Thud!

Bertie woke up and sat up straight in his bed. Bertie looked over at Dawsey, but he was still asleep and snoring. Bertie put his slippers on and got up. He walked over to Dawsey and shook him.

“Wake up! I just heard something!”

“Err” Dawsey rolled over.

Thud!

“There it is again,” exclaimed Bertie. Dawsey did not move. “Wake up! We have to figure out what that is!” But Dawsey just continued snoring. Bertie looked at Dawsey.

Thud!

“I am going downstairs to investigate,” said Bertie.

Bertie opened the bedroom door and walked into the hall. He saw that none of the bedroom doors were open. He started to open Arthur’s door when he heard muffled voices coming from downstairs. He walked over to the stairs. Bertie could hear someone talking.

“Would you be careful. You are going to wake everybody.”

“I am not going to wake anyone Thomas. You worry too much”

“How do you know that? You are making a racket William.”

“Nobody is going to wake up.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I put some of your Anchor Brand in that last drink everyone had.”

Thomas chuckled. “That will do the trick.”

“Yes, that should keep them knocked out until the morning.”

Bertie heard some shuffling noises, then two doors closing. He wanted to go downstairs and tell Father what he had heard, but he was afraid to go.

So he went to Arthur’s door and knocked. Nothing happened. He knocked again. Still nothing. He opened the door and walked in. He went up to Arthur’s bed and shook him. Arthur said nothing.

“Wake up Arthur,” said Bertie, but Arthur still did not move. “Come on Arthur, wake up”. Arthur just snorted and rolled over. Bertie was starting to panic. He was worried about what cousin William might do to him in his sleep. “Arthur, I have something important to tell you. You have to wake up!”

Arthur growled. “Leave me alone”

“But it is important. You have to listen to me”

“Get out of my room now and let me sleep,” hissed Arthur.

Bertie had heard this tone of voice in Arthur before. The next thing Arthur would do is to hit Bertie. So the only thing for Bertie to do was to leave. But on his way out, he saw the fireplace. He grabbed the poker and went back to his room. Dawsey was still lightly snoring.

“Wake up Dawsey. Wake up,” said Bertie.

Dawsey grunted.

“Come on wake up. I have to tell you something.” Bertie shook Dawsey.

“What is it? I am trying to sleep. Can we talk about this in the morning,” said Dawsey.

“No! We have to talk about this now. Your father and cousin William are up to no good.”

Dawsey sat up. “What? Wait, what are you talking about? Up to no good?” Dawsey wiped his eyes. “And what do you have that poker for?”

“I have it for protection. Your cousin William said that he drugged us so that we would go to sleep.”

“He said what? When did you hear him say that?”

“I woke up to a ‘thud’ noise. I could not get you to wake up, so I went out of the room to investigate. I went to the top of the stairs where I heard your father and cousin William. Cousin William said that he drugged us with Anchor Brand in the last drink.”

“Why would he do that? Plus, why are you awake? If you were drugged, you should be asleep too.”

“I only drank a sip of the last drink. So I did not get a lot of the laudanum. I was not really drugged. I do not know why cousin William drugged us. It must be some nefarious plot,” said Bertie.

“I think you have been reading too many detective stories. My father and cousin William would never do anything nefarious.”

“Then why would they drug us?”

“I do not know. Maybe they just wanted us to have a good night sleep.”

“Then how do you explain all of the funny noises?”

“Cousin William is clumsy. When I have been here in the past, I would hear all sorts of noises when I went to bed. If I were you, I would not worry about it. Just go back to sleep. That is what I intend to do right now.” With that, Dawsey laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes.

“How can you go to sleep? Something bad could happen to us tonight!”

“Nothing bad will happen to us. Go back to sleep.”

“But…”

“Sleep, sleep, sleep, go back to sleep.”

Bertie looked at Dawsey and shook his head. He knew that there was something wrong, but there was nothing that he could do to stop it. Whatever it was, he would have to wait until the morning to try to fix it. Unfortunately, Bertie was still scared. So he took his poker and sat in the chair farthest away from the door. He was determined to stay awake all night. He heard the clock downstairs strike 12 midnight. After a while his head started to nod.

He heard nothing more…