Alexander the Caracal and the Holy Grail (Sequel to "Alexander the Caracal")

In Captain Smith's Absence

That Saturday, Captain Smith was away for a meeting at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The museum was four years old and already the staff were asking Captain Smith for loans from his own collection. Over the course of fourteen years, Captain Smith had amassed a collection of twenty-nine artifacts, including the sarcophagus of the Second Dynasty Pharaoh Seth-Peribsen. The one artifact that he owned that was not part of the collection was the bust of Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Merneptah, thirteenth son of Ramesses the Great and his ultimate successor, Vanquisher of Israel and the first pharaoh to have ever been called "Pharaoh" as opposed to "King of Kemet" or "Lord of the Double Kingdom." As the first artifact that Captain Smith had ever found, it was one of his most prized possessions and off-limits for loans and he did not trust the staff of the Royal Ontario Museum in Quebec Castle to not try and find the bust and take it, thus he went to them personally rather than do it over the phone or have them come to him. Cnut the wolfdog was with Captain Smith, leaving only five of the quadrupeds currently at Quebec Castle.

That day out at the bank of the river that ran through the estate, Alexander approached his mate Roxana. In contrast to Alexander's reddish-tan, her coat was sandy and as a female she was smaller, being sixteen inches at the shoulder, thirty-one inches in head-and-body length and having a bushy tail of eight inches. She was a cantankerous individual, mean-spirited and barbaric too, the result of being under Herr von Fell's ownership, yet she was the comeliest animal that Alexander had seen.

A week ago, Roxana had hissed, growled and attempted to take swipes at Alexander. Now, she was ignoring him completely. As soon as Alexander approached Roxana, she walked away, going towards the monumental country house that was Quebec Castle. Naturally, Alexander followed her.

When the two were twenty feet away from the window of Captain Smith's office, the caracals noticed something strange that caused them both to stop in their tracks. Ears fully erect, eyes wide, the stared at what they saw.

Captain Smith's first floor office window was open! But why? Their master was not home. Only he ever opened his office window. Something was not right here! What was going on?

Without hesitation, the two felines jumped up onto the window sill and saw a skeletal man with a nose like a crooked carrot, black hair and eyes and fair skin enter the office with the Holy Grail in his arms! He was wearing a purple shirt and cap with a black vest, trousers and shoes. He was not a member of the household... He was not a member of the family, he was not a student, he was not an employee or one of their family members... Who was he? Whoever he was, at least he wasn't taking the bust of Merneptah, but still, the Holy Grail!

Whoever this man was, he was an intruder! A thief!

In perfect unison, Alexander and Roxana flattened their ears, narrowed their eyes and proceeded to growl at the intruder. With an accent that was three degrees removed from Great Britain's cockney accent and two degrees removed from a Quebec accent and a voice that sounded like a parrot was being strangled, the intruder said: "Here now, what's this? I thought Darius was dead and now I see two of him?"

Not long after, Alan along with Gemma Cook, the daughter of Captain Smith's gardener Robert Cook, entered the office in a hurry. Pointing a finger, Alan exclaimed: "Damn it, Filcher! That loving cup was used at my grandparents' wedding, my parents' wedding and my uncle's wedding! Give it back this instant or—" Filcher did not stay to listen, he hurled himself out the window, jumping over Alexander and Roxana, getting scratched by both caracals in the process.