Vulgar Belief

The next morning, Gaius downloads a map.

I should have done it before, says Gaius. This is excellent. Here is the Rance Estuary. Here are we. I shall hire a bicycle.

Make that two bicycles, says Belle.

Very good, says Gaius. But who'll wait for Arthur?

Not me, says Splosh. I'm out all day with my paintbox.

Can I come? asks Terence.

No, says Splosh, I'm taking Baldy. He's more responsible.

Baldy looks proud.

And he has proper fingers, adds Splosh. You have a claw and a ceramic parrot's wing. My helper must be nimble-fingered.

Good idea to split them up, says Belle. Terence, you're coming with Gaius and me to the Rance Estuary.

Can I have my pencil back? asks Baldy.

Let Terence keep it, says Belle. You can choose a new colour.

She opens the box of Prismalos.

Baldy picks green.

Outside the Hotel Kyriad, Victor is lurking.

Soon he will make a decision. Who to follow?

.......

It's not far to the estuary, by bicycle.

Gaius is first to spot the barrage.

That will be the Tidal Power Station, says Gaius.

No kidding, says Belle. Won't that have scared all the birds away?

Not necessarily, says Gaius. It's been here since 1966. The birds will have adapted.

If they've adapted, says Belle, they might not be the ones that we should be experimenting with, with the cheeses.

A good point, says Gaius. On the other hand, they might make better subjects for our first attempt at changing their behaviour.

No harm in trying, says Belle.

They get off their bikes near the mud flats.

There's a parrot! says Terence.

He runs forward.

Stop right there! says Belle. Don't run with pencils.

Terence stops, but not because it's foolish to run with pencils.

He has come face to face with a parrot.

Don't run with pencils, says the parrot, in a raspy voice, almost as mean as Saint Joseph.

Don't move, Terence! cries Belle It's an oystercatcher.

So it is, says Gaius. Let us approach it. Belle, hide the cheeses.

Cheeses! The oystercatcher heard that!

Contrary to vulgar belief, oystercatchers can put two and two together.

This one has many friends here.

Two friends, an oystercatcher couple, had told him this tale, only yesterday.

They had returned to their scrape, to find two red eggs in it.

At first they had ignored them, and built a new scrape alongside.

But as the sun rose and the day became hotter the eggs softened.

The oystercatcher couple had felt sorry for the red eggs and decided to move them.

Until they spotted Lefty wheeling above them, spying, with that sly look on his seagull features, and were alerted.

THIS WAS SOME SORT OF PAYBACK.

....and now, here were these people, with cheeses....