"What's the Knave?" asked Binky.

"It's the Jack, remember? The Knave is the assassin, the hit man, the bad guy," said Peewee with great exasperation. "Between you and Ramen this is going to take all day."

"OK, OK. I got it. Ace is boss, King is detective, Knave is bad guy. Anything else, you're a villager."

"Right. So, now the Boss of the Game starts the round. Who has the Ace? If you have it show it."

"I do," said Jerry Goss, the newest and smallest member of the patrol, turning the card over to show the truth of his timid statement.

"OK, Jerry, you're the boss."

"Got it, I'm boss," said Jerry with a grin.

"Boss Goss," chuckled Binky. "That's a good one. I think you just got a nickname."

"OK, OK," said Peewee, "that makes it easy to remember, can we get movin' here? Next, the boss says 'The villagers sleep' and we all close our eyes. Do it, Jerry."

"'Boss.' You mean, 'Do it, Boss'," said Binky.

"The villagers sleep," said Jerry.

"OK, everyone but Jerry, uh Boss, should have his eyes shut now. No peeking --- Scouts Honor. Is everybody sleeping, Boss?"

"Yes."

"Next the boss says, 'The knave awakes' and the guy with the knave opens his eyes, points to the villager that he wants to get rid of and then closes his eyes again."

"The knave awakes," said Boss.

A few quiet seconds slipped away with only the sound of the rain on the roof to be heard and then Peewee said, "OK, Boss, did the knave point to someone?"

"Yes, he did," said Boss.

"OK, now you say, 'The detective awakes'."

"The detective awakes."

"Now the detective points to whoever he thinks the knave is and the boss uses hand-signals to tell him if he is right or wrong."

A few more seconds pass, then Boss said, "OK, I did it."
 

"All right, now say 'The villagers awake' and everyone opens their eyes."

Eyes popped open around the circle and everyone looked suspiciously at the people around them.

"OK, Boss, now you have to tell how the villager that was pointed out by the knave died. Use your imagination, and don't make it too short or too long. Don't say the name of the person until the end either, 'cause that adds to the suspense."

"Um, late last night, a murder was committed. This morning we found the body with a knife in its back. Willy is dead," said Boss. "How was that Peewee?"

"It was OK --- you'll get better. Willy, turn up your card. You are dead and can keep your eyes open from now on, but you can't talk or hint who the knave is. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it," said Willy, turning over the 7 of Spades, but it does seem sort of hard to die so early, and they are my cards too."

"Don't worry, each round doesn't last that long, and you will get to know who the knave is the next time he kills someone."

"Well, OK. I guess that'll be sort of interesting --- watchin' you guys tryin' to figure it out."

"Right," said Peewee. "Now for the fun part. The villagers have to decide who the knave is. Who killed Willy?"

"How can we tell that?" said the ever-serious Legs Carnahan. "What evidence do we have? It could be anyone."

"Yeah," said Ramen. "All we know is that Willy is dead. Can't the detective at least tell us who he thought it was, so we can eliminate one person as a suspect?"

"Yeah," said Legs. "Then we could rule out the detective, too."

"No," said Pewee. "That's not how the game is played. The detective can't reveal himself. He can only use the knowledge he gains to try to secretly guide the villagers to finding the knave."

"Well, then," replied Legs, "how can we villagers know who the culprit is? We have no evidence to use in reaching a decision."

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