Chapter Eight

For Whom the Bell Tolls

(... Professor Ratigan.)

Meg: (gasps)

Emma: What are you doing here?

RAEB: Yeah, aren't you supposed to be in Hawaii or something?

Lizz: That was back when Meg was writing "Running."

RAEB: Oh. So what are you doing here?

Ratigan: (irritated) Why should I tell any of you juvenile delinquents?

Meg: Hold on bucko. You're the delinquent!

Ratigan: A group of teenagers shouldn't be in a dark courtyard at night.

Leigh: And a pansy sewer rat like you should be arrested for being in this courtyard!

Ratigan: WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?

Meg: (quickly) Ignore her. She's insane. Insanity runs in my family.

Everyone else: INSANITY RUNS IN YOUR FAMILY?

Leigh: Meg, no one was supposed to know about that!

JWJ: I knew it!

Sarah: That's not possible!

RAEB: Is it?

JWJ: (exuberant) Can't you tell?!

Ratigan: (grins) I wouldn't be surprised if insanity did run in your family. That would explain all your atrocious fanfictions about me.

Meg: And Basil!

Ratigan: (frowns) And that amateur detective Basil of Baker Street. (Mutters)I don't see why you even waste your time writing about that pip-squeak...

Meg: What did you just say?

Ratigan: (irritated) Don't you have something else better to do than to be here?

Emma: Ah... no. The Market and all the stores are closed, so we can't go shopping.

Ratigan: Then go find something else to do!

RAEB: Fine, fine, sheesh. Don't have a cow.

(Everyone but Ratigan starts to leave. JWJ turns back.)

JWJ: Hey James, what do you think about the Republican's presidential campai-

Ratigan: (furious) I SAID OUT! OUT, OUT, OUT!

(Ratigan shoves JWJ and the girls out the courtyard door and slams it shut.)

JWJ: How could he do that to me? (whirls upon Meg) This is all your fault!

Meg: What?! My fault? I didn't do anything!

Leigh: Yeah, maybe Ratigan finally realized how annoying you are.

Lizz: He's probably doing something illegal back there.

Meg: (grinning evilly) I have an idea...

(Later Emma, Leigh, Lizz, and RAEB are sitting in a graveyard.)

Emma: Congrats to Belphegor and Skye-chan for figuring out the last riddle!

The four of us bolted out of the study, raced down the stairs, and almost collided with Luther.

"Madam?" he asked in a slightly frightened voice.

"I beg your pardon Luther," Mrs. Butler said in a flushed tone, "But we are really quite busy right now."

"But Madam, you told me that you wanted me to tell you the master's condition as soon as you woke up."

"Oh yes! Is he any better?" she asked eagerly.

Luther shook his head. "Same as yesterday."

"He hasn't woken up yet?"

"No. I'm sorry."

"Oh. Thank you," she said quietly as we headed towards the door.

Once outside she began to run again. We raced to catch up.

Mrs. Butler was the first inside the bell tower.

I had wondered before why the Butler Manor even had a bell tower. But now, as Basil, Dawson, and I followed Mrs. Butler into the tower I did not care. There was a clue somewhere in this building that would lead us to the Eye of Diom.

I cast my eyes at the rope used to ring the bell towards the large bell itself at the top of the tower. Its outline was made visible by the gray sky outside. A flight of steps led to the belfry.

"Where do we start?" Dawson asked.

Basil headed to the stairs. The rest of us silently followed. He stopped when he was level with the bell. He stared thoughtfully at it for a minute.

"Where could the clue be?" Dawson asked. I had been wondering the same thing.

"Mr. Basil?" Mrs. Butler said quietly. "I know where the clue is." Basil nodded for her to continue. "Tom had the bell taken done a year ago to have it repaired."

"It's on the bell?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Then how do we get to it?"

Basil began to take off his Inverness. "Do you have any rope?" he asked Mrs. Butler.

"Basil! You can't go up there!" Dawson exclaimed.

"You'll break your neck!" I chimed in.

"That's why I'm asking for rope," he said, removing his jacket.

"BASIL!"

Mrs. Butler discreetly left Dawson and I to argue with Basil as she got some rope.

"How are you going to find this clue without killing yourself?" I demanded.

"It's simple. I'll tie the rope to my waist, walk across the bell's support beam, tie the rope around the beam and then descend onto the surface of the bell. Then I will scour the surface of the bell for the clue, which should be carved either on top of or inside the bell."

"What if the rope breaks?"

"It won't."

"Basil, this seems to be more foolhardy than wise," Dawson said. "Have Mrs. Butler hire someone to take the bell down."

Basil rolled up his sleeves. "That would attract attention. And doctor, we are currently running out of time. I don't know how many more clues there are in this goose-chase, and we have to have that emerald by ten tonight. This way is the quickest and involves the least amount of people."

Dawson folded his arms. "That doesn't mean you have to go to such a risk."

"This is what I do Dawson. I help others who are in need of my services. Sometimes that involves taking a slight risk."

"Slight?" I cried, my voice shrill.

Basil held my face in his hands. "You know me. You know I can do this."

"I know... But it'd be just my luck if you fell and got yourself killed."

Basil smiled. "I promise I won't get myself killed."

That somewhat reassured me. "Please be careful."

Mrs. Butler came back with plenty of rope. "Is there anything else you need, Mr. Basil?"

"A pen and some paper."

I held my breath as Basil stepped onto the support beam. He held his arms out to his sides as he made his way to the center of the beam, where the bell was tied on.

At one point Basil wobbled. I grabbed Dawson's arm and gripped it to prevent myself from saying anything that might distract the detective. The beam walker regained his balance and continued. He reached the center of the beam a few seconds later.

"Meg, would you mind letting go of my arm?" Dawson asked patiently.

"Sorry," I said softly, releasing my grip. I resorted to twisting a piece of my hair as I watched Basil tie the rope that was supposed to support him around the support beam. When he was done, he tugged at the rope to make sure that it was secure. Then he lowered himself off the beam. He fell rather clumsily onto the top of the bell, causing it to shake back and forth. The bell began to toll its deep, melancholy tone.

I grew nervous. Could the bell hold his weight? Had he tied the rope on tightly enough?

Basil was flustered. "Can someone mute that confounded clapper?" he yelled harshly.

Mrs. Butler ran down the stairs to comply with his request. At the bottom of the tower she grabbed the rope used to ring the bell and stabilized the clapper to stop moving. "I'll stay down here," she called up to us.

Basil took out his power lens and began to examine the surface of the bell. He moved slowly around the surface of the bell, holding onto the surface with one hand and the lens in the other.

After several long, agonizing minutes of carefully scouring the surface of the bell, Basil called out, "I've found something!"

"The clue?" Mrs. Butler shouted from the bottom of the tower.

"It has to be! Dawson, take this down!"

Basil began to recite the poem to Dawson.

A lone mouse held his ear against the door of the tower. He smiled in self-satisfaction. That detective was practically shouting the next clue to the world!

"I've got it!" Dawson said. "You can come back now."

Basil began to pull himself up to the support beam.

That was when he slipped.

I screamed.

The rope he had tied on luckily caught him halfway towards the ground.

"Basil! Basil, are you all right?" I shrieked, shocked that he was not dead on the ground at that moment.

Basil did not say anything for a moment. Finally he let out a groan.

"If that whiplash didn't do anything to my internal organs I should be fine," he said in a raspy voice.

"WHAT?"

"That was meant to be a joke!" Basil shouted in an annoyed tone. "Now will someone help me down from here?"

Dawson took one uncertain step onto the support beam. Seeing the doctor put himself in danger for his sake, Basil solved the problem by cutting himself from the rope. He fell the rest of the way down.

My heart leaped out of my chest.

"BASIL!" Dawson cried.

Basil landed cat-like on all fours. He straightened himself up and brushed himself off.

I put my hand against my chest in an attempt to slow my racing heart.

Dawson grabbed Basil's deerstalker and Inverness and hurried down the stairs. I followed him.

"Are you all right?" Dawson asked.

"A little sore around the abdomen, but other than that I am perfectly fine."

Dawson unbuttoned Basil's shirt and felt his stomach for any internal injuries. Mrs. Butler and I looked on.

"You're all right," Dawson said, stepping back from Basil.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, he's fine."

I stepped up to Basil. He smiled at me. I slapped him in the face.

"How could you do that to me?" I yelled. "I have never been so scared in all my life! I thought you were certainly going to get yourself killed! It was bad enough watching you fall the first time, but to see you cut yourself from the ropes... HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?"

Basil placed his hands on my shoulder. "Shhhh, Meg, calm down..."

I shoved his hands away. "You cut yourself deliberately! Why, did you want me to have a heart attack? I could kill you right now!"

"Are they married?" Mrs. Butler asked Dawson.

He shook his head. "They're dating."

"Ohhhh."

The detective began to button up his shirt again. "Meg, it was just a little fall. I'm fine."

"It would serve you right if you had broken your neck!"

"You're acting like I fell on purpose."

"You practically did!"

Dawson shook his head. "Let's go back to the house and start working on this clue."

He and Mrs. Butler headed back to the main house.

"Right Meg, I fell on purpose just to make you angry."

"I'm not saying that!"

"Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you-" my words got stuck in my throat as Basil gave me a kiss.

He smiled mischievously. "You were saying?"

Dawson nodded to Mrs. Butler. "They'll be with us in a minute."

(Meg, Sarah, and JWJ crouch on a balcony by the second entrance to the courtyard, looking down at Ratigan.)

Sarah: He's been sitting in that same position for twenty minutes!

JWJ: I never knew someone could sit still for so long.

Meg: Maybe he's dead.

Sarah: What's he doing here? Is he meeting someone?

(RAEB's voice crackles into a walkie-talkie.)

RAEB: Window Pigeon, this is Ghost-In-Graveyard, over.

Sarah: (groasn) Who put RAEB in charge of that thing?

Meg: (grabs walkie-talkie) What do you want? Tell me you actually saw something this time.

RAEB: Is this Window Pigeon? Over.

Meg: Who cares?

RAEB: Just humor me for once!

Meg: (sighs) Yes, this is Window Pigeon. (Mutters) And this is ludicrous.

RAEB: How's everything look out there? Over.

Meg: Nothing's happened since that LAST time you checked in, which was about three minutes ago!

RAEB: Just checking, over.

JWJ: (grabs walkie-talkie) I thought we agreed not to contact each other unless we saw something! So don't call back unless you see something! And if you can't do that, then put Lizz or Emma or Leigh in charge of that thing!

RAEB: Fine! Don't have fun with this!

JWJ: Haha.

(Ratigan looks up. Meg, Sarah, and JWJ crouch lower. Ratigan shrugs and continues to stare at the spouting fountain.)

Sarah: Guess he's not dead.

(Another crackle from the walkie-talkie is heard.)

Lizz: Meg! Meg! You won't believe who just walked into the Church Street entrance!

Meg: Who?

(White noise drones from the device.)

Meg: Lizz? Lizz!

Sarah: Meg, look! It's...