I'm In Here!

Mango flies through the late evening light in a westerly direction.

She is heading for Balranald, and making good time.

Flap...flap...flap.

Baby B-B dozes, safe in his leather contraption, dreaming of meeting his mother, and not saying Balls.

His dream goes like this:

Him (baby B-B): Ma-ma!

Arthur (his mother): Hello.

Him: I can talk now.

Arthur: Say something.

Him: Not balls.

Arthur: Good boy. What would you like most in the world?

Him: To snuggle down in your pocket.

Arthur: Okay. You can do that.

His mother (Arthur) gently places him (baby B-B) into his ( Arthur's) feather lined pocket. He (baby B-B), wriggles this way and that to avoid being poked by the needles.

Flap...flap...flap.....

Night falls.

........

Meanwhile, in Paris:

There is a knock on the door at the Hotel le Montmartre.

Knock-knock-knock. Rapid knocking.

Gaius opens the door.

Vite! Let us in, says Vello. The gendarmes are coming!

He and David dash in, followed by Terence.

What have you done? asks Gaius, aghast. What are you wearing? What's that smell?

Vello is dressed in bike shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. Common enough attire.

And on his feet, wheeled sneakers, that emit sparks of light when he moves.

The smell comes from a stick with a smouldering coal attached to the pointy end, which he seems not to know what to do with.

Put that stick down, says Gaius.

Can't, says Vello. Might start a fire.

Douse it in the toilet , says David, sensibly.

I need the toilet, says Terence.

Douse it first, says David. I hear someone running up the stairs.

Thud-thud-thud.

It's the sound of a policeman (or gendarme) running up the stairs.

Vello runs to the toilet. He tries to open the door.

Oh no! Carl Linnaeus is in there!

 I'm in here, says the muffled voice of Carl Linnaeus.

Damn!

There is a loud authoritarian knock on the door.

KNOCK!

Gaius has little choice but to open the door.

Levez vos bras! says the gendarme.