15

the map comes in useful

jack was pushed firmly into a small, square room with one bench in it against the wall. he wasmade to sit down on this, and the policeman went to report at a big, untidy desk. he spoke veryquickly, and it all sounded like a lot of double dutch to jack.

it did to kiki too, and she sat on jack’s shoulder and sent out such a stream of unendingnonsense that every policeman in the place stared in admiration.

nobody was standing in jack’s way to the door. he looked at it. he thought he would make adash for freedom, and try to get away from these awkward policemen. he was half-afraid he mightbe locked up for weeks. perhaps they thought he was a beggar or a tramp? perhaps it was a greatcrime not to have some kind of card to say who he was?

he saw his chance, when nobody was looking at him, and raced for the door. he was down thesteps and into the street before a policeman stirred! he heard shouts behind him but he didn’t lookback. down the dusty street he ran at top speed, turned a corner, ran down an alley, and came to abig door.

he ran inside and looked round. no one was there. a squawk attracted his attention, and madekiki look round in interest. jack saw a parrot in a cage, a very colourful one with blue and greenand yellow feathers.

kiki flew to the cage and stood on the top. she bent her head down and looked inside excitedly.

another parrot!

‘how- do- you- do, how- do- you- do!’ said kiki. ‘good morning, good night! pop goes theweasel!’

the other parrot gave another squawk. it seemed rather scared. then jack heard the sound offootsteps, and before he could move, a voice spoke – a gentle voice, soft and kind.

a girl stood there, aged about twelve. she was beautifully dressed in bright silks, and her longdark hair was woven in and out with bright ribbons. she stared at jack in surprise.

‘eglinoota?’ said the girl. ‘oota?’

jack wished he knew what this ‘oota’ word meant. he really didn’t know what to say. hepointed to the parrots and smiled cheerfully. ‘powke, powke!’ he said. the girl looked at the twoparrots and laughed.

then, to his delight, she slowly spoke a few words in english. ‘where – you – go?’ she said.

‘you – english – yes?’

jack fished out the bit of paper the man on the bicycle had drawn him. it would look as if hereally was going somewhere, if he showed her that! she took it and nodded her head.

‘come,’ she said, and took him to the door.

‘listen – do you know anyone who speaks english well?’ asked jack, eagerly. the girl didn’tunderstand, though he repeated it several times. then she heard a voice from somewhere in thehouse, and she gave him a push, pointing down an alley, and then to the right. jack thanked her,called kiki and went out. he ran down the alley and came to the end. then he turned to the rightand went quickly along a narrow, dusty street with high walls each side.

he stopped at the end and looked at his map. he supposed he might as well follow it. obviouslythe bicyclist must have had some reason for drawing it. it might lead somewhere useful!

in front of him was what would be, in england, a village green. but this green was parched anddusty, and three skinny hens wandered over it looking thoroughly miserable. at the side was a biground pond in which dozens of small children were paddling. jack looked at his map again.

‘ah – the pond! yes, i must be on the right road. i’ll go down here, and see if i can spot thething that looks like a church tower.’

he went on for some way without seeing anything like a church tower. at last he stopped akindly-looking old woman and showed her the map. he pointed to the drawing that looked like achurch.

she nodded her head at once. she took his arm and pointed across a field. there was a paththere. it led upwards towards a hill. on the hill jack saw a building with a great tower. he couldn’timagine what it was, unless it was a tauri-hessian church.

he went on again, over the field and up to the tower. he looked at the map again – it showed awinding road from the tower and this road led to the drawing on the map that looked rather like atent. jack looked up from the map and recognized the winding road, going down the other side ofthe hill on which the tower stood. but what could the tent-like drawing be?

an old man sat on a bench, dozing. jack went cautiously up to him and sat down. the old manopened an eye, saw the parrot and sat up at once.

‘good. he’s awake,’ thought jack, and pushed the map in front of him, pointing to the tent-likedrawing, and trying to make the man understand that he wanted to get there.

‘ahhhh!’ said the old fellow, in a hoarse voice. ‘pikkatioratyforg. ahhhhhh!’

‘very helpful!’ thought jack. the old man got up and tottered a little way down the path. thenhe pointed with his stick.

‘surkytalar,’ he said. ‘surky.’

‘surky,’ repeated jack, and looked where he was pointing. then he stared hard. he knew whythe bicyclist had drawn the tent now! in a big field were crowds of tents and vans! it must be acircus of some kind – a travelling circus!

‘of course! surky – he means circus,’ thought jack. ‘it’s a circus. that’s why that fellow on thebike directed me there. he thought i wanted the circus – thought i was trying to make my way toit, because i’d got a talking parrot. well, well, well! i’ve solved that puzzle!’

he thanked the old man and thought he might as well make his way to the circus. somebodythere might possibly speak english. circus people knew all kinds of languages. anyway they wereusually kindly folk, they might give him a meal and help him a bit.

so jack, suddenly feeling very hungry again, went down the long winding road to the fieldwhere the circus was.

it took him about half an hour to reach it and when he got there he saw that it was packing up tomove on. the tents were being taken down, horses were being put into some of the vans and therewas a great deal of shouting and noise.

jack leaned over the gate. a boy came by, carrying a load of boxes that looked very heavy. ashe passed, the pile toppled over, and he dropped about four of them. jack leapt over the gate andwent to help.

the boy was about his own age, swarthy and black- eyed. he grinned at jack, and saidsomething he couldn’t understand. he said it again, in another language. still jack didn’tunderstand.

‘merci beaucoup,’ said the boy, trying again this time in french. ah – jack understood that!

‘ce n’est rien!’ he answered. the boy looked at kiki and rattled off something in french again,asking jack if he was a circus boy and had come to ask for a job there.

jack answered as best he could, for his french was not really very good. ‘i should like a job,’

said jack, in french. ‘better still, i should like a meal!’

‘come with me then,’ said the boy, again in french, and jack followed him to a van. a womansat there, peeling potatoes.

‘ma!’ said the boy, in english. ‘here’s a hungry kid. got anything for him?’

jack stared at the boy in astonishment. why, he was speaking english! ‘hey!’ said jack, ‘whydidn’t you speak english before? i’m english!’

‘my dad’s english’, said the boy, grinning. ‘my ma’s spanish. we don’t mind what languagewe speak, really. we’ve picked them all up in our wanderings around. ma, give this boysomething to eat. do you think he can get a job with us? where do you want to go?’ he askedjack.

‘well – is there a place called borken anywhere about?’ asked jack, hopefully.

‘borken! yes, we’re on the way there,’ said the boy, and jack felt suddenly cheerful. ‘it’s a bigtown, and outside there’s the castle of borken on a hill.’

jack drank all this in. a castle – would that be where the others had been taken? this was a bitof luck after all his set-backs. he would certainly go with this travelling circus if they would havehim.

ma gave him a meal. it was very rich and rather greasy, but jack enjoyed it because he was sohungry. then ma said something commanding in spanish and the boy nodded.

‘got to take you to the boss,’ he said. ‘and let him look you over. got anyone to speak for you?

anyone’s name to give? the boss will give you up to the police if you’ve run away from any kindof trouble.’

‘no, i don’t know anyone here who will speak for me,’ said jack, anxiously. ‘i just want to getto borken. i’ve got friends there.’

‘oh, well – maybe they’ll speak for you,’ said the boy. ‘look, my name’s pedro. what’syours?’

‘jack,’ said jack. he followed pedro to a big motor caravan. pedro rapped on the door, and avoice growled something from inside. they went in, and jack saw a vast, enormously fat mansitting in a great chair. he had startlingly blue eyes, grey curly hair, and a beard that fell to hiswaist. he looked rather a terrifying kind of person.

‘you speak for me, pedro,’ said jack. ‘i shan’t be able to understand a word he says, unless hespeaks english.’

‘i spik the english,’ said the old man, in his deep, growling voice. ‘english boys are good boys.

where you come from?’

‘well – nowhere particularly,’ said jack, wondering what to say. ‘er – i’ve just been wanderingabout since i came to this country. but i’m hoping to meet my friends at borken.’

the old man fired a question or two at pedro. pedro turned to jack. ‘he wants to know if you’veever been in trouble with the police?’ he asked. this was awkward. had he been in trouble withthe hessian police? well, no, not really, jack considered. so he shook his head.

‘he wants to know if you’ll make yourself useful here?’ said pedro. ‘he can see you must beused to circuses because you’re carrying a talking parrot around with you. he says that if we stophere and there on the road to borken, you can put your parrot on show if you like, and earn a bit ofmoney by making it talk. he says, make it talk now.’

jack rubbed kiki’s soft neck. ‘talk, kiki,’ he said. ‘make a noise!’

kiki was always ready to talk. she raised her crest and began unexpectedly to sing at the top ofher voice. ‘humpty-dumpty sat on a wall, humpty-dumpty fell down the well, ding-dong-ding-dong, pussy’s in the well, fussy-gussy, ha ha, ha! wipe your feet and shut the door, oh, younaughty boy, pop-pop- pop !’

kiki ended with a loud sneeze and a hiccup which sent pedro into fits of laughter. kiki cackledtoo, and then went off into her express train performance, which drew people from all over thefield at once.

‘ha! she is goot, fery, fery goot!’ said the old man, laughing, which made him appear as if anearthquake was shaking him. ‘yes – yes – you may come with us, boy.’

‘i say! your parrot’s a wonder, isn’t she?’ said pedro, as they walked back to his van. ‘wouldyou like to sleep with me in my little van – look, the one behind ma’s? there’ll be room for you ifyou don’t mind a squash.’

jack didn’t mind at all! he would soon be on the way to borken. borken castle! would he findthe others there? he’d get bill over as soon as he could to rescue them – if only they were there!