Thanks to Cal Gal for betaing.

Priscilla Ames

Long long ago when I was a little girl - or at least, so I've been told - my grandfather one day called me "Silly." And my mother got very upset and told him he was never ever to call me that again. And he said, "Well, you're the one who had to give her that name! Which would you rather I call her: Silly, or Prissy?"

But he never called me any nicknames after that, just Priscilla, my own right name. Only now… now I do feel awfully silly, that way I believed everything Dr Loveless told me, especially about James West!

Everyone was so nice about it afterwards though, after Dr Loveless and Voltaire drove away in that carriage with all the smoke pouring out of it. Well, almost everyone. Mr West was nicest of all. And even the governor was nice! So was that lady in the shiny dress that was missing its sleeves - but how someone could make a dress and forget to put in the sleeves, I just don't understand. Oh, and the man she kissed too, he was nice. He was Mr West's friend. And then there were the two men all wrapped up in bandages! I don't know why they were in the toy shop - they just suddenly showed up - but one of them was nice to me like everyone else was. The other though… Well, he was Mr Ratch from just down the street, and he yelled at me. But then he always yells at me. And when he was all done yelling at me, he stomped off out of the toy shop and went home to his own place over his shop.

That's when everyone else started to leave as well. But the lady - she told me to call her Miss Bessie - she said that no one else was going to set foot out of the shop until everything was all straightened up again. Oh, they all tried to argue with her - even the governor tried! - but she was very strict, just like my mother, and in the end she got her way.

Mr Gordon, the man she'd kissed, stopped calling her Miss Bessie and called her the General instead. I don't know why.

But finally, after all the stuffed animals and the other toys were put back in their places, and the darts were picked up, and all the marbles we could find were back in the barrel, and all the broken things were cleared away, then Miss Bessie said it was a job well done and everyone could go home. She left on the arm of Mr Gordon so he could see her home safely, though I heard him say very quietly to Mr West that it would be a very foolish robber who would try to take on the General, since she would just screech him into submission. Whatever that means.

Last out the door was Mr West himself. He kissed me good-bye. Oh, he was so nice! Dr Loveless had told me such awful lies about him! Why had I ever believed him?

The last thing Mr West said before he left was a reminder for me to lock up. So I did. Then I went around the shop turning off the lights before heading upstairs.

I didn't want to go into my bedroom though. Somehow, without me knowing about it, Dr Loveless had put a trapdoor in my bedroom floor! What if I forgot and walked over it and the floor dropped out from under me? No, I was too nervous to sleep in there anymore. But I could use my mother's old room. I just needed to get my nightgown, which I did by walking very carefully around the edge of the room, in and then out again.

Tomorrow, I thought as I went down the hall to Mother's room, I would have to go back into my room and gather the rest of my clothes and my dolls and things and take them to Mother's room as well. I was sad to have to abandon my bedroom, but I just didn't feel safe in there.

I stepped into Mother's room, expecting to have to light the lamp, only to find that it was already lit and turned down low. That was funny. I turned it up - and gasped. Someone was sleeping in my Mother's bed!

Then the someone turned over and peered at me. "Priscilla? What's the matter?"

"Miss Antoinette!" Oh yes, that was right. I'd forgotten that Miss Antoinette was using Mother's room. But… "Why are you still here?" I asked.

"Why am I…?" she repeated. Then she sat bolt upright in the bed. "What do you mean, why am I still here? Where is everyone else?"

"I don't know," I answered. "I heard Mr Gordon say the state mil… milish…"

"Militia?"

"Yes, that's the word! That they were looking for Dr Loveless and Voltaire, and then the governor was sure they'd be ap… appre…"

"Apprehended?"

"Yes, that! By morning."

"Oh, great," Antoinette muttered as she threw off the bedsheets. She was fully dressed underneath. "I told Voltaire to let Miguelito know I'd be taking a little nap. I suppose he forgot to relay the message." She gave an annoyed sigh, then said, "And I suppose they also forgot…" And she went to Mother's wardrobe and rummaged in the bottom of it, then pulled out a black satchel and looked inside it. "Yes, it's all still here." She brought out a second satchel and checked it as well. "This one too."

"One, two!" I repeated after her. "That's funny! But what are they?"

She glanced at me and frowned. "Never you mind. I'll just have to take these with me and meet them at the rendezvous point."

"The ron-day-voo point? What's that?"

She snorted. "It's the place we agreed previously to meet at if we were to get separated. They'll be expecting me there. I need to hurry." She grabbed a cloak from the wardrobe and threw it around her shoulders, then added, "I don't suppose you would know how to flag down a hack?"

I didn't know what to say for a moment, but then I remembered. "Oh! We have some flags downstairs in the toy shop. Do you want me to get one for you?"

She gave a very loud sigh. "Never mind! I'll just have to take care of it myself." She went to the window and glanced out. Then she jerked back. "Someone's out there!"

Oh! I could hear it now, the sound of someone knocking loudly on the toy shop door.

"Get rid of him!" Antoinette hissed. "Whoever it is, do whatever you have to do to make him go away."

"But…"

"Do it!" She took my arm and pushed me out of Mother's room and pointed me at the stairs.

I went, but at the top of the stairs I hugged my nightgown in my arms and said, "I don't think I like you anymore," before going down the stairs.

I hurried through the shop to open the door. As I did, my foot kicked something. I heard it go rolling away in the dark, then a click as it hit the wall and rolled some more. What could that be? I wondered. But it was too dark to see it, and whoever was outside was still knocking.

I unlocked the door and opened it. Oh! By the light of the streetlamp outside I could see two men. "Mr West! Mr Gordon!"

"Sh," said Mr West. He and Mr Gordon came inside and closed the door behind them. "Lock it," he told me.

"But what are you doing back here?" I asked as I obeyed.

"Sh!" Mr West said again. The two of them went all around the room looking behind and under everything in the shop, then came back to me. "Is Antoinette here?"

I gasped. "How did you know?"

"Where is she?"

"Upstairs." I pointed. "She was napping in my mother's room."

Mr West started for the stairs. "I'll go get her. You stay down here, Artie, in case she tries to slip past me."

"Right, Jim."

I watched Mr West go upstairs, then turned and asked again. "How did you know?"

"That Antoinette might be here? Well, it seems that by some miracle," Mr Gordon replied as he went around the room lighting the gaslamps, "the militia managed to catch up to the carriage. There was apparently a battle and Loveless and Voltaire escaped again. But Antoinette wasn't with them. And when our men searched the carriage, there was no sign of the stolen money, yet Loveless and Voltaire didn't appear to be carrying anything away when they fled."

"Money?"

"Yes. Loveless took a satchel full of money from Mr Ratch. He took the five million Mr Crain was going to give the governor as well, though I don't know what that was… in… Ah, Priscilla, what's this?" He was pointing at a strange thing that looked rather like an allday lollipop, but made of metal.

I shook my head. "I don't know."

He examined it carefully, then twisted something. Suddenly we heard Mr West's voice, loud and clear as if he were right there next to us. "Antoinette," he was saying, "you might as well give up."

"No, I don't think so!" came her voice as well.

"Where is the sound coming from?" Mr Gordon murmured, still studying that strange thing he'd found.

I was as puzzled as he was - and then I remembered how Mr West and I had been talking in my bedroom when we'd suddenly heard Dr Loveless speaking to us. So I told Mr Gordon about it.

"Your bedroom?" he said. "And was that just before the trapdoor opened under Jim's feet?"

"Oh, yes! How did you know?"

"Jim told me about it." He went searching around again, peering into and under things. "Aha!"

"What's that?"

"A lever." He took hold of it and grinned at me. "Let's see what happens when I pull it," he said as he shoved it down hard.

There was a shriek, and moments later another - the second shriek from me - as a little door I'd never known was there flapped open in the wall. And out through that door slid Miss Antoinette, both satchels and all.

The next thing I knew, Mr West came sliding down the chute as well. He leapt to his feet and caught Miss Antoinette by the arm. "And now, Antoinette, you're under arrest."

She fought him, struggling, trying to pull her arm free, but nothing she did worked. Mr Gordon picked up both the satchels and looked inside them. "Looks like it's all here, Jim," he said.

"Good." And then to me Mr West nodded and said, "Good night, Priscilla," and started to lead Miss Antoinette away.

And that's when I saw it, the thing that had gone rolling across the floor in the dark. It was right there between Mr West and the door. "Oh, Mr West!" I cried. "Look out for the mar…!"

But I was too late. His foot came down on the marble, and then his foot flew up again and all the rest of him as well before he slammed down hard on the floor.

"Jim!" shouted Mr Gordon. He threw aside the satchels as he tried to run to Mr West to break his fall, but he was too late too.

For a second all three of us just stood there, staring down at Mr West. And then Antoinette snatched up the satchel closest to her and ran for the door.

"Hey!" yelled Mr Gordon. "Stop!"

He ran after her, but she didn't listen. She didn't even stop to open the door. Instead she threw her arms up over her head and dove right through the bottom of the door! The bottom panel flapped open for her, just like the wall had! I couldn't believe it! What all had Dr Loveless done to my grandfather's toy shop?

Mr Gordon ran for the door and wrestled with the doorknob. "Who locked this?" he growled in frustration.

"Oh, I did. Remember? Mr West told me to?" I pulled out the key and before I could use it, Mr Gordon snatched it from me with a quick word of thanks, got the door open, and charged out into the night. I heard his voice out there, calling to the policeman walking his beat to come help him find Antoinette.

I guess they didn't see her anymore. I guess she got away.

…

But that's how it happened that, a few minutes later, Mr West woke up and looked all around, then looked at me. "What, again?" he said.

"Again?"

He sighed. "Priscilla, this is the third time tonight that I've awakened in your bedroom."

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is."

"No. This time it's different."

"Why? Because this time I wasn't blown up first?"

"No, Mr West. Because this time it isn't my bedroom. It's my mother's!"

He gave me a very long look, then his eyes rolled as his head flopped back into the pillows. "Priscilla," he said with another sigh, "that was a very silly thing to say."

"It was?" I gave it some thought, then said, "Oh! Well, at least it wasn't a prissy thing to say."

"What?"

"Oh," I said and started to explain about what my grandfather once called me back when I was a little girl. But right in the middle of me telling him the story, Mr West got up and left!

Men! I just don't think I'll ever understand them!

FIN