The three stared at him in silence. “You’re a determined old fraud, Jack,” said Philip, at last. “You arranged it all, I bet you did! Yes, even arranged for the chain to snap and for Kiki to see or hear you at your porthole.”
Jack grinned again. “Well, I think Lucy-Ann’s idea is very good — shouting to Kiki like that and making her so excited that she flew across to the ship. Anyway, she’s here, and here she stays. I’d better keep her down in the cabin, I think.”
They all made a fuss of old Kiki, who enjoyed it very much indeed. She couldn’t understand the noise the vibration of the engines made, and kept cocking her head on one side to listen. She tried an imitation, but not a very good one.
“Now don’t you do any funny noises,” Jack warned her. “You don’t want to be hauled up before the Captain, do you?”
“Pop goes the weasel,” said Kiki, and pecked his ear. Then she suddenly gave a most realistic sneeze.
“Don’t,” said Jack. “Use your handkerchief! Gosh, Kiki, I couldn’t have gone without you.”
Everyone was pleased to know that Kiki was safely with them. They broke the news as gently as possible to Mrs. Mannering. She listened in annoyance, but it didn’t seem to occur to her for one moment that Kiki’s arrival was anything but an unfortunate accident. She sighed.
“All right. If she’s here, she’s here. But for goodness’ sake, Jack, keep her locked up in the cabin. You really will get into trouble if the passengers complain about her, and she may be sent to the men’s deck and put in a cage if you don’t keep a firm hand on her.”
So Kiki was locked into the cabin, and passed the first day wondering whether she was giddy, or whether there was a slight earthquake going on all the time. She had no idea she was in a big ship, and couldn’t understand its movements, though she had many a time been in small boats.
The first day seemed lovely and long. The Viking Star slid easily through the calm blue water, her engines purring sweetly, leaving behind her a creamy wake that seemed to have no end, but to stretch right back to the horizon itself. England was soon left behind. The first stop was to be Lisbon in Portugal.
It was fun to go down to meals in the big dining-room, and choose what they liked from the long menu. It was fun to go up on the sports deck and play deck-tennis and try to keep their balance as they ran for the rubber ring. It was even fun to go to bed — because it meant snuggling down into a narrow bunk-like bed, turning out the light, feeling the breeze from the electric fan cooling their hot bodies and hearing the plish-plish-plash of the water just below their portholes.
“Lovely!” said Lucy-Ann, before she fell asleep. “I hope this trip doesn’t turn into an adventure. I like it as it is. It’s quite exciting enough without having an adventure.”
It wasn’t quite so nice in the Bay of Biscay! The sea was rough and choppy there, and the boat pitched and tossed and rolled. Mrs. Mannering didn’t like it at all. She stayed in her cabin, but the four children were as right as rain. They turned up to every meal in the dining-room, and ate steadily right down the menu. They would even have gone up to try and play deck-tennis on the sports deck if one of the stewards hadn’t firmly forbidden them to.
And then, quite suddenly as it seemed, everything changed. The sea grew blue and calm, the sun shone out very hotly indeed, the sky was brilliant, and every officer and man appeared in spotless white.
Mrs. Mannering felt all right again — and Kiki grew very impatient at being kept in the cabin. She was already great friends with the steward and stewardess who looked after the cabins. They had soon got over their astonishment at finding her in Jack’s cabin.
They hadn’t seen her at first. She was sitting behind the little curtain that hung at the side of the porthole, which Jack had to keep shut in case Kiki flew out. It was the stewardess who heard her first. She had come in to make the beds.
Kiki watched her slyly from behind the curtain. Then she spoke in a firm and decided voice.
“Put the kettle on.”
The stewardess was startled. She looked round at the door thinking that someone must be there, speaking to her. But nobody was.
Kiki gave a loud hiccup. “Pardon,” she said. The stewardess felt alarmed. She looked all round. She opened the cupboard door.
“What a pity, what a pity,” said Kiki, in such a mournful voice that the stewardess could bear it no longer and flew to find the steward. He was a dour and determined Scot, with very little patience.
He came into the cabin and looked round. “What’s to do, wumman?” he said to the stewardess. “What’s scairt ye? There’s naught here.”
Kiki gave a long cough, and then sneezed violently. “Pardon,” she said. “Where’s your hanky?”
Now it was the steward’s turn to look amazed. He stared all round the cabin. Kiki gave a loud and realistic yawn. She had a wonderful collection of noises. She couldn’t resist looking round the curtain to see how her performance was going.
The steward saw her and strode over to the porthole. “Now look ye here — it’s a parrot!” he said. “Did ever ye hear the like? A fine clever bird it must be to do all that! Well, Polly — you’re a clever wee bird, that’s what you are!”
Kiki flew to the top of the cupboard and looked at the steward and stewardess, first out of one eye and then out of the other. Then she made a noise like the dinner-gong being beaten for the ship’s meals. At the end she went off into one of her cackles of laughter.
“It fair beats ye, doesn’t it?” said the Scots steward, amazed. “A rare bonny bird it is. The laddie that owns it should think shame on himself to keep it shut up here.”
“It scared me right enough,” said the stewardess. “I wonder if it would like a grape. My great-aunt’s parrot loved grapes. I’ll go and get some.”
Pretty soon Kiki was enjoying some black grapes, and when Jack came along to see her, he found the cabin floor scattered with grape-pips, and two admiring people gaping at Kiki in delight.
“Dirty bird!” said Jack sternly, looking down at the pips. “You come down off that cupboard and pick up these pips.”
“Pips,” said Kiki. “Pops. Pip goes the weasel.”
“I hope she hasn’t been annoying you,” said Jack to the stewardess.
“Oh, she’s wonderful,” said the woman. “I never saw such a clever bird. You ought to take her up and show her off.”
It wasn’t very long before Jack did take her up to the deck above on his shoulder, much to the surprise and amusement of all the passengers. Kiki had a wonderful time, showing off. The only thing she couldn’t bear was the hoot of the ship’s siren, which always startled her so much that she fell off Jack’s shoulder in fright every time she heard it. She didn’t know what it was or where it came from, and usually flew off to hide herself somewhere whenever she heard it.
She came to the lifeboat drill, and Lucy-Ann was certain she was upset because she hadn’t a small life jacket to wear. They all put theirs on, went to the right lifeboat and listened to a short talk from one of the officers about what they were to do if danger arose. Lucy-Ann hoped fervently that it wouldn’t.
“We’re going to land in Lisbon tomorrow,” said Mrs. Mannering. “But none of you is to wander off alone. I’m not going to have any adventure starting up. You’ll all keep close to me — please understand that!”
Chapter 4
PHILIP COLLECTS A PET
SOON the days began to slip by quickly. After Lisbon Lucy-Ann and Dinah lost count of them. They didn’t even know if the day was Monday, Tuesday or any other. They knew Sunday because everyone went into the big lounge then and listened to the captain conducting a short church service.
For days they saw no land. Philip grew very excited when a shoal of flying-fish flew out of the sea and kept up in the air for some time. They were lovely little things.
“What makes them do that?” wondered Lucy-Ann.
“Just being chased by some hungry big fish,” said Philip. “Wouldn’t you leap out of the water and try and fly through the air if an enormous fish was after you, Lucy-Ann? Gosh, I wish one of the fish would fly on deck. I’d just love to see it close to.”