27
a surprise – and a plan
‘sh!’ said the man, urgently. ‘i . . .’
and then, before he could say another word, a very strange thing happened! kiki, who had beenwatching the man in greatest surprise, suddenly spread her wings and flew to his shoulder! sherubbed her beak against his cheek in the most loving manner, crooning like a dove.
‘kiki!’ said the man, and stroked her neck.
‘silly-bill,’ said kiki, lovingly. ‘silly-billy, put the kettle on, send for the doctor!’
jack was so astonished that he simply couldn’t say a word. why in the world was kiki behavinglike that – and how did this man know her? it was philip who guessed. he suddenly rolled himselfover on hands and knees, and crawled at top speed from under the wagon.
‘bill! bill ! this must be a dream! bill, it isyou, isn’t it? are you wearing a wig?’
with a grin, the big man stripped off the whole of his black hair – yes, he was wearing a wig!
and without it he looked himself at once, in spite of the little black moustache which, of course,was merely stuck on.
‘bill, oh, bill! i can’t believe it!’ said philip. bill put out his great hand and the two shookhands solemnly for quite a long time. then jack joined them, his eyes almost falling out of hishead. it must be a dream! this couldn’t be real!
but it was. it was bill himself. he asked eagerly about the girls. ‘i was so relieved to see themboth looking so well,’ he said. ‘though i hardly knew them in that get-up they were wearing. but iknew lucy-ann’s clear high voice all right – and i spotted kiki too, of course. i couldn’t believe itwhen i saw her on your shoulder, jack. i really couldn’t. where are the girls? in this van here?’
‘yes. we heard that you had made enquiries about where our van was,’ said jack. ‘and wethought you were spies! we didn’t guess it was you, and that you wanted to come and find us inthe night. let’s get into the van and wake the girls. we’ll wake old pedro too. he’s a great friendof ours.’
soon an extremely excited company of six people and a parrot sat in pedro’s little van. lucy-ann hung on to bill and wouldn’t let him move even an inch from her. tears ran down her cheeksand she kept brushing them away.
‘i can’t help it, bill, i’m not really crying, it’s just because i’m so happy again, i just can’t helpit, bill!’ said poor lucy-ann, laughing through the tears that simply poured down her face.
bill took out an enormous hanky and patted her eyes. he was very fond of lucy-ann. ‘youmake me think of gussy,’ he said, ‘and the time when philip took a kitchen tablecloth to dry histears! cheer up – we’re all together again – and you can give me most valuable information!’
‘how’s mother?’ said philip. ‘is she very worried?’
‘very!’ said bill. ‘she and i were caught and tied up the night you were kidnapped. wecouldn’t get free. we had to wait till mrs gump came along the road next morning on her way tothe cottage, and call out to her. by that time, of course, all trace of you had been lost. we’ve hadthe police hunting every county in england for you! we didn’t dare to say gussy had gone too,because we didn’t want the news to get to the tauri-hessians.’
‘we went off in a plane, after a car had taken us away,’ said philip. ‘jack hid in the boot of thecar and then stowed away in the plane – so he knew where we had gone. we were imprisoned inborken castle with gussy – and jack managed to rescue us!’
‘i joined this circus with kiki,’ explained jack. ‘pedro was a brick – he helped me no end. wegot toni and bingo the acrobats to help in the rescue – phew, it was pretty dangerous!’
he told bill all about it. bill listened in amazement. these children! the things that happened tothem – the way they tackled everything that came along, and never turned a hair. and now theyhad got gussy safely with them, disguised as a girl!
‘but bill – you haven’t told us what you’re doing here,’ said jack. ‘fancy you coming along ina pedlar’s van – all dressed up as a tauri-hessian – really, it’s too amazing to be true.’
‘well, it’s true all right,’ said bill. ‘you see, when our government learnt that the king oftauri-hessia had been captured – or killed, for all we know – it was absolutely essential that weshould find out whether this was true or not – and it was essential we should find gussy too, ifpossible. so, as the tauri-hessian government had put gussy into my charge, as you know, it wasdecided that i should be the one to come out and make inquiries.’
‘i see – spy round to see how the land lay,’ said philip. ‘did you think we might all be in tauri-hessia?’
‘yes – i came to the conclusion that wherever gussy had been taken, you should be there too –to be held as hostages, if our own government made any trouble about gussy,’ said bill. ‘and assoon as the news came that the king had disappeared, we felt sure that gussy would besomewhere in borken, count paritolen’s own territory – and possibly the king might be heldprisoner there too – so i and another man, who speaks tauri-hessian well, flew over straight awayto do a spot of spying. hence the pedlar’s van!’
‘mother will be feeling awfully worried, with you gone too,’ said dinah.
‘i’ll get a message through to her sometime tomorrow,’ said bill. ‘now, i wonder if you can tellme something – have you any sort of an idea at all where the king might be hidden?’
‘in borken castle,’ said jack, promptly. ‘i’m sure of it! i’ll tell you why.’
he told bill of how he had explored the castle – and how he had overheard the count andmadame tatiosa talking excitedly together. ‘that was the night before the king was known tohave disappeared,’ said jack. ‘i think their plans were going well – probably they even had him aprisoner somewhere then. and the obvious place to take him would be the count’s own castle – hewould then have gussy there – and the king too – right under his hand! he could bargain withboth, if he wanted to.’
bill listened to this long speech with the greatest interest. ‘i think you’re right,’ he said. ‘i wishwe could get into the castle and find out something. ronald, the fellow who is with me, speaks thelanguage fluently. i wonder if he could bluff his way in – say he’s a tradesman come to do a repair,or something.’
‘i know what he could do,’ said jack, with a sudden surge of excitement. ‘i know a way in, bill– the way i got out the first night i was there! it leads through secret passages up to the bigballroom. there’s a way into the ballroom from behind a great picture. i don’t know how to movethe picture away, though – so as to get into the ballroom. that’s the snag.’
‘we’ll find out!’ said bill. ‘jack, this is great! are you game to come with me – and ronald too,my pal – and show us the way into the castle? if only we could find out whether the king is aliveor not – or whether he’s a prisoner – it would be a great help. there’s one thing, the plans of theplotters must be greatly upset now that gussy has gone! no king for the country – and no princeto set in his place! very difficult for them!’
‘i’ll come, bill,’ said jack, his face red with excitement.
‘i’ll come too,’ said philip.
‘no – you must stay and keep an eye on the girls,’ said bill. ‘i must have one of you with them.
keep an eye on gussy too. pedro can help there.’
‘shall we go now?’ asked jack, eagerly. ‘it’s a very dark night.’
‘the sooner the better,’ said bill, and got up. ‘wait here. i’ll fetch ronnie. i’ll have to tell him afew things first though! my word, he’ll be astonished!’
bill disappeared. for a moment the five said nothing. kiki broke the silence. ‘ding dong bell,billy’s in the well,’ she said. ‘pussy’s got a cold – a-chooo!’
‘idiot!’ said jack. ‘my word – what a night! fancy bill turning up here. it was kiki whorecognized him when he came crawling round the van. i didn’t.’
‘everything will be all right now,’ said lucy-ann. ‘it always is when bill comes.’
‘don’t talk too soon,’ said dinah. ‘they’ve not got an easy job tonight!’
bill came back with ronnie, who seemed rather overcome at meeting so many people at once.
he had much more to say as a pedlar than with bill in pedro’s van!
‘well – are we ready?’ said bill. ‘come on then.’
they slipped out of the caravan, and jack followed the two men. their van was quite near, andjack guessed what they were going to do. they were going to drive back to borken. it wouldn’ttake long, because it wasn’t really very far away. the circus procession of horse-drawn vans hadgone at a walking pace the last two days, and had once had to retrace their steps as well. itwouldn’t take more than an hour to get to borken.
they went off in the night, ronnie driving. kiki was on jack’s shoulder. she meant to be ineverything, no matter what it was!
they came to borken. the town was in utter darkness. ‘park the van in the field where the campwas,’ said jack, and guided them to it. ‘the castle is only just up the steep slope of the hill then.’
they parked the van behind a big bush. then they made their way up the steep slope to thecastle. ‘there’s the bell tower,’ said jack, as they came nearer. ‘better go cautiously in case thereare people on guard. the count must know that we escaped by means of the bell tower. we had toleave toni’s wire rope behind, stretched from tower to tower.’
nobody seemed to be about, however. but jack suddenly saw lights in the castle windows highabove them. they blazed out of half a dozen windows – something was going on in the castle inthe middle of that night, it was certain!
‘we might be able to have a look in on that,’ said bill, staring at the lights. ‘must be some kindof a conference going on.’
‘there’s a hole in one of the walls of the conference room – at least, i think it must be aconference room,’ said jack, suddenly excited. ‘i saw a round table, and chairs, and writing padsand pencils all set out. if we could get up to that room, and look through the hole, we might seesomething interesting – and hear something too!’
‘we might,’ agreed bill. ‘come on – let’s get going. into the bell tower we go! where’s thattrap door you told us about?’
they were soon in the bell tower. jack searched about for the trap door. he found it, and billpulled it open. down they went into the little cellar below. bill pulled the trap door shut behindhim.
‘lead the way, jack,’ he said, and flashed on an extremely powerful torch. with a jump jacksaw that both men now carried revolvers too. gosh – this might be a serious business then!
‘this way,’ said jack, and stepped over the junk in the underground hole. ‘better be as quiet aswe can. now – through here!’
