The detective sat at his desk. They had eaten, and they had gone through the entire case. Now they nodded.
“It has all become clear,” said Gordon.
“Caught in the act,” said Buffy.
Then they went back and forth over how to proceed.
“A million?” said Buffy. “Can we do that?”
Then they went back and forth a little more.
Gordon took out his notebook and began to write:
“So we don’t forget,” he said.
Finally they got up and put on their elegant uniform hats. They took the stamp with them, went out, and marched over to the magpie’s bush. Two stylish police officers in hats glittering with gold!
All the animals in the forest would be gathered there—the cuckoo had seen to that.
The Book of Law was there—two strong beavers had arranged it. And the magpie was there. She looked rather anxious. A little way away the crow sat on a branch, chuckling hoarsely.
Everyone was there except for the judge, the old owl, who was out of town.
Hmm, travel! thought Gordon longingly.
But now he would chair the meeting instead. Gordon got straight to the point. “The magpie has been teasing others. We caught her in the act when she teased Buffy…”
“Yeah, yeah,” said the magpie. “Can’t you take a joke?”
“It’s no joke,” said Buffy, and her ears reddened.
The magpie said, “Everyone should know that the little police officer sucked her…”
“Quiet!” said Gordon. “Do you admit that you have teased many animals?”
“Well…should a scaredy-mouse like that be in the police?”
Buffy hopped up and down, she was so angry.
“Buffy is very courageous and does things that no one else can do,” said Gordon. “Sometimes she is afraid, like everyone else, but she still does what she must do. That is the bravest thing of all. And the magpie is forbidden to make fun of anyone. It is a serious matter!”
After that, many other animals wanted to complain about the magpie. The crow complained the hardest.
Gordon began to leaf through the Book of Law.
§ 762 Forbidden: to tease a pig and say that he has a squiggly tail.
“The magpie is guilty of teasing many animals. The fine is a million nuts.”
“A million nuts!” exclaimed the magpie. “There aren’t that many nuts in the whole forest. It’s far too many!”
“No,” said Gordon. “That is how much damage teasing does! It is a terrible thing to be teased. Now everyone knows it!”
And so he stamped the paper. Kla-dunk!
The crow laughed. All the animals nodded and said that it was fair. The squirrels nodded most of all, thinking how wonderful it would be to see so many nuts together.
“That will be a hundred wheelbarrows full of nuts,” said one squirrel, trying to calculate the whole thing. “Or will it be a thousand?”
The magpie began to cry.
“But I’ll never do it again… And you don’t understand what it’s been like for my sweet babies…”
Gordon raised a hand to stop her.
“There are others who have been teasing in this forest,” he said. “Crow!”
The crow stopped laughing. He defended himself: “The magpie teases me all the time. I might have teased her back a little bit.”
No, thought Gordon. It’s not right to give tit for tat.
“And you teased others as well!” called some of the animals.
“You teased me the most,” said the magpie. “Then you threw rabbit droppings at my sweet babies.”
“No way, I’ve never done that.”
“Hmm,” said Gordon. “Throwing rabbit droppings at babies is forbidden. But a thing like that is hard to prove…”
But then Detective Buffy stepped forward.
“It should be possible,” she said. “I’ll investigate it!”
She crept under the bush to the magpie babies, who were sitting there blinking heavily. She picked up rabbit droppings from the ground and went back to Gordon.
And then Buffy sniffed the droppings.
“They smell of wool, carrots, and grass. That proves that they’re rabbit droppings…”
“Hmmph,” said the rabbit, feeling very embarrassed. “I never leave droppings in there. Someone must have thrown them!”
“One moment! There’s another smell, too,” said Buffy. “They smell of—sniff, sniff—mud, rain, and rotting leaves. It was the crow who threw them.”
A hum went through the crowd. What a lot Detective Buffy could do!
“Yeah, I probably did do it then,” the crow admitted grumpily.
Gordon cleared his throat and raised the stamp, ready for the judgment. He placed it on the paper. A little to the right. No, a little to the left. There.
“The crow will pay one million nuts as a fine!”
Kla-dunk.
Everyone nodded. The squirrels nodded most of all, anxious to see such a fantastic display of nuts. The crow began to sniff.
Gordon said: “The magpie will pay a million nuts to the crow. And the crow will pay a million nuts to the magpie.”
It was quiet for a moment while everyone tried to figure out how this would work. The squirrels could see in their minds’ eyes how the nuts went back and forth. What a sight!
“Then no one needs to pay any nuts,” said the baby toad in the blue hat.
“That’s right,” said Gordon. “You worked that out cleverly. If you receive a million and pay a million—there will be no nuts at all.”
There was a disappointed sigh among the squirrels. No nuts at all?
“But the most important thing we are going to stamp today is that all children are allowed to go to kindergarten. Everyone should always be able to play with everybody.”
So both detectives stamped together as hard as they could.
KLA-DUNK!
They gave a salute and went on their way, while all the animals cheered.
