day forty-eight back at the Soup Shack

It felt good to get the approval of the Emperor himself. Benny puffed out his chest with pride until he resembled, in his scarlet mountain policebird tunic, a ship with red sails bowed by a strong wind, ploughing through an ocean of waves and splashes. 

Just then, one of the silver buttons on Benny’s tunic shot off like a pellet from a gun. The button hit the general’s spiked helmet and ricocheted off the admiral’s navy bicorne and landed with a rattle in the Emperor’s empty soup bowl.

“What is this!” said the Emperor picking up the button.

“I’m very sorry, your highpriceness!” said Benny, reaching across the table towards the Emperor’s bowl.

“Let’s have a look!” said the Emperor. He held up the button and lifted his eyepatch to focus on it... revealing a black eye.

“Mmm,” he said, “very interesting...” he said, after examining it closely.

The general and the admiral stood up.

“And what’s more, Benny, I see you have lost another button from your tunic. Do you have that button?” continued the Emperor.

“No, I lost it somewhere, your highwireness,” replied Benny.

“Mmm,” said the Emperor. ”That’s very careless of you..”

The Emperor stood up. The footmen sprang to attention. Benny and Ron wobbled a little.

“Seize them!” shouted the Emperor.