Bruno Jenkins Disappears
The Grand High Witch was starting to talk again. "I am now going to prrrove to you", she
said, "that this rrrecipe is vurrrking to perrrfection. You understand, of course, that you can set the
alarm-clock to go off at any time you like. It does not have to be nine o'clock. So yesterday I am
personally prrree-paring a small qvantity of the magic formula in order to give to you a public
demonstration¹. But I am making vun small change in the rrrecipe. Before I am rrroasting the alarm-
clock, I am setting it to go off, not at nine o'clock the next morning, but at half-past thrrree the next
afternoon. Vhich means half-past thrrree this afternoon. And that", she said, glancing at her wrist-
watch, "is in prrree-cisely seven minutes' time!"
The audience of witches was listening intently, sensing that something dramatic was about to
happen.
"So vot am I doing yesterday vith this magic liqvid?" asked The Grand High Witch. "I vill tell
you vot I am doing. I am putting vun drrroplet of it into a very sqvishy chocolate bar and I am giving
this bar to a rrree-pulsive smelly little boy who is hanging rrround the lobby of the hotel."
The Grand High Witch paused. The audience remained silent, waiting for her to go on.
"I votched this rrree-pulsive little brrrute gobbling up the sqvishy bar of chocolate and vhen
he had finished, I said to him, 'Vos that good?' He said it vos great. So I said to him, Would you like
some more?' And he said, 'Yes.' So I said, 'I vill give you six more chocolate bars like that if you vill
meet me in the Ballroom² of this hotel at tventy-five-past thrrree tomorrow afternoon.' 'Six bars!' cried
this greedy little svine. 'I'll be there! You bet I'll be there!'
"So the stage is set!" shouted The Grand High Witch. "The prrroof of the pudding is about to
begin! Do not forget that before I am rrroasting the alarm-clock yesterday, I am setting it for half-past
thrrree today. It is now" ---she glanced again at her watch --- "it is now exactly tventy-five minutes
past thrrree and the nasty little stinker who vill be turning into a mouse in five minutes' time should at
this very moment be standing³ outside the doors!"
And by gum, she was absolutely right. The boy, whoever he might be, was already

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