Honey was singing almost as loudly as Letitia—and at the sametime, tears were running down her face. Also singing and weeping a littlehimself, Gus held Honey’s hand and kept passing her tissues.
Many of the German listeners were singing along in accentedEnglish.
London heard a familiar male voice.
“Tell me, Sir Reggie—what do you think of the performance?”
London turned and saw the dark-clad Cyrus Bannister, who wasstanding with his arms crossed and taking in the performance with his usual icydetachment. Sir Reggie growled a little, as if in response to Cyrus’s question.
Cyrus gave Reggie one of the special treats that he and manyother passengers were carrying around and looked at London critically.
“Dogs have very sensitive ears. Sir Reggie shouldn’t have tosuffer through this.”
“But what’s going on?” Bryce asked.
“Honey got homesick,” Cyrus explained. “So she requested thatLetitia and this so-called musician play ‘Home on the Range.’ She’s fromKansas, you see. And ‘Home on the Range’ is Kansas’s state song.”
Now London noticed that Cyrus was slurring his words just alittle. Even he wasn’t entirely sober, but at least he was still in pretty goodcontrol of his faculties.
Then Cyrus added in a slightly tipsy but authoritative tone, “Although‘Home on the Range’ was written during the 1870s, it didn’t become the Kansasstate song until 1947. It seems to have considerable emotional resonance fornative Kansans. Honey got very sentimental about hearing it.”
“I can see that,” London said, as Honey’s blubbering nearlyovercame her attempt to sing.
Cyrus said, “There are six verses, each with a chorus, and they’rejust getting started. They could go on for another few minutes.”
London stood there for a moment, wondering just what to do.Surely the song would end before Letitia, Honey, and Gus absolutely had toreturn to the ship. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to interrupt theperformance. And yet she couldn’t stand around waiting for the song to end whenthere were other passengers to notify.
“Maybe we should split up,” she told Bryce. “A lot of ourpassengers are out here and we really do have to get them back to the ship.”
“Okay,” he said. “You can work on this bunch. I’ll go around themand notify any I find over that way.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“A temporary separation,” he commented with a grin. “Just for thesake of efficiency.”
With a light squeeze of her arm, Bryce stepped away anddisappeared into the crowd.
As London stood waiting for a break in the performance, Cyrusturned to her and spoke in an uncharacteristically helpful manner.
“I assume it’s getting toward time to head back to the ship. Don’tworry about these three, I’ll make sure they get aboard with time to spare.”
London thanked him, then she and Sir Reggie continued on theirway. Bob and Mr. Tedrow were still sitting at their table discussing thesecrets of detective work. Although they’d obviously had quite a bit to drink,they weren’t disagreeable about being told it was getting toward time to leave,and seemed ready to wrap up their conversation.
When they ran across Kirby Oswinkle, London was relieved to findthat a considerable intake of beer hadn’t exacerbated the man’s usuallyabrasive personality. To the contrary, he seemed to be in quite a jolly mood.
But his expression saddened as he saw London approach him.
“Don’t tell me,” he said. “It’s getting toward time to head backto the ship.”
“I’m afraid so,” London said.
“Ah, well. All good things must come to an end.”
London was amazed as Kirby tottered on his way. This beerfestival was the only thing she could remember Kirby wholeheartedly approvingof.
London got a glimpse of Elsie some distance off. Fortunately,Elsie seemed to have figured out for herself that their shore leave was ending.London saw Elsie blow her beau-for-a-day a kiss and head on out of the square.
One person London was worried not to see was Audrey Bolton.However the festival might be affecting the troublesome woman’s mood, Londonhoped she’d get back to the ship on time. She also hoped she hadn’t had anotherencounter with her drunken nemesis.
Checking for more passengers had led London and Sir Reggie rightup to the stage, where the crowd was dense in anticipation of the impendingdunking of the tomcat. A small oompah-style band had gathered nearby andwas tuning up and getting ready to perform. The stage itself was still dark andthe red curtains were still closed.
London spotted something odd on the edge of the stage just infront of the curtain. She leaned over and picked it up, then shuddered a littleas she looked at the object more closely.
It was a glass monocle.
London set Sir Reggie down on the edge of the stage and took acloser look at the monocle. She held it up to the light and saw that it was aprescription lens. She couldn’t tell for sure whether it was the same one shehad seen earlier in the day—but then, how many of these things were likely tobe in use?
As she was focused on the monocle, Sir Reggie suddenly jerkedaway, pulling the leash out of her hands. The little dog ducked under thecurtain and disappeared.
“Sir Reggie,” London called.
But Sir Reggie didn’t reappear.
London climbed the steps onto the stage and pushed her way pastthe end of the curtain. It had gotten a lot darker around the massive beerbarrel than it had been earlier, and it was harder to see.
But there was Sir Reggie, licking at a puddle of liquid on thestage.
What on earth … ? London wondered.
She stooped down and touched the wet floor and lifted her fingerto her nose.
“It’s beer,” London said.
She pulled Reggie away and gently scolded him.
“Now, now, boy. That’s not for dogs.”
London could see that quite a bit of beer had been spilled orsplashed out of the barrel.
But how?
Her warning tingle turned into a palpable sense of dread. Somethingfelt very wrong here. She straightened up and, leaving Sir Reggie on the stage,she headed up the stairs that led up the side of the barrel.
When she reached the top of the barrel, London could see that thecollapsing chair that should be awaiting the arrival of Katers Murr wasdangling freely, as though it had already dumped someone.
She peered down into the
