"Think about all those things and then promise me solemnly that you will never breathe another word about bird water."
Kokintz looked at the train still circling the floor and at his notes scattered below the chair in which Mountjoy was seated. He looked at them for a long time and then he said, "Are you sure?"
"Yes," said Mountjoy. "I'm sure." There was a fire burning in Kokintz's study and he slowly gathered up his papers, looked at them in regret, screwed them into a ball and threw them in it. Then he went to the cages where the chaffinches were housed and said sorrowfully, "We're too early, you and I. Too early. They are not ready for us."
A sudden and terrifying thought occurred to Mountjoy.
"My God," he cried. "The Saudi Arabians. We gave them the Q-bomb to make them safe from the Soviet. But now that Grand Fenwick has all the oil needed to make the Saudi and other Persian Gulf fields not worth the risk of war, they don't need it and shouldn't have it."
"They haven't got it," said Kokintz. "It's over there." He pointed to a cupboard in the corner of his laboratory. "I gave them something that looked like the bomb but it doesn't have any insides. The instructions I wrote for unpacking it were so full of cautions about being utterly destroyed if they made the slightest miscalculation or slip that I'm sure that barrelful of wool and a useless bomb will remain in a temperature-controlled, vibration-proof room over there for ages and ages."
"Brilliant," said Mountjoy. "Deceptive but brilliant. The two go often hand in hand. The notion of a bomb rather than the bomb itself is all that is needed to make the Persian Gulf safe from outside aggression for many generations. I congratulate you."
He offered his hand and Kokintz took it. He was looking sadly at the little train bravely pulling its twenty loaded carriages around the endless track. It was beginning to slow down.
"Just a little while more?" he asked wistfully.
"All right," said Mountjoy. "But not a word to a soul." Kokintz gave the Count a whistle on which he blew a chirp. The chaffinches joined vigorously in. The little train speeded up and flew about the track. They both got down on their hands and knees to watch it, happy as boys.
After a little while, the Count remembered his promise and went to find his great-granddaughter to take her to tea. She handed Mountjoy the kite.
"I'm sick of it," she said. "It just does the same thing over and over again. It just goes up in the air and comes down again. The old ones with the string were better. More exciting. But I'd like a football and a doll."
"You shall have them both," said Mountjoy, taking the kite from her.
The tea was excellent and Katherine had four pieces of toast and gooseberry jam, which was more than was really good for her, but then, after all, it was a very special occasion, marking the celebration of the return of sanity and moderation to mankind.
BOOKS IN THE GRAND FENWICK SERIES
Kindle and New Paperback Editions Available on Amazon
Books 2 through 5 are best read after The Mouse That Roared, but all of the books can be read and enjoyed at any point in the series.
The Mouse That Roared (Book 1)
The Mouse On The Moon (Book 2)
The Mouse On Wall Street (Book 3)
The Mouse That Saved The West (Book 4)
Beware Of The Mouse (A Grand Fenwick Series Prequel) (Book 5)
McGILLICUDDY McGOTHAM
Special 60th Anniversary Edition
Available for the first time on Kindle
From the bestselling author of The Mouse That Roared comes a witty tale of a leprechaun in New York. Timothy Patrick Fergus Kevin Sean Desmond McGillicuddy (for short) is a leprechaun diplomat on a mission to convince the President of the United States to halt the construction of a new U.S.-owned airport on a tract of Little People land in Ireland. With the belief "mischief is me nature" and the help of a 10-year-old American boy, he proves wee folk a big force to be reckoned with.
This special 60th Anniversary edition features a new Introduction by journalist and author Quentin Fottrell, memorabilia with Rosalind Russell, original illustrations by Aldren A. Watson, and previously unpublished photos of the author. A timeless classic, McGillicuddy McGotham will charm adults and young readers alike.
"Leonard Wibberley is that rare writer who can combine satire and fantasy and humor and storytelling, and who can write with equal appeal for young readers and adults. All his special abilities and his good qualities combine in this fanciful tale"—Los Angeles Times
FLINT’S ISLAND
The Lost Sequel to Treasure Island
Available for the first time on Kindle
An unofficial sequel to the most popular pirate tale ever told—Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
In this story inspired by the opening line of the famous novel, in which Jim Hawkins tells of a "treasure not yet lifted" still hidden on an unknown island, find out what became of literature's most beloved "bad guy"—Long John Silver—and whatever happened to the remaining treasure.
"Silver's wiliness and Flint's mystique are perfectly captured and the American seamen—prudent Captain Samuels, the unimaginative Yankee carpenter Smigley, the impulsive mutineer Green and the loyal, but mean-spirited Peasbody are worthy of their Hispaniola counterparts."
—Kirkus Reviews
THE FATHER BREDDER MYSTERIES by Leonard Holton
Named "A Red Badge Novel of Suspense" alongside Agatha Christie, Michael Innes, and Hugh Pentecost, The Father Bredder Mysteries, written by Leonard Wibberley under the pen name Leonard Holton, inspired a television show starring George Kennedy.
Father Joseph Bredder was a decorated sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. before becoming a Franciscan priest and amateur detective who both solves crimes and saves souls.
When Father Bredder gets involved with murder—Heaven only knows what will happen next…
AVAILABLE NOW ON KINDLE
The Saint Maker
Secret of the Doubting Saint
Deliver Us From Wolves
Flowers by Request
A Pact with Satan
COMING SOON TO KINDLE
Out of the Depths
A Touch of Jonah
A Problem in Angels
The Mirror of Hell
The Devil to Play
A Corner of Paradise
THE CENTURION
A Roman Soldier’s Testament of the Passion of Christ
Available for the first time on Kindle
Each of the first three Gospels calls attention to the Roman centurion—Longinus—who officiated at the Crucifixion, and it is through the life-changing story of this duty-bound soldier that Leonard Wibberley achieves, with a shrewd appreciation of human motives, a thoroughly fresh interpretation of the Gospel story of Christ’s ministry and Passion.
★★★★★
"It is a very moving, delicately constructed novel, with a wonderful feeling for the dawn of Christianity in the Roman world."
—Amazon Reviewer
THE BALLAD OF THE PILGRIM CAT
A Thanksgiving Poem for Children
In a moment of weakness, Leonard Wibberley once brought home a kitten for his daughter only to realize he was allergic to cats. He wrote this whimsically humorous Thanksgiving poem about a young pilgrim girl and the raffish cat she adopts after it stows away on the Mayflower with an inhaler by his typewriter and a curse on his lips.
Download the FREE 22-minute audiobook read by Leonard Wibberley here:
The Ballad of the Pilgrim Cat (FREE MP3 File)
"It is a family tradition to read this every Thanksgiving Day at our house. A treasure!"
—Google Books Reviewer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leonard Wibberley was born in Dublin Ireland, in 1915. He was the sixth child of a schoolteacher and an agricultural scientist. At nine, his family moved to London. Seven years later, when his father died, he went to work as a stockroom apprentice for a publisher and later became a reporter. After various jobs, he came to the Un
ited States in 1943 and engaged in newspaper work for ten years. While working for the Los Angeles Times, he published his first work, The King's Beard. Three years later, he published his most successful book, The Mouse That Roared, which was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post, and later made into a classic film starring Peter Sellers.
Wibberley lived in Hermosa Beach from 1949 until his death in 1983. With his wife Hazel, who clean typed his work, they raised six children and wrote over 100 books and hundreds of newspaper articles. Wibberley also wrote mysteries, juvenile fiction, historical novels, and non-fiction under the pen names Leonard Holton, Patrick O’Connor, and Christopher Webb.
Click here to go to Leonard Wibberley's website
Sign up for our monthly newsletter to receive columns written by Leonard Wibberley that were syndicated by newspapers nationally over his lifetime. You will also receive news of the upcoming releases of the ebook editions of his many novels, including his series of Father Bredder murder mysteries.
Leonard's Musings & eBook News
Follow Leonard's News on Facebook
The Mouse That Saved The West: ebook Edition (The Grand Fenwick Series 4) Page 15