‘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 not really 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-are you on anybody’s side in this business about the King and the Prince Aloysius? I mean-what do you 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’ll just say this-if I could get my friend here-with his friends too-we’d prevent civil war-Fank’s bears would soon be under control, and …’
‘What rubbish you talk!’ said Pedro, looking astonished. ‘Stop pulling my leg. I don’t believe a word of it.’
Jack said no more. But, as the day wore on, and Fank got no better, and the bears’ behaviour got much worse, he felt inclined to tell Pedro a good deal more. It would be really marvellous if he could get Philip and the rest into the circus-what a wonderful hiding-place for them all! Gussy would be too noticeable, of course. How could they disguise him?
‘Of course! With that long hair of his and those girlish eyelashes and big eyes, he could be dressed as a girl!’ thought Jack. ‘What a brainwave! I think I will tell Pedro everything. I’ll tell him after the show tonight.’
The circus gave its first show at Borken that evening. It opened with the usual fanfare of trumpets 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 good deal of grumbling from the townsfolk about the bears, because they had been well advertised, and some 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 bears will 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 your help, 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-I promise you that!’
Chapter 21
A DARING PLAN
‘WHERE shall we go?’ said Jack. ‘In your van? Nobody can overhear us there, can they?’
They went inside the little van and shut the door. Pedro looked puzzled-what was all this about?
Jack began to tell him. He told him about Gussy staying with them at Quarry Cottage and how he turned out to be the Prince. Pedro’s eyes almost fell out of his head at that! He told him of the kidnapping, and how he, Jack, had stowed away first at the back of the car, and then in the aeroplane, in order to follow the others.
‘You’re a wonder, you are!’ said Pedro, staring at Jack in the greatest admiration. ‘You’re …’
Jack wouldn’t let him say any more. He went on rapidly with his story, and brought it right up to date, telling Pedro of his adventure of the night before.
‘I never heard anything like this in my life!’ said Pedro, amazed. ‘Why didn’t you ask me to come with you? You knew I would. It was a dangerous thing you did, all by yourself.’
‘Well-I’m used to adventures,’ said Jack. ‘I just had to find out about my sister, anyway-and the others too, of course. Now, Pedro-this is where I want your help. I MUST rescue the four of them before the King is kidnapped or killed, and Gussy is put on the throne. You see, if Gussy is missing, there wouldn’t be much point in doing away with his uncle. They must have Gussy to put in his place, because they want a kid there, so that they can make him rule as they like. Count Paritolen and his sister, Madame Tatiosa, and the Prime Minister will be in power then. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, I understand,’ said Pedro. ‘But I’m not used to seeing history happening before my eyes like this. I can’t think it’s real, somehow.’
‘It is real,’ said Jack, urgently. ‘Very very real. And, Pedro, if we can get Philip here, in the circus, he could manage those bears as easily as Fank. I tell you, he’s a wizard with animals-it doesn’t matter what they are. Why, once, in an adventure we had, a crowd of Alsatian dogs chased us-we thought they were wolves, actually-and Philip turned them all into his friends as soon as they came up to him!’
Pedro listened to all this with a solemn face. He was much impressed. He had guessed, of course, that there was something unusual about Jack-but the story he had to tell was so extraordinary that he could hardly believe it all. He did believe it, though. He was sure that Jack would never lie about anything.
‘Well-what do you want me to do?’ he asked at last. ‘I’ll do anything, of course. But honestly, Jack, I don’t see how we can rescue your four friends from the tower-room of Borken Castle-locked in, with a sentry at the foot of the stairs! It’s impossible!’
Jack sat and frowned. He was beginning to think it was impossible too. Plans had gone round and round in his head for hours-but not one of them was any good.
He couldn’t get in through that window over the wash-house again, he was sure. The ladder would have been discovered by now, and taken away. Also-even if he did get in that way, how could he let Philip and the others out of that locked room? He didn’t even know where the key was!
‘And to go in the other way wouldn’t be any good either,’ he thought. ‘Down that trapdoor and all through those passages-I’d only come up against the back of that big picture, and I’ve no idea how to make it move away from its place! And then again I’m no better off if I do-I still don’t know where the key to that tower-room is!’
Pedro sat and frowned too. To think that he and Jack could perhaps save the starting-up of a horrible civil war-and they couldn’t think of even one sensible thing to do!
‘Jack,’ he said, at last. ‘Do you mind if we tell someone else about this? My two best friends here are Toni and Bingo, the acrobats-they might be able to think of some plan. It’s their job to think of good ideas!’
Jack looked doubtful. ‘Would they give my secrets away, though?’ he said. ‘It’s important that nobody else should know what we know-once the Count suspected that anyone was trying to rescue the four prisoners he holds, he would spirit them away somewhere else, and probably hurry his plans on so that we couldn’t possibly stop them.’
‘You needn’t worry about Toni and Bingo,’ said Pedro. ‘They’re the best pals I ever had, and ready for anything. This is the kind of job they’d jump at-it’s right up their street. I’ll go and fetch them now.’
He went off across the field, and Jack sat and worried. He wasn’t happy about telling anyone else. Soon the van door opened and in came Pedro with Toni and Bingo. They didn’t look in the least like acrobats, in their ordinary clothes. They were slim, lithe young men, with shocks of hair and cheerful faces.
‘What for you want us?’ said Toni, the rope-walker, in broken English. ‘It is trouble with the Boss?’
‘No,’ said Pedro. ‘Look here, Jack-shall I tell them?-I can speak to them in Italian, which they know best, and it’ll be quicker.’
‘Right,’ said Jack, wishing that he could use half a dozen languages as easily as this much-travelled circus boy.
He didn’t understand a word of what followed. Pedro spoke rapidly, using his hands excitedly just as all the Spaniards, French and Italian people did in the circus. Bingo and Toni listened, their eyes almost falling out of their heads. What a story!
Then they too began to chatter in excitement, and Jack could hardly contain himself in his impatience to find out what they were saying. Pedro turned to him at last, grinning broadly.
‘I have told them everything,’ he said. ‘And it pleases them! They have an idea for rescue-a surprising idea, Jack-but a very very good one!’
‘What?’ asked Jack, thrilled. ‘Not too impossible a one, I hope!’