Chapter Four:

A Theft in the Toy Shop

Further down the roads was the AJAX Giant Toy Store, closed for the night. But inside, someone was stirring. Wrenchfield was busy removing Royal British Guard uniforms from life-sized toy soldiers. He stuffed them into a burlap sack, pulled his list and a pencil from one of his pockets and began to check things off. "Hmm, 'Get the following'," Wrenchfield said. "'Tools', check. I got tools. 'Gears'… double check, I got gears. 'Boy'… no, didn't get boy. 'Uniforms'… ha, I got plenty of uniforms!" But as he chuckled, he suddenly heard a spooky howl and saw the silhouette of Marc Anthony, Dorlock Homes, Dr. Watkins and Clyde Bunnersham outside a shop window. But he couldn't make out the silhouette clearly, and the howl sounded so haunting he cried out, "Oh no, it's a werewolf! Gotta hide! A werewolf of London, ooh, I gotta hide!" He snatched the hats from the soldier dummies, stuffed them into his bag, and ran off, leaping above a giant clown toy as Marc Anthony howled again, unaware that he had dropped his list as it gently floated down to the floor in front of the stripped soldier dummies.

Outside the shop, Dorlock Homes petted a panting Marc Anthony on his head and complimented, "Splendid job, Marc Anthony! Now, sit." But Marc was still standing. Dorlock stomped his right webbed foot and firmly said, "Marc Anthony… sit!"

"Sit, Marc!" Clyde commanded pleasantly, to which Marc Anthony planted his rear onto the pavement.

"Good boy…" Dorlock said softly as he gave Clyde a jealous stare. But then he walked past the young bunny saying, "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Clyde turned to Marc, smiled and said, "You be good now. We're going to find my father!"

Dorlock took a look at the window and its' ledge. Then he noticed a tiny hole in the center of one of the windows. "Aha!" he triumphantly exclaimed. "HERE is our friend's entrance!"

Dr. Watkins couldn't believe it. "B-b-bu-bu-ba-bu-but Dorlock, how could he fit through such a t-t-t-tiny…"

"Observe, Doctor," Dorlock said as he stuck one of Watkins's fingers in the hole and watched confidentially as Watkins began pulling his arm back, revealing that the glass pane could open up. This was clearly how Wrenchfield had gotten in.

"Dorlock," Watkins said in amazement, "you ama-uh-uh-ah-ama-ah-uh-amaz-uh-ah-er, astound me!"

But Dorlock quickly shushed the doctor pig as he climbed into the window. Clyde and Watkins followed, closing the glass pane again. They walked through the darkened, closed toy store. As Watkins turned to look back at Clyde, he bumped into a leg of some kind. "Oh, I b-b-b-be-beg your pardon, uh…" Watkins began as he tipped his hat, but then looked up to see that he had walked into the leg of a gigantic girl doll dressed in an old-fashioned dress and bonnet. "Oh my!" Watkins exclaimed. "I-I-I-I've never seen so many g-g-g-g-giant toys."

Dorlock peeked out from behind one of the doll's legs and added, "Behind any of which could lurk a bloodthirsty assassin!"

Clyde giggled and said, "You said 'assassin!'"

"So, please…" Dorlock warned the two, "Be VERY careful."

The three of them stealthily moved between the various larger-than-life toys and through the shadows, with Clyde and Watkins staying close behind Dorlock. The dark shadowy atmosphere made many of the huge toys look creepy, as if they were staring at the protagonists.

But a little into the search, loud banging startled Dorlock and Watkins, to the point where the doctor pig leaped into the duck detective's arms! They turned to see that Clyde had turned on a large music box of the band The Three Little Bops Plus One! The young bunny enjoyed seeing the noisy band of three pigs and one wolf playing fast brassy dissonant music. Dorlock let out an annoyed grunt and yanked the control lever, shutting off the giant noisy toy.

"PLEASE!" Dorlock intensely told Clyde, before softly telling the young rabbit, "Quiet!" Then he firmly whispered to Dr. Watkins, "Don't let this boy out of your sight!"

As Dorlock walked off, Watkins stood at attention and saluted, and then looked down to see Clyde giving a playful salute of his own. "N-n-no-n-now, Clyde," Watkins told him, "stay close."

From atop some kind of shelf, Wrenchfield kept an eye on the trio as they walked across a large checkerboard. Dorlock pushed a checker piece over one space and said to Watkins, "Checkmate."

"B-b-bu-bu-b-but this is checkers, not chess," Watkins corrected.

"Shut up," Dorlock quickly told the doctor. "I'm on a roll here. Hmm… aha!" He held his magnifying glass up to his eye among notice more of Wrenchfield's footprints. "Evidence of our peg-legged adversary!" And he leaned down and followed the footprints, making various vocal effects to accompany his actions, "Hmm-hmm… ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh?" He stopped and stood up straight again among approaching a naked male soldier figure. "Hmm… very odd."

"What is it, D-D-D-Dorlock?" Watkins asked as he and Clyde caught up.

"Isn't it painfully obvious, Doctor?" Dorlock explained. "These dolls have been stripped of their uniforms! And I doubt it was a prankster or some child…" He looked around a bit more with his magnifying glass and noticed more strange evidence. "Hello…" The duck detective inspected giant clown and monkey toys, their chests broken into and missing a chunk of their inner workings. "Now why would someone remove the clockwork mechanisms from these toys?" Dorlock asked himself.

Up above, Wrenchfield's eyes widened in shock, knowing the trio was on to him. He rushed off to create some kind of diversion…

Dr. Watkins looked on the ground and noticed a somewhat fresh piece of paper. A paper that happened to be the list Wrenchfield dropped in his panic attack among hearing Marc Anthony howling. Figuring it could've been a potential clue, Watkins picked up the list and tapped Dorlock's back. "Uh, D-D-D-Dorlock?"

"Please, I'm trying to concentrate!" Dorlock insisted while in deep thought.

"But Dorlock, I…" Some kind of squeaking and soft music interrupted Watkins, and he, Dorlock and Clyde all turned toward the source of the sound.

Various larger-than-life working wind-up toys and music boxes were suddenly coming to life. A small puppy was poking out of a magician's top hat and barking. There was an Easter Bunny hatching a baby chick from an Easter egg. A wind-up violinist and a toy carousel had also come to life, along with a Little-Bo-Peep music box and a cackling jack-in-the-box. Virtually all the toys in the shop had come to life! Something screwy was definitely going on…

Clyde noticed some bubbles floating in the area, got curious and decided to find out where they were coming from. He stepped away out of Dorlock and Watkins's site, and saw that the bubbles were coming from a large toy of Bobo the Elephant squirting bubbles from its' trunk. Behind the Bobo toy was a baby bassinet gently rocking from side to side. The bunny slowly walked up to the bassinet and noticed a figure covered mostly by its' bedding, except for a pink baby bonnet poking out from the blanket. He gasped in delight at the thought of a cute baby doll inside the bassinet, and so he pulled back the sheet…

…only to encounter the frightening, cackling face of Wrenchfield, coming right up close to his own face! The rabbit let out a piercing scream, and Dorlock and Dr. Watkins turned to the direction of the noise.

"Oh no! C-C-C-Clyde!" Watkins cried out, remembering he was supposed to keep an eye on the bunny.

Wrenchfield had leaped out of the bassinet, grabbed Clyde and tossed him into his sack as he said, "Gotcha!"

Dorlock started running towards the hunchback, calling, "Quickly, Doctor!" Dr. Watkins started to follow but turned around among seeing the duck running back towards him crying out, "Ah-ya-aaah, look out!" A large Ferris wheel toy with a rabbit in it was rolling towards them, but the two leaped out of the way at the last second and landed on an Around-the-World path toy. But then they noticed a large porcelain girl doll in an old-fashioned dress and with curly hair descending towards them. Dorlock and Watkins tried to run for it, but they could only move the paper path beneath their feet, but luckily after a bit of effort they were able to leap off the path and avoid getting crushed by the doll as it broke into a million pieces among impact.

Then Wrenchfield wound up a toy jouster with an outstretched spear, sending it zooming towards Dorlock and Wrenchfield. The duck was able to leap up at the last second and catch onto a toy trumpet, but the spear caught Watkins by his jacket, detached from the knight and pinned the doctor pig to a dartboard.

Dorlock heard the brash dissonant band music again and looked towards the source, only to get his head crashed from a cymbal on the Three Little Bops Plus One music box! He stumbled around in a daze and collapsed onto some marbles Wrenchfield laid out, causing them to scatter and one of them to hit Dr. Watkins on the head!

Wrenchfield made his way to the window he entered in, cackling and teasingly saying, "Bye-bye!" But he didn't notice the big silhouetted lump on the other side, and so he was greeted by Marc Anthony growling and snarling! But before the huge dog could bite, Wrenchfield slammed the window shut and started climbing up some shelves, doffing his baby bonnet.

But Dorlock Homes had regained consciousness and leaped onto a spring horse, jumping from shelf to shelf to catch up to the hunchback. "Stop, you fiend!" he called out. After a bit of bouncing, he reached the top shelf and leaped off the horse at the base of a huge mountain of building blocks and other toys. On opposite sides, Dorlock and Wrenchfield climbed in a rush to reach the top first. But Wrenchfield won, leaped at the top and caught the ledge of an open skylight. Dorlock tried to leap for the hunchback, but the blocks started to topple. The duck let out a meek "Yikes," knowing what was about to happen. Sure enough, the pile of blocks and toys all came tumbling down, sending Dorlock down with them!

Wrenchfield, still hanging onto the skylight opening, let out an evil laugh and leaped out with his sack.

"Help!" Clyde yelled from inside the sack. "Uncle Dorlock! Help!"

Wrenchfield heled the sack tightly and hopped from roof to roof, back to Owen DeCassle's lair, singing, "I got the tools, I got the gears, I got the uniforms! I got the boy, ha hahaha ha, ha, ha hahaha ha!"

…

Back inside the toy shop, Dr. Watkins had managed to free himself from the lance and was trying to find Dorlock Homes within the mess caused by the pile of toys collapsing. "Dorlock?" he called out. "D-D-D-Dorlock Homes?"

But then the sound of a doll saying "Mama" over and over grabbed Watkins's attention. He pushed aside a couple of toys to find Dorlock, his hat missing, tangled to a giant girl doll's pull string, trying to get loose but causing the doll to keep saying "Mama! Mama! Mama!"

"Dorlock!" Watkins tried to explain. "Clyde, he's…"

"I KNOW! He's GONE, Watkins! Confound it!" Dorlock yelled as he tried to untie himself from the pull string. "I told you to watch over the boy!" He managed to finally untangle himself from the string and fall to the ground, but this didn't stop his bad temper. "Now he's been taken away by that maniacal little monster, soon to be in the clutches of the most depraved mind in all of London! I should have known better to…"

But he stopped his ranting among seeing Dr. Watkins just standing there, his back turned at Dorlock and his head hanging sadly. Dorlock's expression changed, now looking concerned at what he had done. "Than to… um, eh, Watkins?" He walked up to the doctor pig. "Uh, Watkins, old chap?"

Dr. Watkins was crying a bit. He wiped his face with his handkerchief and sniffled, "Oh, the poor b-b-b-boy. I should've watched him more c-c-c-closely."

Feeling sorry, Dorlock assured his partner, "Don't worry, old fellow. It's not ENTIRELY hopeless." Watkins turned to look at the duck but did not say anything. Dorlock placed his hand on Watkins's shoulder and said, "We'll get him back."

"D-d-do-d-d-d-do you think there's a chance?" Watkins stammered.

"There's ALWAYS a chance, doctor!" Dorlock said as he took his pipe out of his pocket and stuck a match against one of the fallen toys to light it. "As long as one can think…" He took a couple of puffs on his pipe and started hacking. Then he started pacing, still trying to smoke his pipe and coughing and wheezing from it. But the hacking wasn't stopping him from thinking.

Dr. Watkins sighed and he put his hands in his pockets, but then realized he still had the list he found on the floor! He pulled it out and began to read it out loud. "Ee-ba-ga-dee-ga-get the following: uh, t-t-t-tools, g-gears…"

As Watkins read the list, Dorlock said to himself, "I don't know why I bother with this pipe; it's not good for my health." He let out another cough, heard Watkins's voice and turned towards him. "What?"

"B-b-b-boy…" Watkins continued reading, "Uniforms…"

Dorlock took one glance at the list over Watkins's shoulder and was suddenly overjoyed at such a vitally important piece of evidence. "Watkins, you've DONE it! This list is precisely what we need!"

"Eh-ah-ba-ah-what?!" Watkins asked in astonishment.

Dorlock Homes found his deerstalker cap and put it back on as he rushed back to the window holding the list. "Quickly! Back to Beeker Street!"