The Circus of Adventure

  Ma gave him a meal. It was very rich and rather greasy, but Jack enjoyed it because he was so hungry. 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 kind of trouble.’

  ‘No, I don’t know anyone here who will speak for me,’ said Jack, anxiously. ‘I just want to get to Borken. I’ve got friends there.’

  ‘Oh, well – maybe they’ll speak for you,’ said the boy. ‘Look, my name’s Pedro. What’s yours?’

  ‘Jack,’ said Jack. He followed Pedro to a big motor caravan. Pedro rapped on the door, and a voice growled something from inside. They went in, and Jack saw a vast, enormously fat man sitting in a great chair. He had startlingly blue eyes, grey curly hair, and a beard that fell to his waist. 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 he speaks 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 wandering about 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’ve ever been in trouble with the police?’ he asked. This was awkward. Had he been in trouble with the 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 be used to circuses because you’re carrying a talking parrot around with you. He says that if we stop here and there on the road to Borken, you can put your parrot on show if you like, and earn a bit of money 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 of her 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, you naughty boy, pop-pop-POP!’

  Kiki ended with a loud sneeze and a hiccup which sent Pedro into fits of laughter. Kiki cackled too, and then went off into her express train performance, which drew people from all over the field at once.

  ‘Ha! She is goot, fery, fery goot!’ said the old man, laughing, which made him appear as if an earthquake 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. ‘Would you like to sleep with me in my little van – look, the one behind Ma’s? There’ll be room for you if you don’t mind a squash.’

  Jack didn’t mind at all! He would soon be on the way to Borken. Borken Castle! Would he find the others there? He’d get Bill over as soon as he could to rescue them – if only they were there!

  16

  With the circus

  Jack liked Pedro very much. He was a born circus boy, with all their manners and ways, and he was sensitive enough to know that Jack did not want to talk about himself or what he was doing in Tauri-Hessia, wandering about with Kiki. So he asked him no questions, and Jack was very grateful.

  He couldn’t have told him the truth, and he didn’t want to tell him lies! Perhaps when they were in Borken, and he knew Pedro better, he would be able to tell him a little – perhaps even get his help.

  The circus went on the road that evening. The vans and lorries creaked out of the fields, and went clattering down the highway. It was a rough road, and the vans swayed about dangerously. Some of them had caged animals inside, and Jack watched them anxiously. What would happen if a van went over – would the animals escape? There were bears in one van, and two chimpanzees in another.

  Kiki was a source of enormous amusement to everyone in the camp. Many of the circus folk could speak a broken English – enough to make themselves understood, anyway! They laughed at everything Kiki said. They brought her all kinds of titbits, and when they found that she was fond of tinned pineapple they raided the shops they passed, and bought tins of it!

  Jack asked Pedro many questions. How far was Borken? Who owned the castle? Was it very old? Could anyone see over it?

  Pedro laughed. ‘Borken Castle – and the whole of Borken – and all the land we are passing through – is owned by the Count Paritolen. He lives at the castle, and as for letting anyone see over it – my word, they’d be clapped into a dungeon before they even got through the door!’

  ‘He sounds rather fierce,’ said Jack, gloomily. If the others had been taken to the Count’s castle they wouldn’t have a very nice time, with such a fierce captor!

  ‘He’s a very strong and determined fellow,’ said Pedro. ‘He hates the King, who is too strong for him. He’d like to make the young Prince Aloysius King – then he could rule the country himself, through the Prince, who would have to do as he was told.’

  ‘I see,’ said Jack, his heart sinking. What could he hope to do against a man like Count Paritolen?

  ‘Is this Count the Prime Minister?’ asked Jack, suddenly remembering what Gussy had said.

  ‘No. His brother-in-law, Count Hartius, is Prime Minister,’ said Pedro. ‘They’re both alike in hating the King – but Count Hartius is weak, where his brother-in-law is strong. It is his wife who rules him – a very clever woman, so they say – Madame Tatiosa.’

  Jack listened to all this intently. He was beginning to have a clearer idea about things. How strange to be suddenly plunged into the middle of all this – to know the little Prince himself – to be so near the Castle of Borken, and to be on the land of Count Paritolen, who wanted to depose the King! It sounded like a tale in a book, a tale that had suddenly become real.

  ‘How do you know all this, Pedro?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, everyone in Tauri-Hessia knows it,’ said Pedro. ‘It may mean civil war, you see, and all the people fear that. If the King is deposed, and this young Prince is put in his place, the people will take sides and will be at one another’s throats in no time – and circus people like us will have to get out of the country as quick as we can! So we keep our ears to the ground to find out what is going on.’

  Jack was certain that he himself knew the latest news of all! He was sure that as yet no one in Tauri-Hessia knew that Prince Aloysius had been kidnapped from England, and was even now a prisoner in Borken Castle. But what was going to happen next? Would the plot take one step further, and news come out that the King had been killed – or put into prison?

  Jack fell into deep thought – so deep that he didn’t even hear Ma calling to him to come and eat. The boy suddenly felt that he had become a very important person in this plot – someone fortunately unknown to the plotters – but who might spoil the plot altogether if only he could manage to get into the castle.

  ‘Penny for your thoughts!’ said Pedro and gave him a punch. ‘Wake up! You look very solemn. Anything on your mind?’

  Jack shook himself, and smiled. Kiki had flown off his shoulder to Ma, who was fishing up some peculiar titbits for her from a big black pot.

  ‘Polly put the kettle on,’ said Kiki. She cocked her head on one side and looked at Ma. ‘Bonnytageloota!’

  Ma slapped her knees and laughed. She loved Kiki. She pointed to Kiki. ‘She spik Hessian!’ she called.

  Jack was astonished. Now how in the world did Kiki manage to pick up the Hessian language? Really, she was a marvellous mimic. ‘What does “Bonnytageloota” mean?’ he asked.

  ‘Top of the morning to you!’ said Pedro, with a grin.

  The circus stopped at a big village, and set up camp for two days. Jack was busy then. He had to give Pedro a
hand in all kinds of ways – putting up tents, pulling vans into place, setting up the benches in rows, running here and there for the ‘Boss’, whose name Jack never could manage to pronounce.

  The circus folk approved of Jack. He was willing and quick, and he had good manners, which made him very popular with the women, who had got used to plain ways from the menfolk. Jack liked most of the circus people – they were kindly and generous, quick-tempered and cheerful – some were dirty and slovenly, too, not always very honest and sometimes lazy. They were good to Jack, and made him one of themselves at once.

  They were a curious lot. There was Fank, with his three bears, one of the great draws of the show. The bears were all large, dark brown, and were natural clowns. They boxed, they knocked each other over, they lumbered round in a laughable dance, and they adored Fank, their trainer.

  ‘Don’t you go too near them, though,’ Pedro warned him. ‘They’re treacherous. No one but Fank can manage them. Bad-tempered, bears are – have to be careful of them.’

  The two chimpanzees were amusing fellows. They walked about hand in hand with their owner, a tiny woman called Madame Fifi. She wasn’t much taller than they were! They really loved her.

  Jack liked them very much, but soon found that they were dreadful pickpockets! They slipped their furry hands into his pockets without his knowing, and took his handkerchief, a notebook and two pencils.

  Madame Fifi gave them back to him, with a laugh. She poured out something in French – or was it Spanish or Italian? She spoke so quickly that Jack couldn’t even make out what language she was speaking. She saw that Jack didn’t understand, and produced a few words of English.

  ‘Bad boys!’ said Madame Fifi, pointing a tiny finger at the chimpanzees, Feefo and Fum. ‘Smack, smack, smack!’

  There were Toni and Bingo the acrobats. Toni was a marvellous rope-walker, and raised a perfect storm of cheers and shouts when he performed on a wire rope high up in the big circus tent. He could do anything on it – run, jump, dance – even turn head over heels. Jack was always afraid he would fall.

  ‘Why doesn’t he have a safety net?’ he asked Pedro. ‘You know, he’d kill himself if he fell from that height!’

  ‘Ask him!’ said Pedro with a laugh. So Jack put the question to Toni, when the acrobat came across to talk to Pedro’s mother. Toni was Spanish, but he understood English well, though he did not speak it fluently.

  ‘Pah! Safftee net!’ he said, in scorn. ‘Onnly in Eengland is a safftee net put for me. I do not fall! I am Toni, the grrrrreat TONI!

  There was Tops, too, a clown whose great speciality was stilt-walking. It was absolutely amazing to see him stalk into the ring, as tall as a giant. He had big boots fitted on to the bottom of his stilts, and to most of the children in the audience he seemed a true giant, especially as he had a tremendous voice.

  He had had a peculiar bicycle built for himself, very tall – and he could ride this when still on stilts. That brought the house down! Another thing that made everyone laugh till they cried was when someone in the ring wanted to talk to Tops. They brought in a long ladder and put it right up to his waist – then up the ladder somebody ran to talk to the clown at the top of it.

  Tops was a funny little man in himself, always joking. His big voice didn’t fit his small body. ‘That’s why he learnt stilt-walking,’ Pedro told Jack. ‘To be tall enough for his voice! That’s what he always says, anyway.’

  There was Hola, the sword-swallower. Jack watched him, shuddering. Hola could put a sword right down his throat up to the hilt! He would put back his head, and down would go the sword.

  ‘I can understand his being able to swallow short daggers or knives,’ said Jack. ‘Well – not swallow them, exactly, but stick them right down his throat – but Pedro, HOW can he swallow that long, long sword of his? It’s awful to see him. It makes me feel quite sick.’

  Pedro laughed. ‘I’ll take you to Hola’s van when he is in a good temper,’ he said. ‘He will show you how he does that.’

  And one evening Jack had gone across to Hola’s bright yellow van, and had been introduced to Hola himself, a tall, thin fellow with sad eyes. Pedro spoke to him in German, and Hola nodded and produced a small smile. He beckoned Jack into his van. In a big stand were all sizes of knives, daggers and swords. Jack pointed to a very long sword indeed.

  Hola took it up. He put back his head, and down went the sword, down, down, down his throat right up to the hilt. It wasn’t possible! How could a man do that?

  Up came the sword again, and Hola took it out of his mouth and smiled, still with his sad expression. He handed the sword to Jack.

  And then the boy understood how Hola could do such an extraordinary thing. The sword was collapsible! It could be made to slide into itself, so that it became only the length of a long dagger. By a most ingenious mechanism, worked by a knob in the handle, Hola could make the sword shorter and shorter as he swallowed it.

  Jack was most relieved. He was allowed to press the little secret knob, and see how the pointed end of the sword slid upwards into the main part, making itself into a curious dagger.

  The circus folk were certainly interesting to live with! Jack couldn’t help enjoying the strange, happy-go-lucky life, although he worried continually about Lucy-Ann and the others, and was impatient for the circus to go on to Borken. He was so afraid that he would be too late, if the circus was too long on the way.

  ‘But I must stay with them,’ he thought. ‘It is the best possible hiding place for me. The police would certainly get me sooner or later if I wandered off on my own. But I WISH the circus would get on a bit faster. I simply must get to Borken soon, and do a bit of prowling round the castle on my own.’

  17

  Borken at last!

  Kiki was a great success, not only with the circus folk, but with the people who came to visit it.

  The Boss kept his word, and allowed Jack to show Kiki. Pedro helped him to make a little stand with a gilded perch set on a pole. Kiki was thrilled!

  ‘I believe you think you’re on a throne or something!’ said Jack, grinning. ‘Princess Kiki, the finest talking parrot in the world! Now – what about a song?’

  Kiki was always ready to do anything if she could get claps and cheers and laughter. She really surpassed herself, and made Fank, the bear trainer, quite jealous because she drew such a lot of people to her little sideshow!

  She sang lustily, and although she mixed up the rhymes and words she knew in a most ridiculous manner, the Tauri-Hessian folk didn’t know that. They really thought she was singing a proper song.

  Then she would always answer them if they said anything to her, though as they didn’t speak English they had no idea what she was saying. Still – she answered at once, and usually went off into such a cackle of laughter afterwards that everyone roared too.

  ‘Tikkopoolinwallyoo?’ somebody would ask Kiki.

  ‘Shut the door, fetch the doctor, Polly’s got a cold!’ Kiki would answer at once. Even Jack had to grin at her, she enjoyed it all so much.

  Her noises were the biggest attraction of all. Her sneezes and coughs and her sudden hiccups made the village people hold their sides and laugh till the tears fell down their cheeks. They were rather overawed by her express-train-roaring-through-a-tunnel imitation, and they didn’t understand the lawn mower noise because they did not use them; but they really loved the way she clucked like a hen, grunted like Fank’s bears, and barked like a dog.

  Yes – Kiki was a great success. Jack felt that she was getting very spoilt by all this fuss – but she did bring in money to him, so that he could pay Pedro’s mother for the food she gave him, and for letting him share Pedro’s little van.

  The rest of the money he tied carefully up in his handkerchief, thinking that it might come in very useful if he needed any in Borken. He kept his hand on it when Feefo and Fum the chimpanzees were anywhere about. They would pick his pocket if they could – and he would lose all his savings!

&
nbsp; ‘We shall be in Borken tomorrow,’ Pedro told him, as they got orders to pack up that evening. ‘The Boss has got a pitch there – a good one too, at the bottom of the castle hill.’

  Jack’s heart leapt – ah, Borken at last. A whole week had already gone by, and he had been getting very worried indeed. Now perhaps he could get some news of the others. If only he could! Was Lucy-Ann all right? She would so hate being a prisoner in a castle.

  They arrived in Borken the next evening. Jack first saw the castle from a long way off. It stood on a hill, and looked like something out of an old tale of King Arthur and his Knights. It was immensely strong, and had four sturdy towers, one at each corner.

  ‘Borken Castle,’ said Pedro, seeing it suddenly, as they came out of a thick wood, through which a rough road ran. He pointed to the great hill. ‘In that castle many a prisoner has been held – and never heard of again. The dungeons are . . .’

  ‘Don’t,’ said Jack, fearfully. ‘Don’t tell me things like that.’

  Pedro looked at him in surprise. ‘What’s the matter? Not scared of a castle, are you?’

  ‘No,’ said Jack. ‘Er – whereabouts were prisoners kept? In a tower? Anywhere special?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ said Pedro. ‘We might have a stroll round it sometime – but we wouldn’t be allowed to go too near it, you know.’

  The circus camp settled itself in a sloping field just at the bottom of the castle hill. The townsfolk came streaming out to watch them set up camp. Evidently it was a great thing for them to have a travelling circus visiting Borken.

  Children darted in and out, shouting and laughing. One small girl came running up to Pedro, calling out something excitedly. He swung her up into his arms, and she shrieked in delight, ‘Pedro, Pedro, allapinotolyoota!’

  Pedro replied in the same language. Then he turned to Jack, grinning with pleasure. ‘My little cousin Hela,’ he said. ‘Her father married my aunt. He is a soldier in the Hessian army.’ He turned and asked the excited Hela a few questions.