The pirate cannon 3/7

Mary left Abigail and Jennifer Jane to have their chat and went through the Witches' Home and over the drawbridge. As she neared Lurgin's Bridge she remembered that she'd have to give Gordon a riddle and it's answer, to be allowed to cross and return.

She stopped for a moment and tried to think of something. For the life of her she couldn't remember one. Then one of Dave's joke riddles came to mind and she set foot on the bridge with a bit of a giggle.

"Riddle," shouted Gordon from under the bridge, "wait a bit I've lost my pencil. Right go ahead."

"What is the difference between a duck?" called Mary as she crossed over the bridge.

Gordon repeated the words slowly as he wrote them down.

"A duck's what?"

"That's the whole riddle," replied Mary, as she walked off to the village, "I'll give you the answer when I come back."

"Sounds daft to me," Gordon was mumbling to himself, "but then most of them do anyway, so what's new!"

Mary walked past the village and along the river road to the timber yard.

"I've seen you somewhere before," said the foreman as she approached the hut he used as his office.

"I'm Jennifer Jane's Mum, I think I met you when she came back from the third world recently."

"That's right," said Phil, "I came up from the village to welcome her home when Abigail found her. What can I do to help you?"

"Dave and I are trying to find out who supplied the goblins with their cannon," said Mary. I'm here to see if you'd know who had the wood that the gun carriages were made from."

"I'll ask my despatching clerk," said Phil. "Charlie," he called, "d'you know of any orders for heavy timber being sent to some goblins from here?"

"It was very thick planks," added Mary, "at least two inches thick I should think."

"Made it into gun trucks they did, with wheels," added Phil as Charlie looked at him blankly.

Charlie shook his head slowly. "Sorry guv'ner nothing like that for months."

"Oh well," said Mary, "thanks for asking, is there anywhere else round here where I could enquire?"

"Of course there was those little trolleys the carpentry shop made for a goblin who wanted to move a load of big barrels," said Charlie, before Phil could answer.

"How many were there?" asked Mary with a sigh.

"Six I think, had to be very strong because the barrels were going to be very heavy. I do remember that," replied Charlie proudly.

"Good," said Mary, "that's my problem solved. I expect if somebody brought one of them here you could identify it?"
"No trouble," said Phil, "only too pleased to help."

Mary hurried off feeling pleased with herself at having been able to solve the puzzle so easily. She was looking forward to her chat with Abigail when she got back to the Witches' Home and had forgotten all about Gordon again when she started to cross his bridge.

"Oy," shouted Gordon, "it was a daft question, it's bound to be a daft answer, so what is it?"

"One of its legs is both the same," called Mary as she hurried over the bridge chuckling to herself.

A witch flew out of the Home as she approached and went off over the trees towards a castle on the horizon.

'It must be fun to be able to fly everywhere,' thought Mary. Her feet were aching from her long walk and she was looking forward to a nice sit down and a cup of tea with Abigail 'and probably a chocolate swiss roll or two as well.'

When she was sitting with Abigail in the Refectory sipping her cup of tea, Mary made her suggestion for getting the gun carriages identified.

"Nothing simpler," said Abigail.

She called over one of the junior witches. "Would you go and ask Robert to fly to the goblin boatyard on his carpet. Get one of the gun trucks and take it over to the timber yard near Lurgin's bridge. Tell him to wait while they see if they know who made it and then ask him to report back to me."

Abigail sat back in her chair and offered Mary a choice of chocolate swiss roll or cherry cake.

"That's one of the advantages of a bit of seniority, I can get an apprentice to do some of my running around!"