The Middle Child of the Secret of the Lost Gavel

Donnie bounded off of them, deftly avoided the extended forearm in his way, rolled and jumped up with arms outstretched, catching The Macintosh in a grab that wouldn’t have netted him any friends had he tried it out on the street.

They landed on the canvas, twisted around each other.

The Cobbler leapt across them, pursued by Le Goon. She ducked, weaved and slapped the French-Canadian out of the ring.

Meanwhile, Freddy and The Great Rambozo circled one-another, arms held forwards, like a couple of big cats itching for a fight. They leapt forward simultaneously and grappled.

Donnie was rolled over and his arm twisted around like he was a toy.

‘Get off,’ he yelled and smacked his head backwards into his opponent’s face.

Donnie and The Mackintosh disengaged and stood facing one-another, just as Le Goon returned to the ring and went after The Cobbler with a vengeance.

Donnie whirled and hit the man’s chest with open palm. The Macintosh staggered backwards.

Again and again, Donnie struck the man, the movement accompanied by a thud of his front boot hitting the canvas, just as he’d been taught, increasing the sound substantially.

Out of the corner of his eye, Donnie saw someone approaching very fast. He dropped to the canvas, just managing to avoid being hit by The Cobbler, who was thrown toward him.

She rolled and stood, bouncing off the ropes and engaged her foe once again.

Donnie stood once more, breathing a sigh of relief and by chance was facing a large plastic drum which was being moved toward the ring along a complicated pulley system high above the crowd.

‘What’s that,’ he asked no-one in particular.

This distraction gave The Macintosh his way in. Donnie spun from the blow and was tipped headfirst out of the ring.

The crowd, while all this was going on, were going bananas. This was more than worth the price of admission.

The drum reached the ring.

‘Now,’ Freddy yelled, and wriggled free of Rambozo’s grip. He jumped across the ropes and landed on the judges.

The drum tipped fully and covered the entire ring and everyone in it with white fluid.

The roar of the crowd shifted up a few decibels with this new addition to the show.

Rambozo and The Cobbler were first up and wiped their eyes clean of the gunk, which was somewhat thicker than the whitewash they’d assumed it was.