder and sail for Scarab for that first time, and pushed her off with just the D's aboard, with Dick watching each move Nancy made to try to remember how to do it when they were alone. Amazons sailed briefly with them, then went on home, leaving the D's to manage alone. They checked on the houseboat, but Timothy was not there, so they sailed North, up past the "North Pole", to buy a cook book at a shop nearby.

While rowing up the river by Beckfoot, they were startled to hear the pigeon bell loudly ringing, announcing the arrival of a pigeon from Timothy. They berthed Scarab in the lagoon harbor.

Cook had left some food for them in the hut, so no need to consider the rabbit this evening, but used Cook's chops instead.

In the middle of the night, the D's were awakened by the sound of rain, with a few drips coming thru holes in the roof, but did not actually drip on them.

DAY SIX
A spreading lake was forming on the floor from the leaky roof. Dick drained it.

D's were expecting to hear from Nancy about the message the pigeon delivered last night.

Still raining, but Dick bailed Scarab from rain water.

Nancy left a quick note in the wall asking them to stay put, as she had a message for them.

Expecting to be told to go to the houseboat right away, they put off the cooking of the rabbit for yet another day, but made do with a tin of tomato soup, buttered eggs and sardines.

Dick went on the roof and pushed some moss into the holes to stop the leaks.

Finally, at 7pm, having waited all day, they decided too late to go anywhere today, regardless of whatever the message says that Nancy would be bringing, so they skinned and cooked the rabbit. Messy business. Then more rain as the rabbit cooked. Finally at 10:30, the rabbit was declared ready, just as Nancy in bathing things showed up dripping wet at the door.

The pigeon message from Timothy listed several technical things in Jim's study that Timothy needed to perform his mining sample analysis. Nancy does not know what these things are, but Dick does, so they decide that Dick has to sneak into Beckfoot and take the requested things, acting like a burglar to avoid questions from the G.A. No good tonight with the rain, but the plan is to burgle the items tomorrow night and sail down to the houseboat the next morning with the needed items.

The three ate Jacky's rabbit.

Nancy returned in the rain as Peggy was terribly afraid of thunder which was now starting to crash in full force.

DAY SEVEN
Bailed Scarab and dried out the sail. A bit of looking for birds, reading the cook book, finally a steak-and-kidney pie for supper. A nervous day, waiting for the burglary to be done that night.

During the burglary session, Dick accidentally kicked the armadillo's hutch. The G.A. was aroused, and she came down to investigate. Dick hid in the hutch. The G.A. shut the window, with Dick still in the house. The G.A. left. Dick finished picking out the remaining items on the list, then lifted the window again, which went up with a loud bang. As he slipped out the window, the G.A. yelled saying she had a gun, which of course she did not have.

The house came awake now, with lights on everywhere as the D's dashed back with their "stolen" items back to their hut. A near escape.

DAY EIGHT
Much excitement in the neighborhood with news about the burglary at Beckfoot last night. They slipped to the harbor with the suitcase of swag and set sail down the river.

As they slid by Beckfoot, a lot of people were standing about, including police, the G.A., Nancy and Peggy, and Cook. They went on undetected to the houseboat where Timothy was.

They cleaned the kitchen, and made buttered eggs. Midafternoon, suddenly Nancy and Peggy showed up at the houseboat, all excited about the "burglary", much to Timothy's dismay. They heard from Nancy the full report of what went on that morning with the police investigating.

Rest of the day spent in chemical analysis of the copper ore in the houseboat.

Back to the river around 7:30, while the Beckfoot people were sitting at supper.

DAY NINE
Early breakfast, and back to the houseboat. Back home at supper time.

DAY TEN
Timothy needed a few more samples from the mine. Nancy and Peggy were able to wrangle a day off, so the were free for the day.

Apparently, the G.A. has gotten the idea that the Swallows were camping in the area. Once Nancy and Peggy had cleared out, the G.A. decided to do some investigating, looking for the Swallows that she suspected was back in the area, camping at the south end of the lake in the Swallowdale area. She got Billy (Cook's son) to drive the car, and headed south. It ran out of gas, so Billy had to walk back to Beckfoot to borrow a bicycle and go pedal off to find some more gas, leaving the G.A. sitting in the car. By the time Billy got back with the gas to the car, she was gone, with no idea of where she had gone. She had caught a ride in a butcher's van for part of the way, then walked to Mary Swanson's, whom she knew and who lived very near where the Swallows had camped out. Mary was just fixing to leave for a week holiday when the G.A. showed up on foot. The houseboat was a likely place to find the Swallows if they were around, so Mary offered to row the G.A. across the lake to the houseboat. There the G.A. was left by Mary to wait for the arrival of the Swallows who she still firmly suspected was in the area.

Meanwhile, the D's and Amazons with Timothy enjoyed their trek to High Tops to see what had become of their copper mine, thinking that the G.A. was safe in Beckfoot, packing for her departure the next day at 2.

No one knew where the G.A. was, and Billy had lost her, and greatly feared for her safety.

When the mining expedition returned, they found Cook greatly alarmed at the disappearance of the G.A. Timothy, Nancy and Billy went all the way down to Swansons, but no one there had seen the G.A., as Mary had met her on the road after leaving home when she rowed her across the lake.

They had supper there at Beckfoot, a rather sad meal, not knowing what had become of the G.A.

Timothy took charge of the search, sending all four kids up to the hut, while he contacted the police and Col. Jolys to search the woods for the G.A.

DAY ELEVEN
Firefighters of Col. Jolys started assembling. Jacky dashed in, excited by the starting of the big search with bloodhounds, and dashed back out to take part in the search.

Timothy told the D's to get away, with all the searchers asking questions, so better go to the houseboat and wait there out of the way. "The one thing that mustn't happen is for you to meet the old lady."

The G.A. meanwhile had spent the night at the houseboat.

The D's packed up a few things, leaving some items in the hut, and set sail for the houseboat.

There they discovered the G.A., who asked them to carry her to Beckfoot, as she had a train to catch.

They sailed back to Beckfoot, with the G.A., to be met by the large crowd of searchers. The G.A. got out, properly put down the lot of them, while the D's quietly drifted back out onto the lake, where they moored beside the Amazon in among the reeds. They crawled up on the promentory overlooking the Beckfoot lawn and watched the proceedings from there, safe and unseen.

The G.A. departed in time to catch her train, leaving a letter praising the girls for their behavior.

They had managed to pull off this whole secret, with the G.A. being none the wiser for it, and indeed, spoke highly of the D's that had been kind enough to help her cross the lake, recommending them as suitable companions for Nancy and Peggy.

===================================================

Specification of the actual DATE of the story:

Day Seven is the day of the burglary, counting Day One as the day the D's arrived by train.

Day Eleven, the GA departed Beckfoot.

A line from the letter from the GA says:

You tell me your mother returns on the thirteenth. On that day I am expecting a friend whose visit I cannot defer.

Not sure of this, but assuming that the GA arrives back in her home the day before the expected friend, then her return date was the 12th.

Day of the month - Day of the visit
..........13.........(n/a) GA is with the friend at Harrogate
..........12.........11 Ga leaves to go to the train
..........11.........10 free for the day, to High Topps
..........10.........9 back to houseboat, more stinks
..........9..........8 to houseboat with loot, do stinks
..........8..........7 burglary
..........7..........6 rain, cooked rabbit, Nancy soaked
..........6..........5 Got Scarab
..........5..........4 Jacky shows, NO GO, guddling
..........4..........3 Postman & Timothy scare, make harbour
..........3..........2 They move to DOGS' HOME
..........2..........1 D's arrive, spend night in Beckfoot

The D's had come straight from school.

From this, I conclude that the D's arrived on the second of the month.

At the very end of PM, we see:

Timothy sat up suddenly. "Oh, look here," he said, "I'm all for a quiet life after this." "Well, you won't exactly have one," said Nancy. "Not yet. You can't expect it. Not with the Swallows
coming, and Uncle Jim, and five whole weeks of the holidays still to go."

From this, I am assuming that the month in which PM takes place is August, leaving the last two weeks of August and the first three weeks of September for when the Swallows return, with the Callum's, and "Coots in the North".

The August specification is documented by the reference in Chapter 1 to the drying of the skull and crossbones painting on the lawn in the hot August sun.

From this, the date of the burglary is August 8, 1933.
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posted via 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.


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