A Tour De Force: THE TAILS OF MONTAGUE STUMP, #2

By P R M Kinloch

Foxes Monty and his new companion, Diana, find themselves trapped in a strange part of the world gripped by perpetual war. Monty is immediately wounded in a fight for his life. Surrounded by alarming paradoxes and hidden dangers, the two foxes have no idea who to trust. Monkeys are armed with stones, trees send high-speed messages, rabbits trap wolves and the wolves use fire with deadly intent! As time runs out for the foxes, they discover a strange puzzle that nobody has ever deciphered. It will either be their ticket to freedom or bring the war straight to them...

• Language: English
• Publisher: P R M Kinloch
• Release date: Mar 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201522179

Book preview

A TOUR DE FORCE

––––––––

BOOK 2

From

THE TAILS OF MONTAGUE STUMP

––––––––

By

––––––––

P R M KINLOCH

THE TAILS OF MONTAGUE STUMP SERIES

BY P R M KINLOCH

BOOK 1, A TOUR DE FATE

Published 2021, ISBN:9798201837600

BOOK 2, A TOUR DE FORCE

Published 2022, ISBN:9798201522179

BOOK 3, A TOUR DE FARCE

Published 2022, ISBN:9798201522179

THE TAILS OF MONTAGUE STUMP, A TOUR DE FATE,

A TOUR DE FORCE, A TOUR DE FARCE and their contents

are Copyright © 2021 and published by P R M KINLOCH

cover by ebook.com

Illustrations by the author

CONTENTS

The Weald

1  A RAFT OF IDEAS

The Raft

Loading The Bed

2  FOOD FOR THOUGHT

3  FIRST IMPRESSIONS

4  NAVIGATING PERSONALITIES

5  A NAVAL RATING

6  GRIM FOREBODINGS

7  BATH TIME

8  THINKING AHEAD

9  GETTING IDEAS

10  BOAT DRILL

11  A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES

12  THE OLD GUARD

13  NECESSARY STEPS

14  BEGINNER’S LUCK

15  SECOND GO

16  A SENSE OF DIRECTION

17  IN FOR A NIGHT

18  IN FOR A FRIGHT

19  IN FOR A FIGHT

20  IN THE LINE OF FIRE

21  ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO

22  A HOLE IN ONE

23  A CLASS ACT

24  A QUICK EXAM

25  AMBULANCE

26  TSZRK

27  A WAIT AND SEE APPROACH

28  HAVING IT OUT IN THE OPEN

29  UP FOR GRABS

30  THE POINT OF  NO RETURN

31  CLASS DISTINCTION

32  SUMMARY JURISDICTION

33  PUT ON THE SPOT

34  PROSECUTOR OR JURY

35  WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE

36  A FEW UMS AND AHS

37  HOW TO CURE THE HEALTHY

38  KEEPING TO THE POINT

39  GOING FROM BAD TO WORSE

40  TOUGH LOVE

41  A LAND OF OPPOSITES

42  END GAME

43  JUST THE SPIRIT

44  SECRETS AND CELEBRATIONS

45  TALKING HEADS

46  TRYING TO LIGHT A DAMP FUSE

47  AVOIDING THE PITFALLS

48  MONKEY BUSINESS

49  ANOTHER DEAD END?

50  MARCHING ORDERS

51  MESSAGE RECEIVED

52  THE BLACK WALL AND RHASSMASSA

53  BUSINESS AS USUAL

54  THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS

55  HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT

56  A NUMBERS GAME

57  HIDE AND SEEK

58  POLE VAULT

59  MONKEY PUZZLE

60  A WOLF IN THE BUSHES

61  DERRING DO

62  SNAPSHOT OF THE PAST

63  IN SEARCH OF A GOOD CAUSE

64  MORE MONKEY BUSINESS

65  INSPIRATION

66  JOINING BOTH ENDS OF TIME

67  MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO

68  POINT TAKEN

How They Raised The Beam

69  PROVING THE POINT

70  DRIVING THE POINT HOME

71  HOUSE TRAINED

72  A QUESTION OF PROCEDURE

73  IF IN DOUBT, TURN ABOUT

74  GETTING THE SILENT TREATMENT

75  CRISIS MANAGEMENT

76  PLAN B READY

77  THE LUCK OF THE DRAW

78  ASKING FOR TROUBLE

79  A QUESTION OF QUESTIONS

80  A MEETING OF MINDERS

81  WORKING BEE

82  VIA THE GRAPEVINE?

83  LINES OF COMMUNICATION

84  ONE WAY OF LOOKING AT IT

85  BIG EFFORT FOR SMALL CHANGE

86  OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT

87  LINES OF ENQUIRY

88  SEEING IS BELIEVING

The Statues Restored

The Birth Place

89  HITTING A BRICK WALL

90  LISTENING POSTS

91  TOUCH STONE

92  A STONE’S THROW

The Mhurr Donk

93  SIX OF THE BEST

94  TOP LEVEL DISCUSSION

95  SETTING THE STAGE

96  MARKING TIME

97  ALL IS COVERED AND REVEALED

98  THE MAKING OF A NATIONAL TREASURE

99  GETTING SORTED

100  SOMETHING OLD SOMETHING NEW

101  NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET

102  PROBABLE CAUSE

103  PARTING OF THE WAYS

104  SHOW AND TELL

105  PERSPECTIVE

Book 3

About The Author

For Monica

A TOUR DE FORCE

The Weald

1  A RAFT OF IDEAS––––––––

Montague Stump, pure-bred fox and heir to a vast fortune had been an irresponsible youngster, constantly chafing against the staid traditions of his aristocratic family and rebelling against the expectations of his father. Along with friends, he had fallen under the spell of a flamboyant and smooth-talking bull terrier at least twice their age called Fairly Fullon. Unknown to them, Fullon was a hustler who put on lavish raves as a cover for fleecing whatever he could from his guests. With the Stump dynasty reputed to be worth so much, Fullon had been working hard to find a way to tap into such wealth.

During one of his all-night sessions Fullon had finally managed to zero in on his prize. Getting Monty as drunk and riled up as he could, he drew the young cub into betting his entire inheritance with a challenge to a game on a rigged pinball machine. Spurred on by the alcohol and a desire to be seen by his peers duking it out with his host, Monty saw no trap and took the bait. With a single shot each, winner takes all and only the haziest promise of what his host was willing to risk – another marker he failed to see - there was no way Monty could have won, and Fullon had claimed his prize.

Unaware he had been conned, Monty decided in his own confused logic that the only honourable thing to do was to run away. By sheer grit, or perhaps pigheadedness, he had stayed away.

As the years and miles went by, he grew somewhat wiser and surprisingly successful. Landing a job at an immense farm, he gained skills as a shepherd and then as a manager. Rising through the ranks of the place, he ended up its superintendent. Never touching his wages for those years meant he accumulated wealth in his own right. Acquiring and renovating a house, he learnt carpentry. On selling the house, he doubled the size of his fortune.

On the move again, he felt he had picked up some useful trades, gained some insight into the ways of the world and maybe learnt something of himself. He had met some remarkable creatures of different breeds, many of whom had helped him and he hoped he had given something in return.

Tiring of life on the road, he began thinking about settling down. This led him to find a house which in turn brought him to the idea of acquiring a decent bed. As a model, he had chosen the enormous one owned by Fairly Fullon, the bull terrier who had fleeced him of his inheritance. He daydreamed of knocking off the fellow’s actual bed and taking it as his own – but since he was now living halfway to the other side of the world as he knew it, that was impossible. But that was no problem. With his carpentry experience, he could easily knock up a bed. He would make his own.

Then had come a particularly traumatic episode while remod-elling his new house involving a lot of rope and curiously, an ironing board. Those items had seemed intent on ruining his new-found home and intended life-style. In a fit of pique he promised himself that if he ever won the battle with the devilish rope and ironing board for the peace of mind he felt he deserved, then the bed belonging to the cad who had taken him to the cleaners and caused all the work in the first place, that and only that would grace his new bedroom.

When the wretched rope and board did fall into place, his promise for that particular bed fell due. While the idea of actually stealing the fellow’s bed was beyond him, it led to other thoughts.

Even if I can’t go and bring the bed back, I really ought to look in on my parents. After all, I’ve got nothing against them and they must be seriously getting on by now. In fact I better get there before they... Yeah, well... before they get any older.

In due course he had set off for his old home. Checking out his old haunts, he had met his mates, Josh Nunt, fox and now owner of the Café Credenza, and Max Tann, an overly large fox. They had told him that the white bull terrier Fairly Fullon who had cleaned him out those years before, had been exposed as a shyster and spiv. When the idea of a little pay-back on Fullon had emerged, Monty’s dream of knocking off the fellow’s bed got an airing. Naturally, the idea of trying to move a bed – a double-bed at that - any distance was treated with derision, but the thought of cutting Mr Fullon down to size was a good one, with no reason why Monty shouldn’t benefit.

The problem with the bed was obvious. Getting a huge double bed to the end of the fellow’s driveway was bad enough. let alone down the road to Monty’s new house, twenty days walk away without a bed. If they were set on really upsetting Fullon’s way of life, they had to ensure that what they did was far more than anything Fullon could handle, but wasn’t anything more than they could handle.

Starting by looking for ways to move the bed at all, brainstorming led them to the idea of wheelbarrows. Since there were four bed legs, what about four barrows?

Stand the bed on four barrows?

Yeah, if we take James with us, that’s a barrow each.

James Coaker was a young spaniel apprenticed to Josh in the Café. He had lost his dad to hornets, so was the breadwinner of his family and Josh was giving him as much paid work as he could.

In due course, with James duly enrolled, they had accumulated four wheelbarrows and filled them with all the tools and equipment they needed to sabotage Fairly Fullon’s house. While Fullon was invited to celebrate his coming in to Monty’s family mansion, Monty and gang went to work on Fullon’s house. The barrows were then to be used to cart away whatever Monty wanted from Fullon’s place. But the prospect of four barrows trying to balance a double bed looked like too many people trying to be too clever. Just getting to the end of the driveway would be a victory.

On the other hand, any balance and labour problems disappeared by simply adding the barrow wheels to the bed itself. Instead of the four of them trying to hump the bed along in wheelbarrows, in theory Monty alone could push it all the way to his new house on its own wheels.

This seemed like progress. However, they did decide that the lunatic idea of a fox pushing a double bed down the highway should only be re-visited if everything else failed. Instead, they optimistically looked for a way for the bed to make the journey by itself.

They found it. There was something that offered transport every day to make the very run they needed. It even had bonuses. It was available for departure 24/7 and it was free. The river.

If they could use the river, their journey divided into two. Little overland sections at the beginning and end – already solved by the introduction of wheels – and the single problem of the river itself. All they had to do was figure out how to use the water.

Turning to the how and what of rivers, they pooled their entire marine knowledge. This didn’t take long, since they had only one fact between them. Wood floats. But this was exactly what they needed. To them it meant their proposition was sound and they really couldn’t go wrong.

They pressed on, but then it got steadily tougher. Imagining the bed floating in the water, they couldn’t see the bed getting far if it had its legs on. They preferred the leaf floating on the water picture, to a dead frog with legs dangling downwards in the water.

Certainly, it looked easier to launch with the legs and wheels down. Simply roll it far enough into the water until it floated. But then, even if they did get it going down the river, if a leg snagged on something under water, they would have no way to free it. But if it were floating along with legs up, it was far less likely to snag on anything. There was somethings else, too. If the bed was upside-down, it would surely float as it was being pushed into the water. Maybe they might not even have to get their toes wet.

To them, this was brilliant. However, they had already decided Monty deserved more than a double bed from the fraudster Fullon. Considering what Fullon had cost Monty, they were determined to help Monty stock his new home with whatever could possibly be taken from Fullon’s place. When they worked out how much else they wanted to transport on the bed, the thing would obviously sink.

They ended up taking four of Fullon’s doors, all his bannisters, plus six beautifully polished long bookcase shelves. With the bed on the wheel-barrow wheels, what hadn’t been already taken by barrow down to the river was stacked on the bed. The last two doors, the shelves, the bannisters, the four wheelbarrows minus their wheels, various buckets, brooms and spades, and Monty’s tools in his satchel with all the door hinges, fittings and all the screws. They pushed the lot through the streets to the way to the river.

When they had been planning everything back at Josh’s Café Credenza, they thought of simply floating everything that was wood. Push everything into the water, let nature take its course and pull it out at the other end. The simplicity of this idea was very appealing.

But then, exactly how would they collect it all? They saw no way of catching anything left to float freely down river. And in any case, stuff could get caught anywhere. The whole lot could end up spread out all the way along the river. Except the bed, of course, because that would have a crew – Monty. Presumably he could keep the bed out of trouble. But not the other things.

Their next idea was to tie all the floating stuff together. That seemed better. But that would mean such a massive bundle, it would sit too deep and snag on things, or not float at all. So it’s still had to be tied together, but spread flat on the water. While they were trying to work out if it would then be too wide to handle, they realised that, bundled or flat-pack didn’t matter because no one had a workable idea of how to tie things like that together anyway, let alone trying to do it in the water.

When the prospect of stripping Fairly Fullon’s place for Monty’s new home had become serious, he had put doors on the list. Why make them for his new home if there were some going free? Fullon had lots of doors. Very nice doors. But it was the idea of a stack of doors on the bed that they had foreseen the whole lot sinking.

The doors weren’t the only problem, but they were by far the largest. If they couldn’t go on the bed, or as a floating bundle or flat-pack, they tinkered with the idea of floating the doors independently like the bed. Tossing around how to control a mob of doors floating on the water led finally to the idea of a raft. Simply nailing the doors together to make a raft seemed to solve everything. Monty had carpentry experience, so could build it, and they reasoned that if the raft were big enough, everything could go on it, including the bed.

Their theory was becoming simple. With Monty’s carpentry, if the doors were laid flat and butted together, they had any size of raft they needed. Screwing down shelves across the doors would of keep them together. On that optimistic note, their theory session in the Café had ended. The practical session of building the raft took place on the banks of the river Phlough (as in ‘Fluff’), immediately after the three foxes and spaniel James, had finished ransacking and booby-trapping Bortontick, Fairly Fullon’s place.

Their plan looked easy. Build the raft and float everything down river for Monty’s new house in Wallop, with the simple test of doing it. But they soon learnt that simple wording could assume a lot, especially in the ‘how’ department. In fact, right at the start they became completely flummoxed.

They had decided that creating the raft on land would be daft. It would be so big and flat, they would never get it to the river. That meant doing it in the water. With a door in the water, it floated beautifully, exactly to their liking. More than that, it was easy to float another door next to it.

Thinking they were on a winner, they found themselves on a learning curve that turned more like a corkscrew with everything they tried. A door could look still on the water, but it wouldn’t keep still, especially when they got on it. They had to get on it to do the screwing. A second door beside the first floated at a different height until someone stood on that one as well. Then it depended on where they stood on the things.

They then learnt the impossibility of trying to fix two floating doors together while standing on them. If anyone moved - and they couldn’t do anything without moving - it caused independent motion in both doors. If nobody moved, the river itself got the fidgets. As a team on the water, they were achieving nothing.

When teamwork didn’t work, they tried one-upmanship. That proposition looked simple and very inviting. They reasoned if one of them stood with a foot on one floating door, he could use his other foot to guide the second door exactly to where he wanted it. He’d be in control of both. Drawing his feet together would bring the two doors together. Controlling the two, he could line them line up exactly as he wanted. Easy as!

Monty tried it. He stood on one door, straddled the watery gap and planted a foot on the other door. The doors instantly moved apart with frictionless efficiency. That left one-upmanship with nowhere to go but down. Monty disappeared under water as the doors shot off in opposite directions.

As he struggled ashore, Max and Josh had to go and bring the doors back. Saying nothing about the loss of dignity or lack of success, let alone the necessary speed of construction they were simply not achieving, they dragged the doors onto dry land and started again. On the ground, the opposite happened. Two doors together could certainly be aligned perfectly, and they would stay nicely wherever they were put, but now too much so. Worse than that, they were incredibly difficult to move as one unit. Lifting one door was hard enough. Two together was impossible.

However, with their own drenching and the now wet doors, they did learn the valuable fact that things slid better on wet grass than on dry.

As it was, they could see that two doors together would still not be big enough. Judging by the size of the bed, they felt that a three-door raft was a better bet. And, it looked more stable. They laid down three doors and butted them side-by-side. A fourth door was then positioned flat on top across the middle of the three of them. If that were screwed down, surely it would fix three doors together strongly? They decided that if further strength were required, shelf planks could be laid and fixed either side of the fourth door.

They reckoned the result looked simple and strong enough. They had a sturdy size and shape that looked quite capable of transporting everything. If Monty could screw it together, they had every faith it would go the distance. Except it wouldn’t be going anywhere. They had no hope whatever of pushing anything that big into the water, whether or not the grass was soaking wet. One door, yes. Multiple doors, forget it. Another big re-think was necessary.

Monty remembered from remodelling his house at Wilder-Ness, that if he had to move something too big to lift, he could sometimes slide it or move it about if there was the right lump positioned underneath it. Armed with that information, they used the barrows to see if his idea led anywhere.

They stripped the arm frames off the already wheel-less barrows until they were down the barrow hulls. Placed face down on the grass, they proved immensely stable but very difficult to move or slide. With the smooth underside of the hulls on the grass, they could slide rather nicely – even better on wet grass – and their open-sides upwards made nice level platforms, and four barrows could form any sized table they wanted. With his DIY skills kicking in, Monty was once again in his renovating element.

A door on top of two hulls formed a table. When they had two of these, they slid them together until the doors butted side-by-side perfectly. They could then balance and slide the two doors around together quite easily on the hulls.

Just before fixing the doors together they had a brainwave. They took the whole thing to pieces to pieces and rebuilt it at water’s edge. That would mean less push needed to launch it all. There, they quickly re-assembled the two doors, butting them together to form a square on the four hulls as before.

Increasing the size of the raft by getting a third door onto the hulls was another tricky moment, solved by fixing the first two doors together with a plank screwed down across both. They could then move that larger unit to make room for the third door. Butting them together on the hulls took careful balancing. At one stage, Max ended up underneath to act as another hull. Already nicknamed The Tank, he instantly became The Hulk.

The fixing plank that was holding the two doors was moved and screwed down again along the top edges of the three doors, and another shelf was screwed down along the bottom of the doors.

The fourth door was laid between the two planks. Once it was centred, Monty screwed that down. There was still room for another shelf-plank either side of the new cross-door. Once these were added and fastened, the raft was complete. They were ready.

Monty hesitated. He saw another problem. The whole platform of doors could now slide around on the hulls. They could easily push it off, but it wouldn’t land in the water. At best, it would slide off, tilt, and stick an edge in the wet ground. That would be a disaster. It would be far too heavy to do anything after that. They were not ready.

Monty, asked Josh, realizing the situation, Can I ask a question?

Busy, said Monty, studying the problem.

Couldn’t we, Max began, and everyone turned hopefully to him. But he changed his mind. What he did offer was, The hulls can move.

So? asked Josh.

Cou - stammered James, um, could we get them, um, to w-walk?

This idea was not laughed at. They tried shoving one upturned hull at a time. It could be done one at a time, but they soon realised the dangers.

How can we get the four hulls to move at the same time? Asked Max. It takes at least two of us to push a hull.

This is far too risky. If it comes off the hulls, we’re finished. added Monty. To move the whole thing we need to fix the barrow hulls to it.

Can you do that? How would you do that? asked Josh.

I think that’s easy enough. Listen, Monty got enthusiastic again. If we saw up some of the bannisters to make a ring round each hull and I screw them to the doors, they’d keep the hulls in place.

They set to work again and solved the problem with teamwork. Sawing bannisters to lengths, these were held in place underneath the doors by James. Max and Josh ran this way and that on the grass to line up Monty exactly where to start from above for his screws to go down to fix each piece of banister underneath.

Soon, the four hulls had a banister ring round them to keep them in place under the doors. And with that, the boys felt they really were ready to launch. Knowing the trick with the wet grass, everyone got thoroughly wet in the river, then they shook themselves off and rolled around to soak the grass in the pathway of the hulls.

The Raft

To get the thing moving, they found broom handles were good as levers and they could inch the whole thing into the water. This seemed to take for ever, but as they moved it deeper into the water, eventually it got easier. Once they knew the front end was floating and the rear two hulls were half submerged, they stopped.

It was time to get the bed on the raft. For this, Monty had a plan. They had a total of four brooms. He supervised Max and James as they drove two brooms, handles downwards into the riverbed, spaced apart at the front of the raft. Next, Monty took the last two shelves and laid them as ramps from the grass to the back of the raft. Then he took the rope, tied one end to one bed leg nearest the water, ran the rope over the raft to the floating end, passed it round the outside of both brooms, brought it back down and tied it to the other nearest leg of the bed.

With the rope now forming a lazy loop round the brooms at the far end of the raft, Monty summoned his troops. Making sure the wheelbarrow wheels of the bed lined up with the two ramps, they pushed the bed up them as far as they could. Impressively, the leading legs were almost at the raft. Bits of banister placed under the wheels stopped the bed rolling down again.

Taking the rope from between the two brooms, Monty pulled at it until he had enough to bring it back to the bed. Not stopping, he pulled it through under the bed. Then they pushed the bed up and also pulled it up with the rope. Their rope simply bent the brooms in towards each other, so the boys stopped. They needed something to keep the brooms apart. A plank wedged between them would do it, but Monty had none left. Instead, he screwed banister bits at the door edges to block the brooms from moving.

Then they pulled with the rope and shoved at the bed. They kept pulling and shoving until they got the front wheels on the raft. Finally, amid a lot of puffing and laughing, they had the back wheels on as well.

Loading The Bed

Scurrying about, they centred the bed on the raft. Bits of banister were screwed down to make sure it stayed put. The rope was undone and coiled up. They pulled the two brooms up, but thinking the raft might sail off by itself, to be safe they stuck them in again. The two shelves were put together to form a single gangplank. Every-thing still on the grass was brought on board and stacked either under the bed or on it. To launch, they would pull out the brooms and push the rear of the raft free of the shore. They were ready.

That was when they had trotted back to Bortontick to do their last-minute clean-up to remove any tell-tale signs of their mischief. Then the boys were going to help launch the raft and watch Monty sail away. The plan was, once Monty was on the way down the river, Max and Josh would travel overland and keep pace with the raft. Somehow, they were to have meals ready for him as he passed by. The details of this arrangement were not exactly cut and dried, but the very simplicity of the idea made it attractive.

Then suddenly there was a new situation. Mere moments from departure