20

the way out

a man’s face suddenly appeared in the hole. jack would not have been able to recognize it but forone thing – the man wore an eyeglass in one eye!

‘the count!’ thought jack. ‘my word – what’s he doing, popping up in secret places in themiddle of the night?’

the man jumped down to the floor. a door at once opened near him and a woman came out.

jack recognized her, too. madame tatiosa, the pretty woman who had pretended to be ill atquarry cottage – the wife of the prime minister!

this was evidently a secret meeting between her and her brother. where had he come from?

why was he so excited? the two of them spoke rapidly together and madame tatiosa seemedvery pleased. she kissed her brother on both cheeks and patted him on the back.

‘her plans seem to be going well, whatever they are!’ thought jack. ‘i bet it’s something to dowith the king. they’ve probably arranged to capture him soon. that means that gussy will behauled out of that room and made to sit on the throne. i don’t like the look of count paritolen.

he’s a nasty bit of work – and it’s quite plain he’s been up to something tonight!’

the brother and sister, still talking excitedly, went into the room from which madame tatiosahad appeared. the door shut. jack heard the clink of glasses. they were going to celebratesomething, perhaps? things were obviously moving.

jack wished fervently that bill was there with him. but bill probably didn’t even guess that thefive of them were in tauri-hessia. he had no means of knowing that they had come over by plane.

he was probably hunting for them all over the place in england!

jack looked at the hole in the wall. where did it lead to? he felt impelled to go and look at it.

he could still hear clinking and talking in the room nearby. he ran across to the hole, clamberedon a chair and looked inside. he could see nothing, so he felt for his torch.

then he saw the door of the room opening! there was only one thing to do – he must tumbleinside that hole and hope for the best!

so in went jack, almost falling over himself in his hurry. he found that there were steps there,and he slid down them, landing with a bump at the bottom. he sat there and listened, full of alarm.

but it seemed as if the count and his sister hadn’t heard anything. he heard their voices in thedistance. and then he heard something else! he heard a slight scraping noise, and the light thatcame into the hole where he was hiding was abruptly cut off.

‘gosh – the picture’s gone back into place. i’m trapped!’ said jack, in alarm. he went up thesteps and felt about at the back of the picture. the back was of stout wood, and fitted tightly overthe hole. it wouldn’t move even when he pushed it. he didn’t like to do anything violent in casethe count heard him.

he put on his torch. he looked down the steps and saw a passage at the bottom. well – it mustlead to somewhere! it might even lead out of the castle! the only thing to do was to try it and see.

so jack went down the steps again, and into a narrow little passage. he came to the conclusionthat the passage must run just inside the walls of the room, at a little below the level of the floor. itwent round at right angles quite suddenly – then there were more steps, very steep indeed.

down them climbed jack, thankful for his torch. it was very musty in the passage. he came to aplace where there seemed to be a little light shining behind the left-hand wall. what was it?

jack soon discovered! it was a small hole made in the wooden panelling there, and through it hecould see into a dimly lit room – a room where people apparently met to discuss things, for therewas a round table with chairs pulled up to it, and blotting pads and papers were set out neatly.

‘hm – a nice little spy hole,’ thought jack. ‘well – on we go. wherever does this lead to, kiki?’

kiki didn’t know – she only knew she was getting rather tired of this trip. she clung to jack’sshoulder and grumbled in his ear.

the passage went downwards again, not by steps this time, but in a steep slope. jack foundhimself in a much narrower, lower passage now – he had to bend his head down. two peoplewould have found it difficult to pass one another. kiki protested, because the ceiling kept brushingthe top of her head.

‘i wish i knew where this is all leading to, kiki,’ said jack. ‘i don’t like it any more than youdo! hallo – here’s a cellar, or something!’

the passage suddenly ended in a round cellar-like place, full of old junk. the entrance to thiswas only a round hole, through which jack climbed, glad he wasn’t as fat as the old ‘boss’ of thecircus.

‘now where do we go from here?’ he thought. he flashed his torch all round. nothing much tosee but junk. then he flashed his torch on the ceiling above his head – it was only about twoinches higher than he was.

‘a trap door! surely that’s a trap door! if only i can open it!’ thought jack.

he pushed hard – and it opened! it swung right back and landed flat with a tremendous crash. itstartled jack horribly and made kiki screech like a barn owl!

nobody came rushing up. nobody shouted ‘who’s there?’ jack waited a minute and thenclambered out. where was he now? he began to feel he must be in a kind of nightmare, wherenothing really led anywhere – only just on and on, steps, passages, holes, cellars, trapdoors – whatnext?

again he shone his torch round. he was in a very tall, very narrow building of stone. greatropes hung round him. he turned his torch upwards, and then he knew where he was!

‘the bell tower! the tower that is just opposite philip’s room! that passage i’ve come downmust be a secret way into the castle. well – what a discovery!’

he went to the doorway of the bell tower. there was no door there, merely an archway. theplace was apparently built just to hold the great bell and nothing else.

and then jack discovered something that filled him with relief and joy. the bell tower was builtoutside the castle wall and not inside! he could run down the slope of the hill to the circus withnothing to prevent him – no walls to climb – no windows to jump from – there he was, outside thecastle, walls and all.

‘that’s a bit of luck!’ thought the boy. ‘come on, kiki. we’re out. now we’ll go back and get abit of sleep!’

it wasn’t long before jack was creeping into pedro’s caravan. the floor creaked loudly, butpedro did not awake. jack stripped off his things, thinking hard.

he felt pleased. lucy-ann and the others were safe. they had come to no harm. they were safeas long as gussy wasn’t king – then they might be held as hostages if the british governmentsided with the present king, and demanded that he be put back on the throne. jack could quitewell imagine that count paritolen and madame tatiosa would delight in threatening all kinds ofdreadful things where the children were concerned, if the british government made things toouncomfortable for them.

‘the thing to do is to rescue them quickly before gussy’s uncle is captured and gussy’s put onthe throne,’ thought jack. ‘i really must try and get in touch with bill. but it will be difficult,because probably the people in this part of the country are on the side of the count – and if i try toget news through to bill, i’ll be captured myself!’

he fell asleep thinking of it all. he had had a night of real adventure and he was tired out. hedidn’t even wake when mr fank’s bears created a great disturbance in the early morning, and triedto break their cage down!

pedro told him about it at breakfast time. ‘nobody dares to go near them,’ he said. ‘theyhaven’t come to fighting each other yet, but they will. and then they won’t be any use in thecircus.’

‘isn’t mr fank better then?’ asked jack.

‘no. worse,’ said pedro. ‘the boss is really worried. pity that friend of yours you told meabout isn’t anywhere near here. if he’s as clever as you say, he might be able to quieten the bearsand manage them!’

pedro was joking, of course – but jack sat up straight, and began considering the matter at once.

he was sure that philip could manage the bears, of course. could he possibly tell pedro wherephilip was – and say that if pedro would help him to rescue the children, philip would try to do hisbest for the bears?

‘what’s the matter?’ said pedro, looking at him curiously. ‘you seem excited about something.’

‘well – i could get hold of my friend, but only with help,’ said jack. ‘he’s – well, he’s notreally very far away.’

‘really? why didn’t you tell me?’ said pedro. ‘where is he?’

jack hesitated. could he trust pedro? he asked him a question. ‘pedro – tell me truthfully – areyou on anybody’s side in this business about the king and the prince aloysius? i mean – what doyou think about it?’

‘nothing,’ said pedro, promptly. ‘i don’t care which of them is king. let them get on with it!

the only thing i don’t want is civil war here – we’d have to clear out of the country quickly then.

circuses and war don’t go together! why do you ask me that?’

‘i might tell you later on,’ said jack, suddenly feeling that he had told pedro too much. ‘but i’lljust say this – if i could get my friend here – with his friends too – we’d prevent civil war – fank’sbears would soon be under control and . . .’

‘what rubbish you talk!’ said pedro, looking astonished. ‘stop pulling my leg. i don’t believe aword of it.’

jack said no more. but, as the day wore on, and fank got no better, and the bears’ behaviour gotmuch worse, he felt inclined to tell pedro a good deal more. it would be really marvellous if hecould get philip and the rest into the circus – what a wonderful hiding place for them all! gussywould be too noticeable, of course. how could they disguise him?

‘of course! with that long hair of his and those thick eyelashes and big eyes, he could bedressed as a girl!’ thought jack. ‘what a brainwave! i think i will tell pedro everything. i’ll tellhim after the show tonight.’

the circus gave its first show at borken that evening. it opened with the usual fanfare oftrumpets and drums and the people of the town streamed up excitedly.

the bears, of course, were not on show, but otherwise everything went well. there was a gooddeal of grumbling from the townsfolk about the bears, because they had been well advertised, andsome people demanded their money back.

‘we must get those bears going somehow,’ grumbled the boss. ‘we must pull fank out of bed!

we must get somebody else in. we must do this, we must do that! where is fank? those bearswill maul each other to death soon!’

after supper jack spoke to pedro. ‘i want to tell you a lot of things,’ he said. ‘i want to get yourhelp, pedro. will you listen? it is very important – very important indeed!’

‘i am listening,’ said pedro, looking startled. ‘tell me all you want to. i will help you, jack – ipromise you that!’