Biff Bundie: The Circle of Seven

THE STORY THUS FAR: In the last episode, Biff Bundle, University Police undercoverman, found himself hot on the trall of a small, nervous foreigner, whom Biff had reason to believe was involved in the hideous murder which had just been discovered in a chemistry lab in Mallinckrodt. At headquarters, Bundle received a phone call from the stranger, who told Biff to meet him at once, muttering cryptically, "ze bronts rhinotseross." When Bundle's immediate notion that the Bronze Rhinoceros was a coffee house proved incorrect, he became convinced that the phrase was an undergraduate nickname for some favored professor. Just at that moment, Biff noticed an immense, dark-skinned man lumbering down the University Hall steps.

Bundie jumped behind a corner of the building and cautiously watched the fellow walk ponderously past the University Mail Office. Biff stayed carefully hidden until the fat man had disappeared behind Thayer North. Then he began tailing the stranger, dashing from one hiding place to the next, always just staying out of sight.

Unfortunately for Biff, his peek-a-boo antics did not go unnoticed. Karandas Nathasingh, instructor in Indian Studies, on his way to the Biology Labs to meet a fellow countryman for lunch, caught a distinct glimpse of the vacant-faced young man lurking behind the statue of John Harvard. Karandas weighed over 350 pounds, and unlike most fat men was of an exceedingly peevish disposition. "Someone," Karandas's mind registered, "is staring at me. This is intolerable. Worse than that, impolite. Has he never seen a fat Indian before?" With that, the Indian increased his speed and flew past Hunt Hall and into Cambridge Street traffic, heading for Memorial Hall.

Bundie's eyes narrowed as he entered the gloom of Mem Hall. In front of him he saw a round form hurtling out of the other side of the building. "There he is!" Bundie said half-aloud. But his thoughts ground to a halt as his body shot out of the building.

Karandas, turning on Kirkland Street, managed to get another look at his pursuer. As he swung onto Divinity Avenue, he contemplated an attack. Words of wrath formed themselves in his overheated brain, and his pace began to slacken. His unusual exertions were catching up with him--and so was Biff Bundie. On the steps of the Biology Building, Karandas finally ground to a halt. Magnificently he turned to face the young policeman. "I do not know who you are, sir," Karandas wheezed in a high-pitched whine quite foreign to his normally well-modulated tones, "but I must tell you what I think of your unspeakable..."

"Don't worry about that, mister," interrupted Bundie rudely and relentlessly, "because I know who you you are. You're the Bronze Rhinoceros!"

The Indian fell back and staggered as if struck. "It is too much!" he gasped. "It is the final piece of straw to break my back!" He turned, and groped his way into the building.

Bewildered, Bundie also turned, and sat down underneath one of the large metal animals that flanked the building, cupping his head in his hands. "Oh, dear," he though, "I seem to have made a mistake."

Soon he became aware of a great noise. Karandas had returned, and was surrounded by a considerable number of unfriendly looking people. "There he is!" the Indian shouted, pointing a fat finger at the young sleuth. "Sitting over there under that bronze rhinoceros!"

"Rhinoceros?" gasped Biff, looking backwards over his head at the green beast that sheltered him. "Rhinoceros? I though the hippopotamus had the horn." And then his heart missed a beat: for impaled on the horn of the animal, and flapping gently in the breeze, was a large piece of green and white paper.

(To be Continued)