‘I do not like myself,’ he said, staring in the mirror. ‘I will now dress in my own things again.’
‘Oh no-not yet!’ said Jack, quickly. ‘You don’t know who might recognize you suddenly if you did. You’ll have to be a girl until we get you to safety somewhere. Go on, now, Gussy-you like acting. You’ll give a marvellous performance!’
The vans went on again. The excitement quickly died down, and everyone grew silent. They were tired with their short night and the disturbances they had had. They stopped for a snack about six o’clock and then went on again.
They were now on a lonely country road. The surface was bad, and the vans had to go slowly. Nobody minded that. Circus-folk were never in a hurry except when their show was about to begin. Then everyone fell into a tremendous rush, and raced about in excitement.
They camped that, night in the hills. They all slept very soundly to make up for the lack of sleep the night before. Then they set out again, jogging on slowly, not really very certain where they were going.
The Boss suddenly decided that they had taken a wrong turning a few miles back. The vans were, turned round and back they all went, grumbling hard. They passed few people on the road, for they were now in a very lonely part.
‘I want shops,’ grumbled Ma. ‘I need to buy things. We all need to buy things. We must go to some place where there are shops. I will go to tell the Boss.’
But she didn’t, because she was afraid of him. She just went on grumbling. She wanted new cotton reels. She wanted some tinned fruit. She wanted hair-pins.
‘Cheer up, Ma-we may meet a travelling pedlar-van,’ said Pedro, getting tired of Ma’s grumbling.
‘What’s that?’ asked Jack.
‘Oh-a van that takes all kinds of things to lonely villages,’ said Pedro. ‘I don’t expect we shall meet one-but I’ve got to say something to keep Ma quiet!’
The Boss gave the order to camp early that night, and everyone was thankful. Soon fires were burning by the roadside and good smells came on the air.
Just as it was getting dusk, a small van came labouring up the hill on the slope of which the camp had been pitched. Madame Fifi saw it first and gave a shout.
Everyone looked up. ‘Ma! You’re in luck!’ called Pedro. ‘Here’s a pedlar’s van!’
The little black van drew up at the sight of the circus camp. Two men sat in the front of it, in the usual Tauri-Hessian clothes, sunburnt fellows, one small, one big and burly.
‘Better keep out of sight, Gussy,’ said Jack, suddenly. ‘You never know-this might be men sent to check over the camp again.’
‘Oh dear!’ sighed Lucy-Ann. ‘Don’t say they’re going to search all over again.’
The small man jumped out, went to the side of the van, and swung down half the wooden side, making a kind of counter. Inside the van, on shelves, were goods of every conceivable kind! Tins of meat, sardines and fruit. Tins of salmon and milk. Skeins of wool, reels of cotton, rolls of lace, bales of cheap cotton cloth. Safety-pins and hair-pins. Combs of all kinds. Soap. Sweets. Really, it was just like a little general shop seen in so many villages.
‘It sells everything!’ said Pedro. ‘Ma, do you want me to buy half the things for you?’
‘No. I’ll come myself,’ said Ma, who enjoyed a bit of shopping. ‘Stay here, Anna-Maria!’
‘Can we go and have a look at the shop, do you think?’ asked Dinah. ‘You’ve got some Hessian money, haven’t you, Jack? I do really want to buy some soap, and a few other things. Surely that van is genuine-those men can’t be spies, sent to search the camp again!’
‘No. I don’t think they can be,’ said Jack. ‘The van does seem quite genuine, as you say. All right-we’ll go and buy a few things. Not Gussy, though.’
So, while the others strolled off in the dusk to the little travelling shop, poor Gussy was left behind in Ma’s van. He was very cross.
The small man sold all the goods. The big man merely helped, handing down this and that, and wrapping up anything that needed it. He said nothing at all. The other man was a real talker. He chattered all the time, chaffed the women, and passed on little bits of news.
‘And what news have you got?’ he asked Ma and old Lucia, as he sold them hair-pins and combs. ‘You’ve come from the direction of Borken, haven’t you? Any news of the King there? He’s not been found yet, you know!’
Ma gave him her news, and described the clamour of the bells in the night. Old Lucia chimed in with a few remarks too.
‘Where’s little Prince Aloysius?’ she wanted to know. ‘They say he was sent to school in England. If the King is dead, the little Prince will have to be brought back, won’t he?’
‘We had soldiers searching our camp today,’ said Madame Fifi. ‘Though what they expected to find, I don’t know. The King perhaps!’
Everyone laughed. The chattering and buying went on for some time, and the pedlars did very well. Jack went up to buy some sweets for the girls, Kiki on his shoulder.
‘Good-morning, good-night, good gracious!’ said Kiki, conversationally, to the pedlar who was serving. He laughed. But the other man didn’t. He turned round and looked very sharply at Kiki indeed. Jack felt uncomfortable. Why did the second man look round like that? He tried to see what he was like, but it was now dark, and difficult to see inside the little van.
Lucy-Ann pointed to some toffee. ‘I’d like some of that,’ she said, in English. Jack saw the man at the back of the van stiffen. He seemed to be listening for what Lucy-Ann might say next. He reached up to a shelf, took down a tin, and then stood still again, as Lucy-Ann spoke once more.
‘Let’s have a tin of pineapple, Kiki likes that.’
The man swung round. Jack hurriedly pushed Lucy-Ann back into the darkness. This fellow was a spy! He was sure of it! He took another look at him, but could not make out very much. A head of black, curly hair, such as all the Tauri-Hessians had-a small black moustache-that was about all Jack could see.
‘What’s up, Jack?’ said Lucy-Ann, in astonishment as he hurried her away from the van, pulling Dinah and Philip with him too.
He told them hurriedly what he thought and they were very worried. They rushed back to Ma’s van to see if Gussy was all right. To their great relief, he was there, looking very sulky. ‘Though why we should think he wouldn’t be there, I don’t know,’ said Jack. ‘Gussy, get out your embroidery. We’ve seen somebody suspicious. He heard Lucy-Ann talking in English, and Kiki too, and he was much too interested!’
‘Well-we’ll hope he clears off soon,’ said Philip. ‘I’ll go and watch, and tell you when they’re gone.’
But the pedlar’s van didn’t go! The two men shut up the side of the van, safely locking up all their goods, and then sat outside with a little camp-fire, cooking some kind of meal.
‘They’re staying the night,’ reported Philip. ‘Not too good, is it? And Madame Fifi told me that the small man has been asking questions about Kiki-if the boy who owns her belongs to the camp-and where his caravan is!’
‘Blow!’ said Jack. ‘What can we do? We can’t possibly run away. I’ve no idea at all where we are-miles away from anywhere, that’s certain! Well-we can only hope for the best. We’ll sleep as usual under the girls’ van, and Gussy can be with Ma. After all, he’s the important one-we’re not really important, except that Gussy escaped with us, and presumably the Count will think that wherever we are, Gussy will be too!’
The girls went to their van and undressed to go to sleep. Gussy was safely with Ma. The three boys lay on the rugs below the girls’ van as usual. Pedro soon fell asleep, but Jack and Philip were worried, and lay awake, whispering.
Suddenly Jack clutched Philip. ‘I can hear someone,’ he whispered, in his ear. ‘Someone crawling near this van.’
Jack sat up cautiously and felt for his torch. Yes-someone was near the van, crawling quietly on all fours. Jack flicked on his torch at once.
A surprised face was caught in the light. A man was on hands and knees nearby. It was the big pedlar from the little van! His black hair showed up plainly in the beam of the torch.
‘What do you want?’ said Jack, fiercely. ‘What do you mean by crawling around like this? I’ll raise the camp, and have them all after you!’