Play@YSDC

I run over to where Long John staggers and oh so nearly falls, making a move to catch him as I do. "Easy there old chap! Let's get you and your parrott sorted before you fall."

The door of the hanson cab opens.

Long John Sees,the dead Field Marshal beckon him towards the open door with a skeletal hand. He has a sudden conviction that to step into the cab is to die. Maybe even to have been dead since Ypres.

Luke Sees,Seated within the cab is a skeleton, dressed in the heavy winter furs of a Russian Cossack cavalryman. Its grinning face and outstretched bone hand are turned to Long John. [i]2 point stability test, difficulty 5, for Luke.[/i]

"Oh, well held, sir," says Long John to Luke--an expression from his pre-war village cricket days. He steps back from the cab, clutching onto Luke.

"No! No!" squawks Marmaduke.

The Cossack's hand reaching out to John instills a fear deep in my guts. My mind wanders back to my previous encounters with the traitorous swine during the North Russian Intervention. "Noo no no no!" I call out, my voice hoarse with disbelief and fear.

Luke's Stability Test - with 2 point spend - difficulty 5 (1d6+2=7) But my iron resolve manages to overcome the paralysis I initially feel as I drag my companion away. The bird protests but I persist muttering. "Damned Russian spies even infiltrate our grand capital city ... What am I saying? it's a bloody Skeleton ... such things cannot exist" 'I have to get John away from it's clutches' I think to myself - whatever 'it' may be.

Luke pulls John hurriedly away from the Hansom cab.

As the two glance fearfully over their shoulders, they see a conservatively dressed businessman, clutching his Times and umbrella and checking a fob-watch, blindly rush up the station stairs and climb into the cab. The door snaps shut like a mousetrap and the cab pulls away from the kerb. After a few seconds the door shakes a bit and a muffled thumping is heard above the traffic, as if someone was pounding on the door, before the cab is lost in the London traffic.

Long John raises a finger to shout, "Don't get inside the cab!" but it's too late, the cab is gone, and, no doubt, so is the businessman.

"What now?" Long John asks Luke.

"How ... how in the name of all that's sane would I know John?" I all but shout at the poor man by my side. I pause as I hang my head and breathe deeply. "I'm sorry John, all I can suggest is that we continue to follow the infernal map till we get to our destination. The quicker we get this over with the more I will like it - that's for sure. I'm just sorry to have dragged you and Marmaduke on this terrible terrible journey." I grip the beggar by the shoulder and squeeze it in a friendly manner.