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Part One - Issue 996, January 16th 1971:
AFTER months of hard work and high adventure John Steed is looking forward to
a period of quiet, but it is not to be. After a week-end away...
Written by unknown, drawn by John Canning.
After a weekend away, Steed returns to his apartment to find Tara waiting with a message. Sir Geoffrey Master, the millionaire builder, has fallen from one of his new buildings and broken both of his legs. He wants Steed to investigate because he believes he was pushed. Steed and Tara visit Sir Geoffrey in hospital. He tells them there were no other witnesses, but he was shoved off the scaffolding by a ‘strange little man’. Sir Geoffrey thinks there may be a connection between his ‘accident’ and a figure of Humpty Dumpty he has received. Steed and Tara leave Sir Geoffrey, saying that they will investigate while he gets better. As they drive back to Steed’s flat they see a news-stand which says that another famous builder, John Sprigg, has been shot. Steed wonders if John Sprigg also received a nursery rhyme model.
Part Two - Issue 997, January 23rd 1971:
MILLIONAIRE builder
Sir Geoffrey Master claims he was pushed off a building after receiving a model
of the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty". Steed and Tara agree
to investigate and learn that another construction chief, John Sprigg, has been
shot...
Written by unknown, drawn by John Canning.
Sprigg has told the police that he wants to keep things quiet about his shooting. He is saying that it was an accident. Steed and Tara visit Sprigg. He tells them that he was out duck shooting when a little man appeared a few yards away; his gun went off by accident, and that was that. He tells them that he received a model of the rhyme, ‘There was a little man and he had a little gun’. Steed decides to investigate the materials the models are made from, but after confirming that they are both made from ordinary materials, he senses there is something about them that he is just not picking up. Tara has a much more concrete lead – both of the men have put in a tender for building a new hydro electric scheme for the government. One other builder has put in a tender, and one has withdrawn. The one who has withdrawn is Dame Gloria Scova, a native Boravian who came to Britain and formed one of the largest building groups. When they visit her, she tells them that she doesn’t want to talk about it as she withdrew her price for personal reasons. Tara spots a model of Little Miss Tuffet.
Part Three - Issue 998, January 30th 1971:
STEED
and Tara are investigating a strange case where two prominent construction company
chiefs meet with accidents. Tara discovers that both men, Sir Geoffrey
Master and John Sprigg have put prices to the Government to build a giant hydro
electric scheme. Another builder, Dame Gloria Scova, has withdrawn her
firm from the job.
Written by unknown, drawn by John Canning.
Steed asks Dame Gloria again how she was frightened away from the job. She tells him that her relatives in Eastern Boravia would be harmed if she did not do so. She has been frightened away by ‘the spider’, but who is ‘the spider’? Back at Steed’s flat, Steed realises what it is about the model of Humpty Dumpty that had intrigued him. The ‘King’s men’ of the rhyme have the faces of himself and Tara. It’s a direct challenge. Steed starts to call the final builder, Rufus Green, as the postman delivers a package. Steed has arranged to meet Green at his latest construction site. In the meantime, Tara opens the package that has just been delivered. Inside is a model of the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill. Ominously, Rufus Green’s latest construction project is a high-sided dam. They arrive there to find Rufus Green dressed as the character from the nursery rhyme, There Was A Little Man…
Part Four - Issue 999, February 6th 1971:
AFTER
receiving models from nursery rhymes, three builders have been injured after
putting in a price for a contract. Steed and Tara are sent a model of
Jack and Jill... and they go to meet Rufus Green, the fourth man to put in a
tender for the job.
Written by unknown, drawn by John Canning.
Rufus Green holds Steed and Ms. King at bay with a gun. It emerges that he is broke, so he put the other bidders out of action to guarantee the government job. Two big men who are accompanying Green start to approach Steed and Tara, but they are given short shrift. In the end, the contract is given to the other three builders as a joint project.
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