Duffus had been outside for hours raking leaves. As night drew near, he made his way indoors. His wife had just prepared some hot chocolate and fresh baked cookies.
“I just love the smell of baking cookies,” remarked Mrs. Duffus as she gave him a big plateful.
“Thanks, but I can’t smell anything with this cold. My nose is stuffed; my back and arms ache, and my head is pounding. Thanks dear, but I’m going to bed,” sniffed Duffus, carting along two Kleenex boxes.
Mrs. Duffus had just cleaned up and joined her husband upstairs when there came a loud clatter from the kitchen.
“Oh my; it’s that prowler I read about in the paper this morning! Duffus, go and look!” exclaimed Mrs. Duffus with a trembling voice.
Duffus crept down the stairs armed only with a box of tissues, an umbrella and his razor-sharp wit.
“I know you’re in there and I’m armed,” shouted Duffus, trying not to sound petrified.
The clatter grew louder and then stopped just as Duffus made his heroic charge into the kitchen in an attempt to impale the intruder with his umbrella. Mrs. Dufusf was right behind him to turn on the lights, revealing an empty plate of cookies and a disastrous mess left behind by the intruder before he escaped out of the open kitchen window.
“I’m calling the police!” Duffus shouted as he furiously shook his umbrella out of the window.
Grabbing a tea towel to cover her face as she coughed and gagged, Mrs. Duffus choked out the words, “Don’t bother; I know who did this and you will too when your cold clears. Now get me the tomato juice and a mop.”
Indeed the next day, it became clear not only to Duffus but also everyone, who came to visit, who the mysterious prowler had been. But how did they know who it was since no one had seen the prowler and there was no visible evidence other than the trashed kitchen and the missing cookies?
Solution
Duffus, with his stuffed up nose, had no idea what had happened, but Mrs. Duffus knew exactly who the prowler was. Yes, the pungent odour the skunk left behind when Duffus startled it let everyone, who came to their house, know who the mysterious prowler had been.
