After the Vicar had advanced to confront the leaders of the Coven around the Oak and the Stone, Stan and Jimma have taken up positions to close off their limb of the ravine. Further along the sandy scarp, Lieutenant Greg and Jarge are in the process of a rather more careful descent than those of Jimma and Raggs. Now with the whole place lit up by the spreading wildfire, those with any remaining presence of mind can see to make their final moves.
The Elshum Police, being familiar with first-aid, crowd-control and disasters generally, begin the job of rescuing, reorganising and reviving the scattered and fallen members of the militia and the brandy-smuggling muleteers. Only Cadet Farthingale thinks to investigate the heap of bodies beneath the Oak, where he finds a doubly winged, but just conscious Vicar draped over three victims of mutual strangulation, apparently deceased. He is joined by Lieutenant Alexander and together they drag the Vicar out from under the burning tree. There is nothing they can do for the other three, except listen to the tree cracking and crackling, then watch as it collapses across the bodies in a shower of sparks.
Jimma and Stan, seeing Raggs bounding towards them like a dread incarnation of Old Shuck himself, almost turn and run, but realise at the last moment that it is only Raggs. The dog is leaping and rolling, streaming banners of blue flame and shedding tufts of burning ear, flank and tail-hair. Jimma, for whom the apparent passing of time has slowed down, places his carriage lamp and pistol neatly on the ground, unclasps the coach-cloak from about his throat and flings it over the dog. Together, they roll in the sand and blowing flakes of ash from the expiring bracken. Raggs yelps plaintively and Jimma, now joined by Stan beats out the flames.
The two main parties retreat from the scene of accidental combat and incidental combustion: The Elshum Police and surviving Militia to the north-east, taking with them, in an overloaded black-maria, their casualties and such wrongdoers as they have managed to apprehend; The Mardlingham villagers make their retreat to the south-west, with the governess cart containing a scorched dog and wounded Vicar. The lesser parties, consisting of such smugglers and Coveners as managed to escape, disperse in a wide arc generally heading east, seeking only to put as great a distance as possible between themselves and the night's events at the Oak Tump.
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NOTE: The homecoming events of both heroes and villains, along with a few choice moments of village gossip will be posted occasionally over the holiday period as time allows. Hopefully that will tie up the loose ends ready for a new look to The Mardlingham Saga, when it reappears sometime in the new year.
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Seasonal Greetings to you and your's from myself and all the characters
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