{"id":5845,"date":"2019-06-03T21:52:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T11:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=5845"},"modified":"2019-06-03T21:52:41","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T11:52:41","slug":"the-thuggery-affair-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/the-thuggery-affair-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Thuggery Affair’, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three: A Gentleman of the Fancy<\/strong><\/p>\n

As they walk back to Patrick\u2019s house, Peter notices they\u2019re being trailed by Jukie. \u201cDon\u2019t look now,\u201d he tells Lawrie, \u201cwho immediately did, in all directions\u201d. Oh, Lawrie<\/em>. But they get back safely and Patrick fusses around with Regina. Peter sensibly points out that Regina was released for a reason<\/em>, but Patrick says it\u2019s all sorted now \u2013 he\u2019ll just write to the British Falconry Society and find a full-time falconer to keep her during term-time in London. Yet somehow Patrick couldn\u2019t have done this six months ago. Antonia Forest is just making this up as she goes along, isn\u2019t she?<\/p>\n

Patrick also realises he needs Regina\u2019s bells, which he gave to Nicola, but Lawrie is scandalised by the idea that anyone should take them from Nicola\u2019s special private box without Nicola\u2019s permission:<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrick saw he was up against one of those family taboos which, as an only child, struck him as both infantile and incomprehensible.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But I\u2019m with Lawrie. If you come from a family with eight siblings, the small bits of privacy you possess have to be respected by everyone. Patrick has never had to share anything, so he doesn\u2019t understand this. But Peter, \u201cwho should have known better\u201d, says he\u2019ll take the bells from Nicola\u2019s box and take the blame. However, Peter has something more important on his mind. He asks to see the dead pigeon Regina is still gnawing on, looks at the ring on its leg, is about to say something \u2026 when Jukie struts in.<\/p>\n

(Before I go on with the plot, I have to say I love the vivid little bits of descriptions, such as Bucket \u201ccomfortably spatchcocked under the table\u201d! Can\u2019t you see that image exactly in your mind?)<\/p>\n

Anyway, Jukie demands to see the dead pigeon, Peter tosses it at him, Jukie fumbles and misses, and there\u2019s a bit of macho posturing between the three boys while Lawrie is ignored, to her resentment. Jukie retrieves the pigeon\u2019s leg ring and claims it\u2019s from Red Rocket, a champion flyer, so Patrick\u2019s \u201cdaddy-o\u201d will have to pay lots of compensation. This is disputed by Peter, who says the pigeon was a blue chequer, and Patrick, also sceptical, makes sure he reminds Jukie that it\u2019s Miss Culver\u2019s pigeon, not Jukie\u2019s. Jukie walks off, not quite as comfortably as he entered, and Peter drops his bombshell. There was another dead pigeon which he scooped up in his mackintosh and \u201cthis one\u2019s the one with the message\u201d!<\/p>\n

Dramatic chapter end there. Also, I assume the title of this chapter is making fun of the notion that a boy like Jukie could ever be a gentleman. There\u2019s a bit where Lawrie is wondering about his accent and realising he\u2019s \u201ctrue north country\u201d and \u201csham Yankee\u201d with a bit of imitating Miss Culver.<\/p>\n

Chapter Four: \u201c\u2026Poor Airy Post\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The poor dead pigeon is wearing a little leather harness attached to a capsule. They discuss whether they should take it straight to the police or MI5 and Patrick is surprised that \u201cspies should be the very first thing you think of\u201d and even more surprised when he sees the meaningful looks the Marlows exchange. Interesting. Because only a couple of months ago, Peter had apparently repressed all memory of the time he was kidnapped by a spy. Patrick also points out that it\u2019s extremely unlikely Maudie Culver is passing information to the Communists because she\u2019s such a \u201cblot-blue Tory\u201d and what information would she have anyway? <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, while they\u2019re debating this, Jukie sneaks back in. (Bucket is too busy being a spatchcock to be much of a guard dog.) Jukie tries to scam them into paying him, not Miss Culver. He\u2019ll swap the leg rings for an \u2018inferior\u2019 pigeon in the loft, Patrick\u2019s daddy-o won\u2019t have to pay hundreds of pounds compensation and Patrick can give Jukie some money in return. This doesn\u2019t work because firstly, Patrick has no motivation to lie to his father (and Patrick doesn\u2019t even have to say out loud that a hundred pounds is nothing to a rich MP). Secondly, Peter is unexpectedly knowledgeable about pigeons and explains you can\u2019t swap pigeon rings on grown birds. <\/p>\n

But then Jukie sees the pigeon with the harness:<\/p>\n

\u201cPlainly, he knew only too well what it was: plainly also, this was an attempt to get bird and harness into his hands: only, if he were to preserve the fiction that it wasn’t a Culver bird, he couldn\u2019t be too insistent.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Patrick refuses to hand the pigeon over, Jukie is forced to retreat without it, but he leaves with the threat that if they go to the police, his thugs will come round and dig Regina\u2019s eyes out. Peter and Lawrie are suitably intimidated but \u201cPatrick\u2019s face could have been used as a model for a mask labelled murder<\/em>\u201d. Jukie gives Patrick a look of \u201csurprised respect\u201d and scoots off.<\/p>\n

Now, I know<\/em> Patrick\u2019s confidence comes from his class and wealth, but I\u2019m on Patrick\u2019s side here. Anyone who threatens to mutilate an animal deserves murderous looks and more.<\/p>\n

Patrick obviously can\u2019t leave Regina in the hawk-house so he takes her into the house and hides her in a very cool secret room that was used to hide priests in the \u201cpenal times\u201d. Peter is a bit annoyed that Patrick had always denied any \u201cSecret of the Moated Pile\u201d, but Patrick explains that when they were young, he really did<\/em> believe that Catholics were under siege and that Protestant Marlows couldn\u2019t be trusted. Even though a priest was turning up at their house every Sunday to say Mass:<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Sunday I thought this would be the day for the brutal soldiery to burst in the front door.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Honestly, where<\/em> did he get this from? I can\u2019t imagine his father would have encouraged this sort of thinking. Maybe Mrs Merrick? She doesn\u2019t seem super-Catholic, though.<\/p>\n

The children then decide to open the pigeon’s capsule, even though Patrick is sure it\u2019ll just say something like \u201cDear Jukie Meet Me At The Palais 7:30 Saturday Your Ever-Loving Chick Sandra.<\/em>\u201d This leads to an exchange about their own love lives.<\/p>\n

Patrick asks Peter, \u201cAnd what do you make do with? A half-hitch in every port?\u201d<\/p>\n

WHAT does this mean? The Navy\u2019s famous for male homosexuality, but I\u2019m not sure that fits here and surely they wouldn\u2019t talk about that in front of Lawrie? Peter denies he has any social life and says Patrick, at day school in London, has \u201cmore chances than the rest of us \u2026 Surely<\/em> you date the chicks?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrie and Peter are teasing him, thinking this is unlikely. Why? He\u2019s fifteen (or sixteen now?) and supposed to be good-looking, although admittedly, his social skills aren\u2019t very good. I don\u2019t know what dating norms were for public school boys in London then. Do we know which school he attends? I am imagining Westminster, but maybe he goes to a Catholic school. Anyway, Patrick blushes, thinking of Ginty, then flippantly says, \u201cA different chick every night of the week, actually\u201d and changes the subject to the capsule.<\/p>\n

Which turns out to contain a mysterious white powder! It\u2019s bicarb of soda, which the pigeons carry about in case they have a sudden stomach upset! (Okay, that bit made me laugh out loud.) No, maybe it\u2019s arsenic or strychnine or a secret Kremlin explosive or \u2026 or cocaine! Which Lawrie actually tastes, because she\u2019s an idiot. Peter is reluctant to go to the police because they \u201cmustn\u2019t sneak\u201d, but Patrick says drug-smuggling is \u201cworse than most murders\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it is a kind of physical blackmail, isn\u2019t it? You chat people into taking the stuff, you make them so dependent on it they have the heebie jeebies if they can\u2019t get it and then you make them pay the earth to keep getting it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think he\u2019s got most of his information from reading Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. Then he has another revelation \u2013 Jukie\u2019s name doesn\u2019t come from \u201cjukebox\u201d, as they\u2019d thought, but \u201cjunkie\u201d. As Patrick solemnly explains to the others, \u201cJunkie \u2013 in their language \u2013 means drug addict.\u201d Okay, I laughed out loud at that bit, too. So far most of the slang has been barely recognisable to me, but the one word that I do<\/em> know \u2013 because it\u2019s now part of everyday language \u2013 is the word that Patrick and Antonia Forest carefully explain to us.<\/p>\n

By the way, Patrick understands Ted-speak because he regularly visits a London coffee-bar which is always \u201ccrammed with the kiddoes and the chicks yapping away and being with it like mad.\u201d The image of Patrick trying to look like a cool cat in a caf\u00e9 is also pretty funny to me.<\/p>\n

Anyway, they decide to take the capsule to their local policeman, Tom Catchpole, in order to be nice to him and also because his young wife is \u201cdishy\u201d and a \u201csmasher\u201d. Way to go with the sexual objectification of women, Peter and Patrick.<\/p>\n

Next: A Brush with the Enemy<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter Three: A Gentleman of the Fancy As they walk back to Patrick\u2019s house, Peter notices they\u2019re being trailed by Jukie. \u201cDon\u2019t look now,\u201d he tells Lawrie, \u201cwho immediately did, in all directions\u201d. Oh, Lawrie. But they get back safely and Patrick fusses around with Regina. Peter sensibly points out that Regina was released for … Continue reading ‘The Thuggery Affair’, Part Two<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,6,11],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-5845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1950s-and-1960s","category-books","category-young-adult","tag-antonia-forest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5845"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5849,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5845\/revisions\/5849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}