24

morning comes!

philip called to jack. ‘jack – see if you can get some meat – plenty of it – and bring it to me.’

‘i’ll get some,’ said toni, and raced off. he came back with a basket containing great slabs ofhorse meat. philip took it. he opened the cage door and threw in the meat, talking cheerfully to thehungry bears.

now they were ready for their meal. they were no longer sulky, scared or angry. they werejust three very hungry bears, and they fell on the meat and gulped it down.

‘let them have as much as they will eat,’ said philip. ‘then they will go to sleep. while they areasleep, someone must mend their cage bars. keep that light in front now – none of them willventure out of the broken bars while that light is there.’

everyone gathered round philip. ‘he’s a friend of jack,’ they said to one another. ‘he fetchedhim here because he is good with bears. he must have come from another circus. look – the bosswants him.’

the boss had watched everything from his caravan window. he was most impressed andextremely thankful. pedro told philip that the boss had sent for him, and he and jack and philipwent up the steps of the boss’s big caravan.

the boss poured out praise and thanks in a mixture of several languages. pedro interpreted witha grin. ‘he says, what can he do for you? he says you’ve saved the bears from being shot. hesays, ask anything you like and you can have it, if he can give it to you!’

jack answered quickly. ‘there’s only one thing we want. now that there is this upset in borken,can we all stay with the circus? philip will be glad to look after the bears, as long as fank is ill –but he has girls with him, our sisters – can they stay too? we don’t like to let them go off bythemselves, in case civil war starts up in tauri-hessia.’

pedro interpreted. the boss quite thought that these ‘sisters’ were circus performers too. henodded his head. ‘yes – you may let them stay. if they have tricks or shows of their own, theymay get a chance here. but we must strike camp tomorrow – it will be dangerous to stay here inborken any longer. the count paritolen owns this land, and as it is probably he who hassomething to do with the king’s disappearance, it would be best for us to leave before troublestarts.’

‘what does he say?’ asked jack, anxiously. pedro translated all this into english, and the twoboys were much relieved. good! they could all stay with the circus, and would leave almostimmediately with the circus folk! they would soon be out of the danger zone – and then perhapsthey could get a message to bill.

the boys went down the steps of the van with pedro. they made their way to pedro’s own littlevan, feeling that they simply must have a good long talk. it was about two o’clock in the morningnow, but none of the three boys felt tired – they were far too strung up with the happenings of thenight.

the circus folk as they passed clapped philip on the back. he smiled and nodded, and then atlast all three were in the little van with the two girls and kiki.

‘shut the door,’ said kiki at once. ‘wipe your feet. fetch the king!’

‘i wish we could, kiki,’ said jack, with a laugh, as the parrot flew on to his shoulder. ‘but don’tyou start talking about the king. oh – lucy-ann – you nearly had me over! what a hug! itreminds me of the bears!’

‘i can’t help it!’ said lucy-ann, and gave philip a hug too. ‘i was so anxious about you andphilip, with those bears. it all seems like a horrid dream. i was longing for you to come back to us.

gussy’s gone too. is he really going to be a girl?’

‘he is,’ said jack, sitting down on the mattress. ‘now, we’ve got to talk and make plans. first ofall, because of philip’s grand performance with the bears, the boss has said that we can all staywith the circus. we couldn’t have a better hiding place!’

‘that’s true,’ said dinah. ‘but suppose the count makes a search for us – and his men are senthere to look, among other places. gussy might not be recognized if he’s dressed up as a girl – butwhat about me and lucy-ann and philip? we’re all dressed in the english way – we’d soon benoticed.’

‘yes. i hadn’t thought of that,’ said jack. ‘i’m too english, as well. pedro – i’ve got somemoney saved up that i made out of kiki’s performances – could you buy some hessian clothes forus early today?’

‘ma will fix you all up,’ said pedro. ‘she’s a wonder with her needle! she’ll get some clothfrom old lucia, the woman who’s in charge of the circus clothes. and we’ll borrow some greasepaint from toni and give you all tanned tauri-hessian faces! but don’t go speaking english!’

‘no, we won’t. we’ll talk a wonderful gibberish of our own!’ said philip, with a laugh. ‘we’llcome from jabberwocky, and talk the jabberwock language! it goes like this –goonalillypondicherrytapularkawoonatee!’

everyone laughed. ‘good!’ said pedro. ‘i’ll tell any searchers that you are jabberwockians, andthen you can talk like that if they ask you anything. by the way, where is jabberwocky?’

kiki suddenly launched with delight into the jabberwockian language. they all listened to herand roared. ‘you’re a very fine specimen of a jabberwockian parrot!’ said jack, stroking her. ‘goto the top of the class!’

dinah gave an enormous yawn, at once copied by kiki. it made everyone begin to feel terriblysleepy. ‘come on – we’ll be striking camp fairly early,’ said pedro, getting up. ‘sleep in peace,girls. we three boys will be just under the van, on a couple of rugs. as for gussy, i expect he’ssnoring in ma’s extra bunk, looking like a beautiful little girl!’

gussy was not asleep, however. he lay in the small bunk, listening to ma’s deep breathing andsudden snorts. he was very angry and very humiliated. ma had seen to him properly! she hadtried his hair this way and that, and had finally decided that he looked more like a girl with a smallbow at each side rather than with one big one on top.

she had also looked out some clothes – a longish skirt, rather large, very highly coloured, anddecidedly ragged – and a small red blouse with a green scarf tied skittishly round the waist. gussycould have cried with shame.

it wasn’t the slightest bit of good arguing with ma. in fact, when gussy refused to stand stillwhile his bows were being tied, ma had given him a hefty slap on a very tender place, which hadgiven gussy such a tremendous shock that he couldn’t even yell.

‘you know i’m a prince, don’t you?’ he said, fiercely, under his breath.

‘pah!’ said ma. ‘you’re just a boy. i’ve no time for princes.’ and she hadn’t.

now gussy was trying to go to sleep, his hair still tied with bows, and a peculiar sort of garmenton him that looked half like a night gown and half like a long coat. he went over the excitingescape in his mind, and shuddered. no – he wouldn’t think about that awful rope and the trapezeswing. he wondered about his uncle and shuddered again. was he killed? poor gussy’s thoughtswere not pleasant ones at all.

the morning came all too soon for the five tired children. philip went across at once to thebears’ cage to see how they were. the bars had been mended and strengthened. the bears, lookingextremely well fed, were half asleep – but as soon as they saw philip they padded to the bars andgrunted amiably. one bear tried to reach him with his paw.

‘good – they’re quite all right,’ said philip, and gave them a little talk to which they listenedentranced, as if they understood every word!

fank was better – but still could not stand up. philip went to see him, and the little man took hishand and poured out a stream of completely unintelligible words. philip knew what he was saying,though! here was a grateful man if ever there was one! fank loved his bears as if they were hisbrothers, and he had been almost mad with anxiety the night before, when he heard they hadescaped.

‘i’ll take them on till you’re well,’ said philip, and fank understood, and shook philip’s handfervently.

the next thing was clothes. the camp was to set off in three hours, so ma had got to hurry if shewas going to get the four of them clothes that would disguise the fact that they were english.

she went to lucia, an old bent woman who kept the clothes of the circus folk in order – not theordinary ones they wore every day, but their fine ones, worn in the ring – their glittering capes andskirts, their silken shirts and magnificent cloaks. these were valuable, and old lucia’s needle wasalways busy. so was her iron. nobody could press fine clothes as well or as carefully as lucia.

by the time the circus folk were ready to strike camp, nobody would have recognized dinah,lucy-ann, philip and jack! toni had lent them grease paint and each of them was tanned andlooked like a tauri-hessian – face, neck, legs, and hands! the girls wore the tauri-hessian dress– long skirts and shawls, and bright ribbons in their hair.

the boys looked just like normally brought up boys of the country, and seemed to have grownolder all of a sudden. lucy-ann stared at jack in surprise, hardly recognizing this brown youth,whose teeth gleamed suddenly white in his tanned face.

ma was pleased with her efforts, but most of all she was delighted with gussy. nobody, nobodycould possibly think that gussy was anything but a girl. he looked really pretty! all five of them,pedro too, roared with laughter when poor gussy came down mas caravan steps, looking very redin the face, very angry, and very ashamed.

‘dis is my little grandchild, anna-maria!’ said ma, with a broad smile. ‘be kind to her, plizz!’

gussy looked as if he was about to burst into tears. ‘yes, go on, cry!’ said philip, teasing him.

‘that’ll show people you aren’t anna-maria!’

dinah gave him a punch. ‘some girls do cry!’ she said. ‘oh dear – doesn’t gussy – i meananna-maria – look priceless?’

‘smashing!’ said jack. ‘honestly, he’s as pretty as a picture. thank goodness for his long hair –that’s what helps him look like a girl more than anything!’

‘i cut it short soon, soon, soon,’ said poor gussy, furiously. ‘snip-snip – like that!’

‘you can’t. you told us that princes of this country have to wear it long, like you do,’ saiddinah.

‘i will not be a prince then,’ said gussy. he looked suddenly very forlorn, and gazed at lucy-ann beseechingly, feeling that she had the kindest heart of the lot.

‘do not tizz me,’ he begged. ‘i hate zis. i am full of shamefulness.’

‘all right, gussy, er – anna-maria,’ said jack. ‘we won’t tizz you. cheer up – you’ll be aprince again before long, i’m sure.’

‘if my uncle is alive, i will be,’ said gussy, soberly. ‘if he is dead – i must be king!’

‘god save the king,’ said kiki, devoutly, and raised her crest impressively. ‘fetch the doctorand save the king!’