The grub-and-stakers pinch a poke

the long version

"Lobelia Falls was abuzz about the Scottsbeck drama competition. The Grub-and-Stake Gardening and Roving Club intended to win it with a dramatization of "The Shooting of Dan McGrew." The house lights went down, the footlights went up...and someone tried to make opening night the leading man's final curtain. To keep the villain from stealing the show, Dittany Monk quickly switched from her onstage part as the "tiny tot" to her role as wily sleuth. Now the hunt was on for a would-be murderer with a taste for melodrama." -- (p.4) of cover.