I make apologies to Gainsborough Pictures Ltd. For use of their idea in 'Ask a Policeman'.
The next day was very peaceful for the Rangers; Monterrey Jack was busy with the cooking, Dale was on the sofa searching for a good sci-fi movie and Gadget was busy in her workshop, taking breaks to maintain her mental discipline over her newfound powers.
Chip kept himself occupied by reading a few mystery novels, but kept his ear to the ground in case anything came up, bad weather rolled in during the late afternoon and looked like it wasn't going to lift anytime soon.
---
That evening they all gathered round on the settee, Gadget had turned the TV off (manually) and Monty was hoping to tell them of one of his adventures, when all of a sudden a female scream was heard outside.
"W...what was that?" Chip asked, his voice indicating slight nervousness to all non-telepaths.
"Perhaps it was the wind." Monty commented, equally nervous, the same scream was heard, followed by hammering on the door.
"Well, that wasn't the wind!" Gadget commented.
"No," Dale added, "That's someone at the door!" The same scream was heard followed by more desperate knocking.
"Help! Help!" Cried a female voice from outside.
"Gadget," Chip commanded, "Open the door."
"You're the tree-owner!" Gadget stated.
"Dale," Chip told his companion nervously, "You can answer it."
"Not me," He replied, "There's a horror movie on in five minutes..."
"You can't watch horror movies at a time like this!" Chip told him, all of a sudden there was silence, except for the pitter-patter of rain.
"It's stopped!" Monterrey commented. "Perhaps she's gone home."
"Don't be silly, Monty." Gadget told him. "She wouldn't pound on the door like that and then go home!"
"Maybe she's come to the wrong tree!" Dale suggested.
"Well, see if she has!" Chip told him, pushing him towards the door. They were just about all nervous, Gadget had left her telepathy off for the time being, Dale was chuntering about why he had to check, he opened the door.
"Oh!" He cried as an unconscious Tammy fell into his arms, he let her slide onto the floor as he trembled like a leaf. "Oh dear! Help! Help! Help!" He ran over to a makeshift telephone and picked up the receiver. "Police! Police! Police!"
"Shut up, you dummy!" Chip told him, putting the phone back on the hook. "The police don't deal with rodents!"
"Golly," Gadget commented, rushing to Tammy's side, "It's Tammy!"
"I'd better feel her heart." Monterrey suggested, Gadget pushed him away.
"Sorry Monty, that's a woman-to-woman job." Chip patted some damp cotton wool on her forehead while Gadget patted her paw; Tammy came to looking up at Chip.
"Oh, Chipper! Chipper! I've seen it! I've seen it." She cried before passing out again.
"What's she been watching?" Gadget asked.
"Nothing serious," Chip commented, "She's not got the same interests as Dale."
"Here she comes again!" Dale commented as Tammy regained consciousness.
"Oh, it was horrible." She said as Chip and Dale held her up while Monty got her a chair.
"Don't worry, Tammy," Gadget comforted her, "We'll help you."
"Could you tell us exactly what happened?" Chip asked her as he whipped out his to-scale notebook and pencil tip.
"Well," She began, "I've been to the pictures with Bink in the Odeon."
"'Been to pictures with little sister..." Chip muttered as he wrote it down, "...in city."
"Then I went home, when I suddenly remembered a letter I had to post, so I set off for the pillar box. And just as I got to the park entrance..."
"Were you insulted?" Chip asked.
"No." Tammy told him.
"Oh," Chip muttered, "We could've taken steps."
"I just got to the park entrance," Tammy continued, "When all of a sudden; galloping towards me was a hearse with no head!"
"A what?!?" Chip asked, bewildered.
"The driver had no head!" She told him. "There was a hearse with a headless horseman!" Chip pulled Dale to one side.
"Have you been going out with her?" He asked.
"No!" Dale said indefinitely.
"Well," Chip asked, "Why's she giving your sort of story?"
"I don't know!" Dale stated.
"It's true, I tell you." Tammy snapped at them. "I saw it!"
"Oh, Tammy." Gadget commented in sympathy. "Are you feeling any better?"
"Yes, thank you!" She answered.
"I'd better get the Rangermobile out and take her home." Chip commented.
"What, and leave us here alone?!?" Monterrey stated. "We'll all take her home!"
"What for?" Gadget asked. "Are you scared?"
"Of course not." Monterrey replied. "I'm just thinking about her reputation!"
---
The Rangermobile pulled up to the base of Tammy's home tree, Monterrey Jack got out first and offered to help Tammy out of her seat with a major bow involving his flying helmet. She gave Chip a kiss on the cheek.
"Night night, Chip." She said. "Thanks for the bumpy ride." She got out and scampered up the tree.
"Good night, Tammy." Chip called up to her.
"G'night." Monterrey followed suit.
"Good night!" Chip called up again, Monterrey made another bow then raised his helmet above his head, reminiscent of Napoleon.
"Good night!" He called.
"Come on, Chip," Gadget commented. "Let's go home." Chip began to pull off. "Wait a minute!" She cried. "Sir Walter Raleigh's not in!" And she pulled Monterrey back into the Rangermobile just as Chip began to put his foot down.
"It must be about one o'clock!" Chip commented wearily.
"I haven't been out this late since my uncle got married." Dale told them.
"Pardon, Dale?" Gadget asked in a confused tone.
"His second wife!" Dale replied, Gadget breathed a sigh of relief.
"'Ey," Monterrey spoke up, "I hope we don't meet that phantom hearse!"
"Oh, that's pure nonsense." Chip told them. "You can't have a headless driver! He wouldn't be able to pass his tests."
"But Tammy must've seen something that scared her." Gadget commented, Chip nodded in agreement.
"She probably saw Zipper through a looking glass!" Monterrey suggested.
"True," Gadget stated, "You go around believing every urban myth in…" She was cut off when Chip suddenly stopped; he looked white as a sheet. "What's wrong?" She asked. "Why did you just stop?" Chip nervously pointed across the park.
"Look." He squeaked. They all saw a rodent equivalent of a horse-drawn cart rolling along the path, there were flames coming from the back.
"It's the phantom 'earse!" Monterrey cried.
"Phantom hearse?!?" Gadget criticised. "It's an old-fashioned cart with it's tail-light on fire!"
"It's the phantom hearse, I assure you!" Dale exclaimed. "Those are phantom flames! Look at the driver's head!"
"What's wrong with his head?" Gadget asked.
"He ain't got one!" Dale answered.
"Don't be silly, Dale!" She commented. "He's probably got it tucked in!" All the other Rangers were stupefied. "Why are you so worried?" She asked them. "It's not coming this way!"
"That's just what it is doing!" Chip cried, this got Gadget disturbed now.
"Get on to the grass!" Gadget told Chip. "Let it go by!"
"After all that rain?!?" Chip complained, the hearse continued to bear down on them.
"It's going to go right through us!" Dale cried.
"I'm not having a hearse going through me!" Chip told him. "Hold on to your hats!" He put the Rangermobile into reverse and went at full throttle.
"We can get through those gates over there!" Gadget told them as they shot backwards into a seldom visited area of the park. "Phew, just made it." She commented as Chip swerved the Rangermobile through the winding pathways.
"Well, maybe you could've kept your eyes on where we were going," Chip suggested, "Instead of talking so much!"
"Well," Gadget commented, "We needn't go any further. We gave the flaming hearse the slip!" Chip pulled the Rangermobile up against a stone wall, but the hearse was now going through the very same gates.
"Hey, listen, listen." Dale told them meekly.
"What's up, Dale?" Chip asked.
"Hoofs!" He replied.
"Hooves?" Gadget said in a bewildering tone.
"Crikey!" Monterrey exclaimed. "It followed us up here!" The hearse came into view and entered something that a rodent would think of a garage, Gadget looked on curiously as the doors opened up and let the hearse in before closing again.
"Did you see where it went?" She asked the others, but the others were either keeping their eyes covered or were looking the other way.
"No!" Dale declared.
"Where did it go?" Chip asked.
"It…" Gadget started, but was slightly frustrated at seeing that Chip had pulled his fedora over his eyes while Dale and Monterrey Jack were looking towards the wall. "Well, it went in the garage! If you kept your eyes open you'd have seen where it went!" She then said something condescending directly at Chip.
"Yer mean it went straight through the doors?!?" Monterrey asked her.
"No," She replied, "The doors opened and let him in!"
"Well," Chip asked, "Who opened them?"
"Well, I don't know! I've been subduing my telepathy all evening!" She commented.
"Perhaps they're ghost doors!" Dale suggested before leaping behind the Rangermobile.
"Ghost doors!" Chip commented sarcastically. "I'll show you whether they're ghosts or not!" He gave Dale a kick under the tail, getting him up from behind the Rangermobile. As the Rangers went over to investigate Dale got a bit of static electricity up his tail, causing to yelp in shock.
Chip and Gadget attempted to pull the doors open but they wouldn't budge, so Chip knocked on one of them.
"Come on," He said, putting on his copper tone of voice, "Open up in the name of justice!" He knocked again and insisted that they were opened.
"Why are you standing there?" Gadget asked Dale and Monterrey Jack. "There's no reason to be afraid. Here," She suggested, bringing Chip into the huddle that was forming, "I think I know what to do." The doors began to open. "If two of us pull on one door and the other…" She was cut off as one of the doors pushed them all over, Chip took a peek.
"Where did it go?" Chip asked after seeing an empty space.
"Perhaps it went right through and out the other side." Dale suggested.
"Don't be silly, Dale." Gadget commented as they walked inside. "This is a solid wall!" They began to edge their way along the wall from the middle of the back towards the left side of the room.
"Do you know where we are?" Chip asked. "This used to be Plato's kennel!" Dale acknowledged this.
"Let's look him up and tell him!" He suggested.
"Tell him what?" Gadget asked.
"That we're in his kennel!" He replied.
"Oh, there's a bright idea!" Chip said sarcastically. "Let's examine these walls properly." Dale spotted an interesting object in the middle of the kennel, he went over and stuffed it under his shirt, and then he saw something on the back wall. "Chip, Gadget!" He called nervously.
"What's wrong?" Gadget asked.
"I think you should know," Dale continued as the other three joined him in the middle of the kennel, "There's only four of us, but there's five shadows on the wall!" Chip and Gadget stood up and looked at the wall; Gadget began to count from Chip's shadow to Dale's shadow.
"One, two, three, four…" Then Chip squeaked in alarm.
"You're right!" He told his bunkmate, "You're right, Dale! There's one other!"
"Yes, and I'll tell you something else!" Dale said in a fearful tone. "Our visitor's got no head!" They all felt unnerved now and turned around to see the 'headless' driver standing at the entrance to the kennel. They immediately dashed past him and into the Rangermobile; Monterrey Jack took the steering mechanism and drove the Rangermobile at full speed back to HQ.
---
As they rushed through the front door Gadget made for a cupboard to get a refreshing drink, Dale was right behind her. The makeshift phone was perpetually ringing.
"Maybe you'll believe it now you've seen it!" Dale commented.
"Sorry Dale," She replied as she poured herself a glass of orange juice, "But I'm sure there's a logical explanation for what we've seen! Answer that phone!"
"Not me!" Dale told her. "It might be the headless horseman!"
"Gee Willikers!" She exclaimed. "If he hasn't got a head, how can he talk into a phone?!?"
"I'll get it!" Chip announced, picking up the receiver. "Hello?" He listened for bit and indicated to the others to join him. "What can we do for you, Sparky?" He asked.
On the other end of the phone Sparky smirked and said. "Did you see a headless horseman last night?" He listened for Chip to reply affirmatively and said. "April Fool!"
Chip sighed annoyingly and told him. "It's not even April!"
"I know," Sparky answered, "But with a gag like that I couldn't wait that long!"
Chip replaced the receiver on the hook; he looked as though he'd been made a monkey out of.
