From NoelW: P.I. in the Sky: Sarah’s Balloon (10 points)

The balloon drifts down, lowering a rope ladder for us to scramble up. Lady Sarah appears to have forgiven our previous rudeness. Or possibly to have forgotten who we are. Either way, she introduces us to our elevated companions: a small Belgian man, who looks like a balloon himself and, once he speaks, also seems to be overinflated with hot air, and a rather mousey woman who smiles and listens attentively as somehow we find ourselves recounting all the gossip we’ve encountered on our wandering around the island.

“We are bound for Rousell’s Sandhill,” she explains. “A little bird told me that we might find what we’re after there.”

“Mais non,” says the dapper man, “no chicken was implicated. It was with application of my little grey cells alone that we find what we seek.”

“Do forgive me, dear Hercule, but we would not have the slightest idea, without that little tidbit I happened to overhear by pure chance in the village post office.”

He taps the edge of the basket agitatedly with his cane as if wanting to throw something overboard. From her handbag, she extracts a large compact and begins to powder her nose, watching us all the while in her mirror.

“And what is it you are looking for?” I ask.

“Ah!” says the little man behind the moustache, “that is of the mystery most profound. It is the story of le chapeau perdu, a hat most floppy and most vanished.”

“Such a shame,” – the woman drags a shapeless woollen garment from her bag, and begins to knit – “that such a valuable hat should go missing.”

“Valuable?” I say, feigning disinterest.

“C’est vrai. There is most certainly a secret within it. In the hatband of that hat can be found a piece of paper. And on that piece of paper – “

“ – on that piece of paper is a map of the secret route to the Snowlord’s Peak, and so to the untold riches that can be found there.”

Now I really am interested. I’ve always been very interested in hats. I can’t bear skin that’s not behatted. I would love sombrero or other, but to cap it all would adore a fedora.

“And what kind of hat is it? Perhaps we could help you look for it.”

“It is – how to say – it is hat with no name. It is a most floppy hat. It has no character, no charm. It is flat and round – a sort of floppy disk useful only for the ancient information it contains.”

With minimal fez, I peer beret carefully down at the approaching Sandhill, scanning the panama-rama below us. I mitre just spot it before they do and kepi the information to myself. After all, they hardee own the rights to it.

---

A small submission to hitch a lift from Sander’s Sanddunes to Rousell’s Sandhill.

These two figures are for my WW2 Sealion/Walmington set-up. I'll probably also use them as Poirot and Miss Marple. The latter is from Wargames Foundry’s WW2 British Characters, representing, I think, Pike’s mother from Dad’s Army. I’m not sure about the Poirot figure but, being in the same sculpting style, I’m guessing that it’s also from that range, but now out of production.

Scoring: 2x 28mm figs: 10 points

OK Noel just stop or I'll have to cap your points. Love these figures, I think they are Mrs Fox - hooked Corporal Jones, and Captain Mainwaring in civies, and you've done a craking job

MartinC