4th July, Night: After the Theatre

Hunter led Torrington to his room, acknowledging one or two greetings on the way, though the building was rather quiet otherwise. He opened the door, then shut it again, turning around to look at his friend.

"Torrington, do me a favour. Look in the room and tell me what you see, because I am under an impression that there is a goat in there."

Edward's eyebrows rose.

"A goat. Right."

He opened the door cautiously, as much expecting a live goat to jump at him as a shove or some other prank from Hunter.

The goat stared at Torrington and baaed mournfully, then resumed it's chewing of Hunter's blanket.

"Do you see it or am I going mad?" Inquired Hunter while looking over Torrington's shoulder.

"You are certainly mad to keep a goat in your room, but it is there alright and eating your blanket. Will you guard the door while I go in to investigate or will you yourself do the honours?"

"I don't keep a goat! I've never seen this goat before!" Exclaimed Hunter and pushed past Torrington into the room. The goat started backing into a corner, dragging the blanket along.

Edward came in as well and closed the door behind him, then bend to pick up the opposite corner of the blanket.

"The fact remains that you have a goat in your room. Unless it is a very intelligent goat who knows how to open and close doors, somebody is using your room to keep one. Considering the location, there aren't too many possibilities."

He sighed and raised his eyebrows, looking gloomily at the goat.

"Shall I post a lost-and-found-notice in the hall? Or shall I enquire with the General's staff whether he may have misplaced a token of friendship?"

"I am the General's staff and I damn well know all about the tokens of friendships he gets. Trust me, a goat wasn't one of them. And frankly, right now I don't care so much about how it got here, I am more concerned about getting it out."

The goat tugged on the blanket.

"It might be helpful to know, however, where we should dispose it, once we manage to catch it. If you would perhaps turn the table to hem it in on that side?"

He cautiously came closer to the animal, gathering in the blanket.

Hunter followed Torrington's directions and tried to circle the goat.

"I don't care what happens to it. As long we get it out of the building."

The goat sensing it was in danger, let go of the blanket and baaed loudly.

Shaking out the blanket, Edward slowly advanced as well, ready to throw it over the goat, should the animal try to break free.

"I assume you have not recently irritated anybody in a way that would make the consumption of your blanket by a goat a fitting retribution?"

Hunter paused. 'Well, I think I irritate Sir Arthur simply by existing, but I don't think he would stoop so low. Although, he might derive a certain perverse pleasure out of it...' said Hunter musingly.

"He would derive greater pleasure of it propperly dressed and cooked!", Edward replied savagely, somewhat put off by the latest attempt of the goat to eat his greatcoat.

He tried to use the situation to throw the blanket over it and wrap it up in it, though.

'Possibly. I don't feel like killing the poor animal though.' Hunter tried to help Torrington, but the goat struggled and slipped out of the grasp.

Torrington, whose hip had been rather unfortunately introduced to the edge of a sideboard in his attempt to restrain the animal, snorted.

"I hope it has the same qualms ... Perhaps one of us should try to grasp its horns, while the other wraps the blanke around?"

'What, grasp its horns then ride out of here on its back, eh?'

"If you find nothing better, you might do even that, but actually I had hoped for another ending for this evening", Edward replied sarcastically, shooing the goat away from his greatcoat again.

"Well, you can ride the goat if you so wish, I am not greedy." He threw the blanket over the goat and fell over the beast, pressing it to the floor. 'Get it, Torrington!'

Edward dived in, and got a hoove kicked into his thigh violently for his troubles, but after a brief fierce struggle, he had the corner of the blanket wrapped around the goat's legs and secured the whole affair with what he supposed was Hunter's undress sword-belt. He hadn't exactly taken the time to look at it too closely.

"What now?"

Hunter, looking rather ruffled after the struggle, kept his weight on the goat. 'Now we take it and dispose of it, and hopefully we don't meet anyone in the corridor while doing that."

Edward looked at the struggling beast and just barely avoided getting smacked again with all four hooves at once this time.

"If you propose to carry her, you are braver then I am! Can you hold her long enough for me to get two ropes? Then she can walk very well walk outside herself! And if we meet somebody, then we just say that this token of goodwill is a present ..."

'If you know where to get a rope quickly, then go!'

Edward quickly went out of the room, but outside assumed an air of bored elegance and went to find an orderly. He was rather sure that the genreal staff had several ropes to secure all those things they had to carry from each headquarter accomoddation to the next, and as they were not on the move right now, it was a reasonable assumption that those were not in use at the moment and might be borrowed for a moment.

A glib explanation about something the general would likely prefer tied up before he set eyes on it, a considerable amount of charm and a coin soon saw engineer and orderly in a storage room, and shortly thereafter the engineer back in Hunter's room with two sturdy pieces of rope.

He quickly made a hangman's knots into each.

"If you are still able to do so ... can you tell me where the head is by now?"