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.’
Chapter 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 side-show!
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 had never seen one; 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!
‘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-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 end.
‘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.
‘Hela says her mother is with her father here-she is working as a maid in the castle for Madame Tatiosa, who is living at the castle now. And Hela lives in the castle too.’
This was news! Grand news! Now perhaps he would hear something about Lucy-Ann and the others. He stared at the small, gay Hela in excitement. But wait-wait-he mustn’t give himself away. He mustn’t blurt out questions without thinking. He frowned and tried to think what would be the best thing to ask.
‘Pedro-has Madame Tatiosa any children?’ he asked at last. ‘Would she-er-would she like us to give a little show in the castle for them, do you think?’
‘Madame Tatiosa has no children,’ said Pedro. ‘I can tell you that. If she had, she would try to make one of them king! She is a clever, dangerous woman, that one.’
Hela wanted to know what Jack had asked. She listened and then went right up to Pedro and whispered something in his ear, her eyes dancing. Then she put her ringer to her mouth as if telling him not to talk of what she had said.
‘Silly child!’ said Pedro. ‘You have been dreaming!’
‘What did she say?’ said Jack, impatient to hear everything that Hela said. To think she lived in the castle. Why-she might see the others every single day!
‘Hela says that Madame Tatiosa must have adopted some children, because sometimes, when she goes with her mother to one of the towers, she hears children’s voices,’ said Pedro, laughing. ‘And she says that no one but Madame Tatiosa and Count Paritolen go right into that tower. She says it is very mysterious, but that no one must know, because when she told her mother what she had heard, her mother threatened her with a sound whipping for making up stories.’
‘I see,’ said Jack. ‘Does she know which tower this is? Could she show us from where we stand now?’
‘You don’t want to believe a word she says, Jack!’ said Pedro. ‘She is a babbler, a storyteller, our little Hela!’
‘Ask her, all the same,’ said Jack, in such an insistent voice that Pedro did what he asked. Hela gazed up at the great stone castle. She pointed to the tower on the south side.
‘That one,’ she said, in a half-whisper to Pedro, and Jack understood, although she used Hessian words. She put her finger on her lip again to make sure that Jack and Pedro understood that they mustn’t give her away.
Jack took her to buy some sweets. He wished intensely that he could speak the language of the country, but although he had picked up quite a few words-though apparently not so many as Kiki had!-it was impossible to hold any sensible kind of conversation with the scatterbrained Hela.
She chattered away to him and he didn’t understand a word. He bought her the sweets and she flung her arms round him and hugged him. Then she ran off at top speed to show the sweets to her friends.
The camp was soon ready. The circus was to open the following evening. Jack had been very busy indeed, and was tired. But he was determined, quite determined that he was going to prowl round the foot of the great castle that night. Should he ask Pedro to go with him? No-it might be awkward to have Pedro there, if he did manage to get into touch with Philip and the others. He would have to explain everything to Pedro, and he didn’t quite know how the circus-boy would take his news.