A Matter of Temperance (The Adventures of Ichabod Temperance Book 1) by Ichabod Temperance

Author:Ichabod Temperance [Temperance, Ichabod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GoldenBear Creative Works
Published: 2013-04-17T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 28 – Clipping Across the Pond.

Persephone.

Once more, I am grateful for my bustle. It has proven itself yet again as a comfortable landing device.

I look up from the deck onto which we have fallen, to see we are in a ring of sailors. They are wide-eyed with astonishment as the invisible monster Mr. Temperance was fighting becomes visible to them in its death throes.

“Get me a bottle, or a cask, or something to collect this muck in, please y’all; he’s gonna melt away all gone lickety-split!””

A seamen with an air of authority about him, nods, at which several seamen hurry off and return quickly with various vessels. The evaporating ectoplasmic substance that is necessary for Mr. Temperance’s weapon construction is quickly gathered.

“Eh hem, might one of you strong lads care to assist me to my feet, eh hem?”

“Howdy, y’all, sorry about boarding your ship without permission, captain. We had to make an emergency landing.”

“Aye, we were watching a Zeppelin having difficulties over the coast when we spotted your aircraft on her erratic course. We had no idea what your trouble was until you killed that terrible abomination and it was made visible.”

“Yessir, that’s the way with these boogers. My name is Ichabod Temperance and this here is Miss Persephone Plumtartt. You all wouldn’t happen to be headed for anywhere in the Americas, were you?”

“Aye, my name is Captain Denver Hale. The lads address me as ‘Skipper’. This clipper, the ‘Midnight Minnow’, is bound for the United States.”

“My dear Captain Hale, you are truly our most timely savior. Unclean and supernatural forces have chased us to sea. Evil forces threaten the world and we require assistance in championing good over evil. May we please have passage aboard your vessel of such fortuitous providence?”

“Dear child, had we not seen that gruesome terror ourselves, we might have doubted ye, but, by my lights, we got a good two quarts of the foul creature’s remains bottled up. Oh, we’ll help ye’ both all right with passage to Galveston, Texas. Texas is a country on the Gulf of Mexico, often associated with the United States.”

- - -

Ah, the smell of the open Ocean is invigorating and refreshing.

What a lovely craft this Midnight Minnow is! In the morning sun, she is beautiful to behold. I thrill at how she runs before the wind!

“Miss Plumtartt,” Mr. Temperance breaks in upon my thoughts in his quiet and bashful way, “perhaps we have rethought our trip to the Tibetan Plateau.”

“Why yes, Mr. Temperance. It would seem that we have taken an unexpected detour.”

“Yes, Ma’am, Miss Plumtartt, Ma’am. We got run out of Europe like a child spittin’ watermelon seeds.”

“Oh. Yes. Err. Rather. I see.”

“Like the way I got run out of that posh French Clubbe.”

“Quite.”

“Like the way I got run out of the Strand Hotel when I bopped Sir Henry Stanley on the horn and bent his beak.”

“Why, Mr. Temperance! Was that you? Of course it was! The papers had said ‘Mad American.’ I should have realized!”

“I’m sorry, Miss Plumtartt, Ma’am, I am awfully embarrassed about that.

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