Chapter 18

S-a filthy murdering liar! Thats what he turned out to be. Sarah grabbed Betsy's hand and stomped away into the forest (this time they were careful to avoid the deadly night grip). Poppy gave the forest man a sympathetic look and sauntered after the girls. Sarah ranted on for a while about talking to strange men. Betsy was already embarrassed enough without Sarah's lecturing and soon enough sniffling sounds were emanating from her dainty nose and wetness was falling out of her radiant eyes. "Oh poo," Sarah muttered. She was about to comfort Betsy when she saw something in the dirt, a crushed bouquet begonias! “I think our murderer might be close!” she exclaimed with wide eyes, “Or at least the Begonia murderer is somewhere close.”
B-"Oh the poor dears!" said Betsy, who really rather liked flowers and was feeling especially emotional at the moment. "I don't think we can save them, but maybe we can catch the evil-doer!" But Sarah had been thinking, and the only other person they'd seen in the forest recently was the strange, yet very attractive, forest-man and what was stopping him from being the Begonia murderer! And while she was thinking about it, how did they know that he wasn't the other murderer? Because they'd already figured out that Simon was that murderer... But now she was beginning to doubt her hasty decision. "Bets, do you think that there is anyway possible for Simon not be the real murderer? I mean, what if he was just framed for it?" asked Sarah. "Well, we didn't actually see him start the fire, and he was behind both of us..." said Betsy. "We need to find Simon and the strange, but really quite attractive, forest-man! Stat!" They hurried off the way that they had come.
S-"Strange Forest-Man!" Betsy called out, "We need to speak with you for a moment if you wouldn't mind. Its awfully important." The girls went on with Betsy saying things like this for quite some time. When ever a squirrel jumped from tree to tree or a lark burst into flight she would whip around searching hopefully. "I don't think he is here anymore," Sarah finally remarked. "I guess you're right" Betsy replied in a mournful resigned tone. "We should hurry over to Simon's house to get to the bottom of this whole mess," declared Sarah. "I don't know, maybe we should keep on looking for Forest-man," said Betsy. "Well if you feel like thats the best plan of action how about you stay here and Poppy and I go to Simon's house," said Sarah.
B-"Oh goodness me no!" exclaimed Betsy. "That would be far to frightening. What if I was abducted by the Strange Forest-Man, or some other sinister thing. You wouldn't know that I was missing for a very long time and it would be quite a mess. I suppose I'll come along with you. I want to see Simon anyways." "Why do you want to see him?" inquired Sarah. "I'm not entirely sure, but I have the feeling that he knows something that will really get us to the bottom of this case!" said Betsy. "Well why didn't you say so before, Silly!" said Sarah. "Let's go!" And off they trotted in the direction of Simon's house which wasn't very far at all, only a couple of miles and the walk was pleasant. They soon reached the edge of the park and got an entirely different view of it than the first time they had approached the House on the Hill because they were coming from the back. It seemed a lot more natural with a lovely little stream and pond. But what was this? Something strange was on the ground a little ways off...
S-a dead beaver. "Oh my heavens!" cried Betsy. Who would ever do such a thing to a poor innocent creature? Sarah went over to see if it was really dead. The animal was still warm so that meant that it was either very recently dead or only barely alive. "Quick, lets take it up to Simon's house" said Sarah, "he might have the instruments we need to revive the little dear." The girls made haste towards the house, Sarah cradling the beaver in her arms and Poppy following along at their heels. When the reached the front door of the house they banged on the front door and after a moment the butler answered. "Is Simon here?" inquired Betsy in a panicky voice (which was panicky for more than one reason. One being that the beaver was dead or very soon to be dead, another that Simon, they believed, had tried to kill them, and also the Butler bore a very close resemblance to what she had always imagined Jack the Ripper would look like.) "I'm sorry" he replied in an stone-y voice, "but Simon is out for the afternoon. He had some business in town." "Well that’s not very helpful, is it?" spat Betsy, "we need to come in this instant because we have a dead or very soon to be dead beaver on our hands." "Oh, I see, well that changes things doesn't it?" remarked the Butler. He coolly turned around and shut the door in the girls faces. “That wasn’t very Christian of him,” said Sarah.



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