Sentence The Thirtyfifth
Detective Sergeant Gordon Brevity stared at the note, brought to him by WPC Isa Urquhart, whose hearing – like that of a bat, was so attuned to everything in the vicinity that she had sensed, perhaps rather than heard, the flutter of a slip of paper as it passed through the letterbox on the street door and settled onto the mat, as softly as a butterfly; Gordon read the short note aloud for the small group assembled in his office: “'Silk or Steel, whichever you employ, 'twill acerbate the debouching stegosaurus if you stroke 'is thagomizer, for 'e does not like 'em up 'im in the least” and it's signed 'Lance Corporal Jones', well known for his apophthegms on Dad's Army but not, I suspect ,the author of this little billet-doux, what do you think, girls?” and he looked in turn at Goldy, his wife (Station Sergeant Goldy Brevity), her cousins Trixie Davidova and Leigh Waters, and, of course, Isa, who stood at the door; it was Leigh who spoke first, to say that thagomizer referred to the pattern of spikes on a Stegosaurus's tail; and Trixie chipped in with the comment that debouching meant bursting out, or exfiltrating, so must refer to something enclosed or locked up – as Aunt Daphne was; to which Isa suggested that it might mean the secret discovered in the oubliette by Aunt Daphne being brought forth into the light of day and that she thought it scanned, though maybe not a poem, more a line of doggerel, but possibly significant; and Goldy, in turn wondered whether, if you consider the Stegosaurus to be the person whose secret is the thagomizer, does it then imply that he, or she, will be rather upset as a result of exposure; and at last Gordon said “and whether any action directed towards him, for I believe, Goldy, the gender is given as male, is gentle or harsh, that might be to say, positive or negative, either way he will be very displeased at his linen being washed in public and likely to take evasive or punitive action – and I would tend towards the interpretation of it being punitive,” and the ladies all said “Gosh!”
Detective Sergeant Gordon Brevity stared at the note, brought to him by WPC Isa Urquhart, whose hearing – like that of a bat, was so attuned to everything in the vicinity that she had sensed, perhaps rather than heard, the flutter of a slip of paper as it passed through the letterbox on the street door and settled onto the mat, as softly as a butterfly; Gordon read the short note aloud for the small group assembled in his office: “'Silk or Steel, whichever you employ, 'twill acerbate the debouching stegosaurus if you stroke 'is thagomizer, for 'e does not like 'em up 'im in the least” and it's signed 'Lance Corporal Jones', well known for his apophthegms on Dad's Army but not, I suspect ,the author of this little billet-doux, what do you think, girls?” and he looked in turn at Goldy, his wife (Station Sergeant Goldy Brevity), her cousins Trixie Davidova and Leigh Waters, and, of course, Isa, who stood at the door; it was Leigh who spoke first, to say that thagomizer referred to the pattern of spikes on a Stegosaurus's tail; and Trixie chipped in with the comment that debouching meant bursting out, or exfiltrating, so must refer to something enclosed or locked up – as Aunt Daphne was; to which Isa suggested that it might mean the secret discovered in the oubliette by Aunt Daphne being brought forth into the light of day and that she thought it scanned, though maybe not a poem, more a line of doggerel, but possibly significant; and Goldy, in turn wondered whether, if you consider the Stegosaurus to be the person whose secret is the thagomizer, does it then imply that he, or she, will be rather upset as a result of exposure; and at last Gordon said “and whether any action directed towards him, for I believe, Goldy, the gender is given as male, is gentle or harsh, that might be to say, positive or negative, either way he will be very displeased at his linen being washed in public and likely to take evasive or punitive action – and I would tend towards the interpretation of it being punitive,” and the ladies all said “Gosh!”
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