Thanks to everyone who entered their solutions.

SPOILER WARNING this post contains the solution to the Mystery of "The Evil Eye of Africa" if you would rather try to figure it out on your own first you can start at the beginning here.

Here is Margaret Curelas of Tyche Books, with her announcement of the winners and the solution!

Keep your sightglass full your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

 

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Steampunk Mystery Game Solution and Winners

Thank you to everyone for reading and submitting solutions to "The Evil Eye of Africa" Steampunk Mystery Game! Many thanks to Madame Saffron for reviewing entries. And, of course, our deepest appreciation to Jayne Barnard for writing the story and giving us such amusement.

Three intrepid detectives have solved the mystery: H. L. Dickson; Tim Ford; and James Prescott. All three submitted wonderful analyses of the mystery, and their solutions are presented below. Each poses several queries that we hope Hercule Hornblower will be able to resolve when he makes his arrest.

Now, the moment you have been waiting for...it is time to unmask the murderer of Baron von Boddy!

The murderer unmasked?

We come to it at last!

The final post of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

In which our intrepid investigator holds the traditional summation with all the suspects together in the manor of the late Baron Von Boddy!

If you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
We will be accepting your guesses and deductions until midnight on Sunday September 14th.

Madame Saffron (aka Jayne Barnard) will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

 The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Good luck with your sleuthing!
Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

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From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 30, 1898




It is time.
As  I have collected all the images from all my spiders old and new, I have assembled all the suspects and will now put to them the questions of my little gray cells.

Madame Midas-White: Did you or did you not know the research that guided Baron von Boddy on his travels was in fact stolen? Did you kill the baron to silence the man you believed the only one who might challenge your claim to a treasure you had invested so much to recover from its desert hiding place? Or, when he refused to refund to you all the money he had cost you by claiming all his purchases in England and Egypt were made with your approval, did you shoot him for ruining your perfect record of money-making?





 

Professor Plum: You stole the research into the Nubian mask from Professor Indy Brown, is it not so? Did you come to Boddy Manor to claim your share from the baron, and kill him when he refused to split the proceeds? Or, if he had failed, to kill him before he could confirm your theft and see you ejected from the highest university in the land (yes, I know Cambridge will argue that it is the highest, not Oxford, but for the purpose of this discussion…)

 


Colonel Cardsharp, er, Mustard: You claim to have been the oldest friend and the trustee of Baron von Boddy, and you were missing from London when he reappeared here and vanished again. Did you, being desperately short of money and on the verge of being thrown out of the very regiment where you had accumulated so many battle honours, kill your old friend for the treasure he may have brought back from Africa?

Professor Indiana Brown: You lost your own original research, the product of many years’ labour, to the baron. You were laughed out of the most illustrious university in the English-speaking world (yes, I know all about what Cambridge would have to say on this subject). You were beaten to a treasure and the undoubted fame that would rightfully have been yours. Did you come here to confront the baron on his secretive return, and kill him in a fit of your undoubted American temper?






 

Sir Ambrose Peacock: Perennial financial distress is your lot. You gambled away the last of your own fortune to Colonel Mustard – and nobody would blame you for wanting to murder HIM – and your hope of marrying another fortune was misled by a female fortune hunter of convincing guise. Did you kill your uncle to inherit his estate, and any treasures he may have accumulated in his latest African adventure?

Lady Peacock, you loveliest of liars: You tried to induce the baron to marry you in Cairo, or, failing that, to take you with him on his treasure hunt. When that failed, you lured his feckless heir into marrying you instead, that you might inherit that treasure by another route. Did you come here to Boddy Manor to silence the baron before he could reveal to his nephew your true nature, if not your true name?

Lady Peacock?

Where is that young woman?

 The Lady disagrees

Here is the next post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 28, 1898



 Colonel Mustard has fallen from formerly valiant warrior to vile seducer and worse. In my collection of images from the parlour spider-eyes is recorded a scene between himself and Lady Peacock that concluded with overt violence, from which the lady defended herself adeptly.

There are, however, a number of good views of the lady’s jewels, and it comes to me where I have seen them before: in a report in Cairo, from the jeweler who left the gems with Baron von Boddy “on approval” and never saw their return.

Can it be that the lovely and delicate Lady Peacock, who married Sir Ambrose within three days of meeting him, is the same woman as the mysterious widow the baron dallied with in Cairo?

What does she know of the baron’s quest? Has she too come seeking the treasure? Were she or Sir Ambrose, singly or together, at Boddy Manor when the baron’s ship came to rest here for that brief interval from his telegram to his death?

Click here for the next installment.

Threats!

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The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

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From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 25, 1898





Professor Henry Walton Brown Jr., of Indiana, USA, has joined us today.

 I discovered him in the parlour, threatening Professor Plum with a revolving pistol.
 

 In the trunk I saw yesterday was a map such as Indiana Brown, in his ill-starred Oxford speech, claimed to have created, and a hand-drawn sketch of a mask such as he claimed he had assembled from ancient written descriptions. These resemble most closely the pages seen in Baron von Boddy’s photograph of the Eye of Africa mask. I am convinced Brown could identify them as his own property.

It is indisputable now: Professor Plum perfidiously stole his fellow academic’s research and sold it to the baron.

Click here for the next installment.

The Devil in the details

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The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 24, 1898



A day of the most surprising in this investigation: Baron von Boddy did not drown. He was murdered.

The Cornwall Constabulary knows this, but has kept it silent from the newspapers to further the investigation. Naturally, I offered my inestimable services to aid them. It is to be hoped that Mrs. Midas-White did not kill him, as claiming my fee from a murderess I helped to arrest could prove awkward.

To record in brief my learnings:

1.    The skeleton clearly shows the nick of a bullet in a rear rib, indicating it was shot in the back.

2.    The airship salon’s panoramic forward window has cracks in one corner, radiating from a small hole.

3.    Some solvent, possibly fuel oil, has damaged the walnut flooring of the salon beneath the window. Did it dissolve a large blood stain?

4.    The trunk to which von Boddy was tied was filled with books and papers, much water-stained but all of them the property of the American Professor Indy Brown.

5.    Finally, the canopy and cork belt missing from the airship were found stuffed into a crevice on the moor.

For my reference, a view of the rocky shore where the skeleton washed up:

Click here for the next installment.

Searching

Here is the next post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

Later on August 22, 1898




 When I returned to the parlour, I surprised Lady Peacock groping under one of the sofas. An odd preoccupation of a delicate lady, but perhaps she merely seeks to familiarize herself with every nook and cranny of her new home.

She made a graceful exit on Sir Ambrose’s entering the room. After gazing gloomily upon her retreating figure, my host asked me if I might lend him money. His wife had not, he added, a farthing to her name beyond her jewels, which she refused to sell.

It seems to me that the jewels she wore were of a style I have recently seen described, or in a photograph, but I suppose there are many such. Styles do not vary greatly between ladies.

Tomorrow I go to seek the Cornwall Constabulary, to view the airship Jules Verne, the trunk with which the baron washed ashore, and, if possible, the beach upon which he was found.


Click here for the next installment.

The Professor consoles

Here is the next post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 22, 1898

While deploying my spider eyes about Boddy Manor today, I chanced upon Professor Plum consoling my employer, who appeared distraught. Doubtless her emotions are aroused by the possibility that she will not recoup her financial investment in von Boddy either by cash or by treasure. The professor is surely insinuating himself into her good opinion for future gains.

 I proceeded to place spiders in the library bookshelves, and in other presently unoccupied rooms. In several locations I discovered an older generation of spider-eyes, those incapable of self-mobility. They were placed discreetly among knickknacks to render them less noticeable. These I have replaced with my more elegant and functional insects, and will attempt to retrieve any older images captured by the stationary arachnoids.


Click here for the next installment.

Masher?

Here is the next post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 21, 1898 

Already a surprise of the most immense: Colonel Mustard is here.

Not abroad ‘for his health,’ as his family would doubtless prefer.

Not dead by his own hand, as the regiment he lately disgraced would prefer.

Not in London paying off his debts, as his landlady and others would prefer, although his natty attire suggests he is not particularly penurious, neither down at heels nor fraying about the cuffs.
 

He claims to be the trustee of the von Boddy estate, and in that guise has been paying the housekeeper and feeding himself with the limited funds available from the estate.

Would a military man of valorous record use the funds of his deceased friend to furnish his own fine feathers? Of course, he did cheat at cards.
 

Click here for the next installment.

Spiders!

Here is the next post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 21, 1898



After a long, slow journey across miles of desolate, windswept moor, Hercule Hornblower has arrived!

At Boddy Manor, that is, a gray stone pile much diminished from the implied elegance of the engraving the newspapers have used.

My first order of business will be to deploy my spider-eyes in every public room of the large house. The cunning beasts are the next generation, capable not only of recording images when anyone moves with in the room, but of scuttling into hiding when anyone approaches, thus preserving their mechanisms from swatting damage. 



Click here for the next installment.

Telegram from the beyond?

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A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 20, 1898







Bah! Bodmin Moor is as cold and damp as Cairo was warm and sunny.

View out back of Jamaica Inn, Cornwall

 I sit in a gloomy, paneled room at the airship stop Jamaica Inn while the countrymen gossip over the mystery of Baron von Boddy’s death at home when they supposed him far away.

Aha! One rotund propper-up of the old oak bar says he knows the baron was in residence two weeks before he was found dead on the shore, for a telegram was called in from the manor by a man, and he himself sent it on to a London address. He cannot recall the address, but the text – if he is not embellishing – is clear:

HOME STOP SUCCESS STOP COME AT ONCE TO ADVISE NEXT STEPS STOP BVB STOP STOP STOP

Some person among his associates knew he was returned to England. That person may cast light on the manner of his strange death. Why have they not come forward?

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To the manner...

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Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 16, 1898

Addendum: I have left in progress at Cairo some necessary inquiries about the mysterious widow, as Mrs. M-W will of a certainty demand the retrieval of the various jewels charged to her credit on the hotel’s bill. Results will be telegraphed to me at isolated Boddy Manor, of which here I add an engraving that has appeared in the traveling edition of the London Aerogram.

It does not look an uncomfortable house but indisputably the chimneys will smoke. They always do.

Click here for the next installment.

Hornblower on the case!

Here is the first post of Act II of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act II: Hercule Hornblower Investigates

---

From the Case Journal of Hercule Hornblower: 

August 16, 1898


Following the discovery of the remains of Baron von Boddy in England, I am summoned home from Egypt by my present employer, Mrs. Midas-White, to agitate the little gray cells over the baron’s mysterious death. I have discovered much of his last months but am no closer to finding the treasure he sought for Mrs. Midas-White.

Thus far I have assembled in my timetable:

1.    April 1 – Mrs. Midas-White agrees to fund Baron von Boddy’s expedition in search of a Nubian treasure, the fabled Eye of Africa.

2.    April 21 – Baron von Boddy departs England in his solo expeditionary airship, the Jules Verne.

3.    May 3 – Baron arrives in Cairo and pledges Mrs. M-W’s credit for his palatial suite at Shepherd’s Hotel.

4.    May 15 – Baron accepts delivery “on approval” of several expensive items of ladies’ jewellery. A young widow residing in the hotel is seen wearing them.

5.    May 30 – Baron departs Cairo at dusk to disguise his direction over the desert.  The young widow soon vanishes from Cairo along with the jewellery.

6.    June 30 – British Surface Navy Destroyers at the mouth of the Suez Canal sight the Jules Verne a few miles inland.

7.    July 15 – The Jules Verne is spotted free-floating, low over the English Channel off Cornwall. It is boarded and found deserted.

8.    July 16 - Mrs. Midas-White sends me to Cairo to discover the baron’s whereabouts with the treasure, which she feels she has more than paid for.

9.    August 3 – Baron von Boddy’s remains are dragged ashore in Cornwall by a storm tide.

10.  August 10 – I, Hercule Hornblower, am summoned like a dog to damp and chilly Cornwall. Only by baying ferociously at my employer via international cablegram was I permitted to travel in the luxury to which I am accustomed. Never again will Hercule Hornblower work for an American woman who whistles him to heel like a puffed poodle.

Click here for the next installment.

The Evil Eye

Here is the last post of Act I of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!



Starting tomorrow  I will begin posting ACT II  as extracts from the journals of the famous inspector Hercule Hornblower, he of the prodigious mustachios.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

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The Dover Sole

August 6, 1898

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DID BARON VON BODDY FIND THE EVIL EYE? 

A photograph of a mask that may be the fabled Eye of Africa was found in the trunk that came ashore in Cornwall. Though much damaged by seawater, the now-reconstituted image clearly shows an African mask with a gleaming stone in its forehead. The baron’s housekeeper identified the arm seen above as wearing the baron’s favourite coat, and the settee on which the mask rests as being in the Boddy Manor parlour. Two questions arise: where is the treasure now, and how did the baron and his trunk end up in the English Channel?

One thing is certain: no stick nor stone of Boddy Manor will be left unturned by his heir, in hopes of stumbling upon African jewels of unsurpassed value. “Lady Peacock has been most industrious in seeking it,” Sir Ambrose stated. Professor Indiana Brown claims the papers seen with the mask are his own original drawing and map to the Eye of Africa’s ritual hiding place. Famed investigator, Hercule Hornblower is en route from Cairo to Boddy Manor to investigate both the mysterious death and the whereabouts of the treasure.

Click here for the next installment.

Them bones them bones...

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The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts 

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

---

The Cornwall Cog and Goggles

August 3, 1898

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BODDY’S BODY FOUND – MYSTERY DEEPENS

The mortal remains of Baron von Boddy, thought lost over the English Channel after his airship was abandoned, have washed ashore in Cornwall, only a few miles from isolated Boddy Manor. The remains, much diminished by the action of waves and sea creatures, were lashed to a small, but weighty, White Star Line trunk. Coast Guard say the body may have been in the water only a couple of weeks, as the shad were running in their millions and could have picked the body clean quite quickly.

Those who discovered the body immediately opened the trunk, hoping to be the first to see the fabled Nubian treasure the baron sought in Africa, but were disappointed to find only books and papers, some of them damaged by water seepage. Coast Guard officials say the trunk could not have floated and was probably dragged inshore by the tide. Why Boddy should have elected to abandon ship with a heavy trunk is un-guessable, but local sea-goers, familiar with the baron’s eccentricities in pursuit of his various quests, believe he might have bailed out at low altitude over shallow water and hoped to drag the trunk ashore safely. Whether the tide set against him or the wind was offshore cannot be known unless the time of his entering the sea can be determined by other means.

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Beware the Evil eye!

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Remember that if you think you have solved the mystery email your deduction to:  madamesaffron at gmail.com.
Madame will be drawing from all the correct solutions for some prizes from Tyche Books!

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

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The Goggles Grapevine – August 1, 1898

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EVIL EYE DIAMOND GLOWS RED SAYS PROF

Professor Plum, seen here vigorously protesting his innocence, was one of the last people to see Baron von Boddy alive before his departure for Egypt last May. Scotland Yard today confirmed there is no case against Professor Polonius Plum for the theft and sale of Henry Brown’s trunk.  “Our only possible witness to any sale has gone missing,” said Chief Inspector Snidely Bellows.  “You know, that chap whose airship was just found floating off the South Coast. Without him or the trunk, we’ve got nothing.”

Plum proclaimed his innocence. “Von Boddy wasn’t going after a mask anyway. Masks in Africa are as common as mutton in England. My friend was on the trail of a unique red-veined diamond, sometimes called a bloodshot diamond.” There followed a long, technical explication of the geological processes by which other rare minerals are compressed into the midst of a diamond. When the American academic’s latest threat was quoted to him, Plum said, “Brown’s yearning to discredit me because I demanded his expulsion from Oxford. If he dares lay a violent hand on me, I’ll have him up on charges. Immediately following a sharp lesson in British pugilism.” The professor is departing today for Boddy Manor in Cornwall. While awaiting news of his friend’s fate, he intends to catalogue the baron’s papers for his university.

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Wedding Mischief

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Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

---

The Foghorn Afloat

July 29, 1898

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ROMANTIC AIRSHIP-BOARD WEDDING

Photo: Sir Ambrose Peacock and his beautiful bride On his recent trip to Egypt, Sir Ambrose Peacock lost an uncle but gained a bride. Meeting her on a stopover in Venice, the English knight lost no time in winning the fair lady’s hand. They were married aboard an airship en route back to London. “Lady Peacock knew my uncle in Cairo,” said Sir Ambrose, when the pair disembarked from a small commercial airship at the Jamaica Inn in Cornwall, the closest regular stop to Boddy Manor. “He spoke of me so frequently and warmly that she fell half in love with me before we ever met. No, he didn’t tell her where he was going.”

Sir Ambrose’s uncle, Baron von Boddy, was on a quest for a fabled Nubian treasure when his airship was found adrift over the English Channel. In response to questions directed at his lovely new wife, Sir Ambrose replied for her. “Yes, I’m sure she will enjoy living in my uncle’s isolated manor in Cornwall. No, I’m sure she won’t find Bodmin Moor in the winter at all uncongenial. I hope my uncle gets declared dead soon so I can sell off a few things.” As this reporter turned away, Sir Ambrose grasped my sleeve. “I don’t suppose you could lend me a fiver? My wife and I have excess baggage charges and the airship won’t unload our trunks until we pay up.”  Photo: mine house on moor, with airship overhead, reputed to be the Jules Verne

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A Contretemps in the hallowed halls

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Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

---

The University Times

July 27, 1898

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INDY BROWN’S CASE AGAINST PROFESSOR PLUM

Photo Indiana Brown and Professor Plum nose to nose in Balliol Fellows dining hall A new wrinkle arose in the mysterious case of the missing baron, when American adventurer Henry “Indiana” Brown levelled a public accusation at Professor Polonius Plum for the theft of his research into the fabled Eye of Africa mask. “We both attended the annual meeting of the Association for Archaeology in Academia a couple months back, in New York City. We came on to England on the same trans-oceanic airship,” said Brown. “I showed him the map. I put it into my book trunk right in front of him, and next day the whole trunk vanished.

“As soon as I heard that Baron guy was on the trail of the Eye of Africa when he got lost , I knew the Professor had shanghai’d my research for him. And I’ll prove it, by gum, or my name isn’t Henry Walton Brown, Junior.” In terms not suitable for newspaper publication, Brown expressed his intent to follow the professor to Cornwall, where the latter hopes to curate Baron von Boddy’s papers for the Balliol Library. Said Brown, “And when I catch up to him, I’ll punch him right in the schnoz!”   Hand-drawn facsimile of mask Brown claims to have researched thoroughly

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A Mysterious woman...


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Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

---

London Fog and Cog

July 27, 1898

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LAST LADY LOVE OF BARON VON BODDY?

Do you recognize this woman, seen in intimate proximity to Baron von Boddy at the Cairo Aerodrome shortly before his departure for parts unknown? Hercule Hornblower, investigating the last days of Baron von Boddy in Egypt, has learned he was often in company with a lovely young widow whose name, as given at her hotel and to the English community in Cairo, was proved fictional. This woman was seen weeping at the aerodrome as Boddy departed on his ill-fated treasure hunt into the Nubian desert.  An airship captain who witnessed the tearful parting had no information to share on her identity beyond, “A demmed fine woman, sirrah. Demmed fine.”

Hornblower has appealed without success to the English community in Cairo for the woman’s actual name and whereabouts, and now seeks the same information from the Fog’s loyal readers. If you know this woman by any name, please fill in the Fog and we will ensure the information reaches Monsieur Hornblower. Below: a wider view of the mystery woman at the aerodrome, being consoled or cajoled by the baron while an incidental airship captain resolutely keeps his eyes on the skies.

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Served with Distinction...

Here is the next post of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

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The Floating Fortress, England’s Aeronautical Weekly

July 21, 1898

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CARDSHARP COLONEL EJECTED FROM ST. JAMES CLUB

Colonel Bilious Mustard, long an habitué of the fashionable gaming clubs of London, was escorted from the premises of The Royal Air Arms recently. Rumours fly of cheating at piquet and failure to pay his club dues. Creditors are encamped outside the veteran officer’s lodging, where the landlady said his rent is also in arrears. Colonel Mustard inside his club, The Royal Air Arms, caught in a candid moment during a card game. The Colonel’s downfall is all the more shocking as his service record is filled with battle honours. His earliest post was with the high-altitude scouts, who spend many hours aloft in tethered balloons to report enemy troop movements to the ground forces. These daring aeronauts were constantly at risk from enemy snipers and vagaries of weather, with only a canvas canopy to drop them gently to Earth should their balloon be ruptured.

A high-altitude scout training with his canopy by leaping from scaffolding. Mustard earned three valorous medals aloft before returning to the Airship Marine Corps for many further years of honourable service. He has not been seen in his usual haunts lately. The recent disappearance of his good friend, Baron von Boddy, weighed on his mind, and some club members suggest he has taken the “honourable way out,” ie self-termination with his service pistol, a long tradition for disgraced military men.

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Academics behaving badly!


Here is the next post of Jayne Barnard's "The Evil Eye of Africa."

The first post is here.
A list of all the characters is here.

You can get all the posts by clicking on the mystery tag.

Keep your sightglass full, your firebox trimmed and your water iced.
KJ

"The Evil Eye of Africa"
By Jayne Barnard

A Guess-the-Murderer Mystery in Two Acts

Act I: The Headlines Thicken

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The University Times

July 18, 1898

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AMERICAN LECTURER LAUGHED OUT OF OXFORD

Professor “Indy” Brown addressing the Annual Fellows Dinner at Balliol College in Oxford Henry “Indiana” Brown, a scholar visiting from a middle-American “university,” gave a detailed description of a fabled proto-Nubian mask, The Eye of Africa, at the Explorers Club dinner in Balliol College last week.

He embellished the telling with apparently erudite and convincing detail. But, when asked to produce evidence of his conclusions, Brown claimed his research was all lost on his voyage across the Atlantic. The White Star Line denies any claim was made by Mr. Brown for lost luggage, casting his research into grave doubt and resulting in prompt termination of his visiting-professor status at Oxford. An American, Professor Brown did not depart with the dignity of a British don. After confronting an esteemed Oxfordian in the dining hall with accusations of theft, Brown was escorted from the Sacred Halls of Academe. At the university gate he yelled back, “I’m right and I’ll rub all your noses in it.” As this is the widely preferred form of teaching puppies not to do their business indoors, the egregious insult has further cast doubt on the recent policy of treating America’s fledgling academic institutes as in any way on a par with those venerable universities of England. Look for sparks to fly at next month’s meeting of the Oxford Universities Guild.

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