7.7: The 4Cs’ minutes

The next day, the final page of the most recent 4Cs minutes read:

… 
NOTED: 
    1. That the suspect was almost certainly the guilty party and also probably had it coming to him. 
    2. That he was, in any case, known to be a bounder and a cad. 
    3. That he could be ‘taken out’ and the stolen goods retrieved in a single bold strike, on a moonless night. 
RESOLVED: that the Potting Shed strimmer be retrieved under cover of darkness and the culprit be thrashed, with the Potting Shed’s whippier cane, by Masongill and pTravis in turn. 20 strokes in groups of 5, alternating thrasher. No quarter to be given even in the case of blubbing but a double shot of grog to be administered to all parties afterwards. 

Any other business 

RECEIVED: the most recent Westmorland Gazette lead story and supplementary expert testimony from the Potting Shed ‘young person’. 

NOTED: 
    1. That the newspaper reported that Nick Drake was alive and singing mournful songs in the scullery of the Swan Hotel 
    2. That Nick Drake was reported to be the Minkey, the Swan Hotel’s glass washer of more than a decade.  That the Minkey, while widely disliked, had done some service in the past to help inquiries by Potting Shed committees and functionaries. 
    3. That Nick Drake died on 25 November 1974, at the age of 26, through of an overdose of antidepressants. 
    4. That this fact was also acknowledged in the newspaper article. 
    5. That it was a feature of contemporary popular culture, or at least a reasonable view concerning such culture taken by one who, by being a typical young person ought to know, that death was not a final impediment to live musical, or other, performances. 
    6. That performance after death was a common feature of comparatively realistic science fiction and thus might be some sort of empirical possibility. 
    7. That the Westmorland Gazette was a reputable local newspaper which had fully embraced modern fact-checking technology. 
CONCLUDED: that it remained very much an open question as to whether the long deceased human Nick Drake was also alive and now a minkey. 

RESOLVED: to maintain a watching brief on developments at the Swan Hotel with an eye to the Minkey’s wellbeing.